Checking in on improved mainland controls...

.. Are these still in the plans? If they're not, I really believe another meeting has to be convened about them.

It's something we can't let drop, because as the population gets larger, and -mainland builds- get larger, we are *really* losing the ability to effectively manage and function on the mainland.

Philip said two townhalls ago that "yes", the Mainland would get improved management tools (as the islands have, pretty much in every single solitary release...).

I also want to clarify that often when I bring up mainland tools, Linden Lab immediately responds with "yes, improved group tools are coming". While these group tools are VERY important, (and we'd like to see those soon, too) - they are not the same thing as mainland controls, an effective ban, an effective mute, etc.

The dialogue really needs to remain open on this, because "griefing" incidents, as the islands gain controls and the mainland does not, tend to be diverted artificially towards the mainland areas because they are easier targets.

Luskwood currently manages 3 sims (Lusk, Perry and Clara) - yet we get less control than someone who manages one island. I've heard similar complaints from The Shelter and other mainland builds.

While the ideal of a 'contiguous experience for all' may be noble, in reality I believe the notion of this experience is being overriden by the fact that mainland areas can basically fall into anarchy at any given time, where the griefers have the upper hand.

I have rehashed this appeal so many times, I'm beginning to become rather exhasperated ... The points of contention seem to be 'forgotten' every time; I get told that I can "simply use ban" -- (in a list that has been full for a year now)...

40m bans (which actually end *under* some structures as low as a two story building) and 30-second freeze/mutes simply do not cut it. These tools have not changed from 1.0, when the population was 2000 residents/~150 online at a time. We're now at 220,000/~7000 online at a time. But nothing has changed.

The Estate tools grow withe every release, but mainland parcel controls -- no matter how big or small those parcels are -- have not moved an inch since version 1.0.

If a meeting needs to be convened about the progress and direction of this, I will be willing to do the legwork on it. But we do need some input from Linden Lab.

Thank you for the consideration once again,

I understand your frustration Michi and I wish I could give you a specific date for implementation. Here's what I CAN tell you...

- the group tools which will help you with organization and management of your groups are in internal preview and will be made available for general preview in the next week (barring some substantial bug that holds it back). With these tools you'll be able to send mass communication without having to use the vote mechanism, give object to everyone at once, and assign roles and the permissions for those roles down to the individual level. You're right -- it doesn't add new permissions, but it does give you a good deal more flexibility in how you run the group.

- we've made some improvements to the mute functions (IM to email), which should be available in the next release (after 1.9.1), and we're continuing work on audio mute.

- changing height limits, increasing the size of the ban list, and further improvements to 'mute' and privacy functionality are in the queue. I'll elevate them in priorty.

- the broader controls you're talking about will take some time to design and implement. In the meantime, the other, smaller changes should help to improve your situation.