What if all the world were just a game, and all the customers merely testers?

I just finished reading Ender's Game with my child who was enthralled. I browsed up my favorite bowl o' contention and realized that LL has been doing some atypical things:

1. Support has gone from horrible to Even Worse
   
2. Features are being added that seem to appeal to corporate interests far more than player interests
   
3. There have been notes in the media about major corporate clients of which there is no mention by LL
   

Suppose that LL was just pretending that their loyal customers mattered while focusing all their energies on some other project that doesn't involve us.

I'm not normally one for conspiracy theories as they are - by definition - indeterminable. But, if LL were acting as I postulate, what would LL and SL look like to the current consumers?

The are probably focusing their energies on corporate clients. That much seems clear to me. Keep your main source of income happy and occasionally throw the dog (us little guys) a bone. The bone is usually rotten and maggot infested.

But alas, that is what happens when a small company grows very quickly. You keep your major investors happy and hope the others don't protest too much. It is the way of business.

It is these times which determine whether LL will sink or swim.

What you guys seem to be failing to realize is that all these corporate clients you seem to be so afraid of are not clients of Linden Lab. They are clients of in-world companies like Electric Sheep Company, Aimee Weber, Rivers Run Red, and others, all of which are companies that were started by SL residents. The clients don't have any direct dealings with Linden Lab at all.

What these corporations are doing is pretty much just like hiring a web designer. When you want a presence on the web, you don't go to the W3C or to any of the companies like Level3 who actually make the internet run; you go to someone who's in the web content business, and you say "I'm gonna pay you for your expertise in this particular area, about which I know pretty much nothing myself". The service provision business and the content creation business are two entirely different things.

To put that back into SL terms, all LL is is a service provider. They're not the ones out there bringing in the likes of CBS, NBC, Nissan, AOL, IBM, and the other large corporations that are now taking an interest in virtual worlds. They have absolutely nothing to do with that. It's the resident-run companies that rope in those clients, and build what they ask for. LL's not in the content business, and they're certainly not in the cater-to-corporations business. They're in the virtual world service provision business; that's it.

As for all these mysterious features that supposedly benefit the corporations, and no one else, it sounds like you've been reading Prok's blog a little too frequently for your own good. Would you care to list them? I certainly can't think of what they might be.

Let's take the upcoming changes for 1.13.4, for example:

1. They're removing transaction history from the in-world tools, and increasing functionality for it on the website. How does that benefit corporations over anyone else? Seems to me that regardless whether you think it's a good or a bad change, it affects everyone equally either way.
   
   
   
2. They're adding a much needed menu command to empty your lost & found folder. Is that for corporations? Nope, that's for everyone.
   
   
   
3. They're changing the default when items are set for sale to "buy copy" instead of "buy original". How about that one, is that for corporations? Right, that's for everyone also.
   
   
   
4. They're upping the amount you're allowed to spend on classifieds. Okay, so corporations have more money than individuals; that's a given, but still, it seems to me this is something for everyone as well.
   
   
   
5. They're adding a help button to explain what partnering means. Somehow that doesn't strike me as being particularly corporate.
   
   
   
6. There's a list of bug fixes a mile long. Nope, not quite corporate there either.
   
   
   
7. They're adding voice. This one's a little further out than the next update, but it's still worth mentioning here now. Voice is something lots & lots & lots of people have been asking for for years now. Yes, it will change the culture of SL. We all knew it would happen one day. Is that pro-corporate though? Seems to me it's pro-communication, which, just like everything else on this list, is for everyone's benefit. Maybe you'll like voice, maybe you won't, but that won't make you particularly "corporate" or "uncorporate". It'll just make you loud or quiet.

So, where are all these pro-corporate, anti-individualist features of which you speak? Where? Can you actually name even one? Didn't think so.

Look, as someone who now deals with corporate clients on a daily business, I can promise you that most of them really don't care one way or another what features SL does or doesn't have. What they care about is that it's a venue with a lot of people in it, and that it's a safe bet to assume it's going to be a major attention-grabbing force on this planet for the course of the near future. Features are the last thing on their mind.

Further, as someone who's been privy to some of the decision-making process at LL, I can assure you they don't sit around the board room going, "Hmm, I heard XYZ Corporation might be in the market for a virtual world presence. I know, let's add voice chat to SL. That'll make them notice us for sure."

That's just not how it works. They don't think like that. That's simply not what they do. All they want to do is make the best virtual world system they can make, and believe me, they're way too busy trying to figure out how to do that to worry about whether Joe Avatar is a Fortune 500 CEO or a part time fry cook. Either way, they just want Joe to enjoy SL. That's all.

Corporate last names. Do I get a choc-chip cookie now?

"Some other project that doesn't involve us." ???

It always involves us. Big corps are into SL because its an interesting way of reaching out to people. Us.

Now, whether LL is selling "us" to big corporations directly... who knows.

--
Resident Answers is a simple, friendly place to ask your fellow Residents of Second Life for help.

Hehehe, okay, you might have me on that one. Can we really call that a feature though? It's more of a service, isn't it?

You don't need to be a corporation to buy a last name, they have been for sale for ages. If memory serves, they cost 1000US$

All I have to say is you don't need a weathervane to know which way the wind blows.

coco

Second Life is not selling itself as a service provider. It's selling itself as virtual world where anyone can make their dreams come true..........granted a mosty imaginary life and dream. Never did I see any indication that SL was a service provider in their hype to get me to join. A service provider offers a service and charges a price for that service. Many have tiers for levels of service...........the prices are spelled out for each and every member (or purchaser). I'll use my ISP as an example.

I sign up. I talk to a representative about exactly what I get for my monthly fee. He offers me the "deals"..............packages, how much I can save or spend for various services and gives me some sort of guarentee for my money that I will agree to pay. Cut and dried..........I pay $50 USD per month for a guarenteed upload speed of xxx Kps and a download speed of xxx mps. If I don't get what was guarenteed then I have a support number that I can call and get that resolved. Simple. They are my ISP and they either deliver or compensate me for whatever I'm not getting.

There is no smoke and mirrors about "you can do anything you want and we will make it possible for you". And when you can't even enjoy your "world" because of techical problems you have no way to reliably contact support. And when you might get lucky enough to get a response, you are left with nothing more than a "you see, we are cutting edge and we are having problems. Please be patient."

This "game", "world", "provider"............or whatever you choose to call it.........is not what it's put up to be in the hype or "sales pitch". They allow anyone to "sign up" without any attempt to verify who is signing up...............and for free. They allow unlimited accounts for unverified members. They seem to encourage upgrading to a paying account but do not provide any incentives to do so. They are more than willing to sell to the highest bidder server space for a sustainial start-up cost and recurring monthly fees and give almost total control to those who choose that route. All fine and dandy I suppose.......but that is not what Second Life is presented to be to the lowly members.

If they want to be a service provider then be one. Charge for the service and give it......guarentee what you are charging for. But if everyone is a "free" account then I guess the thinking is no guarentee is necessary. Again........fine. But why did Linden Labs encourage me to become a paying member? Why was I lied to? And I believe they did lie to me..............and to many others too.

I don't think Linden Labs wants to be a service provider using Second Life. They may have that goal in the future with some other "Second Life" but this SL is really a test bed. It's a big beta test using members as a test bed. I don't profess to know the ultimate plan is but I do know it's not what they led me to believe it was.

If you want to be a virtual internet service provider then say that from the very beginning and ask us to help you along...............be honest and upfront. Don't tell us it's for us to build our virtual dreams and then turn around and dump all our plans for yours. And that's what's happening. Our plans are being dumped for Linden Labs plans. We are expendable because we are not where the money is.

I probably would have still have joined SL even if I knew it was just a test bed.....but I wouldn't have put real money into it. I would have helped as much as I could as a beta tester and most likely enjoyed the experience. But now, I feel sort of robbed.....cheated. Because there is no sense of thanks............except on credit card hit day. It's going to be hard for anyone to convince me that LL has been honest with anyone in SL.

My thoughts..............my opinions. I'm neither stupid or vendictive but I hate being lied to. And I'm certain I've been lied to.

Maybe they're preparing for war on the Buggers?

What did they promise you that they renegged on?

KEY WORD "Interst" more like ads..........Paid ads

Hey, if I'm a software tester, I wanna get paid for it!!! Maybe get a benefits package? Or at least be able to put it on my resume!

Yes, paid ads, but LL is not who's being paid for them. What LL makes money on is land sales, tier fees, and a little bit through the sale of new money on Lindex. That's it.

The "ads" you're referring to are manufactured and sold by in-world "ad agencies", none of whom are named Linden Lab. Those agencies are the resident-run companies I mentioned in my first post in this thread.

Again, LL is just a service provider. All they do is run the technical back end of the SL world. What any of us, whether we be corporations or individuals, choose to do in that world is not their concern (within the terms of service, and all applicable laws, of course).

Look, the deal is that some people in SL have chosen to start businesses in it, and some of those businesses specialize in building presence for RL companies inside SL. Those RL companies know that while they have extensive expertise in their chosen fields, they have no expertise whatsoever in the SL technology and culture, so they pay the in-world experts to create what they need. As I said earlier, it's just like when a RL company hires a web designer, or an ad agency, or even an interior decorator. They're simply paying for a level of expertise in an area that is not their own specialty. That money doesn't go to Linden Lab; it goes to those of us who are doing the work making all that stuff.

LL are certainly not the ones out there busting their butts to bring in the corporate clients. That's not their job. Believe me, they wouldn't have time to do that, even if they wanted to. Their job is to make SL work, and to collect land fees for doing that. They have no reason to care whether any given land fee is paid for on a corporate credit card or an individual one.

The only benefits LL gets from the corporations' presence are tangential. LL may well enjoy a a potential boost to perceived stability that comes with being "legitimized" by the presence of well known brands in their world, which in the long run will serve to bring in more people, but that's somewhat indirect. Of course, they do get to sell a few more sims here and there as those corporate builds need space to sit on, but the vast bulk of the land in SL is still owned and/or rented by individuals, and always will be. There are 6 billion individuals on this planet; there are only a relative handfull of large corporations.

Anyway, I might suggest that instead of being so fearful and complaint-minded as your comments seem to imply, that you just relax and be happy for those fellow residents who, by their ow merits, have been able to make very enjoyable careers out of what used to be just a fun hobby. I can promise you, it's a lot more fun to be happy for others who are doing well than to complain about them.



Actually, you can do all that and more. Start an in-world business. You can make plenty of money if you're good at what you do, and it's certainly resume-worthy. As for benefits, it's your business; as your own boss you can have your company provide you with whatever benefits you want, and as your own employee, you can thank yourself for it.




Uh, yes it is. What's the first thing you were supposed to read before joining? Terms of Service. Maybe you skipped over that.



And how is the act of providing space in a virtual world not a service?


Peggy, that's exactly what LL does. They offer the service of running the back end of the SL world, just as your ISP offers the service of connecting you to the internet. If you want to rent server space on that back end, which in SL terms is called land, you can. The prices for renting said land are very clearly spelled out in the tier fee schedule. Otherwise, the service is free. The fact that it's free doesn't make it any less of a service.

Also, the fact that land is auctioned doesn't make it any less of a service either. Services get sold on eBay and through other auction venues all the time. Want someone to retouch your old wedding photos, transfer your old beta tapes to DVD, or build you a website? Those are just a few of thousands of services you can bid for right now on eBay. Some will be cheap; some will be very expensive if they're popular. Whether a service be free, cheap, expensive, popular, or unpopular, it's still a service.

As for "compensation for what you're not getting", what are you trying to say? Did you come into SL expecting to become rich and famous or something, and now you're blaming LL because you failed to deliver what it takes to make that happen? That's what it sounds like.


There's no such "smoke & mirrors" with SL either. You can absolutely do anything you want, but nowhere, absolutely nowhere, does it say "we will make it possible for you". How about taking some responsibility for you own actions? If there's something you want to do, but can't, get better at what you're doing. That's how it works in RL, and SL is no different, nor should it be. It's certainly not a bizarre concept.


I'll never understand why certain people constantly insist it's so difficult to get a hold of LL. Just the other day, we had a time dilation problem in Indigo. The sim needed a restart. So, I picked up the phone and called LL. Guess what? They picked up in like 2 rings, just like they always do, I asked who would be a good person to talk to for a minute about hitting the restart button, and I was connected to that person. The Linden I spoke with said they'd take care of it, but it might be a while before they get to that particular task since they've got a lot to do. No problem there, as long as it gets done. I thanked him for his time, and wished him a good day. He responded in kind.

Within a few hours, the problem was fixed.

How is that not service? Come on.

That experience is no different, by the way, then all the dealings I've ever had with LL. They're nice folks over there. Talk to them like human beings, and they respond like human beings. It's that simple.


And by the way, it IS cutting edge, and yes, things can go wrong. You should be patient when they do. If you don't have that in you, that's your own problem, not anyone else's.


I really don't see how anything you're describing is any different from how the service is advertised. Seems to me, they're very upfront about saying you can sign up for free, and if you want to do things like own land and/or collect a weekly stipend, you can pay a monthly fee. If you don't like that structure, that's up to you, but don't say it's not what was promised. It's exactly what was promised. Or did you simply not read what you were signing during registration?

As for being a "lowly member", if you feel lowly, again that's your own problem, no one else's. I would recommend you get out of this "how can I blame others for my own unhappiness" mode, and transition over to "what can I do to make my life better" mode. You'll find the second option is far more enjoyable, and it generates substantially better results.


What exactly did they lie about? Absolutely nothing you've mentioned is any different from what is presented when you sign up for a new account. It's just that your tone is unceasingly negative about, well, everything. If you really don't like SL that much, don't use it.

I won't pretend that I agree with every decision LL makes, or that I'm not annoyed when things go wrong in SL. That would be ludicrous. It's nothing to get so bent out of shape over though.

If they make a decision I don't like, I try to persuade them why I think they're wrong, but ultimately it's their company, not mine. They can run it however they want.

When things go wrong, yeah, I get frustrated, but that's just life. Things go wrong; deal with it. Believe me, nothing that can possibly go wrong in SL can compare with what can go wrong in RL, but when RL deals you a bad hand, you pick up and keep going, no matter what. Otherwise you perish. Well, the same is true in SL. You either adapt to changes or you go away. It's that simple. The choice is yours.


Uh, they ARE a service provider, Second Life IS the service they provide, and if they didn't want to be in this business, they wouldn't be. They do want to be, so they are. Why is that so hard to understand?


Even if you're right that SL is a "test", that doesn't mean it's not a service and that LL is not the one who's providing that service. I wouldn't define it as a test though any more than I'd define any other emergent technology as a test.

By the way, exactly what do you mean when you say they might have the "goal" of becoming a service provider? That statement really doesn't make sense. They ARE a service a provider, right now. One who has the goal of becoming a service provider is one who does not yet have a service to provide. When Philip was a kid, and he first dreamed up the idea for SL, he was at that time someone who had the goal of becoming a service provider. At this time, however the service exists, the company exists, so by definition, Linden Lab is a service provider. Why do you keep insisting otherwise?


Their "ultimate plan" is to provide the best virtual world they can provide, which is exactly what they've been trying to do for many years now. If that's not what you think you were told in the beginning, I'm sorry you so misinterpreted.


For the millionth time now, they ARE a service provider, and they do say exactly that, all the time. They ARE perfectly upfront about that.


Exactly what plans of yours were "dumped" by Linden Lab, and how was it done? I'm sorry if you find the world too difficult to use or something, but as I said earlier, getting better at is up to you. It's not LL's job to hold your hand and magically make everything happen for you exactly the way you want it. Their job is to provide the service of making sure the SL world exists. What you do or don't do in that world entirely up to you.


All these constant references to "beta test" are pretty tired, and very wrong. Sure, SL is a very young, rapidly evolving technology, which by its very nature is constantly being tested, but that's just how it is with anything new. Computers in general are constantly being tested. That's why one you might buy today is radically more powerful than one you might have bought a year ago.

And guess what? That's how it is with EVERYTHING. Go out and buy a new car, for example. It's gonna have some problems. Next year's model will have some of those problems fixed. That's just how the world works. When you create a product or service, you do your best to make sure it's good, and then you put it out there. Inevitably, the public will discover problems you hadn't foreseen, so you monitor, you learn from your mistakes, and you try again.

Remember, not even God got everything right the first time around.


You were not lied to. As I said earlier, absolutely nothing you've described is any different than what it says when you register for SL. They make no bones about telling you right from the start that free accounts don't get stipends or the ability to own land, and if you want that stuff, you pay for it. The tier fees and the fact that land is sold at auction or through private dealings, which either way can make it expensive, are certainly mentioned not only on the SL website, but also in pretty much every article that's ever been written about SL. If you want the exact details of every last thing (which you should), the TOS very clearly describe how the SL service works. If you chose not to read it, that's your own problem.

Look, Peggy, clearly you're unhappy, so probably nothing I can say will change that. I'd suggest though that if SL is what makes you so unhappy, don't use it. If you do like SL though, then do whatever you can to make your second life the best it can be. Don't expect anyone else to do that for you, least of all Linden Lab. That's your job, not theirs.

Going around complaining accomplishes nothing.

Surely it accomplishes something. Seems like a few folks spend more time doing it here in the forums than they spend in-world using the "service". And dammit Chosen, quit stomping out all the conspiracy theories with your inconvenient facts!

What did I get promised that I cannot do? Maybe being able to log on when I want. How about not having to wait till midnight SL time to build or upload somthing. Gee it would be nice to have all my inventory too. How about an official place to get help when I need it (an FAQ section or outdated knowledge base doesn't get it for the most part). If I want to look for something new to wear it sure would be nice to be able to search for it and find places that might have it (instead of hundreds of bogus places for me to TP to and find nothing like what I searched for). And, of course, going to an event or place I like and not being so lagged I can't enjoy myself.

That's what was promised...........that is what is not delivered unless I choose to stay up all night to find the whole world accessable with some kind of reliability. Just because the TOS uses the word "service" does not make it a service provider. Google and Yahoo provide a service and mention service in their agreements too..........so that makes them service providers too, I suppose. Well I guess it does if you are using a very loose interputation of the word.

Having to develop work arounds or ask for work arounds from others just to do what Second Life promises we can do (such as build) because Linden Labs does not think it's important enough to fix is not a service in much of the definition of the word. We are the beta testers. We work through the problems for LL. We provide the service..........not them.

Chosen............I so respect your expertise in some many areas. But on this one I think you are stretching a little bit to justify your argument. I know complaining does no good............especially when no one who is in a position to do anything about it is listening. But deluding yourself into thinking something is one thing when it is not does no good either.

Sorry to pick on you..........but you sort of singled me out too.

The only person "deluded" here Peggy is you. You are absolutely, completely, without question, WRONG to say you were promised these things.

This is what you were promised, and this is what you agreed to, when you handed over your payment info:

1.6 Second Life is subject to scheduled and unscheduled service interruptions. All aspects of the Service are subject to change or elimination at Linden Lab's sole discretion.

Linden Lab reserves the right to interrupt the Service with or without prior notice for any reason or no reason. You agree that Linden Lab will not be liable for any interruption of the Service, delay or failure to perform, and you understand that except as otherwise specifically provided in Linden Lab's billing policies posted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/billing.php, you shall not be entitled to any refunds of fees for interruption of service or failure to perform. Linden Lab has the right at any time for any reason or no reason to change and/or eliminate any aspect(s) of the Service as it sees fit in its sole discretion.



Period. Your same old complaints are getting old and tiresome, and you are beginning to develop a bit of a trolling habit in the way you seek out opportunities anywhere and everywhere in these forums, to post this same diatribe again and again.

"1.6 Second Life is subject to scheduled and unscheduled service interruptions. All aspects of the Service are subject to change or elimination at Linden Lab's sole discretion.

Linden Lab reserves the right to interrupt the Service with or without prior notice for any reason or no reason. You agree that Linden Lab will not be liable for any interruption of the Service, delay or failure to perform, and you understand that except as otherwise specifically provided in Linden Lab's billing policies posted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/billing.php, you shall not be entitled to any refunds of fees for interruption of service or failure to perform. Linden Lab has the right at any time for any reason or no reason to change and/or eliminate any aspect(s) of the Service as it sees fit in its sole discretion. "

Change the name of the company or business and that is a standard couple of paragraphs in almost any agreement.

And now, trolling means stating my opinions which may or may not agree with some or many. Sorry, I thought trolling meant "baiting" someone. I have "baited" no one......especially you. It's obvious you don't particularly like me since you take almost any opportunity to make such statements as your above post. I try to ignore what you say but you make it hard when you "call me out" personally. Maybe you are trolling?

I really don't like armchair psychology.

coco

Damn right.

I believe I will have a few words with this God fellow.

No worries, Peggy. We can certainly have a disagreement without having to hate each other or anything. Thanks for that.

I wanted to put that part first, since it's most important. Okay, back the regularly scheduled argument...



While I can understand your frustration with these things, and I even share in it, can you really classify any of this as being "lied to" like you said in your earlier posts?

If these things were easy to fix, they'd have fixed them. Trust me, LL is just as upset about technical difficulties as we are. The people you're accusing of being filthy, dirty, stinking liars are the same people who get up at 3:00 in the morning or work through Christmas when something's broken. They're doing the best they can under extremely difficult circumstances. If that's not enough for you, then maybe SL is just not the right service for you to be using.

Look, of course the Lindens would like their system to work flawlessly, and they're working very hard to achieve that, but you have to be realistic in your expectations of them. It's a very small company running a very big service that is completely unique in the world. There's no place for them to simply look up the answers to these problems, no magic "fix it" button. They literally have to make it up as they go along. Nothing like this has ever been done before.

I any case, be as angry as you want about the bugs and glitches, but don't stoop to buying into conspiracy theories or paranoid delusions. That's simply beneath you, and I think you know that.


Yes, Google and Yahoo are service providers. Internet search is a service. E-mail hosting is a service. Video hosting is a service. Mapping, message grouping, blog hosting, image sharing... the list goes on and on. All these things are services, and that's what both these companies do.

There's no "loose interpretation" needed. The standard definition works just fine. Here it is, straight from the American National Standards Institute:



Let's see, services for content providers and for users of a computer network, check. Linden Lab does that (as do Google and Yahoo). Access to a computer network, yup, LL does that too. Content hosting, that one's pretty obvious. Private message handling system, hey they do that too. I don't think we need to interpret very loosely to add all this up, do we?

Let's check the second part of the definition, just to be sure. They are a company, check. They sell, administer, and maintain a service, check. The charge for it, check. They may or may not be the provider of their network, check (the are the provider of mostof their network, but they do they use third party providers for certain things).

Any of this making sense?


Again, Peggy, I'll say that I share in your frustrations with the things that go wrong. However, claiming that Linden Lab does not think it's important is so wrong in so many ways. First, just from a practical standpoint, you're not a Linden, nor have you ever been present during any of LL's decision making process, so you have no idea what they might or might not deem "important". Second, while I can empathize with your feelings of negativity, caused by the slow rate at which major problems tend to get ironed out, you have to realize you're being patently unfair when you imply that the problems exist because Linden Lab somehow wants them to exist. That attitude is frankly pretty disgusting.

As for who "works through" the problems, I wish you could take a trip to SF some time, and visit Lindin Lab, so you could see how hard ALL the Lindens work. Many of them could likely be making a lot more money working somewhere else, but all of them share a vision and a dedication to what they're doing like you've never seen before. They really blew me away when I was there. There's not a slacker among them. They all work extremely hard (and they're some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet, truly).

That having been said, there's not a company on this planet that's as large and powerful as its customer base. Of course we're going to discover problems that they haven't. There are 4 million of us and maybe a hundred of them.

This is where the car analogy I mentioned in my last post comes in. How many recalls do car companies issue every year? Hundreds. Why are so many cars sold with so many defects? Is it because the car companies don't care? Of course not. It's because there's simply no way realistically that any company can discover all the bugs in any product or system as fast as the public can. It's a question of numbers. 4 million pairs of eyes will always see more than 100 pairs. There's no way around that.


Peggy, I know this isn't the most effective way to make an argument, but I don't know how else to say this. Take everything you just said in the above paragraph, and apply it to your entire series of posts in this thread. That's where it belongs.

I haven't been stretching at all. I've simply been sharing what I know. You're the one who hasn't been presenting facts. You keep insisting service providers are not service providers, and that the reason SL is broken is because LL is somehow evil or greedy or that they don't value their customers. The exact opposite is the case on all counts.


What's your point? Standard or not, it's still binding. Did you really think it was there just because they needed a few extra paragraphs to look cool or something? It means exactly what it says.





Oh, please do.

Maybe "trolling" wasn't exactly the correct choice of terms, if we're going to define it in a technically correct sense. Your tendancy, however, is to take advantage of every opportunity you can to post what is pretty much the same message, repeatedly, whether or not it relates to the subject matter the original poster intended to convey.

You insert a substantially negative set of assertions, which I think Chosen has addressed quite adequately. You've gone so far as to accuse other posters of presenting arguments against your own based on fact not in evidence, yet your posts are full of such arguments.

You're free to state your opinion in any thread in these forums, just as I am. And no, I don't particularly like you. I don't particularly dislike you either. I don't know you. What I do know is that your repeated diatribes belong in a forum not ending in secondlife.com.

Your message has been sent, repeatedly. Message received. We know your opinion, and in fact, your frustrations are shared by the rest of us. But again, Message received. Over.

To me "promised" is a very strong word... a contract of sorts, where one's honesty and trustyworthyness are explicitly put on the line and lost if the terms of the promise are not met to the letter.

Your interpretation of the word 'promised' seems to be more in line with the "you gave me grounds for expectation". Both are, I suppose, valid.

Sorry I sniped at you earlier in this thread. I just get really irked when someone is accused of breaking a 'promise' when they never said "I promise..." in the first place.


Promised: (form m-w.com)
transitive verb1: to pledge to do, bring about, or provide <promise aid>2archaic : warrant, assure3chiefly dialect : betroth4: to suggest beforehand : give promise of <dark clouds promise rain>intransitive verb1: to make a promise2: to give ground for expectation : be imminent

I think that wraps a pretty good perspective around the discussion as a whole.. Are peggy's expectations reasonable? For the most part, certainly they are. And they're not just hers.. they're mine, and pretty much everyone else's.. I think there is a discernable line between what can reasonably be expected however, and what can be guaranteed.

My own personal list of SL annoyances would probably span several pages. I just take a different approach to dealing with them. I just don't believe the SL forums are an appropriate venue for venting them. It doesn't serve the cause - it's for the most part preaching to the choir. That's not to say that I have an unlimited supply of patience.. There are times when I'm certain my neighbors are aware of my frustrations By the way, so are the Lindens. They read these threads. They read the blog comments. They read the bug reports. They are in receipt of the message, and it is loud and clear.

Excellent points.

Though "Guaranteed" usually implies money-back upon failure to deliver. I would expect this to be true of LindeX transactions. (failed transfer of monies had better not have fees associated with them!)

It's not necessarily applicable for land use fees... since billing comes at the end of the month, and the service is set up in terms of "used or not, you pay for the tier you've chosen to be in."

I can't imagine there'd be a refund for a lost uploads though, and those are paid for in L$, not legal tender.


I think LL has promised "To Do Their Best to Make SL Better"

... and "Better" is what LL decides it is, not us.

Obviously, "Bigger" is part of that definition.
Dealing with the resulting growing pains is going to take a while.