Official LL Stance: AjaxLife is not feasible

July 1st, 2010Uncategorised 52 Comments

Linden Lab has informed me that AjaxLife cannot be run as an openly available service (this is the first time any formal policy regarding it has been determined). It is not currently actually blocked; however, I will be terminating service effective immediately. Note that it is permissible for you to obtain the source and run a private server; however, I will not be maintaining the code, and you may not make your server publicly accessible either.

I have included below the pertinent portion of the communication from Linden Lab, which is the termination of several weeks of (intermittent) discussion:

I’m afraid we can’t reinstate access for AJAX Life as an
open service, even if L$ transactions are disabled. The problem
remains that the others have used the service for harassment and
fraud, and we don’t have engineers available to integrate the IP
address hash you’ve offered to forward on connection with the
governance tools. We also don’t have resources for oauth or another
third-party authentication system at this point – the user count
doesn’t justify it against larger issues.

There’s also the problem of the password being passed through AJAX
Life. This creates a security risk for Linden Lab and for the users,
and extends liability risks to you.

It is perhaps important to stress that this is not an unreasonable statement; merely an unfortunately one. I have no idea how many people used AjaxLife, but it was under 600/day, and concurrency was 50-60 at most.

If you’re wondering why this didn’t happen sooner: AjaxLife’s original architecture caused its IP to change extremely frequently, as a result of a combination of poor stability and frequent server reassignments. As part of the changes made to make AjaxLife stable (which it now is), it was given a fixed IP. As such, the issue of abuse from the IP became somewhat more prominent, resulting in whatever internal discussions lead to this.

It’s a shame, but it’s not surprising, and not really LL’s fault. It was nice for the last three years, at any rate.

52 Responses to “Official LL Stance: AjaxLife is not feasible”

  1. Derwood Voom Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 7:37 pm

    I am sadden that this could not be worked out. I really liked ajaxlife as it gave me a way to jump into SL in situations whereas I could not D/L a client.

    Many thanks for allowing us to have it when we could!

  2. Danni Okelly Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 7:39 pm

    I will greatly miss this amazing ability to chat with my SL family during my time away from my download. Can never thank you enough for the hours of pleasure and friendship you did provide. And should something ever change… CALL ME!!! (smiles)
    Danni

  3. Mona Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 7:56 pm

    aww.. so sorry to hear that… grrr sometimes i cant be in world and this webpage was sooooooo good for me to get in touch with my friends… :( (( i will miss ajaxlife

  4. AjaxLife service closing « Psyke Phaeton's Blog Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    [...] people and some of those people using AjaxLife for griefing and fraud LL has been forced to ask Katherine and myself to close public access to AjaxLife. “I’m afraid we can’t reinstate access for [...]

  5. revv Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 8:50 pm

    would an app for something like android be feasible? i don’t like the idea of having to pay someone 4500l a year or to buy a box to rez in world. i can’t do the rezzing anyway cause my cord is kaput. i’d rather just be nice and donate “l”

  6. Azurea Sands Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 10:42 pm

    Thanks for all you did to try to keep this going. It was a nice diversion during the day for those of us unable to log into SL…it allowed us to stay in touch with friends and deal with business. 50-60 users a day? I don’t think so. I feel quite certain their was more usage than that. It is unfortunate that like so many things…it was abused and now it is gone. RIP Ajax

  7. Paisley Beebe Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 3:54 am

    Thankyou Katherine for this client it was very useful to me when I went over my download allowance and was reduced to dial up speed….would be great if L.L got you involved in a join project on a similar idea! I have a similer client for my iphone but its better to be able to use a proper keyboard and screen of course. Best Wishes Paisley

  8. Simon Kline Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 4:24 am

    Aww I’ve been following you on twitter and know how hard you’ve worked on this I’m sad to see all that work and awesomeness come to this :(

    I remember an interview you gave to Iodine and i think Blue? Linden when you first opened it and thought back then how amazing! And then realised you were a teen gridder and i was gob smacked!!! Very amazing achievements here well done!

    I hope this doesn’t discourage you from more things SL based, you’re amazingly talented and it would be a waste!

    *tackehugs*

    Sime :D

  9. Lawra Idlemind Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 8:43 am

    Sad indeed. It was my only chance to get inworld from work – a slow satellite link, a corporate proxy and double corporate firewalls are a very effective block against any other client I’ve tried.

  10. Takdhinadin Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 9:18 am

    Yes. was a great resource when at office.
    So sad that it’s being stopped.
    Linden Lab – Pl provide quick alternative or make this work. :(

  11. Talismere Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am

    I’m…speechless. This was the one and only solution for me to get in contact with friends from the other side of the world during work hour breaks. I’m saddened and disappointed. I tried all I could find of other text based viewers but none other worked EXCEPT ajaxlife. I can not even imagine what I’ll do from now, not being able to get online at all on weekdays…Heartbreaking.

  12. Jada Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 10:23 am

    Wow that is really sad news. It was currently my only option to still connect to SL and connect to the friends I have on there. I wonder if this should keep us talking to the Lindens to see whether or not they are going to accomodate themselves for a web environment. Perhaps with the more visible accesibility through webapplications, the amount of users connecting this way would grow.

    Sadness!

  13. saxon76 Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 10:25 am

    what a shame not to use this program.

    I’m blocked by a proxy and this is my only opportunity to have access to SL ..

    Linden could help you adapt your program aa!

    we are much in this case.

    thank you for this work and this program!

    is what I could make use of them since my personal computer?

    thank you in advance

    Saxon

  14. Katharine Berry Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 am

    50-60 users a day? I don’t think so. I feel quite certain their was more usage than that

    50-60 at once, maybe up to 600 a day.

  15. Talismere Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    It’s just so sudden, I would love to at least be able to quickly go online and let those ppl know that they won’t see me around at all anymore on weekdays, this was just too sudden of a cut without any warnings.

  16. Betatester Destiny Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    In all these years we have enjoyed a totally selfless service quality of the AJAXLIFE service, personally I am very grateful to Katharine for helping me keep in touch with my friends at all times.

    As has been said many people are limited to access to SL either by our schedules, or security systems in our companies, AJAX provided a unique opportunity for us all.

    This leads me to wonder whether we should not ask SL why dont provide a service like this, I do not think that only 600 people around the world used AJAXLIFE.

    Thanks Katharine

    Beta

  17. saxon76 Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    If you know another way to prevent the proxy: called the me… Thank you
    sax

  18. Gwyneth Llewelyn Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    I’m sorry to hear that :( Oh well. I can understand LL’s stance. It always frustrates me to see how quickly these kind of free services attract all sorts of abuses :(

  19. Josie Hyun Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    Oh i love ajaxlife,i can chat with my SL friends & copy some of the photos that i have.i only discoved it last month,i do hope you can bring it back,even if i have to paid a monthly fee.

  20. sylvan Says:
    July 2nd, 2010 at 8:18 pm

    Thank you for creating & keeping this going all this time.

  21. sue Says:
    July 3rd, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    Sad indeed. Linden should be more proactive and recognise an opportunity here. I used Ajax to keep in touch when i was on vacation with a netbook which wouldnt operate SL. I’m sure it is also very useful for people behind work firewalls. There is a need to this programme or something similar. Katherine, you have done a great job and rather than just saying ‘No’ Linden should now discuss with you how to build on this – to everybodies advantage.

  22. AjaxLife: Second Life for iPhone Good Enough For Me « Blogula Rasa Says:
    July 3rd, 2010 at 5:22 pm

    [...] was de-activated asas reported on Katherine Berry’s blog yesterday. It’s a sad thing, because it was a brilliant idea that was well executed. Frankly, [...]

  23. Browser based viewer must be LL only « Life and Avatar Law Says:
    July 3rd, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    [...] it impossible for LL to allow AjaxLife to continue to connect to the Second Life(r) grid. Here is the post with more detailed information about why a third party cannot run browser based viewer, such as [...]

  24. Kasuko Says:
    July 3rd, 2010 at 11:10 pm

    A suggestion to anyone else saddened by this, get a flash drive and download the program radegast onto it. keep the flash drive with you

  25. Raven Says:
    July 4th, 2010 at 9:52 pm

    You mentined making a private server for one’s own use. Can you help me get the files and what not to make this happen?

    Thanks
    Raven

  26. Katharine Berry Says:
    July 4th, 2010 at 9:53 pm

    The source is available, but I will no longer support it.

  27. Pal Says:
    July 5th, 2010 at 2:06 am

    is there any other browser based alternative to Ajaxlife??

  28. Katharine Berry Says:
    July 5th, 2010 at 2:08 am

    No – and if there were, it’d be banned too. AjaxLife is not banned in itself, but as a category.

  29. Takdhinadin Says:
    July 5th, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    Neither LL able to provide an alternative (SLMessenger was dumped too) nor allowing others to serve it for free.
    LL is my entry for Hall Of Shame. :(

  30. saxon76 Says:
    July 5th, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    I tried the programe “Radegast” on a flash drive.
    it does not work.
    the program does not start and displays the following error message:
    “Radegast has encountered a problem and needs to close. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

  31. digitalmouse Says:
    July 6th, 2010 at 7:57 am

    I realize this is a bit late in situation, but their reasoning sounds a bit “we can’t be bothered”.

    “…others have used the service for harassment and
    fraud…” is a bit of a cop-out, since there is no data available to even suggest that such ajaxlife-induced activity is comparable (or more prominent) to what is reported on a daily basis from the other clients. If that is a valid concern, they should get their own house in order too, but I bet shutting down the SL client to fix related issues would never happen. In this case it’s the ‘small guy’ that suffers from the ‘big guys’ lack of focus.

    “…we don’t have engineers available…” is also suspect, as they could surely supply *one* engineer for a few weeks a year to implement solutions. They can’t tell me “but it’s very complicated” since I *have* been involved in secure-browser-to-remote-server-access on a scale as large as SecondLife, and know it’s been done very succesfully and with far more important data. Many times. It is not as if they are inventing something new. There are a half-dozen viable solutions, not including the hashing and oauth you mentioned. They just need to actually ‘try’ before saying ‘no’.

    “…also the problem of the password being passed through AJAX Life…”. Oh please. The web-browser is no less secure in that regard than the other non-SL clients out there, including the iPhone app. “Man-in-the-middle” account and password sniffers are just as prominent for them as for AJAX Life. More often than not, passwords are had due to social engineering and teenager naivety rather than any programmatic effort.

    600 users a day is quite a lot, and should be a respected chunk of the daily user base (which varies between 10,000 and 30,000 per day, if LL numbers are to be believed).

    Yes, their statement is not unreasonable, just essentially lazy. Hopefully they will come to their senses in the future. Good luck Katherine – I’ll gladly continue to watch your blog for further development.

  32. Katharine Berry Says:
    July 6th, 2010 at 8:20 am

    Peak concurrency is around 70,000. AjaxLife’s 50 concurrent comes in at 0.07% of that.

  33. Vitor Says:
    July 6th, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    Hi Katharine, I put on my server ajaxlife for their own use, I am with the project on my computer, but it should be installed/compiled?

  34. DD Ra Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 12:07 am

    First I thank you Katharine for AjaxLife and all the work you put in for us residents.
    Second, as Linden Lab speaks of securicty problems, I hope they will REALLY do something against griefers, even if I hardly believe it.
    Numerous comments here show that Ajaxlife had a unique usefulness, and Linden Lab would be hill advised not to propose such a service. Closing open doors is not the best way yo have more people come in.

  35. Antonius Misfit Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 4:47 am

    Katharine, I think you shouldn’t have stopped AjaxLife like this. You could simply disable the ability to login to Linden Lab’s grids(SL and the beta grid) but not OpenSim-based grids.

    It would be an elegant solution as AjaxLife would no longer suffer blocking by LL, nor would it be affected by LL’s TPV policy. Would this be feasible to you?

  36. Katharine Berry Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 4:50 am

    AjaxLife’s performance on OpenSim is poor (this may be because performance on OpenSim in general is poor; I don’t know); furthermore, AjaxLife usage on OpenSim is a tiny fraction of that for SL, and I’m not one of them. :p

    I could run it for this purpose, but I cannot pay for it. And I already cancelled the server anyway.

  37. Quaintly Tuqiri Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 7:32 am

    Sorry to hear of this, Katharine :( I too occasionally used AjaxLife when I needed to pop into SL from my RL workplace. It was very handy. Thank you for all the work you put into it.

  38. eros Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 10:43 am

    hello I really hope that is Ajaxlife riprestinato as soon as possible. was convenient for people like me can not download programs from work.

  39. AlexanderTheBenelli Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    Well, I guess when a company decides to make a third of it’s workforce redundant, they might actually “don’t have engineers available to integrate the IP
    address hash you’ve offered”.
    However, it’s still a pitty and another sign that SL might actually be heading into decline – the fact that work on the C# integration was announced to be on hold indefinitely doesn’t exactly restore my confidence either.

  40. Loquacia Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 4:52 pm

    What a terrible shame! For several weeks my internet connection was extremely bad and the only way I could access SL and stay in touch with friends was through Ajax Life. Many thanks for it.

  41. Petro Silberfeld Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    I’m sad

    Is there any other way to write IM online without using SL Client ????

    THanks Katharine for your work

  42. Wizard Gynoid Says:
    July 9th, 2010 at 2:27 am

    i just wanted to say, Katherine Berry, you rock! (i used to use ajaxlife at times.)

  43. Ener Hax Says:
    July 9th, 2010 at 2:42 am

    Katharine, i am sorry to see this happen. i have used your client in the past and it worked well for what i needed

    maybe if LL totally kills off any outside stuff they will achieve success. it certainly would be an easier world to run and they could reduce staffing levels even further if they kept all residents out

    good luck with whatever your next endeavor is, i have a feeling you can’t stay still for very long =)

  44. AjaxLife given the axe by LL at iliveisl Says:
    July 9th, 2010 at 2:58 am

    [...] missed this july 1st post about AjaxLife. it was a client that allowed you to chat and see who was online and even work with your inventory. [...]

  45. eros Says:
    July 9th, 2010 at 11:30 am

    a question if I can … but ajaxlife will no longer open?
    thanks for the answer you give me …

  46. Custopootimus Says:
    July 14th, 2010 at 10:35 pm

    This is terribly disappointing and saddening. I’ve used AjaxLife for years now. It was in 2007 when I did something stupid and got IP banned for it, but I was able to use AjaxLife to maintain contact with all the friends I had made. Even when I was unbanned last year, AjaxLife remained my preferred means of accessing SecondLife. At school, it’s the only way I can access SecondLife in my free time. I’m a teenager, so the capabilities of my computers are inhibited by my parent’s minute budget for such things. Although Second Life has become more graphically demanding over the years, the capabilities of my computer have not increased. Because of this, AjaxLife has long been the only way I’ve been able to access Second Life without debilitatingly low FPS. I’m quite sad to see it go.

  47. Dilbert Halfpint Says:
    July 18th, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    Having used Ajaxlife on and off almost since its creation, this is indeed a sad ending. Katherine – your endeavours have been greatly appreciated, and I hope that they will be recognised as you move on in this world.

    Sadly LL seems to be going downhill fast, and taking much of the good bits of SL with them.

    Good luck to you for your future Katherine.

    Many thanks and regards,
    D.

  48. Sable Sunset Says:
    July 19th, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    I’m really saddened by this news. Although I was an infrequent user of AJAXLife, the times when I needed to use it, it was an absolute lifesaver!

    LL should do the honest thing and offer you a job working on an in-house web-based client, rather than cutting you out completely like this. Although their stance isn’t unreasonable, they’re missing a massive opportunity to employ a dedicated, brilliant and creative person.

    Although this is a setback, I’m sure with your experience and skills your future holds massively exciting things.

    I wish you all the best in whichever project you decide to adopt next – please keep us posted!

    Sable x.

  49. Katharine Berry Says:
    July 19th, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    Custopootimus
    …but I was able to use AjaxLife to maintain contact with all the friends I had made.

    Yes, that people can do this is the basic reason it has been banned. :p

  50. Lark Enyo Says:
    July 27th, 2010 at 9:24 pm

    Thank you for providing this service for so long.

  51. pasta0126 Says:
    July 29th, 2010 at 10:57 am

    Hi… I want to try to run AjaxLife in my own server… can you help me… thanks… and congrats for your great job… ^__^

  52. Vitor Says:
    October 24th, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    Hello Katharine, I am PHP developer sites and other languages, if you are interested, we can develop a safe way to AjaxLife, and continue their good design.
    We have several methods to make a connection to the internet at http secondlife.

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