Are You Listening?

Tuesday 6 November 2007


Exactly one week ago, the inhabitants of SL where celebrating one of the biggest and most loved annual events in the Second Life Calender: Halloween. Hardly surprising considering the number of geeks, goths, weirdos and freaks that inhabit our virtual world, parties rocked the grid, painstakingly made costumes were shown off, and good time was had by all. However, this years festival will be known as the Halloween that almost wasn't, for a less than a week before the event, the powers that be in our online community, Linden Labs, announced that they would be shutting SL down for maintenance, leading to widespread demonstrations across SL, by people worried that the thing they had been looking forward to for so long, would be denied them. LL eventually backed down, claiming that More time is needed to prepare the updates, and it may prove to be possible to do so without downtime for all of Second Life. However, the question must be asked What possessed Linden Labs to think that Halloween of all days was the right time for downtime and an update? How could they not see the outrage and annoyance coming? How could they be so out of touch?

Well, the simple answer would be to suggest that they are out of touch with what is important to their customers, namely the residents of Second Life. I've been in SL long enough to remember when the Linden's in SL used to be there as customer service reps, and if you had a problem or suggestion, you could send one a message, and they would come back to you, and either pop by to give a hand, or explain in IM how to solve the problem vexing you. These days, if you look at the profile of almost any linden, you are greeted with the message: "For help: click "Help" at the top of your screen, and select the appropriate option. Region down, need a rollback, need support, please go to http://secondlife.com/community/support.php". So, rather than being helped by your friendly neighbourhood Linden, you are now told to go look and the helpfile, the glorious online manual, and stop bothering them before you even speak.

If that doesn't work, or if you have a suggestion, there is the Jira website "Second Life Issues". Here, people post their complaints, suggestions, problems and issues on a forum, using their sl accounts as their logins to get help, and the Linden staff then come to their aid, or take onboard their suggestions, and the best are put to the users' vote. However, I have heard of friends who posted a problem on the forum... waited her reply.... and then 7 weeks later, received a message from an employee of LL, not giving the advice or solution she was waiting for, but rather just checking if she'd been dealt with yet!
So, we've established that the Linden populace in general are not in touch with the everyday problems of an SL resident. What about our big issues? Well, I cast my mind back to the announcement about the ban on gambling in SL. Now, again, anyone who has been around a while has figured out the Linden policy on crisis management. You must be seen to be listening, but never say anything you could be quoted on. So, at a huge protest at Linden Village I attended, there was no surprise to me when Chadrick Linden turned up, floating above us to announce "Hey Everyone. I'm just here to gauge the situation, not to answer questions or define the policy for you. Rest assured, everyone at Linden understands your frustration and voicing your opinion is important." So, we frustratedly shouted at the avatar shaped brick wall above us, when the final insult happened... Chadrick's avatar went afk. His body went limp, and we all realised that rather than standing there, and listening to our arguments, an avatar had been left in front of us to give the impression of listening, as it's owner went away to do something more interesting, with no intention of reconsidering their position. This is how much the opinions of those protesting mattered.

So what effort is being made to counteract the kind of ignorance of public opinion that almost lead to All Hallows Eve being a non-event. Well, I'm sure most of you have opened SL to find that you have a little box asking you Is your experience of Second Life getting better or worse?, with a tiny area to put any comments. So that's it. The Linden way of keeping in touch with their customers: 1/100th of a eyesight test. Is it better (but not BEST), meaning they don't have to worry, or worse, meaning they'll cast their eye over your complaint, and that's it. No further questions. So, next time you get that little box come up, don't be put off by the tiny size of the box for your comment. Have your say, and join with me in praying someone actually reads it.

Posted by Brutha Voodoo at 12:14  

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4 comments
Rawly said...

i never did get my penis back. i never wear it. i decided to click it on one day just to see if it still fit. i got the message, "object missing from inventory", or whatever, and then LL said it wasn't their problem, to contact the creator. great. i then told my customer service female person to go ahead and credit me the L$1,500 it was going to cost to replace it. i'm still waiting for the money. having a penis isn't one of those things i need very often, but just knowing it's there.........:). i know she was smirking. "can you describe the penis, mr rousselot? when exactly did you notice it was missing..." yes, i got the replacement. the ppl at the penis store are much more helpful than LL.

9 November 2007 at 17:28  
SL-ConnieMcMahon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
15 November 2007 at 18:00  
SL-ConnieMcMahon said...

"What possessed Linden Labs to think that Halloween of all days was the right time for downtime and an update? How could they not see the outrage and annoyance coming? How could they be so out of touch?"

They weren't out of touch, you were. Let me break it down for you. As is well known and commonly accepted, San Francisco is the center of the universe. Just ask any of us who live here. And Halloween is practically the biggest holiday ever in San Francisco. Think of it as SL "gone live" with 300,000 people in a 5 square block area. Anyway last year a bunch of people got shot at the festivities. I mean they were probably tourists, so who cares right? Well turns out the police cared. They cared so much they canceled this year's Halloween party and refused to let anyone near the place.

So why is it surprising that LL, being San Francisco based, wanted to share the pain. I mean if WE can't have Halloween, why should anyone else? Right? I mean its OUR holiday. Surely you see the fairness of that. Right?

Nuff sed.

15 November 2007 at 18:02  
natalie niven said...

ohhhhh deleted comments ,Hey Voo what did it say lol
Tell me :)

29 November 2007 at 03:29  

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