Oh Dear LL

I've just read the latest offering from the Boys, their monthly update, and they really can't blog to save their lives...

There are a few things that Inara Pey has already touched on in her excellent post... here. Like the fact that we heard about the new Library Avis a week ago and that monthly news is always gonna be old news, and let's face it, old news is an oxymoron.

The new avis...well, what can I say? It would seem a bit hypocritical for me to criticise them really and I do welcome a wider range of non-human forms ... so I could just stay silent on the matter. ...but that's unlikely to happen.

The animal range I thought were probably gonna be fairly popular, after all some of my best friends are feline at times and I know great builders who are foxes.... (no dragons there I see) .... and well, we've all met a few robots in our lives tho the ones I've met have been very good builds... but.. cars?? In my 4 years in these worlds I have yet to meet a car. Maybe thats just my limited circle of friends, no balloons either.... oh well we are assured that they are:

" a heck of a lot of fun. " ... hmmmm

Anyway, all this is only a minor issue compared to the most cringe-making part of the whole embarrassing post, the report that chat lag is a thing of the past.

I am used to people making false claims, just last night I saw a shampoo advert on TV claiming that the shampoo would respect my individuality, so that doesn't worry me, after all advertising=lies, for the most part. Just sign on to any medium or large Group and you will find the truth out for yourself.

No, what really worried me was the Tone. The Tone is the sort of manner and style of writing you use in a blog or advert, the Copy, and the way it is delivered..... for example:

"Here’s a little something about that right royal pain, Group Chat Lag. You know how it is: you’re inworld, having a ball chatting with a group of friends, but the chat shows up with words missing or in the wrong order. It’s like a bad roommate, always hanging around and making a mess, interrupting your conversations and ruining your jokes! Some of your friends won’t even try talking while that loser’s around, knowing that their impeccable comic timing will come out looking like free-form poetry."

gulp

"We’d say that we’ll miss the old Group Chat Lag, but that would be a total lie. Instead, as the saying used to go: “door Don’t let the hit you in the butt on the way out.”

double gulp...

I have been lead to believe that the majority of users of Second Life are in the 30 to 70 age group, now, if that is the case, then the belief that offering them the ability to dress up like a car and then talk down to them like a 10 year old is going to endear you to your user group is so far wide of the mark that it is an embarrassment.

Cringe Factor 10.

I am certain that the person who wrote this, the Most Dreadful Copy of the Year, has never experienced chat lag....

....and finally... the increasing attempt by LL to pull people OUT of SL via FB, Marketplace... and now Twitter....

"And, don’t forget to hit Twitter — follow us @Secondlife and tweet using the hashtag #secondlife."

.... as Inara Pey so rightly says..."f you really want feedback and comments on what is happening, then give us the means to do so in as quick and convenient manner as possible.

By that I mean letting us us comment on your blog posts directly. It’s the way almost every other blog in the world operates when comments and feedback are allowed – so why not you? You used to at one time, but then you moved away from this approach, almost as if you were either afraid of what we might say, or didn’t want to hear what we were saying.

But the fact is, if you really want our feedback, you really should consider making it as easy as possible for us to do so, even if it does mean opening up your blog entries for comment once more."

Well, I guess it's just another labour saving device, i.e. laziness ... but it does seem that they don't believe in VW's as much as we do ..

.. oh....any bets on how long it will take LL to discover Google+ ??

:))

Customer Self-Service.

Well, as I mentioned a few days ago, when I couldn't access the SL blogs, I was interested in finding out how the Boys were gonna improve Customer Services.

I'd seen a link for... Improving Customer Services... and, after ranting about not being able to access the blog, with Wizzy's help I got access, maybe because I'm a celebrated whiner, who knows, and Yoz Linden IMed me to tell me he had sorted it out, so, Wizzy and I are in, just over a million more residents to go if it's gonna be done on a one by one basis......

Anyway....read the blog...

"As we mentioned in our last blog post, the Customer Support team continues to drive a series of changes to the way in which Linden Lab delivers support to our Resident community. We are examining our support offering from top to bottom, using the data from our new support system, your survey data, blog feedback, and industry standard practices to help shape our approach.


As we approach these changes, we have a number of high-level goals in mind:

Leverage industry best practices, and our own hard-earned lessons, to create a comprehensive customer service offering. [ermm....who's hard-earned lessons?]

Respond to high-urgency, business-critical requests more quickly. [look after the rich first?]

Better address product and service issues before they become a support interaction. [sort stuff out?]

Provide all Residents with better self-service tools to help solve issues immediately."

Hmm...yes, PR speak...what are they actually saying??

First item: we are gonna do something.
Second: we are gonna do it quicker.
Third line.. "Better address product and service issues before they become a support interaction.".. is just another way of saying a stitch in time saves nine.

and so we come to the fourth line...namely... "Provide all Residents with better self-service tools to help solve issues immediately."

Now, this self-service tools stuff.. well, I have that at the petrol (gas) station and that is pretty much the norm now.....however... customer services are normally done by the company for the consumer.

So... the Lab is really breaking new ground here by helping us to do customer services ourselves.

I guess if they provide me with my own telephone number I can ring myself when my invent disappears and complain... then, with training, I might be able to calm myself down from an excitable state and reassure myself that I am making steps towards solving the issue.

Then I got to thinking that they already have us doing our own maintenance reports, helping fix the viewer they broke (some of us) and testing their mesh trials too, so D-I-Y on the Customer Services would fit in nicely... maybe we can eventually run the grid ourselves, the one we filled with content and they charge us for.

Anyway... no need to whine any longer soror, Things are Getting Better. The latest post on the Boys blog... here.... the "Back to Basics Technology Improvements" fills a soul with hope for the future.

Reduced Lag.
Faster Texture Loading.
New Chat Service coming soon.
Group limits raised to 40.
Viewer 2 improvements.
Faster bug fixes.
Display names in public beta.

...so...all in all, absolutely nothing to whine about there, is there?

All's well with the world.

...no idea why Inworldz is just about to hit 20,000 users... a mystery..

:))