Your2ndPlace

There's an update on the solution providers program over on the blog. Unlike a lot of naysayers I don't have a problem with corporates arriving inworld. I welcome them with open arms, I then wonder what the hell they're doing and who advised them, but I welcome them.

I don't see corporates as the enemy, or that there's a hidden agenda whereby us residents are going to be wiped off the face of the map to make way for corporates. I just wonder why they don't engage.

Part of this comes of course from the tumultuous nature of some Second Life residents who are only too willing to grief, and another comes from the fact that so many inworld locations are run by amateurs. I don't mean amateurs in a bad way, but, and this may surprise you, Ciaran Laval isn't my real name! Yes I know, it shocked me too when I found out. However a corporate isn't going to do business with me in any great capacity whilst I'm still anonymous.

So the solution provider program is for real business, to provide real deals. Everything is accounted for correctly. That's all fine and dandy, I've heard mutterings before that the solution provider program is biased towards certain providers but that's a side issue.

Personally I wouldn't reccomend Second Life professionally because of the way Linden Lab treat their bread and butter customers and yes openspaces definitely fit into that category. Why would a corporation want to associate themselves with a product that would do that to its own customers? Linden Lab won't get away with this kind of action forever if their hopes and dreams are to be realised. They need to fix their customer relations and they need to fix the fast.
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Jack's blog post about improvements to mainland should be welcomed with open arms by most people. Mainland is a very important place. News that micro parcel advertising and the term advertising needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, has been drastically reduced is good news to most.

The blog post gives you a good idea of how widespread the issue was:

"Before the new policy, between 15%-18% of parcels were being used primarily to advertise, mostly on micro parcels. As of this post, that figure has dropped to 2% and is still dropping."

That's a rather impressive statistic and shows that they aren't ignoring this policy and just making a token effort.

The problem for Jack is however the openspcace issue, rightly or wrongly Jack's reputation over the policy has taken a battering. This was magnified by his lack of performance in the discussion thread.

Compare this with Zee who engaged in a very robust discussion regarding the economy. Zee's reputation has improved and yet he was also involved in the openspace policy decision. The difference is that Zee was prepared to hold his hands up and say "Yes, we got it wrong". Jack has not done that and for a lot of people that erodes trust.

Zee was of course instrumental in the last big price hike when full sim pricing increased by a massive amount. The difference again is in the wording. Zee explained why the price had to go up so much, the company were running sims at more or less cost, it wasn't financially viable to keep doing that. Whether people bought that explanation isn't as important as a viable explanation being made.
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Hey don't say I'm not topical! Tonight's eagerly awaited expanison pack in the openspace saga "Wrath of the Land King" produced very little in the way of constructive discussion but I was impressed as Jack sat on his couch fielding questions.

When I arrived there were two level 70 guards in the shape and form of Scout and Guy Linden, but they left early on after Jack probably contacted them on teamspeak to say he could take this crowd of noobs as there were too many low level characters in attendance. This is the problem with pickup groups, you're never quite sure if you'll be well enough equipped for the challenge. I mean we had a few level 70's like Bart Heart, Yohan Pintens and Talarus Luan the dragon but there weren't quite enough and two of those three weren't that bothered about the fight!

Jack fondly remembered the thread from 2006 where he ok'd rentals on voids. The rest of us reached for our weapons but nobody managed to crit Jack for any bonus points, despite my attempts to throw a few curses of agony at him Jack was too powerful for our group and the raid was fended off.

There were calls for refunds - Not bloody likely.

There were calls for tier to be frozen at USD$95 - Not bloody likely.

There were questions about what we're paying the increased fee for - Not at all sure. The price is right apparently, "An Openspace owner, come on down, your prize is a more expensive Openspace" - Audience goes wild.

Jack tried to use mind persuasion techniques to talk about the clean up of mainland and removal of adverts but the group were still full of hit points at this stage and repelled his attack to keep the topic on focus.
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At least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask. Conversation about the Q3 statistics finally leads to an answer regarding the Openspace fiasco and although it's not the one I wanted to hear it does at least set a line in the sand.

On the forum I asked:

"Does this mean the price rises and changes are set in stone? If it does can you ask someone to have the decency and good manners to actually say this?"

Zee Linden : "Ciaran - thanks for your message. We did change the pricing structure from Jack's original post in a post that Mark made. We are not planning to make further changes to the pricing in the post Mark made, so for now, those are final"

Thumbs up for Zee for having the balls to actually answer the issue plenty of people were hanging onto. The waste of time thread discussing the second post made by M, and it really has been a complete and utter waste of time with Linden interest hovering somewhere around ziltch, has made a mockery of residents.

In terms of customer relations Linden Lab have failed badly on this issue. The contempt that they have held the residents in has been all too clear and this comes from the very top, the guy called M. Whether these changes would have happened had he not been in charge we'll never know but his lack of communication won't be forgotten in a hurry. In a thread entitled "Open spaces announcement & Talk with M and Jack Linden" he didn't make one single post. This speaks volumes.
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We've seen the bans and the policies changes from Linden Lab, the
widespread financial scandals and all the many issues every stock
market has faced.

Right now, the financial sector is in a situation where every stock
exchange will stand up once every while presenting its achievements and
successes to the general public, a situation where we can still find
businesses willing to go public and launch their IPO, a situation where
some people will give a try at reviving public shells, or giving a
continuity to endangered companies.

We could go on like this for an undefined amount of time; months,
years. By operating in Second Life we're bound to Linden Labs and their
policies changes. At this point one could bring up other synthetic
worlds, but this won't be the main topic of this open letter.

Following up with the many issues we've had to deal with and using
our foresight, the VSTEX has been growing strong as a SRO
(Self-Regulatory Organization), with an extensive set of rules and
policies modeled after "real life" stock market rules, policies and
laws. That was a due answer to issues, but far away from being a
complete solution for the whole SL financial sector. { Read more }

Age is just a number said someone who hasn't experienced the strangeness of hairs appearing in places that hair simply shouldn't grow, or has experienced the inexplicable oddity of nasal hair that grows at rates that make you think it's some sort of alien technology.

However a couple of articles in the newspapers have caught my eye this week. One in the Torygraph, I mean Telegraph, takes a sideswipe whilst the Guardian posts an article about educational conferencing.

Now these unrelated articles tell a story underneath the surface. The Telegraph article is about internet addiction and contains the following off the cuff comment:

"Sure, the armies of people that spend all day, every day on Second Life
really do need to get out more, but isn’t all that time on Facebook
actually a necessary part of organising an evening out for almost
anybody under 30?"

There you have it. Second Life isn't trendy for the under 30's? Quite possibly true, I don't meet that many people under 30, I certainly  don't see many under 25, except those eighteen year old, "I'm legal honest" strippers who are probably a 53 year old guy called Burt from Idaho.

The Guardian article : "Is this the future of the academic conference?" on the other hand discusses the usefulness of Second Life for an education conference. The author however remains sceptical, but adds:

"Will it catch on? I'm sceptical, but then I didn't see the point of email at first."
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This was just a little too easy to have fun with:

Umm - seriously? A bot that tells people to log out and hang out with real friends and family?

I like Second Life just about as much as anyone who's spent a significant amount of time inworld, but the truth of the matter is that using Second Life really doesn't help real world social skills... or does it?

I'd love to see who makes the $10K. Maybe it will be LukeConnell Vandeverre.