Second Life plague of Godzilla bugs getting downright annoying
ARGH. I can tell you that ever since I started back in this world, my biggest annoyance has been the unscheduled maintenance windows and bugs. As we’ve written before, this is just bad QA. Some of these types of “random” bugs can be caught with stress testing that be created through a test suite.
May people are probably thinking… what is it now? Why is it down AGAIN?!? Exactly the point.
It really shouldn’t be. Especially with a new server and client release that was supposedly delayed a week due to whatever issues they ran into with testing and the instability of the current Grid. What’s even more frustrating is the fact that they rolled a support system makeover along with their regular rollout instead of separating it out as a separate release. With any other software release, I wouldn’t be that frustrated with this decision. But seeing how bugs have been plaguing Second Life for the past couple of months, it just wasn’t a good management decision in my opinion.
What if the current release (1.15) had bugs? And the support system failed? I suppose you could go to the blog and post a comment with some fury behind it, but it doesn’t look the most professional. Almost a decision you would expect from a college student owned business instead of one like Linden Lab. No offense, but you really need to get your testing department and your development and get their butts in gear. I personally suggest getting out to a university bookstore and grabbing the first computer science 101 book that is in stock. In there you’ll find that testing is just as important as code, and your end users are NOT your beta testers.This is common misconception will cost you in the long run. People will get sick and tired of it and go somewhere else to get their virtual fix.
And while I’m thinking about it, why the heck is the maintenance window during the day? It’s during office hours it seems which makes absolutely no sense. Every software package, and hardware application that requires 24 hours on-time has a night-time maintenance window. Another small outfit, Digg, Inc., has their maintenance window at night. In fact, I don’t believe there is an established business that comes to mind that has daytime maintenance windows unless it’s a total emergency.So what’s the deal? It’s getting tiring to not be able to enjoy a game that supposedly reflects the better parts of society. Wouldn’t it be nice if real life could take a maintenance window to fix a “bug” anytime they want? We would seriously be in deep trouble then. Quit cutting corners on testing. If that’s not the case, then you need a lot more robust testing suite or more communication between the two departments. Either way, the players are getting grumbling and getting irate. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot when it can still be fixed.
April 26th, 2007 • 
Darius Sartre • 
comment | April 26, 2007 at 19:57 | individual comment-link
Well, at least we can TP strangers again. But maybe they did that just because we can’t see who from our friends is online… *grmbls*
comment | April 27, 2007 at 05:17 | individual comment-link
Except for the fact that for a pretty good while there, we couldn’t tp at all after the “maintenance”.
comment | April 27, 2007 at 11:51 | individual comment-link
I have only been in SL a month, but as someone who earns a living doing software tech support, I am stunned that they can manage a major release in such a sloppy and unprofessional way and still hold on to their customers. I suppose most of us figure”free” is worth wht you pay. I know I have had my credit card out several times to upgrade to Premiun only to put it away because of the endless stream of problems. And this last one surpasses understanding. Since “upgrading” to 1.15.0 I am essentially unble to do anything in SL. Nothing will rez (okay a few things will but not many); my Avatar is half gray blob (and not even always the same half!). It crashes about 5 times every half hour. I can’t TP anywhere. I mean nowhere. None of my pose balls or furniture work. In fact I can’t do anythig but IM and walk around my one room starting location looking like some sort of X-Men freak.
Was this tested at all? I have to agree….using yout customers as your Beta testers is just stupid. An actual professional software company that subjected its user to this sort of thin as a result of a poorly managed release would pull it and revert to the prior version. Why are people forced to upgrade to a new version that doesn’t work? Where is the ongoing communication about when things will improve?
I don’t really ask a lot. Just to be able to log on and use the system most of the time. Apparently that is too much to ask.
comment | April 27, 2007 at 16:02 | individual comment-link
I’m right there with you. What’s terrible is… I’m not really sure there is good version control. The last time a patch was rolled back, new bugs came to be. A whole bunch of SL news sites are still trying to figure out what exactly got fixed in yesterday’s “emergency” maintenance window. It’s not like there isn’t “live” bugs right now, like the friends that are online with no notification, or the random teleport that still doesn’t work. But you wonder exactly where the communication or how their process is for software release since it is just plain bad.
comment | April 27, 2007 at 17:37 | individual comment-link
What is it with SL? I am forced to upgrade to the next version (1.15.2) but it just crashes constantly after 30secs. It restricts me from going back to an older version too. Don’t the Lindens want me in there? What is going on??
comment | April 28, 2007 at 06:29 | individual comment-link
I haven’t seen super stable clients yet. I use all three OSes (Windows/Mac/linux). Most crashes of mine are pretty much intermittent, or on load. Not sure why you’re getting 30 second crashes.
comment | April 29, 2007 at 18:26 | individual comment-link
mm well its still after a week not allowing me to participate. I have fiddled with the settings but as soon as I ask it to view a building or highly graphic area it crashes. If I fly immediately to the sky it stays open. The older versions worked fine but this 1.15.2 is just restricting me completely from taking part. Any ideas people? I run a pentium 4 with plenty of RAM and the graphic card is meant to be sufficient.
comment | April 29, 2007 at 19:42 | individual comment-link
Well their support@lindenlabs.com support email address is returning my emails as undeliverable. Maybe they think its working so well they just shut down their support.
comment | April 29, 2007 at 19:55 | individual comment-link
In only today, I’ve had almost 13-15 crashes (so far) of the client. This isn’t on anything with server stability. Just client. Ick. I’ve about had it. 3 times within 10 minutes means you have some really terrible bugs that you’re introducing.
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