1) It can be helpful to have a pen and paper handy when you are using Second Life, so that if you come across something (either a bug, or lack of feature) that really bugs you, you can write it down so you don't forget it. Know that there are bug fixes, which is where LL fix something that is broken, and feature suggestions, where LL put in place somethign that is new. This topic deals only with feature suggestions. If you have a bug report, as opposed to a feature suggestion, you should first check it is not a known issue with SL. If it isn't, try to reproduce it, and then use the Help menu in SL, then the "Report Bug" option to report it. You may also want to search the forum for topics about it to get some idea of how much LL knows about it. On the other hand, if it is a feature suggestion, then write it down to make sure you remember it, and keep reading
2) If you're stuck for ideas, consider how things work by breaking them down into their component parts. For example, if you're thinking about ways to improve the way land works, think about the different types of land and how they relate to each other. If you're thinking about estate tools, think about the different functions in the estate tools panels, and the different levels of access that people have to these tools. Try to break complex tools that already exist down to their simple parts, then ask yourself "if I could rebuild these to make them better, how would I do it?". Consider the parts in terms of what they do (function), how they're used (usability), who can use them and with what restrictions (access), how people find out about them (introduction) and what other tools they would work well with (interlinking).
example: here you have estate owners and estate managers. How does that relationship work? How could it be changed? How about a series of check boxes for estate owners that govern what their managers can do? eg.g. "can reclaim land", "can deed land to another group", "can manage ban/allow lists" "can mess with terrain settings", "can mess with no build etc settings", "can mess with visibility settings","can return objects of non-same-as-parcel ownership", "can return all objects"...... that is a small proposal in itself. First, assess it - is it useful to SL residents in general? Would it help combat problems that SL Residents have? Think about how really useful it would be to the general SL population... not just to you. Repeat this process on the same topic, and try to come up with many small proposals for improving a specific thing (e.g. estate tools, but can be any aspect of SL), and group them together as a single batch of ideas.
3) Avoid proposals that 're-arrange the apples'. That is, avoid proposals that do things like re-arrange the display order of various options in a dialog or control panel. Such proposals don't actually accomplish anything, but do create work for LL. Similarly, avoid asking for LL to change very controversial policies they have put in place, like removing the requirement to have a CC to sign up for Second Life. Lindens have thought about ideas like that long and hard, and the fact they went ahead with them means they're probably committed to doing them and thus probably won't change their minds now.
4) Once you have a fairly solid idea of what you want to suggest, do a search on both the forum and the feature voting tool to make sure nobody has already proposed this idea. If they have proposed it, then DON'T propose it again, unless the version you propose is both different and better than the one they propose. If you're passionate about something, but someone else created a proposal about it before you, then maybe you could help by advertising (without spamming) for that proposal, or contacting the proposer and trying to work together to spread the word about that proposal.
Posting your proposal to the forums and the voting tool
5) Get lots of feedback from smart people on your proposal BEFORE you post it! Make sure to send it, privately, to some well known forum residents who have posted smart comments on related topics, and get their feedback. Be prepared to alter it in the face of their suggestions. You *need* this feedback because this will greatly improve the proposal itself. If most of them think it sucks, reconsider proposing it at all - and get them to explain WHY it sucks. Remember, the more constructive criticism you get now, the better chance you have of ending up with a very useful proposal.
6) Write your proposal up on the forums FIRST on the "Feature Suggestions" forum, and only AFTER that, post a link to it as a proposal on the feature voting tool. That way you can fix typos and serious problems with it later, without having to kill it and make a new proposal.
7) Explain why your proposals are wanted/needed. Give some examples of practical uses they could be put to. Give some examples of Resident wants/needs they would address. In your forum topic, LINK to other topics in which people express support for similar ideas. Make sure you tie your proposal directly to other topics that demonstrate why it is wanted/needed.
Summarise what you'd change. Don't waste time describing what already exists... just focus on what you'd change. This is quicker, easier to read, and clearer. 9) Be as clear as possible! Remember, other people don't understand this as well as you!
10) Include a 'summary' section at the start and a summary section at the end that covers what the proposal is meant to do and a quick overview of how it does it. If possible, also include references to the problems its meant to solve, via links to other topics which describe those problems.
11) Try to combine lots of ideas on a single topic into one proposal. This helps your proposal get votes, as people switch their votes from other narrower proposals to yours as they think yours will get more done. It also helps tie things together on the voting system and help people keep a clear track of what they are voting for.
12) Try to tie in your proposed features to LL's goals. For example, if you can draw on a post by a Linden and say "LL want to encourage X. My proposal for Y does help with X" it stands a much better chance. Also, try to relate them to resident desires ("this X solves problem Y that residents are having..."
or needs ("we need X to be able to do Y!". Remember the basic principles of SL : empowering residents to create the world of their dreams. Proposals that go against this, e.g. ones to try to homogenize the grid, are probably going to get vetoed by LL.13) When you're using the feature voting system at secondlife.com/vote to formally enter your proposal, make SURE you put the link to the proposal's forum topic in BOTH it's "URL" box and also in the description box. The reason for this is that the proposal's "URL" as entered into the URL box does NOT show up when you are just viewing the proposal by itself, and not everyone knows how to use a database search to find its forum topic URL. Make it easy for people and put the URL for your proposal's forum topic in BOTH places.
Advertising your proposal
14) When you do post your proposal, make sure to ADVERTISE it, first to the people you asked for feedback, and then in related topics in the forum and related places inworld. This will *drastically* help boost the number of votes your proposal gets!
15) A very effective way of advertising your proposal is to send it to groups of people who are interested in the same topics, with an instruction to "pass it on" to anyone else who may be interested.
16) Put a link to your proposal in your forum sig. Please keep the link small, and give it a sensible, informative name.
17) Be careful about spamming your proposal. Spam is bad. Only send the links to it to people who request the links or who you have very good reason to think would be interested in it (e.g. people who have previously expressed an interest in related topics).
If you get criticised in your forum topic...
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Don't be afraid to admit you screwed up. We all do. If someone comes up with an absolutely fatal hole in your proposal, that renders it useless... well, retract the proposal, and encourage people to change their votes to other proposals. Doing this is mature and shows you care about improving SL more then you care about your own 'pet projects' and 'pet peeves'.If you want to delete something from your proposal after people have voted because you recognise it isn't such a good idea, you usually can do this.
If you want to add something small and on-topic to your proposal after people have voted, you can usually do this so long as people support it in your forum topic and it fits with the existing proposal and it's also a good idea.
If you want to add something big and new to your proposal after people have voted, it's best to only add it if it's uncontroversial. If it's controversial, it may be better to re-create your proposal and ask people to switch their votes across. The key point is that you should modify your proposal even after posting to make it better, so long as you don't mis-represent what people have voted for. Don't add something big and controversial to your proposal and make it appear that people voted for your proposal including the controversial thing, when in reality they voted for it before the controversial thing was added.
Contacting Linden Labs
19) Be aware that the LL coders are very busy. Often, it isn't a question of if an idea is good or not - but rather, if it's substantially better AND more urgent then other ideas pending. LL work hard but they only have so many coders... justify why your proposals are more urgent then others. If you can't justify why LL should give your proposal priority over the thousands of other proposals in the voting system, then you need to do more thinking about this and come up with an answer *before* proposing it, and certainly *before* contacting any Linden about it.
20) Don't expect Linden Labs to comment on your proposal for quite awhile. Usually it takes over 500 votes on a proposal to get a Linden response, and over 600/700 to get a response within a few weeks.
21) If you want to contact the Lindens about your proposal and ask them what they think, IMHO the best way to do it is via a well-linked post in the "SL Answers" forum. DON'T send your stuff to specific Lindens unless they ask or you have very good reason to think they'd really care about your proposal. Lindens are busy - do them a favour by waiting until your proposal is mature and has many votes before contacting them about it. If you do contact them directly about it, do it via official changes, like "SL Answers", and be patient about waiting for a reply. Remember, Lindens are there to help, but are very busy, so be nice and patient with them.
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