What do you think about the Town Hall Meeting?

What do you think about the Town Hall meeting?


Philip Linden: Wow, stopped by my own microphones.
Philip Linden: OK
Philip Linden: Can everyone hear me OK?
Philip Linden: Is this thing on?
Philip Linden: OK!
Philip Linden: Well I'm coming to you like on vacation... from San Diego.
Philip Linden: So I get to talk and watch the waves.
Philip Linden: Pretty cool!
Philip Linden: So lots going on lately.
Philip Linden: I'll say a bit, and then I'll take questions.
Philip Linden: Thanks everyone for coming.
Philip Linden: And IM any questions to Jeska.
Philip Linden: There will probably be more than I can get through by 8,
Philip Linden: but as always,
Philip Linden: you are also welcome to follow up with me by mail...
Philip Linden: [email]philip@lindenlab.com[/email]
Philip Linden: So...
Philip Linden: We've gotta to the third patch of 1.6,
Philip Linden: 1.6.3,
Philip Linden: which went live this morning.
Philip Linden: Hopefully this will address some bug server crashes.
Jeska Linden: Travis Lambert: The recent events changes are flawed, and are benefiting large landowners while doing damage to smaller ones thru rampant gaming. Why not back off these changes immediately until a permanant solution can be reached?
Philip Linden: And also fix the probs with searching in big inventories and having FPS go away.
Philip Linden: We'll take a look at the crash rates and decide about more patches.
Philip Linden: I think probably we need to do more...
Philip Linden: as of last night the crash rates were still higher than baseline 1.5
Philip Linden: But we're making progress.
Philip Linden: So...
Philip Linden: Another piece of news of late is the voting system.
Philip Linden: I got myself in hot water suggesting that folks add bugs...
Philip Linden: sorry about that.
Philip Linden: I just wanted to get priorities from all on what order to fix open bugs in.
Philip Linden: We'll look at how to do something differently for bugs.
Philip Linden: But the stuff we've learned from the voting process is really cool so far.
Philip Linden: Some of the higher items were surprising to us,
Philip Linden: which is really cool,
Philip Linden: since it means we are learning.
Philip Linden: We are looking at the couple of really highly rated things that we aren't sure exactly how quickly we can do...
Philip Linden: things like multi-select inventory drag,
Philip Linden: and try-to-buy
Philip Linden: sorry I meant try-before-buy
Philip Linden: We didn't think those were as high on folks lists as they were.
Philip Linden: Also, clearly,
Philip Linden: we will simply do less in 1.7 in the way of features,
Philip Linden: and move faster down the bug list.
Philip Linden: Anyway...
Philip Linden: if you haven't used the voting system,
Philip Linden: please do.
Philip Linden: It is turning out to be very powerful. We had a board meeting today,
Philip Linden: and talked lots about it.
Philip Linden: Yes the linux version was high as well.
Philip Linden: We are looking at bringing someone on to speed that up right now.
Philip Linden: So anyway... let's go to the questions and see how far we can get.
Philip Linden: Jeska?
Jeska Linden: Travis Lambert: The recent events changes are flawed, and are benefiting large landowners while doing damage to smaller ones thru rampant gaming. Why not back off these changes immediately until a permanant solution can be reached?
Philip Linden: I know that we made changes to the events, but I haven't heard as to fallout.
Philip Linden: I'll just take that question as it... and go back to Robin and others to find out more.
Philip Linden: I don't know what we've concluded about those changes.
Jeska Linden: Morse Dillon: QUESTION FOR PHILIP: What is the current thought on when we'll see a native Linux client? And when it comes, will Quicktime be fully supported???
Philip Linden: I think we will get a linux client done soon. I don't want to set a date yet
Philip Linden: because I don't think we know enough about problems we might run into.
Philip Linden: But we are working on it now.
Philip Linden: As to QT, I don't think it is supported under Linux.
Philip Linden: Unless I'm wrong.
Philip Linden: So that means we'd need to wire in an alternative.
Philip Linden: I believe we can do a native linux client pretty easily. All our code is low level.
Philip Linden: I beleive SL runs under wine today.
Jeska Linden: Traxx Hathor: My question is will Linden Labs ever re-introduce sims with double prim allotment like Miramare?
Philip Linden: We've already increased prim limits once, from 10K to 15K.
Philip Linden: We will keep doing that as we raise performance.
Jeska Linden: Catherine Cotton: How exactly is LL planning on looking at every single texture uploaded to the tean grid, to verify its PG? More so what standards of PG is LL using?
Philip Linden: As to the double allotment in the city sims,
Philip Linden: we did that buy having there be much more linden land.
Philip Linden: So there weren't more in the whole sims,
Philip Linden: just more on resident owned parcels.
Philip Linden: So we can think about doing that again if folks want it, yes.
Philip Linden: Create a thread on it, and send me email.
Philip Linden: With the teen grid,
Philip Linden: we did build tools to look at all uploads.
Philip Linden: I suspect, however,
Philip Linden: that this will not be needed once there is a large number of users,
Philip Linden: since self-policing will probably be quite strict,
Philip Linden: and our penalties for doing it very severe (banned).
Jeska Linden: Tito Gomez: Jeska, we have beautiful faces, beautiful bodies. Can we look forward to beautiful feet in the future? It's such a turn off! Gracias
Philip Linden: Tito... send me a doc with details on what beautiful feet mean to you.
Philip Linden: There are some changes in the feature voting list, I think also.
Philip Linden: Put one in.
Philip Linden: Agree they can get better.
Philip Linden: Ultimately we'll get to perfect cinematic everything!
Philip Linden: Hah!
Philip Linden: BTW.....
Philip Linden: do you know how fast the in-world economy is growing?
Philip Linden: I know I'm a broken record on this...
Philip Linden: but it IS really cool.
Philip Linden: The current growth rate, in GDP PER CAPITA, is 1100% per year.
Jeska Linden: Benny Night: Are there plans to take Linden public?
Philip Linden: The average amount of money spent in buying stuff from each other (none to LL) is $80/month!
Jeska Linden: might've been lost -- Jeri Zuma: Any progress in ways to support very large attendance at events?
Philip Linden: Yeah.... that is about 100X china.
Philip Linden: Also our overall GDP per capita is just passing china as well.
Philip Linden: OK back to the Q's.
Philip Linden: Large attendance at events...
Philip Linden: we are also working on that.
Philip Linden: Main problem is that the sims slow down with lots of people on them...
Philip Linden: hence the 40 limit.
Philip Linden: We are going to try and improve the 'interest list' in 1.7 to improve that number.
Philip Linden: I can't say how much, cause we haven't tested.
Philip Linden: But, yes, that is a huge priority, and also a 'bug' for many.
Jeska Linden: Olmy Seraph: Does LL do any live usability testing of SL, and if not why not? Would you consider instituting it so we can get data to help improve the SL user experience?
Philip Linden: We do user tests, yes.
Philip Linden: But I'm not sure what sort of tests are meant specifically by that question.
Philip Linden: the preview grid is, we think, the most powerful form of user testing.
Jeska Linden: John Wallaby: What will be the policy on communication between the regular and teen grids via communication services such as Nexcom?
Philip Linden: Communication between teen and main grids through SL services will not be allowed.
Philip Linden: That is a good question... I suppose one could use a third party tool.
Philip Linden: I'll take that question to robin.
Philip Linden: It doesn't seem safe in general, and I suspect we should not allow it.
Philip Linden: we don't want anyone able to talk into teen SL.
Jeska Linden: Lex Neva: The feature voting system is an interesting idea, but it's kinda flawed. Everyone rushe din to spend their votes at the start, and now any new propositions, good or bad, languish on the second or third page. Votes aren't being returned very
Jeska Linden: . esult, the only features voted highly are the ones that were in the system when everyone got there. Can this be addressed?
Philip Linden: votes will be returned as we move features into development.
Philip Linden: Like for example the paypal votes returned to folks yesterday... we are going to have that done in the next couple weeks.
Philip Linden: I think that is the right process.
Philip Linden: also folks can change votes to reflect changing priorities,
Philip Linden: which we want to see captured as well,.
Jeska Linden: Eboni Khan: My Question: The price for Lindens on GOM is over $4.24. Does LL have any plans to get the price of Lindens back to the $4 level?
Philip Linden: I'd like to see the prices stable, yes.
Philip Linden: They have been trending up.
Philip Linden: We will watch and make changes if it seems needed. Right now they've not been going up for long,
Philip Linden: so I think it is possible this is temporary.
Philip Linden: We will try and be very careful about steering things too much.
Philip Linden: Voter turnout is high...
Jeska Linden: Ontay Drago: will there be a GOM or IGE in the teen SL, and how will we get them there since we dont want adults in the teen grid?
Philip Linden: we have about 2000 voters,
Philip Linden: and about 26,000 users.
Philip Linden: but in a typical month,
Philip Linden: there are something under 20K folks using SL.
Philip Linden: So I'd say that is a very good turnout. I'd like to see even more.
Jeska Linden: Ontay Drago: will there be a GOM or IGE in the teen SL, and how will we get them there since we dont want adults in the teen grid?
Philip Linden: Our thinking is that money will work the same in teen grid and main grid,
Philip Linden: and teens can use GOM same as anyone.
Philip Linden: we can secure that transaction path easily.l
Philip Linden: We'll approve an account of some kind for the banks in the teen grid.
Philip Linden: We haven't done that yet.
Philip Linden: But it seems like the right way to do it.
Jeska Linden: Cubey Terra: When can we expect enforcement of community standards with regards to abusive ejection scripts over land
Philip Linden: No... only people or services we are able to background check.
Philip Linden: And certainly on an as needed basis.
Philip Linden: So nexcom wouldn't be OK if it allowed open communication, etc.
Jeska Linden: Brody Macdonald: My question is: Are we still on track to have a million subscribers by 2007?
Philip Linden: Ejection scripts... sign.
Philip Linden: sigh.
Philip Linden: I agree we need better systems there.
Philip Linden: There is a mishmash of stuff people are using,
Philip Linden: and I agree some are too agressive.
Philip Linden: I don't know what the right answer is.... but I will think about it and see if we can come up with something.
Philip Linden: Probably there is some feature work we will need as well.
Jeska Linden: Dione Jacques: hi yes i have a question, why does inventory take so long to load? is this gonna be fixed in the future?
Philip Linden: We are on track in terms of subscribers, yes.
Philip Linden: Still growing very fast.
Jeska Linden: Tena Keegan: Are they going to at least allow mentor's to go help newbie kids..or is that going to be a whole new group?
Philip Linden: Inventory loading...
Philip Linden: OK
Philip Linden: So we load inventory now at a fixed speed.
Philip Linden: I believe several entries per second.
Philip Linden: The really huge inventories are more than 10K objects,
Philip Linden: and those take like 5 minutes to fully load,
Philip Linden: and are several megabytes of data.
Philip Linden: I suspect that we need to limit the size of inventories in some way,
Philip Linden: or provide some sort of other mechanisms for storing things.
Philip Linden: The amount of data is just too huge. There isn't a way to really load them,
Philip Linden: even on broadband,m
Philip Linden: for the really huge ones.
Philip Linden: OK, I will publish some data on how much space in in inventories.
Jeska Linden: Kage Seraph: What's the plan with respect to zoning?
Philip Linden: We think zoning is best done by you,
Philip Linden: through group ownership, rentals, etc.
Philip Linden: We will add more features to support that.
Philip Linden: We don't feel like WE should be doing much zoning.
Philip Linden: SL is too big... we wouldn't really be able to.
Jeska Linden: Scooter Ludd: Whats the possiblity of getting windows media supported in movie control?
Philip Linden: Windows media isn't very cross platform, so I don't think we'd be too inclined to support it.
Philip Linden: I agree that more formats would be great though.
Jeska Linden: cua Curie: Its been stated that Havok2 will be implemented for version 1.7. What changes will this make to Second life? Where have you decided to allocate the extra server resources it will provide?
Philip Linden: Havok2 is not a panacea for everything.
Philip Linden: It will stop many of the server crashes we are having,
Philip Linden: by fixing probs with physical objects,
Philip Linden: and it will open the door to some cool new capabilities in vehicles, etc.
Philip Linden: But it won't, by itself, free up tons of server resources...
Philip Linden: to do that,
Philip Linden: we need to speed up the interest list,
Philip Linden: and speed up script execution speed.
Philip Linden: Both are things we are working on,
Philip Linden: and some interest list improvements will probably be in 1.7
Philip Linden: The interst list is what collects those things you need to see and sends them to you.
Philip Linden: that is what the servers spend most of their time doing.
Philip Linden: Like at a scene like this.
Philip Linden: Overall we agree that giving you guys source code to work with is the right long term plan, BTW.
Philip Linden: I've said that in the forums and I'll say it again here.
Philip Linden: I agree that stuff like new languages and other streaming formats, etc,
Philip Linden: are best done by you, in code.
Philip Linden: we're working on that.
Jeska Linden: Dione Jacques: Why not have a seperate game for teens instead of putting them in SL, with the growing amount of people using SL, this would save on the system as well as protect everyones rights?
Philip Linden: The teens are in a separate system. That is what we have done.
Jeska Linden: Tena Keegan: Are they going to at least allow mentor's to go help newbie kids..or is that going to be a whole new group?
Philip Linden: only folks we can adequately check would be allowed access.
Philip Linden: That applies with mentors, liasons, anyone.
Jeska Linden: George Stonebender: how will you convince teens to go on the teen grid instead of the adult one?Won't it be underdeveloped and kind of boring to begin with?
Philip Linden: If the teens are caught here they are age-verified and banned if not 18.
Philip Linden: I think that is enough motivation.
Jeska Linden: Reitsuki Kojima: Question for Phil: With each patch, border crossing issues - handoff lag, particularly in vehicles, along with random avatar-ghosting - get worse. When is this going to be addressed in a patch?
Philip Linden: 1.7 will definitely have code to reduce border crossing lag,
Philip Linden: we almost got that into 1.6.
Philip Linden: Also Havok2 will make things much faster on the handoff.
Jeska Linden: CaveCub Milk: Hi, my question is why this grid isn't being fixed before opening the teen grid at all?
Philip Linden: There isn't much additional cost in opening the teen grid, because it is exactly the same code.
Philip Linden: So devs are not building teen features, beyond some admin stuff.
Philip Linden: I think that is OK.
Philip Linden: Only a couple more questions...
Philip Linden: I've gotta run for dinner in a bit.
Jeska Linden: Sensual Casanova: Question - The Concierge service basically is uselless ... is there going to be any improvements on it in the near future, and preferabbly a Linden that will LISTEN to our problems and try to fix them?
Philip Linden: I think we need better tools for surveying what is causing load on a sim,
Philip Linden: as that is the #1 problem for concierge on large land.
Philip Linden: So I suspect more people wouldn't help,
Philip Linden: but new diagnostic tools will. We're looking at that.
Jeska Linden: Shadey Koala: I've read on the forums about people wanting to start some form of SL-wide, player-run government. This concerns me, and I'm curious. Will you allow such a thing?
Philip Linden: Please email me directly with any complaints about the concierge service.
Philip Linden: I want it to work well.
Philip Linden: OK one more question.
Philip Linden: Ah... there it was soory.
Philip Linden: Player government...
Philip Linden: We do not want to impose many global restrictions on behavior beyond those needed to
Philip Linden: preserve people's basic freedoms to create and live here.
Philip Linden: So,
Philip Linden: we don't think that forms of government in which folks vote to impose more restrictive global properties
Philip Linden: are the way to go.
Philip Linden: We don't want that.
Philip Linden: However, I suspect that local government,
Philip Linden: again in the form of extended land rights, etc,
Philip Linden: is a better direction.
Philip Linden: Again I'd point to the idea of the 'federal' government...
Philip Linden: which is basically what LL is.
Philip Linden: It doesn't seem that we should be involved in issues which are inherently local.
Philip Linden: So I'd really like to push more in the direction of adding features that allow
Philip Linden: landowners to govern as they like.
Philip Linden: But not do much more at our level.
Philip Linden: I agree ejection stuff is a problem, as I said before.
Philip Linden: Sorry for having to run...
Philip Linden: I normally have time to hang around after these things.
Philip Linden: But in this case I need to meet folks for dinner.
Philip Linden: thanks everyone for coming and for listening and questioning.
__________________

I think we are all gonna die.......











































Eventually...LOL

Alot of unanswered question. And the ones that were answered were vague.

The poor dudes on vacation!!!

Give him a break!

The general attitude from where I was listening was "disapointment in the vague answers" or none answers from Philip. The other Lindens who were present did a hell of a job.

Cat

I thought it went alright, but some of the questions were dissapointing. Afterwards some of us residents, and some of the Lindens had a little chat. I brought up the fact that alot of what is clarified on the forums never reaches in-world. Alot of the rumors (SL-wide government, adults in the kid grid, SL-wide zoning) get out of hand and were already addressed for the most part in the forums. I think those questions wasted some of Philip's time, though well-meaning and unintentional.

A way to get announcements and hot-topic discussions in-world would be great, and I believe Pathfinder said that he was working on something along those lines.

Not many folks read the forums, and not many folks get any latest news or announcements.

I'm sure most people don't care, but there are probably some that would like to have a way to check the latest SL news while in-world, other than forum browsing.

Phillip seemed a little bit out of touch. Perhaps he should only do these things when he is in the office surrounded by some other helpful Lindens to wave and throw notes at him and help him out.

I'm not sure how long he's been on vacation... but it might be about time for him to take a gander at these boards.

I couldn't believe he was clueless as to the uproar over the latest events tweaks they made. His response to Travis' question, the first question was disspointing. I hope someone clues him in!

Exactly.

I felt it was pretty much a waste of all of our time. Jeska was totally out of sync on the questions, causing Philip to miss a couple or three. As someone who listened on a repeater, I didn't benefit from the up close Linden conversation afterward, so I can't comment on that.

When he suggested that someone post an issue on the forums, I just laughed, as his previous answers showed he hadn't read the forums in quite some time.

He means well, but this meeting didn't help one little bit.

But he does deal the best drug I have ever had, so as long as he keeps supplying it, I'll be here.

I wonder why they called a Townhall?? What was the purpose? The Kid Grid announcement? I think some folks were expecting a real update/announcement, but it seemed to lack a definite reason, though it's always nice to have the communication from LL.

I'm just suprised that there wasn't more of an agenda.

Exactly right. The questions chosen were not always good ones, and the good questions received weak or non-committal answers (I'm thinking specifically about the questions regarding events and aggressive home security scripts.)

Meh.

Buddy was on vacation and took the time to answer a few questions anyway. If I were him, you wouldn't see me doing that.

I'd need a freaking vacation after listening to people calling me this and that and raking me over coals all the time.

The guy is doing a good job and is a CEO for a reason. And he's not a bad one if he can pull in 8M, trust me.

If his vacation was the cause of a subpar Town Hall performance, perhaps he shouldn't schedule Town Hall meetings while he's on vacation! Just a thought.

Yeah, well, LL has a habit of trying to do too much and ending up doing too little.

I wonder if Philip sets that tone.

Passes Blaze spiked golf shoes while he has it rolled out there...

I agree with the general sentiment expressed so far in this thread.

coco

Amazing a CEO communicates at this level at all. Especially on vacation. Seems there is alot going on at LL right now. He is probably sorely needed to get away, and I appreciate him coming in world and answering questions. Give the poor genius a break.

DNA

I think Phillip just gets tired of people asking the same questions over and over again.

Were there any questions asked that have not been presented a million times in the forums? We all know he reads them himself or gets briefed by his staff. And I am sure he gets personal emails bitching about the same issues. What is he to do?

Chances are that the people that participate in the townhall meetings are the same that frequent the forums, so I do not see the purpose behind them.

Then again maybe the general population should be made aware of the forums. I have met quite a few people that have been in-game for a long time that either did not know about the forums or have ever participated. Maybe what we need is some fresh ideas from the 'average' citizens of SL, not the same ol' forum activists.

What I would suggest from Phillip would be, instead of having preannounced townhall style meetings, where it is usually the same people asking the same questions, to go out and explore the world unannounced and/or incognito, select random citizens and spend 3 minutes with them to get a feeling 'from the street' on what is going on and needed in SL.

Thank you for your efforts Phillip. It is definitely not easy (or possible) keeping everyone happy all the time

Tito

What she said.

I agree that it is wonderful that LL, and the CEO, Philip, do take the time to communicate with us and to share thoughts and plans and ideas. I was more dissapointed in the questions, and a bit mystified as to what the reason was, specially on a patch day.

And would have liked to have seen a bit more discussion on the first question, regarding event changes.

But overall, I think it was ok. Nice to gather and listen, as well as have the chance to ask questions, and the Lindens at pathfinder's place (at one point or another: Blue, Adam, Deana, Ian, Uncle and Pathfinder) were all very nice and seemed genuinely interested in hearing what folks had to say.

as i said last night, the last few town halls have been so generic that I'm wondering if (due to the sheer size of SL now) Philip thinks he has to be so careful in what he says, that he cannot actually say anything of substance.

There was some substance last night, but nothing that couldn't have been said in 5 minutes rather than an hour... part of that is the medium though.

It would be interesting if every once in a while philip or robin wrote a letter to all users as a notecard dropped in all of our inventories. It would give them an opportunity to craft a more coherant, more substantive message.

i wonder if philip ever puts on an alt and wanders the population incognito like kings of yore (in myths, that is) lol...

nevertheless, i appreciate his effort

Like others, I didn't really see the point of why we needed a Town Hall right now. Philip should have enjoyed his vacation and saved a Town Hall for the next big uproar.

As for the Town Hall itself, I was unfortunate enough to have been there in Brampton. That's the last time I'll attend a Town Hall up close and personal. It's a cluster fuck. It's like a stupidity grenade went off. No one could resist typing out every little thought that went into their heads, often times making me have to scroll up to read the questions or Philip's answers. The concept of sending your questions in IMs to Jeska was too difficult for some people to grasp. People were playing every wav file in their inventories like this was their own special concert. The Lindens either forgot to set the land to No Build, or chose not to, and boy did people take advantage of that fact. I'm really surprised Philip hasn't lost all faith in SL if that's what he has to deal with every time he's logged in.

I envy those that listened from a repeater and had all the crap filtered out. Next time I'll just go to one of those.

HAhahaha. Love that. So true.

I think it was a dissapointment.I was waiting for this BIG ANNOUNCENMENT that would effect all of SL that was advertised.Instead we get questions about alot that has nothing to do with the current SL.Do we really need to ask questions for the teen grid over and over.Im more concered about the product im paying for then the other "game".I also noticed I asked a question <that didnt get asked in town hall meeting> yet someone got in 2 questions?I hope politics isnt a part of this.
I know Jeska probably was doing her best and I do give her that =).People seem to wanna give our "Leader" Philip alot of slack and say "He's on vacation".I understand everyone needs a vacation.Good for him but I know if i had a company endorsed for millions I might spend a lil longer then an hour with the people paying for his product LOL.
I hope the next meeting we dont see repeat people getting in more then one question and maybe some clear answers..and the ANNOUCEMENT.

LOL jonquille -- now i'm especially glad i listened in grignano, above and beyond the interesting people i had a chance to hang out with.

What I think would make these town halls feel more accessible and "authentic" would be to have Philip do a voice broadcast while he answers questions (like he did last summer on the one-year anniversary of SL graduating from beta). Jeska could IM Philip the questions to answer, Philip could read the question, then give his answer, and things would go faster and more smoothly. He also wouldn't have more than one question to deal with at a time, as he seemed to last night.

Philip is a charismatic and intelligent person with a definite vision for SL's present and future. It's always fascinating to me to hear him speak. I don't think he came across as well as he could have last night, for whatever reason: it was hurriedly set up and he felt rushed, he was on vacation, there were too many distractions at the event (as recounted by Jonquille in the post above), etc.

As SL grows, I think it is natural that we will feel more and more removed from "personal contact" with Lindens, whether it's Philip or the newest liaison on staff. Perhaps a regularly scheduled town hall with Philip, Cory, Pathfinder, Jeska, Robin, or other Lindens might be a good way to keep in touch with the masses. As it is now, the town halls and Linden events seem to be more a form of damage control in response to policy and game changes and the resulting community uproar. Maybe the Lindens should be more proactive rather than reactive when it comes to meeting with the SL community.