New World Notes

Should Libra Be Legal? Here's Why Congress Should Ask Linden Lab to Testify

Congress is currently debating the status of Libra, the cryptocurrency backed by Facebook, with one bill proposed to ban it and other cryptocurrencies like it outright:

Called the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act, the bill would apply to any company with at least $25 billion in annual revenue that offers “an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties.”

Covered firms would be banned from creating and operating digital currencies, a provision clearly targeted at Facebook’s Project Libra. But the measure’s broad parameters could also effectively outlaw financial products offered other major tech firms.

Companies subject to the bill — which appear to include Facebook, Google and Amazon — would also be banned from offering a slew of financial services such as banking, investment management, securities exchanges, financial advice and money transmission.

Lawmakers and regulators in both parties have expressed fears about Libra and Facebook’s ambitions in the financial services industry. Even so, the proposed bill would likely face substantial opposition from Senate Republicans concerned about regulatory overreach in the financial sector. 

This might be a good idea, but the problem is that the wrong people are talking about it in the public arena.  Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin may have serious concerns about Facebook's Libra, but he's seriously ill-equipped to express any opinion on virtual currency. But for that matter, the top executives at Facebook and the other big tech companies also have little to no direct experience with virtual currency.

Which is really why the people Congress should be talking to executives at Linden Lab, creator and publisher of Second Life. Here's why:

Strawberry's Second Second Life as a Linden: Check-In With Famed YouTuber

It's been a couple months since Strawberry Singh, Second Life's most popular YouTuber, joined Linden Lab as an employee named "Strawberry Linden", making videos like the recent one above for the company's official YouTube channel. So I just checked in with her to see how the transition has been so far:

"I'm learning a lot and enjoying myself," she tells me. "I have full control over what I want to cover and how I want to cover it. I've started with the basics and plan to move into more intermediate and advanced tutorials soon. I haven't had that much interaction with Residents yet, other than just running into them when I'm bouncing around on the grid. Everyone's always very nice. They keep asking me for a Linden bear though, which I haven't had a chance to make yet. I promise that will be my first project as soon as I learn how to build!"

The most surprising thing she's learned since becoming a Linden? It may surprise many SLers:

Nearly 2000 SLers Sign Petition Against Linden Dollar Processing Fee Increase

This online petition suggests that the backlash to Linden Lab's recently announced pricing changes continue, even after the company reversed plans to limit group restrictions. Launched just two days ago, it's already attracted close to 2000 signatures from Second Life users. At issue is Linden's plan to increase the cost of processing Linden Dollars:

[We are] disheartened by the other changes that you have announced that are scheduled to be implemented this month, specifically the doubling of the processing fee from 2.5% to 5%. While we understand that Linden Lab is a business that needs to profit in order to thrive, we feel it is necessary to remind you that we are running businesses, too. As you know, many of us are more than just hobbyists, we rely on the money we earn in Second Life to pay our bills, feed our children, and survive. 

"The last time the fee was increased, it was promised that the cash out times would be faster, which never happened," one signee, content creator Mari Mitchell, tells me.

She also makes an allegation frequently raised by SLers: That the company is squeezing Second Life to benefit its new virtual world, Sansar: "Announcing that [fee increase] at the same week then removing the transaction fees from Sansar was disheartening to many of us," as she puts it, "making us wonder if Second Life creators are listened to or valued at all."

The petition claims that the signees "have a long list of innovative and insightful ideas of how Linden Lab might increase profits without relying on land and without creators having to bear such a severe financial burden." However, specifics on those ideas are intentionally vague:

Bowing to User Anger, Linden Lab Reserves Plan to Limit Group Memberships for No-Subscription Basic Accounts

If you read New World Notes reader comments over the last few days, this won't come as a surprise: Linden Lab recently reversed its plan to limit group memberships for Basic accounts:

We’ve since heard strong and convincing feedback from many in our community about the impact of changing Group Membership limits for Basic accounts. For example, many Residents have shared how they rely heavily on Groups to stay informed about new product releases as Merchants use this feature to regularly communicate news and updates to their customers, and how much Groups are used for keeping communities active. We hear your concerns and, as a result, Group Membership limits for Basic Residents will NOT be reduced as part of our Premium Membership changes rolling out on June 24. While Basic Members will continue to have an unchanged limit of 42 groups, all Premium Members will still see their limits increased from 60 to 70.

This shift clearly reflects a disconnect between how group memberships are actually used in Second Life, and Linden Lab's assumption of how they're used. As reader Susan Wilson put it:

I've done business in SL for 11 years now and have never had a premium account simply because it didn't offer anything I needed or wanted. Now I feel I'm forced to have one to get enough offline messages to serve my customers - something that does not cost LL anything. 25 was already cutting it close but limiting it to 15 would have hurt my business which is very customer service intensive. I don't feel I'm gaining anything because of this membership that I didn't have before the change so it's an added expense. 

It's not just SL merchants who complained. To judge by what Clara Seller says, there's many active users who are not Premium subscribers, but still pay quite a lot as Basic members:

Linden Staff Need to Meet More Linden Customers (Comment of the Week)

Last week we were talking about the trouble of seeking Second Life user feedback when few actual users beyond the most hardcore users are willing/available to give that feedback in a survey or in-game meeting; reader Soda Sullivan suggests a better way:

[I]n six years I have met one Linden employee in-world. One. We actually had several long conversations and he was fascinated with how I spent my time, why my home was like, how did DJ-ing in SL work, what were relationships like, etc. He was curious why I would never consider living on the mainland (poor zoning laws and shitty grass textures). He had no concept of sales events and their popularity, or how outfit folders where actually used by residents. He usual response was "I am just a coder, but this is interesting".

That is the conversation more Lindens need to be REQUIRED to have. No meetings, just log in and walk around talk with someone. And yes, analytics are VERY important. Crucial in fact! But with a world that really has no clear objectives and guidelines, I think they need to be tied to first hand evidence as well. A previous CEO apparently cut back on allowing Linden staff in world. To me that was a travesty. Good riddance. [Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg] seems to be a bit better. He will drop in once in a while, take some abuse and the leave.

As it happens, some Lindens have told me that the previous CEO and his executive team discouraged extensive interaction with Second Life users by staff, primarily to avoid misinformation and liability concerns. In any case, I've also heard Altberg reversed that policy, and encourages more Linden to SLer interaction. 

Ms. Sullivan believes it should be mandatory:

Linden Lab Trying to Save Chouchou - If Its Owners Can Be Reached In Time!

Chouchou photo by Loverdag

Potential good news for Chouchou, the beloved, dream-like Second Life sim that is scheduled to be closed down within the next few days. After an impassioned protest by many SL community members, Linden Lab staffer "Patch Linden" posted an appeal in the community:

Your calls have been heard! I need the region owner to contact me directly (via email or through support) to start the process of entering the region into the Second Life Region Preservation Society. I have not seen contact from them so far.

I have also not received word from Chouchou's owners juliet Herbele and arabesque Choche, the Japanese music duo who created and own the sim, since they or their manager told me last week that they planned to take Chouchou down. I've reached out to them again, and I'm also in touch with Patch, so I can connect them directly. However, we may need more help from the community:

Linden Lab's Trouble With Talking to Users to Get Usable User Feedback

Reader Soda Sullivan wasn't happy with this example of Linden Lab responding to Second Life user needs, and feels the company isn't doing enough:

I would like to see the Lindens become less reactive to us residents and more PROactive and maybe try to get out in front of things. Talk to people. Don't poll them, TALK to them and see what they are looking for. 

The proactive point is definitely true, and it does seem the company doesn't do enough of that. At the same time, many Linden Lab staffers do hold regular SL-based meetings for users.

However, there's a downside to direct conversations like this, and it's a problem we talked about a lot during my Linden days:

Linden Lab So Responsive to SL User Feedback That The Company Won't Fix a "Bug" That the Community Has Turned Into a Feature, Says Linden Vet

Dave Kap's memoir of going from Second Life user to Linden Lab developer last week included this passage:

Getting inside the office and seeing how much people were trying to do the right thing by the residents was kind of sobering.

Reader Soda Sullivan was skeptical, writing in Comments:

That would have been such a huge statement, if he had followed it by just listing one single example. Just. One. Single. Example.

So I asked Dave for an example, and here's what he said:

“What residents did to hack in their custom animations is an example of how things in Second Life end up being designed, from my perspective. The sobering thing was simply how much time was spent trying to get things where residents wanted them. Whereas I had previously thought there was more iron-fist design and planning behind everything. Because [Linden Lab developer will] forever be trying to get it to where residents want it without breaking it for all the workarounds people have made."

As for a specific example:

From Second Life User to Second Life Developer - Dave Kap's Linden Memoir

Dave at Linden Lab (note the nerf guns) - photo by Alexi Kostibas

With a well-known Second Life social media star recently joining Linden Lab as an employee, I reached out to Dave Kap, an indie game developer who began his own career that way, first as an SL user from a small town in upstate New York, to share his own experience. This is his memoir of his time with Linden Lab, starting as a user, then working at Linden Lab as an engine developer,  then in operations, support, management, and finally release engineering -- and what he learned about Second Life "from the inside" along the way.

I was a super old resident in Second Life. I signed up for the beta and got invited in January of 2003, shortly after the beta had launched. It was my first year of college and I was joining any game beta I could in the hopes that, down the line, my experience beta testing for a game company could get me connected to the industry when I graduated. However, upon realizing the power Second Life had as a platform, I quickly became addicted to both the software and the community within. I put work in, made cool stuff, became a popular resident, made friends with many of the amazing creators of the time, and also made friends with the alternate accounts Lindens had, only a fraction of which I knew were Lindens until I was officially hired.  

I eventually moved across the country to work for Linden Lab as an engineer. My first visit (I was flown out to help out with Linden's plans for GDC 2005) was the most impactful.

Next: From growing up in a small town to living and working in San Francisco

The Question About Second Life That Linden Lab Has Yet to Answer

Pictured: The Hilarious Hell Of The Second Life Noob Experience

Linden Lab answered nearly every reader question in response to my Ebbe Altberg interview recently, but there's one last follow-up to those follow-ups that they have yet to address:

Any plans for redoing the Viewer?

We are constantly revising, updating, and fixing the Viewer as with the rest of Second Life. There are no plans currently for a complete overhaul of the Viewer.

My question to that reply: