Answer to Update Priorities

There has been countless posts of complaints from residents about what is included in todays update. People have been griping about the extra work placed on flexi prim behaviour on region crossing and categorizing 'pretty lighting tricks' as pointless.

The majority of you dont understand how a developement team works. Programmers are broken up into groups that work on a task. There can be a dozen different groups all working on different projects. Some are working on improvements to the features available for Group Management. Some are working on issues releated to improveing network traffic, inter sim communications and asset handling. There are also other groups who are dedicated to going through the various crash logs, interpretting the information in them and figuring out which are driver related. It is bad management to try to put the entire software developement team on the same features. Different programmers have different areas of expertise and not everyone would even be qualified to do the job. People are placed where their specific skills get the most effecient work done.

In todays case a group working on the noted features happened to finish their job to a point where it would benifit the system to impliment those changes on the grid. There are other teams STILL working on the issues everyone feels are important and as THOSE issues are resolved more updates will occur.

The programming team that finished todays update is probably already working on yet other bug fixes and system improvements. They are probably NOT the issues that some of the community prioritises but thats because there are already people working on those aspects. There are also issues that only so many people can work on the same pieces of code before it becomes counter productive. Allowing the teams to have their assigned tasks is what allows new features to be added, while also allowing both minor and major bugs to get fixed at same time.

Please give the Lindens some slack and take into consideration all points of view before blowing up on them. They just got back from an extended weekend and are well rested ready to work. Dont ruin their good moods (reducing their productivity) with pointless rants and uninformed babblings. Thank you.

edit:

Also the other aspect of todays server upgrades is a step in the direction of having html in-world as better web software is being put into the client itself. This one feature alone has been asked for longer than i've been a resident. It will also allow LL to have a faster, cleaner help interface in the client rather than forcing people to always go to other websites for everything. Integration will reduce the stress some residents feel.

Thanx for your understanding, Seronis.

I've thought from time to time, that having an official page or somesuch thing to highlight these insights into Linden Lab would be very educating--and entertaining!

It's important to recognize that the working style at LL is quite unique too; one of the things I appreciate and admire most about being here! It's essential we're in touch with the community, and that we endeavor to keep improving so we can all be better. And plus, hearing these phrases used often:is pretty invaluable!

For some, and I do understand this--with me being an "enduser Linden" and all--the development process is like this impregnable machine. Features and bug fixes arise; the end results are visible but the process is not really publicly seen. So it's kind of like dropping a seed, covering the area around with a hospital curtain, and a few weeks or months later, you see a fully-grown tree, with more maturing to do yet.

Which is why I'm so fond of pointing out what was asked for and then delivered. It's the whole "CALL AND RESPONSE!" ethos. People love replies, people wanna hear back, people wanna know "Lindens, are you out there? And if so, what's going on?" and hear back from us. That's one of the foremost reasons why I'm here. Good communication.

Flexiprims (I'm hearing this term used a lot!), the new lighting system, etc. are all part of a bigger picture. 2006 is a year of innovative growth, and in hindsight it'll make a lot more sense. Kinda like a good Neil Gaiman story, but I digress...

"Points of view" isn't stated nearly enough as it should be. I've seen many times where one Resident goes, "Why are you wasting all your time on this, LL? It's not what the community asked for!" while another Resi on the other side of the forums goes, at the same time, "THANK YOU LL for this feature! I've been asking for it for SO long! About time it happened!"

When one person claims to speak as the voice of many, it often isn't accurately representative, which is why we have things like the Feature Voting Tool and those long "I WANT THIS FEATURE!" (*cough* llTeleportAgent *cough*) threads. We're reminded of what's important every day. Many passionate voices, unified, do make a positive difference.

I cannot begin to count the number of features which may have taken awhile but came about in response to Resident requests. One of my fun guilty hobbies: digging up old threads clamoring for things which have since come to pass, and then bouncing them to rejoice. Because the magic of these stories, and indeed, the imaginative world of Second Life, has all sorts of dramatic tension in need of lovely resolutions.