Where Have ALL the LIndens Gone

So Rod Humble has allegedly resigned as the CEO of Linden Lab, yet the Lab has yet to officially tell the SecondLife Community.

 

Phillip Rosendale, the creator of SecondLife is MIA (Missing In Action), reportedly working on a new virtual world. Phillip doesn't show on the Board of Directors of Linden Lab, yet I bet he still owns Linden Lab, that is a guess by the way, not a certainty.

 

Phillip doesn't show up in SecondLife people search, yet I can still find him in search.

 

 The Abuse Report system is broken and the griefers know it. Live Chat is pretty much a waste of time, they ALWAYS tell you to file an abuse report, I guess they read that information from a pre-prepared card. If you are lucky you will get connected to a decent Scout who actually knows what to do, but that is a rare occasion. Submit a support ticket and they will tell you to submit a Abuse Report, though to be fair, sometimes you do actually get a result.

 

So the big question is; where is ALL the money going that residents pour into SecondLife via tiers and spending within this shrinking virtual world.

 

Even though Phillip is MIA, he is still accountable for Linden Lab and SecondLife, make no mistake about that.

 

A bigger question is; "Can it be turned around", and the answer is "Yes it can", but at some cost to the Lab, and that is where the crunch comes in.

 

The majority of major companies found out the hard way that resourcing off-shore was a bad move and are slowly bringing business back home where it belongs. A person based in India, for example, has no idea what is happening at the front line, and whilst they may be cheap labour, cheap labour is no guarantee of quality service.

 

Everything comes down to how tight the outsourcing contract is, and if anyone actually keeps an eye on the performance of the off-shore workers. Clearly the Lab is not doing that.

 

How can this be solved? - Easily, with a little bit of good planning and improved management tactics.

 

Hire people who know about SecondLife, hire residents that have participated actively in this virtual world, people who know what is expected of sensible residents and can apply the terms of service fairly and without bias.

 

By all means hire all the tech specialists you need to keep SecondLife ticking along, but the front-line staff need to know about this virtual world.

 

If you read this Phillip, feel free to contact me.

 

I am in the SecondLife Register somewhere.

 

In the meantime, the residents of SecondLife are under siege from lack of solid community service and public relations from the Lab. Only time will tell if Linden Lab is serious about keeping this virtual world and rectifying the basic problems that have existed for a long time.