Ciaran Laval

April 21, 2011April 21, 2011

To Noob Or Not To Noob

There was a very interesting Community Tools User Group Meeting tonight, interesting because Amanda opened up the floor to brainstorming rather than going over old ground, which was nice. Quite a few suggestions were raised and there was discussion whether “Noob” is a derogatory term, I ony see it as derogatory when it’s used in a derogatory manner, which is usually when an experienced user is called a Noob by someone else, this happens in World Of Warcraft a lot!

However when it comes to retaining new users and helping them, we really need to start with looking at the new user experience and that means delving into basic mode in viewer 2, to be a noob, you have to become a noob …. or something like that! The issue with basic mode in viewer 2 is that it’s very basic, it also has some features that I think older residents would benefit from. However when it comes to ideas about new user orientation, people really need to understand how basic, basic mode is, there’s no inventory, no file menu, no Linden dollars!

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April 20, 2011April 20, 2011

The Power of Advertising

Rodvik’s Twittering has got tongues wagging, opened a dialogue and started to exemplify the reach of Twitter. The official @secondlife Twitter account has 22,862 followers as I type this. That figure could change during the course of this blog post, but not by much. Now some of those accounts will be dormant, many of them won’t see any official Tweets, but it gives a good idea of the potential for promoting Second Life on Twitter, because some people will retweet any initiatives, which then extends reach further.

This is low cost advertising, Twitter is free to use but there’s a cost implication with Linden Lab getting someone to Tweet, so it’s not a no cost operation, but it’s pretty damn low cost. Advertising is something Linden Lab don’t do well, some people find advertising a bit tacky, but it’s a cold hard reality that it needs to take place and Linden Lab need to open up their eyes not only to advertising initiatives of their own, but also of advertising via their customers, be that on the forums, blog sites, Twitter, Plurk ……. yes even bloody Facebook! Although the jury is out there with their silly no pseduonyms BS, but we’ll come to that later.

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April 19, 2011April 19, 2011

Rodvik Does Twitter

Rod Humble’s impromptu Twitter session last night will have delighted many, confused some, and left Scylla wondering what’s so good about Twitter! Mr Humble responded to quite a few tweets in the space of around an hour, Witchfinder General, Inara Pey, pushed Rodvik on basic mode in the new viewer and had praise for the new user signup process, in the end it was deemed we wouldn’t have to throw Rodvik in a river to see if he sank or swam, he took the feedback well and didn’t turn anyone into a frog.

Of course the big news was: “Aston Villa Avatars by default for all users confirmed ;)” … ha! Take that Stokey Suella Ember!

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April 16, 2011April 16, 2011

Events Forum Arrives, Web Classifieds Vanish

Two items to talk about, one potentially very good, one potentially not so good. Let’s start with the good, it appears that Linden Lab have finally started to listen to me and have introduced a new forum on the official forums, that is Events! Wait wait, didn’t they already have an Events forum? No, not quite, they have an Event Producers forum, which is a place to discuss best practices, the new Events forum looks like it’s a place for posting …. events!

Why is this good (besides it being my suggestion … which may make some wonder what LL are smoking!) well, it gives users another avenue to post events, it has the potential for people to find out more about events that are running and therefore find out more about the activities that take place in Second Life.

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April 15, 2011April 15, 2011

Protecting The Teens Is Stifling The Community

Yesterday I mentioned that Linden Lab’s intent to provide a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered (here on in abbreviated to LGBT) forum could be misconstrued because there was mention of the forum being private or age restricted. The people who were in favour of this forum, people such as Amanda, Lexie and Blondin are not homophobic, old fashioned or insensitive to the LGBT community, but someone at Linden Lab seems to have a book of moral code straight out of the 1950’s.

This isn’t just a problem for an LGBT forum, it’s an issue for events where music from John Lee Hooker could be problematic, it was problematic on the forum where Dick Van Dyke was a no no at one stage, it’s problematic on the Jira where you can’t tell someone a master and slave device gets a product flagged as adult, it’s problematic on the marketplace where the ridiculous no references to alcohol rule is listed, although I’m not sure it’s enforced. The latter is particularly absurd as World of Warcraft which is aimed at those thirteen upwards, has plenty of references to alcohol, so whomever it is at Linden Lab who lives in fear of sixteen year olds being exposed to such things, should be asking Blizzard why it doesn’t bother them one iota.

However the problem really isn’t to do with exteme moral thinking, it’s to do with laibilities and the teens, and the poor teens don’t deserve to be being used as a political football.

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