Linden Labs has hard time with Surnames, should Residents be tasked to make them?

In another thread, a Linden stated that it is time consuming and low on priority to come up with new surnames, and this became an issue until recently when Linden Labs didn't release any new last names. Should Residents be able to submit lists of lasts names for approval, since surnames are sometimes used so much that there are no more normal available last names.

Yes

Isn't there already a JIRA for this? Someone was collecting names in another thread.

Best forum post ever

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Below the signature: Last edited by Avacea Fasching : Today at 06:43 AM. Reason: Spelling
And the post contains one word: Yes

Thinking of names is "time-consuming"? I want some of what they are smoking!

That is what a Linden said. All I know is, they are deffinatly smoking something heavy, and mind you they are based in San Fransisco.

This used to happen. When anyone registered for an account, their real-life surname went into a pool from which new SL surnames were picked.

I know this for a fact, because shortly after I joined, a RL friend of mine also joined - with my RL surname as his SL surname! He saw it on the list and grabbed it. And as it's an unusual name, this was not coincidence.

The database can't handle my RL surname, it's that awesome

If there is a JIRA for this, can someone please place a link, i have never used the JIRA system before but would definitely vote for this.

How hard can it be to come up with a list of last names, ive got a phonebook downstairs, in 5 minutes i could flick through that and find enough common last names to keep us going for a while at least.

For a linden to say it is to time consuming is a huge copout, the only only diffucult part i see in the process is adding your new names to the current database and although i dont know huge amounts about how computer databases work, i know enough to know it shouldnt be that hard.

Hey lindens, if its too time consuming for you, i can make you a list of 100 last names for just 1000L and considering you can print them without any actual cost it wont cost you anything.

You do know they're not just using common or uncommon English surnames, but also ones from other languages, AND some more or less funny/silly things, too? It's not just a matter of typing up the phonebook, but apparently some kind of balance between several things.

And I guess their past failure to keep thse balanced is what leads to the grid going unstable?

I'm guessing here but possible the unedited post contained more than one word.

But then again maybe I'm wrong.

Nah, all we need is middle names.

It's not the COMING UP with names that's the problem... where did you read that??? What I read was that putting the new names into the system was time consuming and low-priority. Is that what you read, too?

This is like a game of "telephone". Are you referring to this post?
http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1605192&postcount=13
If so, please read it more carefully.



If not, please tell me where you read that a Linden said "Thinking of names is time-consuming."

"Time consuming and low in priority"

Well as ususal it's nic to know that LL has it's head firmly wedged somewhere dark and uncomfortable.

It should be SOMEONES JOB to take care of that and some number of related tasks.

Having the ENTIRE COMPANY on the "Work on what you want to" philosophy means that things that NEED to get done just get ignored randomly.

"That's too haaaaard!, I don't wannna, YOU do it!" For F's sake LL!

P.s. heh, anyone remember that Simpsons episode where everyone in Springfiled just "Did what they feel ilke"? It's all starting to make sense now!

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this why LL employs people? To do stuff taht is time consuming and low in priority, so that the relatively more important people can get on with relatively more important matters? LL needs to get itself sorted out and fast. This isn't kindergarten where all the kids can play with their favourite toys - it's a real business.

It could happen....

( and it did only contain the one word...)

wonder if they ever heard of a thing called google and a searchword called "surnames"....

"1194688 Surnames Entries On File"

that would sort this issue for a while I guess....

why do i bother.

I know it's more in fashion around here to call LL morons and blah, blah, blah but has anybody considered that they might have to run their name choices thru their legal department?


They probably have similar restrictions on last names.

I'm pretty sure... /me breaks into song "He heard it from a friend, who, heard it from a friend, who, heard it from another" Well, you know the rest.

The nice thing about using the surnames of people registering is that it keeps the right balance linguistically. If, say, 20% of people registering with SL are German, you will get roughly 20% Germanic surnames.

All you need to make it not time-consuming is to automate the process. It shouldn't be very hard to write the code that rotates out a name and replaces it with one from the database, that hasn't been used before.

Where LL went wrong was to mix this with bunches of hand-selected names according to various themes. When I joined it was French poets. I could have been Daisy Hugo! When they couldn't think of any more themes, that was when they decided it was too much work.

But continuing to use the database of registering people would have been fine.

Now we are stuck with 10,000 Allens for evermore.