SSP?

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Evangeline Arcadia said:

@Daniel Voyager Patch mentions over 38000 in this interview:

https://thebellisserian.wixsite.com/editionone

@Chic Aeon makes some good points I think. There were some voices in the forum saying they would not renew the premium because of the increased cost. Of course, we know that it is usually a minority that participates in the forum, so whether this will prove to be true for many more members we just don't know. But I think it could be a factor in premium uptake going forward, so I think there probably will need to be more incentives.

Not just forum folks but a bunch of friends and creators that I know.   Now that the alt game for mainland isn't such a bonus, that fits into the puzzle also.   I won't be renewing any premium memberships after they elapse. The only slight advantage for me is getting into events earlier and the events are all (yes all and I have been hitting each one since I am retired and bored) MUCH easier to get into now.   This isn't good news for sellers of course, but helpful for shoppers.   I have heard lots of "I can't believe it but I got into [Event ABC] the first day" comments so not just luck on my part. 

Of the people on my friends list that are now premium  I only know one for sure that will reup. He has a long time "special to him" mainland plot.  One friend I don't know about. Others really don't use their premium status for much and will at least be letting their alts go back to premium  basic.   These are all long term residents, so I think the hit will be big --- again, unless something changes.  Super Duper Premium may be be a hit --- or not. Letting people pay membership and tier with lindens would get some folks sticking with premium, but aside from keeping premium numbers up, I don't see how doing that would directly help The Lab --- so that prospect seems a bit iffy.    

 

Came right back to fix an error above --- but something else to mention.  There seem to be a fair amount of folks that exited after Tilia. Certainly more than I expected.  People that used to be around just aren't any longer. I chalked that up at first to it being "August" and many being from Europe, but it is now October and they are still absent.  Honestly I didn't see that happening.  So apparently the folks that said they were leaving -- really did leave.    I am sorry to see that. 

Edited October 2, 2019 by Chic Aeon
spelling and adding info

[Beth Macbain]

18 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

Not just forum folks but a bunch of friends and creators that I know.   Now that the alt game for mainland isn't such a bonus, that fits into the puzzle also.   I won't be renewing any premium memberships after they elapse. The only slight advantage for me is getting into events earlier and the events are all (yes all and I have been hitting each one since I am retired and bored) MUCH easier to get into now.   This isn't good news for sellers of course, but helpful for shoppers.   I have heard lots of "I can't believe it but I got into [Event ABC] the first day" comments so not just luck on my part. 

Of the people on my friends list that are now premium  I only know one for sure that will reup. He has a long time "special to him" mainland plot.  One friend I don't know about. Others really don't use their premium status for much and will at least be letting their alts go back to premium  basic.   These are all long term residents, so I think the hit will be big --- again, unless something changes.  Super Duper Premium may be be a hit --- or not. Letting people pay membership and tier with lindens would get some folks sticking with premium, but aside from keeping premium numbers up, I don't see how doing that would directly help The Lab --- so that prospect seems a bit iffy.    

Came right back to fix an error above --- but something else to mention.  There seem to be a fair amount of folks that exited after Tilia. Certainly more than I expected.  People that used to be around just aren't any longer. I chalked that up at first to it being "August" and many being from Europe, but it is now October and they are still absent.  Honestly I didn't see that happening.  So apparently the folks that said they were leaving -- really did leave.    I am sorry to see that. 

Just curious... when you talk about the bunch of people you know, what's the ballpark figure on that? 10? 100? 1,000? 

[s2Pandora]

7 hours ago, Raspberry Crystal said:

Maybe it is more arid terrain? The logic could be 'it's further south therefore hotter'?

edit: looking again this is the same terrain as the transition between grass and beach, maybe it is simply flat..at the moment?

It looks this way to me, too. The terrain looks maybe tropical or swampy to me, but we'll just have to see what happens.

[Chic Aeon]

57 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

Just curious... when you talk about the bunch of people you know, what's the ballpark figure on that? 10? 100? 1,000? 

Probably 30ish not counting anyone on the forums but inworld folks. It is really the PERCENTAGE that is important I think.   Hope that helps you.  So 30ish out of 50 that are premium say.    Again not counting comments on the forums.   

 

Maybe you could take a poll of your friends and add them into the mix here. 

EDIT: We DO know for certain that there will be people going back to basic accounts. I may hang out with different types of people than other folks. I can't comment on that part of the information. 

Edited October 2, 2019 by Chic Aeon
adding info

[Beth Macbain]

2 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

Maybe you could take a poll of your friends and add them into the mix here. 

I asked them way back when the price went up what they thought about the price going up. I keep my list short so it's less than 20 people. The universal answer I got was, "Price went up?" followed by as shrug, and some variation on how little of a crap they gave about the increase and probably wouldn't have ever noticed had I not said something. 

So that'd be 100% in the not-giving-a-crap category. While I didn't feel the need to follow that up with a question about whether or not they were going to drop their premium, I'm pretty sure the answer would have been 100% no based on the 100% not giving a crap. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

There probably are a whole lot of people that pay no attention to the blogs or forums or other LL communication and only hear stuff from other folks or via group chats - and many also don't pay much attention to any group chat conversations.  Thus I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the majority of Premium members didn't / don't even know about a price increase until they are billed for their next time period.  For those that are signed up for annual, that means another year will go by before they drop their Premium, except for the few that push LL to refund them immediately.

[Arquet]

But isn't that (premiums not renewing) offset at least to some extent by people who went premium because they wanted a Bellisseria home (or even joined SL for that purpose)? I'm sure plenty of calculations and what if scenarios were drawn in countless meetings... (The geek in me would LOVE to see the spreadsheets. If spreadsheets there are.)

[Beth Macbain]

21 minutes ago, Arquet said:

But isn't that (premiums not renewing) offset at least to some extent by people who went premium because they wanted a Bellisseria home (or even joined SL for that purpose)? I'm sure plenty of calculations and what if scenarios were drawn in countless meetings... (The geek in me would LOVE to see the spreadsheets. If spreadsheets there are.)

No one other than LL actually knows what effect the price increase has had on premium memberships, if there was any effect at all. 

Anything else is nothing but pure speculation and skewed by the type of people we have on our friend's lists, it would seem. 

[Chic Aeon]

37 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

I asked them way back when the price went up what they thought about the price going up. I keep my list short so it's less than 20 people. The universal answer I got was, "Price went up?" followed by as shrug, and some variation on how little of a crap they gave about the increase and probably wouldn't have ever noticed had I not said something. 

So that'd be 100% in the not-giving-a-crap category. While I didn't feel the need to follow that up with a question about whether or not they were going to drop their premium, I'm pretty sure the answer would have been 100% no based on the 100% not giving a crap. 

Actually I didn't have any of my friends upset about the price going up.   NONE.  And I wasn't bothered either.  That wasn't actually the issue with the folks that I know (although it was for some folks on the forums).  About a third of my 30 people did not sign the Tilia agreement. Hence they cannot cash out and they NOW need to pay for their membership and tier with US dollars -- where before they could just funnel back the lindens that they got as stippend (basically only paying money out of pocket once long ago).  THAT was the reason many of the folks "I" talked to are going back to basic -- NOT the price change per se. 

 

The 'pay ahead' deal right before the Tilia announcement didn't go over well with some of them (me either obviously). One gal will ONLY pay with money she has earned (hence since she didn't sign Tilia she cannot) because she doesn't feel that it is fair her husband pays for her "playing" (that's a quote LOL).  Plenty of reasons.

 

I was also coming back to say that of all the friends I have that are premium -- they are ALL "yearly premium" and I suspect that makes a difference too. We already say people dropping their monthly and quarterly premiums and abandoning their Belli houses.   So we really won't see the effect of  A. Price increase , B. pay ahead discount deal or C. opting out of Tilia for many months to over a year.  I paid one alt up through another whole year as of today.  So SHE will be premium for a long while even though she will get no use out of it.   I currently have a 4096 that I am not using at all --- paid for by friends and alts with their Premium tier. And that will be going away in a few months as people no longer are premium.

 

So honestly there is no point in arguing about it. Time will tell. And again, The Lab HAS to know this is a likely scenario and hopefully will do something to mitigate the effects.    

 

Leaving it to you know to discuss.

 

[Chad Marbach]

In terms of people trying for a sample data and extracting what they feel from that.  I think your sampling may be WAY too small.  According to my N-Phone there are over 6 Million (60 Million?) on Second Life (No mention of whether premium or not).

[Beth Macbain]

11 minutes ago, Chad Marbach said:

In terms of people trying for a sample data and extracting what they feel from that.  I think your sampling may be WAY too small.  According to my N-Phone there are over 6 Million (60 Million?) on Second Life (No mention of whether premium or not).

According to Ebbe during his SL16B talk (I think... or maybe it was @Patch Linden somewhere else) there are something like 60,000 premium accounts. 

[Chic Aeon]

19 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

According to Ebbe during his SL16B talk (I think... or maybe it was @Patch Linden somewhere else) there are something like 60,000 premium accounts. 

New World Notes video interview with Ebbe  April of this year.  May have also been stated other places but that is the only place that I heard the number mentioned. This was BEFORE all sorts of major changes so hard to say what the number is now. 

[lext4sy]

seemed to have come across a green toxic waterfall in SSPE238

https://gyazo.com/f03b207512d36637658739ba0cb36631

[Polenth Yue]

16 hours ago, RaeLeeH said:

As per this post:

https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/426577-ssp/?do=findComment&comment=1981364

Looks like new terrain perhaps on the newest extension to SSP:

Not a fan of the way it looks at the moment, because it looks rather bolted on. The sharp dip in the coast at SSP371 (where old joins new on the left side) contributes to that feeling. But it also does look like it's all on the same level, so hopefully there's more terraforming to come to blend it in.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Polenth Yue said:

Not a fan of the way it looks at the moment, because it looks rather bolted on. The sharp dip in the coast at SSP371 (where old joins new on the left side) contributes to that feeling. But it also does look like it's all on the same level, so hopefully there's more terraforming to come to blend it in.

Well, given that their region textures aren't even lined up very well yet - see below -- I'd definitely say that they are likely in the early stages here and plan on doing much more work.

[Leora Jacobus]

16 hours ago, Beth Macbain said:

No one other than LL actually knows what effect the price increase has had on premium memberships, if there was any effect at all. 

Anything else is nothing but pure speculation and skewed by the type of people we have on our friend's lists, it would seem. 

Well I can testify that the price increase plus Bellisseria arising had an immense effect (at least on me):

I had since 2007 when I started SL never had any premium account (with 2 or 3 one month trial exceptions) though I had created 6 alts during that time. Bellisseria coming (the preview) had fascinated me and I made my main premium. In the first rush (and due to my 5 times abandon limit) two alts followed and as soon as I heard of the price rise imminent I at ONCE made ALL the rest of my alts premium for one year.

When the year is over they'll all go back to basic ... with the exception of two who managed to get the nicest homes (1 house +1 HB) till then.

Tilia doesn't affect me at ALL ... I do not earn money in SL only pay by Paypal and if need be I would have no pains giving my data to SL

"Big brother's watching you" ... anyway!! whatever you do!! since long time. Who cares? not me!

 

[Sister Nova]

12 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Well, given that their region textures aren't even lined up very well yet - see below -- I'd definitely say that they are likely in the early stages here and plan on doing much more work.

The textures shown on the new area are what I would imagine are just default textures. I've seen them many times on regions that have been reconfigured and moved for new owners to start their own customisation.

[Polenth Yue]

There's a new SSPXT area just to the side of the island in the SSP area.

[Evangeline Arcadia]

I've just noticed some more of the blueish gray squares that were originally seen southwest of the continent have appeared top northwest corner, east of the land corresponding to the new pickle homes area (below the green square) and over the area corresponding to what is Pinrane Waves on Bellisseria. They may have been there before but I don't remember seeing them. I wonder what these represent? The beginnings of some water development perhaps (that may be moved to other locations in the end)?

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Evangeline Arcadia

[Quartz Mole]

On 10/2/2019 at 9:07 PM, AlexusAbrianna said:

seemed to have come across a green toxic waterfall in SSPE238

https://gyazo.com/f03b207512d36637658739ba0cb36631

Run-off from Three Metre Island?  

[Nika Talaj]

10 hours ago, Evangeline Arcadia said:

I've just noticed some more of the blueish gray squares that were originally seen southwest of the continent have appeared top northwest corner, east of the land corresponding to the new pickle homes area (below the green square) and over the area corresponding to what is Pinrane Waves on Bellisseria. They may have been there before but I don't remember seeing them. I wonder what these represent? The beginnings of some water development perhaps (that may be moved to other locations in the end)?

I have a theory, and the theory that I have is this:

In the SSP (prototype) Belli, regions that are named SSPX are scratch regions, which are not intended to show up in that location in real Belli.  OTOH, SSPnnn regions ARE intended to show up in that spot in Belli.  That is the theory which I have. 

SO, the bluish gray regions in the top northwest corner of your pic are not only SSPnnn regions, but an interesting something has shown up in the one that corresponds to the Rusted Hull region in real Belli (this is on the web map).  Oil rig?  Marine outpost of some sort?  SURFACE PORT TO ATLANTIS!!!! [erm, no, probably not, got carried away there]

The other ones near the pickle are named like this:

[Dyna Mole]

1 hour ago, Nika Talaj said:

I have a theory, and the theory that I have is this:

In the SSP (prototype) Belli, regions that are named SSPX are scratch regions, which are not intended to show up in that location in real Belli.  OTOH, SSPnnn regions ARE intended to show up in that spot in Belli.  That is the theory which I have. 

I am reminded, in passing, of aanother well-established classical theory that was introduced with similarly appropriate diffidence.

Your own theory is spot on.  An SSPX region is a sandbox, a place where we can mess around with things until we get scripts running right or where we can test cornball ideas that might make it into Linden Homes at some point in the future.  It's fair to say that most things on an SSPX region aren't ready to share with the rest of SL yet.  At the same time, that's where some of the ... ahem ... truly inspired Mole thinking takes place. 🙄

[Beth Macbain]

Just now, Dyna Mole said:

I am reminded, in passing, of aanother well-established classical theory that was introduced with similarly appropriate diffidence.

Your own theory is spot on.  An SSPX region is a sandbox, a place where we can mess around with things until we get scripts running right or where we can test cornball ideas that might make it into Linden Homes at some point in the future.  It's fair to say that most things on an SSPX region aren't ready to share with the rest of SL yet.  At the same time, that's where some of the ... ahem ... truly inspired Mole thinking takes place. 🙄

Next fundraiser, instead of raffling off a LH for six months, raffle off access to the SSPX regions for a couple of hours. I need to see the magic being made!

[Nika Talaj]

37 minutes ago, Dyna Mole said:

I am reminded, in passing, of aanother well-established classical theory that was introduced with similarly appropriate diffidence.

....

Your own theory is spot on.  An SSPX region is a sandbox, a place where we can mess around with things until we get scripts running right or where we can test cornball ideas that might make it into Linden Homes at some point in the future.  It's fair to say that most things on an SSPX region aren't ready to share with the rest of SL yet.  At the same time, that's where some of the ... ahem ... truly inspired Mole thinking takes place. 🙄

oh thank you!  I despaired of finding that!

I wonder, was three meter island born in an SSPX region?  That was inspired!

 

 

[Dyna Mole]

3 minutes ago, Nika Talaj said:

I wonder, was three meter island born in an SSPX region?  That was inspired!

The gene for creative brilliance -- or sideways thinking -- runs amok in Moledom.  Three Meter Island was indeed inspired.  My guess is that it involved some high level thinking late at night and perhaps a few rounds of Grubweiser.