Missing Lindens: Where’s Cheerful $Larry?
by prokofy on 29/05/07 at 1:11 pm
By Prokofy Neva, Kremlindenologist, Reporting Live From the Sea of Omidyar
Once again, I take up my lonely vigil on the unforgiving, rocky shores of the Sea of Omidyar, gazing out at the endless synthetic blue horizon now lit by that watery new MIT college start-up sun, with the chill in my soul echoing the frigid depths of the Omidyar. Once again, they’re booming the waters for a Missing Linden, this time Lawrence Linden, the LindEx developer, guru, and all-round economy baby-sitter who was known for signing every single post on the forums, “Cheers, Lawrence.” Where is Cheerful Larry now? Gone from the People List — and not because he’s on Lindy Stealth-Mode — his office parcel with the funny black box “Don’t Click on Me!” (which of course everyone *did*) is gone from the Linden Land list.
A quick check at his alt’s property finds a pile of rain-soaked plywood that has evidently been there for days, and no traffic or activity. No, Lawrence is gone — we can only hope to a better place.
I put in at the Forest of Kahruvel, as Linden sea prevents the rezzing of residents’ boats. Then I gingerly hugged the shore, oaring past the treacherous undercurrents swirling at the Hand-Do-Eye-See Linden Logo stamped into the sinking sands of Omidyar. Perhaps Larry chanced a heroic swim for freedom, after being dumped out of a black LL helicopter that he was told “was on its way to a board meeting” — and I might yet find him shivering and cold, ready to tell me a teeth-chattering tale about the atrocious amounts that Supply Linden had to sell — devaluing our labour — and maybe…even buy?
Suddenly I spotted a clue…
Up ahead, was some kind of sea-drenched wooden sign, the dripping inky letters still showing the words “MONEY CHANGER” in several languages.
Right-clicking on edit mode on the OBMEN VALYUTY to stop the inevitable drift of my fragile craft, I roped myself in hand over hand on the XYZ axis….Yes, it looked like Lawrence’s desk as I last remembered it, when we had a very terse conversation right after the Big Casino Cash-Out about 8 weeks ago. I remember dialing LL and asking him urgently to stop Supply Linden sales as there’d be tons of cashouts. He responded a bit grumpily — it was very late at night his time — to the effect that not even a point was going to be lost. He was right. I never knew how they did it.
Lawrence had been around for about two years, and was involved in the creation of the LindEx after GOM was GOM’d. He worked tirelessly to get the currency exchange up and running, and worked out all kinds of glitches. He kept at it diligently, trying to satisfy the needs of very different customers — small and large businesses, individual shoppers, and day-traders of currency — all of whom LL wanted to accommodate in some fashion. The ease with which we all use the LindEx today is largely due to Lawrence’s hard work and sensitivity to customer concern — he always answered critical IMs by actually trying to solve the problem you mentioned — or show you that you hadn’t understood something. He even came inworld to residents’ meetings back in the days when there were no office hours.
With a background in leading a game design team at Ultima Online, I believe it was, Lawrence seemed eminently suited to the game of Second Life, but of course tried to take it beyond the game aspect. It’s hard to know what made him leave, or whether he was let go, like so many economic-related gurus at Linden Lab, all of whom have left abruptly and silently, presumably with NDAs or golden handshakes or both, never to be seen in the gaming industry again.
Pulling up toward the exchange booth, I found a water-logged ledger, with notations about Supply Lindens buys….but the sea had already claimed the figures, and we will never know what Lawrence’s last posts and notations were…Nevertheless, I filmed the pages, hoping to turn them over to the Herald’s forensic experts. Drawing nigh, I spotted a cash box overflowing with currency of an unknown country. Could Lawrence have been planning a get-away? Somehow, it didn’t seem like him…and his alt was still visible — although who knows, maybe not for long…
Shivering in the dawn chill, and noticing my inflatable was moving in not-so-lazy circles ever closer to the Maelstrom of Omidyar near the Hand-Eye, I pushed away, scanning the horizon.
Another Linden lost…silently…ominously…perhaps gratefully…Another Linden to be sought in the endless swirling currents of the synthetic sea…I thought about T-bone…David…Kenny…that gal whose name started with G…Altruima…all the lost souls, all the Lost Lindens…
Will they ever be found? Will they ever level up to be Palindens like those luckier Lindens like Ben or Reuben or Hamlet? Must they ever be wailing and gnashing their teeth in Linden Limbo?
Lost Lindens, know that the Herald is always standing by, ready to take you in. We can assure you complete anonymity and a safe, new identity if you would like to give us an after-action report. Write me at dyerbrookME@juno.com if you want to tell your tale…and send up a smoke signal…a sign…anything…from the unforgiving shores of Omidyar….
bolshev!k
May 29th, 2007
Lenin lives
Anonymous Avatar
May 29th, 2007
PN, you are evil. I love you.
Voter 5
May 29th, 2007
I’m in ur SL, stroking ma lolkyoob.
jethro
May 29th, 2007
Prok,
Is that you been parking those damn zodiacs all over my lawn? Damn kids these days got no respect!
RAM = upgraded
May 29th, 2007
o hi im just ugradin ur RAM lol
Moriash Moreau
May 29th, 2007
Prok, the writing on this one was verging on the poetic. Nicely done.
Nacon
May 29th, 2007
Since when Prok cares about a linden? He wasn’t your friend or anything…. you never met him, I bet.
And of course, it might be none of your business to know where he went. Maybe he got a better job, maybe he has a better Linden name now.
Go find your pills already.
urizenus
May 29th, 2007
Prok, all that time you spend booming the waters of the Omidyar and what do you have to show for it? Some old boots and a few low profile tires from the days when I chewed them up handing Nacon his ass in our drifting contests. Something tells me that when Lindens are expunged it is much more thorough than a “sleep with the fishies” job.
marilyn murphy
May 29th, 2007
i kinda liked this story. it has a wistful quality to it. it almost made me think. i wonder what happened to that guy who played frank on mash?
Answer Man
May 29th, 2007
Special for Marilyn
, The guy who played Frank from Mash (Larry Linville)died in 2000 (complications from a cancer operation). He had five wifes though so he got around it seems.
Nacon
May 30th, 2007
“…a few low profile tires from the days when I chewed them up handing Nacon his ass in our drifting contests.”
Oh good, another wishful thinking non-sense from Uriz.
The only time you spend with me, was doing nothing at all but spending 75L$ to rate me. I know you were hoping to think that I’d be on your side/friend, not to with you but that was only because I was asking you and Pixeleen some questions about Prok and Herald crap mistakes in the past. Bribing me with tiny penny rating crap.
So it got me wondering what kind of idiot are you anyway? (bleh, really don’t care.)
bolshev!k
May 30th, 2007
Lenin liek Prokofy, but Prokofy haet Lenin
;_;
Prokofy Neva
May 30th, 2007
That’s right, Uri, smother them with rating kindness!
I actually did consider Lawrence Linden a friend — I mean, as much as any Linden can be a friend. I talked to sometimes at length about the issues surrounding not only the LindEx, but the property market, mainland issues, etc. I always found him affable and helpful. I wondered what was up when he got crankier toward the end but the challenges were/are impossible: run a realistic foreign exchange but then whoops, subject it to the political whims of a revolutionary committee.
Given that Lindens *are* people (as we’re always being reminded by their fanboyz) and given that they do have such high interface with “the community” (whatever THAT is), I think it behooves the Lab to have more orderly and publicly-acknowledged departures. I really don’t think they should be throwing their internal critics out of helicopters into the Sea of Omidyar, and seeing “if they float” whether they should get to move to the next level in Strategic SL. I find that *cruel*.
One is left to speculate that Lawrence bolted from this insane asylum when he got the chance — he was a smart guy, and like I said, affable to someone like me, so that tells you that he’s more than decent! Or perhaps he “violated the Tao of Linden” and did something that “harmed the interests of the Company” — however that is defined/by whomever.
I just find it very telling at this point that every single person who puts their hand to this synthetic economy disappears in a big way. And I mean — like quick, with no trace. Creepy.
Nicholaz Beresford
May 30th, 2007
Prok, despite our little differences in view occasionally, I still love it when you go into this thoughtful and poetic mode of reporting from the world like this one. Simply love it…
marilyn murphy
May 30th, 2007
ty answer man!
. he was around for a long time and his avatar was a little turkish man in a suit wearing a fez. danny linden? he would drop in on me now and then. i remember when he left there was some conjecture about all not being well in LL.
i remember a linden. i forget his name,
however, although i do like it when prok writes like this, isn’t this sorta normal stuff for any company? employees come and go. reasons vary.
i tell you tho, i liked sl better when a linden was always standing at the wa. when i could get ahold of one on line any time and discuss problems. when cory would visit my place and personally find that griefer object that was there. sigh. i know this is pointless. talking about the “good old days” is pointless but its nice to remember that time in sl.
to be fair. (and i am always on the fix problems rather than develop shiny side of this issue) we didnt have animations, prim clothing/hair, new building tools i dont understand to this day, and such either. nor was the economy such that it would support that ten top earners list.
so i do miss the mayberryesq quality sl once had, but the manhattanesq quality it now has, has good points also.
therefore, i think its logical LL employees will come and go. it’s just the nature of the thing, and not due to any evil on LLs part.
the evil on LLs part is this bizarre lack of communication. they truck out torely to talk positive so much he has lost all credibility. a shame. why not have a little blurb explaining why the economic linden left? hey he found a better job and good luck to him! or, we decided to go in a different direction and we wish him well in his proffesional future. (meaning we canned his lazy ass) either way it would make LL seem more user friendly. it would be a touch of that old mayberry sl i miss.
Too yellow to use my real name
May 30th, 2007
Inasmuch as anyone has an inkling of what the real cash flows in SL are, people like Lawrence, and, er, wossername, the financial genius who used to run some little California town’s finances – they should have the best idea of what’s going on.
Admittedly, trying to sort it all out, with continual meddling from the gang of three does drive them mad pretty quickly, so I guess LL has to unperson them and keep them quiet and isolated. Because the information they are privy to is probably Linden Lab’s biggest and most sensitive secret.
SL Finance is pretty much a poisoned chalice – I wonder how much time Zee has left?
urizenus
May 30th, 2007
Nacon, I gave you the positve ratings because I felt so bad for you after humiliating you. You might know about driving virtual go-carts on Pontiac Island, but you don’t know shit about drifting, as we learned in real life. Vividly. May I suggest you go hang out in Toon Town? The “Kart” races are toontastic!
Prokofy Neva
May 30th, 2007
>Inasmuch as anyone has an inkling of what the real cash flows in SL are, people like Lawrence, and, er, wossername, the financial genius who used to run some little California town’s finances – they should have the best idea of what’s going on.
>Admittedly, trying to sort it all out, with continual meddling from the gang of three does drive them mad pretty quickly, so I guess LL has to unperson them and keep them quiet and isolated. Because the information they are privy to is probably Linden Lab’s biggest and most sensitive secret.
>SL Finance is pretty much a poisoned chalice – I wonder how much time Zee has left?
My bet is that Zee will not make it through the end of the year. Because he’s a *real life* CFO interested in real-life business stuff — and the Lindens don’t really want that. They want a church, a cult, a revolutionary movement, not a business like what Zee used to be in.
This is an interesting post. Who are the gang of three? Philip, Corey and…Andrew? And…who? I’d never heard that term before. Who is in the gang of 3?
Poisoned chalice indeed!
Yes, Lawrence would have had as good an idea as anybody what was really happening in the economy, what the real real numbers were. And to his credit, and to Zee’s credit, they have steadily put up more transparency. But perhaps they are advocating for too much, because at some point, there is the dirty little secret that the thing just doesn’t make the money everyone imagines. That’s not so terrible, but they think it’s terrible and that makes it dirty.
Nacon
May 30th, 2007
Oh good, another wishful thinking non-sense from Prokofy. I know you were hoping to think that I’d be on your side/friend, not to with you but that was only because I was asking you and Pixeleen some questions about Prok and Herald crap mistakes in the past. Bribing me with tiny penny rating crap. Some old boots and a few low profile tires from the days when I chewed them up handing Urizenus his ass in our drifting contests. One is left to speculate that Prokofy bolted from this insane asylum when he got the chance — he was a smart guy, and like I said, affable to someone like me, so that tells you that he’s more than decent! Or perhaps I “violated the Tao of Linden” and my mom got scared and said youre moving with your aunte and uncle in bel-air I whistled for a cab and when it came near the licensplate said fresh and had a dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare, but I thought now forget it, yo home to bel-air. I pulled up to a house about seven or eight and I yelled to the cabby yo, home smell you later. Looked at my kingdom I was finally there, to settle my throne as the prince of bel-air.
Inigo Chamerberlin
May 30th, 2007
‘This is an interesting post. Who are the gang of three? Philip, Corey and…Andrew? And…who? I’d never heard that term before. Who is in the gang of 3?’
The gang of three is:
Philip, Cory and Robin.
Thought you’d have got that.
Basicaly Robin and Cory conspire to limit Philip’s wilder excesses. NOT always sucessfully…
Nacon
May 30th, 2007
“Nacon, I gave you the positve ratings because I felt so bad for you after humiliating you. You might know about driving virtual go-carts on Pontiac Island, but you don’t know shit about drifting, as we learned in real life.”
What the hell was I humiliated from? I didn’t even race on that day, idiot. It’s a freaking go karts. I came to watch with my pals.
And why the hell are you talking about drifting? Drifting isn’t something to brag about, idiot.
Now I know you don’t. (youre dreaming like a noobs)
Play again, will ya?
urizenus
May 30th, 2007
My point in throwing the this back at Aimee is that I have real issues with people that come to this blog and start dropping the L word when they don’t like prok’s story, because it seems their real intent is not to give fair warning but rather to have a kind of chilling effect on the writers and posters here. It really pisses me off.
For the record, I don’t mind big ass retractions, and clear ammendations but I don’t believe in hiding fuck-ups.
Nacon
May 30th, 2007
Uhh… Aimee didn’t post anything about this.
(wtf?)
Prokofy Neva
May 31st, 2007
Are you in the right thread with that comment about Aimee? She wasn’t relevant to this story AFAIK.
I had a good laugh at your concept of “Mayberry SL” and “Manhattan SL”. So true! I remember the days when there was a Linden in the WA and even Lindens on my lawn. They actually made house calls!
I agree that it wouldn’t it be the worse thing to make even those fake corporate announcement like “Lawrence has left to pursue new challenges blah blah” where you feel at least there’s some “normalcy”. But…there isn’t. Hence…my lonely vigil on the unforgiving shores…