*** CURRENTLY UNDER RECONSTRUCTION ***

"There is no amount of pretty in the world that can cover a venomous heart."

Ah, the irony! Rhonda Huntress said that, and she also said:

http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/327/85/252954/3653.html (The quote in Rio's post, sixth post down.)

http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/327/85/252954/3828.html (Top post.)


Thursday 27 October 2011

Corporate Hysterionics?

My South Afrikan mate Rudi got a two week "ban" (they mean suspension, but I think ESLers run marketing and customer interaction at LL) for posting this response in a thread which had asked what was going on in the forums (with most of the "asterisks" removed) after Marc Viale (Viale Linden) has moved into the Community Manager chair now the sick - and tired - Ann Smith (Lexie Linden) has moved on, having been dumped with the responsibility after Amanda Van Nuys (Amanda Linden) left under a cloud.

You want an explanation? Here is an explanation. After Amanda Linden got given her marching orders for several complete and utter fuckups, Lexie took over, and enjoyed it so much that she got sick, or pregnant (not that there's much difference) and left the forums at the mercy of the fuckwits of moderators. LL advertised for a replacement Community Manager and now we've got one, who doesn't have the first idea about Community Management, barging in and opening up the previously closed Adult Forum without any notice, so there are now three General Discussion forums, in addition to which they have instructed the moderators to move arbitrary threads for no discernible reason, and now they have started up this new Vampires Forum which nobody asked for and nobody wanted, but will cause uproar, because everybody and his wife will be demanding their own penny-ante subforum. You have fucked up again, LL, as with all your previous "Communication" and Community Managers. Rudi

Actually, seeing it without the "formatting" I can understand why the LL Moderation team might have got upset; it's too credible, isn't it!

Pep (followed the LinkedIn links too, which was most illuminating)

PS Did you notice Marc Viale said it had been nice working for Kimberly Salzer, meaning she had left LL - her LinkedIn entry downgrades her position there as secondary to her work for a leadership training not-for-profit.

9 comments:

  1. Good summary, Pep. You can add that there has been an invasion of spammers today and, despite a thread in the Feedback forum and many RICs to the individual spam posts, they are still there continuing to replicate.

    So much for 24/7 moderation. Appears no one is listening. Perhaps they are transfixed with the new Vamp subforum. Boy, was *that* ever needed.

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  2. Whoops, apparently the rumors of this email account's demise were premature! I thought I had disabled it. Oh well, it allows me to post here.

    Now that I have a brand, spanking (grin) new avatar in SL, I decided to wander back into the SLF to see if it was still as horrid as the last time I was there. I admit it. I was a combination of curious and bored.

    Alert the media, it is still horrid!

    I don't know your buddy Rudi, but he nailed that sucker right on the head. In a short time there I witnessed what he describes, although I didn't catch his "banned" post or thread.

    I thought of you, Pep, as I watched a dumb thread on the new Vampire section. It started out in all lameness then it got side-tracked when somebody made a short comment about there existing stupid people and stupid questions. Seems kind of an obvious assertion, doesn't it? But wait! What I assume was a contingent of your oft mocked LWL had to defend non-existent stupid people. The LWL claim there are no stupid people, only people that others don't take the time to get to understand. Bwahahahahaha! This apparently was said with straight faces! I was almost, almost, tempted to post that those LWL comments were proof positive of the veracity of the "stupid people exist" post.

    Now, besides that chuckle, the conversation in that thread was pretty mild but the next time I checked it had disappeared! I assume the moderators also were uneasy that stupid people were publicly declared to exist since that strikes a little too close to home for the mods.

    If the rumblings are correct, my guess is the thread just mysteriously ceased to exist. Poof! Wild ninja moderation.

    The adult forum is, as someone there described it, somewhat akin to holding a porn convention at Disney World! :) Such silliness.

    The Vampire forum is getting grumbled about as Rudi noted.

    The posts, if you can figure out how to follow them, are dead boring and more like SLA. I don't know why LL bothers with the Forum at all. I don't know why anyone bothers to post there except to find out "where do I find my hair?"

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  3. You hit the nail on the head.
    When they sent back my Community Manager "Help Wanted" post all they stated was that LL does not want this information public.
    Hmm, I got the information for the Internet.

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  4. I meant to write: I got the information 'from' the Internet.

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  5. It's official, Rudi "nailed it on the head"! LoL, both Storm and I used the exact phrase. Hell may have just frozen over in this instance of he and I agreeing on the SLF.

    I wanted to thank you for the link to Carole's blog I just noticed you added. Oh, how I have missed Carole's creative writing and I had no idea she had a blog. I can tell I'm going to have a new favorite place.

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  6. Another example of the LL corporate ethos of "What customers?"

    LL employees are not users of SL, not users of the forums, and certainly not merchants -- and have no clue how these things operate much less how to improve them/not break them.

    How hard can it be to get this message: WE NEED SPAM CONTROL NOT A VAMPIRE FORUM!

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  7. Perhaps the Vamps could harvest the Spammers? Isn't one of the programs they[the Spammers] tout Dexter? Works for me;-)

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  8. I am guessing that the new community manager just finished some hip, modern workshops on 'how to forum' or something.

    I found it odd that LL has appointed "Resident Hosts' to blog and post all kind of silly threads in the forums to spice up e.g. the Halloween events/stuffs in SL.
    I am all for getting residents involved, don't get me wrong...but what they did now is appoint some unknown persons (MiaSnow and that Chubby whatshisname) who may be great designers and contribute Inworld, but as far as keeping threads alive on the forum they completely fail.

    They try, I suppose, but do not follow up and apparently they are not very global-orientated as well, assuming Halloween is something *WE* all celebrate in RL as well. A couple of threads I posted in on the topic of Halloween...died right after my post. LOL. Could be me?

    Anyway, if I were the Community Manager and wanted commitment and nice posts/threads in the forum to reflect the Inworld experience, I would not just pick some Inworld-designers but look in the forum itself and ask actual forum-posters to help, people that are wellknown on and with the fora already and have proven to be able to keep a thread going and be lively.

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  9. They did something like this before the changeover to the current Lithium forums, setting up a few fake "guerrilla" members who asked moron-level questions to get answers to seed the new Q&A section.

    Pep (They got very annoyed when "someone" saw through their ploy, although of course they refused to admit it.)

    PS It's really stupid to generate false activity for an ephemeral event like Halloween, that isn't even any big deal for most in the UK - and is even seen as pagan and discouraged by many schools and institutions other than the church.

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