I have not updated since the Coup d’Réseau.
I also have not been spending much time inworld. The reasons are personal, and they don’t involve any one person, or group, or any drama. I’ve been in need of some quiet time, and I’ve been finding it in RL. I haven’t been able to find that same quiet space in Second Life, and I’m not exactly sure how to resolve the problem. Alts provide solace – at the cost of self-identity and, more importantly, inventory considerations.
I am pleased to hear Phillip Linden voicing a return to basics, acknowledging that Second Life is not a competitor to Facebook, turning back the rush to a browser-based viewer, and making the grid work for the number of active residents that it has now. It is nice to feel as though the things that we’ve been screaming about for what seems forever are possibly falling on listening ears. It has also been refreshing to hear someone at the top admit that things aren’t working, and that mistakes have been made. Most of all, the candid admission that residents have not been happy with all of the changes that have been forced on them. Some have said, “Yes, well, they’ve said all of this before and nothing was changed then.” And this is true, and a reason why my optimism is guarded. But I do believe that things are genuinely different now – this is a make-or-break time for Second Life and Linden Lab. Alternatives to SL are popping up all over, and some people have been so disenfranchised under the reign of M that they have been willing to put up with the burps and glitches of the reverse-engineered OpenSimulator systems, simply to regain some of the sense of genuine community that Second Life once promised.
