Nice work, Linden

*noddles* Things often don't work out the way we plan. I wandered around the RFL islands in curiosity until I woke up with the keyboard impressions on my face. I'll say the volunteers who did the work on this major project did a great job! A brilliant job, in the face of all odds!

I'm hoping that once the grid is back up, the events will go on... Please say they will?! Pretty please!

I think when people post , it should display next to their login name how much time they've spent logged into the preview grids. Then, when they B&M about a bug, we can see how much time they spent helping test

Software has bugs. Software that exists in a user-interactive environment is constantly tested for bugs by malicious users and basically, since we're all in the same place, all bugs are zero-day exploits.

For those that say "Well, LL has the responsibility to test, I don't work for them", I say there're only so many LL employees and anyone who's worked in software development can tell you that you can't base a product's results in real life on the testing done solely in-house by a specific group of already-interested individuals. LL constantly mentions in interviews about SL that they're amazed and astounded by the ways people find to use the world. That makes it quite clear that the hundreds of thousands of users like us have the ability to come up with new ways to use (and abuse) the systems.

That's why the preview grids are so important.

You don't pay
You don't want to pay
You're new
You almost don't know anything about secondlife (after 10 month i'm still learning every day).

You'll notice easily that most of the whiner are the people that DON'T pay, and WON'T pay for the services they got. Why ?

Ok, let's take it from here, altough it's a bit becoming off topic.

Why should I go to the preview grids? To test and locate bugs to have them reported but NOT fixed before going to live? Then "PREVIEW" is indeed the right word for those grids... I have no time for "PREVIEWS", I rather play the "life" version of SL.

As previous experiences tought me (being an avid SWG gamer, that so called Test Center, yes, it had huge communities that were ignored too! bringing all TC bugs to the live game over and over again) it is no use to do anything with it.

a) the tools to report are often below par
b) if you want to test certain area's, there arent tools to get that. Imagine you want to test some payment scripting coding of the LSL library. Can I get, lets say 1M Linden$???
c) want to test the new anti griever tools -> Can I OWE / get land without having to pay the tier that comes with it (even a 512 piece would cost 9,95 ..) So it would then COST me money to test for some company who does nothing with it? No thank you.

So in effect, until it becomes more clear what the "preview" center is, it's just that: a preview center and not a real testing grid.

If they REALLY want more people to test, then have them setup a real test grid, with all the tools possible and HIRE real (blackbox) testers and STEER those testers. Especially to areas the internal code has been changed, added, revamped and/or is new.

The more testers would be there and get an understanding of all that relies on eachother code base, the more often they will be able to examine or figure out exploits that should the be fixed on the spot.

Then that grid would be ported to a preview center for feedback from players, who like to see what is coming next.

That would be fine with me. Because I can guarantee you I've spent more time on the preview grids than you, Mr. "I Joined in Apr 2006".

Oh, that is unless you're just an alt who doesn't have the balls to post under your "real" fake name.

Taco was TOTALLY checking you out......
Has he asked you to have one of his babies yet?

Important ?
Please do go to the preview grid, and try find some bugs, then report them to Linden.
When you've done that for a few years, like some others, and realize that the bugs you report is not being fixed, but instead, umpteen new unwanted features is being added, introducing even more bugs, you get pretty tired of having to pay Linden for doing test work.
Hell, I even met Philip in a preview once. I mentioned a bug I just found and he said they were aware of it. Guess what bug wasn't fixed in the release......

Software does not HAVE bugs. Programmers make them. If they could just stop for a while introducing new unwanted crap, and spend time fixing the growing list of Known Issues (which goes back many versions), we'd all be happier, I'm sure.

That's reasonable and logical. YOU SHOULD BE AR'd.

Bullshit. The biggest whiners are the premiums with thousands of forum posts (indubitably 90% moaning).

Hate to be the bearinger of bad news RFL, but another big slap in the face for ya, just got in SL after the grid opened, guess what the announcement of the day is, "no fly zones" man alive do they just not read this stuff or what ???
Sorry guys, i can tell by seeing RFL months of blood, sweat and tears has gone into it, not to mention all the volunteers time for events...my hats off to ya even if LL's isnt..we need more like you here, and they do too, ppl that give a damn and have passion about it, feel LL has lost that..sorry to say, they are too busy chasing the buck to see the how far a dream can go...

The problem is, the updates often get released with bugs that were reported in preview. Additionally, we are customers - it is not our responsibility to provide QA testing for Linden Lab, it is theirs. It is wonderful that we help out and find bugs and report them, but the blame for shortcomings in this area falls on Linden Lab, not the end users. A lot of the bugs that pass through are just the result of sloppy QA, not an inability to predict how someone is going to break something. For example, the texture picker content theft - it is pretty freaking obvious. Same thing with many other things. I have played the role of Linden apologist many times, as I understand the nature of software development, but this particlar update was just negiligent.

Isn't Hermia a Liasion? I doubt she has any hand in the updates whatsoever.

The teams or persons that create the new ideas are touted as the new hero of the day, while the clean up teams get little or no recognition, much less the bonus's or raises. Have seen it a thousand times in real...lmao remember the "new coke" ok ok im tellin my age, but i can see management that is more into being hero's and having the "lookatme" i am a genius, than just getting a good, workable, enjoyable product out to its customers...oh ya remember them ... they covers yer paychecks... smile

I'll say this again here because I don't think many people know this...

Linden Lab has 8 people who do QA.. They're a small company and nobody seems to use the preview grids anymore so a lot of bugs like this will not be caught.

Oh now this is just wrong.
I think the Lindens have done much to promote the event, stand by the event etc etc.
I am also quite sure that they would have rather been in bed all night rather then chasing a bug. Bugs happen.. downtime occurs, this is a fact of the game. But to say this is just incredibly unfair.

They are also paid to do QA, it is their job - if bugs are not being found, then they need to extend their QA process and add more resources. Paying customers are not required to be their testers - that is a cop out, and irresponsibility on their part, especially when bugs that actually do get reported on the preview grid still manage to make it into the release.

Agreed - they did not intentionally do this to screw over RFL or anyone else. However, given how high of a profile this event was, and how much preparation has gone into it, in hindsight this update could have waited until afterwards - there was nothing critical in it - though now there is plenty of stuff that needs critically fixed.

Maybe if we yell more, bad things will go away.

Also agreed. But hindsight is always clearer.
One thing I suspect is that based on Robin's post today, I do believe they now realize this and are being proactive to correct it in the future. It has definetly been an unusual time in SL for bugs, crashes, lag etc.

Like our voices?

I agree.
GO AWAY, BAD THINGS!!!!!!!
HIT THE ROAD!!!!!

That ought to take of things for a while.

a) same tools as the live grid
b) yea, you get a few K, and i'll be happy to give you a few k more
c) yea, you can buy all the land you want there and it doesn't cost you any tier. you'll find alot of land set for sale too. i bought me some land in gibson to play with

thzt's what happend when peoples whine before informing themselve