Alexa Linden Leaving Linden Lab

 

The Lindens don't usually announce when someone is leaving Linden Lab these days. But someone who's been a reliable source informed the Newser that Alexa Linden has been laid off by Linden Lab. She gave the news on her Twitter/X account on October 9.

 

Thank you all for the last 17 years! I guess I'm gone! I love you all! (broken heart picture)

Her post was followed by numerous well-wishers, expressing sadness, and some confusion. "What are LL thinking?" "WTF?" "This might legit be one of their worst moves yet." "That makes no sense." To add to the confusion, her message briefly disappeared, leaving new readers to see only responses. She would add that other Lindens had been dismissed, and say, "I guess I cared too much and was too vocal. I don't regret standing up for the product, or the residents."

Alexa Linden joined the Lab in 2009, and has been in a number of events, such as the old "Kiss A Linden," "Bid the Lindens Bald," a Madpea charity event to raise money for a school in Kenya, and others. She's also been credited as coming up with the idea of "Dog Food Day," which was to encourage Lindens to use Second Life more. 

A few days later, Alexa would leave this message:

Thank you all for your kind thoughts, comments, and well-wishes. Seventeen years is indeed a long time, and you're the reason I got up each day and logged in. Second Life was my world for twenty years, providing me with an incredible group of coworkers I now consider family. It introduced me to my husband and filled my days with laughter from your hilarious pumpkin JIRA jokes to the support in fixing my neckline or scripts. I have friends who have always been here for me. Every day was a new adventure.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Bless you Whirly, Jess, & Kyle

Know a company looking for a project manager with my background & passion? I'd love to explore the opportunity.

Be excellent to each other.

You are Second Life

Wherever you go from here, Alexa, we wish you well. 

Bixyl Shuftan

"Dog Food Days" At Linden Lab

According to Inara Pey, Linden Lab is having today the first of their "Dog Food Days" today, Friday September 21. Apparently there's a saying that when a company uses it's own product, it's called "eating your own dog food." The expression may have been a commentary by a Microsoft manager on what his peers felt about using the very product they were making, or perhaps a reference to a British saying of making a mess out of something, and not running away from the dirty work of fixing it. Either way, the idea is for the employees of Linden Lab to use Second Life more often in the ways their customers do, and personally experience the reasons for their complaints.

Alexa Linden is one of the people who came up with the idea, and had this to say about it.

One of the reasons I wanted to have Dog Food Day … it that a lot of people [at the Lab] have still not gone through the process of meshing up their avatar … I’ve done it on all of my alts, and it’s a learning process; it’s not an easy thing to do. And it’s something we need to understand as new users come in, it’s important for us to understand their frustrations, the learning curve, what people are creating, what the quality of content is, etc.

Among some of Alexa's ideas are for those Linden Lab employees who haven't done so to go through the account sign-up process and take their avatar through the Learning and Social Island experience. She also runs an inworld tour for other members of the Lab of public places on the Grid, and is interested in recommendations, "if you have ideas for interesting / photogenic / fun locations, drop her a note card with landmarks."

Source: Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

Scenes From Bid the Lindens Bald

For five days earlier this month, people could donated to three kiosks in the "Bid the Lindens Bald" fundraiser. On Wednesday May 9, the totals were finalized and the loosing team had to lose their hair for an amount of time determined by how much the winning team raised. So who kept their hair and whom ended up with a shinny scalp?

Read the story in Events.