Second Life News 2014-19

Some big news today… almost… see Group Ban below.

Servers

There were no rollouts to the main or RC channels this week. But, a T-Rex was pitching baseball in San Diego.

Chat Fix

However, the backend servers for chat got an update. These are the updates Simon Linden has been working on and that several of us have been testing in ADITI over the past few weeks.

People are probably not going to notice much difference. Any difference will be subtle. But, the code adds more analytics to the chat system. The new information should give the Lindens a better idea of what can be fixed to improve performance. 

Group Ban

Work is proceeding on the Group Ban project. This is the project that allows one to create a list of banned avatars. Previous to this code you could eject a person, but if the group was open-join they just joined and were back in. Now, when added to the group’s ban list they are no longer allowed to join and open group.

Most recent work has been on the viewer. But, a server side fix for all bans being rejected in a set if submissions that included even one name of a person you cannot ban from the group, think an owner.

Maestro Linden tells that now the list is processed and only the ‘illegal to ban’ names are dropped. The rest of the names in the submitted list get banned.

Today a new viewer for Group ban is being built. You can find the latest Group Ban Viewer here. Windows, Mac, and Linux versions are there. I suggest you wait until you see the viewer on the RC Viewers page. The build underway now is planned and configured to be a project viewer.

Don’t get too excited. The server side of this change is incomplete. It will probably be 10 days or so before we see the code arriving in a Server RC Channel.

The ADITI grid is using the new code grid wide now. The actual change just made is in a backend server, not the region server code. So, we don’t see a server version change for the latest fix. Still: DRTSIM-234 14.05.05.289712.

The Lindens are hoping this is the last fix needed for group ban. The project has been more complex than expected. Everyone  is eager to see this change roll out.

Group Bug

See: BUG-5961I cannot leave a group that I joined. Or as Maestro renamed it, The Hotel California bug.

It seems you cannot leave a group until the entire membership list downloads. For some large groups that can take a long time. Thus giving the appearance the viewer has failed.

Obviously this is something the Lindens would like to get fixed. They are working on it. But, this may be another more complex change than expected.

Restore to Last Position

There is an old bug: BUG-5955Restore to Last Position (used only by TPVs) causes content loss. This is a 2009 era thing. Some third party viewers still have the feature. The SL Viewer temporarily fixed the problem by removing the feature.

The Lindens may block the server side part of this function as Third Party Viewer use is still causing item losses. At least until they can get it fixed. It sounds like they are anticipating having to change things on the server side and create a new way for this feature to work. So, existing viewer code is unlikely to work with the newer server code.

Many find this a very handy feature. Put something in inventory, like a wall, and next time you pull it out of inventory it rezzes in its previous location. Some think the feature was originally implemented to help people moving from mainland to Zindra when the adult continent was created.

Whatever the case, it was used for griefing. One needed rez rights at 0,0,0 in the region to use Restore to Last Position. So, things would work, rezzing at 0,0,0 was open to most everyone. You can figure how griefers used this to rez there troublemaking prims.

When one did not have rez rights at 0,0,0 and tried to Restore a prim, things went sideways. Items were supposed to return to lost and found or trash. But, that often did not happen and the item was lost. No-Copy items are special problems.

While many people use the feature in third party viewers, it is often the Lab that gets the complaints. So, they made decide to block the function at the server and turn it off.

Some developers are afraid that if that happens it will never get fixed. Only time will tell if that is a justified fear. Loss of items is here now and real.

2 thoughts on “Second Life News 2014-19

  1. Restoring to last position is a wonderful feature. I hope they can adjust it and not end it.

    It makes renting land easier and more fun— can decorate for holidays ,or sales if a shop , and then restore the old look perfectly.

    Griefers are always looking for a way in. Shouldn’t wreck the experience of all of us because of them .

    If someone can’t rez at 0. 0. 0. They could block that action . I actually bought a parcel in mainland to have the 0 0 0. Position.

    • I think they get how handy the feature is. While I think they will restore the feature at some point, I can’t guess when.

      To add weight to the feature-fix request add to the JIRA item. Provide a detailed account of how you use the feature. Lindens seem to get their teeth into good user cases. Get your friends to do the same.

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