1. Places search functionality offline?

What could possibly go wrong?

Oh wait, have you ever had one of those times when suddenly, inexplicably, Google isn't reachable? Imagine spending the whole weekend like that.

Posted at 8:30PM on Dec 1st 2006 by Nene Nino

2. So SL was not fixed by 5pm Friday, and now all of LL is free to go off for restful weekends??? We're about to be flooded again for another weekend of crashes and unplayable periods and the impossibility of finding anything via search and..... they all go home, wipe their hands and close the helpline. At least that is the gist of the linden blog announcement about search.

Posted at 8:50PM on Dec 1st 2006 by grrrrrr!!!

3. There have been blog updates that seem to indicate people will be working on the problem over the weekend. How much of the weekend remains to be seen.

In the past, when the production systems I work on have been down for some reason, I have stayed working until the problem was resolved. 36 hour days, the works. I would hope that the Linden employees fixing this are just as committed.

Posted at 9:08PM on Dec 1st 2006 by Nene Nino

4. This is unfortunately very telling about the culture and the work ethic at Linden Labs. Essentially they've said, "Okay, we've worked hard enough, taken enough of a beating on the blog, so we're taking the weekend off. Never mind our nearly two million residents, many of whom run viable businesses in Second Life. We need a break."

This is going to do nothing but create more bad blood between the company and their customers who keep them in business.

Posted at 9:40PM on Dec 1st 2006 by Boss Melnitz

5. I think LL is setting the stage to having the search places and other valuable searches that bring most businesses much of their sales handed off to some third-party entity that is likely even now researching aspects of a search API. Their rationale will be that by hooking search up to more powerful outworld servers, why, there will be no more lag, and the search will be able to do more. And it's likely going to be served up to us with a user interface and context that will be about selling the wares of that entity. We will witness the googlization of SL.

Posted at 12:11AM on Dec 2nd 2006 by Prokofy Neva

6. Boss, with respect, as a software development manager, we have had to do this very thing once or twice in the past. People working all hours to solve some major issue, when we get to a 'stable' or even 'barely operational' point, we often send people away to rest (or at least get a normal night's sleep).

If you don't do this, you get people making stupid decisions or missing obvious problems because they're overworked. I'm not saying this is what has happened here, but I'm saying it does happen.

And yes, the lack of land search hobbles me massively, because I'm too lazy to keep my landmarks folder tidy :/

Posted at 4:48AM on Dec 2nd 2006 by Saint Paul

7. Boss, with respect, as a software development manager

Why say this to Boss, "with respect". He does not make "respect" part of his posts in any way. I see no need for anyone to act differently when he is engaged.

Posted at 10:27AM on Dec 2nd 2006 by Penitenziagite

8. In response to Saint Paul, I certainly understand what you are saying, having been in the IT field in some capacity for over ten years now. And I do agree that sometimes you have to get it stable, rest, then come back at the problems fresh. However, my point here is that since the upgrade on Wednesday, the system has been nowhere near stable. Certainly it can't be in the best interest of Linden Labs to leave their product hobbled over a weekend, typically the time when they see the most user activity.

Posted at 6:18PM on Dec 2nd 2006 by Boss Melnitz

9. It is a frustrating situation, but I personally understand the decision.

The grid is working better than it was earlier in the week, or at least it was doing so earlier today and last night. Teleports work, shopping works, my inventory seemed to work (although there are reports of people having problems).

I believe work is going on, but I also believe part of the team has been sent home to rest after likely having a couple of hours sleep in three days. Good for them: their team is human.

I personally don't think it's unreasonable to wait until Monday or Tuesday for restoration of search, so long as the they continue to work on maintaining stability. If we are still having this discussion next weekend, then I'll be unimpressed.

Posted at 10:59AM on Dec 3rd 2006 by Tomas_Hausdorff

10. I think its time for SL to sell out. They have taken on way more then they can handle and its showing big time. We need new owners ASAP and a plan of attack.

Posted at 7:10PM on Dec 3rd 2006 by Fear Of Being Banned