Content loss on backup restore

In 2 of the last 3 unplanned downtimes i suffered a content loss cause of the backup restore they did. Things I just rezzed in my land vanished and they weren't in my inventory anymore (they were no copy).

I asked on the live help, submitted bug report (as suggested on the live help), asked on the live help on the second loss and asked on the "Second Life Answer".
While waiting for a proper reply I asked to the object creator and solved my problem.

Finally I got an answer on the forum:



Doesn't realistically sound good that you can get stuff back!!!!!

This answer is really disappointing to me.

What if the object creator don't beleve me (or don't care) when I say that I had a content loss? He has no way to verify this.
What if he trust me but he don't have a copy of the object anymore?
What if the creator isn't online anymore?
What if I don't remember who was the creator?
What if I was the object creator and I don't have a copy? This can happen for many reasons: I was building it or it has some no-copy component, etc.

What they are saying is: "we are sorry that an action we made on our system caused to you (a paying customer) a content/time/money loss. We suggest you solve your problem on your own cause we won't do anything."

Don't know if I'm an exception cause of bad luck, but it seems to me that content loss happens too often and LL cand get rid of this problem in such way. Only LL knows how many objects get lost during a backup restore.

Someone tried to point out that "Ask the creator" isn't a proper answer: /139/76/122996/1.html.
He made an example: if I assert that I had a money loss during a transaction will LL refund me cause they are the "money creators" without a proof of the loss?

Torley Linden's aswer is qutie funny:


Torley, This is exactly what content's creators can't do!
They don't have a way to verify that something has vanished cause of a sim rollback!!!!!
Why they have to refund me or give a new copy to me, when you don't do the same thing in the same situation?
Why have I to rely on creator courtesy?

I'm really thinking about not renewing my premium subscription next month.
This the only action I can make to show my disappointment about the stability of sl and the level of support.

Are other users in the same situation?
How many of you suffered such content loss, and how frequently?

Raffaele Pirandello

That.. depends on the item. I suppose if the item was no copy, that'd be an issue. It varies with the philosophy of the vendor.

If the item is definitely a "one use, one copy" sort of situation... they have no way to verify your loss, that's correct.

However, I'm seeing a lot of people who simply.. don't book-keep. In other words, there are a lot of vended content type where there's no excuse for replacement.

Can I ask what these lost items were? Just wondering... I know a lot of times its just 'policy'...

We do keep track of every avatar we've sold, and who's bought them. If you're in the database, you can get a replacement at any time....

Though I know this may not work for every type of item.

Just Furniture. They were no copy items, so once I rezzed them they were deleted from my inventory.



I know many sellers usually give you a new copy if you tell them you've lost the item, even if you can't give any proof. I do the same with my products.

What I say is that I think it's absurd LL ask us to rely on this.
If I've lost my object and the seller don't want to give one more to me or simply can't, what can I do? Actually nothing.

Don't know how they store data of objects and inventory, but I think it should be possible to have way for them to recover objects lost cause of a backup restore.

I fear they don't want to do this cause this will require a lot of support work and prefer to say "It's your problem".

Well, they maintain this thing called a database that allows them to keep track of what exists and who owns what. If there's nothing wrong with that database, then yes, it would be possible to consult it to determine which objects exist and are yours and give them to you. However, if there was nothing wrong with that database, they wouldn't have needed to restore from an older backup. Now that they've restored from an older backup, their database only contains information about what existed at the point of that backup. It's simply flat out impossible for them to read out information from it that no longer exists in it. They said it doesn't realistically sound good that you can get your stuff back because, realistically, it's probably flat out impossible for them to do anything at all about it.

Since individual content creators frequently maintain their own databases of customers and who bought what, they helpfully suggested you contact them. Not a bad idea. Yes, some may complain that they can't verify the loss. But they might not. Last time I had a customer who lost something, I ended up sending her two new copies, because apparently something happened to the first replacement. Did I end up giving someone a free copy? Maybe. So what? Stores have two for the price of one sales all the time -- no big deal if I did. Good customer relations are more important than making sure you're never taken advantage of. If you have good customer support, some customers will take advantage of it. Part of the cost of doing business -- it's still better to have it. If you contact the vendors, I'd say there's pretty good odds they'll be understanding and helpful.

Same thing happened to me today... and quite frankly, this problem should not and cannot exist! I will admit, that I don't feel LL should reimburse........ however, this problem SHOULD NOT EXIST!!! I personally feel this is THE WORST PROBLEM THERE COULD POSSIBLY BE IN SL! My one small loss today has shown me SL is a bunk world. There is no point in investing time, money, energy in anything knowing there is a good possibility my contributions rezzed into this world can be perminantly lost.

I know what is a database, I work with them all the day

I know the problem that if you have to rollback the database there is something wrong with the actual state of thata, but this doesn't mean that everything is missing.

I don't know the details of their database but this is a possible solution (may be it doesn't fit their situation, but it's an example).
Before rollbacking the DB they should do a second backup of the actual (corrupted) state.
This backup should be accessible to customer support so that if someone complains for a content loss they can check and, if that specific data isn't corrupted, they can restore it in the main grid.

This is just an example, there are other ways to accomplish the same task.



I'm sure most of content creators would do this. I do this when I receive such requests.

What I mean is that LL cant rely (and ask us to rely) on this, cause even when the creator would help us it can happen that he can't.

What if he don't have a copy of the object anymore?
What if I was the creator and don't have a copy cause I joined the object with some "no copy" component?

Raffaele