Events and Lindens

Katt, my deep apologies if you felt my rant against LL in here had *any* reflection at all upon your Benefit. That was an excellent thing you did, especially under the duress of the technical problems.

LMAO.... Cristiano, next time??? Well, I doubt I will be planning any events that garner metaverse-wide attention, but if I do, I will remember your very gracious advice.

*goes off in search of the mythical Stage 4*

Oops... P.S., Introvert, no, I did not take your rant as being directed at me. vbmenu_register("postmenu_642843", true);

Thanks for confirming this - heheh - officially, I hadn't had confirmation that they'd be the sims we'd be using.

I'm not sure I'm ready to subscribe to such a passionate indictment against Linden Lab in general and Philip Rosedale in specific.

With that said, though, your post did remind me of Google. My new job has made me very appreciative of Google lately, so I've been studying up. Briefly: Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided they wanted someone with exceptional business experience to helm their ship. They recruited Eric Schmidt first to serve on their board, then as CEO shortly thereafter. Schmidt had decades of experience with tech companies, so I could see the power in bringing him into the fold.

Page, Brin and Schmidt run Google as a "triumvirate." Basically, the founders want to do their founding visionary thing and they want the experienced business dude, Schmidt, to do his experience business thing.

What does this have to do with Linden Lab? Well, I do see Malachi's point that at some stage in the development of a unique business, a smart, experienced, creative person is needed to set a tone of direction and policy. Such a person is best informed by having many years in business under his belt. Working together with the founding visionaries, such a person could go a long way to securing the longterm stability of the founders.

Is this absolutely the case for Linden Lab? Could be. I'm not on their board and I don't see the day-to-day operations. That said, I think some of the obvious lack of communication at Linden Lab among staff and to residents, as well as the perceived soft focus on support, can have no point of origin besides the top. Perhaps this needs to be remedied with additional leadership.

Okay, I hesitated to answer this thread ... it's such a hot issue and I'm sort of under the magnifying glass being a SLCC organizer and all. But after thinking about this, I believe I can add a reasonable reply to the thread.

Introvert, I'm choosing to reply to you because I think you hit most of the points that the criticizing side of this thread has stated.


I don't think Pathfinder should be taken as a Linden policy authority - generally speaking there's only a couple of Lindens who lay down them to the public. I'm gathering that Pathfinder's point was more to the tune of "Yes, we have methods in place for larger events, but LL was not running the event." -- The latter part you had to read between the lines, because Pathfinder would not speak down upon someone who just ran a Hurricane relief event, yannow?

It's clear from all that I've heard and seen about this event that there was a lack of planning - but I think some slack has to be cut. Charity events for the hurricane have all been last-minute, due to the very sudden nature of the tragedy. This is probably the most important thing I have to say. I'm co-organizing an event - the SLCC - with about 2 months time to plan, and even then it's an extremely tight schedule to which we're adhering.

Let me add a personal note to this - I'm not a fan of Katt Kongo. Or was, rather. I was skeptical about this event, and I think I even thought to myself "Oh boy ... Katt's running this! This will be a hoot!" ... but as I saw people signing on, and the sheer enthusiasm of Katt and the folks helping out with this, I recognized the same sort of spirit that is fueling the SLCC right now.


I think your assumptions here are mis-placed. You assume that it is LL's responsibility to run this event. LL has long-stated that their primary task is building the engine, not creating content. And while LL does run some events, this was not one of them. LL's participation (and generous, since it's taking away from their personal times) was limited to providing the ... uh ... meat ... of the auction. *chuckles*

As for Well's Fargo - this is an entirely different animal. We're talking the first major (national / international) corporate entity in SL. This is something that LL rightfully has courted and helped create - in order to bring other corporate entities into SL. It's marketing, plain and simple. And the best part is that LL was able to hand off the majority of the project to residents - who were hand-picked because, if I had to logically devise the meaning, they needed people who proved they can get a job done on a very public level.




From my conversations with Lindens in expanding departments, they have really friggin' high standards.

But... as far as the monetary issue is concerned - I think anyone passionate about SL and who believes in it becoming the Metaverse will know that montary rewards will come in time, along with the bragging rights of creating the Metaverse.

... though there are some of us who feel that even outside of LL we are also creating the Metaverse.


You bring up a gamut of assumptions. I think how LL has treated other projects is definitely a worthy issue, but one that's highly debatable and there's hardly been a consensus on any of them. (Despite what my own personal convictions may be.)


Yes. High regard. Clearly.


You do realize that there is a "Don't post as an alt when you're suspended / banned" rule, right?


EDIT: Sorry, forgot my conclusion.

CONCLUSION:

Many events are exclusionary, whether due to time or planning. I would have loved to have gone yesterday as well, but my schedule did not allow. I regret it, because I would have paid a lot more for some underpriced Lindens.

But, the bottom line is 750,000L$ was raised for hurricane victims.

Can we just let this drop?

The end amount that was raised came to $850,000L.

Sorry! Late to the thread. Some interesting interpretations about this event here but given the forum's proclivity towards the most dire and conspiratorial view of things, it's to be expected.

I will say I had more fun last night than I have in a long time playing SL. And I am astonished at how much money was raised. I am also astonished how well the whole event was organized given the fact it went from a cute little idea to the SL event of the year in a matter of 24 hours. Kudos to everybody involved!

Musimba, I have no record of having received an IM from you asking to buy a ticket. In any case, I was completely swamped, with multiple jobs to do, including last minute ticket sales and addng those persons to the group. Were there some people that had to wait for a bit while I dealt with various things? Yes. Was it intentional? No. And I did not close a single IM without checking to see what the person was asking for. If you IMed someone besides me, I apologize that you were misdirected.

As far as our organizational skills being in question, I take strong exception to that. We originally planned this event with the idea of getting a few people to auction themselves off for fun, and to raise a few thousand L$ for charity. As Katt has previously mentioned, it absolutely exploded over the last 24 hours before the event. Were we ill-prepared for something of this magnitude? Yes, but mainly because we had NO EARTHLY IDEA the turnout would be so large.

For those of you who have been so supportive and encouraging through this, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

For those who can't seem to find anything better to do than chastise us, I have no use for you. We did our best, and I think, as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding. YOU try this and see how YOU do.

P2