Linden Lab Speaks About The Bots

 

With all the talk about the Bonniebots, and Linden Lab having to suspend comments on several threads on the official forums about them as well as talking to the staff behind the bots, it was no surprise they would eventually say something. And on Friday afternoon, February 3, they did, posting a statement in the official blog under "Balancing Initiative and Privacy."

We know there has been quite a bit of discussion about Scripted Agents/NPCs lately.  Linden Lab is committed to continuing its excellent track record of keeping your personally identifiable information safe and secure.  We understand that there is a certain amount of information a “bot” service has been collecting and displaying on their third party website that is causing unease in our community, and we’re working on the best way to address these concerns.

Linden Lab is having conversations with the parties involved, however this should not be taken as an endorsement of any sort. We have spoken several times in an attempt to get a full picture of the situation. These discussions have been mutually beneficial, and will help us as we look to update our policy on Scripted Agent/NPC operation in Second Life.

We recognize the need for improvements in specific areas, so in the near future we will be making adjustments to policies where needed.  We have seen many requests from the community with a wide array of suggestions, and we appreciate all earnest and civil engagement. Internal discussions will continue beyond the Scripted Agent/NPC Policy, and any programmatic changes will be communicated as those roll out.

Thank you to everyone who engaged in this topic and added your voice.  While we have had to shut down several discussions that became unproductive, we have welcomed feedback through support contacts and have been using this feedback to inform our decision-making. We are listening, and are working to make sure that Second Life is a welcoming and engaging world for all our Residents (and their automata). 

 

The parts "as we look to update our policy on Scripted Agent/NPC operation in Second Life," and "in the near future we will be making adjustments to policies where needed," suggests there *may* be some changes as to what information bots can collect in the future. But this is not a sure thing.

Shockwave: To Dox or Not?

Besides Second Life Newser, Shockwave Yareach who makes his home in the Sunweaver Estates neighboring our office building, reads and comments on other newsletters, including Hamlet Au's "New World Notes." One post on Hamlet bringing up the question on the ethics of exposing an anonymous Internet user, or "doxing" as it's called in Internet jargon, impressed the former imbedded reporter of Linden Lab so much, he made it an article in it's own right.

"In my humble opinion, the only justification for doxxing (I'm used to calling it outing, but I guess that was a different era) is to a) prevent a suicide, murder or other heinous bodily crime, and b) expose real life child molesters/rapists to the authorities.

"This is the only time I'll cross that line -- to save lives. If someone is bragging about stealing a car, how do I know he isn't talking about playing Grand Theft Auto? But someone has pics of naked children in their SL home, yeah, I'll call the cops and tell them anything I know.

"The difficulty comes in knowing whether or not someone is honestly suicidal or not. You have to actually know the person well to make this judgement call. Likewise with the question of murder -- I'm sure my wife has said she's gonna kill me when I get home countless times. That's not enough to summon the long arm of the law. Someone talking about X or Y property crime may just be talking about some game they play, just like someone overhearing you talking about AD&D game and the woman you slowly slaughtered with a glaive to get the information you needed ("Hello? Police? Listen, there's a couple of nerds talking about mutilating some poor girl...")

"I won't out people just because they are talking smack about some property crime. But, if I believe them when they talk about a rape or murder or suicide or other bodily crime, that's when I have to make the harsh decision. I've had to make the call a handful of times: a few, the police got there in time. One, the guy wasn't really suicidal and didn't appreciate the police hassling him."

"And one time, I didn't make the call because I didn't believe Hitz was really suicidal -- I was wrong."

Shockwave's better known among his fellow Sunnies as an entertainer, theater owner, DJ, and song parody composer, and a content creator, known for builds such as the "Alien Egg Hunt" that appears every Easter. He has commented before on serious issues, notably when he wondered if Linden Lab's decision to let teens on the Grid might get them in serious trouble.

Behind The Rumor About Microsoft Going After Linden Labs

Some of you may have heard something about a rumor flying about Second Life, that Microsoft was making a deal with Linden Labs to acquire them, if the deal hadn’t already been done and they were just waiting to announce it. My reporters and I heard about it to, but the decision was made to not say anything until rumor became fact.

As it turned out, Microsoft was making a deal for a virtual world, but it wasn’t Second Life. It was Vivivaty, a competing world which went out of business in April, which was bought up by the computer software giant. Supposedly, Microsoft may not stop there. And there are people guessing they want a virtual world for it’s X-Box game to compete with Sony’s own virtual world for it’s Playstation game: Home. But these are just guesses.

I spoke to my friend Aeonix Aeon of Pixel Labs a little about this. He told me he hadn’t thought too much about the rumor in itself. On the other hand, he thought that the rumor had a strong ring of truth to it. The way Linden Labs was acting, he felt they were looking for someone to buy them out.

Aeonix had also put his thoughts down in an article online on the Andromeda blog. He had been thinking since April 2010 that Linden Labs had it’s eye on an initial public offering or a buyout. He observed Linden Labs was exhibiting the “telltale signs” of it.

Linden Labs, he stated, was “reaching the end of an investor lifecycle ... Essentially, Linden Lab is at the end of that lifecycle of investment and for those of us who are knowledgeable on this, we also know what sorts of things to expect in the actions of a company in this position.” Aeonix wrote this observation was partly from being in this kind of position in the past.

For a company such as Linden Lab, one can expect that at the end of the lifecycle they would begin acting in (what would be seen by an outsider) very nonsensical manners, with massive layoffs, external office closings, and liquidation of assets in an attempt to bring the company into a leaner and more profitable state. This behavior is also a telltale sign that reorganization in the company is to position that company for the exit strategy of IPO or Buyout from a bigger corporation.

Back to the conversation, Aeonix thought, “ I believe that Philip (Linden) is weighing both sides for the benefit of both himself and investors, as well as the existing community. Which means, there will likely be concessions on both sides. ... Second Life will evolve, and on an increasingly rapid pace. We'll look back and see SL 1.0 and think ‘Wow.. it’s so different than what we have today.’ There may be new rules in place, depending on how things evolve out. ... Of course, long time users will scream bloody murder. We already saw that with V2. ... evolution.”

Aeonix concluded his article, “keep in mind that regardless of the outcome of this rumor, Linden Lab knows that it’s time to pay the devil its due. Whether or not we find that the devil we thought was behind it is truly the devil or just a lower demon compared to the bigger devil of Microsoft, has yet to be confirmed. Let us hope that they aren’t looking to sell all of our souls in the process.”

For Aeonix Aeon’s article: Click Here.

Sources, Andromeda, Virtual Worlds News

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Maybe Not So “Fast, Easy, Fun” After All

A few events kept me from commenting on Philip Linden’s inworld meeting at the end of July sooner. With more recent developments, maybe it’s fortunate I did.

At the meeting, Philip Linden outlined some goals for Second Life. A couple slogans summed up his objectives. His for how Linden Lab would operate was “back to basics.” For Second Life, it was “Fast, Easy, and Fun,” meaning his vision on how it should be to its viewers.

It didn’t take long for the second slogan to become the butt of jokes, notably with those “Fast, Easy, and Fun” women's’ T-shirts being passed around. Those who took the words more seriously often expressed skepticism. Tateru Nino commented the words reminded her of the expression “fast, good, cheap: pick two,” feeling there would be chances where two of the three could be pulled off, but all three were unlikely. Then there was Philip making Second Life “fun” as an objective, “Most Second Life users make their own fun (quite literally, by creating content, games and activities to suit themselves), and the amount of fun you have is proportional to what you put in; if, indeed, fun is actually your goal.”

“Fun,” she felt, was “the most ill-defined word of the set, and the one which is likely to precipitate the greatest trouble and most stumbles.“

Hamlet Au was on the nose about the slogan when he stated to make Second Life “fast, easy, and fun” ... “The effort required to reach that goal will be slow, difficult, and boring.” It would take a lot of work by the people in the company to make even basic activities much easier for users. He went on to state that although the “Linden coders are all extremely smart and dedicated people,” most weren’t too interested in the Second Life community.

One such exception was Qarl Linden, whom loved Second Life and what it’’s users had made of it. On Thursday August 5, he was laid off from Linden Lab with no explanation given. Qarl has quite a resume. In real-life, this includes his work on special effects in movies. In Second Life, he’s noted for helping to develop sculpties. More recently, he was on the head of the team for the mesh program. Philip had talked some about mesh in his meeting, saying he was “excited” about it, but wanted to be careful about its impact on Second Life. Qarl’s dismissal puts the future of this program in doubt.

Qarl being given the pink slip raises some troubling questions. Even after the “restructuring,” Linden Labs is still reducing it’s numbers. Not the best of signs for its health. And between this and the firings from the “restructuring,” the Lab doesn’t seem to be paying attention to the performance of individuals when deciding whom to lay off. They seem random, as if they’re using a dart board to chose.

Philip’s return as Linden Lab’s leader gave the residents of Second Life new optimism. Optimism that at least allowed them to listen to his message. But with the dismissal of a valued Linden soon afterwards, will the optimism last?

Sources: New World Notes, Massively, picture from Gwynethllewelyn.net

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: What A Month!

Last week, there was a new ad by Linden Labs almost certainly aimed at taking advantage of the hype around a movie being released. In different times, it might have generated quite a bit of buzz. But after all that’s happened in June 2010, it seemed almost ho-hum.

A little more than a week after the month started, came the announcement of the Linden layoffs. This event cast a big shadow over the planned event, Second Life Seventh Birthday. And in the middle of that, came the big news of M Linden “stepping down” as CEO of Linden Lab, and Philip back in charge. And there were the smaller events of a tribute to the dismissed Lindens and a party in their honor.

There’s been a bit of talk over just what Philip’s return means. The initial reaction of most was to cheer. Second Life under M has mostly been one blunder by Linden Lab after another. After a little thought, some expressed caution. The Metaverse under Philip wasn’t exactly a rose garden either. And a few expressed fear. They saw bringing Philip back as the last desperate gasp of a company on the edge of bankruptcy.

Linden Lab is not going bankrupt. “There,” which closed down a few months ago, had a history of problems making a healthy income. Second Life, in spite of Linden Labs’ heavy-handed moves, has still been bringing in some cash. The problem is, Second Life has been near-stagnant, with Linden Lab stumbling about in how to make it grow again. Some have commented that most people inclined to try Second Life already have. But Linden Labs’ clumsy moves under M Linden certainly haven’t helped.

Can Philip turn things around? Paisley Beebe made some remarks that are similar to mine. Things weren’t perfect when he was around, but let’s give him a chance. That spoken, if Linden Labs keeps on a clumsy course, time to hold his feet to the fire.

As for M Linden, for all his blunders, he did make an effort to support the arts in SL, and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the UWA stated “his personal artshow will remain ... in perpetuity.” So perhaps he did some good after all.

In the meantime, Linden Lab is in Philip’s hands now, and we at Second Life Newsier will do our part to keep their moves under the spotlight.

Sources: Second Life Newspaper, Tonight Live with Paisley Bebee

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted

It's life Jim but not as we know it.

So Linden Labs have been clearing out their inventory. 30% of their global workforce have crashed never to return. As we all know it's never nice when it happens, and I am sure we all wish them and their families the very best for the future. It's definitely goodbye and not "brb." This time of course though the crashing is in real life, not SL. And the ones who have gone have real families to support, real mortgages to pay and real bills to face up to. It's not just a few minutes or hours of inconvenience, because you can't dance the night away with your mates.

So what are the ramifications? What does this mean for us toons? Have our gods deserted us??.. Linden Labs are certainly not shouting the news from the rooftops, and why would they? .... Shedding nearly a third of your workforce is bad news however you look at it. Hard facts about the state of Linden's affairs are hard to come by. Facts and figures about the Linden empire fall firmly into the category of "statistics" (as in lies, damn lies and statistics), so we can't know for certain. One thing is certain though ... companies do not relieve themselves of a third of their workforce lightly. Was it always the plan to sack one in three of the workforce or did Bigwig Linden just wake up one morning and think it seemed like a good idea? The fact is they, as a business are in trouble, and if they are in trouble ... we are in trouble!

Residents beware! If the Lindens decide that 1 in 3 isn't enough and that they may as well turn the lights (and the servers) off and go home. What are you going to do? Suddenly the killer shoes you just bought seem less sparkly as you may not be able to log on and wear them tomorrow. If you think that's bad ... have a thought for the poor old landowners. Not only have they previously endured price manipulation of their assets ... now it is looking more likely than not that they will loose everything. I am no land expert but a quick check of prices tells me that an island is $1,000 us dollars and $295 dollars a month for maintenance whatever that is. That equates to over $4,500 us dollars a year for a few pixels that will go "poof" at the flick of an administrators index finger.

If you want my advice fellow residents....save your money and sell your house while you still can.

Izzie Schism

Second Life’s Seventh Birthday: “Expect the Unexpected.”

Well readers, one of the big events in SL is upon us. SL7B, Second Life’s Seventh Anniversary Celebration, is this Monday.


Craving birthday cake? Get ready to celebrate Second Life's seventh birthday party, otherwise known as SL7B!

The SL7B celebration begins on Monday, June 21 at 10:00am PDT and runs through Sunday, June 27, spanning 21 regions with over 700 contributors, over 300 exhibits, and over 200 live performers and speakers (including special speeches from Philip and M Linden). SL7B is a showcase for the art, innovations, and ingenuity of all Second Life Residents.

The regions will remain open through July 3 for people to enjoy, but the live entertainment ends on June 27—so be sure to stop by SL7B next week to get your fill of the amazing experiences that this event has to offer.

What can you expect? The unexpected, of course.

This year's theme is "Unexpected Collaborations," a celebration of that which is only possible through our virtual world. While the event is sponsored by Linden Lab, it's really an unexpected collaboration of its own—the fruit of the collective labors of exhibitors, volunteers, and Lindens.

The gates open on Monday at 10:00am PDT, but we'll be kicking things off officially with Philip, who will be joining us at the Main Stage on Monday at 11:00. Second Life will be seven years old on Wednesday, June 23—and M will be joining us for cake and birthday wishes at 9:00am PDT on the Main Stage.


Somehow, the part about "expect the Unexpected" seems a little ominous this time.

This time, the birthday bash has a cloud overhead: the recent “Restructuring” that resulted in about a third of the Linden Lab staff being shown the door, and a shakeup in the confidence about many residents about their confidence in the future of the Metaverse. This was reflected last week when the Linden Dollar began fluctuating in value. Linden Labs claims the cause of the fluctuation as both the Restructuring *and* more residents coming in earlier this year over the publicity over the movie “Avatar.” However, this instability didn’t happen until after the layoffs. Some people are a bit reluctant to buy Lindens or as many Lindens.

So will the recent turmoil result in a small turnout, much like the numbers of SL6B were a disappointment to some compared to “the big 5?” Time will tell.

In the meantime, we at Second Life Newser will cover the big event, and other people, places, and happenings, in the Metaverse.


Links: SLB7 wiki - http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SL7B

SLB7 Destination Guide - http://secondlife.com/destinations/birthday

Bixyl Shuftan

What a Week

It’s been quite a time for us at Second Life Newser, dealing with not just one, but two major events on our hands. One mainly for us, the other felt by just about every resident I met.

The first was, well, the paper we used to work for closing, and Second Life Newser beginning as it folded. Starting up a new media company would be no easy task. Thankfully, people have again and again expressed their well wishes, as well as expressing their thanks there will be a new paper to read. Thank you very much for the kind words, and your support. It meant a lot.

And so, on with our mission, to bring you the readers the news across the grid big and small. From the mega-events such as SL7 and Burning Life to the personal experiences of various residents. We will soon be introducing new sections to the paper to keep the front page from becoming too cluttered, especially on busy days. The newspaper site will also be tweaked a bit to be easier to read.

We are also in the process of getting an office for a physical location in Second Life. Once everything is all set, the address will be posted online.

It's been a promising beginning.

Even before the dust was beginning to settle, wham! The heavy hand of M Linden struck again as it never had before, with about a third of the staff up and dismissed. In a press release, even in an e-mail released to the residents, M Linden insisted Linden Labs was healthy and this was necessary streamlining. But as has been mentioned in various commentaries, such as here and here, this kind of cutback is not a sign of a company prospering.

There has been plenty of speculation about what this might mean, notably as it comes alongside the news of Linden Lab developing a browser-based client. Among them, that this was done to prepare Second Life for being sold. Others wonder if the Metaverse is going to be downscaled in graphics and flexibility, turned into a primitive version of itself, in order to become “Yoville2.” Somehow, the joke I made on April 1 in the old newspaper about the Lindens selling Second Life to China to concentrate on making a “Farmvile” sequel doesn’t seem so funny now.

One Columnist in Computerworld didn’t think Second Life was about to be sold or made into a graphical shadow of what it once was, but he did feel the best days of the Metaverse were behind it as Linden Labs takes it into “maintenance mode” to try and keep residents from slowly leaving. Goodbye to the hopes that it could find a mainstream audience, and heading for a slow decline.

In my opinion, Second Life can reverse this downward course and rise in numbers again. But as long as M Linden is in charge, Linden Labs’ history of bumbling and stumbling will continue.

Bixyl Shuftan