Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The REAL problem of Second Life?

Once again, from the Official Second Life Blog:

Second Life Logins Temporarily Disabled

[10:27 AM Pacific on 08/08/07]

Second Life is experiencing issues related to network connectivity at one of our co-location facilities. Logins to Second Life have been temporarily disabled. Our Server Team is working to resolve this as soon as possible. We will post further information as it becomes available. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Once again the GRID has failed, this time the blame apparently falls at the feet of the Co-Location facility where the SL SIMs and Servers are kept. Let's for the sake of sanity, assume this is TRUE, and that is a big assumption anymore, and look at HOW this could be avoided.

Linden Lab uses a co-location (known as co-lo) because they don't have the facility or resources to run their own Network. Many other companies do this, and it's a normal business practice that I have no problem with. The PROBLEM though, is when you rely on a SINGLE co-lo for EVERYTHING that has to do with your business, when that co-lo has issues, your whole business has issues.

Second Life, the Virtual World, is THE ONLY thing that Linden Lab currently has as a revenue source. It would seem, to this logically thinking person, that putting all your revenue producing servers in one location would be a bad idea. Eventually your customers will get tired of hearing about how this co-lo is really to blame for your problems and will go to "greener pastures", and your world, which is really OUR WORLD, will die.

Considering how Linden Lab has dealt with other issues as important as this one, is no real surprise to me. Linden Lab has shown time and again, their main interest isn't the Virtual World, or the satisfaction of the Residents of that Virtual World, no, Linden Lab main concern is MONEY. As long as we Residents continue to support Second Life, hence Linden Lab, they make money. No matter if the world is UP or DOWN, Linden Lab continues to make money. Now, if Linden Lab were as "caring" as Philip Rosedale continues to say, they would see how the world being OFFLINE effects the Residents and would, when this downtime was not scheduled, make some form of rebate available to the Residents that are paying for the privilege of being a Resident in the world of Second Life. It's interesting really, if you go back over the past year, and look at all the unscheduled DOWNTIME that Second Life has had, ONCE has Linden Lab given the Residents of Second Life a discount or offered then a refund for this DOWNTIME.

There are many of the Second Life fanboi's that will say, "Downtime like this ISN'T the fault of Linden Lab, so why should they offer a refund or rebate for it?" Remember though, Second Life is the property of Linden Lab. Linden Lab makes ALL the decisions about Second Life, such as where it will be co-lo'd. Because of Linden Lab poor decision making, Second Life is down, and because of that, their Residents LOSE money. Linden Lab continues to make MONEY when Second Life is down, as Linden Lab continues to collect from the premium accounts. Since Linden Lab is the overseer of the Second Life World, they are ultimately responsible for it's UPTIME and DOWNTIME.

Now again, Philip Rosedale, has on MANY occasions claimed that Linden Lab is deeply concerned about the Residents of Second Life, and for their satisfaction of the world. IF this is a true statement, why then has Linden Lab never offered a rebate or refund to the premium account holder when there is unscheduled downtime of the Second Life world? Growing up, my father taught me a very valuable lesson, "Saying your sorry is easy, showing your sorry is hard". It's easy to claim you care about a group of people or about their satisfaction, but if all you do is SAY it, it's just empty words.

Finally, we get to THE PROBLEM of Second Life; EMPTY WORDS. For the past year (or more) Linden Lab has done nothing but say how they care, how they were going to address the issues of Second Life and how the Residents were important to them. Where are the actions that PROVE these words? I guess I've been dancing around this point since I brought this BLOG into existence, hoping against hope that Uncle Philip would wake up and see that EMPTY WORDS are nothing. It hasn't happened, and it apparently never will. Here's the PROBLEM of Second Life, the owner, creator, and decision maker, doesn't care. He says one thing and does another. His words have absolutely NO MEANING and are as EMPTY as the Second Life world is right now, during another unscheduled DOWNTIME. Second Life won't get fixed until the man who claims to care about it, really does care about it and the Residents.

I for one am tired of empty words, lies, and false promises, and more so, I'm tired of hearing them day in and day out. What will it take to get this man, Uncle Philip, to understand we no longer want to HEAR his empty words and empty promises, we want ACTION? I'm encouraged that Cristiano Midnight is apparently back on the scene and ready to take up the fight again. I'm encouraged that more and more Residents of Second Life are starting to stand up and voice their outrage. I'm encouraged that people who once were standing side-by-side with Linden Lab are now seeing the transgressions of Linden Lab and speaking out against them. I'm encouraged that many are taking their first steps on the trail of a thousand miles.

The problem of Second Life has been exposed, and it's time, we as Residents demand change. We don't want to hear more words or promises, we want to see changes. We want our WORLD back, stable and fixed.

As Linden Lab says: "Your World, Your Imagination". Now I say, "Your World, FIGHT to make it right!"

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