I've been reading about the resident survey that Linden Lab has been randomly sending to Second Life residents via their client. I was surprised to find it on my screen the other day. It asked the question, "Is your Second Life experience getting better or worse?"

The brown noser in me immediately wanted to answer "better", but when I thought about it, it hasn't gotten any better. As you can see by my answer on the right, I chose the simple response that the grid seems to be buckling under the large amount of logins. I don't know if this is the real cause of the problems, but we've had more inventory loss, texture issues, and transfer problems than ever.

Did you receive the survey? How did you/would you answer? Leave a comment!

Start packing, because SXSW begins tomorrow, Friday, March 9th in Austin! It's going to be an action-packed five days of adventure and excitement, starting off with registration from Noon-8pm CST. Ooh, fun! I was advised to not even get in line for registration until at least 3pm, as it will be packed at first. From what I hear, there will be many parties to attend and lots of free booze, as well as some informational panels for those going to learn.

A whopping eight Lindens and three ex-Lindens will be attending, with some manning booths and others speaking on panels. I just found out that Urizenus Sklar, of the Second Life Herald, will be attending. An interesting tidbit is that his badge lists him as the Corporate Evangelist for Anshe Chung Studios. We also have a late addition to the attendee list. Christian Prior, of the Electric Sheep Company, is going! Are you attending the Interactive section of SXSW? Send me a message in-world and we'll exchange phone numbers! I'll be the short girl with the tall hair. See you there!

This past Monday, Philip held an interview in the new CNet Headquarters in SL, to field questions by the audience. The interview itself isn't terribly noteworthy, as Philip seems to play it vague when asked questions about growth and new features. He does definitively say, however, on the subject of griefing: "Many people have called for us to do things that would be overly restrictive, like force everyone in "Second Life" to be credit card-verified. That isn't the right direction."

He doesn't, however, say why this isn't the right direction. It would be one thing to say that with a majority of residents agreeing, but nearly everyone I've spoken with in-world about this topic agree that while it's not going to be a perfect solution, it is at least one step closer to a grief-less world. Residents are asking for this to be implemented! My guess is that Philip just doesn't want to halt the growth of SL by introducing a more restrictive registration which might keep people from trying SL at all. At the same time, however, not restricting growth is leading to a number of server issues that are increasingly irritating, forcing LL to spend more time chasing down new issues than fixing the ones we already have.

It's difficult to have faith in a deity that you know doesn't listen to you.