I can't find a doctor in SL

Why does this forum even exist? Seems the management has told all the little lindens that they are not public information officers and that they are not to answer any questions dealing with server problems. This forum is worthless. Heres an idea. Turn off the forum until things get better. OIC. Its not going to get better. Kelly Linden is johnny on the spot to delete a message that points fingers at them but countless other messages go unanswered as if nobody is there.

Yes this is a flame. I planned it as a flame. I wrote it as a flame. and I dont want it to be taken any other way. It doesn't matter that it gets deleted because it is not intended for the residents of SL it is intended for the lindens.

And please don't bore me with a warning. Go straight to the ban. It will be one less person telling you that you are not being fair to the residents of SL.

How about splitting Linden Answers into two forums: one an open forum where anybody can ask questions and any resident (or Linden, of course) could answer. The other would be closed to all but Lindens and resident forum moderators. If the thread got to the point where the residents couldn't answer it, it'd get moved by a resident mod to the closed forum for LL response.

Sorta like having a staging/triag area forum to filter out the easy (or stupid) stuff before being bumped up to LL forum.

I'm not sure what the level/discriminator should be, but some sort of triage systems makes sense to me.

Some questions CAN be answered by folks other than Lindens, and should be. Others can ONLY be answered by Lindens and they should, in a timely fashion.

I like Meade's idea. There are so many times I see questions in Linden Answers forum I would love to answer, but of course, I can't. It seems to me 75% of the questions there would be better served in the Residen Answers forum, but I think people tend to go for the first Forum they see.

There are a number of apothecaries in Caledon; JohnHenry Holliday, for instance, while a dentist by trade, could I'm sure furnish you with a number of different medicinal compounds and extract any part of your anatomy not worth keeping.

As for the forums, I would say that "Linden Answers" does rather need renaming to indicate that it is really a place to go once other residents have been unable to assist. I am not quite sure what a proper name would be. "The Last Resort" seems a little harsh.

It may be beyond the technology, but perhaps there could be a two-stage process, whereby threads which were started in Resident Answers, if the poster felt that a satisfactory answer had not been obtained, could then be flagged to be posted in Linden Answers as well. (Edit: along the lines of what Meade says, bah.)

These responses are all note worthy. But you are all working on the ambulance driver and not the patient. My post was brought by Kelly for possible answers to it. The original problem is not general answers that residents could answer. Also because of the nature of those type questions even the lower level lindens would not be allowed to answer them. These are questions of accountability. Questions about major complaints of server, software, and even employee complaints. A place where residents have a voice in the governmentof SL. Resident answers do not go far enough and some questions deserve honest answers from those at the top. The CEO of The Sims frequently goes online and interacts with players in many different avatars and names. To be a player is to understand first hand what the major complaints are. Right now it seems the old adage comes to mind. "We are like monkeys in a tree. The monkeys at the top looking down see nothing but smiling faces. The monkeys at the bottom looking up see nothing but assholes."

In offering some insight to my own question I would like to go way out on a limb. This is to get people thinking and putting this out is just a starting point. The whole forum thing needs to reshuffled so that things are more in order. If anyone here is familiar with Ultima Online then you know what the shard system is. No I am not suggesting that SL go to the shard system. Just the forum part of it.

1. When a new person creates an avatar part of the process will give them a choice of a family group. Many last names same family.

2. Each family will have a forum with their own moderators, news people, and event coordinators.

3. A Linden will be assigned as administrator of the forum.

4. Islands would all be part of one family thus an island forum.

5. All questions would be open for family discussion. If answers are unsatisfactory to the questioner then the moderator would send it to the administrator.

6. All flames, trolls, threats and the like would be handled by the moderators. If banning was necessary only the administrator could carry out that level of punishment.

Families would make the forums more personal and invite competition between families. Events such as scripting, building, writing, poetry, easter egg hunts, pot luck dinners - you name it and it could happen. some could even compete for prizes of objects or $lindens.

But the biggest reason for the family forum would be to change the way everything goes to the lindens. New people would be "taken in" and given the help they need by family volunteers thus making their stay more pleasent.

OK lets rip this to something usable!

I like Meade's proposal, the only problem is getting the moderators of the resident answers forum to notice those threads that are Linden questions and moving them. We'd need some kind of flaging system such that questions that have been answered can be flagged by anybody "to be closed" (i.e. OP and Mods see a tag in the forum view (not inside the thread) that says that a thread has been flagged for locking, they check the thread and if it sufficiantly answered post and lock) as well as "flag for Linden" (another tag that alerts the Mods that the question is to be moved to the Linden answers). This possible flag would be "flag for delete" because the thread is a nothing thread, but I thinkg "to be closed" is good enough for that.
Anybody should be able to flag any thread with either flag. If a thread has already been flagged it can be flagged again and makes no difference.
To prevent abuse, a Mod that senses that a thread has been flagged incorrectly can find out who flagged it an if they flagged other threads such that they can find out if someone went and flagged 15 threads for "closed" incorrectly and remove that person's ability to flag (or suspend forum usage, ban, etc).

Just my 3 cents (adjusted for inflation)

Glad y'all like the idea.. It actually came from thoughts on LLs comments about how they've been swamped lately and how (paraphrasing here) they'd like to see residents be able to deal with their own problems - DCMA, grief, support, etc.. Been imagining that it will eventually (maybe) be some kind of tree of support - large group of resident volunteers at the base to resolve/clarify/sort new issues before moving them up the correct branch to an appropriate Linden. The forums suggestion is just a scaled down version of where I think in-world support might go.


To clarify what I was suggesting, I think two new forums could be created.

One new forum, call it "Linden Questions" or something, is open to all. Anybody can post questions there and other residents can answer FAQs, point then to KB articles, ask for more info, etc. If residents can resolve the question, the thread should die of atrophy - no reason to close it. Resolved or Closed or something could be added to the title but I don't think that's required..

The other new forum, call it "Linden Triaged Questions" or something, and is only open to Lindens. This is where threads from the first forum get moved if residents can't resolve the question. When something in the first forum can't be resolved by other residents, a forum moderator would move the thread to this forum and, hopefully, a Linden on forums patrol would be able to answer it. Again, maybe "Triaged" could be added to the title of the thread but I don't think it's required.

An alternative to this might be to just create the 1st new forum and have moderators move threads to the existing Linden Answers group. If nothing else, it would let the Linden on forums patrol know that the OP had tried to get community resolution first and that the moderators thought that it had enough merit/clarity to be put into the Linden queue.

The two problems I see with this are that there will be "but it's a good question" bumps on threads that don't get moved and that there are some questions LL just won't want to answer, regardless of how many times we want to ask it.

So... I guess this is a moot point now that they've closed Linden Answers. Too bad since I thought it was a decent idea.

If this ever does rise from the ashes - stranger things have happened - I suggest that when a mod moves a thread up to the LL-only forum they tack a number onto the threads title. That'd make it easier to reference new threads in the public forums as a FAQ or a duplicate. Maybe even have a sticky that lists the titles with links to the threads..

/me trips and BUMPs into the thread. Oops.. 'Scuse me..

I still like this triage idea. Seems worthwhile to bump this thread since the rumors of LL shooting the forums and replacing them with something that doesn't work are again abound.

*trips over the thread Sindy left in the walkway*

Grumble (wow this is old lol! But yes still true now as it was then.)

No rumor, you can see/test the beta version of the "Answers" blog now.

IMO, it sux.

/me gives this idea that I still like a 3-year anniversary bump.

grrr.... you got me.

This reflect clearly the problem of communication that Linden have ... Too much wiki, blog, discussion only inworld, mailing list managed by people answering only in the strict way of Guru Linden Mode, phone with people who are strictly respond in the way of what is writing on the stone, and don't try to understand deeper, and most of time the job is made by volonteers not by professional, too much tools kill tools in corporate communication, it's time for Linden Lab to react, there is no millions of users .... and no millions of land owner who pay... Sometimes there is exeption in the concierge chat, when you have the chance to catch some people deeply involved, but it's clearly not always the rule ....

A forum is always dangerous for a company who don't manage is communication and to cut out is always a sign of *we don't want that everybody knows that we have problem*

Linden Lab several time have trying to have professional market and don't succeed, it's most of the time due bye a bad communication and no rl interface, the biggest incredible thing is to ask to customer company for example to pay for beeing a part of a professional solution group or to assist to events about strategy, no company sell communication because it's the key for searching and keep is customer to give informations.



JfR