[#SVC-3412] Inventory Loss -- When will SL understand what the word "Transaction" means ?

2. Second Life Service - SVC

Inventory Loss -- When will SL understand what the word "Transaction" means ?

Created: 14/Nov/08 02:50 PM Updated: 07/Jul/09 09:30 AM

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Component/s:

Inventory

Affects Version/s:

1.24 Server

Fix Version/s:

None

Environment:

Mac OS X 10.5.5 -OR- Windows XP -OR- Windows Vista

Issue Links:

Duplicate

This issue duplicates:

SVC-114 Meta-Issue: Inventory Loss: issues, fixes, development

Relates

This issue Relates to:

SVC-114 Meta-Issue: Inventory Loss: issues, fixes, development

Last Triaged:

06/Jul/09 09:29 AM

Description

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Inventory loss has been an ongoing problem in SL forever. Everyone has experienced it.

The response by Linden labs to such loss is always the same: basically, it's "tough luck". Does anyone at LL understand that inventory loss is exactly equivalent to a bank losing your money? How much loss do they think is acceptable? If I woke up tomorrow to find ALL my inventory gone (an investment exceeding US$2500), would this be acceptable to LL ??? Over the course of nearly 2 years in SL I estimate my inventory loss at L$25,000+ ... about US$100 or 5% of my investment. If any Linden lab employee woke up tomorrow to find his bank had "lost" 5% of his money would he think this acceptable?

Clearly everyone at LL needs some simple Information Technology training 101. In IT, there is the concept of a "transaction". A transaction is a synchronized change to one or more datasets that is structured in such a way that either the entire transaction succeeds or nothing changes. Taking an item back into inventory SHOULD be a transaction. The item vanishes from the sim and appears in my inventory. It should be LOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for the item to disappear from the sim and NOT appear in my inventory.

Banks do millions of transactions like this every day. So does every file system (NTFS, HFS+, Reiser etc) inside every PC on the planet. So do many network protocols. Apparently, however, no-one at LL is aware of such advanced technology (it was only invented 40 years ago, after all).

If I was nasty I might think that LL likes inventory loss, since it forces ppl to buy replacement items, which stimulates the SL economy. I wonder.

Linden Labs presents SL as a virtual world with an economy. Economies do not function when the underlying infrastructure is fundamentally broken. Basic functionality such as inventory management and purchases should be ROCK SOLID. The fact that they are not, and that LL regard this as acceptable is SCANDALOUS.

Description

Yet again I experienced a significant inventory loss yesterday, after an L$5000 item i attempted to "take" back into Inventory was deleted from the sim but failed to make it back to my inventory. And yes, I have looked in "lost+found", and yes I have waited for 24 hours etc etc etc. Inventory loss has been an ongoing problem in SL forever. Everyone has experienced it. The response by Linden labs to such loss is always the same: basically, it's "tough luck". Does anyone at LL understand that inventory loss is exactly equivalent to a bank losing your money? How much loss do they think is acceptable? If I woke up tomorrow to find ALL my inventory gone (an investment exceeding US$2500), would this be acceptable to LL ??? Over the course of nearly 2 years in SL I estimate my inventory loss at L$25,000+ ... about US$100 or 5% of my investment. If any Linden lab employee woke up tomorrow to find his bank had "lost" 5% of his money would he think this acceptable? Clearly everyone at LL needs some simple Information Technology training 101. In IT, there is the concept of a "transaction". A transaction is a synchronized change to one or more datasets that is structured in such a way that either the entire transaction succeeds or nothing changes. Taking an item back into inventory SHOULD be a transaction. The item vanishes from the sim and appears in my inventory. It should be LOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for the item to disappear from the sim and NOT appear in my inventory. Banks do millions of transactions like this every day. So does every file system (NTFS, HFS+, Reiser etc) inside every PC on the planet. So do many network protocols. Apparently, however, no-one at LL is aware of such advanced technology (it was only invented 40 years ago, after all). If I was nasty I might think that LL likes inventory loss, since it forces ppl to buy replacement items, which stimulates the SL economy. I wonder. Linden Labs presents SL as a virtual world with an economy. Economies do not function when the underlying infrastructure is fundamentally broken. Basic functionality such as inventory management and purchases should be ROCK SOLID. The fact that they are not, and that LL regard this as acceptable is SCANDALOUS.

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Maggie Darwin added a comment - 14/Nov/08 06:46 PM

Exacerbating this is the incredible overuse of "no copy". There's often no excuse for a "no transfer" item to be "no copy".

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Alexa Linden added a comment - 06/Jan/09 01:41 PM

Please read the following to see if this helps you: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Inventory_Page
For our support info or to file a ticket for your "specific instance of inventory loss", please go to http://secondlife.com/support

For our support info or to file a ticket , please go to http://secondlife.com/support

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Carl Wilder added a comment - 09/Jan/09 12:57 AM

How can this be closed???

SL loses inventory. SL should NOT lose inventory. Please re-read my post. Is it acceptable that SL flushes my $$$ down the toilet? Do you expect to retain customers when you think it acceptable to do this?

Yes, we all know the basics of finding "lost" inventory. But when it vanishes totally from SL then customers have suffered a financial loss. This should NOT happen and the technologies exist to make it NOT happen.

If you close this bug then you are saying that ANY inventory loss is acceptable. I'm stunned that you can take this position.

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Alexa Linden added a comment - 09/Jan/09 08:25 AM

What I posted was to contact support. Support deals with issues that a specific individual avatar is experiencing. They are often able to help with inventory losses.

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Carl Wilder added a comment - 09/Jan/09 11:50 AM

So the official position is that inventory loss is not a bug in SL, and that it is acceptable?

You dont seem to understand the difference between a system in which inventory loss can (sometimes) be recovered by spending ages on the phone with support and one in which it CANNOT occur.

And in my case support could NOT recover my L$5000 item. Is that acceptable?

if you close all bugs related to inventory loss as you did this one, how will developers ever realize it is an issue and undertake the design changes necessary to properly fix it?

One final question: If you ordered something from Amazon, they billed you, but it never arrived cause they "lost" the order in their system, would you consider that acceptable? Particularly if they didnt offer you a refund? In what was is inventory loss different from this?

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Carl Wilder added a comment - 09/Jan/09 11:51 AM

Before finally giving up on this I would like someone from Linden labs to respond to my comments above.

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Carl Wilder added a comment - 01/Jul/09 10:41 AM

Yet again I lost inventory.

This is NOT a bug about a specific inventory loss ... its a bug about the design of a system that loses inventory so easily. Please re-read the original filing BEFORE closing it as a "support" issue.

Correctly designed systems do NOT lose inventory. Inventory loss is caused by faulty system design. Faulty system design is a bug and should be treated as such.