Alexa Linden Should be Next to Go Overboard

Dusan Writer claims there is a war in Linden Lab. Well, there always has been, really, between the overwhelming majority of devs and the tiny percentage of suits or community managers. That coefficient is now changing, we're told, but it's still war.

The degree to which the coders feel under fire these days from new Linden policies is evident not only in their increasing self-referential cockyness, which has become dangerously unhinged from reality, but from their strained and neuralgic nearly paranoic response to simple questions.

Rob Linden is gone, and that's a good thing. Watching the encomiums to him on SL-Dev (the coders' dev list, not the SP list) is sick-making, but also helps out all the fanboyz and problems. If Gigs Taggart is sobbing, we know: mission accomplished. Yet if he is still chortling on one of those test grids named after Hindu gods with the other Lindens that will merely replace Rob accomplishing the same aid and comfort to opensource extremists, then we know the fight is not over.

Of course, we now have the distinctly unpleasant prospect before us that looks something like the Balkans or one of the stans -- communist federalist power being overthrown by various creepy or fascistic nationalisms. Make common cause with the one against the other, and you'll likely end up a statistic. It's hard -- and slow -- to get rid of centralized communism *without* nationalisms, but it's hard to make them a temporary expedient. That's roughly where we are with something like Marketing going after the Code Cave now. Not a pretty sight. These new Marketing Lindens are a horror in their own right, as they are cynical (at least some of the coders are idealists, and that means you can work with them) and power-hungry (at least some of the coders were humble and you could work with that). Even so, one has to try to steer the fight for civility and freedom in the Metaverse through these troubled waters.

Now that Rob is gone, and his replacement will have to be able to perform even more squarings of the circle than he did with the opensource program fitting within a corporate context, there is still what you might call the Triage Lindens. They're awful, and they have their paws quite firmly on the features set of SL which they achieve through "the tyranny who shows up" for their bug triage meetings -- usually an excuse for opensource extremists to use their technical knowledge to push through various changes to the viewer that benefit the copyleftist class. These Triage Lindens include Soft, Alexa, Rodney, Q and others -- I now boycott Linden office hours as a matter of principle again while they maintain the corporativist SL Work Marketplace -- so you may have more information.

The fact that these people are seen as a problem not only by me but even by their fellow coders is witnessed with the formation of a group, which while sycophantic and fanboyish with its "We Love Lindenz!" monograms, is still basically finding fault with the way the triage is happening. Community Triage, search using PG and M both checked, is run EddyFragment Robonaught. He saw me at a Frogg concert and asked me to join his group. When I found that it was heavily moderated, and you couldn't swear and such, I declined. But if you are a moderate fanboy of office hours, and not a total symp, perhaps this group is for you. Robonaught feels strongly that the JIRA and the triage needs reform, but he is a perestroika liberal, i.e. wanting to move cautiously and slowly with incremental steps in collaboration with Lindens who in fact are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

There's Soft Linden, of course, whom I've blogged about before with passion as one of the horrid ideologues of copyleftism and collectivism posing as rugged individualism. I see now this freak has a panegyric to Italo Calvino on his profile. Sigh. I mean, read it, it's priceless. The boy Cosimo who leaves the world to live in a utopia, and makes up his own rules. Perfect fable for extremist extropian coders, eh? Calvino was a Eurocommunist (his father was a follower of Kropotkin) who got off the boat on the 1956 invasion of Hungary -- but once a communist, always a communist, even if "reformed". He's now to serve as the hero of little sandbox foxes hogging the features set in SL in our time lol. But my bet is that Soft will weather any purges made by the Alphabet Suits because of what he will style as his keen native intellect but which is actually better described as his finely-honed survivalist cunning.

But now there's Alexa Linden. Alexa has played bagman for the Stallmanite faction on the P-JIRA for ages, being the one to comment such as to close, or actually close many a proposal and to enlist G-team to police malcontents and dissidents. Alexa sometimes sounds thoughtful, but that's only a temporary ruse to get her way down the line. BTW, with both Soft and Alexa were're supposed to say "she" but they are both likely "he" -- but who the hell knows, so I'll distribute their genders randomly.

Alexa has now blatantly, publicly, and thoroughly violated the Tao of Linden, speaking in a hugely snotty and critical way about the anticipated viewer design changes in what she evidently thought was the "privacy" of her fanboyz base in the Battery Street Irregulars, a group of furs who chafe at the fact that the iterations of SL are tested not on the actual live grid all the time where they could see more stuff blow up and crash, but on various beta grids.

The Herald has rushed to publish it -- and that's one of my rare for-the-sake-of-public-interest-only links to this scurrilous harbourer of copybotters -- make sure your virus protection is on.

What's breath-taking about this dissent isn't that it is dissent -- one would like to think that it's ok to disagree with your bosses at the Lab and have all kinds of fun collaborative discussions that only result in Love Machine taps.

No, what's gaspingly amazing is that Alexa takes on the same snotty, knowier-than-thou condescending bullshit tone of the IRC channel and the office triage that she takes with fellow coders (they are always particularly nasty to each other, always with the STFU and patch or GTFO, etc.) *about other Lindens*.

In my experience, Lindens just never do that. They may slightly roll their eyes *just a tad* at the antics of this or that Linden whose behaviour is riotously terrible, but they never break ranks. This is krugovaya poruka or what is called "defending the honour of the regiment".

That is, her diatribe on the viewer here is a direct, Exocet-missile hit against the marketing Lindens ported over by M Linden from Organic or cribbed from McKinsey in order to make this new "webfortable" viewer as Khamon inimitably called it. Duck duck quack quack, we're webfortable!

Imagine. I mean, you don't talk to people at work like that -- or about them, because it eventually gets out. Even people hired only for short durations, if that's the case (that's how originally they did the Navigation and Landmarks project, which unfortunately is bleeding into a lot of the current thinking even having been killed off once).

The unnecessary nastiness, which is perfect for my blog and even necessary in a democratic society for political debate, is out of place in a work situation which is supposed to be conditioned on a collaborative spirit. When the language and nasty memos get this loud and possibly even deliberately leaked by the writer in a false sense of imperviousness, usually somebody is heading for "separation". I think we'll see Alexa thrown overboard next.

I'm not even going to get in to what she is saying. A lot of it is jargonistic and deliberately knowier-than-thou referencing various programs and supposed "what we like to call the RIGHT way" thinking of programmers. All of that may indeed be crap, and the Marketing pukes may indeed be right to take all that out. We'll have to see. Or Alexa may actually be right on some things, for the wrong reasons. Or even the right reasons. But her premise is not -- "30 years of doing it this way" isn't an argument that revolutionary new platforms can make. It's Web 1.0 founding-fathers' syndrome and it has to go.

We've long waited for the normal people to show up at Linden Lab and overthrow the geeky and retarded (because not user-friendly) viewer design decisions. Now they're here. Unfortunately, we can't wish them too well as they will mess up the viewer, too, out of idiocy and greed, but on the way, they may knock out some of the geek annoyances and eventually, mindful of the bottom line, might be amenable to revisions and rollbacks.

Meanwhile, set the Triage Lindens in your sites. Challenge them. Show up at the Office Hours. Overthrow the fanboyz like Gigs and Gordon and Gareth and all the other Gs.

Comments

[Darien Caldwell]

I read the Herald Article, and I'm not sure it's Alexa actually saying all that, but rather some notes she received from someone else on what *they* thought of the Viewer 2.0. But there is no real way to tell.

Whoever it is, they seem to agree the 2.0 Viewer's interface is woefully lacking, even in comparison to the current viewer. But their references to ICQ being the be-all-end-all of Chat is rather short sighted in my opinion. Much of the conventions used by established applications were formulated much earlier on.

And LL seems intent on breaking as many of those conventions as they can. I suppose they think they will make something groundbreaking and better. But this is the hubris, you can't change basic human interface, or basic human nature.

[melponeme_k]

Oh there is a war alright. But it is an old war and it's genesis was all RL. It made the leap into the virtual because we did.

One of the purposes of SL was to remake us. To guide us into a world based on alternative social ideas of the past 20th century. So we had open source and other ideologies foisted on us. I suppose everyone thought that inherent rightness of all these things would be self evident and we would all change. Its the story of all mass movements, especially political.

But that isn't what happened. Instead we the guinea pigs changed them.

The company now is going through deep disillusionment, as the old world changers are sloughed off and profiteers move in. I suppose profiteers are easier to live with, as long as they don't run off in a senseless direction.

I'm kind of tired of being inside someone's head game. Do you think by the time VR worlds find their place, all of us will long be burnt out by the process? I can't see myself doing this VR thing for that long.

[Steam Bunjie]

Both you and second life herald have posted the group has baby furs or has something baby fur.

I have been into Second Life just to find out.

1. You and me both have friends in that group.

Mines Brandon Shinobu

Yours is Ann Otoole?

2. Mine says he knows of no baby furs in it, or anything baby fur related.

I really would like to know were both you and second life herald get that idea, maybe you can do a follow up post so we can have more information on who's a baby fur in that group?

I also dont really see the relevance baby fur has to bug testing, unless you mean because she supposed to have posted a long winded "baby fur" drama type rant.

FYI I have nothing against baby furs, so any new comments please deal with facts and not fiction.

[cube inada]

i hope so. mel.
i hope the lessons are now learned outside of the few of us who witnessed this cult from the inside for decades.

and of course now read Phillips new company come one.

who can comment on it? :)

remember, the early vr money and thought leaders were mormons, born agains, and transhumanists....

I couldnt even get the scientologists to bite..in the 90s..lol

c3

[Prokofy Neva]

1. Even if Alexa herself "didn't actually say that" and is "distributing other people's notes," the memo comes with her authorship, and she takes responsibility for the contents. It's a dodge to say otherwise.

2. References to ICQ or whatever their geeky little hearts are attached to are irrelevant. Ask users. And again, ask users, and get these people out of the way, they are not users except in the other sense of exploiters. Get real users.

3. Regarding furries, these Lindens themselves are furries and furries are common among these script kiddies. It's not a comment on some specific group. It's a generic. Is Ann Otoole a furry? God love a duck. Well, she's a scripter/coder too, makes sense.

4. Babyfurs are an infestation on the grid. Each to his own but a) do not flood the public commons with it b) do not try to grab the entire tool set with it.

5. Yes, I saw Philip's new website. Well, like somebody said, i-phone apps and raising goats, that's the thing these days. Hope you like goat cheese.

[melponeme_k]

"i hope the lessons are now learned outside of the few of us who witnessed this cult from the inside for decades."

Everyone knows..but it still goes on. Because the group drops whatever doesn't work out for them and moves on to pushing the next pipe dream. They are like Dung Beetles.

[Qie Niangao]

The lines of "===" presumably separate different contributors to the original mailing.

You'll note that some first names appeared in the text, so it's not necessary to guess who provided some of the feedback.

The email printed in the Herald was followed twenty minutes later by a "please disregard" email from Alexa, and another two hours later by a strongly expressed request that it not be distributed. So Alexa's role in the memo is that of clumsy collator (at least on the surface).

It's slightly amazing that it all didn't leak for more than a week. The BSI list isn't all that exclusive, and those recipients not in the 2.0 trial are not bound by NDA.

The fact that it went undisclosed for ten days makes it interesting to speculate about why it leaked when it did.

Could it indeed have come from a Linden? For example, could Alexa's accident not have been so accidental, and she eventually grew impatient with BSI's bovine compliance with her request not to distribute?

There have been rumblings on SLDEV about the secrecy of the 2.0 source branch. Pretty understandable if you're coding with imposed ignorance of what parts of the codebase are already obsolete in another branch. Did a frustrated open source dev finally get fed up?

Now LL-watchers await the spin after this disclosure, and whether the 2.0 kimono will open a bit.

[AnnOtooleInSL]

Sorry to disappoint but no furry here. Generally I take human form a tad to the dark side. Although I do make various weird avatars. I made a reptilian avatar. Perhaps the "Alphabet Suits" should be wearing that one eh?

As for the group if you are talking the battery street irregulars group that group is for letting people know when a nightly build is ready for testing. Some of us really do take the time, at our own expense and risk to our inventory, to test and try to put up blocks before an economy busting defect laden viewer is unleashed on the unsuspecting residency.

I haven't heard anything out of that group for a very long time. Ever since Linden Lab closed source (yes they did. You can't download that source can you?) and closed testing to only people they select and apparently pay real dollars for testing the new client. I was not selected to be in the new elite inner core.

I suppose LL could kill off that group now since it apparently no longer serves any purpose. Other than a place for "accidents" to happen like that now legendary email of viewer 2oh feedback.

[DT]

The email distributed contains summaries from resident testers, like me. Part of it is mine in fact.

It is not Alexa's text.

[DT]

No one payed to test the new client.

They simply sent out a notice to BSI, asking who wanted to. Everyone had a chance to apply. It was completely open.

[LeVey Palou]

I remember their profiles. Soft looks like captain caveman and alexa is a punk rocker chic, faux hawk and guitar sportin. So yes their genders are correct.

Most Lindens converse in that damn lolspeak which would drive anyone apeshit to read. Your citing of GTFO and STFU are mild to some conversations which occur on company time.

I think my two favorite behind the scenes lindens are Which and oskar. Which Linden could be the next Dr. who look alike and was always injecting quirky "this could be the future" snippets and Oskar I met at an open house. He came into SL without any prior inworld experience and not subject to the elitism, though since he has been there almost a year that could have changed.

just opinion but its mine.

[AnnOtooleInSL]

Well DT you are a speaking untruths. I received the notice offering paid testing in which they also stated they did not know how much they would pay. And I applied. And I am not the only one who never heard back. Now run along back to your bamboo plant at the lab and stop spreading LL disinformation.

And nice fake name there DT. Since you will not use a real name everyone can simply write off anything you post as bullshit.

[DT]

They only accepted ten people.

[DT]

"And nice fake name there DT. Since you will not use a real name everyone can simply write off anything you post as bullshit."

I'm just not an attention whore like you.

[Prokofy Neva]

DT, you are a total asshole.
You put your Second Life name here by which you are known, or you are blocked. That's my rule.
And even if you wrote the memo, so what? Your gal pal Amanda distributed it implying endorsement.
BSI is not "open". It's a group to which Lindens invite you, and you have to be chosen as you just indicated.

[Prokofy Neva]

Er, Oskar distinguished himself with the scripts that had avatars crash against chain-link electric fences on their way into Zindra, and burn up, as a visual gag -- inviting comparisons with the Gulag or the Nazi concentration camps as a metaphor for...not being able to masturbate online where you want to.

Oskar also made the Maturity Sword which I've never seen anybody actually do anything with, I think he thought it would be a badge of honour. I put it in my store for a $1 and nobody ever got it lol.

[DT]

I'll check if posting my name is against the rules and if not use it if I make another post.

I am sorry for sounding rude. Honestly. It's just the shear amount of falsities in this article angered me, you can not blame me for that.

I am am just a guy happy to get a few bucks helping out in SL, I don't even go to office hours or post in Jira. So obviously that is not how they chose people.

Just chill out and don't be so paranoid, maybe you will see things a bit better.
And be a bit nicer. Your kinda mean to put it simply.

[AnnOtooleInSL]

Actually "DT" whoever you are you are just encountering people who don't take shit off snot nosed coders that need to be in a cubicle tasked to deliver or be fired.

You just countered what you stated earlier. You first said that test program was open enrollment trying to make it sound like it was anyone could participate followed by your statement only 10 were allowed in thus making it not open enrollment.

Not that I care. I only care when someone tries to post obvious disinformation. I'm kind of glad I didn't have to sign an NDA at this time. Had I been one of the, according to you and you only, 10 testers I would have never ever mentioned it to anyone at all no matter what was posted or said anywhere at all.

Does that NDA you signed allow you to discuss the program in any shape or form at all?

[Prokofy]

I just tried to write beta@lindenlab.com and the email bounced.

Massively has the usual massive spin on this making it sound like the memo was expected internally but not quite meant to be distributed externally.

http://www.massively.com/2009/11/10/leaked-test-feedback-offers-insights-into-linden-lab-design-proc/#comments

However, I still cry foul in a number of ways.

It's not the way you get results if you have one group of opinionated assholes scorch the balls of the people who just coded this viewer that is only weeks away from deploying. That should have happened last year.

I don't defend the notions in the viewer necessarily, but the process is one that stinks.

[LeVey Palou]

"Er, Oskar distinguished himself with the scripts that had avatars crash against chain-link electric fences on their way into Zindra..."

Good grief they got oskar!

Seemed decent at the time I met him but I did not know about his association with zindra concentration scripts. Sad.

I fear that over time anyone with best intent when entering the Lab soon gets withered to a drone mentality...

or fired...you know somewhere around the 90 day mark, smirks.

[Prokofy Neva]

Actually, again, I think you're exaggerating. I've never met a Linden I'd describe as a "drone".

What I do find some of the Concierge ones doing, however, is following the manual to the letter and never applying it thoughtfully.

For example I had today who, when I asked if there were somehow sion chickens on my land that I had missed that could explain the lag spikes and problems, maybe one had fallen under the docks or in the ground, i couldn't seem to find it, or maybe a dead one somewhere, and he said, yes, I'll return them all, without realizing the consequences, then proceeded to return my neighbours' chickens without giving any opportunity to box them up. It was overkill.

[AnnOtooleInSL]

Concierge must be blissfully unaware of the effects of the latest rolling restart lol.

Yes there are "lag spikes". And sometimes the asset queue hoses up (watch pending downloads steadily increase as nothing will rez or attach)

Must be those darn chickens. Except I have none in my sim.

[Gigs Taggart]

I love you too Prok.

[Kesseret]

I am offended you put my husband (Gigs) with Gareth. There's a million light years difference between the two.

Other than that, good article.

[Rex Cronon]

I heard about this from a person that says was the one that gave this to the herald(lets call this person Mr_x). Mr_x also said that he/she thinks that somebody working at herald told the lindens who gave them the letter and that Mr_x was thrown out of the testing group because the letter was given to the herald. Mr_x says that he/she is now worried that the lindens might decide to use the ban hammer on him/her. I don't know what the truth is, so those that read my post have to make up their own mind. I don't think that Mr_x did anything to deserver a permaban, since Mr_x didn't sign a NDA, nor did he/she agree to keep secret what was distributed in the group.