Should we bother trying to keep this forum open?

No- burn it all down and fiddle while it burns

Yeah... irony isn't it?

LL did realize that they couldn't use the blog for user to user communication, thus came Resident Answers. Which of course, we jacked for or General Discussions sub-forum. And LL is now promising to close it down too.

So, apparently LL has decided that, all things considered, they're better off if there is NO easy or effective user-to-user communication.

When the decision makers at LL hear us say "this will kill a community", I'm sure their response is to roll their eyes, and then silently glory in the thought that potential corporate customers will no longer be able to view insults and denigrations of LL's business practices.

But if those LL decision makers heard "this will kill a community and THESE ARE THE WAYS THAT KILLING THAT COMMUNITY WILL HURT LL's BOTTOM LINE".....they might postpone the eye-rolling to actually listen.

We should be emphasizing the bottom-line aspects of the decision to go with a 'forum' that discourages Residents from talking to each other.

Two that come to mind right away:

***Sure, maybe, as alleged, the 'top 10% of SL earners' is underrepresented on the present Forums. But that does NOT mean that those people will be unaffected by the loss of the Forums.

Those who do use the Forums are arguably the most passionate and involved users of SL, and therefore are not only the most likely to spend money inworld, but also the most likely to recruit like-minded NEW money-spenders to register. If the passionate/involved feel less interest in using SL when the community is smashed, then their spending is lost, as is the spending of those they might otherwise recruit. Both the top 10% of earners and LL itself lose money in this scenario.


***Both the Resident Answers and the Content Creation forums provide more support to those who create---and make SL that much more attractive to users who spend money inworld--than LL has, apparently, realized. The ability to get a question answered quickly leads to more productivity for current creators and inspiration for potential creators. Making these quick answers more difficult to get, as the new Blog does, will impact LL's bottom line in ways they haven't yet considered.

"Bottom line"....that's what will induce LL to think.

Agreed, and as noted without a community you don't get people hanging around to provide the free tech support that's Linden Labs business case for having the forum/blog/answers in the first place.

Yes, yes, yes.

So, are they planning to hire hundreds of new tech support people, to provide what they've gotten free, here, up until now?

Or is the plan, instead, to retain even FEWER new and recent registrants than they do now? Since those registrants, getting no help whatsoever when they experience confusion inworld, will leave SL in frustration and tell all their friends about how lame it all is?











(those, of course, are rhetorical questions. . ^_^)

Damn you, now I can't legitimately include this pic!



Ha! I will anyway!

I think that was a wise decision.









...Unlike closing the Forums!! .ba-dum-bum-CHING

A number of people have stated that the new forums will kill the community. I think that it's possible, maybe even likely, that the existing communities, in terms of the specific people, camaraderie, friendships, interactions, etc. may disappear. That's certainly what will happen if enough of the major contributors leave. It could happen across the board, or be specific to the individual forums (e.g. leading Resident Answers people may leave, but perhaps leading Texture Forum people won't; I don't know how much overlap there is).

But this doesn't mean that new communities won't form in their place. They may have a different character, may not be as much fun, or maybe they'll be more fun for some people and less for others. They could be every bit as helpful and useful - or not. I don't know, and I don't think anyone else does. I haven't seen any arguments for saying that it won't happen. Eventually they'll fix the issues that prevent new users from finding things, and once that happens, it will serve enough people for a community to form.

Nope. That LL Blog "community" had around 20,000 participants prior to xstreet shoving the couple of thousand forum participants there over. I will predict this community has more participants if you go from day one but if you go from the past year it might be more like adding another few thousand to an already large community.

It is simply a different resource that has more collaboration potential.

An example of the broader SL community is the possibly more than 10 communities all with an active eros/nomine vs LL forum discussion going as of noon today. The overall community is large and has always been large. Every so often a new "hub'/forum/active blog/website will be added to the "galaxy" while others will fall off.

The earth is not crashing into the Sun. Some things will change. People will move around and land where they like it the most. Discussions and communications will continue. Knowledge sharing will continue to grow.

You going for a job at LL, Ann??

Yeah. Great. SL has a lot of potential too but when it DOESN'T WORK, it's no good.

This.

I don't much care anymore.

Someday the only thing left of Second Life will be a listing in the business text books as an example of "How to destroy your own business".

Actually, it does have great potential.. if it wasn't run by LL. Or if LL woke up and realized that the flog has to actually mimic a forum to keep things flowing correctly. Besides, it's not like LL plans ahead. If the flog gets as much use as these forums, the flog will crash, probably taking the whole blog system with it. Or at least, one can hope.

Ann also mentioned that we'll move around and find a place that suits. Which will likely not be the flog, so, we'll actually be better off than if we were on some "official" forum. LL will have no control over a 3rd party forum. They'll lose the ability to monitor what is being said about them. And it will be harder to spin things when they're being hit from several sides. Also.. negative publicity spreads far faster than positive.

Of course, I think I've said this before.. Man, deja vu.

heh heh be advised I have been in the forum/bbs game for a long time. You guys can try to troll me all you want. But you'll have to do a lot better than suggesting I might like to work for a cool company.

We'll take that as a 'yes.'







((I think it's a cool company, too, or at least puts out a cool product. The company culture has its positives, but plenty of negatives, too, I think. And of course by saying so I've burned any 'hopes for LL employment' bridges behind me. But, that's cool.))

(((good luck! .^_^)))

LL's a cool company? There may be some cool people working there but I don't think it's a very cool company any more.

LL has changed a lot in the last year or so. A cool product does not a cool company make.

Ann, if you are, I hope you are putting a lot of thought into your Linden name. Make sure you pick a good one.

I think "Samovar Linden" is particularly good, because it's both cozy and imposing at the same time.

.

Trinity Linden

There already is a Trinity Linden. Or was, anyway - dunno if she's still around.

I-Team, IIRC.

Maybe Quaternity isn't yet taken (assuming they're going in numerical order).