In response to this;
As I've written before too, with much humility, Linden Lab is actually very late to the blogging table. Numerous successful companies have already used blogs to supply info to their valued customers. Microsoft and Apple being two big names.
LL is not Microsoft, or Apple, or even Blizzard, or WotC, or any other company that sells a -finished- product. These companies can get by with using blogs as they only post information they think is relevant to the purchasers. Those companies neither desire, nor require, a great deal of feedback. The do not do continuous improvment on thier products. They fix major bugs, and some minor ones, with patches, but any real additional features are usually incorperated into the next product to be purchased.
SL is a continuous work. It is unique in that LL fashions the direction of the product by customer feedback. Letting the Residents shape the world, remember? A blog, or a crippled forum can't do that. To understand the customer desires and shape to them, the company must -hear- them.
Add to that, the removal of the General forum. This forum didn't require any feedback from LL. Removing it only takes away a tool for us Residents to find and pass information amoungst ourselves. Tighter moderation was needed, but that was the failure of not placing enough authority into the hands of the moderators. Same with the Land and Economy forum.
So I'll ask again; Where do we, the Residents, go now to ask questions of our fellows? And do NOT tell me about 3rd party sites. For such a system of information trade to work, it must be a centralised system. 3rd party sites will never be able to do such.
And just where the heck do we discuss Feature Proposals now?
~Jessy *highly disappointed in the managment*
