Sympathy For The Lindens Amid The Openspace Controversy

In a week of Linden policy alterations that have largely met with a negative response and an interview with the CEO which also provoked much disagreement, it's worth reading posts from three noted Second Lifers who make the case for considering the company with more generosity:

Osprey Therian:

We have created an amazing culture, but all the ways people have used things in unexpected ways... have made immense technical problems, I'd imagine. And we rarely - maybe this is the only time - have been told to rein our profligacy in.

Earth Primbee:

I applaud them for taking a moment to step back and listen to what people are saying but more so for taking real action to attempt to bridge the gap...

Despite what has occurred that is a good sign that the customer is important. If Linden Labs stays true to the goal of bringing the community input into decisions and problems like this one, it will go a long way to reestablish trust.

Jesper Prinz:

You can blame LL for much. Their information policies e.g ain't world class etc etc... But without them we all wouldn't have met. That's a fact.. Without them you wouldn't have challenged your limits in the way you can do here. And got deep understanding of yourself and others. That's a fact.

Image credit: Crap Mariner's Monopoly-esque satire of the Openspace controversy [card by MenuBar Memorial of Watermoon Breeze], from his Flickr stream.

Comments

[Crap Mariner]

(The Monopoly card is actually by MenuBar Memorial of Watermoon Breeze.)

[Hamlet Au]

Mahalo, amended accordingly.

[Ananda Sandgrain]

I've been spending way too much time on my conspiracy theories here, especially for someone who doesn't pay anything for SL land. But here's mine:

[Fly on the wall in the Linden Boardroom]
Colo facility manager: At the rate you are adding new servers we're going to run out of room soon, not to mention fall way behind on the fiber op project.
Director A: So we'd need to get a new facility going, more buildings, more operating costs, more headaches...
Director B: Maybe we're big enough? If we shift the price point up, we can stop growing so fast and maximize our profits from the existing infrastructure.
(General agreement)
Director A: So it's settled, for our purposes it makes sense to raise prices and curb growth. Now, M Linden? You and your team go and make up some reason why this is all the customers' fault.
M Linden: We'll get right on it.

[Vint Falken]

I think many more people would 'cut them some slack', if there were just to admit they made a mistake with the OS project in the first place. 'Sorry guys, we totally got this wrong, can we all please solve this together.' will get them way further then 'You're abusing the 1750+2000 prims we gave you. It's your own fault we'll charge you 66% more'.

[Robustus Hax]

We had a small panel discussion on MBC News this past week, with two opposing views between Intlibber Brautigan and Nexeus Fatale. Check it out if you're interested. http://blip.tv/file/1432168/

[Princess Ivory]

I echo Vint Falken's comment:

"I think many more people would 'cut them some slack', if there were just to admit they made a mistake with the OS project in the first place. 'Sorry guys, we totally got this wrong, can we all please solve this together.' will get them way further then 'You're abusing the 1750+2000 prims we gave you. It's your own fault we'll charge you 66% more'."

If LL gave Openspace regions 3750 prims to use, they should not be able to find fault with the region owner for actually USING 3750 prims. No other type of region in SL is held to such a ridiculous concept.

Furthermore, if they were concerned about the number of avatars in a region at a given time, they do have the power to set and enforce a maximum number of concurrent avatars. The fact that they did not leads the sim users to the belief that they are not in violation of any parameters. The same goes for scripts. If the overuse of scripts is a concern, than the number of scripts allowed to run concurrently should be limited BY LINDEN LAB.

If they have the ability to limit the number of prims in an Openspace sim, they could certainly also limit the number of concurrent avatars present in an Openspace sim, and the concurrent number of scripts allowed to run in an Openspace sim (I'm making an assumption on the scripting; I don't know if they can control that setting, but they can certainly control the settings for number of prims and number of concurrent avatars).

They are punishing people after the fact for faults that are those of Linden Lab, not the hapless Openspace owner who did not even realize that he was doing anything at all wrong.

The "new" Openspace sims (750 prims; 10 avatars) will not even support a sailing regatta, or a dogfight. We will lose this rich historical content. And we will lose the businesses of the gifted content creators who build these incredible boats and planes. How is that in anyone's best interest? And the owner cannot post the sim in Events; making it difficult to promote a regatta or flying event. Oh, and you cannot "live" on one. What constitutes living? A house? A tree trunk? Underwater? How will they police this? And Linden "will likely place limits on scripts running in the Region." But they aren't saying what those limits are.

And the Homestead regions, to be launched in January, are essentially a restatement of the current use of Openspace sims. 3750 prims; 20 avatars. Except now they say they are "quiet residential or light commercial use...not intended for events, malls, or other high-impact uses." What about a book discussion group meeting of 20 avatars? What about a small market area? Who draws the line about how much is too much? And how can be possibly be consistently enforced? And these regions, too, "will likely also have script limits." Again, they aren't telling us what that will mean.

How can region owners make educated decisions about what type of region to keep/convert to, and develop a pricing model for their residents, when some very key factors are missing from the equation? Most notably, what, if any, script limitations will be in place. That could be a deciding factor for some people, if they know they need a region that allows for a low level (or a higher level) of scripting than certain sims will support.

Financial decisions need to be made by region owners NOW. They dare not make these decisions without all the "rules" from LL in place. And the lowly residents of these estate regions need to know if they will be able to continue to live in their homes. And if they will be able to afford to stay. Because the trickle-down economy means that that poor little guy at the bottom, renting his little cottage and not bothering a soul, is the one who will bear the brunt of that 66% rent increase.

(Other than the initial quote taken from Vint Falken's comment, all other quoted material is from the Linden Knowledge Base: http://tinyurl.com/5fwaqb)