Let’s imagine you run an online community where thousands of people come every day and dress up however they wish. Some dress up as closely as possible to what they look like in real life. Other people dress up as furry creatures, fighters from some video game, or simply as some fantasy of how they would like to be seen.

Let’s imagine that people in this community make a lot money by selling outfits and accessories to help people dress up however they want. What day would be the most important day not to shut down for five hours to add additional hardware?

Anyone that has been out shopping for Halloween costumes in real life that knows anything about Second Life would likely come up with next Wednesday as the worst possible day to shutdown Second Life for five hours.

Yet Wednesdays have traditionally been the day that Second Life goes down for upgrades, and the Second Life blog is reporting a Planned Outage - Oct. 31st 6am-11am PDT (13:00-18:00 GMT).

I first heard about this on the Live Music Enthusiasts group in Second Life. I couldn’t believe that Linden Labs would do something that stupid. So, I did a search for ”Second Life” Halloween on Google. I came up with all kinds of hits about sharing Second Life Halloween pictures on Flickr and Youtube, Halloween community events in Second Life, and most importantly, information about shopping for Halloween costumes in Second Life.

I did not find any reference to Linden Labs shutting down the grid on Halloween. So, I went to the official Second Life Blog. I did a search there and found no reference to Halloween. A friend pointed out to me that in fact, they are planning the outage, and don’t even mention that it is Halloween. Perhaps people at Linden Labs haven’t realized what next Wednesday is.

I’ve run technology departments in the past. I know how difficult it can be to schedule major outages, so I have some compassion for whomever scheduled this, but they really need to reschedule this as quickly as possible.

Update:
Planned Outage - Oct. 31st - CANCELED

UPDATE (2007-10-26): The planned service outage has been canceled. More time is needed to prepare the updates, and it may prove to be possible to do so without downtime for all of Second Life.

And yes… the angry mob surrounding the castle with torches and pitchforks made its voice heard! I admit to being totally oblivious by scheduling an outage on the date of one of our favorite annual celebrations. Mea culpa! The shambling horror will slip back into the shadows… for now…

Major Props to Linden Labs for changing the schedule, as well as admitting to having been totally oblivious. They heard their residents and acted wisely. If only more companies were more responsive.