What happened to the new privacy tools?

'Way back before the registration change, LL was supposedly working on options that would allow residents to protect their own privacy if they desired. As I recall, those methods included being able to toggle off the ability of other people to map-track you, the ability to mute groups you belonged to (you want to go to their club but you don't want the event spam) and some other handy features.

One of the things folks here agreed on was that disabling map-tracking would take away one of the God Mode tools (not that I think that's a bad thing - on the contrary).

With all the furor over the registration changes, I haven't heard another word on the privacy enhancements. Is that still in the pipeline or did it just get buried under the wave of griefer attacks?

One word: Vapor Ware. Or is that two words?

Two years and a few months in SL for me and they have never done anything about the mapping your friends. The tracking, ect... I really dont like it. They just need to definitely do something about that.

I just know that whoever tracks me and teleport where I am without consulting first, I remove from my friend list after I tell them that it wasn't nice of them to do.

Also, would be great to mute group spams for sure. However if a group spam open I just click the close option quick by the IM. and the spam goes.

SL should fix some things first. Groups, tracking, ect are such a worth fix. *sighs* someday!!

Prokofy's opposed to it so they aren't focusing on it. Prok's big thing was new group tools (which, granted, are needed; however, privacy controls would benefit a much larger percentage of the community - 100%), and wow, they appear in preview. Who's the FIC now, I ask?

When a well known troll starts dictating development priorities, something is kind of whacked. It's like sometimes LL develops stuff out of fear of getting slagged. Then again, I'm kind of angry today given their recent (lack of) justification for suspensions and warning.

Regards,

-Flip

I think you just defined "irony", Flip.

I can't understand why anyone would oppose giving residents another option. If you actually like being stalked, you just don't use the toggle button.


I'm with you. Usually I get a sense of Management being a bit too lax -- then they turn around and get heavy-handed. I have never been part of any MMOG where they didn't ban for discussing exploits openly, but this was handled badly IMO.

ehe, welcome to the NWO (Neva World Order)

hehehehe, yeah, I found it kind of ironic myself. I guess it goes to prove that sometimes quantity outweighs quality - type enough crap and eventually, people start believing it. It's like how Howard Stern became "The King of All Media" - he kept saying it for years, over and over, until others started saying it.

I love the new term, Ice! You made me laugh out loud.

I was shocked Prokofy was opposed to something so blatantly good for everyone in the community (I don't do sarcasm well, do I?), then I remembered: Prok is opposed to anything involving me. Check out the response here for a refresher, hehehe: http://secondslog.blogspot.com/2006/02/formal-proposal-revamping-second-life.html

Regards,

-Flip

I think you coined one there, pal.

Flipper, what a great proposal idea. I honestly don't see how anyone could be against SL doing no more than catching up to what AIM and YIM have had for years, now -- these are standard chat client tools but we're still using the beta chat tools here?

The real irony is that the social barriers Prok is so dead set against are already here with the end of registration verification and the addition of the payment info flags. All we're asking for on the privacy enhancements is a way to enjoy our SL without having to make alts.

I was thinking the exact same thing the other day. It probably got tossed into the huge trash bin at LL, the one labelled "great ideas residents need but kinda hard to implement".

It's hanging out with the replacement for developer rewards, havok2 and mono.

Howdy all, some of these things I am hoping to address at the SLCC as part of a group of proposals related to the way other online services work,in particular Xbox Live, which is a standard coming to your desktop in the form of "Live Anywhere" as part of Windows Vista.

Cindy, I desperately want Group Mute as well but in my talks with some Lindens the group chat mechanism is tied to some legacy system. While not an excuse, it does appear that this one will have to be part of a larger fix to some infrastructure long before my time. I hope it receives some priority as it is essentially a group tool like the rest that are coming with 1.12.

Flip, I have asked for "Appear Offline" as well. I like your proposal as it goes well beyond mine, which is simply aping a feature of Xbox Live. My only issue is with the green dots and the read-out of the number of people in a simulator. Is an avatar who is there but not counted as traffic? That piece of the puzzle may be trouble, though your example of why it is needed is understandable. I'd be curious about ther storage mechanism for IMs and Inventory offers to know how implementing your suggestions regarding those would work.

I will have to ask Prokofy about this. The suggestion of creating an ALT bothers me. One of the things I liked about SL's design was no friendship cap. On Xbox Live there was a limit of 100 people (higher now on Xbox 360, but still a cap) so I needed extra accounts to be able to join friends based on the game I was playing. Of course this meant my other friends ddn't know I was online to invite me to what they were doing. Here I would never make an ALT. I know there are many reasons people create ALTs (role-play, keep a group alive, etc.) I am always me and I'm guessing that's what you are saying as well.

I suspect it is because :
1) LL have a lot of work to do and they have to prioritise some things over others. The things that get top priority seem to be the ones that :
* affect a lot of residents - not true in this case because most people are selective of who they add to their friends list, or don't care if they're mapped.
* are serious - not true in this case because the only harm done is a privacy violation and even this is avoidable.
* don't have workarounds - not true in this case because you can just delete someone from your friends list.
Unfortunately the 'privacy from friends' ideas don't meet those 3 tests. That's probably why they don't get higher priority.

2) Implementing a new feature in SL is probably a lot of work as it has to be considered from many angles. For a start, the amount of coding work and thus developer time that must go into it, then how it would affect SL's community, griefing potential, ease of use for new residents, etc.
Put bluntly, SL is already confusing enough for newbies without having lots of fiddly little options everywhere.

3) Residents whine about a lot of things. I know because I've done it a little in the past. LL are beset by whining about a lot of issues, and because of this it's only natural that they get desensitised to it. They want Resident feedback, but they are still human beings doing their jobs to the best of their ability and this means that when they get a lot of negativity as happens sometimes on the forums, they become more reluctant to listen closely to resident feedback.
Basically - I think LL have something along these lines planned or at least being considered internally, but this isn't communicated to us as they have a lot of other stuff on their plate right now that is more urgent.

Thanks for the kind words. The other reason it makes a lot of sense is that it removes another centralized system from the asset server - cards / friends. This is going to have to become the modus operandi if SL is going to continue to expand.

Regards,

-Flip

Are you serious? Look at the major features in recent releases: flexiprims, new lighting system, and so forth? That doesn't pass your test either and is far less "necessary" than privacy controls.

Clubside: Yeah, I love how "get an alt!" is offered as a reasonable technical solution. At best, it's a cop-out!

Regards,

-Flip

Wait... Flipper.... said Ayn Rand Fan attacked *me* out of nowhere in IM, saying that I was *responsible* for the *horrible new group tools* ....

And now you're saying that he rallied for them?

How does this work?

I'm not doubting you, I just don't understand why I was singled out as being "responsible" for the "new socialist group tools" when the person going after me was the biggest pusher for them to begin with?

Said person said I used my "position of power" to get the new group tools "forced on the userbase" in 1.12 ...

As far as I know, I was rallying for *anti griefing tools* and had nothing to do with the group tools -anyways-, which said person actually -wanted-, but attacked me for 'forcing' on the ....

this just doesnt make any sense anymore. at all.

It sounds to me like the suggestion I submitted to my company which asked that they replace some of the junk food (Hi-Hos, Twinkies) in our snack vendor with granola bars, nuts, and fruit. It would save, long term, on health costs which our company subsidizes but, of course, it's not something they're interested in doing.

I would think any DBA worth his salt would be interested in reducing the load on the asset server. Maybe LL doesn't let their DBA out of his cubicle?

I'd rather have it replaced with better tasting junk food - Lindt chocolates, Neuchatel truffles, Dove bars.. .

I vote that we just be allowed to be, invisable.

One more choice, busy, not busy, visable, not visable.

I do not have any problem with this privacy issue. How about Linden Labs doing something that affects our gameplay. Such as the fact they do not Support the AMD Dual Core processors? It seems that this is more of a problem to me than children,
security orb users, griefers and all other things combined. I tried the "fix" but the afinity settings keep returning to the default and why shouldnt my machine be running at full power. Then there is the problem of not supporting my 6600 dual graphics card.
They should fix the problems that affect gameplay FIRST before convience. and privacy issues.

eh. its annoying. (the dual core issue.) Right now it isn't even built to be multithreaded so it'd take a substantial rewrite to use two cores.

Meanwhile, I use this, to make affinity stick.

http://www.adsciengineering.com/StartAffinity/

I still wan't my hidden online status mode. ;p (friends list and search only)

I am starting to think it was the dual core issues and crossing boundries that has grounded me from flying and not griefers. Dual core is the next technology and soon all new computers will have this feature. I looked at the posting quickly and this will disable my dual core processor (I think). No deal Linden Labs, you need to fix this problem and the users should not have to destroy the performance of our equipment to play it.

I don't think too many people are running dual GPUs on their computers, as long as you can still run SL by disabling the SLI, I think that the bigger issue is how good SL is for people to use rather than how pretty it can look. Dual GPU problems might affect a tiny fraction of the population, privacy tools affect every single person who uses SL, that's all.

And yeh, I agree... SL is the only social program I've ever used in my life that doesn't have away/busy/invisible(offline) options. Even programs that are just multiplayer games such as Guild Wars has these options. Not to mention all of SL's competitors have these most basic tools...

It's a protocol issue. The mapping barrier was unwisley placed on the client side. This is what allows GodMode to let you map anyone. Heck, I could throw togeather a libsecondlife client that would let me get real time map updates outside the client.
And blaming a priority bump on any person is quite lame, and reeks of OMG (counter?) FIC!!!!!!11
But, alas, I have no want to get involved in petty grudge wars.