The Public Works Dept. of Linden Lab already a failure?

Linden Lab last week announced a new effort, called The Linden Public Works Dept.

This new "Department" was supposedly going to be staffed by the TOP 10 Builders in Second Life, whom Linden Lab had hand-picked. This was an effort, once again, by a company, that is taking on water and ready to sink, to calm the residents after another abysmal month of low quality service.

The idea was a simple one, to let these 10 builders go around and FINISH what the Lindens themselves had started. Such as the roads, the railway (although the original railway was started by Athos Murphy), docks, and so forth. This of course, would make it seem to future New Residents that Linden Lab really does have itself together and is running a wonderful world in Second Life.

Apparently though, there has been a HITCH with this new Department, because today, this once "CLOSED" process is now being "OPENED" to all.

This brings to my mind two simple questions.

First, why do all the comments in this "opening" process seem to think that Linden Lab is doing the Residents of Second Life a great favor by "opening" this process. If you think this is such a good thing to happen, what were you thinking when Linden Lab first announced that this "Department" would only be open to whom Linden Lab chose. Were you upset with that announcement? Did you write your comments in the blog and demand this process to be opened? You see, this is a very clear picture of how Linden Lab has manipulated their Customers to have you believe that Linden Lab is a wonderful organization. They first start a process that seems to have all good intentions, then Linden Lab changes the rules completely and make them seem congenial. All in all, the Residents who voiced their affirmative opinion concerning The Linden Public Works Department and then did the same when Linden Lab "opened" the process, are taking two direct conflicting stances. First you hooray for being left out of the process and allowing Linden Lab to create another class of players, who by the way would have been considered greater then the rest of us, and then you cheer when this process is "opened" up. It really does make the Community seem a bit foolish when we allow ourselves to be manipulated in this manner. But then again, lemmings will do what lemmings do.

Now to the Second of my questions. Why has Linden Lab "opened" this process so quickly? The first Blog Posting was made to sound as if these first Top 10 Builders would do the main work and then slowly others would be added to assist. So, what conclusion can we draw from Linden Lab now "opening" this process so quickly? Once again, two things come to mind.

First of those conclusions is, the Top 10 Builders chose to NOT have anything to do with this process as they most likely saw that they would be doing all the work, and yet, the glory would be taken by Linden Lab when future New Residents saw how "complete" things are in Second Life.

The Second of these conclusions is, the Top 10 Builders chose NOT to have anything to do with this process because they have seen how poorly Linden Lab is at COMPLETING projects. There's a long list of failures you can uncover if you merely do some research using the BLOGS, the J.I.R.A., and speaking to some old-timers who've been around to see how Linden Lab has run things from the beginning.

Today Linden Lab gave us all a glimpse into how Linden Lab chooses to manipulate the Community, and how poorly Linden Lab is at completing projects. We have also seen that some people (The Top 10 Builders) recognizes this simple fact, and choose not to participate in it. I only wish that the rest of our Community would catch a clue and stand as ONE LOUD VOICE that demands a more Stable World and Less Bugs.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME!