New Oxford American Dictionary -via Moc OS X
announcement |-nounsm-nt|
noun
a public and typically formal statement about a fact, occurrence, or intention : the spokesperson was about to make an announcement | a policy announcement | he was shaken by her announcement.
WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University
announcement
n 1: a formal public statement; "the government made an announcement about changes in the drug war"; "a declaration of independence" [syn: proclamation, annunciation, declaration] 2: a public statement about something that is happening or going to happen; "the announcement appeared in the local newspaper"
I looked all day, yesterday in my email, for an announcement of the SecondLife client upgrade and requisite downtime. I continued to check all day for announcement until quite late. I received no announcement on Tuesday, 12 of September, in other words yesterday.
Today, this morning, I find an email about the announcement of the upgrade and that SecondLife is down. I look and see that the email hit my ISP's server at 12:04 AM, in other words, today the 13th. Following is the message...
Scheduled Downtime for Tomorrow, 09.13, 7am - 12pm PST
/3/8f/136949/1.html
In forum: Announcements & News
Started by: Jesse Linden
Last post: Yesterday 07:28 PM
Now unless you are traveling faster than the speed of light or have a time machine...tomorrow is not today.
On many occasions, in the past, we have received these announcements in a timely and informative manner, sometimes to announce there will be no upgrade but on just as many occasions we do not get them before the event or so close that there is no real time to plan or prepare for them.
The Linden Labs and the press has made much about the fact that people can make money in SecondLife or operate a business. But I am not sure how that will happen if we cannot know when Secondlife will be open or not. To be fair I am not including those times of exploit attack or acts of god: lightening, locusts, other assorted mayhem, then Linden Labs and their customers are all in the same boat together.
What I am talking about, here, is you informing us, the customer, in a timely manner that shows you take us seriously and that shows us respect. Linden Labs has a general problem, whether it be technical or an attitude that somehow on many occasions leaves us guessing as to your intent or the perception of your intent.
Several weeks ago I was informed of a Linden sponsored community meeting 2 days after it happened despite my constant IMs and such to inform and insure that I wanted to attend and contribute. On a number of occasions, for Townhalls and Community Roundtables, I have been informed an hour before or as little as 20 minutes before while I was online about a meeting to take place. Now this could tell me that you are just very poorly organized, or do not have or it does not work well technical system for this process. But how it makes me feel is that you really do not want people to attend and contribute. I do not know if that is your intent but that is the appearance it sows. Continuing that process over time grows a cynical and sarcastic attitude towards Linden Labs and SecondLife and I am pretty sure that is not what you want.
Also I saw in another post the mention of the 1 or 2 minute warning, in world, that you are shutting down. In her case she was in a class and could get her notes saved in time. In my case it might be an important corporate client I am attempting to charm into SecondLife. In both situations, unless you are on fire or some nasty hacker has found his way into the pantry this is not acceptable. If you are doing some maintenance or other technical but required drudgery then you need to give more time and a solid explanation of what is going on.
Please put a system in place, both in technology and personel, that informs us fully and before an action is to take place so that we may prepare for it. Blogs are not the way, announcements in a forum are an uncommon method, should be a part of your website with a top-level menu access and the use of an email or inworld message to alert and point to that page.
Thanks.