Those you in the twitterverse, and possibly other places, might have just found out that, according to rumour, LL is no longer responding to emails. They will, hereafter only respond to Live Chat or the Web Support Pages.

There is a side comment to the effect that this may not be universal: certainly there are people who still give out their email addresses, it would be interesting to suggest that, for example, Catherine Linden, in charge of PR, can't be reached that way. A policy statement would be useful, but I would suggest not holding your breath for that. There are mailing lists that still request email replies too, so presumably they don't count in this.

We all know SL is growing, and growing faster than LL, appreciably faster. However, is moving to a position of fewer routes of communication a good thing? In light of the earlier news about sexual ageplay in SL, I wonder if anyone will answer our emailed requests for a statement?

Over on the blog, Jack Linden has announced that, in response to falling land prices, LL will be reducing the land supply on the mainland to an average of 10 sims per day (from 12-16) until the end of August.

They will also be regularly posting likely land supply levels for the following month, although there is no mention of a "target price" for mainland land.

This shouldn't make any difference to those purchasing islands - but it might make buying to parcel and sell more attractive as mainland prices rise. It's also a nice step towards better communications with us!

Just over a week ago I asked how should we, the users, and LL communicate with each other.

I laid out four groups of communication as well:

1. Business decisions - raising the starting price of mainland sim auctions
2. Emergency content - OMG the grid is really poorly
3. Development issues - anything from the interface of the new communications system to the plans to totally rewrite the UI
4. Technical issues - why can't we have 100 groups?

So, what are my takes on these issues?

For purely business decisions, these should be taken internally and announced, much as they are now. I would like to see the bias lie at the "if in doubt, consult" end of the spectrum, but some things must be available to be internal decisions.

Emergency content: this has been dealt with rather well recently I think. Posting to the blog asap, regular updates, and a reasonably detailed post mortem as well. Keep this up and consider adding more inworld and log-in messages.

Some Linden Lab staff are getting a healthy dose of their own dog-food, which we hope may lead to cold-noses and shiny coats. A large (unspecified) cross-team project in Linden Lab is using Second Life's group communications systems in order to coordinate, in the hopes of analyzing the benefits and shortcomings of the tools for the purposes of communication and collaboration.

All in all it seems to be a good move, as I'm pretty sure the folks who design the communications systems don't really use them nearly so much or in anywhere near the variety of was that Second Lifers themselves do. Here's hoping that they try to collaborate using object permissions next.

(What's the Dog Food reference all about? Try here)

See? Someone's listening! Everett Linden today posted a detailed and thorough description of last week's search problems; What happened, what seemed to cause it, what was done, and when. It also acknowledges that Linden Lab could have been more forthcoming with communications during the period.

It's terrific work, and we'd love to see more of this sort of thing. It provides valuable insights into the architecture, failure provisioning and the genuine challenges involved in keeping a platform like Second Life up and running.

During the recent problems with search, teleportation, assets, payments, inventory, the map, and all of that, there were two things going on. What you heard about, and what you didn't hear about.

This is the third in our 'Adjusting to a New World' series of articles for beginners - although some intermediate and advanced Second Lifers are also finding little tidbits that they didn't know in them. Last time, we talked about communicating by chat.

This time, we'll look at instant messaging. Instant messaging, either to single people, multiple people or defined groups is an indispensable tool for getting assistance and information. As you get more connected with people in Second Life, you'll find yourself using it more, but there's no reason not to know the ins-and-outs early on.

It's nice to hear Linden Lab opening up a little and talking about the reasoning being upcoming changes, like this piece on upcoming changes to abuse reporting. Full marks for letting us know something is in the wind and why.

2,000 abuse reports per day, many spurious reports, and so lead us to...
"The main thrust of this project is to move our process away from the current one report/one resolution model and towards a system that with will quickly and accurately identity and manage those individuals and behavior that make Second Life feel unwelcoming or unsafe. The revised system will focus also on moving problems towards more useful paths for resolution – specifically by enabling and encouraging the development of inter-Resident mediation and dispute resolution options for those issues Linden Lab isn't equipped to resolve. A further emphasis will be placed on self-resolution - by improivng[sic] existing tools like mute and parcel-based access restrictions."

The problem is that they always seem to trail off on a decidedly vague note. Lots of goals but no real means. Outcomes without actions, if you will. Don't get me wrong, it's good to see you airing your reasoning, people, and sharing what your outcomes are, but the tone suggests you've got specifics ready to implement, and you're asking us to watch this space to find out. Don't make us wait too long for the meat.

We're still wondering where this similar announcement, posted at the 11th hour before the thanksgiving break will go. Requests for further information have been met with silence so far.

Still, communication with a community is more art than science. Things have improved in the areas of communication with the Second Life communities. We look forward to seeing that communications continue to improve.