Builders and scripters are you going to get certified by Linden Lab?

Linden Lab is working on a certification program for builders and scripters that will launch later this year. 57 Miles at Metaversed writes:

The move toward certification, which they say will launch late this year cannot help but to create a divide between those that have and those that have not been certified. Only time will tell for sure, but my gut feeling is that this is a bad move for Linden and Second Life that will leave a sour taste in the mouths of many skilled inworld creators.

It’s ironic as I’m writing this the grid is down the day after the scheduled maintenance upgrade to fix some issues. Somebody please tell me why any scripter why/how certification from Linden Lab — a company that routinely has scaling/code-related problems — would be a good thing? I don’t see it. I’m not against this or any other certification program on principal but I’m going to hang cautiously on the sidelines for this one until it’s actually done before signing up, if I sign up at all.

I’ve never gotten certified for anything in our online business including the extension into Second Life but have been certified for our offline business. In fact my professional license requires a certain amount of continuing education hours to maintain the license which I think is a positive thing.

The basic idea of certification for builders and scripts is worthwhile although I think Linden Lab based on their results in software design, server architecture, scaling and deployment should stay out of the process and let any certification program develop organically through the community.

That might be what is intended here, but from what I read in the Wiki it smells like Linden Lab is offering a stamp of approval over the whole thing which frankly leaves me unimpressed:

We believe this will benefit Residents, Developers, and anyone who wishes to use Second Life by clearly identifying both key skills and the holders of those skills. This will also enable the creation of training to build the skills required for certification. It is Linden Lab’s intent to work with an external certification provider to offer certification testing and maintain a list of those Residents who have been certified.

Linden Lab can’t even figure out how — or flat out doesn’t want — to make PayPal cashouts happen instantly. Funny how they can take your money right away, but don’t want to give it back to you as quickly (Linden Lab is far and away not the only company guilty of this). After over 15 months as a resident, I tried my very first PayPal cashout on Tuesday April 24 and here it is two days later and it still says “processing” “In Progress.” The PayPal APIs allow immediate money transactions. Fine, if they want to manually approve each cashout (mine is under $100, for those curious), but even that shouldn’t take days to do.

Yeah, I really want Linden Lab to certify me. Not.

If a certification process is meant to be than the community will be able to put it together a la Wikipedia, there doesn’t need to be a quasi-Government stamp of approval to validate the program in resident’s eyes. Just like not every business chooses to join the BBB or local Chamber of Commerce, it doesn’t mean those businesses are any less skilled or able. With that said, again, when the certification program is complete I might sign up and find it beneficial. I don’t like nor am that good at tests but I think education is always good. I’m simply skeptical about the governing board in this case doing the certification.

What do you think? I’m particularly curious what other builders and scripters and of course fellow VTOR authors think.