Reading Radar

Arminasx is clearly no dummy, but this post on Openspaces proves why he’s a shrewd businessman.  This is one of the best posts on the issue to date.  It’s exactly the type of thinking that a lot of the people getting upset at the Lindens now should have been doing before things got to where they are now.

I put out a note to Jack Linden asking if he’d be willing to appear on SL Under the Radar so I could get his side of the openspaces. After all, well known companies like Rezzable are publicly questioning LL over the Openspace policy changes. Jack promptly responded to me and directed me to Catherine. I just now sent her a request so she hasn’t really had time to respond yet. I’m hoping to find out some of the technical issues involved and why supporting loaded OS sims at the current price levels wasn’t making sense, and maybe some reasoning behind the original prim count increase on the OSes that people use as their excuse for believing that LL wanted them to use them as normal sims.

I also invited Rightasrain Rimbaud of said Rezzables to find out why they insinuate on their post that the reason they’re getting rid of 6 full sims by the end of Nov has anything to do with Openspaces - if in fact I’m correct and that’s what they are insinuating. After all, the price of full sims hasn’t changed, and if they aren’t making money on them, that’s hardly LL’s fault. I honestly suspect something else, which is that making money in anyone’s metaverse right now is just damn difficult. Oh, well… Rightasrain got my notecard, but no response. I’ll do the episode either way, with or without official response. I can speculate on them the same way they speculate on the Lindens “evil” motives.

I guess what it boils down to is that after watching Rezzables at work since they first appeared in-world, it doesn’t seem to me they’ve ever had a solid way of generating consistent, bill-paying type revenue, and now it also appears that they’re kind of thanking LL for that fact. Which, if I’m correct on both those points, seems both disingenuous and a little silly, frankly.

EDIT:

Ok, I apologize for picking on Dusan, who pointed out the low openspace article ratio contained in Dusan Writer’s Metaverse. And waste of time was a little overstated (ok, I didn’t mean it). You like that? Does anyone believe anything I blog anyway? I sure don’t. But I’m still tired of anyone who IS whining. That part’s true. Ok.. back to the blog..

Ever since the openspace debacle and semi (but not really) reversal by LL, some of the best blogs have turned into a waste of time. Dusan Writer’s is no exception, today’s hilarious post being a bait and switch post with the remark “This post has been a bait & switch post and has nothing to do with SL. What, you think I can’t do that too?”

I’ll stress again, not real impressed with the drunk sailor style of policy making LL are employing these days, but when everyone cried, shouted, and whined that LL misled people into thinking that openspaces were not only for light use by upping the prim count, essentially LL gave everyone what they asked for by lowering the price AND the prim allowance of the openspace back to the original price, and then created the Homestead, the Little Sim on the Prairie, and the “Remember the Alamo!” sim offerings for those who wanted more. With increased price of course. The Homestead essentially equals the Openspace with the increased prim use, but with new limits imposed to ensure adequate performance.

I find it ironic that NONE OF THE WHINERS sees what they did here - first they all purposely ignored the “for light use” instruction for the openspaces, and then they berated LL for tricking them by giving them more. So LL said, “Ok, we’ll make it clear, punks,” and did what they did. Granted, LL has no excuse for not realizing sooner how many people were abusing openspaces and for what purposes, but again, sometimes they forget the people that inhabit SL.

You know what I wonder? I wonder how many crowded venues I went to in the past that were lagged out like a mofo and it was less about LL’s grid performance and more about the fact it was an openspace packed to the gills with bling and scripts and 1000 avatars all stuck in molasses along with me. I’ll never know. But for all those times that was the case, thanks, jerks. I blamed LL when instead I should have been helping you learn how to read.

Still waiting for you people to all leave for OpenLife.

Oh, in answer to Yxes comment in the last Podmafia that if it had really been about performance, LL would have just returned the openspace to the original specs and price, that’s exactly what they did, plus they added some performance limits/checks they were criticized for not having.

In case anyone wonders why I seem to not be as upset with LL over this as much as they, the wonderer, are… well, frankly, LL whine a lot less than you do. I do want to add, though, that apparently LL need some reading glasses as well, because they’re declaring healthy healthy when island additions are in reverse. They’re probably lucky OpenLife isn’t actually up to par as SL competition, if that metric means anything by itself.

Best last line regarding the openspace sim controversy:

From Wagner James Au on Gigaom:

“Still, one thing remains clear: “I’m moving to OpenSim!” has already become the metaverse version of the “I’m moving to Canada!” threat we hear every U.S. Presidential election.”

Does this make the protesters the Alec Baldwins and Susan Sarandons of SL?

A funny story on the protest from Itazura Radio coming up in the next podcast.

Reading the comments on Jack’s most recent post about openspace sims makes me think Stuart is right. After LL shifts policy, which we know they will do, the furor will eventually die down and people will move on. It happens OVER and OVER and OVER in SL.

Unfortunately that fact also points out the LL does do things haphazardly and then has to change positions. That’s a pattern too. They really need to clearly think about their policies and how they impact people, and how people are going to interpret and use (sometimes misuse) them before they make a policy or policy change.

I see both sides on this. I am tired of the whining and the comments that “you WANTED us to load them down,” but at the same time LL did increase the prim count, etc. I find it odd that people are so naive as to think that if there were issues, LL was not going to point back to the fact that they are intended for use as open waterways and mostly empty land, etc, but there you go. A lot of these same people keep touting their business credentials, but I know in my company, if something bad happens, and you’ve been told something might not work, it doesn’t matter how much it seemed to work before it went bad, the end result was because of your decision. A lot of these self-proclaimed professionals aren’t very professional based on their comments is what I’m saying. They don’t acknowledge that LL stated the purpose the sims were for. Both sides erred, IMO.

People can’t really afford higher tier on any sims right now, I don’t think. I have no figures to back it up, but I think people are having a harder time making consistent sales in SL right now except for big names and really popular content creators. Maybe I’m wrong on that, and it’s something I need to study, but that’s my initial impression. I don’t think a lot of people have money to spend on tier on sims right now. Raising the prices on Openspace sims will never help that.

It’s sad that we have to keep having this cycle of ill designed policy, reaction and threats of leaving for a younger, more attractive VW that doesn’t even have an economy, voice chat, or reliable prim behavior yet, and then everyone calms down and moves on to the next tragedy. LL should learn how in the name of all that’s virtual to make and enforce good policies, and the residents should learn to use their heads a little and quit stamping their feet like little babies every time something happens.

Hopefully I’ve insulted everyone, LL will resolve this soon, and everyone will quit whining into their blogs about how unfair the universe is and how they’re all going to quit, because they aren’t.

A lot of different blogs, a lot of comments on the openspace rate increase. And so many of them are outraged and blaming LL for their use of openspace sims as residential or business locations based on the fact that LL double the prim quota on openspaces. “Clearly they MUST have wanted me to use this for my booming business!” goes the argument.

I remember a few years ago, a friend of mine and his wife bought a steam cleaner. They took it home, cleaned all their carpets, then returned it. I asked what was wrong with it. “Nothing,” was the answer. “We never meant to keep it. They have a great return policy and they don’t ask questions.” Saying that clearly LL wanted you to load the openspace sims with tons of prims, scripts, and avatars because of their higher prim counts is like saying clearly retailer X wants you to buy steam cleaners, clean the whole house, and then return them because they have a good return policy. Both are unethical and at best naive, at worst totally dishonest.

I don’t think the rate hike is a good thing either, and I don’t think it’s the way to deal with overloaded openspace sims. But come on, people, at least be honest about this, if you’re going to complain and leave SL in droves (which is doubtful, but we’ll see). Don’t make stuff up just because it suits your cause. If you really believe LL encouraged you to use these for other than the clearly specified purpose, you’re just engaging in a predisposition to see it that way to justify your use of it as such.

Ok, the next episode of the podcast already has a theme, but Bettina Tizzy’s post on the Openspace price hike and the comments on options for metaverse party time got me thinking. How about a future episode on the various metaversions, as investigated/reported by some of the SL types I know?

Who wants in? IM me, email me, send up smoke signals. Windows, Mac, and Linux users all welcome. I’ll for sure need some windows types to help out as a few of the metaversional sons of bitches only offer windows clients and access. Guess how I’ll personally rate those bastards? Openlife Grid will be one of the ones we’ll test, since they’ve been making such a huge pitch for SL’ers unhappy with SL at the moment.

Lemme know. Only requirements are you can record your voice in decent quality and export to mp3 or aac or something similar. And use email. Once I get some volunteers we’ll make a list of metaversions and divide and conquer. And pull no punches.

Let’s see if there really will be designers, etc, pouring out of SL in droves anytime soon for alternative worlds.

Well, LL’s new policy on Openspace sims certainly has people up in arms. And while I can agree that throwing more money at misuse of resources won’t help, I have to feel that most people overloading openspace sims knew what they were doing. I’ve seen it all over the place - estate owners selling “half-prim sims” to people, which are really nothing more than openspace sims, and not warning them about performance issues or overloading concerns. For that reason I do like the part in the new policy that the sim owner can’t be changed to anyone but the real owner of the thing.

I don’t think Openspace sims were ever publicized by LL as for being for us as anything OTHER than.. well, open spaces. Waterways, empty buffer areas for putting next to your sim, etc. That’s the whole point of them, as they’re shared four to a cpu on the servers.

I’ve been told by one particular Linden that they’re constantly getting support calls on these things by people who have them loaded to the gills with scripts and junk and wondering why things go wonky, or when they’re using them as residential or commercial sims and the other openspaces on the server are bogging them down and they aren’t getting the performance they want for their activities.

It does seem like raising rates will hurt people who are using openspace sims correctly, and I have to say if you’re running a water or other almost empty buffer sim, $125/mo is kind of hard to swallow. I mean, honestly, the prices per month for sim tier are a little high anyway, IMO. On the other hand, dedicated servers in the web hosting business are all over the map on price, and can go up to $500/mo or more, depending on if they are truly dedicated, virtual servers, how much support is included, etc.

Bottom line: The tier increase sucks, there should be a better way. But every time an estate owner has sold one as a residential island, or someone’s used it for educational or commercial “heavier duty than intended” use, they’ve been bending all the other openspace owners over and making them fall for the banana in the tailpipe. And now none of them like the consequences. For those who haven’t used them in ways they knew they weren’t intended for, it’s a huge shame you now have to pay more (or more likely, NOT pay more but not own them anymore), and for the rest of you, quit trying to get away with stupid, selfish, and sometimes unethical behavior you know isn’t really supported.