Alight, I looked over the blog. Even listened to Torley's "How to use this blog" tutorial. [edit] After further looking through the blog....what a load of crud. The information might be there, but it's far easier to locate in a forum base. Forum; Catagories all listed on one page, then all titles listed on one page. Blog; only last posted blogs seen until you page through several pages and links. This may make sense eventually, but for now, and for non-netsurfers, it is a nightmare. LL should remember that not all of the community are computer engineers. Quite frankly, I doubt I'll ever use the LL site again if they close the forums. [/edit]
But what about the community getting information to Linden Lab, or our fellow residents?
Points:
-SLLM. How are we to request assistance without this forum?
-Answers. Like this question, how are we to ask for information from Linden Lab?
-General. A lot of information is passed her between Residents, speciffically information usefull to new Residents. I agree, there is a lot of junk there as well, but that will always be with large amounts of people. I have personally recieved help from this forum I caould never have gotten anywhere else. Not even Linden Lab knows the world of Second Life as well as some of the long time Residents.
These are just 3 of my personal concerns off the top of my head. I'm sure others will have more concerns.
So how are we to get information to Linden Lab, and how are we to get, and recieve, information from our fellow Residents?
And no, a 3rd party site is not an acceptable answer. Not unless SL is going to pick one and offically link to it from the main site as they do with the current one. A centralised communication system is needed.
A blog is not communication. A blog is information. Communication is termed by trading information. Blogs are one way for the most part. We Residents can post replies, but we can not actually begin communication as we do in the forums.
I'm not saying to keep the forums, but the factor of communication needs to be addressed, and needs to be done BEFORE the ending of the current system.
As much as it may pain to do, I would reccomend asigning a Linden(s) to make a stickified post in General to get an idea of concerns and needs of the community. Not jsut to psot once, but to reply and discuss throughout the posts to follow. I say for such in General so that we can give feedback. Hopefully in a mature manor *crosses fingers* so that all aspects can be worked out for the good of the community and the good of Linden Lab before the communication we have is lost.
We ain't perfect, but we do talk. Lets work together an make it better.
~Jessy