On Christmas Day I picked-up on comments that the direct messaging capabilities of the profile feeds had apparently been disabled. I heard things by way of Ciaran Laval, who pointed me towards a thread on the forums.
While one poster – Bondboy Dagger – commented on the thread that LL’s support had indicated the capability had been discontinued, I was a little cautious in stating this to be the case because my.secondlife.com has been subject to more than a few problems of late – as many of us who still are unable to post snapshots to our feeds can testify.
As news spread, so did the speculation that it may be down to scammers abusing the system with offers of cheap rates for buying L$.
In my original article, I promised to drop Pete Linden, the Lab’s Director of Global Communications a line and ask him for an official comment – although as I explained at the time, it would be unlikely that any answer would be forthcoming until the new year as Pete was out-of-the-office enjoying a well-earned break (and I actually forgot to send the mail at the time – it was left stranded in my DRAFTS folder *cough*).
Anyway, Pete is back in the office today, and did drop me a short reply to my question about the service being discontinued on account of misuse, which reads in full:
Hi Inara,
On this inquiry, I can confirm that yes, as a result of a rise in abuse of the system, we have turned off the direct message function on My.SecondLife.com profiles.
Best,
Peter
So there you have it. The capability has indeed been disabled. Whether it might be re-enabled in the future remains to be seen.
My thanks again to Pete for his reply.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
It is nice that Pete replies to you but kind of sad that the Lab doesn’t think that it should let its customer base know these things directly.
Just like how they leave the grid to stumble along during holiday weekends –when the most friends and family are exposed to seeing SL for the first time — when things are turned off or broken on purpose — and people are average users ( not following blogs) they will think broken and slow is normal.
LikeLike
I’d certainly like to see more direct communications from the Lab to their broader SL user base, although in this case I can understand why they might have preferred to to things on the QT.
In lieu of the more widespread communications, I’ll do my best to keep poking them on issues! 🙂
LikeLike
Hehe! Said so! 😀
LikeLike
Which is why I linked to your comment as well :).
LikeLike
OMG, the Lab turns off stuff that is used for abuse? I really hope they don’t turn off IMs, groups or particles next since they are used for abuse as well. I didn’t even know that PMs are used by anybody at all. The Lab did such a good job in hiding that feature and not telling anybody about it, how could possibly any griefer have found it???
LikeLike
Okay I really understand why but is it so hard to put a little notification line that all dm is disabled ? I was using it a lot and at onces it was disabled. Cause of the works that week on the site i thought it was a bug or smething where they where working on.
**shakes her head and wonders where the PR to users has gone to**
LikeLike
All the worst fears did keep coming in 2014 as in previous Years, the lack of communication between the Lab and its user base and now with the contest, the push to Faceboo,,,, means that They still cant figure who and why are most SL users!
Unless they really wish to pull out all that don’t have a Facebook account, if so, when it happens, Osgrid will become my home for granted!
LikeLike
Why don’t you try taking five minutes and look at what you wrote before posting it (I daresay several commentators here might do well with that advice). “All the worst fears did keep coming in 2014” – I’m looking at my calendar, and we are only three days into 2014. Aren’t you jumping the gun a little? Also, define “worst” – very emotional but not very specific – how do you assess what the “worst” fears are? “Years” should be “years” – “the contest” what contest? I’m guessing (which is all I can do here) Is that you mean “content” – as in the revised TOS? The push to “Faceboo”? “They” should be “they”. If you are representing “most SL users” – don’t feel any burden to represent me please. If you are representing me, show some proper thought and editing.
LikeLike