Reader Submitted: The Cloud Move

By Kἶէმƈεlἶმ Lմἶղƈօɾἶმlօէε Kεlνმɾl (Kitacelia Resident)

The first thing I have noticed, is much slower rezzing sometimes taking as much as 20 minutes to rezz an area and some items still not rezzing no matter how long you wait or leave or relog that weren't blocked or blacklisted.

The next thing I have noticed is that DJ streams seem to hiccup or skip quite often now, regardless of their internet, PCs, DJing program or location. I notice this because I host quite often so listening to DJ streams is  a large part of that. I hate to imagine what a DJ goes through trying to run a DJ  program and Second Life with all the current SL issues.

I have also experienced increased logging in times, as much as two to three times longer at times.  I have experienced increased lag and crashing as well.  I have major cable company high speed internet and while my PC isn't top of the line it is fairly decent and relatively newish.

Another issue, while I am uncertain it is related, is that I had once experience several months ago where all the scripted objects on land I rent broke, and had to be reset. Some permanently broke, and had to be replaced or were gone forever.  Several other times the same land my avi wouldn't rezz and nothing could be rezzed.

Several items that were scripted seem to have broken in some fashion due to updates and often it was up to the creators to fix them or not as LL apparently did little to nothing to deal with the script issues on certain items caused by these updates.

I have also noticed more bugs, and it taking longer for them to fix them. One especially annoying one that apparently took two weeks to fix was the recent timestamp issue on group notices where they looked like they were all sent the exact min, second, hour, day etc you looked back at the notices.  There were also issues with flickr and other things that came up and didn't seem to be resolved in a particularly timely manner.  

Increased scheduled and unscheduled maintenance has also been happening, which makes it difficult to do much in Second Life, much of it during prime time hours for the US and/or Europe. Also, it seems the servers either have a very small limit or aren't good at keeping track of blacklisted items.

While they have introduced some really cool new projects in the last few years, I hope they will reconsider this cloud move as it seems to be not only hindering the application of the cool new additions to a degree but also making more traditional applications/objects difficult as well to a point Second Life is sometimes barely playable and possibly not playable at all for some.   I have been in SL almost daily for nearly eight years. So while I am not one of the first or close to it, I am not even remotely close to new, recent, or a casual user.

I think Second Life has the population they have kept going mainly because they have had no real competition. If these issues persist or worsen I wonder how many will remain here post Covid-19.

Kitacelia

Update Chaos: Trouble at the Bunny Ranch

Ozimals is always working to improve their products and this results in periodic updates for bunnies. An update totem can be purchased for zero lindens at several sites where Ozimals products are sold. Bunny owners/breeders have seen their share of bunny updates from the beginning. This is usually a smooth process and no bunnies are lost to hibernation. (If a bunny is not updated, it will eventually stop eating because the food and it will not be compatible.)

After a substantial pause between updates, another one was presented to the bunny community. Having obtained my update totem, I proceeded to begin the updating process. This is a long process for many breeders as only one update totem may be set out at a time. Having multiple warrens means the updating process must happen one warren at a time, one bunny at a time. In the meantime, those bunnies around who have not yet been updated will alert you with a message saying your bunny is out of date.

Satisfied that all my bunnies were up to date, I carried on with other SL business. Shortly, however, messages alerting me to an out-of-date bunny began appearing on my screen. Thinking "damn, I must've missed one," I set about in search of the little out-of-date critter. Moving from warren to warren, clicking off text on all updated bunnies, I found a couple out of date...now where did I leave that update totem? No sooner had I set out the totem near the bunnies in question, a message appeared on the totem itself advising "poor sim performance." The totem had stopped working. Frustrated, I popped over to the Ozimals store and got another one. This one also quickly stopped working. My frustration level and impatience on the rise, I teleported once again to the Ozimals store. Thinking I was smart, I purchased a couple.

Back at the ranch, I carried on with updating. Messages continued to flood my screen.Near tears at this point (ridiculous, Shellie, they are pixels, PIXELS!), I looked for my bunny friends on line to cry for help. Finding no one at the moment, I called it a day, deciding I would deal with it the next day.

I was greeted the next day with a barrage of out of date messages. "IMPOSSIBLE!" I thought. The Ozimals group IMs were flying. Then came a message about another update. With everyone in the bunny world flocking over to the Ozimals store, it was hard to get in. Searching my notes, I found other locations and off I went for the latest update. In the meantime, I had bunnies deep into hibernation because they were out of date. Setting out the newest totem, the long process began again. One by one the bunnies were updated. Those in hibernation, however, could not update in that state (I found out after trial and error). Taking up all the hibernating bunnies and not knowing what to do, I continued to update the bunnies I could. A friend told me to try the Rise and Shine drink for the hibernating bunnies. At 500 lindens each, this was an expensive proposition. I updated two hibernating bunnies and still have bunnies in my inventory. Bunnybury begins to sound like a good option at this point but I am hesitant.

But the nightmare wasn't over yet. Just when I thought the coast was clear, lo and behold, another update! This sent everyone into an uproar as you might imagine. This was becoming a chaotic and out-of-control situation. With a deep sigh, I collected yet another update totem. Totem in hand and thoughts of burying all bunnies and getting out of this business, I began the grueling process one more time of updating my 7 warrens...ugh!

All bunnies are now updated, but be careful kindling old nests, set that updater out! You will need it. In what I can only believe was an effort at maintaining some level of credibility, Ozimals offered an olive branch in the form of free Appreciation Food, which is valid through 14 July. On the 14th, all Appreciation Food will expire and vanish from site. At least we all got to hang onto our lindens for awhile.

Shellie Sands