How to Win Debates & Influence Lindens

OMFG I knew this was about me! <Clicks AR button until his mouse breaks, then files lawsuit against the people who made his mouse>

I don't think we influence lindens as individuals but when a bunch of people bitch about the same thing, they might consider it an issue that they need to put under the microscope.

If I had any pull, there would be default fart gestures for all.

There seems to be some mixed opinions here but what seems to be emerging is that (aside from bribery) one should be assertive (squeeky wheel)

What would be the best medium for addressing feature/policy requests? Forums, E-mail? Blogs? Is there a particular posture that tends to work?

In what way? As some people have pointed out, the forum presence is a fairly low percentage of the SL population and other than administration I am not so sure the Lindens pay a great deal of attention to them (anybody know this for sure?)

I am guessing the answer is a blend of all mediums.

The best way to influence lindens is to force their hand via content.

Eg, start planting impeach bush signs everywhere (say, in blumfield) and eventually LL will have to do something about it and bring in zoning.

Or, develop functionality that makes LL type features redundant. Want them to set up classifieds? Then set up something like SLExchange.

Want P2P? Give away a roam type device.

Want LL to give out real estate pricing data? Write a program which automatically does that and give it to a group of people and give them an unreasonable advantage over the land market.

You can not win in the forums. What you can do though, is spark debate, and help fine tune your ideas on both sides of the discussion.

The only thing you can do in the forums in terms of influencing is force lindens to close threads and enact forum type policies. How are you doing this? By creating content in the forums.

I used to believe this, but I dont any more.

If you think about it, large amounts of things lately have been announced, even directly promised, yet they have failed to come through in the end, sometimes miserably so. If LL makes decisions based on their percieved ability to achieve particular goals then I would say their corporate culture and decision making structure is serioulsy broken.

They do (IMO), listen to squeaky wheels but only selective ones.

It's clear if you read the forums a lot that the Lindens *do* read them and they do pull out particular little ideas to bring to their internal meetings, so shouting on the forums is always a good idea. They do listen to players, if only for the reason that some of the more stellar players are actually lindens in their secret "other" lives. If you are not one of these players, you are basically talking to yourself by posting on the forums though.

Lindens also live in SL and play the game with us as alts, so some features get implemented just because that next door neighbor you were bitching to is actually a Linden in disguise. I know of at least a copule of people in this category, but lucky for them I am too polite to bother them and would never reveal their secret identities anyway.

Lately, LL has gone seriously corporate and they spend a lot of time at their internal meeting hugging giant foam replicas of gold coins. To facilitate the money making they have really beefed up the financial team and that team calls a lot of the shots now. For this reason a lot of the latest descisions have really nothign to do with what anyone actually wants and a lot to do with how they can make even more money.

All in all I have found that slitting the throat of a live baby goat at dawn on the top of a mountain (facing east of course), and murmuring a few random incantations works the best. Like any religion, it's absolute nonsense of course, but it makes you feel like the Gods are listening, even if they dont actually give a rats ass about you.

I would love to tell you the answer to your question, but then I'd have to kill you. It's a trade secret

Be Torley.

haha...

Ever see one of those "Magic 8 Balls" that you ask a question of and it gives you a random answer? Linden Lab isn't quite as deterministic as that.

I've SEEN pictures!!

Based on an idealic viewpoint:
Present a clear, accurate description of the issue. Promote the issue to the public, garnering mass support and raise the visibility of the issue. Provide not only possible solutions, but ones that are well thought out, clearly defined and generally well supported.


Based on a cynical/realist/pessimistic viewpoint (you take your pick):
Socialize with the Lindens and their alts in-world, in RL and in other social settings. Position one's self to be perpetually able to whisper in their ear about personal issues and play them up to be 'of vital importance to all of SL'. If possible, find a Linden of the opposite sex and start a low-key romantic relationship with them and/or their alt.


- Newfie

When I file bug reports, I speak in technical terms with a concise description as how to replicate a particular issue.

A while back, I made an accurately detailed bug report about the "sit bug" as it applied to llSetParcelMusicURL(). A few days later, I got a return email, thanking me and confirming the bug had been replicated at LL. The bug was fixed in a later update.

Reports like "OMFG you people get off your asses and fix my radios" won't get much attention.

You need to be covert. I've found the best time to sneak in is when everyone is distracted by the other lobbyists plying them with liquor and benjamins. Then you replace the official LL Ouija board with one that is rigged to spell out your agenda.

*cough* p2p *cough*

You must phrase the point from the perspective that community means people occupying apparently contiguous "physical" space. The concept of a community being people who associate themselves using available technology is beyond the reach of Philip, Prokofy et al.

The argument that this technological feature will cure a social ill by forcing people to overcome through it by requiring physical proximity gets loads of attention because they honestly believe such a thing is possible.

The fact that society has suffered the same types of problems for millennia is entirely beside the point. The fact that people have always used whatever means available to socialize with their friends and professional associates rather than their physical neighbors is also elusive to the mindset. The fact that people will, and should, hack a system to serve their personal needs and desires is wholly dismissed.

In short, it has to be about making people act as you, or rather they, think people should act. As long as your idea meets that requirement, they'll listen. Was it Ford that said people could order a car in any colour they liked as long as it was black?

Mmmm...

I would hazard a guess that Influencing the Lindens is... not necessarily a good idea, unless you happen to be millions of non-SL-playing potential customers.


The best thing is growth. And lots of it.

Even for the art crowd.

For the world is not sustainable unless such growth comes, making real the dream.



All that said: if you *still* wish to influence them, take your portion of the grid, make it fiscally profitable, and make the people that go there happy.

Show them how it's done. Success has one thousand followers.

Well I think reasoned argument will be listened to. I truly think that LL wanted, and wants the forums to be a place where they can get feedback and have some idea of the pulse of second life. LL is never going to respond to the whim of one player directly, but I think a rationally present arguement will bet taken into account. How ever the mass clamour and ongoing personal attacks have taken most forum debate from the realm od the sublime an dropped it right down to the ridculous.

There are a number of ways of getting your voice heard by the lindes, but just because they hear you does not mean they will agree. Although I must confess that the one topic I was passionate about to the lindens, telehubs, has resulted in positive action from my perspective. I won't pretend LL did away with telehubs because I hate them, but I can say that I feelt listened to.

I think we have more power as residents than we think. Less than we want, perhaps, but more than we think. LL is doing something very new with SL, and there really is no previous business model. We residents are thier focus group, and the peope they will have to turn to in order to undestand the dynamics of second life. Talk, they will listen. Whine scream, pout and call each other names, and the forums will be just one big headache they would rather not deal with.

Show them $9.95 and they begin panting and gasping like gluttonous pigs.

I can assure you from experience that a well reasoned argument will *not* necessarily be listened to. Or even given the courtesy of a proper response. The reply received when we put forth a cogent, well structured argument based on a huge amount of technical and domain knowledge was (paraphrasing, but just barely) "I don't have time for your technical arguments. If you don't want to do things our way, we'll find someone else to deal with". So, based on my experience I really have no faith that a rationally presented argument will be given any weight whatsoever.

Discussion on the forums gives you the opportunity to present your position, and hear the objections to it, thus refining your opinion, solidifying and/or altering it, so that when you go to an inworld meeting with the Lindens you can succinctly and educatedly state your view.

As for the main concern being the financial department, and SL being profitable, that is never a problem for me because I, too, consider the financial success of SL to be a prerequisite and vital underpinning for any other consideration.

coco

Great contribution Coco!

Wow....that made sense. Excellent post.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the wheels that squeak loudly and incessantly get taken off and junked.


In other words, you have to speak up enough to make your issues known, but if you become habitually strident, demanding, extremist, etc. then you start to come off like a nutcase and people stop listening to you.

I was reading rapidly, did anyone mention the feature voting system?

Does anyone have stories of how they have had their own schemes implemented by the Linden staff, as opposed to just theories about what might or should work?

I've had some substantive communication with Mr. Rosedale which left me with the impression that he does not view the world in the same manner that many do.

Having spent much time with theoretical physicists, I'd say that's pretty common among the breed.

Lick her? I hardly know her.