Analogy

if you want a good one you there is only one place to go for milkshakes.Sonic burger!!!!
M&M blast is the best thing since sliced bread was invented.

Yes, Sonic is incredible! I have to drive a bit further to get there, but it is always worth the run.

Plus they have some new spicy burger I saw advertised. Bonus for the trip.

The analogy works okay for me. An even better one that was made is maybe the computer is down in the store. In both cases, the customer gets frustrated and eventually stops going there, and in both cases, the business loses money it could have made.

In any case, the idea that because SL is "free" nothing can be expected doesn't work for me.

It's just a handy excuse, really.

And conveniently overlooks the fact that the people who pay DO pay enable the whole thing to continue, and in fact pay the employees' salaries, including the CEO's, and pay for all the facilities and hardware needed to even have a thing called Second Life.

Now given that, don't you think that the paying members should always be able to get in, and be given priority? Or even just the payment-info-on-file members?

Makes sense to me.

coco

Facts are that things fail and the more complex the thing is the more often it fails. SL is arguably the most complex thing of its type around. Does it get frustrating? Yes certainly, Do we want it just to work all the time? Of Course. However we are not able to get that, the things that we think of as reliable are either simpler or have failures too that do not affect us as much. Nobody else can do what LL does with any better reliability either, in fact nobody can do what LL can do period.
When another grid can do as much as SL does then we can compare reliability, until then the point is moot. It is still an experiment, if you want in then stay, otherwise the door is always open...

I can imagine if McDonalds had a promotion where they offered a certain number of free beanie babies and then they ran out of free beanie babies.

Then they could turn away those who were only there for the free beanie babies and only give beanie babies to customers who made a minimum purchase.

All I know is since I gave up hope I feel a lot better.

That really is the key to happiness in Second Life.

It works for me. Outages, Crashes, inventory loss.. it all gets a hearty Meh out of me now. Maybe that was the master plan all along.. lol.

I also have the meh approach but I keep my hope all the same

SL is not free, subsidised maybe, but it's not free.

It is free at the point of use for some people - that is the point that Rhaorth is making. Some of which are some of the people complaining about the service.

So is McD's if someone else is paying for your burger. That doesn't mean the person won't complain if they get a dodgy burger.

Talk to me in a few more years.

A dodgy burger can kill you, a dogdy LL service will lose you nothing apart from a little time and a bit of your internet service allowance. Big difference.

Ciaran are you really buying into this SL is like a burger at McD's crap?

Yes dad

Touche.

I remember back way long ago, in my college days, having our computer program due dates moved back again and again because the universitys computers crashed and crashed and crashed.

Then a little over ten years ago when I got into on line gaming I remember 5 minute lag bursts and 24 hour rollbacks.

Call me old, but what we have here is minor problems. Rather than hoping for the day when things fail completely, perhaps you should console yourself with the fact that in time things will probably just keep improving to the point you have to find something else to complain about. Like maybe, "IT TOOK A FULL 15 SECONDS FOR THE SIM I TELEPORTED TO TODAY TO FULLY LOAD! WHAT AN OUTRAGE!".

Jeeesh

Coco 9/10 times I agree with you on things. I just can't on this one. I don't think and elite system for logins is any kind of an answer. Just as I didnt think it was good for customer service or forum access.

Remove the reasons for many bots. Yep sounds good. Find ways to beef up the system yep also good. Say to people WHO MAY BECOME paying customer "wwwwooooooops out of the pool we can't have you pissing in it for paid people" ...nope can't go along with that one.

Dang we live on mainland and it NEVER takes me more than about 3 seconds or less to fully rez everything.

if someone else was paying for my SL and my SL experience was bad, I would not complain, I would let the one paying complain

you just can not compare SL to mcdonalds LOL

and yes for some ppl SL IS FREE, you DO NOT have to pay to use SL
no one forces you to pay, you do not have to buy lindens, you can enjoy SL completely without cost from you to SL

why is that so damn hard for you to understand

you pay because you choose to pay (or not)

I just do not feel I have a right to complain about a free service, (even though I do pay by MY OWN CHOICE)

sheesh some ppl just do not get it
no one forces you to stay, if you hate it that damn much, then just leave

thats a good way of looking at it..i mean when i first came to secondlife there were a lot more problems than there are today..

rezzing today is nothing like rezzing a couple of years ago..it's a lot faster oh and my prims don't get stuck in my butt on teleports anymore..god how i hated that on every port lol.
the down time was a lot worse back then..if sl goes down i just come to the forums or do something around the house..
there was a time when i would rip my hair out but i really did not understand much of how the grid really worked back then..
i just can't bring myself to get upset if it goes down anymore ..i think because i have grown to not really feel i need it or need to be in it all the time..
things are getting better in a lot of ways and thats good enough for me..
there are a lot of great people in game but there are also a lot of great people in here in the forums..
Sl is not gonna go out of business because of it's down time just like Mcdonalds wouldn't if they turned away someone because they were out of some kind of burger..

i'm a premium member and thats about 9.95 a month i get 400 lindens a week from the lindens..
if they have to take it offline then i'm fine with that because there is a good reason..
SL is always in beta to me and i'm not gonna get gray hair at my age shaking like a coffee junkie waiting for my fix..it's gonna be back up when it is...
raising my blood pressure is never gonna make things move along faster..

Analogies don't tend to work because most businesses in RL don't tend to open their doors to freeloaders while hoping there will always enough dummies to pay.

Dropping the $9.95 join fee would compare to letting people sit without requiring them to have ordered something first, but only as long as they look respectable (they look like they can afford a burger aka payment info on file), most/enough people will buy a soda, burger, or pay to use the restroom to result in higher turnover than before.

Opening the flood gates would only compare to turning that McDonalds into a transient home at the same time. Actual customers have to step over and deal with beggars and other lowlifes that slowly but surely take over the restaurant impeding normal function. At some point the whole place will just be so full neither new customers or new transients will be able to get in still.

Weren't some of us debating the Second Life is a bus analogy a couple weeks ago?

Almost all comparisons of SL to something will fail. It is totally unique. This rule especially applies to those who compare SL to World Of Warcraft.

SL is what it is. We support it with money, log-ins, forum posts, blogs, etc etc etc.

If you find you no longer wish to support it..well, you gotta find something else to do. In the meantime warts and all you are beta testing a product. Love it when it works, grumble when it doesn't but realize it has all been said before in spades.

Second Life's instability isn't a big deal for someone who hasn't invested a lot in it. If it's merely a liesure activity or game, who cares, there are other liesure activities to find when Second Life is down.

The reason that Second Life's instability is shameful is that Linden Labs has encouraged people to invest a lot of serious, real money on the premise that Second Life can be a business platform.

Linden Labs advertises:

"Make real money in a virtual world. That's right, real money."

"Businesses succeed by the ingenuity, artistic ability, entrepreneurial acumen, and good reputation of their owners. "

"The Second Life real estate market provides opportunities for Residents to establish their own communities and business locations."

If Linden Labs is going to take people's serious, real life investment money on the pretense that Second Life is a business platform, then Linden Labs needs to deliver a real business platform.

If the best that Linden Labs can do is provide a low-end, lost-cost liesure activity, then they should not advertise any more than that.

I am with you on your post. But back to the Micky D's analogy.. when have you ever gotten a big mac that looks as awesome as it does in the magazine or commercial? I have had food poisoning from them before.

Yes.. there is TONS of false advertising. Many real world businesses came and went when they saw it was not even close to what they thought it would be.

I have spent a ton of cash over time here, but I am still here even though it is not all it was supposed to be.

So, do we take the route of some businesses that cut their losses and left or stay.. keep paying and complain that it is not what we hoped?

That is up to each person to decide for themselves, but nobody is chained to the bed here.

RL calls..