I'm aware that many of you (including myself) experienced a lot of frustration that last weekend.
Your collars, body HUDs, spankers, and many other items suddenly became unresponsive. You don't know what is wrong, you start messing around, take things on and off and eventually come to realize that upon changing into a different sim everything works again just as it always used to.
I believe that this is happening due to a change in the way the Second Life® server schedules script events and that this problem is most prominent in items that rely on link message events that happen in between an object's root and its child-links.
Somewhere along the way the script event gets stuck and teleporting to a region that is unaffected unstucks it. You can try that with a spanker or with your collar. Touch it 5 times, nothing happens, go to a region that is currently healthy, and you get 5 spanks or 5 collar main menus.
I have filed a bug on the Second Life® JIRA that explains the problem in detail:
If you are affected, please sign into JIRA with your Second Life® account and watch the issue.
Your collars, body HUDs, spankers, and many other items suddenly became unresponsive. You don't know what is wrong, you start messing around, take things on and off and eventually come to realize that upon changing into a different sim everything works again just as it always used to.
I believe that this is happening due to a change in the way the Second Life® server schedules script events and that this problem is most prominent in items that rely on link message events that happen in between an object's root and its child-links.
Somewhere along the way the script event gets stuck and teleporting to a region that is unaffected unstucks it. You can try that with a spanker or with your collar. Touch it 5 times, nothing happens, go to a region that is currently healthy, and you get 5 spanks or 5 collar main menus.
I have filed a bug on the Second Life® JIRA that explains the problem in detail:
If you are affected, please sign into JIRA with your Second Life® account and watch the issue.
Can I fix that?
| Yes and no. The Second Life® server code is proprietary and all we can do is to make educated guesses about the way it really works, and what may be wrong with it. If you are about the same level of nerd as I am this comparison will make a lot of sense: I imagine SL server version deploy to be a lot like the warp travel and space ships in W40K. Nobody really understands anymore how they were created, but they can still be maintained in an "OK manner" (as described in the picture). |  |
| So, I can't clone the server code and dig my skinny fingers in it to create an even greater mess (I mean to attempt fixing what's wrong) but Otto and I ran tests with logic that stood tall and defied the issue in general. However, yesterday I was getting a bit annoyed with messages from people complaining that my collar version is responsible, and before I do anything at all, I want to make it abundantly clear that fixing this is not something that I have to do on my end. I didn't do it (this time)!! The thing is just that, while I have a lot of confidence in the brave women and men who work on the SL server (I really do), I'm used to take measures into my own hands, and make everything as robust as I possibly can. |  The things I create are a capitalist's nightmare, because they almost never break, and the consumer almost never needs to replace them. |
Anyway, I digress...
I will try to ask you guys what you want. There are two approaches that I can take here.
Obviously each approach has good and bad sides.
The first approach would mean that we keep the collar virtually as it is. You wouldn't notice any difference at all in menus and features. It will juggernaut along merrily but it will cause more lag.
The second approach would make the collar quite different. It would be much faster with less than half of the current script count, but it would also get rid of a lot the knobs and dials that OC/P9 has.
- Modify the OC/P9 collar in a way that makes it meaner, taller and stronger, like a tank that is exponentially more robust against the problems that are happening now on the SL server, but that would also consume a much greater share of resources.
- Re-write the collar entirely, keep its most popular features, but get rid of the old OpenCollar bulk to make it more agile, slimmer and harder to take down, having it consume so few resources that you barely even notice it is there at all.
Obviously each approach has good and bad sides.
The first approach would mean that we keep the collar virtually as it is. You wouldn't notice any difference at all in menus and features. It will juggernaut along merrily but it will cause more lag.
The second approach would make the collar quite different. It would be much faster with less than half of the current script count, but it would also get rid of a lot the knobs and dials that OC/P9 has.
We arrived at a crossroads
I obviously would prefer the second approach, because it is more fun for Otto and me to develop and because I know from piles of feedback what most people use and what just bloats the collar.
The thing is that regardless whether approach is taken, it will come with a bloody nose and a black eye for me, because we arrived at the point in time where a one-size-fits-all is simply impossible.
Those who didn't get what they wanted will be militantly angry, just as it happened with OC 3.9 and Six, and the Official Wendy Starfall Hate Club™ will get a lot of new members. But I can handle that.
To be honest with you all, I'm working on something new anyway, so whatever you choose, I will do it for you. I mean all of you, heartcore and casual users, modders, creators, nerdettes and nerds. ♥
Please make your voice heard and answer the two questions in the form at the address below:
The thing is that regardless whether approach is taken, it will come with a bloody nose and a black eye for me, because we arrived at the point in time where a one-size-fits-all is simply impossible.
Those who didn't get what they wanted will be militantly angry, just as it happened with OC 3.9 and Six, and the Official Wendy Starfall Hate Club™ will get a lot of new members. But I can handle that.
To be honest with you all, I'm working on something new anyway, so whatever you choose, I will do it for you. I mean all of you, heartcore and casual users, modders, creators, nerdettes and nerds. ♥
Please make your voice heard and answer the two questions in the form at the address below:
