Thoughts of a Fool: The forum drama club...

Hullo again! Foolish Frost here!

One second while I get my fireproof HazMat suit on...

<grunting and straining sounds>

Bloody hell... How do you even OPEN these things?

<bit more rummaging>

Ok. Got it... I think...


Wow! So much drama so far this year! Let's cover the chart-toppers, shall we?

- The invasion of the ResMods!
- L$ Inflation killing SL!
- Grey boxes of doom!
- Attachment culling cut off my balls!
- Developer Incentive dying!


-= Ok, let's look at 'The invasion of the ResMods'! =-

I hear a lot about this, to the point I wonder if anyone actually understands the way a forum works in most places:

Forums have an owner, and the owner picks a bunch of people he likes AND thinks are capable enough to help out to become Mods.

<hmnnn>

Looks like what LL did. They looked at the forums, saw the tools that were built in, and used them. Nothing special there.

Now, perhaps the fact that the ResMods can see your abuse reports disturbs you. That they may take offense or republish info on you to their friends about who you AR in the forums...

What on Linden's Stable Sims makes you think this has not already POSSIBLY happened with a Linden? You think Lindens are some single utopian entity that rules from on-high and never walks out with an alt and talks with thier SL friends? You think they have never slipped and said "Geeeeeeze! That XXXXX XXXXX is such a bloody whiner. They even complained about post XXXXX by XXXX XXXX!" without even thinking about it?

You have no secrets except what you have inside your own skull, and if you talk in your sleep, not even those are safe. Even if LL HIRED ResMods, you would not suddenly be magically safe from them leaking info.

Lastly, if someone get's caught leaking private info... They WILL have to worry about it. You think LL is going to allow it to slide? Nope. They have an image to protect. I will promise you this: Some poor bugger will be 'made an example of' when they cross the line. Most of the people who were offered res-mod positions have something to lose if a banning occured. Think about it.

On the other hand, my word to LL? You get what you pay for. Free resmods sound good now, but the free helper process has not worked well for most other online services. Not a complaint, just a warning...


I'll get to the other's later... This thing is long enough by a long-shot for the moment.

While this is most certainly true from what I gather, why should a paying customer accept this without voicing disapproval?

I deal with sensitive customer data every day and absolutely do not let any of it slip while out drinking with pals. That is unacceptable. Similarly, my doctor, who has occasion to see many of my friends socially will not be found telling people how my last prostate exam went.

Obviously these are more sensitive privacy issues, but if information is maintained to be private, it is not out of the realm of reality to expect it to stay that way. It is not utopian for people to expect ethical behavior or for LL employees to follow policy.

This is very true for many user run boards. That said, this is NOT a user run board, but the official forums of Linden Labs. Just like any company website that has customer service forums. Moderators are usually employees of the the company. Occassionally I have seen users given added responsiblity if they have shown a history of being helpful in their answers to customers, but they always carry a legal disclaimer that any advice is from a fellow user and is not backed by or considered official responses of the company.

I have no problem with them using residents. Outside people would have been the better choice, but inaddition to volunteering for the position, a resume should have been required as to real life experience in dealing with the public. From that pool, a period of training to assure those selected truly have the personality to deal with a rather unpredictable group of residents that use these forums, and then finally implementation.

If you search carefully what people are saying WHY they dislike the program, it boils down to insecurity that those that have the power to moderate do so in a professional and even handed manner.

That won't happen if random folks who may have never had any real life experience working with the general public is put in such positions.

This is absolutely true on fan-forums. This is much less true on professional forums. I'd hate to go to, say, Sony.com's support forums (If they even have such a thing, I don't know) and be moderated by Joe Fredricks in Montana because he bought a Sony DVD player.

There's an expectation implied, I think, when the forums are an official outlet of a product. If this were SLUniverse, I would say you are absolutely correct. Less so, I think, in forums like these... Even though most MMORPG's have guides, very few let players moderate the forums. And when they do let players be guides, it's not *the players account*, and I think this is an important distinction. Remember that a lot of Lindens have been drawn from the player population, I don't think anyone has a problem with this notion really... But when you empower non-employed citizens to take on the tasks of the overlords, then it gets a little different.



No, but it would feel like a more professional arrangement, I think, is what it boils down to. Perception counts for a lot.



Oh, it works OK if done properly, I think. In fact, as I've said before, moderators and guides drawn from a community can be a lot better at the job than random professionals. But it needs the appearance of professionalism, which this program currently lacks in spades, to twist an expression around a bit.

You kinda hit it before...

Forums pick people they like.

Companies should *hire* people. Even when I was a guide for Everquest, I was an employee. Not a payed one, but I wasn't Tsyr Soulmoon the Elven Ranger. Nobody knew who I was as a guide, and nobody who knew me as a guide knew who I played. I was just another employee. My main account never had any taint of being "favored" or "higher up".

Thank you! I shot tea out my nose.

You're welcome! I always love destroying my reader's keyboards with my comments!

Since this was brought up, I will now post my thoughts on this subject as well:


I didn't notice anything.
At all...
Period.


Seriously! I never changed the setting. I wander around SL now, even going into the welcome area (a greater hive of scum and villany you will never find, OR DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK!), and I never saw anything missing from anybody I talked to. No prim pieces, they had jewelry, I saw bling out the ying...

So, while I can't say what's on YOUR screen, this seemed like a lot of hoopla over nothing again.

This shouldn't even be an issue anymore since the AR's are now completely anonymous due to the recent tweaks.

Of the half dozen forums I frequent I can think of a couple examples of professional forums moderated by community member volunteers: Live365's forums and all Autodesk product forums.

-= Grey boxes of doom! =-

Ok, nobody likes the grey boxes. Not hard to understand why.

1. They're ugly.
2. They make things LOOK like they're already textured, by someone who had no idea what they were doing.
3. They're ugly.
4. They allow no real perception of what you're looking at. And if the object has trasparent sections, it looks REALLY funny.
5. They're ugly.
6. Sometimes you get stuck looking at it for extended times when the SL system is loading texture slowly.

Did I mention it's ugly?




Ok. Here is my wonderful recommendation!

Make it a wireframe texture instead...

Hear me out! A nice bright green wireframe, animated in a tasteful way, could do a LOT for the fun level of watching things rez! Perhaps even a tasteful blue? Either way, a bright primary color would make it easily visible the areas not yet rezzed, and yet would be interesting to look at as they come into view!

What would be even better? Having the system take the small CPU cycles it would need to FADE from the Base texture into the prims real texture!

Just a thought!

i've noticed running commentary on how professional forums don't use customers to moderate.. or that some do to a degree.

such as the example of Sony or any other major corporation or business entity.

the difference i think we're missing is that this is a unique situation. while these are the official forums for a product by a company, said product's sim is to include it's customer base in its operations.

this is not a situation where it's "we're the company and here's the line that doesn't get crossed.. and you, the customer, are on the other side". this is a situation of, "we're the company running this product and we wish to include you, the customer, and look to integrate the product and consumer in a symbiotic relationship that encourages growth on both sides of this wide grey area."

as such, the ResMod program falls right in line with LL's goals of handing over this platform to a largely consumer run product. even so far as looking ahead to a future where the gridverse is decentralized and parts of the world are hosted remotely on user-owned servers.

i agree though that private information should be expected to be kept private. would i be surprised that there have been conversations where a Linden alt is talking to a Resis friend and happens to mention something that should be kept private? no, it wouldn't surprise.. it may not be right, but it wouldn't surprise me.

any private information i receive is kept private and bears no bias upon my moderating. there was at least one incident where i was aware of a comment made by a resident against myself, but i have essentially wiped that information from my brain and can assure that it in no way has biased my judgement against said Resi. i may not have been "hired" officially, but i still consider this a job that is to be performed with a certain amount of professional decorum. i may have fun while doing it, but there are certain lines that should not, and will not, be crossed. i take my role extremely seriously and any critiques, or even bashing of the program, is somethig i read with the intention of applying that information to how i perform within this role.

ok.. i'll stop here.. i didn't mean to go on so long or to appear defensive. i'm simply trying to further define problems within the system, ResMod program or otherwise, and work with everyone else towards a future we'll all be happy with.

But, as someone mentioned in another thread, this goes against LL's stated policy that players will never be governed by other players.

Yes, you can say that forum moderation is not governance, and I'll agree with you, but it's a fine point to some, and it bodes ill for others who see it as a slipperly slope.

i can wholly understand the boding slope of slipperiness, thus let me further expound and suggest that a metaphorical wall be solidly placed between resident governance on the forums and the possibility of such within the gridverse.

having this wiggle into an in-world implementation would be much more than a shot in the foot for LL/SL, it would essentially preclude a mass exodus from SL in my opinion.

Er... Just wanting to make sure I was following?

Prelude or Preclude?

thanks! COMPLETELY the wrong word.. lol.

i was actually thinking of a different word altogether... "portent" was what i had meant.

(oof, i hate making those kinds of mistakes)

Eh. Happens. I just wanted to make sure I understood. Misunderstanding abound enought without me assuming things.

-= Developer Incentive dying! =-

Well. The developer award is dying as Lindens slowly choke the life from it. All of SL bemoans the fate of the elusive event as fun places and things to do fade quickly from SL...


Awwww... I guess that means people will have to sit down and actually SUPPORT the events they like? That they will have to actually be willing to earn the right to be entertained?

I doubt it.

I have noticed several things. First, I have never, not even once, earned any sort of reward for running an event. In fact, I footed the bills for the prizes!

Oh, some people donated a bit here and there, and I made some good friends, but profit?

Ha! Don't make me laugh. I never even came close to breaking EVEN!


And now people are complaining all the fun events are going away? Have been for ages?

Put your money where you're mouth is. Pay the bloody event creators a reasonable tip for what they did for you. I don't want to hear about how 'money is not the point', or 'OMG money is the evil!' That's a BS copout. Money is a measure of business value. Period. If you think that an event creator's time was enjoyable with the event he created, PAY HIM.

This is the same argument I get into people about tipping. Tipping has been made not optional due to the fact that the people working in restraunts are forced to take less pay and rely on the tips to compensate. We both know it's a scam, and that the businesses that do that kind of thing should be flogged, but when you're a kid with bills to pay and no work experience... You take what you can get.

So I tip. And I religiously make sure the tip get's to MY waiter. And if someone else tries to pick it up, they reconsider when a fork nearly comes down on their hand.

Same thing goes to SL. SL is not going to be paying the wage of the event makers anymore. Your TIPS will be. This is the new standard. Gte used to it or watch your events go to people who WILL pay.

And figure you won't like them much.

I also see an increase of advertising in clubs to help pay for costs, but that discussion is for another time...