premium premium membership is it worth it?

[Alazarin Mondrian]

On 8/15/2018 at 6:56 PM, Sexy Jinn said:

is it worth it i use to be a yearly member a year ago so im wondering if it is gotten better or worse or not worth it to be a premium??

so are you a premium member yes or no?

Absolutely. I have had an annual premium account from the day I joined SL in 2005. One of the best investments I ever made. I have an account subscription that pays for itself, free land and access to sandboxes where I can build and test stuff undisturbed and live chat tech support. Works for me

Edited August 23, 2018 by Alazarin Mondrian

[BelindaN]

If I see something I want I usually buy it...... But the Premium account does not sell itself to me. I don't see how I would benefit from it in my SL life.

This talk of "the mainland"??? Is this somewhere I can't go as a basic member?

What's the big attraction???? I appreciate that as a newbie I don't know much, but the worth of Premium just passes right over my head.

[angeoco]

If you open the world map in your viewer (Ctrl-M), or go to https://maps.secondlife.com, and zoom out, you will see something like this: ...

... which is most of the SL world. If you zoom in you can pick out small features like houses. The big landmasses are most of the "mainland" continents, which are operated by LL but mostly divided into privately-owned parcels which can only be owned by premium members, who can then rent them out to anybody. The big haze of dots are privately-operated sims 256 metres square, which are owned by premium members but also often also divided into parcels and rented out to anybody. Most of the "sea" that you see there does not actually exist and can't be entered. One of the Linden Home continents is shown here at the south-east corner, and there are a few others down to the south. Both mainland and private sims are open to everybody, subject to maturity ratings: every sim has a rating of General/Moderate/Adult, and is only open to avatars matching the rating. The mainland continent of Zindra is not shown here, but is far to the east, and that is open to adults only. Owners/tenants can also put any restrictions they like on access to their parcels. If you open the map in your viewer, it will show you where you are currently, and you can double-click anywhere on it and be teleported there immediately.

Edited August 23, 2018 by angeoco

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, BelindaN said:

I don't see how I would benefit from it in my SL life.

It depends on what you like to do.

If you like to shop, then Premium will get you into crowded events and busy locations that would leave you hammering the teleport button repeatedly if you were non-Premium. Likewise, if you like to be in a lot of store groups then Premium will allow you to have 60 groups instead of the 42 allowed for non-Premium (even as a new resident you'll probably have discovered by now that many groups give out free gifts to their members, either in group notices or in their stores if you wear their group tag. Many lucky letter boards are also group-only and you need to wear the group tag to use them). And, if those groups are busy and send out a lot of notices, Premium will also allow you a larger number of notices (also IMs) that arrive when you're offline before they're capped. (Capped notices aren't seen when you log in.)

If you want to own a home (instead of paying weekly or monthly to rent from someone else) then the lowest level of Premium account will give you 1024m² of tier that you can either use on a pre-made Linden home (currently only 512m² ones are available; 1024m² homes will be available soon, but be aware that Linden homes have restrictions, such as you can't rez skyboxes above them). Or you can find a piece of mainland elsewhere, buy it with a one-off payment, and assign that 1024m² tier to it before you build or rez a home on it with no restrictions.

1 hour ago, BelindaN said:

This talk of "the mainland"??? Is this somewhere I can't go as a basic member?

If you've gone to any smaller stores to shop or take part in a hunt, etc then you've been on mainland. The big events and many mainstores tend to be on privately-owned estate land, but a lot of smaller stores are located on mainland. Mainland is just - as Angeoco has shown - the big continents in SL.

Lastly, of course, a Premium account gives you a weekly L$300 stipend to spend on whatever you want.

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

4 hours ago, BelindaN said:

If I see something I want I usually buy it...... But the Premium account does not sell itself to me. I don't see how I would benefit from it in my SL life.

This talk of "the mainland"??? Is this somewhere I can't go as a basic member?

What's the big attraction???? I appreciate that as a newbie I don't know much, but the worth of Premium just passes right over my head.

You can go to a lot of mainland as a basic member, but you need to be premium to own some for yourself. Premium accounts can own up to 1024 square metres of 'mainland' land without paying additional monthly fees.

Depending on what you like to do with your SL, that might be a tremendous perk or it might mean nothing at all. That's true of all the premium benefits. If they don't suit how you use SL right now, then there's no need to go premium. I've been here nine years and finally had a reason to last month.

Premium accounts automatically receive L$300/week as a stipend. That works out to be almost the same as a year's premium on the annual rate. Depending on how you use your SL, that can make an annual premium subscription very inexpensive.

Edited August 23, 2018 by Bitsy Buccaneer

[Phil Deakins]

1 hour ago, Bitsy Buccaneer said:

Premium accounts are able to own 1024 square metres of 'mainland' land.

Just for clarification, in case anyone misunderstands it...

Premium account can own any amount of Mainland. They can own 1024sqm without having to pay monthly tier on it though.

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

*£$&%. stupid malfunctioning brain.

thanks for catching that Phil. edited to be better. i shouldn't be anywhere in public today.

[Lindal Kidd]

Belinda, and others...

To clarify:

• You can only OWN Mainland if you are a Premium member (But non-Premium members can RENT Mainland from other residents.)
• If you are Premium, you don't pay a monthly tier fee on up to 1,024 sq. m of Mainland.  If you own more than that, you pay a monthly fee.
• ALMOST all of the Mainland is accessible by everyone, Premium or not.  There are a very few Premium-only places, such as the Premium-only sandboxes and certain themed Experiences.
• You can always tell whether the region you are on is Mainland, or a private estate.  Open the About Land window and look in either the General or the Covenant tab of that window.  Find the entry for "Type".  It will say either Mainland or Estate, followed by a slash / and then whether it is a full region, Homestead, or OpenSpace.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

On 8/15/2018 at 3:38 PM, Phorumities said:

If you sign up for premium today, regardless of the age of your account, your stipend will be $300 L per week

Umm no, what stipend you get depends on your registration date.  I joined on July 19th of 2006.  I didn't go Premium until December 22nd of 2011.  I get the blessed 500L$ stipend of the Oldbie Elite.  ?

On 8/15/2018 at 3:43 PM, LittleMe Jewell said:

We've actually had people state here in the forums that they experienced it differently if their account is old enough for the higher stipend.  However, what seems to be unclear - or maybe not consistent - is whether they only get the higher amount if they were premium before and left it for a while or if first time to premium gets the higher amounts.  For first-time premiums, we've heard it both ways, so not sure.

I can't say for sure either since I have no plans whatsoever to EVER stop being Premium now to see if I get the blessed 500L$ stipend if I leave Premium and then later return to Premium status.  I can't really, I need the group slots and my primary Home/studio is on my mainland parcel.

On 8/15/2018 at 3:52 PM, Phorumities said:

Note, Those are the dates you became premium, not the date you signed up for second life

Again, I only went Premium in 2011 and I get the blessed 500L$ stipend.

On 8/16/2018 at 12:24 AM, AnyaJurelle said:

Anyway - someone's got to keep SL's economy afloat, right?

Indeed

On 8/19/2018 at 12:01 AM, Garnet Psaltery said:

I've had Premium membership since my arrival in 2005.  I ran through the scary Welcome Area and went immediately to buy First Land (formerly provided special empty mainland 512s for newbies).   I've enjoyed the stipend and most other perks ever since.  Downgrading is unthinkable.

/me high-fives Garnet.

On 8/23/2018 at 5:28 AM, BelindaN said:

This talk of "the mainland"??? Is this somewhere I can't go as a basic member?

Mainland generally refers to the big Linden-owned continents of SL:  Sansara, Heterocera, Satori, Nautilus, Gaeta1, Gaeta5, Corsica, Jeogeot and so forth.

And yes, there are places that you can't go as a basic member.  For one, the Premium sandboxes.  And for another there's some Premium Experiences. those are the game type things like Linden Realms.  Magellan's Grid Hunt and Racer's Gulch are Premium Only

Quote

What's the big attraction???? I appreciate that as a newbie I don't know much, but the worth of Premium just passes right over my head.

Premium gets you:

1024 of tier free land.  Meaning you can own up to 1024m2 of Mainland without paying extra fees.  It used to be 512m2.  The free tier can be applied to getting one of those Linden Homes, which are currently only 512's, but will eventually go up to 1024.  One note about Linden Homes, the LI of the actual home supplied by LL does NOT count against the parcel LI, only what you personally rez does.

A stipend.  Every Tuesday, LL will give you 300L$ to use as you wish, and it's worth about 62 US$ which somewhat offsets the $72 yearly fee

For those of us with the older higher stipend who pay yearly, the value of the L$ is higher than what we pay for the Premium account, currently the L$ is worth around 104 US$.  So yes, if I didn't buy L$, (and hadn't upgraded my tier level to 2048) LL would basically pay ME to use SL.

Premium users get 60 group slots, Basic's get the standard 42.  Those extra group slots are worth it alone.  I would do almost anything to get even more.

Premium users get Voice Morphing as part of the benefits, which is normally 8US$ a month.

Premium users get Premium support, which means the same live chat options Concierge users get.  I have used it, now and then, it's been helpful.

Premium gifts, a few aren't half bad.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

Plus the premium sandboxes are nice,especially if you have a bunch of clusters to drop and see what they are..

I have a bunch of those I still need to see what they are..So many returns to my inventory ,so little time  to rez them though..hehehehe

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

19 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Plus the premium sandboxes are nice,especially if you have a bunch of clusters to drop and see what they are..

I have a bunch of those I still need to see what they are..So many returns to my inventory ,so little time  to rez them though..hehehehe

 

I really like the sandboxes when I'm rezzing a house that wants to spill over my parcel boundaries whilte the rezzer is putting it together.  I can do it in a sandbox to figure out exactly how/where to position the rezzer so that I can actually get it rezzed on my own land.  

We all know how HORRID public sandboxes are.

[Fionalein]

3 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

We all know how HORRID public sandboxes are.

You and I must visit different public sandboxes...

[JamieAddams]

hiya

FOr me its worth it, after Stipends i only end up paying 9 dollars for the year.  I have my own mainland lot now that it went up to 1024, so that tier is covered.  Prior to that i lived in the newby houses as my prim benefit, which was worth it until they raised the allowance to 1k.

The only other benefit i take advantage of is getting into crowded shopping events on day one

[Ceka Cianci]

My crowded sim perk just came in handy again this morning at the Scandalize hunt..

People were in group yesterday and today complaining about not being able to get in.. I seen the sim was at 54 people since it started and the same today..I was like,I wonder if I can get in there..

Sure enough, the first try.. I felt bad at first because some were saying they had been trying for like 3 hours or more to get in..

I would have gave up long before that..

I never really paid much attention to that perk before, or thought I ever needed it,until I realized how many times I had actually used it already..

For me again premium is worth it..

Now I have to go unpack all this stuff from the gift room and cherries I found..hehehe

 

 

 

[Sandy Schnook]

5 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

My crowded sim perk just came in handy again this morning at the Scandalize hunt..

People were in group yesterday and today complaining about not being able to get in.. I seen the sim was at 54 people since it started and the same today..I was like,I wonder if I can get in there..

Sure enough, the first try.. I felt bad at first because some were saying they had been trying for like 3 hours or more to get in..

I would have gave up long before that..

I never really paid much attention to that perk before, or thought I ever needed it,until I realized how many times I had actually used it already..

For me again premium is worth it..

Now I have to go unpack all this stuff from the gift room and cherries I found..hehehe

 

 

 

Same thing here, to the point myself and others ended up pointing out this perk of premium in the Scandalize group.  One said she's been trying to get there since yesterday.  BTW another store I didn't see you mention, is having a similar hunt but for melons, Safira.

[Persephone Emerald]

If you play in SL regularly then it's worth it to go premium, especially if you join at a discounted rate. The best deal is when the 3 month package is half price. At this rate going Premium more than pays for itself in your linden stipend. The 1/2 price for one month sale is good too, but maybe not as good as paying for an annual Premium account.

1. The most obvious benefit is getting a weekly stipend, especially since Linden Lab raised the fee for buying lindens.

2. The ability to own land is good benefit, especially since you can now get 1024 m of mainland, which also provides more prims/land impact than it used to provide.

3. Greater customer support is a good benefit.

The potential downside of being a Premium member is that if you have an outstanding debt on your account - such as unpaid tier on your land - your account can be frozen until your debt is paid. The fix for this problem is to be careful that you're paid in full, don't accidentally renew on land you don't actually want, and keep an alt with a Basic account which has full permissions over your objects and any groups you run.

The free gifts that Premium members get are not a useful benefit, in my opinion, since they tend to be overly primmy.