Scheduled downtime

Can't they just rotate the scheduled downtime so that it doesn't hit the -same- group of people EVERY F****** WEEK?

I mean, seriously.. they put updates off to two weeks, do downtimes for maintenance on alternating days (monday/wednesday/friday maybe) rather than hit the EXACT SAME GROUP OF PEOPLE who were complaining about the weekly updates?

Problem is, its difficult to please everyone on this.

If Linden selects a consistent time to do updates, whoever is impacted during that selected time will be irritated (such as yourself).

If Linden selects alternating days, some folks will complain that they didn't get enough advance notice, didn't see the memo, say its too confusing, and scream for consistency.

If Linden performs updates less frequently, folks that are impacted by bugs awaiting a fix will plead the case that its not in anyone's best interest to wait, and demand the update asap.

No matter what strategy Linden selects, there will be an unhappy contingent. It just sucks when you happen to be part of it.

No, I could handle the irritation if they rotated days.. say monday (same hours), next week wedntday..then the next friday.

The biweekly would even fall on wednesday (mondey wed-fri-wed-mon-wed-fri) so that the updats would be done on wednesdays.

Its enough to really get under my skin that they keep killing one of my days off consitently, now 5 weeks running..

I mean..whats the point of playing (or paying) if they keep knocking the grid offline one one of my weekly days off every week running?

I agree. I know that not everyone will be happy no matter what day they update because someone is gonna get screwed, but it would be nice to have them on different days so the same people aren't screwed every week.

For the first time in 5 weeks there will not be an update tomorrow and I am going to make the best of it and get done what I have needed to the last 5 wednesdays...

Assuming they don't take the grid down for downtime Zsu.

Sure you can't please everyone, but we used a scheme 20 years ago on the mainframe that pleased most: don't take the system down for small upgrades. It takes a lot more care and programming, but I suspect we'll see a time where we'll barely notice upgrades as they happen -- except for the Big ones where the framus database needs a total rebuild.

How about alternating AM and PM scheduling on Wednesday? Given my sleep schedule I don't even notice the 6am - 12pm down time (by the time I'm awake a coheirent enough to be on the computer SL's up again). But I know the pains of weekly down times and I'm willing to bear the burden for you normal sleep scheduled people by taking my 6pm to 12am lickings (basically the majority of my awake time). I have a feeling that would be more appealing for most people anyhow because 6pm is just about dinner time for most, and all the good TV starts about then anyhow. Likewise for us East coast folks, it's 9pm to 3am and if the good shows aren't still going on it's about time for bed anyhow (just, not for me).

An am/pm switch could help, but a day switch is needed. They can't keep hitting the same people over and over an expect us to be happy. For any repsonses with 'its the lowest traffic time' heres my preemptive response.

Its the lowest traffic time because for the last 4 weeks they've taken the grid down every wednesday morning.

Well, people will complain when it rotates, or if they put it on any day, however, I believe Wednesday makes sence, as it gives them enough time to prepare earlier in the week, and enough time to fix things that go wrong later in the week.

And I shouldn't think they'll count weeks they take the grid offline..

Why wouldn't they? I mean we all see how they listen to the majority of comments about taking down the resmod system. Its absolutely obvious they make sense and use logic.

</sarcasm>

Its like people wanting to revert back to previous versions, or take away streaming music coz its just "too damned buggy".. It just needs to be waited out.

Anyway the two situations have nothing what so ever to do with each other, being that the forums has nothing to do with policy in world and (I believed) handled by different people.

Possibly its not an unreasonable request to ask Linden for rotating Tuesdays & Wednesdays as a small customer service gesture. It still wont please everyone - but based on everyone's comments, I can see where it might end up pleasing more people than the current strategy.

Maybe post the idea to the Linden Answers forum in a friendly & succinct way so it may receive genuine consideration

You sure can if you want!

Perhaps amusing is, I heard someone ask about "Wednesdays & Thursdays". When I suggested "Tuesdays", they were like "No no no... that's my FREE DAY!" It's so hard!

And it's such a compliment that someone wants to get into SL so badly, and hates the feeling of having that time snatched away from them. I know the feeling!

Gosh, too bad we don't live in one of those science-fiction worlds where dates are more discreetly separated for us, like that Jose Farmer story which I can't remember it... wait, it was called The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World.

I'd be intrested to know what time zones you're all in, it doesn't seem so bad for people on Linden time I don't generally play much 6am-12pm.. Its worse for me over in Europe, being that for me its usually 12pm to 8pm, my usual playing time.

I think I have to agree with the problem. I'm in the UK too, and while not quite so much an issue when I get home late... it does seriously cut into my evening.

Well if it makes you feel better due to Town Hall scheduling, in my entire time in SL I've been able to attend exactly ONE (I was sick that day).

I'd prefer that if downtime is to be scheduled - that they do it to a time that makes it more efficient to THEM - so everything as a whole comes up fast and any probs are dealt with.

If they deem that to be Wednesday - hell - I'll go with that.

I'm not arguing against scheduled downtime. Im talking about it always being on the same day. My last 4 wednesdays have been eaten but (irritating) constant updates. Wednesday is my first morning off really a week..

A schedule like the following could work for maintenance (the biweekly updats could easily still be on wed.)

week 1 -Monday (this week)
week 2 -Wednesday
week 3 -Friday
week 4 - Wednesday
week 5 -Monday

lather, rinse repeat. No ONE group gets constantly slammed by maintenance downtime and the biweekly new versions have wednesdays.

I agree it sucks - I work evenings so I get stuck with it too - only I'm thinking that if they made a time , it was probably for a reason that was more to do with thier setup and requirements.

I don't like downtime, specially not on some of the only time I get online lately - but I'll suffer it if its means it goes efficiently.

The alterred days would run things smoothly, and things would still get done efficiently. All without hitting one large lump of people all the time.

The people perofming the update could quite easily lose track about which days were what.

Wednesday offers what I'd presume to be the right amount of time to get the update read and fix bugs before and after the date respectively.

People will still complain they want stability and to keep it on one day so they know when its going to be down.

A few considerations to muse about. My own perspectives:

Something I've come to learn is, on Mondays, there's a YUGE heap of email coming in after the weekends, and obviously, it's good to attend to that ASAP. I'm sure this isn't particular to LL alone--I often hear of offices having "busy Mondays". Or "Mondays give me the blahs".

Friday is the counter, and yet, the same in some regards: Lindens looking forward to the weekend for R&R so they can be refreshed and productive the following week.

Middle of the week is "strike a balance". To anticipate beforehand, to tie up loose ends after. I'm an anomaly in that you'll often find me on the SL Forums and inworld at hours like these--but Linden office hours are 8 AM-5 PM, PST (aka Second Life Time).

Also, with people scheduling events inworld who want to do it at a regular time, alternating (checkerboarding) scheduled downtime forces them to do it too, which has other ripples, since each individual has a different schedule.

I've heard counterpoints for these, which have countercounterpoints too.

I do wish it were easier for all. On the bright note, I remember when I used to hang out with a lot of international peeps at 3 AM SLT and noone could find a Linden around because Liaisons weren't yet 24/7, so sims would be downed for HOURS. That hasn't been true for awhile now, and more things are changing... I'm very much for being flexible towards all the great people who live around the world and share enjoyment in Second Life.

Change the day monthly then.. have four weeks of tuesday (to avoid monday email and settle), 4 weeks of wednesday (so all od tesdays doesn't get lumped), then 4 weeks of thursday (to avoid friday rush). Tuesday through Thursday keeps the base affected different, and keeps it to the center of the week. granted it means my Thursdays get ruined too (my other day off) but it means that a lump of Wednesdayers get a break. It also far encourages me to put more money into the game when My first morning off after 5 nihgts of working aren't hit smack dab by updates.

It obviously isn't easiest to do it on Wednesday as we've seen this week they did maintenance Monday, so thats not a good reason nor a justification.

What's simpler than "every week at the same time?" I don't want a mathematical formula to have to figure out when it will be unavailable. Don't forget, I think scheduled downtime has a lot more to do with business appeal. Since the Wells-Fargo fiasco launched at precisely the same time as 1.7, which had quite a few problems, LL has moved to a more regularly scheduled upgrade time. They've also done the upgrades in smaller increments, one feature at a time. This has seemed to work much better, as 1.8 was the smoothest rollout I can recall.

Right now, I have to manually "flip a switch" to kill all the "Buy" links on SLBoutique. I'd much rather just be able to shut them off automatically from 6am-noon on Wednesdays. It makes life much easier.

Try telling a business a downtime policy like, "Well, this week its Wednesday, next week its Thursday, the week after that, its Friday, unless that's a holiday..." and you'll get laughed out of the room.

Regards,

-Flip