What is a CommMonkey?
Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 2:22 PM by: TorleyIn light of recent happenings, it’s only right I be open and accountable about the work I’m doing. Plus, I love to share…
Some of you may have heard of a “GridMonkey” — that’s a Linden developer who’s on a dedicated, weekly shift to fix problems like downed regions, as well as broader, gridwide issues. When important crises come up like today’s, the GridMonkey — or whoever notices first — will alert other Lindens to the scene. This often means IMs get sent, pagers start beeping, etc. After all, emergencies demand quick responses.
For a long time, part of an overarching picture of scaling support, we had no formal equivalent of public-facing Lindens to help communicate with our beloved Residents — I endearingly call you “Resis” for short (like how “rez” is short for “resolve”). This left some hard holes and led us on the path to improve.
Presently, after an initiative guided by the warm eye-in-hand of Robin: each week, a member of the Community Team @ Linden Lab is the Communications Monkey, or CommMonkey for short. Last week, ’twas Chadrick. This week, you got me. And now, Jeska’s up!
See our profiles inworld for more about us.
What does a CommMonkey do?
Each of us has our unique personality (like collectible dolls — IM us for our Linden bears!) and own style, but our duties include consistently updating the appropriate channels with the latest news & info you need to know — including this Official Linden Blog, Linden Answers, mailing lists, the Message of the Day (which appears when you login), sending gridwide announces for emergencies, and more.
Internally, we also piece together info from other Lindens which needs to be presented publicly, and are on-call to be alerted if anything which needs to be communicated.
All of this not only helps us be visible and connect with you personally (even as the world grows), but also gives us frontline exposure to your concerns. This improves our ability to effectively advocate what’s important to you to fellow Lindens, e.g., feature suggestions and usability issues. After all, if we don’t know what your problems are, how can we help?
And so, we must know.
An anecdote
I’m a lightning-rod for worse-case scenarios in Second Life. Way back when I started here, I was bit by this awful bug that kept blanking my profile text. I wanted to write beautiful, eloquent verse, but… blankity-blank blank!
Guess what that led to? Besides an overt familiarity with customizing Profiles, it led me to learn how to do a bug report. And not only that, I searched Second Life for more affected Resis. Thankfully my instructions were coherent, we combined our collective insight, and the bug got fixed. Inspired by the many Lindens whose work I watched closely — and learning more about what they do — it enriched my own prime passions for communications, usability, and creative chaos… and working for Linden Lab.
On communicating quality in quantity
Some things can never be obvious enough, and at the same time, aggregating (some call me the “Aggregatorley” in addition to the “Watermelinden”) nets of yummy information and formalizing it into places like the Knowledge Base make help — finding the answers — easier for everyone.
Additionally, when we’re the Community Team as a whole, we’re responsible for the Second Opinion, our monthly newsletter. Watch for the December 2006 issue soon!
Communication is a neccesary, ongoing process — it never ends, and it needs to be done.
Communication’s needed so people don’t die, so things get done on time, so lovers grow in health + happiness.
In Second Life, communication’s also needed to actively show you we’re listening AND responding, and we treasure you being here with us. 
December 8th, 2006 at 3:43 PM
Sounds good. I also think Lindens should think about ‘deputizing’ resident trustees to help police the grid.
Moderavatars.
December 8th, 2006 at 3:54 PM
[...] (more…) [...]
December 8th, 2006 at 3:56 PM
I’m sorry Torley but it really doesnt feel like this lately, it feels more like LL would like to be a hosting company and completely ignore the community as much as possible or simply walked all over them every chance they get. This might not be the case and I know most of the lindens work like crazy to keep the grid up but it’s been a very painful few months.
The communications changes for the most part have been pretty good, you’re doing your best it seems to keep us much more informed than in the past and this is very much appreciated. I hope LL can learn from the past 6 months and put this “education” to good use in the future.
just a couple of notes
- Testing should not be done at the pub tuesday night
- Staying at the pub until 7am before hitting update button - bad idea
December 8th, 2006 at 3:58 PM
but but but …. now theres more than one kinda monkey ???? … personally and i mean no disrespect i always thought of the lindens as lindens and the livehelpers without the coveted popstar linden name as linden monkeys … you know the front end workers ( sorry lindens but i think ive only ever managed to get a conversation out of a linden in public chat ( not live help there lindens are numerous and talkative and sometimes even helpfull
) once since i joined … so i always thought of the helpers as the front end workers who did all the hard stuff in public while the lindens lived on mount olyumpus and fixed stuff with a wave of a magic lightening rod or something
anyway
we know theres always been a mishmash of lindens who comunicate through inworld announcements and through the blog during troubled times . nice to know we have a specific linden to pick on every week now … to the schedualing linden monkey … try not to have the same comm monkey on more than one update day shift .. the stress might be too much
my vote ( as a non paying no verified freebie moocher i cant actually vote but i can stand outside the school and tell people who i WOULD have voted ) another brilliant idea from the inner workings of the Big Turqoise hand machine !!!!!!! way to go guys ( and no there wasnt any sarcasim in there i promise )
Cookies for all monkeys new and old popstar and worker !!!!!!!
Suki
December 8th, 2006 at 4:10 PM
This is a great idea. Maybe it’s just me but it seems like the number and quality of blog posts has improved over the past week or two, esp with the updates on each issue until resolution. Then again I’m not exactly an old timer so maybe I’m just paying more attention…
Does the CommMonkey position cycle through the whole company or just the handful of lindens that are often involved in Resi communication? It would be quite interesting to have a week with one of the dev’s or backend guys to get their POV… alternatively perhaps a SL development blog? *shrug* don’t want to distract the devs too much though…
It’s good to see that you guys are keeping up and enhancing the policy of good communication, despite the many negative comments posted in the blog and on other sites. I’m sure the last week or so has been stressful with the various search/db issues, and it takes guts to keep facing the users in such a situation.
December 8th, 2006 at 4:20 PM
I’m still new to SL, but spent almost a year at WOW (world of warcraft). The issues here are slightly different than WOW, though there do seem to be a lot of similarities, such as problems occuring after patches are installed. Still trying to get any information out of Blizzard about problems on WOW was a real very difficult. They were very closed mouthed most of the time.
So thanks for all the hard work. I hope this all works out.
Charles
December 8th, 2006 at 4:33 PM
Thanks for the great intro Torley
December 8th, 2006 at 4:54 PM
Yer welcome, Jes!
Thanx for the comments!
As for some of the questions:
If you’ve noticed better communication over the last couple of months and heading into the future, YES, that’s *exactly* one point of having CommMonkeys. It cycles through every member of the Community Team, but we also have a growing number of Development personnel who blog here regularly and keep in touch with hot issues. For example, Which Linden’s recent post:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/12/06/focus-beta-refreshed/
He’s working on the usability-oriented Focus Beta and helping solve sim crashes, among other things!
And…
We’ve done things before like encouraged *all* Lindens to come and tag along (”shadow”) Liaisons inworld on the front lines. Nothin’ like turning on Live Help during grid issues to get a REAL FEEL for the heat!
Often, the tough thing is finding more time inworld just to *experience* problems. Historically, I’ve been a lighting rod for bugs, so I get hit by most of them. Obviously, I end up reporting them so they can be fixed, and sharing about them. Since I’ve primarily been working on things like the Knowledge Base and Blog, I haven’t been inworld as much as I’ve wanted to be lately, so I want this to change.
It was originally in the beginning, particularly from Robin and Jeska, that I learned about Linden values including “transparency” in regards to open communication.
Thanxies for the well wishes too, as tough as things get, I’m always reminded of the old adage: you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. So in tackling tough problems we acknowledge, whether we’re active as CommMonkeys or otherwise helping develop the community, we keep moving.
December 8th, 2006 at 4:55 PM
Sounds like progress, to be sure. It does, however, prompt me to share a thought with you about communication.
I took a workshop, or something .. dont really remember, one of those things the office periodically sends one to. Anyway, the single message I took away from the course was that communication does not happen until there is feedback.
This stood out so for me because it changed my internal definition of feedback. It was a sea-change for me. Feedback is not someone giving you their opinion of what you have done; feedback is someone saying “I heard and understood you.” (I’ve had a couple of this sort of verbal epiphony … one about the word “process”, but that is another story.)
Bottom line … until the person or group toward whom a message is directed has the opportunity to acknowledge that it has received and understood that message, communication has NOT happened.
Communication is not broadcasting information without affirming that the intended message was heard and understood by the target audience. Short of that feedback, one can only assume that a message was successfully delivered. And you know what they say about the word “assume”.
So, what I try very hard to remember is that communication only happens in a circle.
Unfortunately, there are precious few ways these day for anyone to say to LL “I heard and understood the message”. Hopefully this new effort on the part of LL will provide a better opportunity for “communication” to happen.
Thanks, and sorry. This got longer than I expected.
December 8th, 2006 at 4:59 PM
Jim, exactly.
This is personally, why I do my best to reply to the communication I get myself!
Lots happens most Residents never see — like our overflowing email inboxes full of ideas from *you* Residents, dialog we have inworld, and we’re planning on holding focused meetings for topics of fascination.
So what then? We gotta make it more visible.
I also make it a point to go out to Resi blogs and websites — peruse through topics brought up, and write emails and make comments of my own.
Now is a good time for me to emphasize many of our blog posts are in responses to Resi concerns, many questions that bubble up and stay fresh in our mind.
It’s gotta be a circle.
P.S. As we continue, I’d like to see more and more communication happen through Second Life itself.
December 8th, 2006 at 5:14 PM
this is actually good because lindens who don’t normally post get a chance to post and it helps big time to improve commcations with newer linden and what not very helpful for seeing other lindens that are around on the grid
keep up the comm monkey thing up its very good todo
December 8th, 2006 at 5:18 PM
Suggestion- Next to each linden’s name on the blog/forum/etc, is a live counter of how many emails they have recieved in the past 24hrs
The important thing is you guys are TRYING, and I think you have done a great job. SL still has bugs to work out re: scalability, griefing, database, etc but I think you guys have the right vision for SL regarding good communication with users and support of open source ideas.
It’s appreciated
December 8th, 2006 at 5:25 PM
Over time, I’ve seen a lot of things happen in SL, but from my perspective, Lindens are running around faster than ever. They may not (always) have time for a half hour boat tour anymore, or argue with me for lengthy periods about why things are not doable the way I want them, but I for one am still quite pleased with the in-world assistance, whether it be removal of simulated male body parts in a PG region, or filling up some old holes; they get the job done, and mostly in a timely manner too! You think that’s only because I’m old and know them all? Ask a longterm Linden and I’m sure s/he can tell you exactly why s/he thinks I’m not always likeable.
Now what to do with a CommMonkey? Looked for a CommonKey on my keyboard - must be a new feature, couldn’t find it, filed a bug report. Then thought of the not-so-honorable title of “commoner”, the class one belongs to before anybody becomes somebody. So the CommMonkey is Linden’s Key to the Commoners - or Resis, which in turn leads back to the Common Laboratory Species of Resis Macaque.
Apart from an ill-transcripted quote from the big boss (”If they actually had to work, they’d all quit!”), most Lindens actually do seem to care, Fledhyris. A better question is: Do Resis care enough to understand there’s more than one Resis who wants to be tickled by a Linden from time to time? Now y’all be good and make sure Jeska has something to communicate - but make it original, please!
December 8th, 2006 at 5:40 PM
Another point which I wish could be explained to some people a bit better- just because somebody disagrees with your suggested course of action or does not follow it does not mean that they personally dislike you or don’t care about what you have to say. Sadly, I think people either learn this in 7th grade or they don’t learn it at all…
December 8th, 2006 at 5:47 PM
Torley - Run next time they try to talk you into taking a patch week!
December 8th, 2006 at 5:51 PM
HAHA you know what Chris, I wish my Inbox contents were open to the public to peruse! Sadly it can’t be that way due to internal data which shall nevah see the light of day, but if it was possible, I’d go for it in a heartbeat. Or some way of “showing more of the process”.
Immediately, it reminds me of how some new Resis come to our world, and they see a freakin’ amazing build, and are like “WTH? HOW DID YOU MAKE THIS?” and it can be hard to grasp they’re composed out of basic shapes, unless… unless you see a video of the process!
Yukiko, exactly, there are a lot of great Lindens doing work who you guys hardly ever see, but they’re busy! I’m always thinking and doing new ways to show you what I, or my fellow Lindens, are working on.
Again, so often, you see the “end result”, but as a point of reference, I LOVE watching rapid graffiti artists *work their magic before their eyes*. I think that’s part of the spontaneous magic of being world… you can see me dance, and my arms moving tell you I’m typing!
Harald, haha that’s hilarious.
What also occurs to me is, issues which definitely were important at one time, in the future, fade, because there’s always new hot things coming up which need to be dealt with.
What’s really exciting to me is hearing viewpoints I’ve never ever considered before. I get bored easily, so that’s why working for Linden Lab in Second Life is great… new challenges in various combinations, one after another! And I’m not just referring to bugs or feature adds, but personal development and the live fabric of interaction we have here. Fresh culture.
December 8th, 2006 at 5:53 PM
LOLEX Storm, even if I run, it’ll catch up to me. I cannot escape my destiny, and plus, I love to help anyway. =^_^= Like the sound of thunder… oh speaking of, thx again for the Sound Prims… I’m hoping this weekend or next week if I get a breather, to really have a good sit-down-in-the-garden with them!
BTW, your blog banner rocks.
I love having multiple avatars… it’s my own “Torley Council”, or multiple viewpoints within myself of looking at a situation. And boy, some of those Torleys are cranky curmudgeons!
December 8th, 2006 at 7:43 PM
[...] great to work for Linden Lab ‘cuz it has… | Home 2006.12.08 @ 7:36 PM OMG Longrange performing a concert in Second Life! (So, this blog entry comes very late. I hate excuses, but I have a good excuse: work kept mebusy, and if you were following the Official Linden Blog, you’ll know why — SAY HELLO TO UR COMMMONKEY. [...]
December 8th, 2006 at 10:16 PM
/me is confused. What do we throw Jeska, watermelons or banannas?
December 8th, 2006 at 10:38 PM
Half this blog post didn’t make sence the other half made me just shake my head. I’m not a “Resis” I am a paying customer. As “cute” as that term might of sounded around the “love machine”, it’s not. Makes SL seem like a toy not a marketing tool. Make up your minds as how you want to be percieved by your customers then please let me know. To be frank; I’m getting a little tired of the cutsey stuff when all it seems to do is cover up the real issues.
December 8th, 2006 at 10:55 PM
awwwwwwwwww… i wanna be a commMonkey. That’s not fair
December 8th, 2006 at 11:15 PM
I remember the outrage back on Sims Online when, as an april fool’s “joke”, all characters ended up with a monkey head - and that was put down as a racial slur.
I don’t like that one little bit.
Neither do I like the ‘anonymity’ that goes behind this, anyone can do anything to you and you haven’t got a clue who to respond to.
Bad, bad idea. Again.
Broccoli
December 9th, 2006 at 12:26 AM
Hmm Read it twice and I suspect the fumes from the smoking servers are affecting some people, thanks for letting us know something about something anyway
December 9th, 2006 at 12:46 AM
comunication and/or information is the only thing known to man that can go from a simple to a complex.
Just a thought,
Lee Fonck
December 9th, 2006 at 2:04 AM
(”monkey” = racial slur? How so? I don’t get it! Maybe I just haven’t got that kind of mind)
Regardless of the name, it’s good to know that there are people dedicated to resident communications, who they are, what else they do, and that LL has a _system_ for covering communications. We’re starting to see in recent announcements that they’re starting to get organised in all kinds of areas. This is a GOOD THING. Passion and creativity are essential drivers, but all that energy has to be channelled to be effective.
For me all this is adding up to signals that SL will become more and more reliable.
(Maybe I should have waited until Wednesday before saying that?
December 9th, 2006 at 3:40 AM
Gryff, I don’t think I’m allowed to post relevant links as it may be considered that I am in some way endorsing that form of racist slur - but if you hit Google with the words “racial slur monkey” you will find relevant information.
I’m not convinced I do see better communication - the alternative interpretation of the SL logo of “Talk to the hand cos we ain’t listening” becomes more apparent with alarming regularity.
More and more we see meetings where residents are invited to share their input - which is promptly discarded because Linden Lab have already made their minds up, and only give the appearance of listening in order to tell us that “we had an opportunity” - regardless of the fact it it was merely a cosmetic exercise.
Broccoli
December 9th, 2006 at 4:14 AM
@Broccoli: Now googled - seems like mainly a US thing. Mostly doesn’t have the same connotation in the UK (though there seems to be some racist references in soccer crowds apparently - which I didn’t know before I looked it up). It’s only a slur if that was the intention and I’m sure that’s not the case here. I think it’s a shame that we can’t use words innocently because some idiots have misused them, and part of me thinks we _should_ use them to reclaim the English language from the racists. However, it shows you have to be careful just in case people get the wrong idea.
Even that connotation aside, it’s still mainly a perjorative term though, isn’t it? Now I don’t know what to think about it. Hmmm.
December 9th, 2006 at 7:30 AM
While I do value communication and knowing what is going on, there seems to be a larger issue at stake. People like to whine complain and tear down something rather than actually contribute anything worthwhile. You have experts that deal with the technical side of Linden Labs, and you should find an expert that deals in communicating and relating with the public.
I feel like I’m cutting my own throat here on this one. *I* value the level of transparency Linden Labs offers, but at the same time I see the problems it creates with Image. The more information you share, the more critical people are of you and what you do. If you think a solution is simple, you say so. If it turns out to be more complex, then you have to come back and say “It is taking us longer than we expected”. This is understandable, alot of simple seeming obstacles often wind up alot more complex and involved than we can see.
What you get though is the “KeyboardMonkey” ready and willing to pounce on every thing you say. The more information you share, the more they claim you are hiding things. The more you fix something, the more they complain you aren’t. Add a feature and they claim you are stifling the atmosphere of the game. In short, the more information you share, the more ammunition you feed these “NetRoaches”.
I’d like to be idealistic and think that the general good nature of people will naturally win in the end as long as you have faith. I suppose it works in movies, and we kind of expect life to BE that way. But I’m finding more and more that it doesn’t just magically happen. It has to be managed, it has to be made to work. Someone must deliberately set a goal and work toward that goal in order to make the general “good nature of people” actually work out.
In SL I hear residents complain all the time about the Lindens. It’s a punchline that everyone seems to have, its all “SL as usual” or “If the Lindens ever get thier stuff together”. I know the Lindens work hard. I know it isn’t easy, and nearly everything we do at Second Life has no real, relatable precedent. There’s no previous body of knowledge we can rely on to map out the course of the future. No previous model of success exists that can be direcly applied to what SL does. But what you have is alot of people working very hard for no pay to “rain on the parade”.
I’ve read replies, websites and articles that talk about how Linden Labs is all Promotion and no substance. How no one is really making any money. How Linden Labs Should Be Doing Things (all written, of course, by people who’s main expertise seems to be in whining, not building a Virtual World). But there isn’t much PR at Linden Labs, and maybe instead of passing around a Comm Monkey position, you might look into someone capable and willing to help polish the image of the Lindens.
People think that hard work and honesty are all that you need to make a good impression. But that isn’t true. Hard work and honesty make good impressions easier, but in the end you need Lindens sweating and getting dirty in the background while a clean and polished Linden tells people what is going on.
Bah, anyway, that is my “what the hell is everyone complaining about” complaint.
December 9th, 2006 at 8:49 AM
Xs, I know there are a number of critical people - but I wonder if anyone ever stopped to think that much of it is frustrating, because they care so much, about things going wrong?
Getting some of these people on board, involved in sharing their thoughts and suggestions on how to do things better - and actually implementing some of them - would be a great benefit to Linden Lab. I’m sure we can all name several people whose dedication for Second Life shows beyond any reasonable doubt that they are fully backing the concept of Second Life and all that it has the potential to be.
Instead, the reward they get for trying to help? They get foricbly silenced or ignored, under some vague interpretation of “trolling” which doesn’t seem to equate to the definition used by any other site on the internet..
Those that are here, still paying, despite all the problems, are the keenest and most dedicated players. After all, surely if they didn’t care, they’d have walked away a long time ago?
Broccoli
December 9th, 2006 at 8:52 AM
Yeah, well all i can say is give me Chadwick every time.
At least he(?) gave a constant coherent stream of information, no cheery BS, no totally false claims that things were fixed when they weren’t - just competent professional communication.
With someone like that as ‘Comm-Monkey’ (FFS! You people are UNBELIEVABLE!) we all knew what was happening, we DIDN’T feel like we were being BS’d, and we were able to TRUST the information we were recieving. Shame the rest of LL don’t adhere to similarly professional standards.
December 9th, 2006 at 2:15 PM
I do have to question what ‘channels’ this kind of thing has to go through to get approved… is there any actual oversight and responsibility, or do individual Lindens just dream up whatever Corporate Kool-Aid induced wackiness they can, and run with it?
This is a general question, not specifically primate related.
Broccoli
December 9th, 2006 at 6:22 PM
on the topic of linden liasons monkeys helpers and general linden interaction with SL folk …. one thing to say
YAYYYYYYYYYYY LINDENSSSSSSS
today we had an issue with a griefer who we had banned spam rezzing junk from the next sim over . we reported it and within 5 minutes had the beautiful amber linden right there with us to help out . so folks when its possible yup the liasons do come a runnin . just remember theres a couple of thousand of us online . statisticly about 30 or so should have a problem requiring a linden at any one time . so give them the benifit of your patience when you can . after all they do a job when the manage to get to you
on a side note .. to ALL LINDENS im starting a linden bear collection to rival some friends grim babies collection . all lindens please please pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee send your bear to suki usitnov in game . thank you
hands out bear shaped cookies to lindens and linden monkeys
Suki usitnov
December 10th, 2006 at 12:09 AM
Xs- one thing to keep in mind is that the resi’s that post here and on the forums etc is a small fraction of the total userbase. Also keep in mind that people are more likely to talk about something to complain than to praise. Thus I think reading these blog replies and stuff presents a skewed picture of the community, an above average percentage of unhappy people.
I think that they should certainly be careful with some wording (IE search- “we believe it is a minor database issue that we can clear up quickly” is 100% better “than search is down because of a minor database issue that will be gone tomorrow”). In other words don’t sound like promising something that isn’t for sure yet. But I think this is a minor issue, I appreciate all the info that’s given and the candor shown in giving it. Especially during an extended downtime, it is very helpful to know what exactly is going on, so those with some tech knowledge can understand the severity of the problem.
As for Linden’s PR issue- I really hope that if this gets addressed, whatever solution is decided upon comes nowhere near this blog. People may whine and complain, but we do appreciate not having our news run thru the ‘happy filter’ first. Besides, I think of the people who talk about ‘SL as usual’, very few of them are actually bitter about it. You can say something like that without feeling any ill towards LL…
Broccoli- few concepts about trolling in general. Not necessarily directed at you, these are for consideration.
1. it is possible to disagree with someone’s opinion or their suggested course of action without disliking them as a person or wanting to silence them. I strongly disagree with many of your viewpoints and I believe you would kill SL if put in charge of it. Note that I am referring to your opinions, not you. I think you are probably overall a good guy and I think you care about SL’s future. We just disagree on how that future should be reached and perhaps what it should be.
2. HOW you say something is just as important (if not more) as WHAT you are saying. You can offer the most useful of advice but if it’s not presented in a useful, respectful format it will be ignored. IE- “I disagree with how you are handling the situation, I believe you should ____” is more likely to be listened to than “You all are a bunch of drugged out morons, and your solutions suck. If you get your heads out of your a**es you would realize the only solution is ______”
3. Other people have opinions that may differ from your own. No single opinion or set thereof is any more valid than another- the only way to validate an opinion is to support it with factual evidence or experimentation. Furthermore, concepts which may appear blindingly obvious (or obviously correct) may be lost on or disagreed with by others. This does not mean the other opinion or user is inferior, just different.
4. Furthermore- you must keep an open mind. You must weigh the arguments of others on their own merits, and be open to the possibility that their argument is better than yours. You must also be open to the possibility that your opinions are wrong or the competing opinion is more effective. You don’t have to like it, just accept the possibility.
5. to effectively debate an issue and persuade others to share your opinions, you must understand and apply all of the above. When people present opinions you must treat them as such, and when they provide evidence you must address that evidence with evidence of your own in a clear, respectful manner.
If one doesn’t do the above and repeatedly restates their opinions in a angry or confrontational manner, they will appear as a troll. If one keeps angrily restating the same thing, he will appear as a troll. If one argues with another user without addressing any argument which might weaken their own, they may appear troll-like.
I believe the dude that got banned the other day (prok) didn’t do many of the above concepts, and that is why he was banned. I fully agree that he probably is a strong supporter of SL, and cares deeply about what happens to it. However I disagree with his opinions as to the nature and solutions to various problems, and I think he could have expressed himself in a much more constructive way. As for him being banned- I’m not sure I agree with it (I’m undecided on that) but I understand WHY he was banned.
As for the rest of it- lighten up guys. This is LL trying to improve company-user communication, which is IMHO always a plus. Who gives a crap what they call it or if monkeys isn’t a ‘professional sounding name’? LL sounds like a fun company to work at, is them letting that spill over into having some fun talking to users such a bad thing? Really…
And I had no idea there even was such a thing as a ‘linden bear’ (just google’d it). That’s the type of unique quirk that makes LL a fun company IMHO. I’m sure it’s not ‘professional’ or anything but it’s the type of thing that makes LL who they are.
And I’ll take it over watered-down (but very ‘professional’) happy happy press releases any day.
December 10th, 2006 at 1:23 AM
Um Chris…. look me up in world… I’m not a guy…
But going back to your other points, I guess I just prefer professionalism when dealing with people, and having cute pet names for us, or Lindens, just isn’t part of my expectations in dealing with a company. After all, if Second Life truly is the future of the internet, then do we really need it Disneyfied cutesy?
I have no problem with Linden collectable bears - but I think sometimes the “fun” aspect does get in the way of the professional opinion. Certainly, if I was a venture capitalist looking for something to invest in, the way Linden Lab presents itself certainly wouldn’t endear me to get involved.
Broccoli
December 10th, 2006 at 2:44 AM
Racial slur [rolls eyes], the same people who got Gollywogs banned and thought Noddy and
Big Ears were Gay [Not that there's anything wrong with that].
I’m beginning to wonder if Lindens actually exist.
I have heard rumours and stories from friends who claim to have met them,
but I have never seen one myself.
Some of you may understand that due to this attitude, I’m not religious.
Still… If one wants to come to my pub and give me a bear, well…
Maybe I might change my mind.
Wolfie!
December 10th, 2006 at 10:03 AM
Torley,
Since there seems to be a simian theme to Second life behind the scenes, would it be more correct to spell your nickname for us as rhesus rather than resis? There seems to be many parallels:
Wikipedia: The Rhesus Macaque is well known to science owing to its relatively easy upkeep in captivity
SL Residents: We’re trapped in here and can’t stay away and will take a lot of experimentation and keep coming back
Wikipedia:In January of 2000, the Rhesus Macaque became the first cloned primate with the birth of Tetra.
SL Residents: From seeing how many people turned into the default vatar recently, aren’t we really all clones of Ruth?
Wikipedia:Inhabiting arid, open areas, the Rhesus Macaque may be found in grasslands, woodlands, and in mountainous regions up to 2,500 metres in elevation.
SL Residents: Out ceiling for creation is 768 m, but we can go higher
Wikipedia: The Rhesus Macaque is noted for its tendency to move from rural to urban areas, SL Residents: This sounds like the tendency to build malls
Wikipedia: …coming to rely on handouts or refuse from humans. It has become a pest in some areas, perceived as a possible risk to public health and safety.
SL Residents: Sounds a lot like newbies with cage guns and asking for money to me.
Wikipedia: A diurnal animal, the Rhesus Macaque is both arboreal and terrestrial
SL Residents: up all times of night, some live in trees and/or skyboxes, some on the ground
Wikipedia: The monkey has specialized pouch-like cheeks, allowing it to temporarily horde its food. The gathered morsels are eaten sometime later, in safe surroundings.
SL Residents: Buy something, put it in your inventory. Rez it at home or in a sandbox.
Wikipedia: Mating is not confined to a specific season.
SL Residents: No comment really necessary here. Way too obvious!
There. Now we can feel to be a part of the Linden family ourselves.
Will someone please pass the mashed bananas and gravy?
December 10th, 2006 at 10:09 AM
/me applauds Xs & Chris (obviously — I wouldn’t be consistent with myself if I didn’t agree)
Chris, the issue here is almost always “form” vs. “content”. The ones yelling louder that the “Lindens never hear” are the ones that don’t understand that “yelling loud” is an unpolite form of conversation. The content may be even worth yelling for, but knowing how to present your thoughts in the proper form (the very subjective “constructive criticism” approach) gives much better results.
The usual example given is the following: if someone disagrees with you adamantly, are you willing to listen to the one that says:
“F**k ya , yer moron, yer a st00p1d a**h**e!!!”
or
“I’m sorry, I don’t agree with you, and here is the reason why: [...]”
In a civil society, almost always people will discard the first comment and at least be willing to answer the other, or perhaps just ignoring it — but never be angry at people disagreeing politely.
This is an old issue I have with some of the strongest opponents and critics of LL. They claim that the form is irrelevant and only the content matters. They also claim that trying to impose a specific form to voice their opinion is a restriction on their freedom of expression. Finally, they label “constructive criticism” as a weak form of criticism (ie. burning Linden effigies while yelling at the top of your lungs is usually considered a better approach than writing them a polite email explaining why one thinks they’re wrong and fundamenting that argument).
Now, I can’t make my “constructive criticism” on the way people choose to voice their complaints without sounding condescending, preposterous, or pompous. But what I can do is point out that a society based on polite exchange of opinions, where all opinions matter, is far more efficient in pinpointing issues and making them heard, than a rowdy crowd of people behaving like drunken hooligans after a match where their team lost and having just set a few cars on fire and smashing shop windows in the process.
Form matters as well as content; the best content, without proper form, gets lost and ignored in the process.
Does that apply to LL as well? Of course it does. I respect them much more for being willing to address serious issues — either technical or social ones — publicly, in a relatively neutral (but friendly!) tone, and let us know what is going on. Even taking Broccoli’s comment in mind — a venture capitalist (and LL surely has enough on board!) will be far likely prone to know what the issues are and how LL proposes publicly to address them, than being given the impression this is a) a far too rosy operation not to have any issues at all, and thus suspect; b) LL, by ignoring any issues and not acknowledging them publicly, might be hiding the real state of affairs.
What people don’t realise is that very often the “need for censorship” is most due to form and not to content. But then again — people know the rules and chose to abide by them or not…
December 11th, 2006 at 10:52 AM
Hi everyone, it’s Monday again!
* “Resi” is short for Resident”, like “Rez” is short for “Resolve”. (Parallels indeed!)
* I’m not the fondest of the CommMonkey term but I don’t mind it terribly, because I like mythology, and one of the famous simian characters in Chinese history is Sun Wukong, the Monkey King ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_King ). No racial slurs with that, he’s an honored character. But I assure you, Lindens are not a myth.
* I have my deadly serious moments but they get overlooked… GAWD WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE THINK I’M OVER-THE-TOP CHEERY!?!?
(Sooo surreal.) Nicer to be that than a jerk, tho.
Whatever gets done, there’ll always be people who complain.
Sometimes I do have to ask, “Okay, what can I say that’d make you happy?” but then people (myself included) become critical that… that would be pandering.
What’s dangerous then? Staying stagnant in an everchanging world.
December 11th, 2006 at 11:36 AM
Torley… “What’s dangerous then? Staying stagnant in an everchanging world.”
If there are new and better ways of doing something, yes - but sometimes picking “new ways of doing things for the sake of it” are worse than the old, tried and trusted ways. I’m aware Linden Lab is a “progressive company” with some… um… unusual management practices, which may actually be the source of some of the problems Second Life is having.
I appreciate you are “your happy self” … but not everyone appreciates that, especially when there are serious issues being addressed.
Broccoli
December 11th, 2006 at 12:26 PM
i quite like the fact that torley …. appears to be lacking a serious bone in his little avatar ( do avatars have bones ? medical research on SL should find out … som e griefers we could use as labrats ) . actually compared to other unmentional Lindens who give off an almost unapproachable air of * speak to me and ill smite the puny mortal * Torley is in my mind the perfect example of what a linden intouch with the comunity should be … calm happy polite patient ( on the exterior atleast .. bet Torley has a pretty banged up punch bag in his room by now ) and someone who i feel comfortable getting information from . heck he looked up a monkey thing so as to quell any disagreement about linden monkeys .
anyway to the point . the difficulty is in finding a balance between * plunging on into the deep dark abyss to explore strange new worlds and seek out new ways of making clothes appear realistic * and * no no no we arent gonna change this works fine what do we wanna change for everyones happy so what if its a little boring its safe * my humble little over exagerated opinion is that to the present day there has been some semblance of this balance . we all know that more often than not due to * whatever * reasons the new improved SL has fallen flat on its face . but guess what us irish made a couple of bad jabs at creating lepreacaun storys before we got it right . that said our lepracaun storys never caused serious emotional breakdowns ( or so ive heard some claim RE: recent snafus on SL ) im sure with time and patience and perhaps a good public flogging or two the lindens will find a simular balance that lasts . untill then to both lindens ( Simians and furrys and homosapians ) and to ( Torleys cool word of the day stay tuned for more ) resi`s everywhere … ill just finish my little rant with some latin . excuse the spelling if you please it may not be accurate . nill illegitimi carbeandum .. as this is a public blog i wont translate but anyone who is over 18 and would like the english version feel free to track me down in world
with cookies and bannas for simians and homospaians alike
Suki Usitnov
December 11th, 2006 at 3:08 PM
I agree that newer is not always better. But I’m sure you will agree that old things which are working can often be improved upon- just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t work better.
As for LL’s unusual corporate culture- I’d say (from what I’ve heard and read) that it sounds similar to Google, and we all know what a big failure they’ve been.
Besides, I don’t think you CAN invent something like SL without a very open and fun corporate culture- SL is a cutting edge idea that takes the blood sweat and tears of every developer that works on it; you don’t get that kind of dedication if you’re not making it fun, and without that kind of dedication you sure as hell couldn’t build SL with only 20 devs.
I think part of it (regarding communication) really depends on how you (reader, partially directed at broccoli) mentally approach things. If you see SL bugs as technical problems which will eventually get solved (and are generally pretty relaxed about life) then LL is an awesome company to deal with. If you get really worked up over certain things, then I could imagine they could be quite frustrating to deal with, as you are worked up and pissed off about an issue they appear to be unconcerned about. In reality I believe they are concerned and try hard to make it work, even if they may not be saying ‘oh s**t we f**ked up please forgive us oh mighty customers’ every other day.
As for Torley being serious/not- I think there is a distinction between happiness and seriousness, and one shouldn’t confuse the two. No reason why serious has to = unhappy or lacking a positive attitude. I agree with Suki that Torley has a good community-relations personality, although I can see why somebody like Broccoli would dislike the ‘always-happy’ style…
December 11th, 2006 at 4:16 PM
I am indeed happy and serious at the same time.
I am passionate and enthusiastic: I care because you do.
December 11th, 2006 at 11:39 PM
Chris… it’s true that I take life seriously, and expect a certain level of professionalism when dealing with certain matters - but that’s just me.
You’ll probably find I’m just as passionate about Second Life as Torley is, I just express it in a different way.
Broccoli
December 12th, 2006 at 6:40 AM
I believe it. It’s just a different personality style, and a different expectation of certain things. Different people react differently to a situation, nothing wrong with that
also if you didnt already, read my response to your post in the townhall thread
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