Category: News-Opinion

I’m gobsmacked

Posted on by Inara Pey

Amanda Linden (with whom I’ve had some interesting exchanges in the past) finally gets the word out about the new means of communications, um, “within” Second Life.

Now, a part of this is something I’ve been looking forward to – the new User Groups, together with new Participation Guidelines. Providing balance  – on both the Lab’s and the users’ side – can be brought to the User Groups, then these might work out a lot better than the old Office Hours, and I’m in broad agreement with all Suella Ember has to say on this. My only worry is that, while Office Hours could be hideous slanging matches in which more is vented than listened to, User Groups could become sycophantic FICs, either deliberately or accidentally – or become perceived as such.

That LL are dropping voting from the JIRA system seems to have surprised some. Me, not so much; it’s been evident for a long, long time that LL take about as much notice of voting on JIRA issues as one regards gum on a shoe soul: to be ignored as far as possible and then scraped off when no longer convenient to ignore. Removal simply takes away a source of embarrassment to the Lab. Quite how monitoring the number of Watchers on an issue will help progress it is unclear, but ho-hum; in some respects it smacks of the same emptiness witnessed in LL encouraging people to vote on JIRA issues (up until now, at least) while knowing full well they (quote) do not use voting to triage or to make product decisions.

It’s interesting to read that next month we will be rolling out a new community platform–an integrated system that will include SL Blogs, SL Forums, SL Answers, and the Knowledge Base. Is this a tacit admission the current system does not work? I’m curious on this simply because the much-vaunted “blogrum” system currently in place is in so many respects an abysmal failure.

  • The software is irritating and unpredictable. Posts and edits frequently get “eaten”; threads don’t always fully appear when in “page” mode (I’ve frequently come across replies to posts that make no sense. Originally, I thought the posts had simply been deleted…then I discovered that I could *sometimes* find them by switching over to the mind numbingly slow threaded view and then working my way through a thread)
  • The system, whether admitted to or nor is either being unevenly moderated by LL-related staff or it is being openly abused by one or more cadres, shall we say, of forum users (regulars?), with threads seemingly pulled simply because one or more didn’t like what they were reading
  • Whether they admit to it or not, there are a number of individuals who seem to view the General Discussion forum are their personal playground. While one always expects a degree of heated “debate” (aka insult-hurling and abusive disagreement) to enter into anything that people feel passionate about and willing to discuss, it has to be said that the levels of vitriol, dislike and sheer melodrama evidenced in the SL General Discussions forum far outstrips what is tolerated elsewhere – up to and including individuals carrying over personal vendettas against one another into threads that have absolutely no bearing on their original cause of angst with one another.

As such, the forums do need a major overhaul, both in terms of the technology and in the way they are moderated and managed – however thorny the latter issue.

However, it’s after the news on forums (potentially beneficial and good), Users Groups (potentially very beneficial and very good) and the JIRA changes (no surprises) that I find myself a little more gobsmacked in the negative sense.

In both “places to connect to one another” and “Get the latest Second Life and Linden Lab news” – and with the exception of mentioning the SL forums – never once does Amanda Linden suggest or encourage people to actually log in to Second Life.

Now, I may be accused of nit-picking here, but the fact is, we’re all involved in Second Life to participate in the marvellous world(s) of Second Life. As such, I don’t want to have to traipse over to Facebook to find out what the hell is going on in “my” world. Not because I’m worried about FB’s privacy rules (I am, but they have no bearing here) – but because I’m being told to “go away” and fart around with software I’ve no interest in using, rather than being encouraged to get involved “here”. The same goes for Twitter.

Telling me to go elsewhere is, frankly, bordering on telling me to take my business elsewhere as well – and that’s not a healthy perception any company should be promoting. Period.

Where’s the encouragement to log in, meet friends, joins in-world Groups – gosh, even create a Group or two? I’m not being facetious here. Groups – despite issues with the Group chat – are a phenomenal way of keeping in touch with the pulses of Second Life we enjoy. We know LL are working to improve some of these tools – so why no mention, why no encouragement to just log in? It doesn’t matter if the new tools are a little way down the road: the new integrated forum tools appear to be down the road as well, yet they get a mention.

Frankly, as far as informing people as to what is going on, Amanda should at least be pointing to the events calendar (web and in-world), and making it clear the tools to do so are there, waiting to be used, and are going to be subject to enhancement to further encourage direct interaction between users.

And why the heck are we being steered to FB to get the latest news from LL themselves? I mean – and this may well sound a bit radical – surely the best way for LL to promote themselves to their users is through their own bloody website!

One also has to wonder why Linden-lead meetings aren’t a part of this announcement? Were they considered and dismissed?  Not even on the agenda? One of the healthiest ways for Linden Lab to promote goodwill among users and get important messages across would be to come out of their sanctums and engage with us in-world. I appreciate that management tend to be busy – but would it really be that inconvenient to give up, say, 90 minutes once a quarter or so and come in-world to address a pre-planned, pre-advertised meeting that includes a Q&A session featuring questions from the audience and received in advance by those unable to attend due to factors such as timezones?

It could even be called the Linden Village Roadshow. Lord knows, there are plenty of venues that could be established for said meetings (after all, its done for the likes of SLCC).

I have no idea if the User Groups will work – I really, sincerely hope they do, and that both sides will approach them openly and sensibly. I do look forward to seeing the new “integrated community platform”  and very much hope that this time, LL hit the nail on the head rather than mashing their own thumb. But as to the rest? Well, it’s disappointing.

Rod Humble on Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Hamlet, over at New World Notes, lets us have the low-down on his interview with new Linden Lab CEO, Rod Humble.

It’s an interesting piece which, doubtless, many will find disappointing. Restructure the land pricing model? No; and much that others will take heart in: greater Facebook integration? It’s a nice idea, but…

What is interesting about the interview is that on the one hand, it again repeats themes that LL keep hitting on time and again like a needle hitting a scratch on a record: make it easier for new users; *click* need to fix lag; *click* make it easier for new users… But on the other hand, it shows a solid perception of where the company has been going wrong in jumping from bandwagon to bandwagon in vain attempts to drum-up new users, damaging both itself and Second Life in the process.

For me, I have to say that I’m a little disappointed by the new user / fix lag mantra. As I’ve said elsewhere, what is need within Linden Lab is an ability to look at the platform a lot more holistically, rather than trying to poke things into individual, easy-to-tick boxes.

Yes Second Life is exasperating when one comes to use it for the first time; yes lag is an ongoing issue. Yes customer service sucks worse than a vacuum cleaner with a hole in the cylinder – but constantly mucking around with the “new user experience” or simply reducing lag and getting friendlier, more knowledgeable people sitting on the end of the phone or responding to tickets isn’t going to revitalise SL.

Let’s face it, when I joined SL originally in 2006, we had lag. We had sim crossing that would throw you into the middle of next week rather than the middle of the next sim; we had a new user experience that was both frustrating and confusing (and with a bloody annoying parrot, to boot). We had a Viewer that was somewhat arcane and needed to be looked at sideways via a mirror to make any sense of it. But – it didn’t matter! Why? Because suddenly our computer screen was a window – a door into a marvellous world where we were – to all intents and purposes – limited only by our imaginations!

When I came back to SL at the end of 06, after a few months away, things were as aggravating: lag, asset server failures, Black Wednesdays without the grid for up to 8 hours – sometimes longer (maintenance time coincided with the afternoon / evening here which made it even worse). The Viewer still required several belts of the forehead against the desktop  before it made a degree of sense. But – it didn’t matter! The Wonder was still there. A Wonder encouraged and nurtured by residents and Linden Lab employees alike.

It’s easy to say I’ve got rose-tinted glasses on as I write this and that the “old days” always look better; but that’s not the case. We accepted Second Life warts and all, because we could immerse ourselves here. There were precious few barriers preventing us from exercising imagination and mind.

Over past few years, that ability to freely immerse ourselves has been eroded. Policies have been drawn up and implemented with the barest consideration of precisely how they might impact communities. Where residents have raised valid and considered concerns over them, the response from LL has run the measure from trying a deaf ear through to the blandly patronising. Even where the changes have been necessary and potentially beneficial, LL have handled matters in such a cavalier manner, they’ve frequently managed to alienate those that initially supported their efforts. In short, these newer policies have left users feeling as if they are being fenced in on either side and herded and prodded away from the very things that enticed them into SL in the first place.

As a result, our tolerance for dealing with technical issues has been eroded; lag has become more and more of an issue for us – along with matters such as crossing sim boundaries – not because they are any more annoying to people than they were in the past, but because it seems that it’s only when dealing with these tangible problems we feel anyone at LL is listening. As a result, rather than people within  LL looking at SL as a whole, we find them drawing up – as I’ve said before – laundry lists of things to do to “fix” SL and make it a “happy” place.

And it is somewhat frustrating to hear Rod Humble roll out the same mantra so early on.

That said, I have to admit to smiling at his candour around Second Life as a brand and the tacit admission that Linden Lab have messed this up for themselves. I’m not convinced his candour will result in anything substantial in the short-term – but taken with the introduction of the new User Groups, I’m hopeful that we might at least see a redressing of the balance in corporate / user interactions which may just filter back into the company; possibly returning it to the core values that made SL work through the early years. In short: seeing the platform as an inspirational, collaborative environment in which they provide the tools, the means and the general guidance – and the users provide the content, the dynamics of interaction (creativity, roleplay, gameplay, etc.), that together make Second Life a vibrant, healthy growing place.

Elsewhere, Mr. Humble struck a chord that is doubtless going to please a lot of people, stating that linking Second Life with the likes of Facebook – while not an outright no-no – should be handled with caution and a respect for the privacy of Second Life users (something LL have blundered around with up until now). I certainly had to smile at his nixing of Hamlet’s overly Facebook-oriented suggestion of “first fixes” for SL. Again, there is nothing wrong with providing the hooks for those that wish to use both platforms, but the future of SL should not be defined in terms that actively push the user base into FBland.

I doubt, on the other hand, Mr., Humble’s views on the current land “sales” revenue model will be received so well. While promising that LL will be seeking to improve what is on offer, he made it clear the pricing model won’t shift.

Where I was disappointed in the interview is that it avoided all mention of Mr. Humble’s belief that user creativity is important to Second Life. He’s said so in his own initial blog post and again in meeting with the “SL Press Corps”. While hearing the CEO of LL say this (especially after Philip Rosedale seemingly denigrated in-world content creation last year when he voiced the opinion most users won’t “even rez a prim”) is exceedingly positive, it needs more meat on the bone.

What is LL going to do to encourage in-world creativity? While mesh is exciting and has a lot of people all hot and bothered, the fact remains it isn’t “in-world creativity”. So what else will there be because, with respect, people in a year’s time will want to come to Second Life because they know they can be who they want to be.. and when they join, they’ll be able to meet interesting people, and they can have a home… that’s more than enough? is a deeply worrying statement. People can already “be who they want to be” and “meet interesting people” and “have a home” without ever setting foot in Second Life. That’s what they’re doing in Facebook right now.

If people come to SL for self-expression, they need to be confident that they can express themselves, that they have the means be which they can find self-expression through an engaging, exciting medium, whether they are in-world to build, socialise, play or role-play.

As such, LL have got to start helping define (redefine?) the environment so that residents feel they can contribute to it, help nurture it, grow with it, and by a part of it.

“Your world, your imagination” is regarded as jaded and beyond its sell-by date with some quarters of LL. This being the case, I offer Mr. Humble an alternative that may help embrace the idea of Lab and users working together:

“Our worlds and our imaginations”.

Apez sold

Posted on by Inara Pey

After all the confusion, Apez has now been sold. It appears that Egoisme is now the new owner. Some Apez users are reporting on SLU that service continued more-or-less “as normal” during the last few months, and Cenji has indicated that all accounts have / are being honoured in terms of payouts.

How things will pan out for people remains to be seen. Certainly, with the demise of Slapt.me, the apparent disappearance of Metaverse Exchange and the wholehearted chewing-up-and-spitting-out of On Rez in favour of the SL Marketplace (nee XStreet SL nee SL Exchange), a good, solid, competitor is required to face-off against Linden Lab if only to encourage further development of, and enhancement to, current services. Whether this can be Apez / Egoisme remains to be seen.

Certainly, no-one can deny that Apez as a brand is now  – pardon the pun – damaged goods. Therefore, any attempt to “restore” the Apez name (as Egoisme state they would like) is potentially going to be akin to trying to push water up a hill.

However, the Apez system – servers, vendors, etc., did and do work well, and retain a lot of potential. Put them together with a reliable level of customer service (which many complained was a major issue with Apez), develop a really solid front end that disposes with things like “Sekrit Naughty Words Of The Day” lists, which offers both consumers and merchants a flexible means of both finding and promoting goods and services under a brand entirely distinct from Apez, and Egoisme might just have something. It’s still going to be an uphill climb – especially given the overall state of stagnation within Second Life and LL’s ability to massively steer people towards SLM; as such whether the possible rewards of persevering with such an effort prove worthwhile for those concerned remains to be seen.

Update: Egoisme apparently sold Apez not long after acquiring it. When this took place & to whom is unclear. All reference to Apez (including the press release announcing the acquistion linked-to above) has been removed from the main Egoisme website.

Communications and the Lab

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Tuesday, we were apparently supposed to get information from Linden Lab as to the future of user / Lab communications, following the gradual winding-down of Office Hours.

Seems it didn’t appear.

However, Suella Ember grabbed the scoop on the way things may be going – and in the process raises very valid points and ideas for future, more robust interactions between Lab and users. As she points out, since writing her piece, information on the new User Groups has gone up on the SL wiki.

Going off the wiki, these new forums for discussion are already active. One certainly hopes that someone within Linden Lab will get the official word out via the blog before too much longer!

Metaversally speaking – where are they?

Posted on by Inara Pey

I build. No secrets there. I sell through an in-world store, SL Marketplace and Metaverse Exchange (MVX).

Or rather, I did.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a huge price restructuring for my house and home builds to reflect current market trends. As a part of this, I obviously updated prices on both SLM and MVX – noting in the process that the latter was now supporting several other grids – good oh! I thought.

Around the middle of last week, I was fiddling around and needed to log into MVX- only to find it’s no longer there.

What on earth has happened? Currently, going from the page that is displayed, it would appear the site is held pending renewal – but the fact it’s been like this for the better part of a week is a little worrying; and others are noticing as well, with questions being asked on forums including SLU. Siann Beck, creator of MVX apparently hasn’t logged-in to SL since the 17th January. Nor have there been any e-mails through the MVX channels (or at least, none that I’ve received).

*IF* MVX has gone, it’ll be a shame. I didn’t sell much through that channel, but the site was well considered and, even with the massive improvements LL have made in developing SLM, had several options that LL would have done well to adopt.

Here’s hoping this is just a hiccup, and MVX hasn’t permanently vanished into the ether…

BSG returns to SL

Posted on by Inara Pey

In November I blogged about Battlestar Galactica within Second Life being on the receiving end of a DMCA from Universal Studios. Now it appears, by way of a cheese-loving investigative resident and a delightfully easily to tease medieval lord that an agreement has been reached with regards to Battlestar Galactica in Second Life.

Some had said that the NBC/Univseral move was to quash opposition to their own upcoming BSG MMOG, now about to enter beta. Well, not so.

The actual news was broken by the Harrisburg Second Life Examiner (as was the original information relating to the issuance of the DMCA) that following intense negotiations between a number of parties, including NBC/Universal’s IP licensing office and the International Federation of Trekkers representing BSG interests in SL, an agreement has been reached whereby BSG roleplay can now continue within Second Life.

This is an encouraging move, and shows that major corporations are prepared to act in a reasonable manner towards activities in Second Life. While it is true that several BSG sims have folded in response to the original DMCA and the statement from NBC/Universal contains a very specific caveat, this outcome should nevertheless not be taken with any sour grapes on the part of SL residents.

The caveat itself  relates to BSG goods within Second Life; specifically, NBC/Universal state:

users may continue to create and interact with each other as BSG fans, so long as such interaction does not include the creation and sales of unlicensed of real-life or virtual items featuring our intellectual property

Note my emphasis. “And”. It implies that NBC/Universal might be willing to allow the creation of BSG material (uniforms, vehicles, etc.) providing the evidence can be provided that the creator is not profiting from such items. That this seems to be the case has been confirmed in a follow-up telephone call from NBC/Universal to those representing BSG activities within SL, wherein it was confirmed that the company will tolerate goods made under the fair use act (i.e. not sold or re-sold), but that lawyers for the company will follow-up on individual cases involving the creations and sale / re-sale of BSG-related material.

The cynical might say that nevertheless the caveat still “kills” BSG as no-one will “want” to create BSG items that they cannot sell and thus receive some benefit for their hard work. Frankly, I say “not so”.

Fans of series like BSG are extremely loyal both to the franchise and to the idea of keeping the concepts, philosophies and appeal of such shows alive – and in having fun doing so. As such, I have little doubt there are BSG content creators out there who will be willing to forego profit and see some of their wares available for use in such sims under the fair use act.

As it stands, those running RP sims have a green light, providing they clearly demonstrate they are neither creating BSG goods for sale and that they are not in receipt of any proceeds from the sale of such goods. Indeed, those directly involved in the major remaining sims have indicated their full support for the agreement, and one group is already working on a comprehensive roleplay scenario that takes the BSG concept in something of a new direction.

Kudos should be extended to those that kept the faith and put in such positive effort to keeping BSG alive in Second Life. Such kudos, should especially go to Anthony Haslage (“Ntaniel Swordthain” in SL) for acting as mediator in this matter and to NBC/Universal themselves for being willing to engage so positively and work towards a satisfactory conclusion.

So say we all!