We are all extremely ungrateful.

Don't you think that we are all ungrateful when it comes to LL.
They were the ones who brought Second Life, regardless of how many bugs there are, how much downtime there is, what the state of the customer service is.

Doesn't anyone else agree that, on the whole, we are extremely ungrateful?

Whenever SL is down, topics are always made betting on how long SL will be closed for over the estimated re-opening time.
Whenever SL makes a decision there will always be someone who doesn't like it who will bitch about LL on the forums.

Isn't it time we thanked them, and perhaps then they would respond with more enthusiasm rather than having to listen to us bitching on about them?


Just my opinion though, I know I am going to get told I am wrong by a lot of people

I'll go first

Some of us are paying (a lot of US$) for a service and believe that we should get what we paid for, rather than viewing SL as a "gift" to be grateful for.

Overly critical, maybe, probably. Ungrateful? No I don't think so. SL is no longer the Gee Whiz, exprimental world it may have been. It stopped being a gift of any sort when LL started taking money, in some cases fairly large amounts to use it. It is now a service, and reasonable stability and supoort is to be expected. For the most part, SL is stable for me beyond the common annoyances. But the bal is dropped big time on communication, support and customer service. There are signs it may get better, we'll see.

Well, I do agree that some of the griping is a little over the top.

A lot of it is probably from us addicts who can't live without our slice of second life on a daily basis and, like all addicts, suffer withdrawal symptoms. Hence the whining.

As for paying customers expecting good service, well that's a point but again a matter of tolerance.
I don't see how complaining to each other in the Forum is of any help whatever.

What's this "we" stuff???

Nope, i pay a service i expect to get very good costumer service and very few downtimes , for example i pay monthly for my internet cable connection, if they go down for 6 hours every other week and almost everyday with lttle shutdowns belive me i will complain and a lot. Same here, i pay monthly my premium account and i pay tiers also, i'm a costumer i want a good service and good communication too. LL has to provide that.

Main fact is that for now they don't have real competition, but when that arrives they need to review some of their strategies.

That said i think SL is great and hope they improve

I am grateful to my friends.
To SL depending on my gratitude level I give them real money. If I am unhappy with the service I spend less time using their services and paying for it.
I think they want my money more then any words I could offer them.

Get over it, they run a business, you give them money , they are filthy stinking rich , your whinging is insignificant. I couldnt careless if it shut down tommorow.

I know I'm grateful for this outlet for my creativity. I downgraded to a basic account (didn't see the point in being able to buy mainland), hold land in a private sim, and make an income. LL provides a service, they are doing just fine, and can't be expected to opperate 24/7. Since I came into SL, it's more than doubled it's concurrent user capacity, and is operating for the most part, just fine for me. There are days that it's slow, there are bugs here and there, but by in large, I'm impressed with how far they've come. This is not to say there aren't some things that bother me at times, but I think the hullabaloo about how awful they are all the time, and how they never fix anything is mostly coming from folks who are either not entirely reading their TOS, or understanding what service LL is truely providing.

I am grateful that SL exists. I think it is a fun place with lots of promise.

However, I will also add.. SL is like any other service - If I feel I'm getting value for my investment - be it time or money - then I will use it. If I don't feel like I'm getting value for my investment then I will not.

So far, SL has provided me with that value. Of course, I have not put a large amount of money into this world so my threshold of what is acceptable is accordingly lower.

I can understand why some folks complain as they are considering their investment and potential losses if things take a downward turn in world. These people make sense to me. They usually have the best interest of the world in mind and are voicing their opinion in an effort to improve things.

However, there are other folks that live to complain. They focus on the negative in all things. Everyone has seen them in forums. Not just here, but everywhere. They remind me of an old fella that used to visit a grocery store I worked at in high school. Each day he would come in and complain about anything and everything. He was a miserable old cuss that never saw good. Hell, we could have been giving away stuff and he still would have been upset. lol

I do feel like there are a lot of cranky old men in here sometimes. LOL

I have met some wonderful people and learned of some amazing music since I first entered SL. These things are good and I am thankful for them and for LL for making these things possible.

There are those who have valid criticisms and there are those who are inveterate self-important whingers, in the same way as many other situations. The forums are considerably better than the blog in that regard, where 95% of comments are irrational and often unreadable nonsense.

I am reminded that I probably need to update my Linden Lab Flame Generator with the latest issues.

http://ordinalmalaprop.com/tools/dear-ll.html

Sometimes yes.

I pay for my cable service too....and they are worse than LL with customer service and glitches. But I want cable, so I deal. Same with SL....I chose to get involved and pay for it.....so, whatever. I have very few problems with it seemingly in comparison to a lot of the gripers.

But....my experience in-world has often times been that people start to freak out and complain......without ever checking the web site to see what might be up. Or they are just ignorrent of how certain things work and they go 'off' because they don't understand something fully. I always check the blog, and the known issues.... I try to stay informed so I'm not caught off guard. but it's entertainment...gotta keep it in perspective. I pay for a lot of things in life that probably don't quite give the return on the investment that they should. (I smoke, that sure as hell isn't worth paying for)

In defense of LL....I used to work for a big corporation that relied almost exclusively on their computer network and web site service. I cannot tell you how many times we had issues with servers...or the web site going defunct.....It was just par for the course. And it was contained in one big room downstairs.....I can only imagine the hoop jumping that LL has to do to maintain so many servers in various locations. it's gotta be a nightmare. And yet.....what phenominal thing they've put together with SL.

People gripe..that's just human nature. I'm not big on bitching or griping...it's costs too much energy and I don't need to be stressed over SL of all things. Now traffic...that's another story..... LOL

Just because we complain and suggest improvements doesn't mean we can't love it at the same time. SL is a business.

This is just like my car. I love it, but don't appreciate it when something expensive breaks on it.

This is like my SL tenants who might ask me to change their wall color, or their floor texture, or complain about disruptive neighbors. They may still love living in my properties, but they're also paying me good money, so they should expect me to return a high quality of service for them.

Everyone that makes sweeping generalizations is wrong.

Red Light Center.



j/k On a serious note I agree. As soon as some solid 3D virtual world pops up that not only has the stability but more features then SL you will see a big change. The motto 'competition is good' is not a exaggeration and will be for us end users.

Ditto that!

I'm not saying it's easy keeping an international virtual world running but for what I pay each month, I do expect a little better than what I am getting. However I do still enjoy it, which provides the balance so for now I am happy to keep playing.

Perhaps grateful was just not the best word to use. I am thankful that there are so many hard working people at Linden Labs who have brought us such a really phenomenal creation and advancement in online entertainment. I believe there are some things that should of course be improved and without constructive input, they may never know what that is. Yes, there it too much "bitching" but I think there is no escape from that. And I agree, I also pay quite a bit of money each month to Linden Labs and I do fully expect the value of that in return. I also keep in mind that I make a choice to be here and to pay that money. If I don't care for the service, I take my business elsewhere.

Linden Labs is a business. And one that makes quite an effort to solicit feeback from its customers. A lot of companies don't do that. I'm sure they fully expect that not all feedback will be kind, thoughtful, or even respectful. And I have yet to encounter any Linden employee who did not treat me with complete courtesy and in as prompt a manner as they were able to.

It's funny...I equate many of "us" to those couch coaches - we're always very good at shouting how it should be done...but God forbid you should give us the actual job! I say let Linden Labs know what's wrong, don't assume your gripe is a priority, and let them do what they do best...bring us this venue we all seem to have a pretty hard time turning away from!

I get it lol

Coming from a gamng backgroud, I have seen this happen. From UO to EQ and then EQ to WoW, for example. Each step is a significant upgrade in content, style and control. Each step is also acompained by pale immitations and knockoffs all claiming to be the next big thing but no innovation.

So here we have SL. Over there we have ... there.com
SL is the incumbant. To surpass SL the new kid has to surpass it's abilities, not just meet them or come close with parts, fix a few things and leave lagre portions untouched. I have not done a lot of research or anything, but the competitors that I know of (there.com, other worlds, metaverse) are either niche programs that take a subset of SL and bring that up to a higher quality or simplay fall short in achieving what SL delivers.

Are there any serious contenders out there? Does anyone know?

why is it that some people feel they have to couch every thought in generalized negativity?

doesn't matter if it's "LL sucks" or "We're all ungrateful"... and it just feds back into itself, reinforcing the overall negativity...

there are things I love about SL, the peopole and social aspects are a big part of that.

there are things I hate, bugs and logic errors and downtime...

but you know what... the things I love are obviously something I care about and value despite the bugs, or I wouldn't still be playing or posting...

think about it the next time you(royal you) post, and then lose the overthe top "zomg, the worlds ending" hyperbole.

No. There's nothing, really. If you would be satisfied with the feature set of the competitors then you are probably already there, because they are more stable (There has improved a lot recently on that basis I am told). If you are a regular SL resident then you will find all of the other worlds disappointing in one way or another - I know I do.

You know, there's a lot of negativity and people express pretty constantly how little faith they have in LL. To some extent LL brings it on its own shoulders because it doesn't seem to have any direction or any real commitment to communicate with or serve its customers. If you talk to individual Lindens, they are usually pretty solid people who really love SL and will try to do the right thing, but there just isn't any overall direction. Like all the deckhands are pulling on ropes and climbing the rigging, but nobody is actually at the helm steering the ship.

I tend to think that people really do love SL and the fun and experiences we get. We know there is no viable alternative right now. We get nervous when we see that LL is just not putting any effort into things. Those are the sort of business practices that guarantee eventual failure, so it's threatening to us, because we will be losing something we really enjoy. So, we bitch and gripe and holler and everything else when LL does what LL does.

I'm not discounting the argument that we should get what we pay for - it's entirely valid. I'm just saying that there are some other reasons, and they aren't negative. We like SL and we don't want it to fail, so we get frustrated when LL courts failure.

BTW, Lindens, I'd be happy to forward my resume. I guarantee that you will be more successful with me in charge than you are right now. I can relocate. I have a degree and I'm not nearly as bad in RL as I am here. Come on, put me in charge. It'll be fun!

I actually take the stance that LL is wonderful.. sure, I gripe if the grid is down, or too many bugs, but I think they're doing wonderfully. Support can be a bit odd, since something might get done immediately through in-world live chat rather than waiting from outworld live chat (When my char was stuck, I finally went to the 'in-world' chat support, and the first person to respond helped immediately, and got it fixed after a few tries.)

But if you do things how you should, and you understand how much they really have to do, they are doing amazingly well in my opinion. They get millions of support tickets, ARs, bug reports.. and they always will, because thats how thigns work.. but they deal with them pretty well in my opinion.

I thank them with a lot of cash every time my tier rolls around. Once they improve stability, I'll become more grateful. It's hard to be thankful when you are constantly in a state of frustration and disappointment.

I do think people complain way to much but it's a product not a gift, so ungrateful? Not at all.

I think there's plenty of people who have legitimate complaints about not receiving a service they've paid for. Sometimes I wonder why they continue to come back and spew venom about LL. If they're that unhappy then move on.

The reality is, though, Dannoth, most of them don't hate SL. They love it. If not for what it is, then for it's potential. That being the case they may never be happy with SL,