opropi: April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

An Interview with Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the blog

Well good news and bad news - typical of LL as we have seen!To start with the good news (to an extent):Second Life Grid Status Reports Are you following the Second Life Grid Status Reports? If your business, your event, or your time with friends may be impacted by the Grid Status, we want you to have all the information we can get you, as quickly and easily as possible.We’ve been posting Status Updates mixed in with a variety of posts on other topics. We realize that many of you don’t want to have to hunt through the blog for needed Status information, so in an effort make it easier for you, we’re following the tech industry standard and moving that information to a Status page.Starting today, we’ll be collecting all the Second Life Grid Status Reports onto that one page. Now, you can check for an update without having to scan through all the other blog posts.You can also subscribe to updates on your mobile phone using Twitter, or with an RSS reader.Yep, get your Second Life Grid Status Reports, wherever you go.Now this sounds like a great idea, but lets look a little deeper;For a start it means a cleaner blog for the Lindens to show off to corporate business no more long posts with angry Residents comments filling up the page.Then, of course, it takes away the ability to comment on the issue posted:Yesterday I DID get an inworld message saying there was a problem with some accounts associated with one of the inventory databases; great, actual warning inworld! problem was an hour later, after a bad crash, I could not log back in so off I toddled to the blog to see what was happening - nope not there - ok, off to the grid status page : [05.51 AM RESOLVED] Logins should be restored for all affected accounts. It may take some time for things to return to normal as the system catches up and everyone starts logging back in, but they are back online. -ChiyoResolved??? um no..........This was then at 06.25 hmmmmmmm...............So what can I do? Answer NOTHING, there is no way to communicate that no the issue is not resolved and to be perfectly honest I couldn't be bothered to go through support and get a load of pre-printed pages telling me my firewall was blocking SL (this is what happened last time) so I just gave up for the day!So in conclusion having up to date easy to find grid status - great idea, one place to find out whats happening, unfortunately most people find out more from Resident comments on grid status than from the actual posts saying [RESOLVED] they usually aren't.The comments have been removed also effectively striking the Residents dumb, there is no recourse and no feedback here so what APPEARS to be better communication and easier to find info is actually the opposite.DanaUPDATE:"As for the harsh things some of you are expressing, I’m sorry you’re frustrated. We are indeed trying to get comments enabled on the Status page."A single click of a button turns on comments Katt - I am disappointed

Exploring through images

Eye on the Blog

Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 2:50 PM by: Jeska LindenSecond Life Showcase, Popular Places and the Future of Traffic"Looking for cool places to visit within Second Life? We are too! We’re pleased to announce that the Second Life Showcase is coming to the 1.21 viewer release, which is planned for Release Candidate in 2-3 weeks and in final form in 6-7 weeks.For a sneak peek at this new feature, please visit Second Life Showcase on our website. The Showcase is an editorially-managed guide that highlights a variety of inworld venues and intriguing locations to new and existing Residents. For more info, read our Second Life Showcase FAQ; it includes information on how to suggest a venue for feature placement. We are currently developing an easier way to nominate inworld experiences for the Showcase from within the viewer, so keep an eye on this blog for more news!""Brief History of TrafficPopular Places was initially created as a list of the 20 parcels with the most traffic on the previous day. The data that drives Popular Places has been based on raw traffic numbers, which do not differentiate between bots, campers and active Residents, and as some have pointed out, this has resulted in the tab not being an accurate reflection of true popularity among Residents.""It is clear that the current Traffic system is not an effective means of determining the success or popularity of a parcel, nor does it provide useful information about Residents visiting those parcels."Key phrases in this post that show that maybe they are listening: some have pointed out, opening up the discussion, brainstorming sessions, We look forward to your ideas!WOW!They have actually started to listen, and yes I am amazed. Have they finally got fed up of all the bad PR and are working on generating some good for a change?This is certainly a step in the right direction finally bringing the traffic stats under scrutiny.They have as yet no idea what they will replace it with and to be honest do we really need it at all? The showcase mentioned will only show a few places and will obviously reflect the opinion of those editing it, rather than the community, so its not really an alternative.There is a spark of hope that if traffic is removed it will mean the end of 'bots' used to cheat the traffic stats - as mentioned before I can't honestly see LL doing this as it will reduce their user stats probably by as much as half, if not more, immediately; they need those stats to keep people believing the figures businesses see!Well we shall see what we shall see, but at least its a step in the right direction Kudos to whoever finally began to listen, long may it continue!Dana

Cartoon of the day

SPAM/SCAM ALERT

Grand Opening of Jakeson Quality Music Essentails Store

Interview with Somber Atlass

Here's a question for yah!

Styles of Edo wins at Merovingi Fashion Awards

Amazing Grace

Cartoon of the day

Blues For Autism

The Book Fair 2008 is officially open

Soggy Lindens

Highlife drops prices

Eye on the Blog

Return of the Old Land Storecynlinden:"Best laid plans of mice and men often go awry… the new Land Store is just not ready to ship.Rather than inflict you guys with a tool that isn’t ready yet, we have decided to bring the old store back up with the new prices. All the old challenges remain (doesn’t work in IE, wait time for delivery) but you will be able to place orders as you have in the past.You will still be unable to order Openspaces via the old store, and the delays there will continue to be long as we deal with backorders. New island orders will go up as quickly as possible, and we will keep you updated on the progress of not only those orders but of the new store as well.Thanks much.""Rather than inflict you guys with a tool that isn’t ready yet" are they talking about the entire grid?Well I think at least they are giving people an option, although there is no hint of a timeframe on either regular sims or the new popular void sims.A lot of concern over time estimates given and then not met - its a bad mistake to say you will deliver on a certain date and then not do so, most would probably accept it if you say it may take a month, then when they get it sooner its a bonus.One resident hit the whole sorry story on the head with this comment:Ryanna Enfield Says:"The best thing you can do is withdraw any investment you have in SL. Money talks. Buy an Island when LL has proven they can provide a stable environment for you to enjoy that Island. The problem is that there is a whole new generation of SL users to take your place and fund SL. Unfortunately there really isn’t any decent competition at the moment to show LL that it might be wise to try to retain long-term customers (investment) as well as generate new customers. Afterall, SL’s old-school residents will someday be a competitors new residents. The unstable environment we will never grow accustomed to, will simply give us a valid excuse to try other alternatives. I’ve tried more games in the past four or five months than I have in my entire life. All running perfectly smooth on my computer. Unfortunately, I think a massive revenue loss is the only kind of message LL will ever understand, and by then it will be too late."It is easy to say but I don't expect many will follow until there is a usable alternative then you will see an SL migration in their millions!source: http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/04/24/return-of-the-old-land-store/

A Day in New York City Block

Events, events, events,

Arthole Gallery Grand Opening

Introducing TK Interactive Gaming

We sponsor SL book fair 2008

Phillip Linden announces the new CEO:

Direct from the SecondLife blog:Announcing our New CEO!I said a month ago that I was looking for a new CEO to lead Linden Lab, and we’ve found one! His name is Mark Kingdon, and his Second Life name is “M Linden”.As you might imagine in a new leader of Linden Lab, there are lots of great things I could say about him, but let me just pick a few and then encourage you to meet him in-world. He is a person with the rare and unusual combination of business leadership, creativity, and passion for Second Life that we were looking for. In terms of history, he has a background in art, economics, and business. He has been in successful and highly regarded leadership roles at two companies that are bigger than Linden Lab: PricewaterhouseCoopers and Organic. He is a well-loved people leader who is fearless and can weather challenges and change.He is going to start on May 15th. Like I said when we started looking, I am not going anywhere, and will be working with Mark to help lead Linden and Second Life onward. I am really looking forward to working with him, as he has so many skills and capabilities that will help us and that I can also learn from - here are a few: He will have an intense focus on improving the in-world experience and stability and reliability of Second Life. He has extensive hands-on experience with user experience design, which will be critical in making Second Life an easier and better experience for more people. Finally, he has a ton of experience leading companies and products with global reach, which is now essential given that the great majority of Second Life usage is international and Linden Lab will continue to grow as an international company with offices in many locations.I have to say I am also really happy at how we found Mark. We decided to talk in public about searching for a new CEO because we thought it was the right thing to do, but of course we were concerned that it was unusual for a company to talk about such a change before finding the right person. Generally, recruiting executive people involves lots of work in creating lists of potential candidates and calling out to them.But I always also hoped that with our public message out there, maybe the right person would actually just come to us. The intersection of people who would hear that news, have the right skills, and also be passionate enough about Second Life to pick up the phone and call me and ask for the job - well that is a very small list. But I thought maybe it would happen and turn out to be the perfect person. It was!We will schedule a series of inworld meetings in the coming weeks where folks can get a chance to meet and talk to him and me together.================================Kingdon comes equipped with an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, as well as more than a half decade's worth of experience running digital-ad agency Organic.Hiring a 'business guy' to head Linden Lab, rather than someone with a background in social networking or gaming, gives credence to the rumours that the company wants to achieve some corporate momentum and eventually go public.Said Kingdon in a press release, "To me, the CEO role at Linden Lab combines perfectly my passions for art and design, business and technology" the executive added, "Until Second Life, we experienced the digital world passively in two dimensions. By enabling users to create a rich and immersive virtual world, Second Life is transforming the way we connect, collaborate, learn and transact online."

Philosophy Class Revisited

Wilder moves

Through the Mirror (Blood-Soaked 3)

Greetings from Katt Linden

Yesterday saw the introduction of a new Linden, Katt Linden:Thwack…thwack…is this thing on? Oh, hi. This is Katt, one of the newest Lindens.I’m the new Communications Manager, and kudos to those of you who noticed the position had been filled.So what am I here to do?A big part of my job is to listen. I will also be aggregating your comments here and monitoring the blogosphere, to follow developing trends and opinion. I’ll be working to update our communications tools. And, I’ll be doing my best to help all of us at Linden Lab be more consistent and effective as bloggers and communicators.Linden Lab knows how important it is that we have clear and consistent communications with Residents. We know that we have work to do, and that’s why I’m here.I’ll start by managing a facelift on the forums, and then on the blog.As for me, I’ve been paying attention to Second Life, and reading your blogs, for a couple of years now, and like you, I care deeply about Second Life. And I’m more proud than I can say to be part of Linden Lab, “working to connect us all to an online world that advances the human condition.”My role here is, however, a work in progress, and so I’m going to start out by saying that I’ll need to ask for your patience.This is surely going to be evolving, and I welcome your feedback.

We would like to welcome Katt and wish her the best of luck.

Judging by the mixture of comments and flak jackets handed out, her job is not one to be envied, after all you can only please some of the people some of the time and frustration is running high.

Some explaination is needed to clarify what Katt will actually be doing, 'A big part of my job is to listen' this doesn't say she will actually do anything with what she hears. Most are hoping this is not just another PR stunt to keep the tiers coming in a little bit longer while they TRY to fix the platform.

In reply to one very frustrated Resident Katt said;

'I do hear how frustrated you are. I wish I could promise to wave a magic (Starax!) wand and make it all better right now — but I can assure you that we are, really, working hard on the issues. That’s one reason you see tech posts from the Lindens working on some issues, like Sidewinder’s posts about Havoc, which has had a huge impact on *reducing crashes*. Can we get better at communicating things? Sure, and that’s why I’m here, to try to help.'

Well, we have asked for better communication for a long time let us all give Katt a chance to settle in and hope that this bodes well for future communication, a simple Inworld warning would suffice to satisfy a lot of that frustration and save a lot of people money.

We can but hope..................

Dana

source:http://secondlife.com/

Breezes Thoughts

Dreams Community Fair

At the Bellagio

Home sweet home

Cartoon of the Day

Another Murder in the Prision

Falling land prices are always bad news

Introducing Gilberto Gregg's Hyper-Interactive Modern Art Garden

Takeshi Newman Games

Congratulations

Interview with Selina Greene - SL Book Fair 2008

Opinions: by Dana

Today LaurapLinden posted 'More on trademarks' this I must say is an improvement on previous posts, but she reiterates to write to them with direct questions, this I must say I have personally done and the answer? Go back and look at the FAQs, so obviously not a good idea. Basically unless you can afford a trademark attorney wait for the cease and desist.I won't go into what is said clarified or otherwise you can just as easily read it here, the one thing that struck me though is the level of unhappiness of most of the SL™ residents not only with the trademark/branding issues but overall.Grid stability according to Linden Lab® is better with the roll out of Havok4, this is not the impression that most of us get.Content theft is another major concern and the lack of action by Linden Lab on this issue is galling to say the least when they are working so hard to protect their own interests, but, leaving content creators out in the cold to fight their own battles.According to their own metrics the economy is growing with more Lindens being spent, a 33% increase since the gambling ban. I would love to know where? Most business owners are distraught with the grid problems preventing businesses from running to a profit - stale transactions, items not delivered, payments not received etc........Events are on a downslide as clubs and venues reign in, keeping the bare minimum to keep going. Most events are problematic, even the remembrance day was marred by grid downtime and login failures.Again according to the metrics there are more residents than ever, are they true figures? We can all fly around to most places that look busy and find the BOTS sitting up on a platform or buried in a hole under the ground. These bots are the bain of many residents bumping places up in search falsely and causing lag for anyone in the region, but it makes the total resident number look good for the Lindens so of course they will not stop them and all calls for something to be done about them will fall on deaf ears - Why would they stop something that makes their figures look good?I hear more and more about other options, residents looking for open source alternatives - why?Have Linden Lab lost all the confidence of the residents to that extent?We all know now that Linden Lab is a business and SecondLife is a business, that it was created by the residents for them, that the content creators and people made it what it is does not matter, more and more people feel left out in the cold by a corporate business.Once upon a time the Lindens worked with the residents to created a wonderful world, now Linden Lab appears to be grabbing at anything it can to keep afloat amongst all the bad RL press and PR decisions.Today will also see the opening of I-World island. What is I-World?"Part of our support structure here at Linden Lab is a dedicated customer team called I-World. This team answers support tickets and live chats from residents who are experiencing some difficulties or looking for guidance with in-world issues. Some of you may be aware of us from your contact via the Support page but most of you will probably never have heard about us.We help to ensure that your in-world experience goes as smoothly as possible by providing answers where we can and getting our technical colleagues to perform their magic where we can’t. We know there are things that sometimes don’t work so well in SL…things that get you down. We’re sorry that they happen, they get us down too and we want to get them resolved as quickly as you do."I think they will be kept very busy with mobs of angry residents, is it any wonder the Lindens keep away? Every blog post is accompanied by complaints and anger from residents who just want stability, to play and love and learn in an environment that works the way it was intended.'RESOLVED' - How many times do we see that only to try to purchase something and have it fail? How many times have we been logged out and spent an hour trying to log back in to that important meeting only to find a blog post an hour later saying 'logins are closed'?How much more does it take for Linden Lab to realise they have lost the confidence and trust of most of the residents? Linden was once seen as a company that cared, that wanted to help residents to create something unique and wonderful a SECONDLIFE, now it seems that goal has been achieved with the help of all the fantastic content creators, scipters and residents, so does that mean Linden Lab can now just act like GODS and do what they like with it?Seems that way to many.........................Dana

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Monday, April 28, 2008

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Friday, April 25, 2008

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Monday, April 21, 2008

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Saturday, April 19, 2008

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