Linden Lab Opens New Second Life User Suggestion System (Which Really Needs to Be Public & Reddit-ized)

Second Life Suggestions as the name suggests is a new way for directly taking SLer requests (you need to log in with your account to submit one):

Just sign-in with your Second Life account, select the topic or category that’s most appropriate, and describe your suggestion in the text box. Once you submit, you’ll see a confirmation page and receive an automated email as well. We won’t be able to reply individually to each suggestion, but every idea will be routed to the appropriate Lindens and each one will be reviewed and considered.

I just put in my suggestion (above), which of course, makes it the absolute top priority suggestion in the history of the world. (Well, maybe not, but I am convinced it's important.) The process is much more intuitive and easy than JIRA, the overly complex bug tracker which long ago also became a way for hardcore SLers to vent about various dramas.

That said, my guess is this new Suggestion system will rarely be used (unless it's tweaked, for a very obvious reason):

Suggestions aren't made public, nor is there a Reddit-style upvote/downvote mechanic. This makes it impossible for any kind of consensus to determine the most desired features/changes, and will inundate Linden Lab with countless related and similar suggestions. Hopefully they make this both public and vote-able, so it doesn't disappear beneath the waves of so many other Linden Lab projects. Why, if they added an AdSense ad feed to the page, the sheer amount of voting and clicking could pay the entire salary of whatever Linden ends up managing the whole deluge.

Hat tip: Indigo Mertel, who has some suggestions of her own.

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[Amanda Dallin]

"The process is much more intuitive and easy than JIRA, the overly complex bug tracker which long ago also became a way for hardcore SLers to vent about various dramas.

...

Suggestions aren't made public, nor is there a Reddit-style upvote/downvote mechanic."

If you make the suggestions public and vote-able then you guarantee it will turn into the drama infused mess that was the JIRA but with a simpler interface.

Your suggestion is down right silly. People are in SL for so many diverse purposes that any kind of achievement/level system would be a waste for 90% of the population.

[Ezra]

Yeah, I don't feel too compelled to toss suggestions into a void. This is a much easier interface than JIRA though, so it's not pointless.

I'm not sure why they didn't just use UserVoice. At least to me, UserVoice is the most prevalent solution to this problem I encounter on the internet and it works.

More importantly though, they've made it clear that while Second Life will continue to improve, SL2 is where the bulk of their resources are, so I'm not sure it's wise however to encourage existing users to start piling on feature requests, it may just frustrate when the devs have to say no more often than not. Guess that's the point of one way communication though, never having to say no.

[Amanda Dallin]

@ Ezra,
Just a thought but maybe they hope to use these suggestions to inform them on what people want in SL 2.0. It's just a sneaky backdoor way of going about it. Typical LL. LOL

[Adec]

Achievements and levels seems a bad idea... it's the one thing we don't have at the moment, which makes the argument true that SL isn't a game.

Saying that, back in 2006 and earlier, wasn't there a way you could rank or rate fellow avatars ? or give them kudos or something ? I can't remember how it worked...

[Rin]

Achievements are a bad idea .. at least I can't see how they would work in SL. And level? How would you gain levels in SL? Besides, in games, levels unlock things and abilities ... so ... would it be like ... to change your look you have to reach level 10 and to build level 15?

Congratulations! you reached level 3, now you can wear a new hair style!
*chuckles*

that is so silly when thinking about it (especially when remembering how the last time things worked out when they had this infamous rating system). It migth be good to post a suggestion there that whatever they do, please never ever include MMO like mechanics into SL. Let people do it on their own when they feel like creating games (some combat meters keep track of levels I think, but I never use such things so I don't know how it all works. But as it is tied to game like mechanics in a game like setting it works there ... but it wont work in overall SL).

The suggestion box however is not a bad idea, but without some way for input on various ideas it wont tell them much (unless a large number of people makes the same suggestion) and with input on the ideas it might turn into a big pile of drama (but at least would tell them more about how a larger sample of the community thinks instead of one person suggstion thier own personal pet peeve change that bothers no one else).

[Flashing Merlin]

Sorry Hamlet, I agree achievements are a bad idea; one reason I'm in SL is because it's not a game.

This was my suggestion: IMs - why are they capped? It's only text, so takes very little server space, but having messages capped is a major inconvenience.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I believe achievements are a fine idea, especially if they can be augmented with user-created achievements specific to a particular sim, brand or event. And as long as there's an opt-out, they have no impact on people who don't like the idea.

The focus really needs to be on recruiting people who aren't already playing Second Life, and that requires more sense of goals, purpose and direction -- even if these are somewhat arbitrary to start with.

HUDs and such are all well and good, but they aren't responsive enough (particularly on older systems). Interface elements to support achievements and similar systems need to be integrated into the client in such a way as to provide instant or near-instant response. Ideally, all current HUDs would be rendered useless and obsolete by a client overhaul to provide more robust gameplay elements.

[zz bottom]

No, i dont agree with achievements unless they mean some.
For sure a achievement like the max number of friends requests done in a day is a silly one.
But one for the max number of regions visited without the use of teleport before a crash could make some aware about mainland continents.
Still in the end i must agree with the ones that don't consider Sl a game and don't find place for those unless they are non mandatory.
Cause i don't think Sl2 will have any success if they restrict the power of the users to choose their own paths.

[Ezra]

@Arcadia

It'd then be better if Linden Lab just generally improved server side scripting of the UI beyond llDialog and llTextBox.

Linden Lab does best as a platform provider, they tend to fail and distract themselves from doing something useful when they try to guide kinds of content rather than simply release the possibility to make content. i.e. Realms and Wilderness did jack for Second Life and 2-3 years later Experience Tools still isn't here.

[Ciaran Laval]

On Achievements I'm close to Arcadia's position, achievements that can be taliored to a sim or a brand would be a great idea.

I'm not convinced about an overall Second Life achievement system, although there is some potential there for the new user experience in particular.

As for the hiding of ideas, I have to side with Hamlet here. I felt LL's hiding of the Jira was a bad move, indeed I felt it would lead to LL receiving the same information multiple times.

There should be a happy balance somewhere between people making original ideas and people expanding or agreeing with already suggested ideas.

[shirc desantis]

OK have added a couple (including adding a marketplace suggestion option - seemed a bit lacking) but just in case I will throw in another to suggest Against a general 'achievement/vote party' thingie to balance any fors as I can just about remember the smoke from the last time. Quite glad I avoided all of that. Tied to more narrow stuff - sure, go for it. As always, make it opt in Only. Opt out is for Telcos pulling a fast one on billing extras, eh (no names no pack drill)

[Indigo Mertel]

Thank you for mentioning my post, Hamlet.