Rants Forum

I propose a new forum, the Rants Forum. In this new forum naming names and talking about locked or closed threads would be acceptable.

Why is such a forum needed? Right now Linden Labs will not intercede in interpersonal disputes. That means if Joe Resident ripped you off in-world for thousands and thousands of $L, Linden Labs won't do a thing. What they do, though, is forbid you to post your grievance in the forums. What does this accomplish? It protects Joe Resident and allows him to continue to do business unethically (illegally?) and leaves the rest of us uninformed and unprotected.

Why should we be able to talk about closed or locked threads? Other than just basic freedom of expression? It is a way to keep Linden Labs accountable. It seems that recently the number of locked or closed or moved threads is rising, especially threads that criticize Linden Labs or the res mods. I've had the frustration of having a thread moved and being told by Torley that my problem would be passed on (to whom I have no idea) and then waiting weeks for a response that never comes. If Linden Labs doesn't have a way of hearing about the service problems they won't ever be able to correct them.

There used to be a Rants forum. There isn't anymore. Part of the problem is, Rants, by relation, could not be a PG. People are going to blow their stacks, spew off obscenities at others, and likely start posting some broadly offensive images. I've seen it before, I'll see it again. All areas of the Second Life website are intended to be PG--this includes the forums. Mentioned in the "Global Standards, Local Ratings" section of the Community Standards.

Fear not--if you can't do it on these forums, you can set up your own forum or post on one of a number of 3rd-party forums which allow this. The Internet is such a big place. After all, that is why I have an external blog too.

Also, oh my gosh, Michael, I apologize if I didn't communicate clearly enough to you about the problems you were having. I previously replied to several of your threads, such as:
The Technical Issues forum helps us compile the experiences of Residents. It is not a substitute for bug reports, nor for contacting support, which you should do if you're having an account-specific issue.

We do hear about the problems and they are regularly updated in Known Issues--infact, Karen just posted this today:
Please have a look at what we endeavor to resolve! The specific problem you mentioned earlier, is still on there:
It would be nice to have that fixed, I agree.

All the best.