Remembering Cory
by Alphaville Herald on 15/12/07 at 11:41 am
by Urizenus Sklar, from the Missing Linden Desk
Cory sipping tequila in the Herald Hospitality Suite at the Tribeca Grand Hotel
As I write this I am drinking bourbon from a paper cup, listening to country music, and waiting by the phone in the vain hopes that Cory Linden Ondrejka will call and agree to be the Herald’s CTO. Such is my nostalgia that I cannot help but dip into the Herald Paparazzi Photo Archives ™ for a trip down memory lane. I thought I would share the memories with all of you too.
Cory and Howard Rheingold at the Herald Suite.
Cory ashes a goldfish for reasons unknown.
The Linden Love Machine in Action. Cory gets a massage from Hamlet Linden Au. In the background Pathfinder Linden macks on my then GF.
Cory and Pathfinder compare hardware. Later they would retire to the mens room to compare their Prince Albert piercings.
Pathfinder tried and failed, but Cory steals the heart of my erstwhile GF. The cad!
In happier days at SOP II with Philip and Yale law profs Benkler and Balkin.
At a dispute resolution workshop, making a point, with David Johnson (NY Law), Susan Crawford (Cardozo Law) in the background.
Bye Cory. We love you!
Blinders Off
Dec 15th, 2007
I don’t really know how to take this post. The photo is unclear, but anyone that would torture any creature (if that’s what really happened) drops a major notch on my respect list.
I know two things: SL is brilliantly conceived. SL coding is highly inefficient (using mild words here).
I know one other thing: LL corporate philosophy is self-serving, money-gouging and nearly sociopathic in nature.
These things being the case I know two more things:
Cory leaving may possibly benefit Second Life.
Cory leaving may possibly be the last nail in the coffin for Second Life.
Whichever way things go, I’d like to know more of what happened and the actual situation now at LL and how this will likely affect SL in the future. An article dedicated to unimpressive photos of Cory partying does nothing more than say, “look Cory can be an ass at parties too!”
LOL
anon1
Dec 15th, 2007
@Blinders Off
For an online newspaper which you seem terribly dissatisfied with and that seemingly isn’t good enough for you, you sure do closely monitor the articles and comments. The same could be said of the game, if you see so many flaws with SL and have a feeling that it’s about to go down the latrine, why not just drop it entirely and find something more worth your time?
urizenus
Dec 15th, 2007
for the record, no goldfish were harmed in the making of that photo-op.
Lao-Tzu
Dec 15th, 2007
“Cory sipping tequila..” lol Please tell me he did not do the typical drunk white-guy dance also.. Lets all hope he did not get behind the wheel of a car that night. Guzzling tequila as if it were a Gatorade = depression???
Blinders Off
Dec 15th, 2007
@anon: bite me troll boy.
Blinders Off
Dec 15th, 2007
@Lao-Tzu: Valid observation. I wouldn’t blame Cory at all for being depressed. I have to believe he put his all into SL. From what I’ve seen of how the place is managed, I imagine he’s had his share of personal frustrations. We have no way to know how the deep-inside of management there works. All we can see is the end results. Was Cory responsible for the years-long mega bugs, or was he wanting to draw back and fix them and not being allowed to by Linden Lab?
There is no way to know. But one thing I can state with relative certainty is that he put his life into the company, and now is leaving. Myself, I hope the guy finds a job paying twice the funds, better structure, and gives him just what he needs to let his significant talents fully benefit someone.
I also hope he has significant ownership shares in LL so he can continue to make a buck while kicking back. If he does, I’d recommend retiring very early and buying a home on some nice tropical beach and sipping maitais instead of tequilla. Nothing wrong with tequilla, but it’s not usually surrounded by beautiful island girls.
About this firing
Dec 16th, 2007
Philip didn’t fire Ginsu or Robin when they messed up. But Philip did fire Cory when the growth of SL stopped.
And who was the clever one who gave the ownership of Second Life away?
I know how companies fall and this one has passed its prime time. So, now the essential question is, what was the wrong decision of LL which caused the downturn?
Flack Quartermass
Dec 16th, 2007
About this firing: “So, now the essential question is, what was the wrong decision of LL which caused the downturn?”
If I had to point at a beginning, I’d go with opening SL to anonymous no-payment-info accounts so early on. They jumped the gun (fearing future competition?), and got squeezed by their 312 minutes of virtual fame from the onslaught of not only a large influx of people (many with little to no vested interest in SL’s economy or community) but getting all the attention seemingly prompted LL to push whizzbang “improvements” to keep the limelight flowing and people coming in instead of building a reliable system. So we had increasingly angered and frustrated residents, or rather ‘perpetual beta participants’.
The large influx of people coincided with less accountability (payment info optional), greatly expanding the population and capabilities of griefers and scammers as bugs and reliability issues expanded.
This substantial increase of people was what LL wanted, and yet, amazingly, they seemed largely unprepared for it. Centralized bottlenecks on the server-side, language barriers, deficient customer service, and an overwhelming amount of customer voices (good and bad ones), which LL, instead of sheparding and nurturing (or at least consoling), almost completely cut off (forums, Linden virtual face-time, blog, etc.).
The buzz continued though, and the big dollar signs seemed to be on the horizon as Real Life(TM) companies decided to capitalize on the setup for headlines (cheap advertising). At the time, it didn’t matter if in-world the corporate sim concepts were utter failures. We were never really the intended audience, it was mostly a ride for the buzz. And now that the buzz is already waning, and account numbers seemed to have peaked (due to many factors, including the ones above), there’s far less incentive. It seems like LL was hoping corporations would invest and propel their service to stardom (and incorporate it into 3rd party tie-ins), rather than throw pennies in the fountain and walk on.
I wouldn’t say Second Life is dead though. Aside from the lack of significant competition (so far), the best hope for LL right now is open source. Strangely, it’s the antithesis of LL’s strategic choices in the past (corporates over residents, numbers of accounts over community health and consumer sentiments, whizzbang over stability, etc.), but volunteers are putting immense time and skill into working on things residents deal with daily (stability, bugs, interface issues, privacy, etc.), and with open source server code on the horizon, we the residents will at least have more choices in where and how we live our second lives.
Prokofy Neva
Dec 16th, 2007
Yes, Uri, technically true, no goldfish was harmed in the making of the photo…but that’s because the goldfish was *already dead*. Now…how did the goldfish die, Uri?
The idea that Philip fired Cory because SL is broken is the hysterical imaginings of people inside the cave. If anything, Philip would say, “Break it some more, just make it cool.” That surely wasn’t what it was about.
Another really common user fallacy is that the free accounts represented the death knell of Second Life. They represented nothing of the kind. They are what enabled the population to really grow, not just fake-grow in faux statistics, which of course they did massage. They enabled non-US members to join en masse. They are what turned the corner for Second Life, making it the subject of all mass media everywhere, influencing its further growth. Sorry, but the presence of griefers among these accounts, or their purported use of resources, aren’t offsets enough against the plusses of everything that the Lindens got out of them — and they essentially got their success out of them, and not out of us, who till the soil and pay tier. That’s the sad but true story: alone, as a class of content makers or land barons, we could not produce enough ink about stuff like Aimee’s lingerie or Anshe’s million — there were only so many stories that could be done on that topic. But once everybody and his brother could join and use SL for a lot more purposes than the early and later adapters, it could get in local and international news.
Ginsu and Robin didn’t do anything wrong, such as to be followed. If anything, they got promotions — or should. Ginsu shephered LL into all its international grid sub-sets. Robin skilfully handled the nightmare of ageplay and age verification. Sorry, but putting a damper on the kiddie porn parade doesn’t get you fired in RL; it gets you a raise.
The biggest blunder that LL could make now is open sourcing too fast because they imagine all these OpenSim geeks represent competition. Let’s hope they have enough intel on them to realize that’s not the case.
Flack Quartermass
Dec 16th, 2007
Prokofy: “Another really common user fallacy is that the free accounts represented the death knell of Second Life.”
Were you referring to my post? Because I clearly stated such things as “so early on” and “jumped the gun”. Obviously it was a long term goal of LL to see wider adoption. I’m stating that their technical infrastructure, their codebase, their human services, etc., were not ready for it at the stage they leaped in. Now, perhaps they were hurting for VC cash injections, or were spooked by competition, or most likely, they just made a bad decision and gambled on timing. That doesn’t change the outcome.
Prokofy: “The biggest blunder that LL could make now is open sourcing too fast because they imagine all these OpenSim geeks represent competition.”
Open sourcing the server code doesn’t represent the threat you think it does. One of the main selling points of SL is the interconnectivity of residents, and the ability to bring your inventory with you, regardless of servers. You don’t get that magical ability by just providing code. Open Sourcing server code won’t make high-cost data centers spring up in geeks’ basements, nor make it in any way possible to connect disparate servers to the main grid without LL’s approval. But this is old news, try keeping up with the SL-Dev mailing list, and perhaps look into the Working Group.
You sure do stick to your talking points though. I’ll give you that.
Blinders Off
Dec 16th, 2007
@Flack: I think your post is one of the most realistic and insightful I’ve seen on this blog.
@Prok: As usual I disagree with almost all of your post, but respect it as your view. People can disagree with you all they like (and I often do) but your posts are head and tails above the useless troll flamers. You may be wrong (snicker) but that’s what freedom of speech is about. You’ll probably think I’m wrong here to, and I have no problem with that.
I fully agree with Flack that LL’s decision to open up their board to no identification (along with very poor moderation) stamped a big “flamer board” sign on their system. The reason they did it (apparently) was not out of altruistic desire to include everyone possible as part of the “experiment” (although that is surely what the propaganda stated). It came at the same time they were courting IBM and Nissan and Microsoft to be bed-partners, and they wanted sheer numbers to prove they were playing with the big boys.
In order to accomplish that, they cut corners, they overburdended asset servers, and like Flack accurately stated, such growth was premature and unsupportable. Probably made Cory tear his hair out on a daily basis. What was the result?
At one time, Second Life contained 15000 to 25000 hard-core users… and most of those logged in every day, hours a day. That went to 50,000 and even then, the board could handle it and from the usage stats, most of those were equally devoted to the board. Then LL opened the system up to anyone who could fake an email. Now, accurate, Linden Lab demographics show that 95% of those “residents” NEVER log in. Of those who do log in, 33% are KNOWN alts (no telling how many more are unknown). Less than 2% of their claimed residency are actually paying members (not that there’s anything wrong with freebie accounts. But freebies don’t pay the electricity bills).
New users log in daily, using up system resources and asset servers, further clogging the system and burdening the databases, then get fed up with the bugs and lag and leave, their data footprints remaining on the system. It increases LL’s bogus PR numbers, but it doesn’t benefit the system at all.
The points about griefing and use-by-minors increasing dramatically is absolutely correct (I was there). There are so many kids on SL today faking adult identity it’s absurdly obvious, and LL’s hilarious “age verification” step appears to be nothing but a useless facade attempt to legally cover their butts in the wake of charges of pedophelia activities on their system. “Oh, but we have an age-check system! It’s the responsiblity of our users to implement it!” The old tried-but-true Linden Lab “blame the customer” gimmic. You see, customers are directly responsible for everything from lag to overburdened asset servers because they just have so much inventory and dare to actually put prims and scripts on their sims.
LL is a master at passing the blame, and that’s all that “age verification” does.
Well, I could go on and on, but that’s enough to give a general overview of my perceived current status of LL. From Flack’s post above, it’a apparent I’m not the only one who’s taken the blinders off, and from posts I’ve seen on other blogs and forums, many people are well aware of these things. When we remove the false “hotrod” covering, we find there’s a clunky rustbucket of a car underneath. And while that car rusts further and further, the neighbor next door building a dragster.
Blinders Off
Dec 16th, 2007
(I am getting really tired of that Typekey spam nonsense)
@Flack: I think your post is one of the most realistic and insightful I’ve seen on this blog.
@Prok: As usual I disagree with almost all of your post, but respect it as your view. People can disagree with you all they like (and I often do) but your posts are head and tails above the useless troll flamers. You may be wrong (snicker) but that’s what freedom of speech is about. You’ll probably think I’m wrong here to, and I have no problem with that. I do agree with one statement you made: LL going open source would be a financial disaster. But at the same time, they’re headed for financial disaster anyway. I have a pretty good idea how they could save the company… but all things considered I’m not particularly inclined to tell them. They built their bed and forced others to sleep in the rickety mess. Then they set it on fire. Let ‘em burn.
I fully agree with Flack that LL’s decision to open up their board to no identification (along with very poor moderation) stamped a big “flamer board” sign on their system. The reason they did it (apparently) was not out of altruistic desire to include everyone possible as part of the “experiment” (although that is surely what the propaganda stated). It came at the same time they were courting IBM and Nissan and Microsoft to be bed-partners, and they wanted sheer numbers to prove they were playing with the big boys.
In order to accomplish that, they cut corners, they overburdended asset servers, and like Flack accurately stated, such growth was premature and unsupportable. Probably made Cory tear his hair out on a daily basis. What was the result?
At one time, Second Life contained 15000 to 25000 hard-core users… and most of those logged in every day, hours a day. That went to 50,000 and even then, the board could handle it and from the usage stats, most of those were equally devoted to the board. Then LL opened the system up to anyone who could fake an email. Now, accurate, Linden Lab demographics show that 95% of those “residents” NEVER log in. Of those who do log in, 33% are KNOWN alts (no telling how many more are unknown). Less than 2% of their claimed residency are actually paying members (not that there’s anything wrong with freebie accounts. But freebies don’t pay the electricity bills). (pt 2 coming up)
Blinders Off
Dec 16th, 2007
(continued…)
New users log in daily, using up system resources and asset servers, further clogging the system and burdening the databases, then get fed up with the bugs and lag and leave, their data footprints remaining on the system. It increases LL’s bogus PR numbers, but it doesn’t benefit the system at all.
The points about griefing and use-by-minors increasing dramatically is absolutely correct (I was there). There are so many kids on SL today faking adult identity it’s absurdly obvious, and LL’s hilarious “age verification” step appears to be nothing but a useless facade attempt to legally cover their butts in the wake of charges of pedophelia activities on their system. “Oh, but we have an age-check system! It’s the responsiblity of our users to implement it!” The old tried-but-true Linden Lab “blame the customer” gimmic. You see, customers are directly responsible for everything from lag to overburdened asset servers because they just have so much inventory and dare to actually put prims and scripts on their sims.
LL is a master at passing the blame, and that’s all that “age verification” does.
Well, I could go on and on, but that’s enough to give a general overview of my perceived current status of LL. From Flack’s post above, it’a apparent I’m not the only one who’s taken the blinders off, and from posts I’ve seen on other blogs and forums, many people are well aware of these things. When we remove the false “hotrod” covering, we find there’s a clunky rustbucket of a car underneath. And while that car rusts further and further, the neighbor next door building a dragster.
Blinders Off
Dec 16th, 2007
The points about griefing and use-by-minors increasing dramatically is absolutely correct (I was there). There are so many kids on SL today faking adult identity it’s absurdly obvious, and LL’s hilarious “age verification” step appears to be nothing but a useless facade attempt to legally cover their butts in the wake of charges of pedophelia activities on their system. “Oh, but we have an age-check system! It’s the responsiblity of our users to implement it!” The old tried-but-true Linden Lab “blame the customer” gimmic. You see, customers are directly responsible for everything from lag to overburdened asset servers because they just have so much inventory and dare to actually put prims and scripts on their sims.
LL is a master at passing the blame, and that’s all that “age verification” does.
Well, I could go on and on, but that’s enough to give a general overview of my perceived current status of LL. From Flack’s post above, it’a apparent I’m not the only one who’s taken the blinders off, and from posts I’ve seen on other blogs and forums, many people are well aware of these things. When we remove the false “hotrod” covering, we find there’s a clunky rustbucket of a car underneath. And while that car rusts further and further, the neighbor next door building a dragster.
Blinders Off
Dec 16th, 2007
(I think I know why the “anti-spam” filter is borked. Any time someone copy/pastes text, it appears to think they’re spamming. /me shoots the spam filter).
New users log in daily, using up system resources and asset servers, further clogging the system and burdening the databases, then get fed up with the bugs and lag and leave, their data footprints remaining on the system. It increases LL’s bogus PR numbers, but it doesn’t benefit the system at all.
The points about griefing and use-by-minors increasing dramatically is absolutely correct (I was there). There are so many kids on SL today faking adult identity it’s absurdly obvious, and LL’s hilarious “age verification” step appears to be nothing but a useless facade attempt to legally cover their butts in the wake of charges of pedophelia activities on their system. “Oh, but we have an age-check system! It’s the responsiblity of our users to implement it!” The old tried-but-true Linden Lab “blame the customer” gimmic. You see, customers are directly responsible for everything from lag to overburdened asset servers because they just have so much inventory and dare to actually put prims and scripts on their sims.
LL is a master at passing the blame, and that’s all that “age verification” does.
Well, I could go on and on, but that’s enough to give a general overview of my perceived current status of LL. From Flack’s post above, it’a apparent I’m not the only one who’s taken the blinders off, and from posts I’ve seen on other blogs and forums, many people are well aware of these things. When we remove the false “hotrod” covering, we find there’s a clunky rustbucket of a car underneath. And while that car rusts further and further, the neighbor next door building a dragster.
DaveOner
Dec 17th, 2007
Prokofy: “The biggest blunder that LL could make now is open sourcing too fast because they imagine all these OpenSim geeks represent competition.”
She’s against OpenSim because it means an end to her little real estate bid so she’ll have to get a job if it becomes successful.
Otherwise all this outsider-looking-in speculation is just masturbatory. The key to finding out if this was a good decision on LL’s part is in what happens in the next 6 months or so. If things get better then it was a good decision. If they stay the same or get worse (equivalent to staying the same in SL hehe) then it was a bad decision.
Either way I think LL will slowly become irrelevant if projects like OpenSim continue. They provided the foundation and that’s something no one can deny but just like charging by the hour for internet went away in the old days, so, too, will LL’s virtual land enterprise…which means so, too, will the land barons!
So yeah, I’m not seeing SL going away anytime soon…just LL.
DaveOner
Dec 17th, 2007
Prokofy: “The biggest blunder that LL could make now is open sourcing too fast because they imagine all these OpenSim geeks represent competition.”
She’s against OpenSim because it means an end to her little real estate bid so she’ll have to get a job if it becomes successful.
Otherwise all this outsider-looking-in speculation is just masturbatory. The key to finding out if this was a good decision on LL’s part is in what happens in the next 6 months or so. If things get better then it was a good decision. If they stay the same or get worse (equivalent to staying the same in SL hehe) then it was a bad decision.
Either way I think LL will slowly become irrelevant if projects like OpenSim continue. They provided the foundation and that’s something no one can deny but just like charging by the hour for internet went away in the old days, so, too, will LL’s virtual land enterprise…which means so, too, will the land barons!
So yeah, I’m not seeing SL going away anytime soon…just LL.
Blinders Off
Dec 17th, 2007
“@DaveOner: So yeah, I’m not seeing SL going away anytime soon…just LL.”
Yeah, that about sums it up. If anything, Open Sim and similar projects will bring VR to the point that LL should have brought it in the first place but failed. Philip always boasted about wanting to be the new web, making VR available world wide to anyone etc etc blah blah blah, but all it turned in to was bottom line corporate profit and pricing themselves out of existence. They focused on the dollar and courting big business and in doing so lost support of the people that always make this kind of thing work: the everyday hobbyist and gamer.
When Open Sim allows ANYONE to host a sim at prices nearly anyone can afford, we’ll finally see Second Life turn into what it should have been: OUR WORLD. Each sim owner will be his own boss, each world will operate according to its own theme, TOS and security measures, and bugs will actually get fixed. It will still need some kind of central organization and moderation, otherwise it will just become a mess of individual “fixes” like Unreal Online. But if people do have the sense to work together for a final, organized product, Open Sim will be a very interesting development.