A question about the blog...

Hi.

First of all, let me say, I like the blog. I'm pretty much alone in that, but there you have it.

Here's the thing though. You killed the forums. While the blog would have been a useful addition to the forums, and a great alternative to the Linden forums, as the sole means to communicate with LL they are inadequate. Ok so the forums aren't scalable etc... but here's why it's removal is a problem (just one reason, there's more), and why the blog by itself doesn't cut it.

It was illustrated by a recent event, people's questions about a comment being deleted. Fair enough maybe, off topic. Also a fair question, and important to the residents. And therein lies the problem. On the blog, you get to comment on the topic, within a certain framework. Problem is, it's only the topics LL thinks are important or of concern. If there is a question or concern that residents have, that doesn't happen to coincide with your topics, your concerns, how do they now bring that to your attention? They can't start a topic on your blog, and they can't go off topic, and even the way they can express those concerns if they could, is far more limited than on a forum, and too restrictive to meet our needs. Answers isn't enough either, to fill the void, first of all, you have to have a question, and more importantly, there's no mechanism for a broader discussion beween the residents and LL.

So my question is, in the absence of the forums, how is LL going to enable and empower the residents to bring their topics, their concerns, in an open fashion to LL?*


*supplementary note: People want clear guidelines. Fuzzy "family room" analogies are just too vague, when misinterpretation of the analogy could result in your voice not being heard.

GOOD DAY TO YOU FADE!

The Official Linden Blog is like that movie, Crimson Tide, except with posts instead of submarines! Sorta jesting.

First, a precursor: as more of an AND person than an OR person, this is just my opinion. But we need not exclude when we can include, while at the same time...

clarifying some things which haven't been explored enough yet:


* Official Linden Blog primarily replaces Announcements & News, but not the whole forums. Certainly not, and that's a very confusing generalization I've heard made too much. Saying such a thing also excludes the fact there are growing waves of Resident-run forums, some of which certainly have a "no moderation" style more amenable to some who don't like

* On the contrary to "one-way", I cannot make this clear enough: a specific example is my CommUpdates have all been in response to Resident issues I've received, via forum posts, other blog posts (a la World of SL), blog comments, emails, IMs, etc. The reason why I bring something up: someone else in the community did!

* Trackbacks are underrated! They're an extended form of commentary.

* Actual Guidelines are being prepared, thankyouuuu for your patience. But in the meantime, a "family room" image is vivid and useful.

* In all of this, we can't leave out future options inworld, in Second Life itself. Remember, we have Community Roundtable Meetings for YOU! For YOUR issues! http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/08/28/community-team-roundtable-meeting-this-sept-7/


So the answer to your question, part of it anyway, is very much in exploring communication which we haven't yet. I've been quite enthused about hopping into Resident blogs and adding commentary to there if possible. Those blogs are open, and I can trackback to them, conencting "their topics, their concerns" to us.

I'm just giving some instances, but there's a whole sea out here that hasn't been ventured into yet.

Some of it will make a lot more sense looking back--I know that may sound like shittake to some, but consider that Linden Lab is actually quite late to the blogosphere, which gives me a sense of humility, and watch Steve Jobs's speech about "connecting the dots":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

It's already happening.