Jack Linden Leaving Linden Lab This December

Longtime Linden Lab land and community manager Jack Linden is leaving the company this December, he just announced in a post. Jack has been with Linden since at least 2005 -- that was when I was still a Linden, and I worked with him on something called Help Radio, and when he sent his voice recording from the UK, I remember thinking, "Who is this suave bastard with the posh English accent?" Jack has been at the heart of numerous controversial Linden moves, such as content regulation of the Second Life mainland, and of course, the OpenSpaces land pricing rebellion. Despite the fracas those moves and more provoked, Jack's always had a number of passionate fans in the community (maybe "groupies" is the better expression), and has always borne the community ruckus with aplomb. And with that, another Linden veteran departs.

Hat tip: Ziki Questi. Photo of Jack by Marianne McCann (via Molly Montale.)

Comments

[Molly Montale]

Marianne has one from today's office hour: http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=478481

[Hamlet Au]

Thanks much, Molly! Pulled the Mark Ruffalo pic and replaced it with Marianne's Linden pic. (Sorry, Ruffalo fans.)

[shockwave yareach]

Good riddance. Maybe we can get an exec in who a) doesn't bait and switch products at the drop of a hat, and b) comprehends that NOBODY is going to "invest" in SL if they don't get to OWN what they paid for.

If I was the new CEO, I would immediately make SL adults only, everyone OWNS what they buy (and under what condition they lose that money), and that Lindens have real value (and again under what conditions you lose that). LL has tried to have their cake (make everything the same as reality) and eat it too (except where they would be liable for anything.) Either it's a videogame or it's a realworld chatroom. It can't be both. By trying to say it's a real world place where real world laws apply but only those that don't affect LL, it is the Lindens who have ruined their own reputations and driven people away. No businessman worth his salt would ever do business with a company that behaves as Linden Research does.

[Ron Overdrive]

@shockwave yareach: ahhhh... Jack wasn't an Executive nor CEO. Jack was one of the few Lindens who actually listened to and fought for the Community. If it wasn't for him many TPV's wouldn't be accessing the Linden Grid right now. The fact he's leaving means we have one less sane mind in LL willing to listen to us and our needs.

[brinda allen]

Jack does have his moments. As one of my friends has said, he comes to office hours... takes a lot of slaps and like the Energizer Bunny wishes everyone well and leaves. As was posted above, Jack seems to be one of the more stable heads, I dont believe he made decisions often but did carry out orders from above.
If he was a part of pushing for open sourcing the viewer code and pushing for allowing TPVs... for that alone he gets my vote!
Yes, there is a time to know when your company needs a house cleaning and new input...
It's also important to keep a core of old hands that can at some point say "Wait, we tried that and this is what happened".

[LokiLoki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj563ViG7Qg