Secondlife 15th anniversary and CEO's letter

[Jeny Howlett]

Wow I was reading through Ebbes letter and have to say i am very impressed about the changes that are coming to the grid. Hopefully they will be implemented smoothly. Happy Birthday SL. Proud to be a resident for almost 11 years  

[Parhelion Palou]

Here's the blog post:

Happy 15th Birthday Second Life - Fifteen Reasons to Celebrate

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

" In the coming months some other fees may increase, including Marketplace commissions, Linden Dollar exchange fees, and cashout fees. "  

Yikes - we've already had quite a few increases there lately.

 

" we will soon announce new tiered Premium membership offerings that allow Residents to choose the membership level that provides the benefits most important to them. "

This could prove to be quite interesting and possibly bring on more Premiums that don't give a fart about Mainland ownership.  By the same token, it might end up costing more for the full scope of benefits that a Premium gets now.

Edited March 21, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Kotelle]

I wonder how exactly the return of the last names is going to look like. Hope it doesn't mean we are stuck with current names as first names and we will be able to customise only the Resident part. 

[Parhelion Palou]

6 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

" In the coming months some other fees may increase, including Marketplace commissions, Linden Dollar exchange fees, and cashout fees. "  

Yikes - we've already had quite a few increases there lately.

LL has to get more revenue in other areas in order to bring down land prices. My suggestion: Offer a service that guarantees you'll be one of the first people to get into any event. Charge $20 (U.S.) per month for the service. Some people will go for it.

As for a grid-wide game: LL could enable damage on all of mainland, then set the regions to gradually lose resources (total LI, script time, etc.) and the color in the land textures. People who own land on a region would have to defeat another region in battle to replenish their resources. Regions that do really well in battle could get extra LI. LL could call it Mad Max Madlands. So it's not grid-wide, but it would be fun. (Especially for Premiums who have no interest in Mainland ownership.) People could pay LL a fee to be able to observe without taking damage.

[Jeny Howlett]

41 minutes ago, Parhelion Palou said:

LL has to get more revenue in other areas in order to bring down land prices. My suggestion: Offer a service that guarantees you'll be one of the first people to get into any event. Charge $20 (U.S.) per month for the service. Some people will go for it.

As for a grid-wide game: LL could enable damage on all of mainland, then set the regions to gradually lose resources (total LI, script time, etc.) and the color in the land textures. People who own land on a region would have to defeat another region in battle to replenish their resources. Regions that do really well in battle could get extra LI. LL could call it Mad Max Madlands. So it's not grid-wide, but it would be fun. (Especially for Premiums who have no interest in Mainland ownership.) People could pay LL a fee to be able to observe without taking damage.

[Chic Aeon]

Well good sleuths and folks that went to or listened to the last developer's meeting won't be surprised at the list :D.  I had forgotten though about baked on mesh for bodies and that sounds pretty interesting although I can't wrap my head around it. 

Creators especially will need to reassess their place in the scheme of things and decide what will work best for their brands or shop. I am going to be saving $60 US a month on tier with the new premium deal so that will be a help in offsetting the costs that we KNEW were coming on the Marketplace :D.  A Marketplace cleanup of some kind would be WONDERFUL. Just getting rid of all the stuff from folks that left long ago and haven't returned would help a lot. Making a category so that all demos HAD to be in there and not cluttering up other directories etc etc. Everyone I am sure has things they can think of to make the Marketplace better.

 

If the Marketplace cost is small enough creators may just let that loss slide, but if fairly large, I am guessing that many will raise prices to get some of that money back.  Then again we area ASSUMING that it will be a cost to creators, and like I said in another post this week, it "could" be a "sales tax" for those purchasing (which actually IS more fair).   

So we will see. 

 

Looked like a good list to me. AND I had to smile at the "next fifteen years" comment which sort of underlines the notion that The Lab knows full well who is supporting Sansar and which of the horses has more staying power :D.  I am looking forward to the Celebration this year. 

And I guess I better go over and check out those prizes you can win at The Realms. I am guessing that I so don't CARE, but I also like to KNOW. 

 

[Akasha Sternberg]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

" In the coming months some other fees may increase, including Marketplace commissions, Linden Dollar exchange fees, and cashout fees. "  

Yikes - we've already had quite a few increases there lately.

 

" we will soon announce new tiered Premium membership offerings that allow Residents to choose the membership level that provides the benefits most important to them. "

This could prove to be quite interesting and possibly bring on more Premiums that don't give a fart about Mainland ownership.  By the same token, it might end up costing more for the full scope of benefits that a Premium gets now.

yeah..meh about the increasing fees... I´m still annoyed that they took services like virvox away and paypal Germany doesn´t want to cooperate anymore...

to the premium tiers... WEEEELL... I´m highly suspicious there, too... I guess the packet prices will increase, too

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Parhelion Palou said:

LL has to get more revenue in other areas in order to bring down land prices.

Yeah, I was just a bit surprised at the mention of increasing the LindenX and cash-out fees again since it really hasn't been that long since the last increase.

Maybe the goal all along was a huge increase in all those fees but they figured we'd swallow it easier if they broke it into a few tiny increases over many months or so.

Edited March 21, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Whirly Fizzle]

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

    By the same token, it might end up costing more for the full scope of benefits that a Premium gets now.

In thinking more on this, I could definitely see the price going up for the complete package that we get now.  I'm pretty sure that the yearly Premium fee has not increased in all the time that I have been premium.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 minute ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

Damn!!!  You are right - I totally missed that.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Hmmm, I get the vague feeling that it might be an idea to wait to upgrade some alts and get myself back to premium.

On the other hand: go ahead and upgrade them now to avoid the risk of the annual costs going up... oh my. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

11 minutes ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Hmmm, I get the vague feeling that it might be an idea to wait to upgrade some alts and get myself back to premium.

On the other hand: go ahead and upgrade them now to avoid the risk of the annual costs going up... oh my. 

I was debating the same thing.  I just upgraded an alt a few days ago.  I've considered upgrading a few more to help offset my tier increases due to increased land holdings.  And personally, I don't give a rat's a$$ if the alts get proper last names or not -- since we don't really know which of those items are coming in what order.

Edited March 21, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Willow Wilder]

1 hour ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

On the other hand, since my alts only need access to the 1024 sqm tier and don't care about the other Premium benefits, I'm now thinking it might be better to wait and see what the rate would be for just tier/mainland ability.  

I wish they had given a more concrete timeline of these new items.

Edited March 21, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Christhiana]

Happy 15th birthday Second Life!

 

I'm blown away by all the goodness LL has in store for us this year. Last names? Who actually believed this was ever going to happen  

I think it is a smart move to balance the revenues a little better. Even if LL takes a bigger tax on mp sales and cashout fees. When land gets cheaper people will have more money to spend on stuff on the marketplace or in inworld stores. And more land means you need more stuff to fill it. Who knows, us merchants may even see a rise in sales revenue.

 

Thank you Lindens!

[Pamela Galli]

 I have heard something like  “add more value for Merchants, Creators” often enough to know not to bend over.

[Christhiana]

1 minute ago, Pamela Galli said:

 I have heard something like  “add more value for Merchants, Creators” often enough to know not to bend over.

Stranger things have happened in SL lately, so who knows

[Ipecac Burnham]

After reading this, I finally hit the upgrade now! button.

 

Thank you, Linden Lab.

[Theresa Tennyson]

3 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

If the Marketplace cost is small enough creators may just let that loss slide, but if fairly large, I am guessing that many will raise prices to get some of that money back.  Then again we area ASSUMING that it will be a cost to creators, and like I said in another post this week, it "could" be a "sales tax" for those purchasing (which actually IS more fair).   

Theresa Tennyson cocks her head to the side.

Why aren't those two concepts exactly the same?

[Prisqua Newall]

One thing I'd like to see in the marketplace is the date of the listing. I always search by newest items first and sometimes the reviews help with guessing how old the item is.

I'm also curious to what the new LL houses will look like though I rarely go to the ones I have and I still have not figured out if it is better and how to use the 1024 sqm tier.

[LittleMe Jewell]

8 minutes ago, Prisqua Newall said:

 I'm also curious to what the new LL houses will look like though I rarely go to the ones I have and I still have not figured out if it is better and how to use the 1024 sqm tier.

After the announcement about tier increase, many Linden home owners came to the forums asking how they upgrade their Linden home to take advantage of the new 1024 amount. At the time, we actually speculated that Linden homes wouldn't change. It could be that not only are they going to upgrade the home designs, but they may actually increase them to 1024 sqm lots.  At this point, anything is possible.

[Chic Aeon]

18 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

Theresa Tennyson cocks her head to the side.

Why aren't those two concepts exactly the same?

I agree that there is but a little difference. To me, spreading the "fees" across a wider demographic seems more fair. Creators have already been hit with a lot of additional costs this year. I believe most of them have continued on without passing along the cost of doing business to their customers; I have actually lowered prices on older items and am not charging more than historically on current new releases.  

Some platforms charge BOTH creators AND consumers. And honestly on the platform where I sell with those charges, I add that OMG 30% on to the price of the items -- so actually the customers ARE paying for the fee (should they wish to purchase of course). 

After listening to what was said at the developer's meeting (Ebbe made an appearance and so talk was only partially about development techie stuff) I got the feeling that The Lab is actually trying very hard to make costs equitable -- spread out and fairly fair. 

Right now a small portion of the populous is supporting the grid -- either by producing salable goods or by BUYING those goods (and without folks to buy, most of us wouldn't be creating -- or would be creating on a free platform). Even the premium folks and alts of premium folks (likely more of those this week with the land deals) who pay YEARLY and get most of their money returned to them in stipend -- have historically been loaning money to The Lab. They pay up front giving the lab capital to invest and spend and they get their fees returned over time.  

So even if LL is "giving away" all that vacant land (only in one sense as of course the land isn't free -- just the double tier deal) they are actually getting a big hunk of working capital FROM the folks becoming premium, making old alts premium or making NEW alts to get a tier reduction. It works well both ways for plenty of folks and in my mind has ALWAYS been one of the best moves LL could have made. 

They are obviously paying more attention to us (as their major backers) and that is a good thing. Oz and his team has done a great job over the years, giving us more stability and more features. The new devs being hired will hopefully continue on with that great track record.  But The Lab folks are walking a tightrope, I am sure they know that. Equitable and Opt In choices are good things. But too many costs heaped up on folks -- especially if they lower working income -- will have people leaving. The goal is certainly to prevent that. 

Anyway, too much rambling here. Too many years in business LOL.   

Oh, one thing I did NOT see coming was the return (in some form) of last names.  My building alt got one of the last surnames available before LL closed down all those old and forgotten portals. She is almost six and a half years old and last names were long gone when she came on the scene as part of a blogger challenge. So the return of "individuality" has taken awhile :D.

Work all done, I am off to PLAY just a bit. An unusual occurrence -- granted. 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

hopefully the option to change lastnames for a normal resident account will be possible too.  like to get a few alts that are sibblings (what I call alts) with the same lastname as my concurrent one.