Jack Linden finally bows out of Linden Lab, and many are sad to see him go. I confess to being somewhat lukewarm in my response to the news.
Jack started out in customer support where he was noted for having a “sexy” accent (or more usually, a “sexy British” accent), and enjoyed a somewhat meteoric rise through the ranks. Which has been both good and bad – and occasionally ugly.
The good is that, despite everything else, he at least made the effort (mostly) to engage with users through his office hours – something that put him in the minority within the Lab. The bad was that all too frequently, this engagement actually came in the form of obfuscation, denial or near-to misrepresentation.
Jack was also the front man for some of LL’s most unpopular actions over the last few years: he took charge of Mainland, and promptly oversaw a massive dumping of sims into the environment that ravaged the market; he was “lead” on the OpenSpace / Homestead fiasco that bordered on a bait-and-switch policy; he was very much involved in the Adult Changes; more recently he has been “heading up” the commerce side of things and also had input into the ongoing Search debacle. His office hours were frequently mired by accusations of behind-closed-doors deals and outright favouritism towards certain LL “clients” (aka estate owners).
Now, it would be unfair to blame Jack solely for all of these woes: at the end of the day, all of these policies originated far higher up the management chain than good ol’ Jack. But what isn’t so forgivable is the manner in which Jack all-too-frequently went about his work – for which many of those now wishing him a fond farewell in the comments following his final blog post seem all too keen to forget; which is odd given many of them were often driven to distraction by his antics. The way in which he often seemed to delight in creating upset, confusion and outright disbelief always suggested to me that he was not that concerned with assuaging the worries of residents. In this, I’ve always felt that he took on these unpopular polices simply because he saw them as a means of furthering his career within LL, and that dealing with resident anger and genuine concerns was simply not, at any time, on his agenda – other than the rare occasions when it suited him to give the impression he was trying to help.
So… I find it hard to shed a tear and wave goodbye as he goes; although I’m not exactly gleefully waving a finger or two at his departing back. Jack played the residents as much as he engaged with them – but at least he *did* engage with us.
With his departure, I rather fear that all we’re going to face now is a resounding wall of silence.
“Ringing in the changes” is a term that goes back centuries. Originally used in terms of campanology – where it is indeed still used – it entered English slang in the mid-1800s to mean “changing bad money for good; in respectable society the phrase is sometimes employed to denote that the aggressor has been paid back in his own coin, as in practical joking, when the laugh is turned against the jester.” Nowadays we take it to simply mean “employing alternative methods”.
One of the common uses of the term in western society is around the New Year period where we face the opening of another year and are acknowledging we’re going to perhaps do things a little differently (a-la New Year resolutions). So, given we’re fast approaching that time of year, and accepting that broad changes are afoot, it’s no surprise that Linden Lab have thrown out a revised Terms of Service – and once again left it to residents to work out what, precisely, has changed rather than simply highlighting the changed section up front, or even producing a blog posting to explain the new ToS.
So what has changed?
Well, the core of the changes are around the upcoming merger (aka “absorption”) of TSL into the Main Grid and the throwing open of the doors to anyone aged thirteen or older. Here’s what has changed:
Section 2.1 Age Requirements now reads:
By accepting this Agreement in connection with an Account, you represent that you are at least 13 years of age and you have the legal authority to enter into this Agreement.
Clarification is then given that those below 18 years of age must have a) received parental / guardian approval for them to have joined the service, and b) their parent / guardian has read the ToS.
Section 2.2 Age Requirements for Use of Areas of Service (formerly Age Requirements for Teen Second Life)
Sets out the requirements / limitations of under-18s using Second Life, which fall into line with what has already been released by Linden Lab, namely:
13-15 year-olds will be restricted to estates (called “Teen Estates”) operated by Sponsoring Organisations (which are in turn defined in Section 2.4 of the ToS) and which must comply with Linden Lab’s General Maturity Rating in terms of both content and activities
16-17-year-olds will be restricted to Mainland and private estate sims operating under the General Maturity Rating and, at the discretion of the Sponsoring organisation, may continue to access any “Teen Estate” they have been affiliated with prior to turning 16.
Section 2.4 Requirements for Corporate Users now has “and Sponsoring Organisations” tacked on to the end and has the following statement glued on to the end of the original Section 2.4:
If you are a Sponsoring Organization, you agree that (i) you will maintain your Teen Estate in compliance with the General Maturity Rating; (ii) you will comply with the the API Terms of Use; (iii) you will limit the access of Affiliated Accounts of users between 13 and 16 to your Teen Estate; (iv) you are solely responsible for all Content and activities that take place on your Teen Estate, and (iv) you will comply with such guidelines as Linden Lab may issue from time to time with respect to Teen Estates.
This comes across as a lot of waffle that doesn’t actually say much – other than attempting to absolve Linden Lab of any blame should anything go “wrong” on such sponsored estates. Who or what actually qualifies as a “sponsoring organisation”? According to the revised Section 2.2, the new Section 2.4 is supposed to provide such a definition – but it doesn’t.
Elsewhere in the ToS Section 8, Conduct of Users of Second Life has seen some toughening-up of the wording in respect of minors accessing the Main Grid, namely:
Section 8.2 (ii) now requires that adults will not impersonate a minor for the purpose of interacting with a minor using the Service
A new Section 8.2 (iii) has been added, stating users of Second Life will not Stalk, harass, or engage in any sexual, suggestive, lewd, lascivious, or otherwise inappropriate conduct with minors on the Service
Section 8.2 (iv) (formerly 8.2 (iii)) clarifies and improves the wording of how matters relating to age play will be handled.
Similarly Section 11.4, dealing with the suspension / termination of accounts has been updated to read:
We may suspend or terminate your Account(s) if we learn, or in good faith believe, that you are a Registered Sex Offender, that accessing Second Life may violate a condition of parole or probation, that you have engaged in, or attempted to engage in conduct with minors on the Service that violates this agreement. [my emphasis for clarity].
Outside of the age changes to the ToS, there is one incongruous change to the ToS that has been thrown in, relating to the taking of snapshots / making of Machinema in “publicly accessible areas” (section 7.4). The inclusion of the phrasing in the ToS when it first appeared back in April of this year caused much gnashing of teeth. It’ll be interesting to see if its removal will be noted in any way…
Overall, these are not in and of themselves major changes. The main area of concern is that, in typical fashion for these kinds of documents, the ToS is more about protecting Linden Lab against any perceived wrongdoing with the upcoming changes that it is about anything else. As such, people (assuming they read the new ToS prior to agreeing to it) will continue to rend cloth and scatter ashes ahead of the upcoming changes. And while is it true that a part of me is concerned at the one-way flow of things here (it would be nice to have some kind of visual indicator, for example that the individual you’ve bumped into in a store is actually a minor rather than, say, an adult operating a below “average height” avatar that looks like a minor), I’m still not convinced that the arrival of Teens onto the Main Grid will be the God-awful disaster many seem to believe. And in truth, outside of the sheer woollyness of Section 2.4, it’s hard to see how else things could have been worded.
With the reported closure of Apez, rumours started circulating to the effect that CasperVend, which had produced a means of helping content creators utilising the Apez iVend system to migrate to Casper’s own systems, were in fact Apez rebranded.
Such were the scale of these rumours, that Casper Warden, head of CasperVend, issued a strongly-worded and entirely open rebuttal to the claims – and full marks to him for doing so. While there are still issues surrounding Apez itself none of them have anything to do with CasperVend, which has provided an extraordinary opportunity to ease the pain of existing Apez customers – and has done so with the minimum of additional headaches.
So, kudos again to Casper.
In the meantime, Apez have sold their land holdings in Second Life, with the monies raised being put towards honouring outstanding withdrawal requests – which is also good news.
However, as of today, Weds. 8th December 2010, account balances that have not had a withdrawal ticket posted against them have apparently been voided. It is unclear as to how many accounts are affected, but again, given that Apez was not operating as a bank, nor – I understand – were monies deposited via in-world ATMS or pending withdrawal by merchants intended to be used in support of other aspects of the Apez business, it still seems extraordinary that they are now apparently baulking at honouring all outstanding accounts by introducing an entirely arbitrary deadline by which account withdrawal tickets must be submitted.
If it remains the case that Apex are unable to honour all account holders with a full repayment of funds deposited (less the obvious commission, in the case of deposits via vendor sales). then it is hard to see how any potential purchaser will benefit in taking on the Apez brand.
This weekend saw me pass the four-year mark of continuous activity in SL. It didn’t actually occur to me until after the fact that it was probably because it was the anniversary of my Rezday that the Second Life asset server decided to bash me around somewhat and left me with a better understanding of why the males of our species seem to explode in fits of swearing in front of a computer: while it doesn’t actually achieve anything it is bloody therapeutic – even if I did embarrass my cat by using some most unladylike terms!
So, what has happened in these last four years that keeps me logging in? I’m going to steer away from the most obvious answer (some might say “cliché”, despite its inherent truth) for a moment and consider a few other things.
Whether we are prepared to admit it or not – and “not” does seem to be the yardstick – Second Life has come a long, long way in that time; even further if I cast my mind back to the start of 06 and my first 5-6 months here in a different incarnation to Inara Pey (one now long gone and never re-used).
When I first came back to SL:
There was no Windlight
Flexiprims were still so novel that when Calico or someone announced a new release, the store would be swamped with people desperate for a try
We could only build to a maximum height of 768 metres (despite being able to fly much higher)
Class III servers (remember those?) were the norm
We had Black Wednesday every single week, when Second Life would be down for 6-10 hours a day: no logging in period
The Grid would regularly go down for 2-3 hours at other times in the week as well, notably weekends, after the Great Friday Night roll-outs
Anshe Chung was hitting the headlines after just 30 months in SL, giving rise to an influx of new hopefuls who never actually paused to consider just how Anshe achieved her success – and perhaps expected things to simply land on their plates
SL had survived one land glut / crash and was showing signs of recovery
SL had come through a number of Linden lab / Resident head-to-heads that have been the hallmark of the history of the platform (there’s probably a book waiting to be written on that subject alone)
From a D/s perspective, Lulu was all the rage; Marine Kelley’s Real Restraints were just coming out; Darien Caldwell had yet to make an impact with the Haus brand, and RLV was but a twinkle in the future
Everyone (including Linden Lab) were convinced Second Life’s Time Had Come.
Since then, we’ve had more peaks and valleys than the Himalayas. Linden Lab still persistently wrong-foot themselves; residents still get to the rending of garments all to readily when a policy change – however minor – is announced. Linden Lab still nip, tuck, tweak and outright break things simply because – it would seem – they can, and are increasingly out of step with the realities of just about everything that goes on in-world simply because they refuse to spend any time here while remaining resolute in their (misguided) belief that they still understand the platform and all its complex nuances better than those who actually use it day in, day out.
Technically, whether we can see it or not, SL has massively improved. Crash rates are down; the Viewer (even Viewer 2) is well beyond anything we had in 2006; we have Windlight; we have an entire sky to build in without having to worry too much about gravity saying, “Oi! you can’t do that!”; rendering has come on in leaps and bounds; we have a degree of photo realism in skins and the like that was unheard of four years ago; we have the ability to multi-attach prim items; wear multiple clothing items on the same layer if we wish; Black Wednesdays and frequent grid lock-outs/take-downs have ceased; server performance has massively improved; we have sculpties (warts notwithstanding), and will soon have “full” Mesh; we have much improved media capabilities…
…and the list goes on. Of course, not all of these have come about smoothly, and there are still issues that get all of us hot under the collar: we still cannot cross sim boundaries without at least rubber banding; sims; the server software is getting rather long in the tooth when it comes to handling much of the demands we place on it; the asset system is still something of an unpredictable beast.
Nor has controversy ever been far away: the gambling ban; fiddling around with Traffic; The OpenSpace debacle; Adult Policy Changes; buying-out the opposition (which is at least somewhat better than simply putting them out of business, as was the GOM case); Land price crashes; land gluts…. And over-arching it all, there is an increasing corporate indifference within Linden Lab towards users that is almost towering in it hubris – and potentially, given the current emergence of new markets for users elsewhere, suicidal. This came into sharp focus during Mitch Kapor’s SL5B address, when established users were effectively told to “get out” of SL (Kapor used the term “move aside”, but it amounts to the same thing). This view that we, the user base are something more akin to a nuisance than we are to a customer has grown alarmingly over the last three years and, it has to be said, lays at the heart of much that is unsettling within Linden Research as a company.
However, in spite of Linden Lab’s inability to grasp the fact that their most vital resource and, indeed, ally in building their brand and market position are their users – and that as such, they should be more willing to end the cycle of confrontation and start engaging with us again – many of us are still here after three or four or five years, forgiving all the angst and heartache and soldiering on in spite of, rather than because of, LL. Why?
The changing face of Pey: Jan 07
Mostly, it has to be said (and coming around to the cliché I sidestepped earlier), it’s because of the people. While few (if any) of us like the term because of its Facebook connotations, Second Life is very much a social network. It enables us to make friends around the world, “meet” with them and share in their lives. We can celebrate and commiserate together; share hobbies and pastimes; indulge in role play scenarios together, be they “adult” or steampunk, the latest sci-fi craze, Gor, vampires, or whatever.
It is – again despite, it would at times, LL’s efforts to make it otherwise – a deeply immersive world offering massive scope for the imagination to take flight, and for the spirit and mind to simply escape.
The changing face of Pey: Luna Days: mid-07
I make no secret of my involvement as an adult in D/s. I’ve had partners and lovers in my real life who have been as involved as I; at one time, my ego found an outlet in writing about D/s elsewhere. But, at the time I re-joined SL, that was very much “on hold” in my life for a variety of reasons – and SL has, over the years, given me the opportunity to express that side of my nature once more, and to meet some extraordinary people over the years – the majority of whom have remained friends and contacts. It’s even allowed my little ego to resume writing on the subject of D/s!
I’ve also discovered a creative side to my nature. Discovering how to manipulate prims and being taught to do so by those with a unique skill in that area . Indeed, next to the friends I’ve made, it still remains one of the great pleasures I find in SL. I love building; I love the fact I can actually do something with my “hands” – lets face it, I can’t draw or paint; I’m about as green-fingered as a doorknob, letting me hold a hammer is akin to giving me a lethal weapon (for all the wrong reasons) – so being able to build houses, furniture and so on has been a revelation. And while I’d never call myself a “coder” I’ve enjoyed learning how to make arcane lines of text come together to make other things do something such as swing open or illuminate a room – giving me the feeling of being some kind of digital necromancer in a way I probably couldn’t capture were I to try entering worlds like Eve and Warcraft (had they any appeal at all).
The changing face of Pey: Birdland, Nov 07
Then there is the sheer escapism of SL. Beyond my involvement in D/s, SL has enabled me to do so much I’d never be able – or indeed, willing – to try. I’ve mentioned in the past that my father served in the RAF as a pilot; from him I have inherited the view (perhaps unfairly!) that anyone stepping out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane while it is in flight, with nothing but a rucksack strapped to their back with an oversized handkerchief folded inside it is perhaps threepence short of the pound – but in SL I quickly fell in love with skydiving, be it from a launch tower or the back of an aeroplane. I’ve done single jumps, I’ve done target competitions, I’ve done “formation” jumps. I’ve even had my share of splats (which are the things in RL skydiving that terrify me) – and I’ve loved every minute.
And where else can an otherwise “respectable” middle-class woman in her 30s get to:
Be an exotic dancer in two of SL’s former leading clubs
Become a red-skinned succubus
Transform herself into a mermaid and swim with the fishes
Jump on the back of a high-speed “quad” that can also fly and skate over the water like a jetski and blow the living bejesus out of anything getting in the way
Become a black-suited, knife-and-gun wielding assassin / gun-for-hire (Angelina Jolie, eat your heart out!)
The Changing face of Pey: The Birdland Era, 2008
I’ve been able to ride horses at will; scuba dive; I’ve wielded godlike powers to reshape the land, raise (and raze) mountains; where I have pointed, valleys and rivers have appeared; I’ve created forests, gardens, lakes and turned barren islands of sand into tropical paradises.
Of course, there have been times when I’ve asked myself if it is really all worth it & I’ve been close to simply purging my inventory and leaving. I’ve brought more than enough of my real life self into “Inara Pey” that she and I are pretty much one in the same in our views, beliefs and attitudes; she is more than just a character to me – she is very much an expression of who I am. And in this, she has been a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because she has enabled me to meet so many people I can call friends; people I can love and talk with and get upset with and forgive; people whom I can vent to, people I can (probably) drive up the wall, across the ceiling and down the other side – and who will still forgive me and accept me. A curse because at times it has led to some serious hurt, partially as a result of me being who I am and placing too much trust in those who have later revealed a willingness to engage in selfishness and deceit because, after all, it’s “just a game”.
The changing face of Pey: All Change! August 2010
Because Inara is such an extension of me, that when things have gone badly awry on the technical side, I’ve been close to putting her to sleep rather than deal with the frustrations of seeing her broken. This weekend, ironically, was a case in point. From Friday through Monday I had an increasing pile of issues – inventory losses, avatar corruptions, etc., that did cause the “Oh why do I even bother?” mentality to kick-in.
However, if I’m honest, “giving up” isn’t an option. Warts, niggles, annoyances, drama and Linden Lab notwithstanding, Four continuous years in Second Life as Inara Pey has added a rich dimension to my life; I’ve had fun, I’ve made – and been lucky enough to keep – friends whom I value and who value me. I’ve lived out fantasies dark and light; explored aspects of my pysche that would otherwise have remained internalised and hidden. I’m not proud of everything I’ve done in SL – but like life, it is a learning experience.
Despite all the doom and gloom we all rather too readily heap on Second Life (or Linden Lab at least), the fact is, that without it, we’d all be somewhat diminished. If asked to sum-up the last four years, I’d use three words: it’s been fun – and the fun is, I hope, far from over.
Today sees the “final” release of Phoenix as a Release Candidate, that brings together the last clutch of major releases from the Phoenix team prior to work starting in earnest on their Viewer-2 hybrid, Firestorm.
Given there are a number of fairly big updates in this release (.725), the Phoenix team are taking a wise course of action in declaring it a Release Candidate that may require some tweaking to iron out remaining issues and bugs before it can be considered a “final” release. Therefore, I’d recommend you bear this in mind when downloading and installing.
The key feature list with this release is impressive, and it is good to see Phoenix get code that officially supports multiple prim attachments, thus finally breaking the issues with using the Emerald hack for this, and there is even a document for those who have routinely used the “Emerald hack” explaining what they’ll likely get on using the RC. Display Names are also introduced with this release, so there are going to be some interesting times ahead for people longing to be able to set suitable role-play names as well! It’s wotrh watching the video on DisplayNames, as Phoenix, I understand, offers additional functionality on these over Viewer 2.x
There are also some changes “missing” from this release (as in, no-one anywhere has yet ported the code for use in 1.23.5-based Viewers), and some changes that are going to doubtless cause confusion and / or minor heart palpitations for those who have not read the supporting documentation. Chief among these are:
No support for multiple clothing on the same layer: in other words, you cannot wear two Jacket layers, as is possible in Viewer 2.x and its derivatives. Those desiring this are likely going to have to wait for Firestorm or something like Imprudence’s upcoming Kokua Viewer
Phoenix adopts the Viewer 2.x inventory management code. This means that if anyone has ever used Viewer 2, they could be in for a surprise when they log in with the Phoenix RC and find themselves wearing clothing and one or more prim attachments they were wearing the last time they ever logged into SL using Viewer 2. However, the good news is that Phoenix now has the ability to create Outfit folders at last – although this may not be such a boon to those who manage some of their outfits through #RLV.
The ability to manipulate parcel presets with the same ease as with Viewer 2.x is also a massively-welcome addition to Phoenix.
I’ve run a quick test on various elements – like multi-attach and Outfits creation and the use of Display Names, and all appear to work perfectly well, although I still feel Outfits is limited in that there is no ability to “nest” outfits within a sub-folder structure so that, for example, you could have MY OUTFITS -> GOWNS -> and all your various gown Outfits. Now, this isn’t a fault with Phoenix – it’s the way things work in Viewer 2.x – but perhaps Jessica and the team could look at tweaking the code for Firestorm…
Display Names has a nice work-through, given Phoenix doesn’t have that bloody sidebar, and the functionality is neat.
Overall, this appears to be a mighty swansong for the 1.23.5-based Phoenix (which, once this release hits “final”, will be subject to issue / bug fix releases only), and one that – RC jitters aside – is going to please a lot of people.
Me included! Kudos to the Phoenix team and all associated with the project!
I’m posting this as a kind-of addendum to my last on the announcements from LL relating to Classifieds and paid ads, but also as a separate entry as it harkens back to the other current Big Thing – the arrival of teens.
In the e-mail from “The Linden Advertising Team” (is this Nelson again?) is a little passage that may yet be a time bomb (and which explains why this announcement went out in a “no reply” e-mail, rather than in a comment-enabled blog post):
Maturity Changes: Previously, advertisers declared the maturity level of their ads. However, to prepare for teens coming to the main grid, we will be using the maturity system used for Search that is based on two factors:
Parcel maturity level
Content of the ads themselves
Advertisers’ declared maturity will still be visible in Viewer 2, but will be informational only and not affect the actual maturity rating for each listing. We are targeting these changes for the week of Dec 13th
So, in other words, those operating on Adult lands will not be able to advertise in Classifieds even if their ads conform to PG/G OR M guidelines – or if they do, they cannot SET LOCATION to provide a direct Teleport to their store / location (which teens cannot get to even if they do read the ad).
Now, given there have already been “improvements” to search covering the arrival of teensand it has been indicated that teens will only be able to search at the PG /G level – and while appreciating these safeguards do not cover every eventuality, this move is going to be seen by many in the Adult community as punitive against them. Rather than a better search engine and better policing on their part, LL have opted for a solution that may well inconvenience them the least – but could further marginalise a section of their mainstream user community.
Again, I have nothing major against teens entering the Main Grid; yes, some of the actions LL have taken have caused eyebrows to rise – but I still haven’t felt it’s going to be the God-awful disaster some have been predicting. That said, this decision does come across as unreasonable.
My real issue with the whole teen thing is more to do with the fact that it appears that some in Linden Land believe that teens are the new saviours of Second Life; that there are vast hordes of teenagers out there, champing at the bit to get into this virtual playground, and thus revive its fortunes if just a few “minor” things are nipped and tweaked.
Those of us who have been here long enough will remember something similar back in 2007 /08, when LL seemed to believe that if they just did *this* and *that* – and to hell with what the users felt – then Big Business (which sniffed around the edges of SL in 2006/07) would flood into the grid and take them to The Next Level.
And we all know how that one worked out, don’t we?
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 