Ciaran Laval

There’s a new kid in town, Mark Kingdon is the new CEO the name is M, M Linden. Welcome Mark, may your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmas’ be white.

Mark apparently has a background in art and economics, he’s not a techie! Hurrah! The geeks won’t inherit earth, I keep telling people this. Mark Kingdon also penned this piece, which gives me great hope because he talks about listening to customers, good community relations and respecting the community. This may sound obvious but it’s something that in recent months Linden Lab have been guilty of ignoring on all three points. Read the rest of this entry »

Gwyneth Llewelyn is on strike, as part of the call for bloggers to strike in protest at Linden Lab’s trademark policy changes. This comes on the back of this petition.

The call to not blog comes after Linden Lab refused to respond properly to the concerns of residents. Noble as it may be, there are a couple of reasons why I won’t join this strike.

Firstly I have been on strike over my pension rights at work, it’s a big commitment and it costs you money. I feel that such a strike belittles the disputes that people go through. What harm does a blogger strike cause the individual? What sort of sacrifice are they making? Showing solidarity for a cause is all well and good, but this isn’t exactly showing great commitment to the cause, which runs much deeper than Linden Lab’s trademark policy. If people want to make a commitment to a worthy cause then tier down and show real commitment. Stop going inworld, make a real sacrifice.

Secondly I firmly believe that the pen is mightier than the sword. Petitions, complaints and blogging about the issue are much better avenues to protest this decision. Gwyn is highly respected by the Lindens, she’s the sort of resident they love, she agrees with a lot of their decisions and doesn’t shout or moan or gripe much, Gwyn is one of Second Life’s biggest cheerleaders. She would therefore be doing more for the cause by emailing Catherine Linden, writing blogs and putting forth her dismay.

Will Linden Lab cave in to Gwyn’s demands? Who knows, you don’t know from one day to the next what Linden Lab will do. Read the rest of this entry »

The new pricing structure for islands was unveiled yesterday. The blog comments started off with plenty of back slapping and then the land owners struck back.

“Hold on a minute”, they cried, “you’ve just cut the value of my land by around 40%.” There was much wailing and gnashing, those who hold land owners in low regard came crawling out of the woodwork. Those who view land as an evil empire that should be thwarted, those who own land were wondering when this world went from being one in which land ownership was championed to being one where land ownership is considered merely a service.

Today however Jack has responded, another blog will be forthcoming but Jack cleaned up the comments (which is good to see) and then he responded. Read the rest of this entry »

No it’s not easy but it’s almost daily now that we’re getting messages not to engage in transactions. The message is useful, the information is good, the problem is infuriating. All these messages mean less money coming in, less money to pay tier with, less faith in the platform.

There may be an issue with business not liking porn, not liking flying penises thrown at them, not liking griefers but I’ll tell you something now, business will be a lot more unhappy with crap performance.  This will be the number one concern for business, is it stable? The answer right now is a big fat NO!

Dear Linden Lab,

I apologise unreservedly for getting the wrong end of the stick regarding the aims and motivations of the Second Life Brand Center (even though it pains me not to type centre ).

There is no evil plot, there is no wish to silence the minions. This is standard practice for business partnerships the world over and I should know because I see brand partnerships every day of the week whilst at work.

Yours eating humble pie,

Ciaran Laval.

A new brand is in town, it’s a confusing brand but in yet another change policy now, explain it later move the powers that be have moved the goalposts on their trademark usage and introduced the Second Life brand.

People have 90 days to comply, what happens after 90 days I’m not sure but I have a copy of the old and much more straight forward guideines, the guidelines where users were told in simple terms how to use trademarks and logos. Indeed some of the old guidelines which appear to be no longer around are very different from the new policy, including using the trademark name and logo.

What is so difficult about prior consultation? Catherine Linden tells me they’ve given notice, there’s a ninety day sort yourself out period but, this is worded in a way that suggests only those sites that weren’t complying with the policy need to worry and yet, the new policy looks very different to the old policy. However, for a reminder of the fond and clear good old days, behind the cut is the old policy. Read the rest of this entry »

Exclusively revealed on Reuters Philip Rosedale is to step down as Linden Lab CEO. The enigmatic Mr Rosedale is moving sideways into a full time role at the company working on product development and strategy. Mitch Kapor is also moving sideways as Philip Rosedale is replacing him in some capacity, although Mitch Kapor will remain on the board.

On the official forums Robin Linden shocked everyone when she said “This decision doesn’t signal any changes other than Philip’s choice to focus on strategy and product while someone he chooses as his partner manages the operations and organizational growth.”

It wasn’t the statement that shocked everyone, it was Robin actually commenting, several regular participants on the forums were being told to take a sweet cup of tea with extra sugar and advised to take it easy for the rest of the evening.

On the blog Philip explains the change of job and attracts the masses to a blog in a way that no other Linden can manage.

As the Reuters report states, this isn’t unusual for startups. Indeed many are surprised that this hasn’t happened earlier. The question of course is where does it go from here? Is it down to the lake I fear … ohh hold on 80’s flashback moment, where was I?

Oh yes, what does the future hold? Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been here a year now. A year that has largely been fun, there have been changes, gnashing of teeth, embittered cries but largely it has been fun.

On the plus side I’ve met many people, discovered new techniques, started to script, launched a land rental business, seen glorious builds and been to too many clubs. I’ve met Lindens inworld and found them to be approachable and open. I have to pay particular tribute to Robin Linden because I frequent her office hours most and she’s always replied to me, no matter how hard time I give her from time to time and she does listen.

The new release candidate viewer and being able to display HTML inworld excites me. LL seem to be getting their act together on the customer service front with a whole array of customer service initiatives and concierge support has always been far above and beyond what I’d expect. Compare LL at the moment and their forward thinking drive with the guff coming out of fellow Californian company Ebay, who with their absurd feedback changes and their willingness to take money from sellers but then deliberately hamper their listings because they think they’re a bad seller and you’ll see that LL are on the up whilst Ebay are making a huge mess of gigantic proportions. LL are moving forward and onward, Ebay are digging a huge whole and it’s wonderful to see LL making this progress.

On the negative side I’ve seen strange policy decisions, been hit with VAT in the most awful manner (thankfully LL delayed the introduction), seen right through the extremely poor ID verification system. However the pro’s outweigh the cons.

There is however one area where I’m still befuddled and that is with regard to VAT. Yesterday I received a letter from the house of commons, it contained the usual information but I’m getting frustrated at the lack of understanding from the authorities. The legislation was introduced to remove an anomaly with VAT, however in the case of Second Life it has created this anomaly. However twice now I’ve received messages from the authorities that suggest that payments made entirely within a virtual world do not constitute services for tax purposes, which begs the question, why can’t pay tier in L$? Read the rest of this entry »

I must have missed the blog post that said classifieds were being removed as a category from search all. I can understand that there was an issue with classifieds not being ranked in a fair manner, for example the relevancy search wasn’t producing results by paid ad rank. However I don’t recall seeing the announcement.

The new search all really is making classifieds pretty meaningless for smaller players. The big guns can pay huge amounts and they deserve exposure for that, but for the middle to small guy, what’s the point in paying much more than a few hundred L$? I just can’t see the point in a mid range classified, I wonder if the big guns will catch on and drop their prices accordingly?

The pitchforks are out and the rabid mob are rampant. The monster is retreating and everyone is patting themselves on the back. Yes folks, ad farms are under attack and isn’t everyone happy! Three cheers for Van Helsing …I mean Jack Linden!

However, and it’s a big however, some of the self styled seekers of truth and justice are getting a little bit above their station. Waving their lit torches in the air they now turn to another target, bolstered by the strength of power they feel, they now want new blood and I mean new blood. Indeed, we’re in danger of creating a monster because now they want to inflict their world and their imagination on all of us, and I’m not exactly happy about it. Read the rest of this entry »