Changing

Hay all. I've been working some long hard hours. Harvest season here and I have been working 12-14 hours a day 6days a week, only 1/2 a day Sunday. Well we are full up on corn, I'm back to 8 hour days and weekends off till beans start coming in.

So I go to log into SL and first I have the voice viewer shuved down my throat. I didn't want it, most people didn't care, and fewer people use/wanted it then there are SL AVs wearing blue shirts. None the less LL wanted us to have it, and when the voluntary download didn't work, it was forced off on us. I suppose next they will force us to buy one of their headsets.

OK, so I installed it, and had to read through the new TOS, ya, looks like typical LL stuff "we want all the power, but none of the responsibility". Sort of like a 16 year old with a car, they want the car but not the responsibility of paying for insurance or gas.

Since I joined SL a few months back I have watch freedoms evaporate and bugs increase. I have seen LL make new rules, and expect other to enforce them. I have watch greifing being honed to a sim crashing art. And had LL ask for personal info I don't give out on line.

Is it me or has SL went to hell at an alarming rate in just the past few months?

I have been in SL for a long time and seen many many changes. Some I liked and some I did not. Thats the nature of the beast, its impossible to please everyone. All we can do as players is evaluate when the negative changes (in our opinions) outweigh the postivie aspects of SL to us. At that point we can hope there is a viable alternative ready to welcome us.

I personally have not hit that point. The ability to create here far outweighs the inconvieninces for me. I cannot speak for anyone else nor would I try.

I feel the same way Darkness, you say it very well.

As long as SL offers me the creative outlet it does, I am willing to be flexible and chalk it up to the growing pains. Remember how awful the first web pages were?

/me remembers amber text monitors

I agree with Darkness' sentiments as well. Second Life is all about change - some good, some bad. While some changes frustrate & annoy me, none overall make me want to give up on this amazing world we have here.

I don't care for the new chat UI either, but check out the Nicholaz viewer... that's one way of getting things back to the way they were for you

I always preferred the green ones ... jeez .. sounds like wine gums LOL

It's not just you. I feel like I'm in a totally different ballgame than the one I signed up for a little over a year ago. When I started, the grid really did feel like a community, now it's a total free-for-all. In my early days, I also took advantage of and absolutely marveled at the live help program and the fact that someone actually showed up in my home. It was one of the reasons that I quickly and easily came to the decision to go premium. I've since seen customer service sink to abismal levels and the community is littered with griefers and theives.

~A few months ago my account was hacked and robbed my entire linden balance. LL sent a reply to my AR saying that they could do nothing about it as their records show I gifted the moneys and my issue was resolved. Faced with the prospect of months of e-mails and phone calls to chase down LL as my only choice of recourse, I decided to let it go. LL's lack of concern really damaged my attitude for the experience and I'm only just starting to bounce back. I'm trying to focus o the fun part again as I don't have the motivation to do business or help to front LL's business in a climate where I'm completely unprotected. Kinda like the wild west.

In a nut shell, I feel like we've (the residents) went from and attitude of being LL's most valuable resources to becoming cattle that they try to keep herded.

SL is changing, and that isn't necessarly a bad thing. Things need to grow and develop, but I'm not a fn of change for change sake, or patient with ill conceived and implemented plans generally. I take each chamge as it comes, my only objective in SL is to have fun and be entertained, so when that it impacted to an unacceptable point, then i'll know it'll be time to go.