Which of these communication features do you want?

In the blog post on Avaline I said I might run a poll on the options. Well, seems like people want to see that, so here it is.

Which of the communication features in this poll would you like Linden Lab to take the time to implement? All would be optional, you wouldn't get contacted from the outside without signing up for the service.

* Email to [email]firstname.lastname@residents.secondlife.com[/email].

This might provide anonymized email forwarding to a RL mail account, or an in-world email system, or a web based email system at Linden Lab.

* Jabber/XMPP to IM, or Jabber/XMPP accounts hosted at LL

This might not need an actual IM gateway to be useful, you could run an external IM application (which is after all what SLim basically does, it's just embedded in the voice client) instead.

* Avaline

The phone to voice chat system LL actually implemented.

* Skype to voice IM

A voice chat gateway for skype, since many people in the blog thread asked for it.

The obvious thing that you have failed to include in your so-called "poll" is a web portal that allows easy integration of one's "Facebook", "Twitter" and So On with one's Second Life activities.

*pfah*

That's the last option.

Only if it is the "cow" variety.

I would vote for "cow pie" facilities, certainly. They helped Desperate Dan grow into the big strapping bristled gentleman that he is.

Pie would be my first choice, but seeing how other things come out half baked, maybe not. How about we get group IM's working as well as IRC before we start on these new fangled whoseits and whatchamacallits.

Email and IM would be the only items that would interest me. Except maybe a chocolate pie. Darn now I'm craving chocolate pie. LOL

Skype - I use this always and its simply the very best also the most secure.

Jabber/XMPP replacing old system

I'd like to be able to see our chat histories in the viewer. That would be a simple way to give us some asynchronous communications, in the client, without having to do much to anything but the viewer.

I voted for everything but pie.

Facebook's rules don't allow the use of avatar names as account names, so it's less than optimal as the social networking system of choice for a formal, official linking with SL.

Friendfeed is a nice communication tool, and I don't believe it has any rules against using made up, false names as account names.

Saying "Pie" was the "Facespace/Mybook/foofeed" option was a joke. I don't see those as communications features at all, whereas a pie in the face is legitimate political expression.

What I would like, is the ability to host web based chats and in-world chats simultaneously.

I'd like to be able to call a meeting or host a chat hour where I am in-world, along with anyone else who wants to attend in-world and other people could view us in a web browser without loading the SL client and participate in the chat.

You can actually do that now using a scripted prim using HTTP.

Look for the free SL to IRC gateway. Allows you to create and register an IRC chat room entirely for free, and rez a device in-world which monitors public chat, also has a radar to scan for avatars present. It shows them all logged in as users in the associated IRC chat room, with all public chat being also sent to that room as text messages from the users in question (their user names are always shown using the format SL|RockAndRoll Michigan). Any chat typed by people in the IRC chat channel is also relayed to public chat coming as a message from IRC|username in green text generated by the relay device.

Combine this with tools to embed IRC chat inside of web pages and this would do what you're asking for.

E-mail and cherry-pie and I am happy.

I'm for not not looking forward at all to any inside/outside world communications. At least, not for now. Especially not for any systems that allow initiation of communications from outside SL.
[email]Avatar@seconlife.com[/email] sounds nice in theory, but it's too convenient for organisations to create a simple mailing list and start spamming from an outside server. Whether it's legal or not.

As for a voice system? I don't use it, don't care about it, hate voicechat, hate skype, hate teamspeak, ventrillo, you name it. Heck, I dislike rl phonecalls even, especially those taking longer than 3 minutes!

Cake! Not pie!

Avaline is tanking in the poll results.

Text chat is 'easy', but *viewing* the 3D meeting location is I think what was being suggested.

Email to SL name would be useful.

We'd see spam of course, but many of us probably see a constant flow of that directed at us anyway.
If we had email to SL name, it should be an option for the name to enable.

Yes, all of these would be optional. None would be enabled by default.

E-mail to avatar would seem the most useful to me. Especially if it could work reliably, and if it could work for up to 30 days after an account is cancelled or suspended. That could prove invaluable in following up on someone who suddenly vanished from the Grid. Did their computer crap out, and what they have access to now can't run SL? Did they do something stupid and get Banned? Are they still alive in RL?

Being able to send/receive IM's from an existing messaging client, like ICQ or AOL, to an in-world avatar might have some limited useful function. Like letting someone in-world know that you're stuck on an overtime RL work assignment and can't meet them in-world as previously arranged. Being able to send an IM from in-world to an avatar who is NOT in-world, and having them able to receive it and reply with a standard IM client like ICQ could be very useful, especially for content creators and sim managers. But with either of these, I see no reason to force it to be a voice-enabled service or one that requires you to enable Voice to use the text-only functions of it.

Avaline? Meh. No thanks! I don't need to get telemarketer calls in-world, and for the rare individuals (mostly paying clients for my full-sim building services) who I would be willing to allow to have to have calling my Player on the phone, I'll just give the person my home phone number or cell phone number.

And since I virtually NEVER use Voice in-world, even just to listen to others, neither Avaline nor Skype interest me.

None of these proposals is about creating a new communications service, they're all about linking up to an existing external communications service, like standard email, common instant messaging tools, regular telephone handsets, VOIP, and so on.

I suppose IM > avatar and email > avatar could be useful, but I would be more interested to see inworld communication worked on.

It would be nice to see the profiles expanded and put into a web interface, so we can define ourselves, our interests and skills in our own terms.. instead of being confined to tick boxes and a one-line blurb. We could plug-in feeds for Flickr, Plurk etc.
The same web interface could store IMs indefinitely and show group notices like a blog RSS feed.

*gets starry eyes thinking about it*
Of course it'd probably need a big overhaul in the way SL works behind the scenes, so it'll never happen. :C

blackberry, a thick crust sprinkled with sugar... a splash of whipped cream.... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

pie

I was referring to LL's earlier attempt at offering an in-world to IM product, (SLim?) where you had to use their dedicated IM app and had to enable Voice in-world even if all you wanted was to use the text-only features of the IM client.

I would agree that links to EXISTING services are far better than links to an SL-only service.