Massively^™

My first thought on seeing Torley's personal blog post was "about time for changes in communication policy." But it does seem extreme to totally cut off communications in the process of improving them. My optimistic self hopes someone with some sense proposed a good, solid communications policy (with, oh, I dunno, scheduling, accountability, standards, editing) and the Linden Taoists are up in arms about it, holding it back, but shortly we'll see a much improved set of communications feeds.

But sadly, my guess is that it's just more of the same: bad planning, bad execution, and extremely bad communication, both internally and externally.

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http://twitter.com/slgridstatus is still rolling smoothly, so I wouldn't say all time-critical posts are bottlenecked by the mystery communications issue, if it exists.

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Now Residents get even less info than before, and anything stupid they _do_ say can only be interpreted as official corporate policy, instead of a mistake or mere personal opinion. What's not to love?

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I never liked the way LL updated their blog. Often, they released 4-5 articles in a couple of days, then nothing else for a few days, then, again lots of articles in a short time. Many people complained that this was meant to "bury" uncomfortable news - but if you honestly watch at ALL the news that were "buried", this idea doesn't hold.
I think that this may simply be a transition phase - and I also agree with Otenth's comment about 'bad execution'.

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One of the biggest criticisms of LL over the last two years has been their communication policy. I'd imagine this is a brief period of behind-kicking while processes are established to vet announcements. It doesn't surprise me that during such a period they'd hold communications in order to ensure these processes are in place.

My guess is this heralds a new age of Linden communications - one where the open dialog (which often seemed insanely fluffy) is at an end, but more reasonable and directed communication is to come. Unfortunately this will have as many positives as negatives in the long run..... LL's "publics" have previously been poorly served by the internal rumor mill, and will now be poorly served by the official censor. Conversely at least when they say something from this point on they probably mean it.

We'll have to see how this plays out. I don't think it's the end of the world, and we may grow to love it... but it does show signs of a new strong policy direction in terms of communication. Personally I don't like it.... but I may learn to trust it in a way I can refer to LL announcements as in some way definitive when dealing with clients. That's gotta be better than what we have now.

Just my two cents as usual :P (Hi mom!)

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My guess is that heads went rolling with a recent post that wasn't supposed to get out, or should have been reviewed and authorized first. Perhaps staff are using the freedom of information too much (posting what ever, when ever they want) that it is getting out of control (internally), but the public feels like not enough information is ever getting out. The mono deploy message was sudden, but now there is no news on it's status, or of a new client capable of compiling the code. I wonder if SLCC 2008 will reveal anything with a new way of communicating information with the new policies.

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My guess is that heads went rolling with a recent post that wasn't supposed to get out, or should have been reviewed and authorized first. Perhaps staff are using the freedom of information too much (posting what ever, when ever they want) that it is getting out of control (internally), but the public feels like not enough information is ever getting out. The mono deploy message was sudden, but now there is no news on it's status, or of a new client capable of compiling the code. I wonder if SLCC 2008 will reveal anything with a new way of communicating information with the new policies.

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The biggest irony to me is that some many Lindens are posting "discussions" to the old SL Forums, given that the move out of the forums and to the blog was such a big thing.

Notable, too, is the fact that the Communications Manager, Katt, seems to wield no real power. In a discussion about the forum posting guidelines, she's had to mention going to someone (Robin?) to ask about getting even minor changes to the supposedly proposed policy. Likewise, a lot of the dust-ups over SL5B seemed to be about a higher up demanding a policy, and their underlings having to do their bidding to a hostile public.

Someone is making decisions on their own, and expecting their staff to make it palatable, no?

At any rate, I noted Torley talking about office hours lately on Twitter - I kinda suspect those will soon be a thing of the past, buried with Linden Radio, the SLRR, and Voting boxes

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There's deffinite changes afoot.... but it's hard to tell from the outside exactly what they are.

I'd be interested in knowing some things about who and what put what we see into action. An example is this.

Torley has obviously been battling with higher ups and internal communications issues for a while. Much as we love Torley as the uber positive pink piano playing fellow he is, when he's not doing tech, his role is platform evangelist. Torley, despite being a Linden, is hired to be one of us. (Gooble gobble lol).

Torley recently got an island - which as platform evangelist is long overdue... an island allows him and his charming beau to showcase creative pursuits in SL, tinker with fancy stuff, act as a community hub, and get out his tutorials and videos in a more sensible and accessable fashion using the platform they're designed for.

So....

Is that Torley and co getting fed up and self funding or agitating to get their own island in order to do their job, or did Torley get that handed down from higher up? If equipping Torley with an island was a linden policy decision we should applaud them for finally leveraging the people and resources they have available. If not then meh.

As it stands right now it's hard to know. We can see there are internal difficulties in LL as they make this transition - Katt Lindens tightrope walk is an obvious example. They may be finding new and different ways of getting it wrong, or they may be struggling to get it right. Time will tell.

Oh for a peek inside the lab...

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Some theories

1. Summer vacations
2. The Torley thing is separate -- Torley needs to be eased out, he's gone over the edge. He got his own island to keep him from spreading his neon glowing junk over Gov Linden protected land, which he was doing, even sequestering entire sims that were in no-sale protected status as landscaping for this purpose -- for which he was properly abuse reported, and which led to him relinquishing it.
3. The Lindens will no longer be allowing chatter on the blog and want to drive it back to the forums. That's a good thing, because there were too many anonymous posters using Wordpress without SL names, and people must be required to use SL names in these discussions or they become even more abusive than an anonymous SL name allows them to be
4. A lawsuit -- they are circling the wagons again. I've got a hunch it could be on ad-farms.
5. Not an IPO, not ready.
6. Getting ready to inflict something big and awful on the residents again.

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Ahhh....thanks Pavig, that clears up Torley's comment on my blog that his recent video had "subtle hints" and that he pointed in the direction of showcase as the source of future information on why he's currently gagged.

So, as far as Torley: he's opening a tutorial/help island, it will be featured in Showcase, and it will be bright bright bright bright neon. (Sorry Torley, love the neon, TRUUUULY um uh huh)

As far as the rest of it, I'm still betting on the launch of a new communication platform accompanying the launch of SLim which we were told was "weeks away" - so my hunch is an unveiling at SLCC to include SLim, a "Facebook" for SL type application, alternates to Help Island including Torley's wonderland, and within all of that new vehicles for us to keep in touch with the oh-so-accessible Lindens through some sort of communication channel with the same number of meaningless menu choices as the new A/R system.

All of which means I agree with Pavig and I agree with #6 from Prok.

Oh - and to parse Torley's comments, he blurbed on my blog.. http://dusanwriter.com/?p=849

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Thanks, everyone, I'm glad to see your interest! Please visit the Second Life blog to read Robin Linden's post:

Linden Lab Blog Changes to Give Residents More Choices

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/08/27/linden-lab-blog-changes-to-give-residents-more-choices/

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Torley's blog post seems to have been removed, all hits to the "Collission Sounds Video Tip Of The Week" expanded view (where the comments presumably existed) now redirect to Torley's latest art video on youtube.

Wonder if there's any connection to Katt's having seen this article.

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