this is how I roll, come on ladies, it's time to go

Back to the grind--I mean, the Marketplace JIRA. From Meretriz Serenity:

I begin to think that Linden Lab has forgotten about this issue or does not seem to care. It is 2 weeks now and the problem still persists, nor has a statement been issued by Linden Lab.


This issue is a very major one and Marketplace need to be shut down and fixed properly, as what they are doing now is obviously not correcting the issue.


I am afraid to upload items now as I am not even certain if they will remain correct at all.

That was two days ago; still haven't heard anything new on what's going on to fix this.

I've answered this on another entry, but I think Sassy Romano gave a better answer:

Actually they have responded, just not in the right place. I hold no punches when saying that the Commerce Team are unbelievably poor at communication.
The response to this JIRA is buried in a forum thread here http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Marketplace-and-Direct-Delivery-Update/m-p/1462915/message-uid/1462915#U1462915


What is more annoying is that instead of commenting on their own forum post, this was merely an "edit" of an existing post so didn't show as a new update, nor was there a more up to date posted message to give any hint whatsoever that there was an update.


JIRA is for bugs, LL we give you details here, your response should also be HERE! By all means ADD to forum detail (not in place edit) but please stop making us play the game of "hunt the information". It doesn't help perpection, nor the solution.

This is the kind of thing that deeply bugs me, and makes me want to light things on fire and throw them out of sheer outrage. Not only did they not update ON THE JIRA; not only did they not update with a NEW ENTRY on the Community forums; but they tagged on a brief "update" of "thanks-everyone-we-got-this" on an OLD entry.

Do they not get how backhanded, how contemptuous that comes off as? Do they really not get how to communicate with clients and keep them up to date? Who are these people?!?

Sera Lok again:

It sure would be nice to hear from the Dev team or a liason to the Dev team about how and when these listings will be addressed.

Yes, yes it would.

I filed a customer support ticket last week and was directed here, so this is where everyone is looking to figure out what to do. Please let us know when these mixed up listings are going to be taken out of our stores or who we need to talk to to get our individual stores fixed; it's very frustrating to continually see someone else's listings in your own store, with your own pictures, and not be able to do anything about it.

Yes, yes it is.

ab Vanmoer:

There is a vast difference between poor communications and hiding one's head in the sand which is what the Commerce are doing because they are incapable of fixing the mess they have created.
Nevertheless as you have pointed out the Jira is for bugs not the forum, so, as we are unable to add further information or comment on the forum posting I have flagged it as "Inappropriate Content" with the following message:

This is the incorrect place for discussing bugs! The correct place is the Jira where many extremely frustrated merchants have listed the bugs and how they are affected by them. eg https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-4587 So instead of the Commerce team continuing to ignore the merchants, they need to update the Jira as the primary flow of information regarding these critical bugs. If desired, they can also reflect the fact that the Jira has been updated here.

Well done. Unfortunately, this will likely be either removed as an "inappropriate" post itself, or simply ignored.

I'm still having a problem loading Gawker pages in general, but this one was worth hitting the reload button on my browser seventeen times. Though I'm still baffled that any game has color values this...this...off.

What he seems to be saying is that the colors in moonlight are not the colors in daylight, and okay, most games blue- or green-shift to imitate darkness while still giving people ample light to actually see things with (it's the same trick used in movies and television shows, for the most part). But it doesn't stop there--DC Universe Online also seems to change its colors based on what city your character's in.

And that's that one that has me shaking my head. So, in Metropolis at noon, I could be wearing gold and red, but in Gotham at seven pm, I'll be wearing purple and brown? What? That doesn't even make sense!

There's a new technological advance that I both admire, and fear--it's called Silhouette, developed by IVN. I admire the fact that they've already patented this, which means they're committed to the technology and helping it develop. What bothers me is the distortion inherent in this 'virtual representation'--I'm not talking about the jittering white outline, which they say they're going to be eliminating as the technology develops, but the actual positioning of the avatar, as well as the scan.

• For instance, why does every avatar look as if their full body was shot from around the knees, looking up?
• Next, how does seeing what the other person, on the other side of the screen look like, help us with body language or other visual cues, if they're distorted so much everyone looks overly anxious, or overly arrogant, or both?
• How does this technology compensate for height?
• For that matter, how does this technology compensate for disability? I'm sure going from standing, to sitting in a chair might not be a problem (maybe), but what if you're in the chair to start with, and you can't get up?
• Ultimately, if you watch the video presentation, you see that everyone shown in the before and after images was standing against a white wall in a large empty room. Does this mean that this technology, like Kinect technology, requires a lack of other features in the room, AND the acquisition of a pure white surface? Because let's be honest--not everyone has either of those things.

Finally, we move to another topic entirely: more spam. This was another one I had to preserve.

What is an electronic cigaretet?

Wau, I really have no idea. Let's put that aside for a moment--the electronic part, I mean--and just concentrate on the cigaretet. What is a cigaretet?

The aprtyicular ecigariette--

Wait right there. The "aprtyicular"? Is that some sort of waterfowl? Possibly a flightless bird with hairy feathers?

--has been around lifetime for pretty much 36 monthhs which is an imaginative unit targeted at supplying cigarette smokers having a much healthiuer alternatives.

Trying to break this down without losing brain cells. It's difficult. So...

• electronic cigarettes have been around for "a lifetime"
• apparently "a lifetime" is now defined as thirty-six months
• they're imaginative things, these cigarettes
• they'll help smokers be "healthiuer"

Ooookay.

additionally beneficial in assisting to lessen as well as stop smoking completely.

Because not smoking at all is apparently too difficult for some people (it really is, I'm not just being sarcastic), but just sucking on an electronic replacement will fulfill the needs of that pesky nicotine addiction just fine.

Todayinside a last age group,

That didn't make any sense.

e cigareztetez are beccoming a lot more simple to use ocjpared

OH MY GOD LEARN TO SPELL

to previously versions that possibly have been a touch too big to promote a mass market place charm.

Wait, how big were previous versions of the electronic cigarette? Really, that big? Yeah, any time your cigarette is longer than your face is tall, it's likely not going to thrill your customers.

Your "mini" is among the most reasobaable

what are you saaaaaayyyyyinnnnnng....

electcxronic cigauertte to date using its duration of 100mm becoming excatly like a normal cigaurettse.

Um. So, 100mm for the uninitiated would be...That's, like, almost four inches? Give or take? Or roughly the length of my iPod?

That's still on the big side for a cigarette, isn't it?

An electronic cigarette includes a tastes involving cigarettes but none of them from the dangerous materials within regular smokes

Right, that's...kind of the point...

making it possible or smokers esires

Bwuh??

to become happy with oit inhaling and exhyaling the numerous dangerous toxins.

I, too, would like to become happy with oit. How do I track down oit?

Would it be almost all smoking and showcases?

As I'm not sure what you mean, I can't answer that.

As well as may this particular product be thhe actual saviour the idea would like to be?

I still have no idea what you mean.

Battery power, a good atomiser plus a geren pure nicotine slot progided

Geren pure? What's geren pure?

allows thhe particular smoker ot support sa

And don't we all, deep down, want support sa?

well as light up the particular e-cigarettye

Now you're just making words up.

equally ass they might some other icg,

What's an ICG? Also, this "equally ass" you're asking for, I don't think that's actually what you want.

also making a "smoke" such as fumes along with shine towarsd the end since they pull.

I do not know what you meaaaaan....

The particular pure nicotine step demonstraates very helpful

I thought electronic cigarettes only had nicotine flavoring, not actual nicotine?

while cardidges are available in varioud talents,

I was going to ask, but on second thought, I don't want to know what "varioud talents" are.

allowing the user to relieve the volume of smokiingthese peoplke

NO. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SMOKE PEOPLE. STOP IT.

intake until hwen they would like, may cease uflly.

Uh...okay, then. Putting aside what "ceasing uffly" is...yeah. That...made no sense.

Seriously, spammers. If you can't even spell, you can't get your point across. That, and scattering comments with embedded URLs in BB code throughout blogs that don't support BB code is worse than useless. Why are you even bothering?

was it nothing but anecdote that you can tell now and then?

There are some very sharp points made in Extra Credits' latest video on working conditions in the videogame industry, and I think a lot of them gain added depth when we're thinking of Linden Lab and Second Life.

There's also some very pointed reasoning behind Shamus Young's diatribe against Netflix, and all of them I wholly agree with.

And there is now evidence that early humans lived as far back as 400,000 years ago. (And yes, that's a fossilized molar at the top of the article).

Here's Tor Books' list of the ten greatest, smallest moments in Doctor Who (nearly exclusively, barring very narrow references, dealing with the newest members of the show). It's an impressive list of gut-wrenching, gloriously precise, small moments where the world turned on a word...or a look...or an embrace. Why we're fans, after all: because we get the pathos involved. (Also, this reblogged from the Tumblr of one of my favorite artists for great truth.)

I also want to touch on briefly what's happening at DC Universe Online today. This from one of their producers (ironically named "DeadMeat"):

"As folks have seen we have had some major issues today keeping our US Servers up and running. We are working very hard to correct the problem and we will be keeping the servers down until we can deploy new software to help us fix the issues. The response to our new Free to Play model has been overwhelming (literally) and we are very excited about all the new players in the game. We are working hard to make sure DC Universe Online is the best experience possible."

He updated that half an hour ago with this:

"Update from DCUO Exec. Producer: 'We will be reopening the server soon. Although we do not have a fix yet for this problem we have added additional code to try and catch and diagnose the problem. I apologize in advance if we crash again, but know that the information we get will help to make sure we solve this problem as quickly as possible.'"

So let me get this straight. After a few months of nigh-insane hype, so many people signed up to try out the new Free-to-Play model on the block that they crashed the servers, and DCUO doesn't have a clue how to fix it so far.

I'm wondering how many coders for Champions and City of Heroes laughed themselves ill at this development. Possibly even sent condolences and bouquets. Mayhap even cards: Thank you for that huge sigh of relief, knowing you won't be a threat to our games. Get well soon.

Back to the last names JIRA, covered earlier. We stopped a bit before here:

The current choice of "resident" is not merely confusing, but no doubt unintentionaly demeaning.

Spelling not corrected, and yes.

I really feel like it does create a "them" and "us" kind of feeling between newer residents and the older ones. I recall the video where Torley talks about being able to use display names to fix the "oops" of making an initial account name like Xbobwuzhere67372X, and now with all the first names being used up, they are creating the same scenario where [users] HAVE to make those kinds of names now even if they just simply wanted to be Bob. At least with the last names, you could have 10 Bob's running around but all with different last names.

And frankly, let's be honest, no one seems to take a "resident" seriously. Are they an alt? Are they really new? I hear a lot of comments like "Oh.. its a Resident... never-mind".

Spelling corrected for one word; as originally written, it was "uses", not "users". But again, this is exactly what I've been saying.

Either bring back the list of surnames to choose from, or let us insert a last name of our choice, or maybe do both. I.e. the new user creating an account would get a choice to select from a list of premade surnames, OR to type in a surname he likes.

Either way, bring back surnames.

This also seems to be the prevalent opinion.

Being stuck with the surname "Resident" is just naff. Not to mention the issues with scripting and information management that were expounded when the idea was first floated, but duly ignored.

There's a lot of scripting out there that requires firstname.lastname constructions, which is why people on viewer 2-structured clients don't see "Resident" as a last name, and people not on the viewer 2 structure do. Even Linden-level scripting still requires firstname.lastname. (And, as previously stated, it always will until and unless the Lindens recode the Legacy system entirely.)

Display names are not last names. I hate display names because they leave people open to take another resident's name. "Resident" is not a last name, and all this leads to is people calling themselves Joe8375 and such nonsense because they can't have the first name they would like.

The issue of theft of identity also seems to be a concern with many residents. And there's nothing that stops anyone from doing precisely that with display names save the Lindens themselves; and by their example, they're proving the code is in place for them to repress certain names on a grid-wide level.

Unfortunately, so far they've only done that to prevent people terming themselves as "Suzy Linden", say, in a display name...so once again, the Lindens benefit from a restriction that is denied to everyone else.

LL claims that the Firstname Lastname convention was an obstacle for first-time users to sign up.

I think it's easy to show this can't be true: In 2006-2007 there was a huge surge in new users.
The naming convention wasn't an obstacle back then, why would it be an obstacle now?

I would say the Username Resident convention is a bigger obstacle, not being able to find a decent available username.

It is a bigger obstacle now, and it wasn't a major obstacle then; it just required a bit of finesse to find the "right" name--or at least, the name one could cope with when making up that first avatar.

Give folks the option to create a name, first and last, for their AV. LL, you have, inadvertantly, one hopes, created an SL class distinction by tagging every new member as Resident. Stop it! Options are a wonderful thing.

and

The new system without surnames makes it harder for new people to make accounts with unique usernames that aren't taken already. Instead of seeing avatars with names like "John Smith", "John Hammer", or "John Black", we have names like "John85673", "John85674" and "John85675" which makes it more challenging to differentiate one John from another.

No one should have to live with the stigma of looking like an AOL handle.

and

it difficult distinguishing avatars from one another when you see susie1592 and susie1952

all pretty much say the same thing.

I have to agree with the other posts here. The removal of the menu of last names, replacing it with "Resident" cuts part of the creative process of Second Life away. Being able to create a first name to go with a last name you found you liked was a big step in creating who you become in world. Cutting that step out of the creation process makes all names appear generic and dare I say, cheap. We may as well be honest, this digital world is anything but cheap, and even our name choices should reflect that. Let us have back the rights to being creative with our names as much as we are our images.

Ah, but remember, with the arrival of mesh, if we want to fit the rigged avatars, we have to conform our shapes to standard shapes. So--unless that option gets fixed--soon we'll all be clones anyway.

I guess then it won't matter if everyone's got a number over their heads, will it? It's not like you'll be able to tell who anyone is when we all look exactly the same.

People end up with these dumb names like Amber897 just because you want the first name Amber. It is really to the point you can just about type any first name in the world and the response is that that name is already taken, It has taken a lot of the fun out of making an avatar.

I grant you, avatar creation was never exactly thrill-a-minute, but it wasn't soul-crushing. Now, it seems to be. That seems like a pretty major shift in perception. I'm also thinking about how many people are coming into SL, hitting the 'Resident' barricade, and asking around for people who have alts they're not using to sell them one. Forget the selling angle: profit isn't the point here. But considering that very action is against the Lindens' stated Terms of Service, anyone who feels that's the better option is sacrificing a potential future ban against the altar of not feeling that wave of mistrust and dismissal when first entering the game. Being permanently banned for using an avatar that someone else made is less repellent than walking in under the Resident name for people.

The Lindens should really think about that one, long and hard.

And this comment really deserves to be read in its entirety. That is exactly what I'm talking about on this issue.

This is one of those cases where saying "Linden Lab has more important things to focus on" makes sense.

This is one of those rare dissenting opinions so far, and while I also agree with what they're saying, I also know, beyond any shadow of any doubt, that the Lindens WON'T focus on those things without the servers actually, physically, catching fire. This is precisely the level of nonsense they will spend time on--ESPECIALLY if they think it gives Second Life a bad name.

And it does, Lindens. It so does. It adds discrimination and social rejection to a game that had those things already, but only for minority groups. (Note: I'm not saying that popular rejection of furs, robots, constructs, or supernatural creatures is a good thing, either. But at this point, the avatar walking into the welcome area can be tanned, blonde, long-legged, and dressed in the most current, stylish outfit imaginable, in the current top-of-the-line skin, and people will still see the "Resident" over the name and back away. While it never made sense to me, at least there was that sense of difference between the bronzed beach bunny with the tousled Truth hair and the actual bunny on the beach with paws. It's still discrimination, and it's still wrong, but at least there was something OTHER THAN A NAME one could point to. Now? It doesn't matter what they look like. It doesn't matter how well they behave. It doesn't even matter how well they type--they are marked, they are Residents, and large sections of the grid shun them for that alone.)

I would like last names back because I feel it is part of what makes SL such a great community. Plus it is hard to contact people who feel that their display name should be their username, and will fill it out on forms, making it difficult to find them in search.

And this one's HUGE. I can't count the number of times when working in customer support that I had to search seven or eight different ways, check actual land purchases, and pore over each of thirty sims with a fine-toothed comb before finding some nitwit who'd filled in her display name instead of her given, SL, Resident-based name. Personally, I have no issue if someone wants to be Princess Melodrama the 92nd, if your name is Sissily7509, then write that down. Search is hard enough without you making it harder.

More later.