FIC – Ciaran Laval

The greatest trick the FIC ever pulled was convincing the world they did not exist.

There are rumblings afoot regarding just whom Linden Lab are talking to and trying to appease with some of their recent changes. Let’s take a look at the recent initiative to standardise clothing descriptions. In the blog post Linden Lab said :

In order to make this easier for shoppers, we have worked with Second Life content creators to define a way to clearly communicate this to customers.

This seems completely reasonable to me, but there is a concern regarding just whom these selected Second Life content creators are, prompting Sassy Romano to post a thread in the merchants forum : Commerceteam Linden and the secret meetings :

So, let me get this straight…

There was a “project” that merchants helped with (who?) yet not one single mention of this project or initiative mentioned here, in what should be considered one of the primary communication vehicles and now…

NOW… LL asks that all merchants standardise on the outcome of this covert project when they were all but nearly all excluded.

Here’s the thing, Sassy has a point. Why wasn’t this discussed in the merchants forum? Where was it discussed? Who were the merchants involved? Where’s the transparency? I have been one of the few who sees the merit in this initiative and I do think this sort of standardised labelling is a step in the right direction, but surely the discussion should have been made more public considering it’s an initiative that Linden Lab want the wider public to embrace.

Then there are the changes to the transaction history page, which some now suspect is being changed in the interests of some of Second Life’s most successful merchants.

Continue reading “Which Merchants Have Got Linden Lab’s Ear?”

The greatest trick the FIC ever pulled was convincing the world they didn’t exist.

The controversy over the Flickr redesign has revealed some very FIC like behaviour, that is if you believe the FIC exist. A discussion on what exactly the Feted Inner Core means can be found here at SLUniverse.

One of the feedback threads on the new redesign got a bit messy with accusations of paid shills and Flickr staff alts posting supportive feedback, you see this sort of thing happens on all forums and Flickr and Second Life forums are rather tame compared to other places, but wild conspiracy theories can rear their heads on both forums. As things got heated, Flickr staff updated the main post with:

“Since a select few in this thread seem to be having a tinfoil hat day, I want to emphasize that all posts by Flickr staff are clearly identified as such by a gray background and the staff tag underneath the buddy icon.

Flickr staff does not use alter egos to post. Even if there are many knowledgeable Flickr members that are willing to help by responding to questions and feedback, none of them are “Flickr staff in disguise”. Please treat each other respectfully.”

Some took umbrage at the tinfoil hat swipe, personally I found it amusing and if people are going to give Flickr stick over the redesign it’s only fair that Flickr staff can poke back at times. That should have been that, but a twist emerged when pictures emerged from a Flickr meetup in San Francisco, just prior to the rollout of the new site. Some of the most vociferous supporters of the changes are seen in the pictures….. oooh!

However that’s not all, some of them were certainly there by invitation from Flickr, although there’s no suggestion that Flickr paid for the trip.

Continue reading “The Flickr FIC?”