Wonderful Progress

Hello all. I'm going to be a bit crass here, because I'm shooting from the 'hip' so to speak in writing this, but damn it if I don't feel i have to say this.

Linden Labs has created a wonderful world here where we, the residents, can construct all sorts of content and do things we only dream of in Real Life. We are able to see the visions in our minds come to fruition and only our imaginations limit us in what we do. From creating a bouncing ball, to a flower that blooms, to a baby that cries in our arms when we hold it.... heck, we can even fly!

These are the things we, as a community, would love to be able to show the world.... these are the things we dream of. But far more often than not, we are plunged into the world of nightmare where some chuckleheaded toe-rag come along and does something idiotic, like launching a goo spewing self-replicating beach ball that does nothing but cause strife.

Tuesday the 10th* there is supposed to be a major press conference of a Fortune 500 company WITHIN Second Life... one of the larger computer manufacturers in the world. No doubt inspired by all the apparent 'growth' (*cough* *cough*) SL has been experiencing of late....

Will the grid be fixed and all pristine when they log in to have their little soiree? Perhaps.

Will there be a chance that they will get to experience first hand all the wonders that SL offers? Perhaps.

Is there a chance for mass stupidity to occur when they're in here recording their virtual press conference within second life and have some 'freebie unverified got nothin better to do fool' launch an attack (yet again) and really give em a taste of what your residents have been dealing with for the past so many weeks day after day? Yup.

Is this the face you wish to present to prospective Fortune 500 visitors Linden Labs? If it is, so be it.... I applaud your success in either case.

I have been in SL for slightly over a year now. During the time prior to the opening of registrations to all unverified individuals, I could probably have counted on one hand how many times the grid was attacked by replication attacks (viroids).

Since the opening of registrations without any type of proof of who folks are, I have seen these griefer attacks every few days.

A 'grey goo' barrier had been errected prior to open registrations that seemed quite effective to a point, but like all such protections in the computer world, some genius (and I use the term with the utmost of sarcasm) found a way to get around it.

Is CC Validation an absolute must? Not necessarily. BUT - I DO believe that some type of registration could be put in place that would help mitigate the current inrushing of stupidity to SL.

Linden Labs needs to get its act together. Sometimes LESS is MORE... and it is necessary to take a step backward before proceding forward.

BRING BACK ACCOUNT VALIDATION IN SOME FORM... or on your own heads be it.

As to the prospective Fortune 500 companies looking in and seeing whats going on and what potentials lay waiting for them..... lets just say that Linden Labs shouldn't imagine one bit that they're not seeing ALL of what happens in SL. Fortune 500 companies have EMPLOYEES who likely, if they're a tech related organization, have geeks and guru's working for them.... and likely are already residents of SL in MANY cases.

Now, hypothetically speaking, if I were the head of such a large company, and I saw that my potential investment would be sitting on such an unstable and unregulated platform, I'd probably be a bit nervous about what types of commitments I was making. And I'd want assurances from the folks I was investing with about certain things. What assurances can Linden Labs give to their investors about platform continuity and viability at this point?

Philip Linden, you had a vision.... was this it? Was what we're experiencing today what you envisioned for the SL of tomorrow?

By all the powers I sure as heck hope not.

Bring back your vision Philip. Get it back on track... and get your house in order. There is so much potential here it is staggering... don't let a handful of fools ruin it for you, or the rest of us who share your dream.

[Edit] Corrected date of visit by Sun Microsystems at the new 'Sun Pavilion' as per press release made in Forbes Magazine

With all respect,

As I've already mentioned here in the forum, I'm still not convinced that removing the unverified accounts will magically make all of the griefers disappear (there was grief before we switched the account registration), but it will keep out those without credit cards (in most parts of the world credit cards aren't as readily avialbale). Also, we are always looking for better ways to verify identity and prevent griefers from re-entering our world.

The recent grid attacks have been very difficult for everyone within the community and also for us here at Linden Lab. We agree that it is unacceptable to have this type of malicious activity within our world. In response to this situation, Robin has outlined our security plan in this blog post, I hope you'll take a moment to read about our plans which are already in motion.