Grandfathered Stipend...

[Phil Deakins]

If my memory serves me correctly, the question wasn't would the OP get a total of 350L by going premium, although that is a very interesting question, but would he return to getting the 50L if he goes back down to basic after being premium, or would that grandfathered 50L be gone forever. That was my understanding of the OP's query.

The experiences posted so far indicate that previous stipends are returned to, but Patch is intent on patching up our knowledge by checking it all for us, and that's good, because people here will know how to answer when the question comes up again, as it may well do. It'll also give confidence to anyone who has a grandfathered stipend and is considering changing to premium.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[Qie Niangao]

I'm pretty sure there's no way to combine the L$50 Basic stipend on top of any Premium stipend, so L$350 would never happen.

It's possible that anybody eligible for the L$50 Basic stipend will get L$500 if they go Premium. But maybe not: the knowledge base text I highlight below is a little squirrelly about that:

Quote

Premium accounts created or upgraded from basic:

• On or after November 1, 2006 receive L$300 per week.
• Between July 21, 2006 and November 1, 2006 receive L$400 per week.
• Before July 21, 2006 receive L$500 per week.

This may mean that if you had a Basic account since, say, 2005 and never upgraded to Premium until now, you'd only get L$300, whereas if you were Premium back in 2005, lapsed back to Basic, and now upgraded back to Premium, you'd get the full L$500.

 

[Lewis Luminos]

6 hours ago, Alyona Su said:

Certain old basic accounts get a stipend; basic accounts created

• Before June 6, 2006 receive a stipend of L$50 per week, if they log in that week.
• After June 6, 2006 do not receive a weekly stipend.

 

*facepalm*. My original account missed out on that basic stipend by about 3 weeks. 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Lewis Luminos

[Alyona Su]

4 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

I'm pretty sure there's no way to combine the L$50 Basic stipend on top of any Premium stipend, so L$350 would never happen.

It's possible that anybody eligible for the L$50 Basic stipend will get L$500 if they go Premium. But maybe not: the knowledge base text I highlight below is a little squirrelly about that:

This may mean that if you had a Basic account since, say, 2005 and never upgraded to Premium until now, you'd only get L$300, whereas if you were Premium back in 2005, lapsed back to Basic, and now upgraded back to Premium, you'd get the full L$500.

 

It says *CREATED* or upgraded. So even if you have never upgraded to premium until now, you should still get the grandfathered tier.

[LittleMe Jewell]

11 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

It says *CREATED* or upgraded. So even if you have never upgraded to premium until now, you should still get the grandfathered tier.

From postings of other people in the past (old accounts wondering why they only got L$300), I don't think that is the case.  I believe it means "if you created a premium account or upgraded to premium" before said dates. 

[Alyona Su]

5 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

From postings of other people in the past (old accounts wondering why they only got L$300), I don't think that is the case.  I believe it means "if you created a premium account or upgraded to premium" before said dates. 

Oh, good point. I am usually able to navigate my way through the ambiguous descriptions LL uses to find the true meaning. This may be one of those times I have failed.

[Qie Niangao]

46 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

*facepalm*. My original account missed out on that basic stipend by about 3 weeks. 

But that account must be eligible[*] for the L$500/wk Premium stipend, which is still better than L$50/wk Basic even if you have no use for any other Premium feature. (Well, that's assuming the annual subscription plan and a reasonably stable L$ exchange rate.)

[* EDIT: Or -- oops! -- not eligible if the account was only Basic early on and the theory of "must be Premium before <date>" proves out.]

Edited April 6, 2018 by Qie Niangao

[LittleMe Jewell]

@Patch Linden needs to come back and educate us on the intricacies of it all.

[Magnus McGettigan]

8 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

If my memory serves me correctly, the question wasn't would the OP get a total of 350L by going premium, although that is a very interesting question, but would he return to getting the 50L if he goes back down to basic after being premium, or would that grandfathered 50L be gone forever. That was my understanding of the OP's query.

The experiences posted so far indicate that previous stipends are returned to, but Patch is intent on patching up our knowledge by checking it all for us, and that's good, because people here will know how to answer when the question comes up again, as it may well do. It'll also give confidence to anyone who has a grandfathered stipend and is considering changing to premium.

EXACTLY ! Thank you kind sir.. I appreciate you putting this out there.. I anxiously await Patch's update.. 

Mag

[Magnus McGettigan]

2 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

*facepalm*. My original account missed out on that basic stipend by about 3 weeks. 

I dont think thats right.. my wife joined the game in 2007 and she gets a 50L stipend.. so those dates in 2006.. can't be right.. she was always a basic account. 

[Magnus McGettigan]

The odd thing was .. i WAS a prem . account back when they announced they were going to grandfather ppl in.. when they did i dropped mine down to basic.. and been so ever since 2005.. I had the 512 plot of land ( which i sold ) and all the perks of a prem. member.. My whole curiosity is if i reup to prem.. and cancel.. do i go back to zero or still get my 50L.. the 50L is great for when i take my 6 month breaks .. esp when i come back to Linden on my account while i was gone. 

 

Thanks folks,

Mag

[Lewis Luminos]

1 hour ago, Magnus McGettigan said:

I dont think thats right.. my wife joined the game in 2007 and she gets a 50L stipend.. so those dates in 2006.. can't be right.. she was always a basic account. 

That's very odd. Mine was 20th June 2006, he gets the L$500 as a premium but never got anything as a basic.

I remember for sure that I was previously a premium on that account but I can't for the life of me remember when, so I can;t verify if it needs to have been before November 2006. I'm inclined to think not though; I really doubt that I'd have jumped into going premium so soon after joining, and I quit altogether before the end of 2006, not coming back until over a year later.

[Phil Deakins]

1 hour ago, Magnus McGettigan said:

I dont think thats right.. my wife joined the game in 2007 and she gets a 50L stipend.. so those dates in 2006.. can't be right.. she was always a basic account. 

Now that's very odd, because I joined late in 2006, and I never got a 50L stipend. At least not that I was ever aware of.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Magnus McGettigan said:

I dont think thats right.. my wife joined the game in 2007 and she gets a 50L stipend.. so those dates in 2006.. can't be right.. she was always a basic account. 

When in 2007?  My original account joined in Mar 2007 and the 50L stipends were definitely gone by then.  Are you really sure that account wasn't created in 2006?

[Chic Aeon]

I learned some new info on the friend of a friend account last night and I see that @Patch Linden hasn't come back to us yet, but here it is for the record.

The RL friend of my RL friend (so we really know these folks) lost her $500 awhile back (maybe two years - not lately so hopefully THIS PROBLEM has been fixed).   

SHE DIDN'T GIVE UP HER PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP -- she simply changed the time period that she used to pay the membership. 

Now that made my eyes roll back in my head.

And yes, if this can be fixed I would be glad to send the info on to the friend. She apparently didn't complain when she got downgraded. 

So it seems like there are really two things going on for the REALLY OLD folks.  One -- while it is now stated clearly that you will NOT get your current payment (say $400 as more folks have that than $500) if you go to basic and return -- did it CLEARLY STATE THAT LONG AGO?  I am guessing not. In that case Linden Lab owes some folks some money. 

Two - Do folks now still lose their higher stipend if they simply change the time period that they pay? 

If so there needs to be a BIG WARNING somewhere as that makes NO sense at all. If there wasn't a yearly payment option back then in the $500 days then, then I can see a bit of logic maybe, but there still should be a warning like when you buy land. 

IMHO.

 

 

 

[Qie Niangao]

59 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

One -- while it is now stated clearly that you will NOT get your current payment (say $400 as more folks have that than $500) if you go to basic and return -- did it CLEARLY STATE THAT LONG AGO? 

Wait, where is that now stated clearly? I don't think it's correct, unless it's a change, because I know I've done it myself and gotten the grandfathered stipend back when I re-upped to Premium. (I'm pretty sure the specific account was L$400 / wk, but I doubt that matters. Tangentially, I suspect there are way more folks getting L$500 than L$400 because the L$400 stipend only lasted a few months.)

It also seems very strange that the stipend would drop as a result of merely changing the time period of the subscription. In fact, I'm pretty sure that when I re-upped that lapsed-to-Basic account, I did it as part of a special offer for quarterly membership, then switched it to annual before it could renew at the normal quarterly price.

[Phil Deakins]

2 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

In fact, I'm pretty sure that when I re-upped that lapsed-to-Basic account, I did it as part of a special offer for quarterly membership, then switched it to annual before it could renew at the normal quarterly price.

That's sneaky! And very admirable

Edited April 11, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

In fact, I'm pretty sure that when I re-upped that lapsed-to-Basic account, I did it as part of a special offer for quarterly membership, then switched it to annual before it could renew at the normal quarterly price.

1 hour ago, Phil Deakins said:

That's sneaky! And very admirable

I actually bumped two old accounts back up to premium using their last quarterly promo and then switched the billing to yearly just before the quarterly was due to renew.  It saved me a few bucks.

Edited April 11, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Chic Aeon]

9 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Wait, where is that now stated clearly? I don't think it's correct, unless it's a change, because I know I've done it myself and gotten the grandfathered stipend back when I re-upped to Premium. (I'm pretty sure the specific account was L$400 / wk, but I doubt that matters. Tangentially, I suspect there are way more folks getting L$500 than L$400 because the L$400 stipend only lasted a few months.)

It also seems very strange that the stipend would drop as a result of merely changing the time period of the subscription. In fact, I'm pretty sure that when I re-upped that lapsed-to-Basic account, I did it as part of a special offer for quarterly membership, then switched it to annual before it could renew at the normal quarterly price.

It is stated clearly when you try and return to regular citizen from Premium (or at least it has been for awhile). I am not sure it is anywhere else. 

WHEN did you get your grandfathered stipend back? If I remember correctly (no guarantees) that warning has been around for a couple of years at least (when downgrading).  It was still there a few months ago when a friend was thinking about going back to basic but then didn't. So at the end of 2017. 

The $500 stipend was around BEFORE the $400 stipend and the $400 one lasted quite awhile (looking up a friends)  -- $400 stipends were around at the end of 2006 and for some time after that.  Then stipend went to $300 and has been there for a long while. If it ever went back up to $500 I am not aware. 

Here, I found a wiki with the info: 

http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Stipend

$500 stipends ended on 2006-07-20 so you need to be pretty old to still get that. Actually my friend who gets $400 remembers that the text talking about stipends still SAID $500 when she got her first one and she wrote them about that. She missed the cut off though :D. 

 

I agree that switching payment timeframe should have nothing to do with stipends. I am just saying what happened.  Hopefully that was an error and not a typical reaction to the change. 

 

Edited April 12, 2018 by Chic Aeon

[Solar Legion]

Perhaps this will help a bit: I went Premium well after November 2006 and still get the 400 a week stipend. 

My account was created October 30 2006.

I went Premium quite some time later - around the time Linden Homes were introduced actually. 

Going by that it is safe to assume that account creation date affects which stipend you get and that those who should have gotten higher stipends are victims of a glitch. 

[Phil Deakins]

That does appear to answer one of the questions, Solar. I was premium long before Linden Homes came in. My premium started in Febuary 2007, and I've only ever had 300L stipend. I joined SL in late December 2006, so my join date missed the 400L Your experience shows that it's the join date that counts.

Edited April 12, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[Phil Deakins]

7 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I actually bumped two old accounts back up to premium using their last quarterly promo and then switched the billing to yearly just before the quarterly was due to renew.  It saved me a few bucks.

Another very sneaky, yet very admirable person!

[Qie Niangao]

6 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

It is stated clearly when you try and return to regular citizen from Premium (or at least it has been for awhile). I am not sure it is anywhere else. 

WHEN did you get your grandfathered stipend back?

I don't have specific records, but it's been at least two years since that account went back to Premium, having downgraded to Basic years earlier, probably in 2007. I wouldn't remember whether there was a warning when downgrading, but I guess I shouldn't have gotten one because I did get the stipend back by upgrading again.

It's not a thing I really want to test myself by trying to downgrade a Premium account, but I do wonder if that warning really appears, and if it does, whether they really changed the practice from when I got back that higher stipend. If so, they really need to rewrite the knowledge base article Lil linked above.

6 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

The $500 stipend was around BEFORE the $400 stipend and the $400 one lasted quite awhile (looking up a friends)  -- $400 stipends were around at the end of 2006 and for some time after that.  Then stipend went to $300 and has been there for a long while. If it ever went back up to $500 I am not aware. 

Here, I found a wiki with the info: 

http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Stipend

That wikia article almost* matches the knowledge base, both showing the L$400 stipend running July 21 - end of October 2006, so a little over 3 months. That certainly was a time of massive growth in SL, even potential Premium subscribers, but nonetheless I'd suppose the years before then to have generated more L$500-stipend members. But admittedly I don't base that on any actual data.

______________
*The knowledge base shows the L$50 basic stipend date ending on the day of the great 6/6/6 free-to-play change, whereas the wikia shows it ending a few days earlier.

Edited April 12, 2018 by Qie Niangao

[Chic Aeon]

3 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

It's not a thing I really want to test myself by trying to downgrade a Premium account, but I do wonder if that warning really appears, and if it does, whether they really changed the practice from when I got back that higher stipend. If so, they really need to rewrite the knowledge base article Lil linked above.

At this point we don't really know if her debacle when changing payment timing was a plan or an error but it would be good for folks to know. 

THIS is currently at the bottom of the membership page at the back end. I don't know when it started appearing actually but it apparently has been there for some time. There have been threads mentioning it before.

 

So it is NOW very obvious what happens. Apparently you lucked out with the timing. And SHE was after the time you got your original stipend back. We just don't know exactly what the dates were. 

 

[Qie Niangao]

Oh, sure enough!

(For convenience, that page can be accessed from the dashboard and found at https://secondlife.com/my/account/membership.php .)