An open letter to Philip and Robin

[/b]

Ugh, I have to say that this is only going to create more problems than it solves.

New players are going to come into the game, not having registered or confirmed who they are, and instead of being able to look about and interact with the world, they will be met with a sea of "ban lines". Any incentive for them to register for real will be gone.

"Why would I want to stay here, nobody seems very friendly" is what would be going through my head.

The sooner the better with the end of the NON CC signup! Its a zoo around sl these days.

[/size]
　
This well not work! since faking CC info is so easy.. I just say increase the cost of the startup avie and allow only one person account, But then again the damage is done. Its too late and we are now in a dark period of second life where alts run the game and there is nothing you me or anyone can do. Banning is a joke since the people are always so smart getting back in the game agin and again. Who really cares anymore then game is changing in the wrong ways.

I'm all for that. Go see voting Topic 1503 about this very topic. It has over 1000 votes in less than 12 hours of voting so far.


Seems reasonable


I completely disagre with this one. There is no reason to create a limit like this.

a) If the customer wants to pay money to Linden Land's, let them do it without restriction.
b) For those of us who slightly more than 1/4 of a Sim but *WAY* less than a 1/2 a sim, paying for the land that is over the 1/4 tier with a secondary account is the only way we can get the most bang for our buck. Making me use a second credit card for that does not make sense.


I think this last concept requires a lot more debate, but it has promise.

Talarus Luan "the reasons given ranged from concerns over what there is to do that is similar to what they are used to, to bad reactions based on some of the more "seedy" activities in the game. "

Precisely why I said 'less clearly defined!

Talarus Luan "On the subject of giving out credit cards online..."

I believe it... I'm just as paranoid/careful RL! (Of couse, who carries enough pocket cash for gas anymore?! ).

Talarus Luan " The only practical way to ultimately deal with griefers and scammers is to remove their anonymity.

An age-check cert process just doesn't have any clear standard yet, there are too many agencies still vying for the lead to pay one and stick with it. Using a paid for external age certification process would certainly make it easier for folks that are already regular porn surfers to validate their age though! SL does have a rather 'tawdry' rep though among several there-ians, fueld by favoritism I'm sure but hard to deny sometimes!


Personally, I would prefer that SL ask for country/state and Driver's License, and a CC for anyone that doesn't have a DL. Problem players can more easily be reported. Re-use of an existing driver's license would send up red flags, etc.

We'll have to see if the wave of griefing described here continues or if it gets boring to attack SL as it's just too easy. I believe any griefing spike will flatten out.

Right now we are in a period of discombobulation on this journey: currently the bar to people trying SL is that their computers aren't good enough. The people with good computers include a high percentage of immature griefer-wannabes.

At some point in the near future ordinary computer technology will be good enough to run SL. At that point things will tip over and the number of griefers will be tiny compared to ordinary men and women who want to investigate what SL has to offer.

You win the "Best Use Of A Word On The Forums" award for today

I would NOT give SL my DL period end of discussion.

I just wonder if there is a way to restrict what non verfied accounts can do. Say you had three kinds Non Verified, Basic, and Premium. Non verified could be restricted to no trading, no buying, no excepting gifts, more or less limiting them very much in Second Life. This would also prevent tons of alts being made.

Most people would eventually want to get verified and go basic, they would want clothes, maybe a house etc. It would encourage them to get verified and go basic. And in the verification process plenty could be weeded out that weren't of age. And plus with the inability to accept items they would stick out really because they would definalty look the non verified part. And unless they went basic with the inability to trade griefers couldn't get guns etc.

Thats sort of a lot like what there does with thier free basic acct. They limit what you can do to so that it will encouge you to go lifetime. There its not for age reasons, but here it would at least encourage it and still it would give people the ability to sign up and look around non verified at first. And then the people serious about sticking around shouldn't even really hesitate entering thier information.

No, neither would I. My DL number is still my SSN, and while I have no issues with handing over a minor credit card number to pay for online purchases and services, I have serious issues with giving my DL#/SSN out to anyone other than the government or other certified agency (a cert issuer may be an exception, as long as they had been certified by some accredited security agency).

I just don't get why the verification process is such a problem. Does LL think that all the kiddies and alts make them more viable as a company? Do they really think that it will have more long-term positive impact than having a higher-quality community?

Honestly, I cannot see how they could think that way. Maybe I am just too much of a cynical/jaded old game developer/player to see it, though. Maybe if someone shows me some real evidence that supports the idea and repeats it slowly a few times.

Restrict non-verified account users to flying above 1000m, and only that.

Also, make them invisible, so they don't blot out the sun...

Last night I meet two snotty-nosed kids - and on top of that from my own country.. they was for sure underaged.. feel no need to tell more.. probably as if I tell what they told - translated into English - I will be banned form forum!


/Tina - EXAKT are EXACT in English BTW)

No. You are not necessarily alone. I think it would be very nice to get users into second life easily, and i am always a big fan of "you get what you pay for" pricing schemes. I have two concerns with the registration process-one is teens. I like being in an adult community, seeing adult material and using adult language. I like knowing that the stripper I am watching at club barbie is not 16 with a father who will sue or porsecute, or simply shoot people.

I think they key issue SL has is enforcement-there is not enough, nor will there ever be enough as things are now, to go around. LL sees itself as innovators, not administrators, and they do not have the time, budget, staff or will to deadicate to policing SL.

Secondly, its a matter of vision. Right now SL is trying to be a tool, or platform, while marketing itself as a game. Users have one expectation coming in, and then a handful stick arouns because they get it.

But part of the problem is that SL has its own user base, which is largely being ignored, in favor of a means to develop applications for use outside the userbase. In otherwords it seems to me LL is simply using SL as a recruiting program to find the more successful adapaters who will go on and develop further applications. They are less focused on making the memebers happy, and thus they are willing to increase memebership while focusing less on the type of enviroment they are creating.

If SL is a game, LL needs to pay more atention to the in world dynamic. If SL is a platform, then they need to alter the initial customer expectations they create in marketing the product (and of course do away with fake last names and the linden).

In truth I am fine with either direction, but right now trying to be all things to all people is tearing apart the community and the platform.

You are making a common mistake - they don't think - well, not as you or I understand it.

It's more 'feel the vibes man!'

You have to remember we are talking about Lunatic Lab here, a firm where the CEO tells us the girls and guys in the office 'send each other love' over the office network (looks like the 60's never ended in San Francisco - and the brain damage was permanent...)

A firm where the VP in charge of Community Development (don't you just HATE the 'c' word?) thinks she's building a 'wouldn't it be nice if everyone were nice' pink fuffy world - but supports opening the flood-gates to unrestricted underage griefers...

A world where the software development map is defined by what a particular developer thinks might be 'cool' to work on, and seemingly can drop it half finished if it becomes 'uncool' i.e. something resembling hard work...

'think that way'? Seriously? Does that sound like a firm where people think? At all?

Mhmm the whole "we need to give people instant access to SL so we can showcase things in 3d to them" thing sounds a bit like trying to re-invent the Segway. I.e. an attempt to push technology that the general public doesn't seem to actually be willing to use.

http://www.viewpoint.com/pub/products/vmp.html <-- 3d web viewers aren't exactly new concept. this is one of many already made solutions, and they all more or less stem from vrml idea that's been failure on similar level. According to the authors this particular viewer is "installed on over 60% of US computers, is widely used to present product tours for the Automotive, Consumer Electronics, and Aerospace industries." It's been around for a few years by now, and offers quality of graphics quite a bit higher than SL.

Yet i have yet to see single web page utilizing it for anything, despite supposed coverage and potential ways of use. That including pages of people who work with 3d for a living, and should be most interested in presenting their abilities in more detail than flat screenshots can provide.

Maybe before SL is turned upside down to accomodate for a 'cool new ways to use it' someone could do first some kind of market research to check if there's actually demand for these 'cool ways to use it' ... and if there aren't, then why is that the case...

*yawn*

Got something new, Doc?

"installed on over 60% of US computers"

They couldn't back that up if they tried, lol.

Does being 'old' make it any less true Luciftias?

(At least they have manners enough not to log into YOUR systems and insult YOU on them! )


Anyway.


[QUOTE=Aimee Weber]I'm very much in support of reducing the registration/ramp-up time to get users off the streets and into SL. If I had my way, I would like for a user who is viewing my webpage to be able to get inside of SL with one click![/quote]


Following on that thought a little...

If I owned a private sim, it would be *VERY* appealing to be able to email or post on my blog a SecondLife://MySim/128,128/ style url, and permit temporary guest logins that drop the visitor into my private sim, and forbids them the ability to teleport away.

No L$, no permanent name or avatar, let them pick their own first name but restrict the surname to "Guest". ( Set their "temp-on-login" bit. )

(and because such things can leak, perhaps make it so that the url is more like SecondLife://MyPrivateSim?loc=128,128&key=aSecret, where in the estate management tools the key can be changed anytime you want to block out people that bookmarked your invite url.)

Oh Please. You're not interested in truth. You're interested in being a curmudgeon. And Andy Rooney's job being taken (and exceeding your own somewhat limited abilities as a curmudgeon) you do it on a rather thinly populated bbs discussing matters important to a small but growing virtual world that most here like.

Unlike the others who are posting things critical of LL here, you are not interested in seeing anything improve. You are interested in taking any and all opportunities to carry out a vendetta against an organization you do not like. You use an armada of childish insults, strawmen and just plain bile as weapons in this fight.


It's foolish. It's childish. And worse, it's not even mildly entertaining.

The Doc Nielsen show should have been cancelled a long time ago. But here it is, beaming into the forums anyway, lack of viewership notwithstanding. At least Prokofy Neva has the distinction of being a cult classic.

(At least they have manners enough not to log into YOUR systems and insult YOU on them! )


Anyway.


[QUOTE=Aimee Weber]I'm very much in support of reducing the registration/ramp-up time to get users off the streets and into SL. If I had my way, I would like for a user who is viewing my webpage to be able to get inside of SL with one click![/quote]


Following on that thought a little...

If I owned a private sim, it would be *VERY* appealing to be able to email or post on my blog a SecondLife://MySim/128,128/ style url, and permit temporary guest logins that drop the visitor into my private sim, and forbids them the ability to teleport away.

No L$, no permanent name or avatar, let them pick their own first name but restrict the surname to "Guest". ( Set their "temp-on-login" bit. )

(and because such things can leak, perhaps make it so that the url is more like SecondLife://MyPrivateSim?loc=128,128&key=aSecret, where in the estate management tools the key can be changed anytime you want to block out people that bookmarked your invite url.)

Quite, neither are they paying me nearly US$300 a month for supplying steadily degrading services...
Furthermore, if they or anyone else believe my comments insulting they might care to reflect on the fact that each of the points I made is true and provable as such.

Under the circumstances I think 'Lunatic Lab' is a fairly mild expression of my irritation...

Truth? Hmmm, but that's what I quoted:

Phil DID declare, in front of a couple of sims full of disbelieving people, that LL employees send each other 'Love' over the office LAN. Difficult to believe, but it happened and he wasn't kidding either - though I wish he had been...

Robin HAS declared 'We've taken the position here that symbols and other references to behaviors that belittle or defame whole groups of people in the real world work against the type of world we'd like to see SL become. We have the opportunity to do better, and we've decided to go for it.' that's a direct quote BTW, and any time I want a ban I can quote from a PM regarding support for the new registration 'system'

I can't quite recall who let the cat out of the bag regarding the picking and choosing of development projects by their 'coolness' quotient - and I'm not going to blame some innocent Linden. But I'm sure you are perfectly well aware that it's true.

So - you can't handle the TRUTH? *shrugs* pity that, at least LL understand that what's said in public by a company representative amounts to company policy - UNLESS the matter is clearly stated to be a private opinion, anyway, they could always use an Alt couldn't they Luciftias? Hmmm?

When a company makes public statements they have to be aware of the consequences, which include disgruntled customers quoting their own drivel back at them in a last ditch attempt to jar them into behaving like a real business, rather than a bunch of idealistic dreamers with more (of other people's) money than sense.

As for bile - do be a good boy and wipe your chin I'm sorry you aren't entertained - but that is NOT my purpose in life I'm afraid.

Summed up nicely methinks.



OK so I'm not a photoshop expert but it should be obvious.

Feel free to copy and use at the next Town Hall

Lewis

OMG His sequined crotch protector's missing!