Linden Labs Closing 'Second Life' Forums

[Doctor Setebos]

Linden Labs has decided that it's better to close forums (http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/08/10/forums-take-a-new-turn/) than to listen to the criticism of the community:

Dialogue. We love it and our hope is that these changes will help to channel it. Ultimately, we are looking to keep the voices, shout-outs, feedback and diversity of opinion flowing. In order to do that, we need to make sure not to be flooded by it. With these changes we hope to retain the dialogue, and to ensure the voices are heard.

Via digg (http://digg.com/gaming_news/Second_Life_Silences_Community_by_Closing_Forums)

[randir14]

I've never heard of this game but this definately doesn't make me want to learn more.

[Thenetcase]

"We want to hear from you so we're going to make you shut the hell up. Damn chatterbox. Please feel free to share your opinion and thoughts! STFU!"

Real great marketting and PR.

[fitbabits]

Dialogue. We love it and our hope is that these changes will help to channel it. Ultimately, we are looking to keep the voices, shout-outs, feedback and diversity of opinion flowing. In order to do that, we need to make sure not to be flooded by it. With these changes we hope to retain the dialogue, and to ensure the voices are heard.
I thought of one company when I read that quote - Sony!

Anyway, this does not bode well for Linden Labs.

[Camel]

Hmm, a person made a good point that one of the major downsides is it takes away a place where people can just ask general questions. It wouldn't help much to just type in random unrelated questions in a blog comment. With that being said, sometimes forums associated with certain products are better for people to just let off steam than to actually facilitate any sort of intelligent discussion that people in charge are actually going to pay attention to. I suppose the upside for Linden Labs is that they will be able to get better feedback on issues that are posted, but a huge downside is that they won't be getting any creative (or otherwise) criticism on anything that they don't specifically make a blog post about. Although if they are getting rid of their forums they probably weren't listening/caring too much anyways.

[gzsfrk]

A sign of absolute cowardice on the part of Linden Labs. Perhaps they think, as have many MMO managing companies before them (SWG & Sony) that it's best to keep the "dirty laundry" of the game from public view. Of course, with Sony and SWG, they only closed the forums to public view and left them open to members only; they never closed them down completely.

MMO forums by their very nature are going to be 80-95% complaining; that's just the nature of the beast. Fortunately, that rate holds true for all MMOs, so one company shouldn't feel more vulnerable amongst the sea of other companies and their whining constituents. However, to silence the complainers altogether seems to me to indicate they fear the effects of word of mouth being more harmful than helpful to the subscription numbers.

Not that I had any real intention of playing the game before, but I most certainly wouldn't even consider it now, even with a free month's trial.

Again, I say 'cowards'.

[MasterEvilAce]

Second Life is hardly mainstream enough for EA :-/

SL is just a big chatroom really.. meh. it has appeal.. but it gets a bit boring

[NeoSuplex]

I have to wonder if it has to do with the premise of the game itself...

Most MMOs have people complaining about things like (insert class) being too strong or the economy being broken. Second Life, just judging from what I've heard about the game, could have crap like my husband spent all his money on SL furniture or my daughter is an online prostitute... Whole diffrent ball game there.

[shnastybiznastic]

Second Life is hardly mainstream enough for EA :-/

SL is just a big chatroom really.. meh. it has appeal.. but it gets a bit boring
It's not even a game. It's a really cool setup, but not a game. Also, from what I hear, those forums needed to die. Oh, and Linden dosent need creative feedback, they just make the engine and let the users create the content.

What really bugs me is that people don't even look things up on Wikipedia before posting. (not pointed at you ace ;) )

[Sion]

Second Life is hardly mainstream enough for EA :-/

SL is just a big chatroom really.. meh. it has appeal.. but it gets a bit boring

I would say it's more of a big orgy myself.

[niakori]

I don't need Wiki because I actually played it, from beta and through a couple of months (I did mention I'm a smidgen masochistic right?). Anywho I never liked the Lindens because they didn't seem to care how degenerate their game got, they did add a teen SL later but I found it too little too late. Their forums were a mess alright, and since it's not like they moderated it to a decent amout anyway I guess it was a good idea they closed it.

But just browsing through EvAv and coming across Linden Lab... gave me one of those vomit reflexes I had to hold back. Don't do this to me again!

[Varsity]

than to listen to the criticism of the community
Do you mean criticism, or do you mean rampant bitching?

Serious question.

[Demize99]

Funny, no one bothered to read the article or you would see they are simply trying a new way of communicating. 90% of what is posted on forums is trash to a developer anyway, finding anything useful is a difficult and expensive task.

[DangerousDaze]

As the Community Liaison for a MMORPG developer, and the guy responsible for our forums, I have to admit that I've secretly wanted to shut them down on many occasions. No one gets paid enough to put up with some of the abuse you receive - however, such feelings are transitory and always pass.

Closing our forums would be a huge mistake. The key thing is that forums aren't about what we as developers can get out of our community. They're about what the community can get out of us, and from each other.

There has to be a place where people can come together and ask questions, answer questions, provide advice, and yes, make complaints. As long as you're willing to invest the time and effort to provide effective and fair moderation, your forums will be a vital asset.

DD

[Doctor Setebos]

Funny, no one bothered to read the article or you would see they are simply trying a new way of communicating. 90% of what is posted on forums is trash to a developer anyway, finding anything useful is a difficult and expensive task.That's what they say. But anyone familiar with Linden Labs doesn't actually trust them to open up better avenues of community interaction. Basically they are saying that they don't want users to talk to each other, but they are making sure they can talk to Linden Labs. One way communication does NOT a community make. That's what everyone is upset about.