Do you think people will continue buying Lindens with price change?

[Eternal Lennie]

In addition to dropping prices on land, on July 2, we will also increase the cost to buy Linden Dollars to $1.49 per transaction (compared to the current rate of 99 cents per transaction).   This increase will help us offset the revenues lost on land, and to keep Second Life a vibrant world that continues to push the limits of possibility - for another 15 years to come.

Read this in the community news of what is happening. Do you think this will affect SL Economy?

[TatianaNikolay]

5 minutes ago, Eternal Lennie said:

 

 

Read this in the community news of what is happening. Do you think this will affect SL Economy?

I was talking to a few others in a group about this. Someone brought up people that they won't be as likely to buy a quick $300L here and there and will have to buy lindens in bulk. 

[Fionalein]

300? that sounds insane costswise - I never bought below 5000 and the increase hardly matters at that scope.

[Callum Meriman]

The increase from US$0,99 to US$1,49 is L$130 or about half what I tip a DJ. It's going to matter if someone was only buying the minimum, but if those people consider L$5000-6000 each time the hit is less.

[Rhonda Huntress]

Ya, I buy a month's worth instead of a weeks worth.

Only I buy a month's worth every week ...

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

It will not stop people from buying L$, but it will make some buy in larger bulk.  The people that buy their L$ via an MP purchase will continue to do so, likely not even realizing the extra cost.

[Kia Kiyori]

It would take far more than a fifty cent increase to give me cause to pause. On the other hand, if I had L$1 for every Catwa head sold, I'd never need to buy L$ again.

[Amanda Crisp]

LL historically has a spotty record when they meddle in economics; for all the reasons listed in the preceding posts. If they based their revenue model on the # of transactions remaining the same as before the increase in the transaction fee; I suspect that cannibas or alcohol was involved :-)

When I was in my early 20’s, I learned not to balance my checkbook while well into a bottle of wine..........

 

[Phil Deakins]

 

24 minutes ago, AmandaKeen said:

LL historically has a spotty record when they meddle in economics; for all the reasons listed in the preceding posts. If they based their revenue model on the # of transactions remaining the same as before the increase in the transaction fee; I suspect that cannibas or alcohol was involved :-)

When I was in my early 20’s, I learned not to balance my checkbook while well into a bottle of wine..........

Don't you have anything positive to say about the reduction in land costs? Does it have to be 'find something negative and be critical'?

Neither the reduction in land costs, not the increase in the L$ purchase fee, affect me in the slightest, but I do applaud the rebalancing moves, especially because it lowers the cost of land, which is something that people here have been asking for throughout. Now we have the costs of both mainland and private land reduced.

Incidentally, commas are good. Semi-colons can substitute for a comma when one or more commas have already been used in the sentence and, due to the what is being written, another comma would be grammatically wrong But, from what I hear, punctuation is fast going out of the window these days, and the fight is on to save the apostrophe.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[Solar Legion]

Won't really affect me all to much ... and I am on a fixed income! At most I have only ever bought enough L$ to cover the rent on an Island Parcel while having maybe a little extra left over, then let my Stipend accumulate a bit so I'll have a tiny spending stash near the end of the month.

[Candice LittleBoots]

For me it will make no difference. I pay in a foreign currency anyway (as the rest of the world does, outside US Dollar land), so fluctuations are a constant.

SL will be better off financially for the change, it's one way of subtly increasing their income but keeping monthly subbers happy, for the most part.

As others have said, buy larger sums at a time. I don't recall ever buying less than L$5000 at any one time, maybe L$4k once.

I tend to keep one alt to buy all my money and that one divvies out to me and the others. So no-one is holding all the time and it slows down my spending. Also keeping low funds prevents click-mistakes where you buy something you didn't mean to by accident. 

[Theresa Tennyson]

43 minutes ago, AmandaKeen said:

LL historically has a spotty record when they meddle in economics; for all the reasons listed in the preceding posts. If they based their revenue model on the # of transactions remaining the same as before the increase in the transaction fee; I suspect that cannibas or alcohol was involved :-)

When I was in my early 20’s, I learned not to balance my checkbook while well into a bottle of wine..........

 

They don't want the number of transactions to remain the same. Credit card companies charge businesses for every transaction - generally a flat minimum amount in the neighborhood of $0.20-$0.30 and then a percentage. Many tiny transactions are more costly for a company than fewer, larger ones.

[Amanda Crisp]

2 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

 

Don't you have anything positive to say about the reduction in land costs? Does it have to be 'find something negative and be critical'?

Neither the reduction in land costs, not the increase in the L$ purchase fee, affect me in the slightest, but I do applaud the rebalancing moves, especially because it lowers the cost of land, which is something that people here have been asking for throughout. Now we have the costs of both mainland and private land reduced.

Incidentally, commas are good. Semi-colons can substitute for a comma when one or more commas have already been used in the sentence and, due to the what is being written, another comma would be grammatically wrong But, from what I hear, punctuation is fast going out of the window these days, and the fight is on to save the apostrophe.

Phil, my point was that if their financial model was to subsidize the decrease in land costs via increased transaction fees, then their decrease in land costs is not *sustainable* and will either end or have to be subsidized by taking capital out of other parts of the business (meaning other things don’t get funded like server updates or pay raises to retain critical staff).

Thats not being negative, thats just “having run a business” speaking :-). I want SL to BE here 15 years from now, and to do that - they need to remain fiscally solvent.

Edited June 21, 2018 by AmandaKeen

[Elvina Ewing]

but will landlords also drop their prices accordingly? if not, then who cares

[Zeta Vandyke]

4 minutes ago, Elvina Ewing said:

but will landlords also drop their prices accordingly? if not, then who cares

They will eventually, because there will always be competition land lords that lower their price, so unless they want to loose their clients, they have to lower also to stay competitive.

[Callum Meriman]

16 minutes ago, Elvina Ewing said:

but will landlords also drop their prices accordingly? if not, then who cares

Many will have GF regions already and those are not reduced in price, so no, I doubt it.

[Elvina Ewing]

then who will profit from these new changes? only the landlords? so the rich will get richer while the poor will get poorer?

[Kyrah Abattoir]

25 minutes ago, Callum Meriman said:

Many will have GF regions already and those are not reduced in price, so no, I doubt it.

So we have confirmation that this doesn't affect grandfathered regions at all?

[MegaRose]

I only ever buy $5-10USD worth of lindens at a time so the exchange fee will definitely affect my spending habits.  That'd be fine if I had more incentive to buy more lindens at once, but currently I don't.  I just dropped some money down the money hole for cat food so I'll be good for a while, and I'll hold back until more changes are made to give me something good to spend on.  I'm still waiting to see the changes that'll be made to premium.

I'd also be more likely to pay in if we got some kind of bonus for transactions over a certain threshold.  Like maybe a month of free premium if you're buying $100+ in lindens, I don't know.  Or give me a special Linden Bear or Glytch when I pay in $10.

[Phil Deakins]

@AmandaKeen

So suggesting they made decisions when they were either drunk or high was you "having run a business", right?

I think I'm right in saying that LL have actually run a business, believe it or not, and quite possibly a slightly larger one than you have run.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[Kyrah Abattoir]

7 minutes ago, MegaRose said:

I'd also be more likely to pay in if we got some kind of bonus for transactions over a certain threshold.  Like maybe a month of free premium if you're buying $100+ in lindens, I don't know.  Or give me a special Linden Bear or Glytch when I pay in $10.

I actually know people who would want such perks...

[MegaRose]

Just now, Kyrah Abattoir said:

I actually know people who would want such perks...

I imagine there are people who would gladly pay in $100/month (or whatever number) for their premium if they kept the $100 in linden form instead of paying the $72/year and getting ~$60 back in stipend.  LL would be getting only the $1.49/month in transaction fees to start but a bunch of the rest will make its way through them through marketplace fees and tier upgrades (because $4/month for a little extra land is nothing if you're already doing $100/month anyways).  And presumably a large chunk of that money will get spent inworld, encouraging creators, hosts, and other workers to focus more on SL because they're getting a bigger payoff from it.  Which would eventually lure more people into premium.

[Callum Meriman]

18 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

So we have confirmation that this doesn't affect grandfathered regions at all?

Says on the blog...

Quote

Also, these changes will not impact any grandfathered or “bought down” land prices, since those are still below the newly-reduced rates.

 

[Kyrah Abattoir]

Quote

Also, these changes will not impact any grandfathered or “bought down” land prices, since those are still below the newly-reduced rates.

I like the justification, cause it's not like they haven't dropped openspace and homestead

Edited June 21, 2018 by Kyrah Abattoir

[Qie Niangao]

This is off-topic, but may not warrant a separate thread: How do folks feel about openSpace regions getting discontinued?

They must have been wildly unpopular, I guess, but I thought they were a cool idea.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Qie Niangao