Online.....NO! Offline

Ok several times in the last 2 weeks i have attempted to log into SL as on the load page it displays the grid as online.
However i would crash attempting...."oh thats odd?... well SL is ALWAYS crashing ill try again" i say to myself. After several crashes i check the grid status on the webpage and there it tells me "Second Life Offline for Database Maintenance or Update" at NO point is anyone in world warned of this before they log out to fix one of the numerous bugs that occur and ofcourse they find themselves unable to log back in.
LL are becoming less and less transparent and more distant it seems and to be honest are getting a worse and worse reputation with their users.
All i would ask is the common courtesy and transparency of being told "we are closing down log ins for a while" or at least on the load page some warning.
Ive noticed this occurring a lot at weekends and to me it seems an underhand way to avoid heavy load on the database that occurs when there are 20k + people logged in the more that log in the worse things get.
Weve been on a downward slide since i joined in the summer and LL customer service is disgusting people are frustrated and we need to hear from LL what they plan to do to make things not "better" as it cant get much worse but actually working! soon or are we just to blindly go forward hoping they get their act together.
Yes this is a rant but we have no other outlet as comments are ofcourse off to avoid things looking bad.
"Thankyou for your continuing patience" < NO mines has run out long ago.

(oh and for anyone who wishes to call this flaming etc or negative i know LL are "trying" and its not easy but it doesnt change tha fact they seem inept right now and are treating their community with little respect)

Please feel free to vent your frustrations in this thread as right now its the only place we got.

I agree. The constant instability of Second Life the past couple of months has caused me to quit my premium membership. I enjoy playing SL, but just can't bring myself to pay a constant subscription to a product that's SO unreliable.

I couldn't log in either... told me all yesterday night, the grid is down.. everytime i tried to log in....
While Friends of mine were inworld.... ain't THAT funny... ?

Not to mention the 20 crashes i had on that day... LL do something!
Stop bringing new features.. first fix the old ones...

I would agree the contradictions make this look like some kind of small time hobby outfit than a professional company the lack of courtesy is unforgivable given the few minutes it would take to give the customers notice. The constant contradiction between actual status and the log in page was funny a month ago now the novelty is wearing thin. Although not getting in had spared me a few hours fighting the lag and numerous glitches to make something that they'd probably lose. You would have to say LL's do what u feel like work ethic is seriously flawed when the issues are ongoing over several months ..same bugs over and over. Sorry but if the hampster powering the asset server is so old then limit its usage i.e limit building to premium accounts for example or limit inventory to unverified acc.s. Whatever the current strategy is its obviously not working. Instead of blundering along with a limping database do something draconian then fix the damn thing THEN make it a free for all again WHEN its stable and working. Those are possibly extreme examples but they need to do something this bodge it n scarper mentality is crazy. I agree with the comment on there being little or no redress to LL on a public platform and sorry the excuses given were frankly lame I think most ppl see it as LL ducking the issue and a heavy handed way to silence the criticism or awkward questions....sorry its hard to see it any other way. This is a pretty good example of how not to run a company ..cutting edge or not.
thats my rant done lol

Happened to me too, what they did is turned off logins, but didn't kick everyone off. If you/your region crashed, you couldn't get back on, basically. It sucked.

Oh, and while I was trying to log in the status page said "offline" and the client said "online" and trying to log in gave me the error, "offline for maintainence, click help to get a link to the status page." Huh? Why not just plop the URL down right there?

Not to mention that the website exploded at the same time and I couldn't even see the mainpage, help page (that that button took me too) or the status page or the forums or the blog.