Today there is a new post about the Emerald Scandal on the Modular blog. Fractured Crystal apologizes and resigns from the Emerald Team. This is no small step. Whether it will be enough to save the viewer and restore people’s trust in the development team, time will tell. See: [Emerald] Off with his head
Whatever the case, it is a huge step.
The SLUniverse forum has been abuzz with people discussing the Emerald scandal and to some extent so has the SL blogrum. In both those discussions it is obvious people have lost trust in the Emerald Viewer and are abandoning it.
The Emerald team uses the hits on the login page to measure Emerald Viewer usage. It would be interesting to see the viewer usage stats leading up to Fractured’s resignation. Even without them I’m sure there will be speculation about what actually moved Fractured.
Still, Fractured’s roll in gathering the development team and creating the most popular viewer in SL is significant and he deserves his props for some good work. Those that warned us about his character flaws have to some extent also been justified. Most important the lesson that people are not pure black & white, bad or good but some mix has become blatantly obvious. There are no saints in or around this scandal.
Update... 6:15 PM SLT – Well… Emerald has disappeared from the TPV List… that is a BIG hit. New World Notes 4 hours ago reported the removal.
NWN also points out another facet of the Fractured Crystal resignation. Figuring that sense no RL name is associated with the avatar Fractured, can one really know that Fractured really left the team? I think part of getting on the TPV List is providing RL contact information. But, I have never heard if it is required for all contributors to a viewer’s code to provide RL ID. I think that would be difficult for Linden Lab to track and enforce. So, Hamlet’s speculation about what the ‘reported’ resignation really means is a real concern.
There is a related thread on the Modular Systems forum. Emerald removed from TVP list
Skills Hak is said to have stated in open chat:
Skills Hak: yes we asked LL to transfer the entry to a different person
Skills Hak: so it’s temp down
Skills is part of the management of Insilico and a member of the Emerald Dev Team. I would not be surprised to see Skills become the responsible party for the Emerald Viewer. This will make some of us happy and others upset. I like Insilico and was around for some of drama when Insilico tried to co-exist with another RPG. They ran into problems and one side of the argument got nasty. I was impressed with how Skills handled it. Whether justified or not, I respect Skills.
There is more news read: Emerald Viewer Interview – Arabella & Jessica
Is there anyone reading this who is qualified to Judge?
Anyone?
I’m not.
That said, without ‘Fractured’ I believe that the Emerald Project will be diminished.
Reposted from ‘off with his head’ >>
As Fractured Crystal, you do not need to Step DOWN, but you need to Step UP… further
Step 1, lessons learned will not ever again become mistakes. If you bailed at every issue (major, or otherwise), your list of regrets would be far longer, and your accomplishments would not have been worth mentioning.
I would be one of the many to agree that errors can creep into any project, without a robust oversight structure other issues will crop up.
Someone must provide this oversight, if not Devs with conscience… then who.
Let me place my vote of confidence on record here.
I do respect your decision, it cannot have been an easy one, but I add my wish to the list of many, that you find it in your heart to reconsider and weather the storm.
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