How do you know if you are scripting guru?!

So how do you know?! Does a giant light in the SL sky come down and says "I am Philip Linden, (blank) you have a talent and with that talent comes the title of SCRIPTING GURU!" *he then invites you to his elite group...

So how is it done? Do you just know? Does some one tell/IM/email/throw a rock with a message attached?!

Well, here are some things that come to mind:

- People have actually told you that you were talented
- People spread the word about how cool your creations are
- Whenever you log on to SL you have a bunch of IMs from people wanting you to do stuff for them
- You get noobs asking you questions on a regular basis
- You get old timers asking for help as well
- Lindens refer people with scripting questions to you
- You have actually TAUGHT some of the current gurus how to script

Do you know about the inverse law of competence self assessment?

Some sciency types did a pretty broad survey, and found that the people who were the least competent rated themselves highest in competence, the people who were most competent rated themselves much lower.

That said, guru-dom can only be awarded by others, not self-assesed. Furthermore, it is a rare thing indeed. In any given field of computery, there are usually only 1 or 2 (or, say, 10 if we allow really broad topics like "graphics" or "compilers" actual factual gurus.

To me it's the same thing as being a master builder. I know what one is, but I don't consider myself to be one, I know the gaps in my knowledge and there's a major area that I don't have the faintest knowlege of as yet.

When I get this, will I be a master builder?

I'm sorry to respond like this, but who cares? Even if I were the greatest builder in SecondLife, the attainment would be a short lived one. And how would that compare to someone who is a master at Maya, SoftImage, 3D Studio Max or one of the other major 3D packages? Probably rather poorly I'm afraid.

I can't help but think this would apply to being the master scripter of SecondLife.

If you are able to do what you want to do, and are satisfied with that, then perhaps you're a master. Perhaps that could lead to greater things...but how would you stack up next to a professional programmer?

There's always someone better you somewhere. This includes me as much as it does anyone. Maybe the best of all time just joined SecondLife this morning? It's all relative.

Lumi

> Some sciency types did a pretty broad survey, and found that the people who were the least competent rated themselves highest in competence, the people who were most competent rated themselves much lower.

People often stress who they would like to be rather than who they they really are. So someone who's good at programming might try to highlight their social and managerial skills whilst someone who's good socially might talk about their programming skills.

Azelda

The study weren't about programming, or even job performance:
http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/psp7761121.html

I agree with Lumi - its a somewhat meaningless title. How do you categorize it - it is the person who makes the most money from writing scripts? The person who disseminates the most infromation to noobs? Perhaps it is the person who acknowledges that he doesn't know everything and is always open to discussing new techniques? Is it the person who writes the most lines of LSL a week? Is it the person who hires the most scripters to have code custom written for them?

By somebody's definition, each one of these would equate to a Master Scripter. By another, this would be the epitome of what a Master Scripter ISN'T.

Much with building, there are scripters that I admire very much. Some for their forum posts, some for the free stuff teh disseminate in world, some for educational work and some because they sell stuff that just impresses the hell out of me. Does anyone person satisfy all the things I listed? I don't know but I don;t really care because if they did, there would eb athousand other ways that they don't fit the bill.

I do know one thing - anybody who calls themselves Master <arbitary title> probably doesn't deserve the title.

Well, uh, I have to admit I used to call myself Master Troll. Does that mean I'm actually not a troll? Whow. I never thought about it

No Eggy, you are still a troll, just not a Master one!

So is a good Troll termed a Master Baiter ????

Here, I thought this was going to be a "you know you're a guru if..."

...your idea of a hot date is a 64oz mug of soda, a pizza, and having all night free to code "that new tweak for my blingy"

...your SL house floats, has opening doors, and greets guests by name (hey, great idea!) but your real one has dirty socks and unwashed dishes everywhere.

...your butt has worn a permenant groove in your chair

...you've ever had to buy a new keyboard because you wore the letters off the keys

...you don't NEED the letters on the keys any more.

and the #1 way to know that you have reached Guru-dom:

Your scripts are in items for sale by people you've never even seen.

(It's like the first time I knew I'd written a useful program: I found it on someone else's web site. That actually made me feel proud).

Wednesday,

I found the 'unfunny' and the 'funny' jokes quoted in the report to be equally unfunny.

Interesting report though, and confirms what many of us suspect anyway.

Wraith,

lol!

Yes, I've found photographs of mine and articles I have written turning up on other people's websites. I don't really mind so long as I get a credit (sometimes I don't).

...the Lindens implement limitations in responce to you latest project.

Hahaha, Strife, that's happened to me

Strife, you absolutely qualify in my book

How many times did you crash Natoma yesterday?

Lumi

only twice ; first time was caused because i thought they had actualy fixed the bug. Second time was more of the same. (then i moved to rausch and crashed it a few times too; but that project in that incarnation is now finished) I thought the bug was fixed because i ran the old test script i made for that instance and the sim was fine. It's been a good while since i ran them and i wanted to see how things have changed. Overall the sims are very stable.

We used to joke that a scripter "becomes of age" when one of their scripts gets adapted for some sex-related function.

Si Money told me that someone once came to him looking for tech support for a sex script. Turns out it was a creatively modified dance script

"But it says you're the creator!"

But seriously, I don't think there are any scripting gurus in SL.

Let give you an example. Xylor's XyObjects is the single most impressive scripting project I've ever seen in SL. It's pretty amazing. But, in the end, it's basically just a bunch of tesselated quadrics and boxes. This is barely a 4th year graphics project.

Maybe when LSL becomes more powerful, we'll see scripters able to fully realize their potential. Or maybe we're still waiting for "the one".

My 2 cents.

Wonderfull!!! I was actually recruited to create a "sexual" device for someone, and that script has since been mutated into a moiton path system.

I'm a big boy now!