Category: News-Opinion

Marketplace opens

Posted on by Inara Pey

Grant Linden today blogs that the new SL Marketplace is now officially open. This replacement for XStreet has been the source of much gnashing of teeth for merchants and not a few consumers. Decisions made by LL to make the experience more “professional” meant that all merchants were faced with the need to completely re-work listings that – in many cases – had seen many hours of hard work put into them through the use of BB and HTML code to format and lay-out individual pages – with both BB and HTML being “banned” from the Marketplace. Equally as upsetting was the decision to alter the image format for posting to SLM, requiring more time spent by merchants re-cropping images to suit the new requirements.

All told, the beta of SLM caused more heartache: many popular features from XSL had been ignored in the development of SLM for reasons quite unfathomable: the “Buy Now” button for rapid-fire purchases (which, let’s be honest are probably the major type of purchase made on XSL) was absent – as was the ability to buy an item as a gift. The entire migration method was further muddied by the fact that further migrations of information from XSL initially ran the risk of overwriting work merchants had already sorted through in order to make their new stores browsable.

But it wasn’t all bad news. To be honest, even in beta, the new SLM offered a much cleaner, easier layout than XSL, and the meme of managing an online store – common to most commerce websites was logically implemented and the tool set offered a welcome improvement over XStreet – the aforementioned code restrictions and lack of a “Buy Now” button notwithstanding. So to were the new features contained within the store – the ability to cross-link products, the improved image upload, the ability to link to formatted PDF files and to include machinema videos into a product listing were all very welcome additions.

Since the launch of the beta, LL have been working to implement much-needed missing functionality – and kudos to them; “Buy Now” is back, for example, as is the option to purchase an item as a gift – even if it has been burried. And again, it has to be said that the overall look and feel is much better than XStreet and the use of stores makes it much easier to bookmark specific content creators; things that are all to the good. I really rather like it, despite the fact that as a merchant, LL made me jump through hoops on a number of occasions (including wiping my entire store at the end of September) to get to this point.

Doubtless, wailing will continue and people will grumble over some of the changes: hiding the “Buy as Gift” option away in the Shopping cart / “Purchase review” page, for example is going to leave people used to clicking on an option within the listing somewhat mystified and under the mistaken impression that one can no longer buy items for others (indeed, two people have already contacted me on this matter).

I’m also personally confused by the fact that the “Test Delivery” button merchants can use to ensure a newly listed item or an item someone has indicated they are having problems with is being delivered – has apparently vanished, and it appears that the only way a merchant can test an item is to physically purchase it from themselves  – a process that implies LL taking their commission – hardly fair if one is simply testing one’s listing. I’ve looked for a “Test Delivery” option on both the listed page for a product and the merchant’s Preview page – and I am darned if I can find one.

Doubtless more functionality will be forthcoming, whether or not it is simply page blindness that is preventing me from working out how to test deliver a product. For now, however, I hope Grant and the others involved in SLM continue to listen and engage with the community. When all is said and done, they soon more responsiveness in listening to and addressing a plethora of concerns than has been evidenced from LL during other major upheavals to people’s Second Life experience in recent history – and for that they are to be congratulated.

Of course, as I have a vested interest in SLM, here’s a shameless plug (link).

LL announce end educational / non-profit discount

Posted on by Inara Pey

Isn’t it typical?

Just when LL appear to be doing something right for once, and taking steps to address upset and concerns over the future of youngsters and educational activities in Second Life – they then go and do this…

While it is an enormous relief to the majority of us that our tiers are unlikely to increase as a result of LL hiking up the (already exorbitant) cost of sim rental, the second part of Nelson’s post must come as a real kick where it hurts to educators and non-profits alike, specifically:

2) We will adjust how education and non-profit advantages are provided, effective Jan. 1, 2011.
All  education and non-profit private regions of any type, purchased after Dec. 31, 2010, will be invoiced at standard (i.e. non-discounted) pricing.  All currently discounted renewals which occur after Dec. 31, 2010, will be  adjusted to the new price at that time. To continue to provide  entry-level, private spaces to educators just launching their programs,  we will be providing Homestead and Open Space regions to qualifying  organizations without their meeting the retail full-region criterion. Customer Support will be available to answer any questions that you may  have about these changes.

In a rough translation, this could, together with the blog post on 13-15 year olds entering SL be taken to read, OK, we’ve heard the pleas from you educators, and we’re going to provide a means for youngsters to join you on the main grid by limiting them to your private sims…but we’re going to foist a drastic price increase on you at short notice for those sims because or forcing you to take a product we’ve already severely capped in terms of usage, really guys, we don’t want you or your kids here.”

As has been pointed out in many of the (unanswered) replies to this post, this is a double hit from LL that is going to trigger a further migration away from the platform to other environs: not only does it hit educational institutions, but it takes out non-profits as well. what’s more, both types of institution generally set their budgets well ahead of time…and what amounts to a tad less than three-month warning of a massive price hike means that many are likely to be caught out by this move.

It’s a shame this move has been announced as it really smacks of nothing less that giving with the left hand and taking away with the right…

Churn, churn, churn (as the song might have said)

Posted on by Inara Pey

The last couple of days have seen rumours flying around concerning Microsoft making an offer on Linden Lab. I was pointed towards the rumours when a friend asked me if I’d seen Tateru Nino’s personal blog post on the matter;  I held off commenting, because on the one hand, the idea really did seem absurd – as some of the comments on that post point out. Ciaran Laval also did some digging, and it appeared that the matter might be all down to wicked rumour-mongering.

However, from Tateru’s blog (again) it appears the an offer may well have been made – and rejected – although not necessarily from Microsoft. As Hamlet points out, offers within the tech industry are not uncommon and don’t necessarily mean an acquisition is going to be forthcoming.

To be sure, an offer from Microsoft would both be hard to rationalise – and yet make a degree of sense. In the case of the former, it is hard to see what value MS would get out of SL as a platform in and of itself – it is barely cutting edge, it has more issues than any of us can safely shake a stick at and would be a nightmare to “turn around”, with little in the way of technology benefits that could be stripped from it. But the flip side to this is that MS has been very active elsewhere in the OpenSim environment  – so it might be argued that had they made an offer, the aim might well be to simply close SL and use the acquisition to become a dominant force in shaping the future direction of OpenSim through the use of LL’s existing “expertise”. But even given this viewpoint…it’s hard to see MS really benefiting to the degree that would warrant the investment…

If Tateru’s sources are right and it was someone other than MS, then further speculation as to who and why is pretty pointless until further information comes to light. What is important is that it appears to have been rejected by LL – which suggests that the company either a) has a robust belief in its own survivability and return to full profitability without the need for any buy-out, or b) the offer simply wasn’t big enough…

Certainly, as Hamlet rightly cautions – offers and sniffing are not uncommon in the technical industry – or even limited to it. I’ve worked in publishing for a long time, and when employed by small house publishers, a month rarely seemed to go by without one of the major Houses showing interest and sniffing around at “potential” options for purchase. That said, however, such sniffing would help put into perspective some of the more robust – if not subtly aggressive statements – Philip Rosedale (and others) have made about LL’s financial status in recent months; certainly his comments at SL7B when he “returned” to LL as CEO and his comments at SLCC 10 struck me as being more than merely attempts to calm troubled waters. Given this, I’m hoping that if an offer was made and rejected, then it is because of option (a) above.

While it is true, and others have commented, that the “killing” of LL would not slay the “vision” of SL – I personally would rather stick with the devil I know for the time being, rather than finding myself uprooted and forced to move elsewhere…

More on Mesh

Posted on by Inara Pey

An interesting forum thread has opened on the subject of mesh buildings. This is a subject close to my heart, as I’m a prim builder, and while I think that mesh will be a major boon to Second Life, it will not come without cost to many (including myself).

The thread contains much that is of interest – including much of what still has to be decided and insight into just how thorny an issue mesh is likely to prove in the technical side alone. It also contains a few hard-to-swallow but entirely fair home truths for those in the same boat as myself and find the whole world of 3D rendering a confusing morass of tools, terms and concepts.

I’d still like to try and dip my toe into the waters of mesh; I’ve even downloaded Blender…but I have to admit, that having looked at it (and remember that while I sometimes talk the talk, I am not a technical person in any way, shape size or form – I just (usually) learn quickly) – I can well understand the comments from the OP in the thread when he states, “On to Blender. First, you make your structure….Next, apply materials to your model. This is where you start swearing at Blender….Then you texture your model. This is where you abandon your will to live….”

My only difference of opinion with his view is that after commenting, “First, you make your structure”, he added “This is the easy part”, – something I found anything but, despite pouring over an on-line tutorial. Thus, I instead opted to skim through the swearing part and settle on the losing the will to live before spending an hour under my desk cuddling my (rather bewildered) cat…

Even so, for those interested in mesh, the thread is well worth a read; it may well answer many of your questions.

Avatars disunited

Posted on by Inara Pey

A semi-interesting e-mail pinged up this evening, thus:

Dear Avatars United Member,

In January of this year, Linden Lab purchased Avatars United for its underlying social technology and to integrate powerful social networking capabilities into the Second Life experience.

Today, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Avatars United and will be taking down the site on September 29, 2010. Over the next week, we encourage you to save any pieces of content (such as pictures, friend’s names, etc.) that you want to keep. We will also soon update you on your AU Coin refund, if you have an account balance.

Over the two and a half years since launching Avatars United, we have welcomed avatars from many virtual worlds and MMOs to connect on our platform as the only social network catering to the needs of virtual identities. We are proud to have served those needs and honoured to have shared this journey with you all.

Going forward, pieces of the Avatars United technology will be integrated into the Second Life platform to support a richer, and more dynamic, community experience. Read more about these efforts on theSecond Life blog.

Thank you for being a member of the Avatars United community, and part of the Second Life family.
Sincerely,

The Avatars United/Second Life Team

Am I surprised? No. Even at the height of the Mark Kingdon “inspired” (if wrongly attributed) push that “SL = Facebook = SL”, the purchase of Avatars United seemed a little odd, even for Linden Lab, despite the latter suffering an identity crisis of its own at the time.

While there was some potential for Avatars United to enhance Second Life, the fact remains that it always was the square-peg-meets-round-hole situation for Linden Lab in terms of offering those of us already engaged in Second Life with anything truly beneficial. Similarly, as a marketing tool to draw others involved in on-line games into Second Life, its value was perhaps less than useful.

That LL had no idea as to what they should do with their new shiny once they had it was perhaps most clearly indicated by the massive flurry of Linden activity over on AU that dropped off faster than a rock disappearing over the cliff as the novelty of the new toy wore off to be replaced by the taxing question, “OK, so we’ve got it, not what do we actually do with it?” In fairness LL were not alone; the number of us who probably did the same is likely to be legion.

I’m actually surprised that AU has lasted this long; to be honest, I can’t even bid it a fond farewell.

Emerald: the green goodbye

Posted on by Inara Pey

Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!

– Sir Walter Scott

Well, it seems that Emerald is now over and done with, and quite acrimoniously. It’s a shame that a project that – despite reservations in some areas – gave birth to an exceptionally flexible Viewer should be ruined by childish idiocy on the part of one or two of the players involved.

But then, as others have pointed out; it’s not as if the track record of certain individuals involved in the project was not unknown, and while everyone should be given the chance to turn over a new leaf, putting so much control in the hands of individuals who have previously demonstrated a desire and ability to abuse such control was a mistake.

In her blog post, Arabella Steadham points the finger in numerous directions – LL are being unreasonable; LL simply want the user numbers from Emerald; others in the group attempted a “hostile takeover”, etc. I’m sorry, but all this is hogwash.

The bottom line is, a single (apparently) individual opted to abuse Emerald  – and the trust of every single Emerald user as well as violate the TPVP – and launch a Denial of Service attack on another individual. Frankly, it matters not as to whether the individual on the receiving end is/is not a hacker himself. Two wrongs do not make a right. And given the mentality of some of the Emerald devs (we’ve all seen the infamous You Tube vids), who is to say matters would stop at one DoS attack?

Beyond this, Emerald clearly violated several parts of the TPVP by:

  • Gathering user information beyond what was required to enable users to access Second Life
  • Failing to comply with the TPVP by revealing the user information being collected
  • Obfuscating the data collection process through encryption in order to hide the information being gathered after those responsible for the data collection had given verbal assurances the practice would be stopped

In their demands, LL required that Emerald:

  • Provide accountability for all the developers on the Team
  • Remove those with a known history of transgressions and who played a part in the issues outlined above
  • Omit the use of emkdu.dll (the offending file used to commit the breaches of the TPVP)
  • And a number of other wholly reasonable requests.

Again, rather than admit to these, it is a shame that Arabella (or Phox, one of the culprits, and whose name is tagged to the Emerald blog post) sought to obfuscate and hide these core matters – possibly in the mistaken belief that the genuine set of demands from LL would not enter the public domain…

However, Jessica Lyon has issued a Notecard and opened a blog that both paint a far more revealing picture of the entire situation. In her Notecard, Jessica states:

As of some time this morning, all access to the servers have been severed to all but Arabella Steadham and Lonely Bluebird. Neither me, nor any of the other Emerald Developers have the ability to put out releases at this time. Beyond the recent beta 2587, we also cannot certify the safety or validity of any future releases.

Now, I made a promise to everyone to disclose the remaining requirements from LL. Those final two requirements that were given to us by LL, was to have a release out by Friday September the 3rd that would not support emkdu or llkdu even if one of the files was present, and that Lonely Bluebird, Skills Hak and Discrete Dreamscape be removed from the project. The alternative was that LL would block the viewer from access to the SecondLife Grid. While Discrete and Skills gracefully stepped down, Lonely refused. A long argument ensued in dev chat and, I created a new dev chat, where most of us discussed how we could remove Lonely from the project, however it failed. Ultimately Lonely has removed access to the servers and has also stated that he is applying for trademark on the Emerald Viewer name. Preventing us from continuing on the project without him.

Unless circumstances change, in my opinion, the Emerald Viewer Project is dead. We simply cannot achieve a release by the deadline given to us under the current circumstances.

Without access to the server and website, I am forced to make a very difficult decision as I will not allow myself to be held accountable to anything that happens from this day on in regards to Emerald.

Why should we believe Jessica over Arabella? Well, for one thing, Jessica echoes much of what has been said elsewhere, and her viewpoint matches other Emerald Devs forced to leave the project. She is also perhaps the only Emerald dev to provide RL information on herself, rather than hide behind the anonymity of an avatar. And the fact is, through this note and her blog, she has, like LordGregGreg, shown more courage and conviction than any of those within the Emerald team who have placed spin before honesty.

Jessica has never failed to be open in matters; that she and others are trying to salvage something from this mess that is both as flexible as Emerald and meets LL’s requirements is to be applauded. I genuinely hope they succeed and would, as a starting place, suggest they consider using LordGregGreg Back’s Emergence Viewer as a potential baseline, if an agreement can be reached.

It is a shame that a viewer like Emerald should be so crippled and ruined by the ego-driven hubris of one or two people. But as another saying goes: pride goes before a fall.