The Fanboi Playbook: what are your best strategies to counter?

For those of us who do give the Blogs a chance, the ever-presence of fanbois (and girls, of course) defending every LL decision---no matter how destructive of Linden Lab growth and prosperity that decision may prove to be--will be a given.

It may help our sanity to keep handy a list of the Usual Arguments these fanbois resort to (as many have observed, it's not the most creative minds that tend to fanboiism; they stick pretty closely to their playbook).

Please add to this list:


1) "The very fact that LL is closing/has closed the Forums proves that the Forum Regular-type of customer is not a valuable customer"

............This one is easy to counter since it's so plainly illogical. The fact that a company believes it has correctly identified its ideal customer does not, in itself, guarantee that it has correctly identified its ideal customer. (Just ask Dean Kamen, whose Segway company was supposed to make billions while changing the world.)

2) "Those who criticize LL are whiners/can't cope with change and so protest every change/negative people"

...........Another easy one to disprove if you've ever praised a LL decision or action---and most of us have, at some point. (While you're saving posts here, try to grab a few of those---if the Forums ARE archived, you'll be able to counter this favorite Fanboi tactic.)

3) "Linden Lab is a BUSINESS, not a charity!"

.......Here you might be vulnerable if you tend to post in a "LL SHOULD..." or "LL owes us...." sort of way. (People 'should' behave ethically, but businesses are obligated only to follow laws and contracts.) HOWEVER, if you are on record as having posted in a "LL's profits will be harmed by this" sort of way instead, you can easily point out that the Fanboi's argument is a Straw Man Fallacy---the fanboi is knocking down a fake argument that you never made, instead of countering your actual arguments.



So...what else is found in the Fanboi playbook? And what are the easy counters for the stale old plays?

"The only RIGHT thing to do in business is to earn money and LL does that!"

So, if you spike your money by gouging customers, who leave, and then count on new customers at terms that are now worse than the first ones had?

BTW, If earning money=good then losing money=....

The only winning move is not to play.....

The actual answer is that LL has contracted a third party to provide an all in one solution to providing an integrated web frontage and Jive was the software chosen for the implementation. The value or otherwise of the customer who uses it is not a consideration to LL.



The difference between a true customer and the helpless loser addict is that the true customer is able to objectively assess the information provided and can suggest areas that could be improved. Any customer who uncritically accepts what the service provider says is not acting in the best interests of the company. Of which we all have a stake.


(I hope that one is not my fault.. I said that during the freebie uproar to refer to the reason why LL are under no obligation to allow people to sell freebies on XSL. since then I've seen people use it many times - anyone can feel free to chip in here and claim first use.. please!!)

Any business with an eye to longevity understands that to stay in business they need to balance costs against income. In some cases, however, a business will have areas that do not recover costs as they are deemed to generate other, intangible benefits or strengthen the profitability of other areas of the business. By undertaking xyz LL are reducing the intangible benefits of abc [strengthening the community/binding people closer to the game/not irritating their customer base]. (make sure you always use serious, long words )

or

Please explain how you think my comment inferred LL was a charity,

Then if they dare try to respond ...

I do not consider LL to be a charity and I pay LL for the service they provide/contribute to their profitability and marketing strategy through xyz blah blah.... As a customer of LL, and without any formal mechanism to discuss this change with my service provider I am seeking an explanation from others who may have more information.

or

Then they should stop behaving like they're poverty stricken while proclaiming profitability. Professionalism and credibility should be expected of this company at this stage of their organisational lifecycle. We should not be subjected to [poorly thought out policies and inconsistent behaviour/ignoring of flaws in the software/etc] that have an impact [on users/whatever particular riot they've generated].




"why am I such a no-life that I have racked up a huge post number in the short time this blog has been available?"

because SL is self selecting for people like you unfortunately. Since you apparently haven't managed to make a life inworld and live voraciously through being unpleasant to people here, I would suggest you should reassess your life and perhaps choose another hobby.



btw. there is a group inworld called FULL.. I'm sure you're aware of what that stands for. You should be able to get to it through my profile.

I used to mention that LL is a business, not a charity, when folks were talking about how residents should pony up and become premium to "support LL". Doesn't happen so much anymore!

I'll pay them for the parts of their offering that have value to me, tyvm!

People pay in many forms, if someone isn't premium but pays to use estate land or pays to shop they get a tad miffed being told they're inferior because they're not premium.

Giving your strategy away to your opponent is....fairly poor strategy.

Just sayin'

"Divide and conquer"...........gotta love it.

Some of us "fanbois" (put "us" there because I'm sure I'm one who's a butt of this joke) actually take a realistic view of SL and the provider of the platform (Linden Lab). It's their product. They own it lock, stock and barrel. The make no bones about the fact that they make or break the rules as they choose. There are avenues of communications to take for your issues. They are really quite consistant on insisting that the ways to communicate with them are followed.......else you get ignored. And, yes, they are business and not a charity.......it's their business plan that they will follow (not yours or anyone else's). They allow free access without any restrictions to everyone.......do with it anyway you please as long as you remain within the limits set forth by the ToS and CS.

Bitch all you want here..........it ain't going to heard by anyone in a position to do a thing about it. All you will get is sympathy "me tooisms". Does nothing to truly show your concern for the direction you see Second Life taking.........it fosters these "Us against Them" threads.

If you understand that your life might be a little easier.......plus you might come a decision to work in a productive way to help or leave. Pretty simple really.

Look forward to you joining the rest of us "fanbois" on the other side.

Yes Peggy, complaints never work, never in the history of mankind has complaining worked, we are the borg.

every post of yours that I have read has left me wondering if you deliberately misconstrue as a way of getting attention or just generally do it to allow yourself the opportunity to be insulting. It's an art you have there I must say. Perhaps you should take your own advice.

Sorry, I pay their salaries so I get to communicate with them. If they do not want me to do that I do not need to pay them.

Complaints submitted through a proper channel to the proper people often work........in fact complaints more often than not get things fixed. Read what I said again..........it's not about complaining, it's about who you are complaining to and how senseless, counterproductive, and, even, destructive it can be. It also helps to understand that the business you are complaining to sees one hell of lot more of their long term plans than you see. Your "vision" of the future is not necessarily what the "true vision" is all about.

Unless you are stupid (something I doubt anyone here is) it is startingly obvious that the common "vision" held by many is incorrect. LL did not build SL for anyone to make money, establish a business, create a "world within a world", or anything else. They are building a platform that makes it possible IN AN IMAGINARY way to do so.........but they did not say you had free rein to do so. Nor do they guarantee things won't change making your "IMAGINARY" work provide any pay off what so ever. "Your World, Your Imagination"............they provide this imaginary world for you imagine in. Not meaning "our world (LL's world) for you to use your imagination to create your profits (take a liberal definition of that word.......creative profits, social profits, entertainment profits, take your pick).

After all these years I find it hard to believe people cannot understand that.

Also, I'd like a definition of "fanboi" since everyone here likes that label so much. I'd like to truly know how I'm viewed. For curiousity........because, anyone who's read much of my posts in the three major areas I post, should know I really don't care.

Sorry you feel that way.......really I am.

I'm insulting in this case (as I'm insulting in most of my insulting responses) because the thread is insulting.

Of course I suppose you don't see it that way.........so expect the same from me as long I continue to see threads that insult me or otherwise tend to bait people. This thread is a classic troll (the type which the OP is very good at). I jumped in because I actually like to piss trolls off.

Clear enough?

Ghost-written end even ghost-thought blog posting sounds like an excellent idea: you could be onto a winner here.

I think you would be majorly disadvantaged, if you went in there, and started attaching labels or titles to people. (although I've already attached PITA to some).

I've seen more "titles" attached to people there, than in this forum. One of the reasons that I really liked this forum. I can't have a decent discussion with a few people there, because they slapped a title on me, based on one issue. And that's nuts. But that seems to be some of "their" strategy. They miss out, then.

For strategy, that's a major disadvantage toward ourselves. Really limits us. Not guilt-free on that, but I'm still counting on the fact that the kind of person who really thrives in SL cannot be plugged into specific categories.

It was really nice, in this forum, not to have labels attached. I wonder, if we did now.... if any of the labels would be accurate. Probably not. For instance, I would have never labeled Peggy a fanboi.

I went into SLA for the first time a few days ago and was horrified by the rudeness of the long term posters to some of the people here. I shouldn't have been surprised as I stopped posting in the commerce forums for the same reason. I can't remember how old the current blog set up is but already it is giving the appearance of bullying.

It may be outside of the realm of your understanding but these people have had their community under threat for a long time now. The introduction of the blog was the first visible sign that they really were going to lose this forum and at the moment there's a lot of people going through the various stages of grief that this loss has triggered.

I see this, and a lot of the other threads here, as part of the grieving process. It's better to vent and get over it than to let it fester. Anyone with an ounce of sense will realise that and not make this any worse nor let it carry on after these people move over.

If they were trolling this thread would be over on the blog, as by the definition of troll they'd be doing it to upset those who you think it's aimed at. I don't see this as trolling, since I've seen a few of those questions crop up previously on the commerce forum - usually by a poster that cannot articulate their argument. As we know, not everyone is capable of formulating a cogent response and from the brief glimpse I caught of the attitude towards them I commend them for trying to be prepared - even if this was originally a post in jest to bolster morale.

CouldBe - when you enter any forum or message board, you're probably going to get bullied. Just part of the process. You're jumping into someone's comfortable space. There's going to be quite a few people messing up the fabric that has been woven. Some people don't like it being messed up. Same thing would happen, if they all came over here.

just bypass their post and wait for someone with a real response not covered in nose coco..

most that i have seen are a mile off of the facts anyways..they are so busy trying to gain LL attention that they leave them selves open to be made to look like that little chiwahwah standing next to the bull dog..
really who wants to waste time with a little yappy chiwahwah..

They remind me of these two men i had seen in this part in a movie i saw about Genghis Khan..
he had just won a war with these people..so they killed their own khan and brought him to Genghis Khan and said..Genghis look we have killed our Khan for you..then got on their knees and looked at the ground..

then one of Genghis Khan's men said..What should we do??Genghis Khan said..kill them..i may lose a war one day and they may live .i don't want them killing me and it be me laying there some day..
So they killed them hahahahaha

I doubt that very much. Yes there would be frictions as people rubbed against each other and got each other's measure but the behaviour I see there is a step beyond that. I've only ever seen it in one forum before and that blog is not old enough to have such an insular, reactionary culture - particularly since it's not even 6 months since XSL was closed and they had to "suffer" an influx of refugees.

I did notice that the peace makers have gone in and are trying to pave a way and some of the posters are responding but I'm still not impressed by the previous behaviour of the current blog inhabitants.

If it's that bad, report it. I reported a few, and they got taken care of pretty quickly.

I was new to this Forum once.. RA... and I was not bullied.

To say that it is standard behaviour is not true.

Imogen

They often do, but not when LL is concerned, how often do you submit tickets?

In order to get any movement from LL you *have* to go through other channels: contact Lindens you know and post on blogs. Their unresponsiveness to tickets and ARs encourages that, leading to their own inefficiencies.

This. I make it a policy never to argue with idiots period.

What benefit accrues to those who vanquish the fanbois? Money? Fame? Immortality?

A few are -- most notably, Unklebob. And that's obviously a good thing. But it is mildly depressing that the thread has not attracted more SLA "regulars"; the posts have mostly been populated by forumites. I was frankly expecting more confrontation from the "difficult" SLA types, but they are stay away in droves. I'm not sure why.