Lip Service

Linden Lab's customer facing departments seem to prefer it; I don't.

For several years I've enjoyed helping others and building communities within Second Life and it's associated webspaces, and also tried to make that easier for other to do, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. I'm not the only one by any means, and hold no illusions that my contributions make or break the effort. There are others who have contributed far more, and there are some that still do. SL has never lacked for clients willing to promote and improve it's platform.

Recently the weight of what I feel is poor decision making by LL in their forum webspace (arguably one of their first lines of customer contact and service), came to a head, with the outright abusive treatment of it's customer community. I became more and more aware of it, both through personal exposure, and word of mouth which was thoroughly checked. I stood up and said something about it, pointing to what was wrong, and focused on specifically why it was damaging, and what needed to be done to fix it. Unconnected to that I made a personal statement of intent, that if I couldn't see improvement or effort towards such, I would withdraw my efforts to improve the forums. I haven't seen it, so true to my word, I've packed up my bags and moved out of the forums. Thankfully, I feel that there is now quite a good pool of people in what's always been my personal home of the scripting forums.

The truth is, my exit was probably late in coming. Over the years I've watched as customers were treated as a convenient workforce, while multiple programs supposed to encourage and assist those who wanted to help died out to neglect and mistreatment. Each time alienating more clients, and leaving more by the wayside confused about where to find help. I'm now among the ranks of those alienated, and a little sad to know how many good people are in the same company. I think it's unfortunate that LL will eventually send more here if it doesn't wake up. As far as I can see, they are their own worst competitor in their effort to expand; If they can't catch and hold onto the spirit of devotion that drives their clients to help others find as much enjoyment in the platform as those clients do, they'll never manage to keep the clients they do have.

As for myself, I'm currently stepping back and reevaluating my other contributions within and outside of SL, so that I can refocus on what matters to me and others like me, even if it means stripping the tree bare rather than nourishing it's growth.

This is where I press post rather than edit my thoughts

Open letter to Rod Humble, RE: Second Life Forums

To Mr. Humble, CEO Linden Lab

  I'm writing you today, in the hopes of bringing your attention to what I feel is a detriment to the public image of SL and goodwill of it's residents. There is a trend of what appears to be worsening misapplication of guidelines in the official forums culminating with my own recent experience which I will detail shortly. I do wish to note first that I am not contesting the actions taken by LL staff, as I believe that they are only operating under the guidelines given to the best of their understanding and ability, and I hold no malice over it. My only issue is the clarity of the policies involved. Regardless of this, my understanding of the guidelines tells me that my discussion of the following details will very likely result in a ban from the forums. I am willing to accept this, because I believe the issues need to be openly addressed.

  Recently a poster upset by recent events posted a suggestion that others who felt similarly about those events, should join them in a sort of "blue flu" protest for a week, by refraining from answering questions. I don't know the details of those events beyond that a person (who is a known agitant) was banned. This is not my issue however. In reply to that I pointed out that historically (within SL) such protests had little effect, and that it would be more effective to direct those questioners to official support channels (original text below). The following day I logged in to find a private message from a moderator informing me that my post was removed for a violation of guidelines, specifically, "Flaming". I also found that the original thread to which I had replied was also removed, although I'm not aware of it's reasoning. Believing this to be a mistake or a simple misunderstanding of my intent, I requested a clarification, which was received the next day as "disruptive with the intent to abuse support" (text below), I can only assume that similar reasoning was applied to the original thread.

  I feel that this is both a gross misinterpretation of intent, and misapplication of guidelines that does a disservice to both the original poster, and myself, as well as the community at large. As examples of our depth of commitment and dedication to SL, the original poster is a long time and frequent assistant to those in need of help in SL, and my own efforts go back to 2005, with contributions across a wide array of fora and topics, the wiki, jira, and various inworld groups both official and resident run. These things are not a claim to some special privilege, we have neither expected nor asked for special consideration or recognition of our efforts, nor desire them.

  I believe that history speaks to intent though, which has ever been to help others where we can. I do realize my own statement could be misread, however I feel the suggestion to use (and education to find) the many scattered official sources can never be a bad thing... at the very worst it might slow response times, and at it's best it enables users to more easily help themselves. Similarly, residents are not paid workers, and the suggestion to temporarily halt their own voluntary efforts in a show of support is not deserving of punishment. It my firm belief that silencing these statements sends the message that LL considers resident helpers as an unpaid workforce, which are only tolerated so long as they fulfill the express purpose of easing LL's burden of providing support to residents. This is not a message I can support. I am not seeking an apology, or even a reason, but rather a change.

Sincerely,
- Void Singer (the only name anyone would recognize me by here anyway)

ref: Original Post as quoted in the warning letter

ref: Request for clarification

ref: Reply to clarification request