Socially|Mundane

Katt Linden notifies us via the Second Life Blog that the login screen of the Second Life Viewer has been updated with some really useful information. This is actually good stuff:

"We have made a few changes to the Second Life login screen, as you may have noticed, and we hope you’ll find them useful. You will see headlines from two sources, the most recent posts from the Official Second Life Blog and also the most recent Second Life Grid Status Reports. You can also subscribe to either feed, directly from the login screen, using the handy new RSS buttons."

I'm in the habit of simply checking the blog and status updates manually. In fact, both are quick-links in my browser tool bar, and I suspect those of you who frequent these information sources do the same. At least with bookmarks in your browsers bookmark menu.

So, even though this is a handy way to make good use of the SL Viewer splash screen... how useful is it really?
Here's my point: the splash screen is RSS (Really Simple Syndication) -based.
So:

1. you fire-up the viewer


2. it has to go out to the Internet


3. checks the Linden Lab servers for any updates


4. download the pretty picture of SL scenery,
   (why download this every time anyway,)


5. then pull the news via RSS from two sources


6. and populate the screen.

However, most whom have been in SL for a while have gotten into the habit of simply typing password/enter (and some even have their password saved,) all to get logged-in as quickly as possible. Depending on your Internet connection, the splash page and information is populated in a matter of seconds.

However, the typical login action described usually occurs far faster.

Thus, many will hit the login button often before the pretty scenery even appears, much less all that really useful information.

Then, if there happens to be a problem with the grid, say logins are disabled for 15-minutes and the timing is just plain bad for the user...

• They can't login.


• They head to the Second Life blog.


• They find the first open post that is allowing feedback, for example:
  Torley's awesome tutorial videos...and the they....


• Lay into Linden Lab wondering why the hell they...

Personally I think it would be better to have a static image: the Second Life logo or something. And in large text, bold and bright, appearing as quickly as possible: the grid status.

Then pull down all the other stuff.

Oh, and Katt... and the rest of Linden Lab...
If you really want to make the SL viewer login screen really, really useful: include a logout function, so we don't have to exit the application completely, just to relogin because of memory leaks, funky lag, or whatever other reason.

:p

Source:
Second Life Login Screen, Now with More Info, and a few Questions « Official Second Life Blog

Tags: SecondLife, Linden Lab, Viewer