“As I promised if we couldn’t figure out a way that was a win/win for folks who want complete freedom vs. a list of last names, we wouldn’t do it. We couldn’t, so we wont,” wrote Rod Humble, in an update just a few minutes ago.
It must have been a sobering time for Linden Lab’s CEO, now just over a year in the big chair. Users served up information about practical history, and longer-term Lab functionaries served up shedloads of data to back up the users’ anecdotal information.
In the end, it seems, nobody could figure out a way to make Last Names come back without causing users more trouble than it was worth.
“However what we will be doing is adding in at least one and maybe more special characters like a dash when you signup so you can make a more normal looking name. So you can have “horatio-nelson” for example, which is impossible now. Work will begin on this as it slots into the task list,” added Humble.
“Secondly we will be taking steps to remove more places where the dreaded “resident” last name appears inworld. If you have any places where you see it often that we might have missed it would be good to hear.”
Humble will be starting a similar round-table discussion next week, to try to keep ideas and discussion rolling.
“Conversations with many old Lindens and Residents have led me to conclude that we have lost something of the old frontier feel. Like we were exploring the world together, you knew people, you would bump into them more. I have some ideas on how we can bring this back more (something along the lines of a new mainland like region or making mainland better or rethinking the whole way Linden Homes works.) This will be the subject of the next little roundtable, which will follow this one.”
Boooo! Well, I can’t get behind that sobering decision. How depressing that must be for “Residents” (as in the surname) who were hoping for an opportunity to have a surname. And since the capacity to enable last names still existed (last I heard) why not at least just turn it back on and let brand new residents have that opportunity? I’m sure there are many other internal Lab factors that Rodvik doesn’t mention, but that seems like a pretty brief statement for all the build-up surrounding an anticipated announcement.
While it starts off with bad news, at least they are working on a work around. Even working to eliminate the ‘resident’ name where ever it appears. That is great.
But … it’s also significant that Rodvik hit the nail on the head with the “lost something of the old frontier feel” observation … wow, remember when Magellan Linden crash landed? (Amazingly, his blog is still online – http://secondlife.blogs.com/magellan/ .) Those times, that sensation did give SL a “frontier” feel that’s totally lacking now, but that could also be an unavoidable and normal evolution of the platform.
@Ziki Last I heard that code was long gone, and no longer compatible with the current systems – and that it would be a major project to simply return the system to where it was with respect to last names. And that’s not counting having to allow everyone without a last name to get one.
I’ve never really believed in the return of predefined last names. There are good reasons for choosing your full name yourself (despite all the history and uniqueness and kindred feelings the last name system provided).
But that doesn’t change the fact that the current display name dual/triple/quadruple notation of names and a *hellish* handling in scripts is *utterly stupid*.
Unfortunately, we’re stuck with legacy support for it now, and any changes will only pile upon that.
And until people can actually chose a login name they can use inworld (capital letters and spaces), nothing will change.
So this is like taking your car to the tire store, they prise off two tires and tell you they’ve improved your sedan into a motorcycle.
When you protest, but I want my tires back, they say they can’t figure out how to do it.
Sorry, totally bogus. The names system still works for Two Names if you sign up through those Edu Satellite sites, so the code is still there and working.
Tateru – I am surprised that the code is long gone, when I was able to pick up a non-resident name within the last few months by accessing an eduicational portal. There are still several of these.
I’m also worried by this: “Secondly we will be taking steps to remove more places where the dreaded “resident” last name appears inworld. If you have any places where you see it often that we might have missed it would be good to hear.”
Most of the places where the resident last name appears inworld are in legitimate resident-created objects such as announcement boards in clubs etc. Are the Lab proposing to remove such objects regardless, or break the scripts?
@Tateru … Ah, ok, thanks for the clarification … I had thought it was still lurking there somewhere!
Just when you think Linden Labs can’t do anything to top their latest silliness, they exert themselves and produce another mind bogglingly disappointing pronouncement. One wonders what the stealth Friday afternoon announcement might be this week.
As somebody remarked in the TPV policy change comments on this blog; Rod has had a year and hasn’t delivered. Delivering the overwhelmingly requested restoration of surnames might have undone some of the TPV policy change damage, I suppose it can be spun as “strength of character” that he didn’t go for the easy solution.
As a GM for a sim and a combat meter, I *need* to have last names. If they keep removing “resident” from things, more and more issues will arise. It’s seriously not that hard to just return last names. It’s a bigger deal to have no last names than it is to have last names. >_>
Is it that hard to make last names again, or simply allow people to make up their own last names? Sheesh, it’s like pulling teeth.
You’d think that one of the “special characters” they might allow would be a period – the one that already occurs in the user names of us two-named old folks, “glorf.bulmer” for instance. (Easy enough to add client side validation to make sure nobody uses more than one, or puts it at the beginning or the end of a name.)
That way, they could, presumably, take a step towards allowing avatars to have something that *looks* like a first and last name, even at a scripting level. They’d still be checked for uniqueness, of course, in the same way they are now.
Possibly there is some sound reason why this wouldn’t work, but I can’t think why that would be.
@Saffia — yes, same here — I created a new account with a last name in November 2011 through an educational portal.
I dont care about having a surname as long as it isnt resident. and I never wanted to go back to canned last names. I hated that I was always running into people with the same last name. there was NOTHING unique for me in that. I dont understand why users can’t create their own first and last name like other games do and nothing in that response explained why its not possible.
I wish they would revisit the linden homes. I have one, I will always want one, but Im tired of having one in a neighborhood thats just as canned as the old last names were. none of that had a “frontier feel”. frontier is all about being unique. Take Guild Wars for example, there i CAN and I DO create my own first and last name. though honestly GW has nothing on SL as the two “games” are totally different conceptually in approach and dynamic.
anyway, there was nothing in that unintelligible quote that I understood as a rational for saying lets dash it all dash it all away. gurrrr if I wanted to hyphenate Id have stayed married!
I think I can settle this debate now: the legacy name code is indeed still fully functional and usable for new registrations. It’s just locked behind educational portals.
As proof, note the birthdate on this avatar I just created:
https://my.secondlife.com/tremendous.hurricane#about_tab
@Tanla Consider me schooled. I was almost certain that the code had been removed from the regapi. Apparently not.
@Tania
If Tateru didn’t know that, did Rod Linden?
Rod has the luxury of inside sources.
@Tateru
It’s the apparent contradiction between the lastname system still being used, and Rod saying it can’t be revived.
@ Wolf
One has to wonder how reliable the insider sources are when they cite the impossibility of what can be easily demonstrated. This starts to resemble a textbook case of information hiding by middle management.
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