Communication Breakdown: 83% surveyed Residents report Poor/Mixed Linden-to-Resident communications

The world of Second Life may be worth a half billion dollars on the open market, or perhaps even ten times higher that, but it's only as valuable as its most dedicated Residents, and the value they're willing to create in it.  That, in turn, depends on the confidence and trust they place in the Lindens, who literally hold their world together.  Over the last few months, however, the most recurring complaint I've come across, in-world, in the SL blogosphere, and in real world meetings, has been a decline of clear communication between Lindens and Residents who are invested in it most.  To make sure these weren't anomalous comments, I felt obligated to launch this (admittedly unscientific) survey, to get the take from Residents who read my blog.

As the results suggest, it's evidently very bad, and based on my reporting, it's not difficult to suggest some reasons for these numbers:

Among them, most likely:

The surreptitious imposition of the VAT tax on European Residents, a move that dramatically impacted most of the 40% of active citizenry who live in the EU (as this previous survey suggests), but was announced by the Lindens without forewarning through anonymous e-mail.  Then there was the Lindens' inexplicable, hastily scuttled plans to take Second Life down for maintenance during Halloween, a holiday that's always seen an explosion of creative events through the world's four year history.  (Veteran Resident Brace Coral, who has helped innumerable new Residents acclimate to SL through her New Citizens Incorporated volunteer help site, unleashed a scalding fury over this move on her blog.)  If Philip Linden's oft-quoted claim that he's "building a country" has any meaning, this was tantamount to the Feds unexpectedly closing down Washington D.C. on the 4th of July.  Other reasons abound, many offered by readers in the original open forum/survey post.

In fairness to the Lindens, the community and the company which serves it are still growing at a geometric rate, and messaging dislocations inevitably break down during growth rates like this.  From my personal vantage, all the Lindens I know are passionate about Second Life-- or at least the particular facet they're dedicated to. 

How communications might improve, as both world and corporation continue growing, however, remains an open question.  Earlier today I contacted both Philip and Robin Linden, asking for their comments on this survey.  They said they were traveling, but that their feedback would be related through a PR rep.  By posting time it has not arrived, but I will add it here in an update, when and if I get it.

Comments

[Bettina Tizzy]

Thank you for bringing this to the fore, Hamlet. From where I sit, I recommend that the Lindens look hard at two areas: 1) Notifications and 2) Public Relations.

Two recent instances of Notification fiascos: dropping the VAT in the European's laps without warning... and Michael Linden's blog/forum discussion about huge prims without communicating the uproar that ensued to LL's Havok4 man, Andrew Linden... or responding to the hundreds of people who have commented and/or expressed concern. 27 days and 862 comments later, we haven't heard a peep from the bloke.

At least the proposed maintenance scheduling on Halloween was corrected and with (pleasant and funny) apologies. :)

Then there was Burning Life... LL provided I forget how many sims (was it 22?) and despite numerous efforts to enlist the assistance of LL's Public Relations team to help get the word out to real life media about the of explosion of creativity, support came way too late and was meager, at best. This was a GOLDEN sales opportunity... lost. *shakes head*

There are so many things that the Lindens get right. Props to the technical team that, for the most part, keeps us well informed. My own experience with that crew this week was super positive... I had all kinds of technical problems and all were promptly addressed and resolved; communications there got an A+.

I wish the Lindens could clone Torley and put him in charge of every department. Now there is someone who gets it right.

[neverslo Hidalgo]

Two things about this poll:

It is not just unscientific, it is UTTERLY worthless because of self-selection bias.

If you don't have a real problem with Linden communication, you aren't highly motivated to answer it.

If you are one of SL's Master Bitchers, though, you are hot to trot at another opportunity to whine your impotent rage to the heavens and will answer. Probably from as many computers as you can find between your house and the doughnut shop.