GOM --> Continue Disucssions...

Jamie and Ricky - You have made an effort to bring this situation to the attention of SL residents, now we know there is a problem.

My suggestion - as one who has walked this walk before, both in RL, and here in SL/RL - is take time and rethink your position and view it from as many different perspectives as you're able.

Then please consider asking for assistance from others - sometimes a 3rd party can overcome unknown communications problems and get results were none seemed possible. You are involved in difficult negotiations and the creators of product are the LEAST able to understand the actual market value of their own products/creations, especially when they are attempting to represent themselves.

So Philip remains open to hearing from you, as explaned in the link below, and I urge you to move forward.


Philip - Discussions To Continue?

Qutoe:

Philip Linden
CEO/Founder, Linden Lab

Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 480

Hi Merwan! I wanted to answer this by saying that, yes, I am totally open to more discussions with GOM. I didn't close the talks - the ball is in their court.

However, I will NOT discuss or respond to discussions about any talks that I have had with them in these forums, or in-world. We have given this a great deal of thought. Regardless of how much I'd love to have a chance to give the community my side of the discussion, I don't feel that it would be the right policy for LL to respond, because I think there is too much risk that by doing so we will hurt residents of SL. I will not violate the privacy of a resident, and this is a case where such discussions would do that. GOM may have made a decision to take the discussion public, but this still does not make it OK in my mind to respond.
__________________
Philip Linden
CEO & Founder, Linden Lab
blog: http://secondlife.blogs.com/philip



_/_/_/

I agree Philip - you have to remain silent regarding this difficult situation, and your side of the story really has no relevance for public discussion and would in fact be harmful.

Speaking from my personal experience with SLEx and Apo back in Jan. '05 - at that time I also choose to remain silent while the community, and I, struggled with the "...what, why..." of his actions against my ownership interest and the resulting turmoil in the community. I have many correspondences/documents that would have clarified many unknowns, none of which have been made public; documents which are of SL historical, community and RL legal importance concerning the actions against me. Yet at the Time of Troubles, I choose not release these, or leak them, as was suggested, and had to deal-in-silence.

I mention this unfortunate time in my SL experience, only to offer support, knowing first hand the tremendous weight of not speaking while the community speculates about the minutia of what did or did not happen, too often totally off-base but none the less, a heavy burden to shoulder.

Yet my situation really is small-time compared to yours as the CEO of LL. You carry the authority and responsibility for the whole enterprise - I was but a player in an emerging market. So I offer my sincerest best wishes and support, and am confident you will do what you know to be best.

In closing, should there be anything I can do to assist with these discussions, know that I'm of course willing to help.

Merwan, this started with Philip explaining to us how he was going to replace us with an internal market allowing residents to buy from and sell to one another. We discussed integration at the time, but the talks came to nothing. We raised the point in the hotline. He got back to us telling us he was "bummed" and that he'd like to continue talking about integration.

Integration, in this instance, meant us using an insecure and brittle protocol *and* changing our business model. It wasn't so much integration as it was re-engineering.

When we explained, in brutal detail, twice, that the way he proposed was not at all acceptable to us, he replied by telling us that we were just "putting up roadblocks" and by saying, "fine, we'll get someone to beta test." We were told that our suggestion of a more generic, more robust solution might be considered in the future, but that his market was going to happen as he described.

I'm not entirely sure how that leaves the ball in our court. Unless I'm supposed to apologize for asking some inconvenient questions which, I might add, he has yet to answer.

As it stands, we will attend the town hall meeting and hope that he answers them there. We'll determine how to continue once we know more.

J

Just who is this Merwan kat? Will Philip will stop what he's doing and listen on account of him? Can't wait to see how this plays out.

This is probably the most truthful post you have made yet. Business models need to change with changing markets and environments. If you cannot change your business model to the market then you will fold, and probably should sooner rather than later. IBM almost folded and they came back, as did Apple when we all thought Apple is dead (pretty wins over substance!).


You have probably just successfully alienated your ONLY partner in the gaming currency world since none of the other gaming companies were willing to work with you. You screwed your customers once when you stopped trading other currencies and in the process screwed yourselves out of massive potential income with a shortsighted panicked view of the future. History is now repeating itself. Instead of adapting and evolving and looking at this as a way to expand your business, remove some liability and possibly expand into other gaming currencies again; you are whining like some kids that had their lemonade stand kicked. Buck up! Damn, if it is just a hobby then cry wolf and fold or be business men and innovate!

This is BS requested by those who have no authority.

Show your support for Linden Labs:

/120/00/59536/1.html

GOM is not the only Money Exchanger there are others and I think Philip needs to talk to them all.

I don't see anything wrong with Philips Ideal.