Is Second Life really a US state?

I posted this in the Hotline to Linden, but would like to make a small poll of it, too ...

When I read Lisbeth' comment on the timing of official events this morning (/invalid_link.html) I could not help but ask a broader question: Why do all official events in SL have to take place at times which translate to midnight or 04:00am in the morning time her in Europe? I mean, SL isn't a completely American community. Or is it intended that way?

Of course I know the answer: You have to find 1 (one) timeslot for many of those events. And the majority of user are residents of the US of A ... But wouldn't it be a nice sign of a more welcoming attititude towards the "rest of the world" - which may become VERY important for SL in the long run - if at least sometimes a timeslot would be chosen, that was in the European evening hours - or the Australian or Asian or ...

What is your opinion on it? Would you - even as US residents - accept such a timing? Maybe only as a polite gesture?

BTW: this is not really a big issue with me because I need only a little sleep and regularily wake up around 04:00am. I still think it would be polite to sometimes make exceptions and show the rest of the world that they are welcome, too !

Linden Lab is headquartered in San Francisco, so most of their staff is awake during the day hours of Pacific Time. If they had more staff they might be able to have full shifts 24 hours, but they'll have to grow before that happens.

As for the event timing thing for more accessibility for other parts of the world... sure, there wouldn't be anything wrong with that. I think they've done such things in the past, but i'm not sure...

Yeah, it's really a question of how things are. Namely, things are things, and things are in time zones. So: deal with it. Sorry, but until LL gets some international employees who are closely working with whatever they are doing at the time, 3:00 am Linden events just aren't going to happen.

I personally wouldn't mind scheduling events at a different time, except I don't know my timezones well enough to know what time It is pacific time compared to (whatever england time is) <-- that's how poorly I know my timezones.

PST is 8 hours behind GMT

Being a US business with US employees on US time zones, it makes sense that most of what SL laid was based from a US point of view.

However, as the user base world wide grows, and the amount of non-US LL employee's grow, I feel well will see a trend and solutions for providing more service for everyone world wide.

One issue is the upcoming Lottery pull which is not at one would call "convenient time" for the rest of the world.

Why SL chose this time is not clear to me. My best guess is either they wanted the stress test to end at night so that anything that causes SL to go nuts can be fixed overnight. Another reason may be that due to possible use of the winner in ads, LL wanted to maximize the chances of an American winning.

So what are convenient times for the rest of the world???

Lets look at 1pm game time.

1pm PST = 9pm England, 10pm Europe, 11pm East Europe

1pm PST = 6-9am Australia time.


If you have an event, class, or meeting that you wish to maximize the world attendance, 1pm PST is your best time

Having worked with world timezones for 5 years, i know the problems that can be faced finding times when the world is awake or could be.

7-9pm pst Sunday equates to nightime in Europe and afternoon in Australia... both Monday

why couldnt this be saturday?

I purposefully schedule my events for around 2pm pst... at the weekend. That makes it early morning for those in australia, late evening for those in europe and afternoon for those in america. all "possible" times.

Having taught live on the net for those 5 years, and had students from 17 different countries along with their timezones, i can totally understand the problem. There are ways of working around this. With all the timezones i worked with over the years and there were over 1000 students who went through the courses, this was the best time to schedule classes and group chats.

When we are more and more from the world outside USA - LL will of course put up offices (representation) in for Example Europe (we are of course very close to that!!!D) .... and make same meetings, same information in al time zones.. A Hotline in maybe German, French and more.. I dont belive in Swedish but who knows.-)))

I also belive that they will put up SL servers in more places for faster connections.. ping times.. that cant be a problem today.. and the TP between the Sims we ”normal” citizens will newer se.. or feel..

What the problem? Cant be the technical tings.today. and ideas all forum are full of....

The reason the load test is being conducted between 7 and 9pm PST is because that's when logins peak. (See here for proof.) It's just when they have the best chance of meeting their target.

It's being run as a contest to try and get more users to log in. The "enter by email" bit is specifically intended to accommodate those users who can't be in SL at that time. The contest is secondary to the point of the test.

Thanks Leanne, thanks Lo ! Of course the economic reasoning behind these decisions is obvious. And mostly - I guess - the reason is not "working hours in the Bay Area" but the simply necessity to please the majority of the users.

What I was asking for - or collecting opinion - was NOT to ignore all this. It was just the question, if it would not be a polite gesture to use some other timeslots ... once in a while.

*smiles* Blue. Even a liberal euro like me is not that paranoid regarding decisions of US instututions I guess this timing simply ensures the best chances for getting the planned 5,000 users online.

Not a bad idea. Even though I am the boring type who likes to go to bed early - usually fast asleep around 11.00pm - aand get up early, too. But for the majority of user 01.00 pm PST might be a good (not perfect) solution.

I figured it would be something as innocent and simple as that.

I think this thread is started due to the Log-A-Thon 5000, planned next Sunday.
This event is primarily meant to test SL under high server load, so it's probably planned at a time when server load is high in the first place. As the most SL residents are still in US timezones, this timeslot ended up being inconvenient for other timezones. LL could have made this clearer to all (non US) residents though.

In case of events where timing isn't dependend on technical factors like server load etc. I fully agree with the sentiment expressed by some of the people here. If possible plan official Linden events with either multiple timeslots in different timezones, or running over long periods.

For singular events like Town Halls (which are often planned on Timeslots either convenient for the, US based, speaker or for reaching the biggest audience) , the fact that it's possible to prepare questions in a dedicated forum thread and posting of transcripts reduces the problem a bit.

All in all, i think the biggest issue of LL is not so much the planning, but making sure that it's communicated to the community more often, that they actually are taking all (including non US) citizens seriously.

I'm not denying the times or the stats.. just the choice of day

I personally think this would be a good thing to see happen (even though I would most likely not be able to attend those events). Though what I would really like to see is duel events. Same event, but at two different time slots. One more condusive to the US, the other more condusive to our overseas neighbors. While I don't think this is something that can happen today or tomorrow, with the changes Daniel Linden mentions that are coming, I can certainly see this being a possibility (if LL would do it) in the near future.

Here are the changes Daniel Linden posted that I am referring to:



Full thread here: /120/4b/54296/1.html

A major problem with 1 pm PST is that the entire US is still in its workday - 1 pm PST is 4 pm on the east coast of the US, and the work day ends at 5 pm generally, and the time zones go backward from there (3 pm central, 2pm mountain). When trying to maximize the number of available users, it does not make sense to schedule something that leaves out the majority of the user base. The earliest time slot that guarantees wide US availability is about 7 pm PST.

But 7pm PST is 10pm EST, and 3am UK, 4am CET, 5am East European time..

While this is perfectly true, more people live in Europe alone, never mind the rest of the world, than in North America.
If SL is truly going to expand then it is necessary for management to remember this and plan accordingly.
Adopting an Ameri-centric viewpoint is not going to encourage the expansion of SL into the howling wasteland inhabited by barbarians that constitutes the world outside the borders of America...

I don't understand these complaints. SL is on a US timetable, they don't currently offer Euro servers like many games. I would think this would be clear when people signed up for accounts. If you choose to play on a US server, why are you always complaining about the time differences? I have a friend in the military in Korea that plays WoW on a Us server and doesn't complain about the time difference, because it was their choice to play on a US server. If played on a Euro server I wouldn't whine about GMT. Its all about personal choice.

So we should all go and play a game somewhere? This isn't actually a game and we are your equals. This is an international environment.

Hiaaa... why not develop..... some stay ”we have always done like this and will always do”---- congrats to them.. yes most of them are old ”dead” softwares today.... why not say ALL of them.. ?.-))))


Welcome to the developing Earth..

and why do people plan event at times people have to work what people dont have jobs in RL to go to any more or they give them up for sl?



because its one thing to do the math for a timezone away and it another forplaces that is more than half a world away. this you have the issue of daylights savings time sl dosnet observ it to when they are suppoed to clearing sand box at 6 on my time they do it at 5. its better if they just let us choose our own time zone.

If it is an international enviroment why are you complaining? When I do business in Europe I dont whine about the time difference. It is a part of life. I don't get the complaints. It is really about accepting the difference amongst other people. I don't get all pissy when I have to deal with someone in India or China on a different time zone, such is life. A true global vision for all people to be accepting of others, if you are doing business in the US, why not try to accomodate people? LL is not doing business in Europe, the servers reside in the US. If they had international servers and were still operating on PST time, that would be a different story, but International players are chosing to come to Cali, so with that choice, come sacrifices. I would rather everything be on EST, PST is just annoying, but almost all games are on PST, so I just deal with it.


Addtionally due to different laws in differnt countries is it probably a bad idea that LL current allows international players on a US based server. There are legal reasons that most companies have different servers for different countries.


Also, time is all fake and made up anyway.

I am sorry. I could not choose any of the poll choices.

SL will become part of the British Empire.

We are taking over the USA via SL and claiming it back

So as of NOW all time, in and out of SL, should be shown in GMT !!

We are indeed very sneaky in this endevour and untill now, only Philip has been aware of our masterplan (and he thought it was a joke)

Garth 'FairChang' Fairlight

PS: if you see any Union Jack textures on your prims.. beware !!
Linden Lab may attempt to combat this by replacing the Union Jack with a 'Missing Texture' image... Don't be fooled.

Well I'm amazed they let us on the internet really..

Hiyyaaa - Vikings was first!!! but I dont want it back as it are now so.. let it stay... DDDDDDDDDDDDD