Message to Second Life Users: Zee Linden was there and listening.

After so many heated words from so many perspectives, Zee Linden invited anyone who cared to, to join him in Second Life for one on one conversation. We were given a chance for us all to talk to the CFO in world and place our questions openly and in context. Sadly no one turned up.

We get so drawn into the forums when a Linden is present.

I was unable to attend the in-world meeting as I have to be at work tomorrow and its gone midnight here in the UK already. However, Zee contacted me in Immediate Message Mode as I had written my questions out on a note card and allowed Zee to respond. I never thought for one moment that Zee would respond as I held the view that the CFO would either give me answers he thinks I want to hear, or he would give me answers he believes are correct, even though we have reason to doubt the legitimacy of his replies.

I have promised Zee that I will create a fair and balanced reply to the article in my blog, complaining about skewed metric, complaining about Bots camping and inflating the figure, about land dumping and churning. I am not perfect and never find the time to comb the myriads of stats released by SL, I, like many, become confident in the knowledge I have and hold onto that, and when it is not in a good light, I too can become tightly focused. Another reason not to expect Zee linden to reply, after all, he is on a losing streak as far as the facts I hold are concerned.

This of course is unfair.

I have had a good dialogue with Zee tonight, simple straightforward honest facts have been shared, not all glowing and rosy as earlier suggested by the tide of the news feed, but some facts have been presented in a more meaningful presentation to me, enough to get me thinking and enough for me to do three things.

1) I am withdrawing the barb from my tone, Zee has shown he is not only willing to communicate effectively but is also willing to share exacting and precise information. Though we may have to learn the best way of asking those questions as the dialogue and circumstance of Zee’s financial world is critically different in so many ways to our day to day work in Second Life.

2) I am acknowledging Zee has made every effort to reach out and discuss the trends and the events that are affecting residents. He has been attracting comment on the Forum here for the best part of three or four hours, and for a CFO that is indeed valuable time. Further, Zee has been in-world publically available to listen to our concerns in order to gain insight from our experiences. Again, consider the absence of other senior staff and then admit for Zee to spend valuable time face to face with us is a welcome change. None of us are happy at the seemingly madcap way the Linden managers are translating solutions currently, so Zee’s appearance on the forum and in world is got to be seen as a welcome opportunity.

3) I will publish a balanced article on my blog to follow up and counter balance the existing negative publications. I will review what I have learned from Zee tonight and will make that result available in RL along-side and balancing my other comments. I am going to be away for a few days and will not catch up until Monday, but catch up I will.

I have to ask a couple more questions of Zee before I can ( looking at my notes) fully respond, but I am confident that even though Linden Labs have cocked things up a bit, there is opportunity for some of surviving this and hopefully , going forward with realistic expectations and exploring real opportunities in the coming months.

Sadly, the world is suffering a slowdown in growth and this may exacerbate the decline in the short term for many companies, not just Linden Labs, but I feel a lot more confident now knowing Zee is reachable and is willing to listen to constructive argument. Hopefully we can work together if we can all agree to talk the same language, listen to each other, and pose sensible and correct solution opportunities.