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Old 05-30-2009, 09:30 PM   #1 (permalink)
Stroker Serpentine
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tampa
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SL Join Date: Nov 2003
Business: Strokerz Toyz
LL breaks SexGen

First off, I am not going to bitch about this as I know I am not the only one LL has ever royally screwed. Here's the skinny for my SLU peeps. Warning: tl;dr

Several weeks ago, I was called at home around midnight by my manager Andrea Faulkner. She had "that tone" in her voice that immediately let me know something was wrong. She asked if I was aware of any major grid malfunction or if I had pissed off LL somehow. She told me to get my ass into SL so she could show me.

When I logged in I was bombarded by IM's of "My SexGen doesn't work" or "Menu not loading". Andrea additionally cut/pasted similar IMs she was getting in email. I immediately knew what happened after this fiasco last year:

https://blogs.secondlife.com/communi...C4A0D5D6E7A4D1

We had been blacklisted.

I rang up concierge and they were nice enough to expedite a ticket through to the DevTeam. The next morning Data Linden showed up and we isolated the specific script that had indeed been blacklisted.

This was Data's response:

Data Linden: The asset-ID got blacklisted, now I need to find out why
Stroker Serpentine: Doesn't sound good :-/
Data Linden: Okay here is the issue
Data Linden: I can take it off the blacklist, no problem. BUT this won't solve the problems already there

Stroker Serpentine: Going forward..Any indication as to WHY it was blacklisted? The LS one and NOT the Mono one?
Data Linden: And the blacklist has propagated to this region already and the script now remains in the object if rezzed
Stroker Serpentine: LSL*
Data Linden: That I still need to find out, the person who did add it is not yet available
Stroker Serpentine: I mean, this was kind of sudden. It blind-sided us
Data Linden: It is a bit weird too, since we almost never blacklist by Asset-ID
Data Linden: It's dangerous

It was a script we use to store the rotations and offsets in virtual memory. Of ALL the scripts it had to be THAT one. I was pissed and wanted answers. I left a voicemail for Cyn Linden and Marty Linden (their attorney) and heard nothing back all day. I at least thought Marty would return my call as he knows Frank (my attorney) and would at least have contacted him. Nadda.

Finally, I emailed Philip. I have emailed him once in all these years. He responded within a couple of hours, and I voiced my discontent about the whole situation and he assured me that someone would be in contact. He apologized and seemed genuinely concerned.

The next day I get an email from Garry Linden whom said he had been apprised of the situation and wanted to help. He apologized profusely and we had a phone convo to discuss how best to stem the tide of IM's we were receiving. Since this affected every item we had used the SexGen anim system in it apparently broke about 50 UUID's and ten's of thousands of items that were rezzed inworld at the time. There was no easy fix. We decided to just "deal with it" and provide personalized service instead of making some impersonal "Repair Kit" available on XStreet as Garry suggested.

We have since been dealing with thousands of broken items built over 2-1/2 years. The IM's don't stop. I can't tell you how hard it is to log in most days. I believe in my heart that our customers are the best on the grid. They have been understanding and supportive through all this mess. Plus, I have learned from experience that you live and die in SL based upon your reputation.

I suffered through all the comments over the years of "This is what you can expect from trying to build a business on pixels and spacebucks". There's a lot of truth in that I suppose, however, coming from a content business prior to SL, I also know it's an honorable profession with many opportunities. Virtual property is a tangible commodity IMO.

What has really pissed me of through this whole thing is that apparently ONE Linden had the authority to cause this damage. The script was blacklisted AFTER Linden Lab would have been closed. I am not particularly a "Conspiracy Theorist", but this smacks of abuse and incompetence.

I would appreciate any help in getting out the word that we can fix this. It's going to take time and patience on both ends. We're still dealing with 100's of IM's at a time. Pixeleen did us a service by posting this story and the notecard:

Alphaville Herald : Strokerz Second Life SexToys Broken

Initially, I felt it was best to keep this quiet and just deal with the consequences individually. I was concerned for the damage it would do to our reputation. Now, I just want to get it over with.

If you would like to link to this post (SLU) please let people know that we're willing and able to make this right. We're giving free upgrades and gifts to try and salvage our customer base. For the most part everyone has been understanding, but sometimes we lose an IM or return. Occasionally we get the "I paid good money for this and it doesn't work!" They usually squelch their discontent when we explain what happened and give them something free.

Finally, I want to thank Persephone for being such an amazing friend and letting me rant in her ear about this over the past few weeks. I truly wanted to quit SL. Persephone was a voice of reason through this entire debacle. I have been truly blessed by some of the most amazing friendships here. It's very humbling.

I'll close with one of my favorite quotes from Richard Bach..

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof."

Yeah..I'm an emo *shrug*. Sue me!
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