An open Letter to Philip Rosedale

I choose option D - any of the above.

I do think there has been less thread hi-jacking and off-topic general banter since that thread got going. There is still some, but most of the silliness is now confined to the one thread.

But it is also the scapegoat for creating prohibited threads, as an example of hypocrisy in moderation. The forum needs an OT/GD area.

Upgrading the software is fine, sorely needed. As for Moderation, with the exception of recent events, I had no problem with the "Little to no moderation" that existed when Strife stepped down. Then again I had no problems with Strife's Moderation.

I think part of the reaction is that ,once again, LL is wanting to make wholesale changes, throw the baby out with the bathwater, instead of just fixing what is needed in the current forum. I've never been a fan of change for change sake, often the new thing is just as much a piece of crap as the old, but putting a "New and Improved" label on it, it's supposed to make us all go Ooooh"

Typical corporate smoke and mirrors, another sign that I think points to LL and SL moving one step closer to being a Mayonnaise Sandwich on White Bread.

Very bad idea to out source moderation Very weak idea.

I don't think we can really say that yet, Rebecca. We'll have to see how they do. It might turn out to be a great idea if it isn't too heavy handed, doesn't stamp out the sense of community this forum has always had, and makes the forums less intimidating for new folks. It most definitely could turn out to be a bad thing (at least from the perspective of existing forum regulars), but let's give them a chance before we get too bent out of shape. The reasons for the overhaul are all good, because it's always seemed bizarre to me that LL retreated to the blog and abandoned one of their greatest sources for feedback. Hopefully this will turn out in a way that makes us feel more like our opinions matter and less like we're just tolerated which is how it's felt since LL retreated from participating here.

I thought it was because we had become so hostile to them.

Seeing the Linden Answers forum get shot, for example, was sad (at least for me) but it was pretty easy to see coming just from the way the Lindens were being talked to.

I completely agree. The moderators won't have an easy job striking a balance between demanding civility without squashing legitimate criticism.

It's possible it would be a better choice then the way things have been, but I think it is another example of cutting corners, which continues a lack of vision.

How can outsourcing moderation be cutting corners? Won't they have to actually PAY someone to moderate? That's more expensive than free Resmods, isn't it?

I, for one, welcome the new non-Linden, non-resident moderators! '

Well, I probably will once we see how they work out. It could be a good thing, allowing the resmods to regain their sanity points and maybe they'll enjoy POSTING to the forums for a change.

But I'll take a wait and see approach. Or a believe it when I see it. Or a bit of koolaid.

Indeed!

Have they lost weight lately? Hey, that's a great outfit too. Looking good there, new alien moderators!

LL doesn't care what you think. The new mods ARE intending to squash criticism. They are being paid to get rid of the ugliness. And invent a pretty flowery blogrum which says how awesomely cool SL is and that it always works so great and everyone loves it. It's a PR move. This way LL can ***sell*** it's idea to others, and advertisers, and investors and $e$t$c$. I've seen this happen before on a different site. Waiting to see how it turns out will be too late. In fact it's already too late. It's all about the Benjamins. The RL ones.

Where do you get your information, Gordon? Is this something that has even been hinted at by LL?

Ebay was mentioned as using the alien mods and since Paypal is owned by Ebay its a short hop to LiveWorld which outsources to Ebay/Paypal

Is that an indication, Katt, that General Discussion may be back?

Seriously, for all the good stuff that is given out in RA, and for all the frustrations that we've all felt over the past months (and months and months), the members have done a fairly decent job of policing themselves in the forum.

But giving us a place to play would, I believe (and I used to be a moderator at a very explosive board on AOL) would make your jobs a bit easier.

It's a short hop, but I'm of the "let's get the info straight from the horse's mouth" school, rather than guessing.

At least, on this topic

I do believe George said "most likely" that isnt claiming its a fact. but you did ask how he came to that conclussion and I, not speaking for George, answered the question.

LOL Toy....I got that, I really did

Ahh why bother?

They can just Squash - whats anyone going to do?

QFT..... its just a job to them, they have no involvement with SL other than a paycheck.

Sounds like every other Linden, then I kid!

I considered that after posting hehe but realized for the most part Lindens are involved in SL

I'm reserving judgment on the outsourced moderation, but at the moment I'm leaning toward seeing it as a positive. I'd imagine some level of basic de-spamming and de-clawing will be their main role across all subforums. And, if what we're seeing right now in the Linden-sponsored blog-linked threads is indicative of anything, there will be significant variation between the subforums in what kind of posts are permitted. There is variation now, of course, but I can see that some will get a heavy hand indeed. The trick will be getting the right set of forums with appropriately tuned moderation. Long-winded hypothetical example follows:

Imagine there were a new "Linden Answers" forum for all the really tough technical and business questions that currently get asked on Resident Answers, for which we residents just don't know the answers. Honestly, if that forum is just a "beat the b'jesus out of LL" slugfest, it will be a total waste of everybody's time. It's not that the Lindens don't need to know what's seriously wrong, but that's a different forum from the one where we actually can expect Linden answers for finite, how-to questions.

The point is that such a "Linden Answers" forum would have to be *very* tightly moderated for it to work at all.

If it were up to me, I'd create a "Rantings" forum, then, to which the pure anti-Linden hate mail posts could be shunted, to get them off of "Linden Answers." Sure, those posts will be ignored by the Lindens (and most everybody else), but they would be anyway.

One step less stringently moderated: requests from Lindens for focused feedback, as with several recent blog posts. (The Burning Life one excepted; I have no idea what the moderation of that one is all about.)

About the same as focused-feedback: The Content Creation forums.

Slightly less stringent: Resident Answers.

Least stringent, but still not a free-for-all: Forum Community.

To be honest, I really don't think LL needs to host a General Discussion forum that's a carbon copy of those on third party sites. I really don't see why it's needed: they already exist, so if one really needs to post chat logs and name-and-shame and get seriously maleficent with one's fellow posters, well, we all know where that's to be found. But that doesn't mean there'd be no use for some "Community" forum here, which is pretty much the purpose that the Neverending Thread has served, I think.

That's actually a very good stratification of forums along a linear management-level dimension, Qie. I've done such stratifications in the past, and they were wildly successful for the communities they were orchestrated for, so I know from experience that such would be a very good way of doing it.