LL Blog: Changes to group announcements

Who sends 200 group messages a day?!?

FashCon, on stipend Tuesday

200 group notices a DAY??? Glad I'm not a member.

Remind me to stay away from that group!

I am a member of Fashcon, and I just keep the notices turned off so I do not get spammed, and then go check each day to see what it new

I dunno if they get over 200 a day though (I never did a tally so not really sure)

*shrug*

0, 1 Infinity!!!

Its LLABS way to say .We arew scaling the game again because we are not smart enough to do it any other way. .GESH atleast start charging people for the game or ******* start eating the cost yourself LLABS..............What the ****** do you want?

Sigh, destroying the history of SL again.

Group chat, notices, etc. should be handled outside of LL's systems anyway.

wow you mean people stay in grouo that sends out that many messages a day? Well If people are tht crasy to be in those group then well they know what they are getting.......50 messages a day is more then plently........shakeshead at theway LLABS think scaling the game will reult in a better stable game....how many times have we heard "SCALING" will result in less bulk? Yea right...................

I'd be happier it the took to the texture library and deleted every texture that hadn't been rezzed inworld for over 2 years. Or some sort of multiple/non-existant landmark cleansing of peoples inventories.
I like 30 days history, but I also think 100 of past notices is enough to scroll through looking for things.

Different feature, same story. Can we keep a list of all the features LL has killed off, crippled, or limited (or wanted to remove but didn't) in the name of "optimizing database load"?

Ones I remember off-hand:
* remove in-world transaction history
* move baked textures onto the sim (caused "missing image" which was never fully fixed)
* remove hiding non-public estates from the map
* remove ratings
* reworking group chat (gave us all the current fun group chat failures)
* disabled search for about a full week
* habitually disable "Friends Online" on the site during high load (ongoing for months)
* disable profiles and group information during high load
* attempted: raise the minimum auto-return from 1 to 10
* attempted: make group chat opt-in vs opt-out

It's less than encouraging that the only visible way LL seems to be dealing with database (over)load is to cut into the feature set rather than make structural changes to make sure their struggling backend does not come apart whenever people use anything.

Hopefully some concerned citizen is now plugging away building the viewer that will allow us to export all of our important data into a business-friendly database.

I don’t read this policy as limiting the number of notices SENT per day to 200, but limiting the number of notices that a group can have in its history to 200. That is, a group's notice history will store notices 2 weeks old or newer, up to a max of 200.

However, that's just my read. Hopefully LL will clarify.

Blog comments are still open.
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some people seriously believe they have removed TPing too.

it is sort of humorous to see 50 or so notices from furniture makers announcing a new line of L$1000 skins that are clearly unmodified Eloh skins. thats why i turned off fashcon notices. The idea for fashcon is good. the delivery system is not up to the task. In addition the entry fee is well within the affordability of spammer/scammer operations while making it a difficult entry for new designers.

So a better communications medium is needed for fashcon. perhaps a new mailing list system is needed like subscribe-o-matic or hippo groups that would allow authorized persons to send a message with attachment to a single mailing list in the manner groups do. This would eliminate the need for groups like fashcon to use the sl groups at all. i hope someone better at scripting than me takes this idea and produces such a system.

But that is only one of 135.

I don't believe the number of daily notices over 200 for 135 groups is grinding sl to it's knees. that just makes no sense. So there was a miscommunication somewhere or someone is just trying an idea out and they didn't want to do it without warning. who knows? maybe it will have an effect and they can continue with the idea and cut notices to 5 per day with no retention at all?

does notice mean a notice like the residents of SL know they are?
or...
does notice = transmission of a notice to one account?
does notice mean pressing enter on a string of text in the group chat IM text entry field?

what does notice mean here in this blog on the topic? something doesnt seem right.

I think it's not about the db load, but about the fact that LL wants to appear like they are doing something 'useful' about the issue.

If they want to reduce the DB load during peak hours, then just close the logins so only payment info used/on file can log in.

Some bots could stand to be removed too, since they hammer the db far more heavily than group stuff. (Those that use the search system DO hammer the db, bots that just stand there and look 'pretty' as models don't matter much.)

This.. is just bailing out water of a sinking ship, all without actually addressing the issue.

there is one problem, there is one website that relies on bot type of interface user base. I don`t think LLABS would be willing to change the codes and nolonger allow non graphic interface users that have text based on users.....

I agree with your item and since bots don`t get any real value (other then showing products lines like wears skins shapes etc.) the concept should be done away with. Good post as always from you Raudf....

History of SL? Important business data? These notices were deleted after a month anyway.

"Starting Tuesday, 6 May, 2008, all group notices that are older than 14 days will be removed from storage in the database. Notices were previously held for 31 days."


How often do you look back at notices from 2 weeks ago?

more offen then you it appears......specially when we gt no notication that therte is a notice or object waiting for us to take.

Funny, my notices are always waiting when I log in. Two weeks is really going to limit you?

Its not always the case for everyone....many group notices don`t even reach my half the time. I need to reach inthe group IM to get the notice at times.

It is such a pity that LL could not, would not, and do not listen to their customers.

Again we have some change that is posted after business hours, and commences the next day wiping things that many people need (judging by some of the comments in the blog). Why are comments turned on? LL obviously do not read them, or even want to consider that anything but their ideas are correct.

Smack in the face for customers AGAIN.

Is it a surprise that lots of my "friends" are using 2L less often these days? Gosh, most have troubles even logging on!

It was good while it lasted LL, but reducing features and increasing rules and limitations is not a way to treat us paying users.

*nods* My notices are read and gone long before the two weeks.. my husband has habit of not logging in for a month at a time and he usually has a long line of notices to click.

It's not the time limit that bothers me.. it's the fact that they claim they are doing it to reduce the load on the db. I don't think it's going to make the kind of impact they think it will and that there are things they could do that would have a better effect on it.

I think it's more likely that they've got a big spreadsheet of things that hit the DB, how much of an impact they have and how easy it would be to lessen their impact. Though this change may not have a huge impact on DB load, it seems like pretty low-hanging fruit. That's what I'd start chipping away at this problem, anyway.


/me agrees. LL should split off things like real-time land searches to a separate service that people who run land bots need to pay for.


Every time anybody logs in, the viewer has to hit the database up for the list of group notices that have appeared since the last time they logged in. Again, I don't think this change is a huge savings but it's not zero. If it's an easy way for them to drop the load a bit, I'm ok with it.

remove inworld transaction history......That for me was the worst and the one thing I miss most.It changed the game as I now run in a window and always need to check names and stuff.I find it spoils the illusuion of the game switching back and forth.