Why does SL keep going backwards?

My experience with the new patch....download....log in....five seconds pass....crash to desktop.....log in......about five minutes pass....disconnected......log in....about five minutes pass....crash to desktop.....log in....about three minutes pass.....crash to desktop.....give up

I cannot think of one way in which SL is superior to how it stood when I first joined almost a year ago, and numerous ways in which it is worse.

To me SL just seems to be going backwards in terms of features, stability and reliability. Surely a year's worth of work should see some improvement???

To be honest, I'd be happy with the viewer from a year ago if it worked. My prediction for the year to come is that the open source community that LL hired to write the client software for them are going to spend their time mostly writing bots while the LL staff spend their time maintaining their wonderful new voice chat black hole.

Vale

That is key. The viewer a year ago didn't work, hence the updates. Just because you can't see the bigger picture doesn't mean that SL is not being improved. There are still bugs out there, and sometime when they fix one thing, 2 more things come out. It is not that there are more bugs, just different bugs. I for one and glad I am still not stuck with what I had 3 years ago. SL works much better now then it has in the past.

I wouldnt give up the latest round of viewers... SL looks so much sharper and has greater depth, the new rendering pipelines are great for some systems, but now flood older systems... your only recourse it to either upgrade your system, or downsize your settings..... progress costs....

I have a below spec system apart from RAM which I have coming out of my ears and SL runs very nicely for me and comparable to the performance on a friends PC who has a top of the range setup. I also wouldnt trade this update to go back to an older version. SL is looking sharper, faster and generally performing better all found since Wednesday.

Dnate - that is Linden apologist nonsense and you know it.

There HAVE been times in the past when SL and the Client have worked far better than now - remember just before 1.7? Things were pretty good then. Sure, we didn't have a couple of shiny features we now have, sometimes, when they work.

But we didn't have the constant, boring, never ending grind of TP failure followed by login problems succeeded by shoe buggery topped off by inventory failure iced with IMs not working supplemented with remorseless LOD decay and the coup de grace - you can't even cash out because Lindex is 'bugged' and LL can't process PrayPal transactions reliably.

The 'big picture' you can see - and the rest of us poor idiots can't is a rose tinted illusion my friend.

The 'big picture' we can all see is one of a failing product.

And what do we have next? Voice - something (as usual) very few people really want, that almost certainly won't work, that almost certainly will generate lag and yet more inworld problems.

They just don't learn - that is probably the core of the problem.

Saying YOU don't think there are problems with SL and LL is one thing Dnate.
Telling people 'only' a year old they can't see the 'bigger picture' is condescending and insulting.

No, I think you missed my point. I never said the viewer a year ago was bug free, my point is that none of the new features that I've seen have been worth it. Had LL not introduced any new featers and instead concentrated on fixing the bugs SL would be a better piece of software now.

At the momeny SL is, at best, only just about working. There are still some very serious issues regarding lag, lost inventory etc. LL are still planning on introducing voice chat to the viewer, they barely have enough resources to cope with what they've got, why would they stretch what they've got even thinner by implementing a whole new world of problems?

The new features are all great in theory, but in practice they cause more trouble than they're worth. New bugs, new workarounds and eventualy people getting locked out of SL when older systems can't cope with the upgrades.

Vale

From a programming perspective, adding voice will have very little impact on the client. The voice servers are all 3rd party hostings, the only real link is the Sim server sending avatar locations to the voice server software for the spatial 3d voice elements.
My personal thing about having voice, comes from my experience with There.com, there will be descrimination. People will be deliberately excluded from some conversations simply because they don't have a mic, or there personal circumstances may prevent them from using a mic. And that the griefers can now shout obsenties and cause feedback, blow whistles etc to spoil the experience.

I am a guy, I chat in main and IM, if I have to multi-task, I'll screw up.. the ears are stereo, but the receiver is mono LOL I'll end up typing what I should be speaking, and speaking what everyone else is typing...

Going backwards to the point where the text display is often completely illegible is taking the the progress moves in leaps and bounds idea a bit too far.

I still haven't experienced the "blurry text" that some people are...where are you seeing this???? Everything in the text (on HUD) department seems fine to me - I like the more subtle text TBH. But then, I also like the new sun, water, etc. The only thing I don't like in the update is the way group IMs are behaving...oh and stuff up my butt after sim crossings lol. Oh and av textures rebaking randomly after TPs.

i'll drink to that!

Who said they're doing voice for the residents? I thought it was for corporate customers. Up next: PowerPoint-on-a-prim..

I think they mean the textures in world. It takes quite a while for text and other textures to load properly for me since the last update. Wish I could go back to 13. when it all loaded nicely.

Please go to http://urbandictionary.com and submit the world "lindened".

lindened: made worse by an attempt at improvement

Example useage: The car was having some troubles before I got my cousin to work on it but now I can't drive it at all, it's totally lindened.

Thanks.

I don't think it's going backwards. It just took a detour. On to a dirt road. Full of potholes. Headed for a cliff.....

This is hilarious and it has made my day. "Lindened" has just become part of my vocabulary!!

The question, why are the going backwards is complex. From a technological stand point, I can't answer. I'm an idiot when it comes to technology. I do have some ideas on thesocial/business aspects of it.

1. They have created a runaway train. LL has created something wonderful, truly wonderful. Even their biggest critics hope passionately for their success. I don't think they anticipated or prepared for this level of success. I don't know, but I think their plan is to either to sell SL for a great amount of money OR get major investment dollars into LL. Both of these goals are legitimate, worthy and realistic. However, they have focued on a monomaniacal lust for numbers to achieve this. The lust for numbers could very well strangle their dream. They don't know how to deal with it, although there are relatively simple solutions.

2. Even if they can but the brakes on the runaway train, they won't. These people are not stupid. They know competition will hit them sooner or later. We all know it to. Its a matter of time until someone, some how, some where comes up with something that works better, both technologically [e.g. stable platforms, no tp issues, inventory loss etc.] and socially [e.g. stricter TOS rules such as protection against land bot, sheep bot, financial scamming]. I THINK they believe if they can keep the thing band aided together and keep adding numbers until they find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they will be ok in the end. They may well be right on this.

3. Customer service or lack thereof. Dealing with irritated customers is not fun. I believe most of the Lindens are kind of "techie" oriented and they like coding and making things. The customers are beginning to irritate the Lindens and its easy, right now, to silence everyone, or more accurately, put ear muffs on so they don't hear the complaints. Realistically, as long as they are the only game in town, this will work. It won't work forever though.

4. Its more fun to make new features than to fix bugs. This is related to #3. The techies are creative people, in their own way, and coming up with bright, shiny "gee whiz" new features is simply more rewarding than fixing bugs in the system. Until they come up with a way to adequatly reward those who fix the bugs, this isn't going to change.

5. They never anticipated the level of scamming that could go on. Who could? This is entrirely new. The reasonable desire to not be "law enforcement" officers in SL combined with perhaps an over respect for clever coding has made them blind to the many abuses that have and can occur.

6. They didn't realize the amount of users who would use SL as purely a social experience. I believe they envisioned a world populated by technologically sophistocated people who would essentially solve their own problems and, at the same time, not be terribly bothered by problems that really irritate those of us who are not so techie in outlook. Its almost like two different cultures and they dont seem to be able to "get" the non techie culture. Its like this. A former boy friend used this example. When he wants to drill a hole in a piece of wood, we wants to get his drill, put a drill bit thingy in it, and drill a hole!! period. He doesnt want to re-wire the drill and try different sized drill motors and change the plug and all that stuff. He just wants a HOLE now!! The Techies LIKE rebuilding the drill. Re building the drill is MORE important than the hole.

Here's where they're going, some possible destinations:

1. Their plan may work. Keep it together until the big money comes in, either through sale or investment. Then who knows?

2. They drive it off the cliff, strangling on their own numbers.

3. Competition arrives, then we have sub choices:
a. They get REALLY scared and start actually fixing bugs, listening to customers and generally behaving like most succesful companies. Aol went through this.

b. They lose and become the Commodore64 of 3D virtual worlds. "Oh yeahhhhh, I remember SL..it was cool while it lasted but [fill intheblank] was soooo much better."


Sooner or later, LL and SL will come to the cross roads. Are we close? I have NO idea, but it will come..someday. If they make the smart decisions, they will survive and I hope they do. They deserve a huge amount of success!! If they don't make the smart decisions, they will not survive and we all be the poorer for it. I wish them luck, but tend to be pessimistic. Their own corporate culture seems ill suited for listening to voices other than their own.

wow - good post

from my experience this makes a lot of sense as to whats going on.

Ohh - visual aid -

http://www.oneposter.com/UserData/Poster/Poster_7124.jpg

No, that's crap.

In version 1.7, we had, what, maybe 8,000 concurrent users?

Compared to, what, 38,000 now typically?

That version worked great then for that size of world. This version works was built to handle 40,000. Completely different scenarios.

Lol when 1.7 came out we all wanted a roll back - it was bad. Textures took FOREVER to rezz.

We actually wanted a roll back to 1.5 - 1.6 wasnt very good either LOL.

I dont think there were even 8000

We called it 1.7 heaven and hell.

When version 1.20.0.1 comes out, the same people will be talking about how great version 1.15.0.2 was and how we should roll back. It's ridiculous.

I wrote a long post, probably overly verbose, on whyI think LL is going backwards or at least not headed in the right direction. Now I am going to propose solutions. I am probably all wet, misinformed or a"twit" or an "ignoramus" as a poster in another thread so graciously called me. Nontheless, here is my go at it:

1. Turn off the spigot. Start phasing out free accounts. Go ahead and keep the ones they have. They're here, we all might as well learn to live with them. However, eliminate new free accounts forever. Allow free accounts on a trial basis for 30 -90 days. At the end of that time they get the account eliminated or they start paying. At the same time, increase the fees for paid accounts $1 USD per month. [I know, I know, HOWLS of protest but stay with me here]

2. Make paid accounts worth it.
A. Bring back first land but modify it. Paid accounts who have never owned land get a 512m for 512L. This land can not be sold back by the original purchaser to anyone but LL.

B. If a sim is full, the free accounts start getting ejected.

C. Live help [which will be brought back] is only available to paid accounts

3. Bring back live help and some DECENT Customer Service. Use some of the revenue from more paid accounts to pay for this. They can even outsource some of this if they want. Use the outsource to answer questions like "where do I get hair?" "how to I unpack a box?" type questions and use in house LL resources for more technical problems.

4. Get tough on griefers. If necessary re-write the TOS and Community Standards. A couple of months of near wholesale griefer BANNING will go along way to eliminate this problem. Other sites manage to identify wrongdoers by e mail accounts, IP numbers and a variety of means. There is no reason why LL can't do the same.

5. Get tough on scam artists. See # 4 above.

6. Start listening. First, consult with various SL users who are not affiliated with LL [e.g. Anshe Chung and the guy who created Caledon] Go to the people they like to point out in their book and in their PR releases as success stories. These are smart people who can probably help LL with some of the problems. Start READING this Forum. Then gotostep 7.

7. Prioritize the bugs. Make a top ten list of bugs to be fixed. REWARD those who manage to impliment a working fix for each bug. Do NOT introduce anew "feature" until one of the top ten bugs is fixed. One "feature" for each fixed bug.

8. Communicate. List the top ten bugs every month. Do NOT repeat do NOT respond to every request for help or complaint with awe're working onthe problem and we apologize for any inconvenience type fecal PR response. That just tends to IRRITATE people more. Just say honestly and briefly what steps are being taken to fix the top ten.

Sue, I think I love you. /me applauds.

Collette and Brenda, thank you so much. You are two people who I respect mightily and your gracious compliments fill me with...oh..warm fuzzies. I do need to point out that I don't think ANY of the ideas I articulated in my two long posts originated with me. I think I got most of them from reading other posts here in the Forum. All I did was put them together, kind of a mental "cut and paste." I'm neither that bright nor am I that original. My thanks is sincere and from my heart though.

That's right. I keep forgetting you are a Lawyer........
*Are Lawyers considered Liberal Arts majors? that would explain it*