Day Four and what have we heard from Linden Lab?
NOTHING
Well, to be fair, M did post a new "proposal" but after reading through it, one finds it's the same as the old proposal, just different names applied.
I find it completely amazing that those at Linden Lab really thinks the Second Life Community is so stupid to fall for the "Let's give it a new name and call it new" idea. This alone shows how far Linden Lab is from their Customers. The other thing M pointed out, mistakenly, was that before this mess:
"we were riding high in user satisfaction so we know you have recognized and appreciated the improvements we’ve been making."
It's time I call "Bullshit" on this. I demand that M, or some self respecting employee at Linden Lab, show their cards on this. Where's your DATA showing you did some sort of User Survey concerning "Customer Satisfaction" before this mess? In your Polling Data what was your percentage of Users Surveryed compared to total Users of Second Life? Did you obtain at least a 7% sampling? M likes to stretch the truth, and for that, I think it's time he either shut up or be fired.
One other thing conspicuously absent from this post was ANY admission of responsibility for causing this mess. First by overselling a product and second by NOT watching over what was going on. Linden Lab employee's themselves used (and over-used) OpenSpace SIM's in Natilus. You would think a bit of HUMILITY might overcome our embarassed employee's at Linden Lab, but no such luck.
What can we say about a Company that thinks introducing a "new" proposal in which it merely changes the name of the product but gives us the same numbers that caused this uproar AND refuses to admit any culpability in the problem they cause? Well, I've said it before, so why not say it again, POOR CORPORATE CULTURE. Linden Lab is without a moral compass, a Management Team that knows what is right, a Chairman of the Board that sits idly by and watches; it's time Linden Lab either die off or get bought out.
"Cecilia you're breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence daily. Oh Cecilia I'm down on my knees, I'm begging you please to come home, come on home"
Inside Second Life is one persons effort to bring Linden Lab to the realization that Second Life is dying and needs immediate attention.
The hope is for the Second Life Community to come together and speak in ONE LOUD VOICE, in hopes that Linden Lab will not just HEAR, but act.
The following are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. Inside Second Life is not affiliated with or sponsored by Linden Research:
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About Me
- Bob Bunderfeld
- I'm a simple man who enjoys Second Life and the friends I have.
2 comments:
Your writing is outstanding. Definitely refreshing after reading than most rags out there.
I understand where you're coming from man but trust me on this, the Lab is fraught with mismanagement at ALL levels. From accounting issues, to G-Team God complexes, to Robin who seriously has her head up her ass about community standards. I know, I've personally dealt with most these folks:
Robin Harper
Harry (Chump)
Michael Blum
Chadrick Baker (R.I.P.)
C.S. U.K.
C.S. Singapore
Billing Dept
You have to ask yourself. If a company purely rented out server space/resources without all the virtual stuff layered on top, would the situation be this f'd up? Most likely not as most companies that provide that kind of service understand customer service.
What brings Linden Research to it's knees is the simple human factor; they play Godwannabe meshed with the role of a seriously distracted babysitter (just visualize a pre-teen or early teen sitter with an iPod in their ear and a cell phone in their hand, MTV blazing on the flat panel and a house running amuck with 2 or 3 children acting out in terrible ways...). It boils down to not enforcing the ToS consistently and not communicating wisely to their customer base b/c they are too busy learning how to babysit a tremendously challenging environment - and failing at it.
People expect too much from these clowns. This is DotCom (remnants) 2.0 in the wilderness kind of stuff.
Keep up the good writing my friend...
"In your Polling Data what was your percentage of Users Surveryed compared to total Users of Second Life? Did you obtain at least a 7% sampling?"
I think what probably happened was they polled people who were either brand new or unfazed by the recent changes to Second Life. There's no shortage of those folks. Free, Basic, and Premium accounts will each have their own concerns and such. I don't think it would be difficult for Linden Lab to poll a bunch of people and select a certain data set that would seem to indicate satisfaction.
'Hey, let's ask 4 bots, 30 newbies, 10 free accounts, and 2 premium accounts what they think of Second Life!' is the conversation I can imagine going on.
Also, they have that silly poll that sometimes pops up on the log-in window. It's always a pain to fill that thing out when I'm just trying to get into SL, and usually asks inane issues like if I approve of the new look of the client or the new continents. If enough people get irritated and just fill out whatever so they can log-in, it would easily skew the data behind it.
On responsibility, I think they're between a rock and a hard place. If they admit responsibility, then they could potentially open themselves up to all kinds of review and such. Maybe even get sued! But if they don't, then we see them as facetious to say the least. They either throw themselves to the wolves or look like Nixon. Any individual who comes forward and admits blame also faces the possibility that the Lab themselves turn on him. So they're all stuck, twiddling their thumbs.
I think that's what annoys me the most about Linden Lab. Their indecisiveness, their constant waffling on either side of the fence. Robin asking what we want to do to fix it and then never acting on it. M throwing out statistics and promising transparency but then hiding data. You almost wish they'd make up their minds on the matter and either lay down a heavy hand and tell everyone to shove off, or give in and listen to the actual residents more.
As it is, as the residents see it the only certain thing about Linden Lab is that you can count on not counting on them.
And that's terrible.
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