Linden Lab Giving 2 Different Messages

Message 1:
We want to give you ample time to test new features and provide feedback to improve them.

Examples:
- 1.10
- elimination of stipends, which was discussed for over a year before gradually enacting it
- other releases where preview grids are up for 1-2 months.
- creation of the teen grid, which took months to discuss and is regarded as a success
- Live Help and other SL volunteer groups, which evolved over a few months time and have grown and improved through monthly discussions and proactive toolset creation

Contradicting Message 2:
We will enact measures we think are good without notifying your discussing this with the community.

- Changing registrations policies without notice or discussion with the SL community
- 1.10.x patches which created crash bugs and graphics errors, that were given very little time to test
- The new inventory system, which was reworked after people immediately didn't like it.
- 1.6 being released despite reported crash and graphics bugs, that took months to correct (And there's still bugs left to fix from 1.6)

...

So, I ask -- When is Linden Lab going to finally realize 2 simple ideas:
- every time ample time is given to changes, good things happen and the community is happy.
- every time a feature is rushed, there are problems and the community gets upset.

Not just big major 1.x releases, but even what Linden Lab would consider "minor" or "no-brainer" releases --- Please, please, Linden Lab, give us the time to test features before they go out. No, 48 hours is not ample time. 1 week is ample time, minimum, for a small feature. And this does not mean "We'll give you a week but our mind is made up.", it means that if the community comes together solidly against something, that it be put off and reconsidered.

I would have liked a heads up on the Free Reg thing.

I disagree.

Whereas the new registration did totally piss everyone off, it wasn't a new "feature". All those other things? Features.

Also, sorry, but you're just a paying customer. Would you require your local 7-11 to tell you how they were going to advertise?

I think some inworld voting, examples of new features would be well seen or something like the Siva beta version when comming to drastic changes, so it wont actually affect the Main Grid all the time, and easy voting system too

I dunno. I'm not sure that 'ample time' would have meant squat on this one.

Unless, (and its a big unless) we would have been able to convince them before implementation that better anti-grief land tools were a prerequisite.

But I don't think that would have been possible, as many folks have been literally screaming for better anti-grief land tools for years, with limited or no results.

Now that the change has been made, things are on fire, and the sense of urgency is there. There was no sense of urgency before the change.

Right, it was a major policy change -- kinda like the changes in stipend, which Hiro notes were bounced off the community in advance, unlike the registration change.


I don't have virtual land or businesses inside 7-11. I can drive another 2 blocks and shop at the Kwik Mart (or in my area, believe it or not, the badly named Kum-N-Go). If LL's intention is to divorce us from feeling any investment in this world, they're doing a bang-up job with decisions like this. Because it might take longer to decide to get in the car and drive down the street, but it can still happen. LL can have their million accounts, most of which by that time will be griefer alts.

the Mafia is a good anti griefing tool =D

"Burke Prefect would like to break your legs with a sledgehammer. Yes/No."

...is there a "Pie" option available?

Probably. But then the pie will 'splode like Gallagher hitting a Watermelon

Two flaws with your 7-11 analogy.

1. I don't own property and reside within my local 7-11
   
2. How my local 7-11 advertises does not not affect me. SL's actions do affect me when their actions make their own rating and accountability systems moot.
   

Yeah, I dig what you're saying Travis, and you make a lot of sense.

On the other hand, if you look at how the teen grid was done and how the stipend changes were enacted, it was through a long dialectic with the SL community - which included would-be-urgent things like, "Hey how do you prevent adults from getting onto the teen grid?" and "What do we people complaining that their welfare has been taken away?" Had the teen grid or the stipend changes been rushed, they certainly could have been things-on-fire situations, however, Linden Lab has shown us that they are willing to listen and plan in advance rather than facing problems by smacking face-first into them.

So.... why not on the new registrations policies?

Lo, with all respect, we are not responsible for building the local 7-11, but we do build and enhance sl. They are nothing without us. Our voice must mean something, because without people like Hiro this game would be empty, utterly devoid of anything. That gives us a voice. The open registration was a mistake, a mistake of monumental proportions. I am only 25, no kids, but I would be livid if I had a teenager log into sl. They have made this more than a probability considering so many teens have been turned onto it by the teen grid.

This registration policy is not only a concern for us in main grid, it's simply a crime.

Why do people always have to drag Torley into the conflict?

What proactive toolset creation has occured in connection with the mentor group?

I have to say I strongly diagree here I am NOT just a paying customer and I dont think Hiro is either. I for one am a regonized develper THIS makes me a partner in building the platfor as I make my sole living form doing this. And yes as an interactive agency oreven when I was a print agency when the media I work in be it a magazine or a printing plant makes majot changes in its operational prodcedure I expect to be consulted or at least notified.

My 7-11 analogy was pretty flawed, sorry.

My point was -- what Hiro is proposing would stall EVERYONE in terms of moving things forward. It took a YEAR of chewing the fat to remove stipends (which I am still conflicted on).

And -- as far as being more than a paying customer -- I think it's pretty clear from the way they've handled theft and so forth that, sorry, that's ALL you are. I'm sure they value your creations and appreciate that you make stuff, but when you're ripped off, you're out in the snow.

I've been extremely cynical lately and I apologize for coming off as abrasive. The fact is, while LL does appear to appreciate our input on specific things, I don't think they need our approval before doing something. That's just overstepping boundaries. It's their company.

We should be able to criticize their actions, which we have been doing (loudly), but to expect them to bow down to our objections (which are never fully uniform as it is -- the new registration process is the only thing I can think of that has been unanimously denounced) is just plain arrogant.

It's our content. They (LL) have said so, in fact. We, collectively, add the value here (the value of a network being a function of the number of nodes in the network) - and the reason the nodes are here is because of what, actually, is here... what folks (residents) of SL have created.


Quite the opposite... those who create content here have a vested interest in maintaining the value of such (however one might measure such, be it renumerative or aesthetic). I hardly see that as arrogant. In addtion, the net worth of this virtual society as well as its hopes for the future hinges _directly_ upon the confidence of those that contribute their time, talent, and dedication to making it a worthwhile place to visit.

We are expressing, in essence, a vote of 'no confidence'. You might differ with our opinion, but I reject your premise that we have no right to do so.

Have a nice day

My apologies if I come across as abrasive. I have a great deal of passion for this game and when I see a business decision like this (Prop. 1503/23) then I tend to get a a bit riled up.

You are completely correct, Linden Labs is a commercial entity. It is a business. They are here to make money; to pay their salaries and the those of their employees. It isn't some hippie commune where we all get together and talk about how this decision 'makes us feel'. They made decisions based on what is best for the company. (God knows I've worked at a few companies that felt like that. *gag*)

However, I don't feel it is arrogant of us, their customers, to comment on their business decisions. Especially when those decisions directly affect us. ...and considering that their entire business is based around the interaction of people, those people will tend to comment about stuff.

If they want to change from using blue pens to black pens in the accounting department. They can knock themselves silly doing it. I don't care.

If they want to change how registration functions and that change has real physical affects on my ability to play this game, then yes, I do care and will say something.

It is not true that the new registration process has been universally denounced.

I never said we didn't have the right to comment or criticize LL's decisions -- I merely said we shouldn't expect them to listen to them.

"Universally" to us does not include 06/06 registrants. Of course you don't denounce, you are now free to grief, ban, grief, ban, repeat. You have not been here, you do not understand. There are people who live and make a life in sl, some of which have been griefed for the first time in 3 years. The problem? You could be one who has registered 3 cards and been banned on all, now you are free to hotmail, gmail, linuxmail, mailcity, yahoo, aol, etc. LL cannot keep up with the outiside community. Their bans are limited to dhcp addresses and cards. DHCP is unlimited, cards are not unless you are an idiot.