This is completely insane

I was the window licker on da short bus.... can't wait to take that trip down memory lane on the way to Kinkos... I'll leave my porch light on for you ( if I can remember how to turn it on )

mmm glad I went and started up an account on a private L2 server... oh SL is down.. ok

That's the best way to put it (-: i mean that's the point of an online game is that it can be updated anytime they fix bugs with every patch and try to add something new to make SL more interesting/entertaining for all members free or paying

one minute 7 seconds

Woo! I was the one who hung my head out the window and tried to spit into convertibles. Damn people with thier money!

THAT WAS YOU?????????

So many problems in the world ... this is minute. Spend this down time to talk to your kids, family friends. Go for a walk to walk off all the weight you gain while sitting in front of the screen all the time. Thats what I do. Oh -- and maybe smile a bit that this is one of the smallest problems going on. All will return in good time. Life is good -- take it in and giggle a bit. Huggies!!

The problem as I see it is that, no matter what may be happening behind the scenes, the Lindens do a great job of making it seem to the outside world that they are absolutely unqualified to even keep their own servers running, let alone upgrade them.

In fact, as someone who has been on SL for a couple of years now, I've noticed a prevalent trend of the LL staff generally acting like over-enthusiastic 20-something nerds, always desperate to show off some snazzy new feature, while being completely unwilling to fix or even complete older features.

As soon as something new comes along -- water effects, flexiprims, hardware lighting -- all previous bets are off, all focus is shifted to the new feature, and oh well, let's forget about the old stuff because it isn't fun anymore. These constant updates only ever seem to fix either bugs with the new features which nobody wanted anyway, or incredibly obscure bugs which nobody I have ever spoken to has experienced. We all know that there are a myriad of old, annoying bugs that they simply never get around to fixing, and it really does seem like they don't want to do it because it's boring.

Couple this with the terrible server management, apparent complete lack of beta testing as huge bugs (up to the level of server-crashing) are discovered pretty much every time a major patch is pushed to live, and a complete disregard for the community (and indeed, paying customers) as a whole, and is it any wonder people are complaining?

Hey..Heard there was popcorn in this thread...may I have some too?

I come here to get away from brown nosers...btw, how much $L did you lose today ?? HMMMM???

You know, I was going to post a rebuttal here, but its obvious your posting in the wrong forums. Having been in SL for more than 2 years, I'm definitely playing a different game than you.

Been back in just a few minutes tonite, so far the map is buggy, you cant turn off land sales, and when you fly and land your chat line dissapears, my tenants cant TP up to their units, and have heard from several that their things have "dissapeared"...hmmm what game are you playing, i wanna go there ....

/me remembers when TSO went down two hours EVERY night for "maintenance"

It's one hour, in the middle of the night for everywhere except the one city that was made for the Japanese market (Mount Fuji) which is on a different maintenance cycle so that the time isn't right slap in the middle of their busy time (which the 'regular' maintenance is).

Lewis

you always seem to tout TSO like its some superior thing lewis.. so eh.. why dont you just foock off back to it and save us your daily moaning >.<;

I have as much right to be here as you do, and all I was doing was correcting some slight misinformation and explaining how it is done elsewhere, giving consideration to the playerbase as a whole.

Perhaps if you'd analyse my posts, you'd realise that I care about SL and want the best for it, instead of just dismissing what I have to say.

Lewis

I'm really pissed off about that damn World Cup being held in Germany. Trying to catch the games over here - during the WORK DAY - is completely unfair! America got the short end of the stick... again. The World Cup should be held in an American friendly timezone every four years! Nevermind that there are more soccer fans in Europe than in the USA, and there are more SLers (including the company that makes it all possible) in the USA than Europe.

Now, to be a little less silly, we really don't have a right to be furious, and it's wasted breath. If you're unhappy, vote with your feet, because you agreed to the same Terms of Service we all did:

1.6 Second Life is subject to scheduled and unscheduled service interruptions. All aspects of the Service are subject to change or elimination at Linden Lab's sole discretion.

Linden Lab reserves the right to interrupt the Service with or without prior notice for any reason or no reason. You agree that Linden Lab will not be liable for any interruption of the Service, delay or failure to perform, and you understand that except as otherwise specifically provided in Linden Lab's billing policies posted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/billing.php, you shall not be entitled to any refunds of fees for interruption of service or failure to perform. Linden Lab has the right at any time for any reason or no reason to change and/or eliminate any aspect(s) of the Service as it sees fit in its sole discretion.


Thanks for your wishes. We had significant downtime during U.S. peak time last night. Happy now? What a lovely wish you made - it came true!

I really wish people would relax a bit. LL is working hard to improve the service (and, if you look over the past 3 years, it is GREATLY improved over all).

Regards,

-Flip

Is that why we have a 13 page thread complaining about downtime then>

Lewis

I'm a paying customer, and I own a fair amount of land that costs me a reasonable amount of money to keep, and I think it is great that the Lindens release weekly updates with bug fixes and new features. I don't have a problem with the grid going down from time to time.

While some of you make money from your land to offset your costs - I just keep large amounts of land to put pretty buildings on that have no revenue raising purpose - so for me it is all net cost.

From a technical standpoint, what they are managing and delivering here is simply outstanding. As a developer of massively distributed database applications, I understand exactly the technical complexity with which they are dealing, and I say Linden Labs is down a brilliant job. Nothing in this space is trivial, but add terrabytes of data storage, hundreds of servers, and most importantly mobile agents (thats the scripts you have in your prims and in your avatars) and you have a hellishly complex programming and system management problem.

The reliability and performance of this system is simply awesome. I would be proud of both the reliability and the speed with which most issues are addressed, if I were a Linden.

Well done Lindens. That's my vote.

I trust LL understands that there will always be a certain small percentage of the SL population that will never be satisfied and always complain about every single issue. If that were not the case, this thread would contain ten times as many pages as it does.

I am certain the larger majority of the SL population understands that progress is painful sometimes and is very greatful for the weekly updates. Personally, I would be more upset if we didn't get as many updates.

Updates are a great thing. They're like gifts. It means they are working to make things better for us. We are getting new features and bug fixes.

We should all be greatful. I believe the overwhelmingly larger majority of us are.

There are those who don't *live* 24/7 in Second Life however, and join, pay the same fees everyone else does, including those who do in fact spend their lives on SL only to have the time they can afford online in this game, taken away on regular basis.

It's not just the Europeans who find the updates being performed systematically one day a week in their evenings, it's not just the Americans who find the updates being performed systematically one day a week during their day, it's someone at any given time.

It is my belief, rather than inconvenience the same groups of people week after week, that the times of the update be staggered. On on given Wednesday, rather than the West Coast beginning the update when they arrive at work, let it begin at lunchtime. Try bringing down SL in the late evenings the next week. Whatever schedule they come up with anyone at any given time can be affected, but it won't be the same people, week after week.

I've proposed this before and I realize I'm not the only one who has come up with this alternative, alas I hold out viturally any hope that anyone who can affect change will listen.

I will say this however, I work on the east coast as a consultant, and I too in fact affect downtime on a network system. To perform any duties on a systematic basis, on the same days at the same time would find me shortly on the unemployment line. Having said that, clearly the Lindens live in a different world than I.

Good luck SL.

With a product that pretty much includes most time zones where folks live, SOMEONE is gonna have the downtine when it is unconvenient. Live with it!

Shorter Seola: I don't like the fact that you came up with counterexamples, therefore I'm going to decide they don't count.

Chronic, you win this thread!

Some people just like to complain a lot. For example, look at your posting history, heh. We all agreed to a ToS saying downtime is to be EXPECTED. We all agreed to this when we signed up, correct? Or does Lewis Nerd know of a special URL where one can join without agreeing to the ToS? Please provide it if that is the case.

It is part of the nature of SL. Just as a reminder, again:


(emphasis mine)

What part of that don't you understand? Second Life is an extremely complex product, much more so than any kind of online game like your beloved ToS (which, it would seem, you've gotten bored with because they no longer update it, which I find the height of irony). Due to SL's streaming nature as a platform (no online games stream everything, in fact, they stream VERY little and keep most things on your hard drive), the amount of data transmitted, bandwidth required, and server power required is exponentially high than online games. This is why it is within SL's nature to have downtime (planned and unplanned), and its covered in the ToS.

Live with it, or vote with your feet. Those are the only two options. Oh, I'm sorry, there is a third option: whining on the forums, and look how much that accomplishes.

Regards,

-Flip