Blog stuff..... Negativity and Positivity

Now, it's easy for people, it seems, to mistake criticism for negativity.... and I hate to see naivety heralded as a virtue, or blind acceptance as being superior to a healthy cynicism.

As has been said often enough before, (Brinda comes to mind) "those that are the most critical of Second Life are often is greatest advocates"... or words to that effect. Miso is a case in point in her recent, eloquent post....but...her next post, which we have been discussing will turn all that on its head, being positive and constructive. This doesn't mean that she has had a change of heart, it simply means that the good and the bad of any situation are obvious if you look.

Things are Really Bad in a relationship when you can't even be bothered to criticise, that's The End. Like with Blue M'arse.... I have zero interest in who is CEO, it is dead. Period. Buried. and App'ed. Yawn.

There are things which have happened recently in SL which are crap, in my opinion, and nothing anyone can say will change my mind, poor noobs being called Resident is one (and Despair Names messing up Search even more), and the retrograde steps taken toward 2D interaction (FB and Marketplace) are two that spring to mind.

The mindlessness of voice morphing (being about the last thing anyone I know would put on their wish list when so much else is broken) and the wobbling about of 'bingo wings' (UK slang) and flabby thighs being another...BUT.. I am not the standard user...sooo...I accept that these do nothing to spoil my enjoyment of SL, and ignore them. Rodvik didn't use "chat repair time" for this, another team did it.....

I am, however, very pleased by two things this week, maybe more... coming from the Boys.





This is one....and, although it is missing a black guy, a furry and a dragon, oh, and a robot, it is without doubt a long awaited improvement..... let's hope they are all fully mod, unlike SpotOn3D which was a bit crap.... see blogpost....somewhere...

Now, the second piece of news is...Rodvik. He has actually been talking to people. ...people I know, not the FIC, just Tweeps. That is a sea change. ...as I pointed out before 10,000 people who have spent 3 years in SL have a common knowledge base of 30,000 years... not to be sniffed at....thats a lot of hours.

Now, as Jim reported... here.... if there is one subject that could really, really do with a rethink by the Boys and a U-turn, its the mentor programme, again, often clearly promoted by Brinda, and discussed on Twitter by Rod et al. Some very good comments and more than a little connected to my post... "Can You Save SL?"

LadySakai: @rodvik @InaraPey Good Luck on that one Rodvik. May I recomend mentors? They are amazing in InWorldz. Makes ppl feel right at home
rodvik: @LadySakai @InaraPey Thanks, I will go look see how it works.

Now, I assume that the Boys know exactly what needs to be done in terms of repairing the damage... they know how many patches have patches which are patched, and how threadbare some parts of the code are. Some of the Boys are more aware of it than their bosses, thats why the more modern companies look to, and award, employees for useful suggestions. This has not been the case with LL if Glassdoor is to be believed. That has to change, or they'll end up as a phone app too..... but according to one Linden I spoke to there is the common LL belief that Rod can do it..

What the Boys don't know, and have no way of finding out except thro their user base is how much the other grids are improving the facilities for builders and creators... because most of them can't build a rock.

Hence my ongoing nagging.

That there is a whole range of NPISL (not possible in second life) builds which will draw people to other grids is frankly stoopid.
I detailed ... here ... the details, or some of them in a straight up InWorldz vs. Second Life list. Now, even assuming that the Boys are still lost in their mental trauma of Megaphobia, the ability to hollow a prim to 99%, or size it to 0.001m could be very easily acheived. The limit on linking prims, currently 32 meters is gonna be useless when mesh comes out (the max size is likely to be 64 meters meaning you won't be able to link it to anything...) ...in IWz I can link up to 256 meters, and thousands of prims, not the 256 SL limit.

Anyway....I'll keep plugging away.

The desire to see YadNi's new Mont St Michel took me to Reaction Grid.... so I went...



Unfortunately I couldn't find it. 8 people online and no search, no map, no nothing... I gave up. Made me realise how far InWorldz has come...and again, why a single mentor would have been great. YadNi didn't choose Reaction, he was commissioned. It has a high enough prim count to make it possible, but its buggy to say the least.

Luckily YadNi is building the famous Sagrada Familia by Gaudi on InWorldz, so I'll just have to be patient, and get a guide next time I go to Reaction.

Now, in other news, and slightly at odds with the above talk of better building tools for SL, is a great post by Ener Hax who, as usual has cut through the fog to a clear comment regarding Diva Canto's blog... namely...

"Everything in Unity3D seems designed to support professional scene creations, whereas everything in SL seems designed to support amateur content." [Diva Canto]

Ener rightly points out that it's not the tools, but the content that matters... so...... tools are a minor thing in the Boys eyes, I understand most people come to SL for sex, but my wish list is none the less a relevant topic, and one I must add to..... and you are welcome to, too. If SL don't use it, maybe another grid will.

In other, totally unrelated news.....I had heard, ages ago, about IBM closing grids, so that came as no surprise... the only other bit of news that you might be interested in, seeing how much I have ranted about privacy is this piece on Ars. Maybe the tide is turning for privacy issues.... well, we can but live in hope...

The cynic in me says 'don't hold your breath'...

Have a great week.


:))