What are your opinions on the new "Land Price Reductions, New Premium Perks, and Pricing Changes "?

[Coffee Pancake]

 

1 hour ago, Beth Macbain said:

There are plenty of retail stores that are not chains that do, in fact, do all their own product research, design, development, branding and marketing. That is the nature of small business. 

Those are boutiques, and you pay boutique prices.

Yeah, didn't think so.

Offsetting the fee requires one thing, more income. 

1 hour ago, Beth Macbain said:

The real difference between SL and RL retail are the prices. SL retailers expect to make real world size profits on SL merchandise. I don't see that as being realistic except in a few very exceptional cases, and I don't think those are sustainable. 

SL products can demand significant real world skills and real world time. There is no expectation to make real world profits, that's crazy. Cover real world costs is about the best you can manage.

1 hour ago, Beth Macbain said:

It might be different if SL had zillions of active members actively spending thousands and thousands of lindens but... hell, I don't know how anyone could expect to make a living wage selling things in SL. That's a terrifying thought as LL could pull the plugs on the servers anytime. Do they have backup plans or are they just going to crash and burn?

If all this vanishes, there are going to be a lot of people, not just entrenched creators, who suddenly find they have nothing but a decade on the clock.

SL is a literal life line to many and not simply in financial terms. The more you know people here, the more you find are just putting on a very brave face.

[Beth Macbain]

1 hour ago, CoffeeDujour said:

Those are boutiques, and you pay boutique prices.

Yeah, didn't think so.

I guess I'm all alone on this but I would LOVE to pay boutique prices if it means 10,000 other avatars aren't wearing the same thing I am. I might even actually wear things more than once if I'm paying a higher price AND not seeing clones of myself everywhere I go. I'd pay quite a lot for that, actually, since I wouldn't be buying all the disposable clothing everyone else is wearing.

1 hour ago, CoffeeDujour said:

Offsetting the fee requires one thing, more income. 

SL products can demand significant real world skills and real world time. There is no expectation to make real world profits, that's crazy. Cover real world costs is about the best you can manage.

Some people seem to want to make real world profits, though. It seems insane to me, but I'm not a creator or merchant so I have no real idea if that's even possible outside of a couple merchants that I consider the Walmarts of SL. 

1 hour ago, CoffeeDujour said:

If all this vanishes, there are going to be a lot of people, not just entrenched creators, who suddenly find they have nothing but a decade on the clock.

SL is a literal life line to many and not simply in financial terms. The more you know people here, the more you find are just putting on a very brave face.

I've been in SL long enough to have gotten pregnant and raised a teenager (I didn't, thank god, but I could have... lol). It would absolutely kill me if SL went away... that's a big part of the reason why I don't object in the slightest to LL raising prices and charging more in transaction fees. 

We're all just putting on a very brave face every day, in SL and RL. 

[Drake1 Nightfire]

14 hours ago, CoffeeDujour said:

SL retail and RL retail are not comparable. Yes, they both involve stores and shoppers, but that is it.

An RL store buys things in from a dedicated manufacturer, provides them with location near to customers, shelf space, staff to set the product out and sell it to you. RL retail is a man in the middle business connecting customers to producers and taking a cut.

An SL business is a dedicated creator making the things from whole cloth. They're product research, design, development, branding and marketing all rolled into one. Their middle man that connects them to they customers is their in world store, the SLM or an Event.

An RL store's consideration is 'cost price + store overheads + profit = final', rinse repeat.

An SL creators consideration (Lets just pretend there isn't a 20% loss to fees between L$ and spendable cash in the bank, and you get zero employee benefits .. like health care) is 'hours spend on the product', 'projected life span', 'sale price'. If you spend 3 days making the thing (30 hours) at a livable wage ($15) .. you need to sell 450  of the things at L$250 each to make those 30 hours equivalent to a regular job. How long will that take .. 1 year ? 2 years ? The reality is the final price needs to be more like L$500 (2US) or $1000 (4US), but no one will pay that because it sounds like a lot.

An SL creators biggest bill is themselves and their need to eat, keep warm and stay online with the tools they need to work.

Asset flippers are more like RL stores, acquire the thing, clean up, present, charge same price as dedicated creator with almost none of the over heads. Even iof they have to do some work, it's still only a fraction of the dedicated creator.

 

I have never understood how anyone can make something as mercurial as an online venue their sole source of income, be that SL, Youtube, twitch, Instagram, whatever. You are relying on the whims of complete strangers to pay your bills. Look what has happened to many huge Youtubers. They had a scandal of some sort and lost millions of viewer/followers. and a boat load of money. Same with SL, not the scandal part, more the there is a hundred thousand competitors selling the same thing as you. Even in a niche market you will eventually get competition. Someone who can make it better, shinier, smoother, better animations or whatever. 

Blender gives me migraines. I buy full perms and spend hours upon hours making textures for them. Please dont call that asset flipping, we put a lot of work into those textures. Thankfully, my daughter is learning Blender in school and they are actually talking about rigging things for SL. Apparently her teacher is in SL. So, my daughter will be making things for me. If you can make your own mesh, you have a leg up on everyone who buys full perms. It's all about what you know how to do. 

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

11 hours ago, Beth Macbain said:

I've been in SL long enough to have gotten pregnant and raised a teenager (I didn't, thank god, but I could have... lol). It would absolutely kill me if SL went away... that's a big part of the reason why I don't object in the slightest to LL raising prices and charging more in transaction fees

There IS a thread discussing exactly how LL could improve its business model and suggestions for more profit (many of which have nothing to do with increasing already excessive, IMO, fees). I paid almost US$600/year for 5 years AFTER already deducting the stipend, which I basically spent on land search and classifieds anyway.  That doesn't include continual event fees, upload costs, hiring of bloggers or models, buying builds, shop decoration, etc. That was in an effort after 5 years of being an unknown boutique to try and grow and compete with some larger brands. Recently, I downsized all that.  Mainly because trying to compete with brands that have constant new releases forced me to push out some things that really didn't inspire me (constrained by time and or event themes or colors) and I couldn't take the time to really add the quality and detail that I would have liked.  I wasn't feeling creatively satisfied so I decided to cut back on as much overhead as possible to allow myself more time for quality over quantity. 

I would hate for it to go away either.  Apart from the money invested, I care more about the decade of time I spent trying to create something different and unique to what everyone else makes.   But apart from you and I guess another 1%, most people don't go into the boutique they drive by on their way to Walmart.  BUT, if they keep raising fees, it would be like SL was going away.  For me at least. I would be pushed out in terms of what I want to get out of SL.  Just as if they removed the ability to have SLex. It doesn't affect my experience and technically SL is still here, but it might as well go away for some other people who rely on that for their overall experience here.   I appreciate constructive criticism and opinions, but you are looking at SL from a completely different dynamic and your opinion would probably be better received if you had any experience as a merchant or creator.  But I sincerely do appreciate hearing from the consumer end and I am open to knowing anything else potential customers would like to see from SL creators, so for that, I thank you. 

IMO, what SL really needs to invest in is some decent outside advertising.  In the 10 years I've been here, I've seen perhaps two banner ads and the quality was laughable.  They need to hire ANY decent blogger or SL photographer to really show what is possible here.  And they need to address and dispel the reputation that SL has of being populated by perverts and weirdos.  

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by adriannesuz McMinnar

[Evangeline Arcadia]

23 minutes ago, adriannesuz McMinnar said:

IMO, what SL really needs to invest in is some decent outside advertising.  In the 10 years I've been here, I've seen perhaps two banner ads and the quality was laughable.  They need to hire ANY decent blogger or SL photographer to really show what is possible here.  And they need to address and dispel the reputation that SL has of being populated by perverts and weirdos.  

 

Yes, this.👍

Although,as advertising costs,  I expect it would push up costs to the user through premiums or whatever else:(

[Kyrah Abattoir]

58 minutes ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

I have never understood how anyone can make something as mercurial as an online venue their sole source of income, be that SL, Youtube, twitch, Instagram, whatever. You are relying on the whims of complete strangers to pay your bills.

It's not that different from any other self-employed situation.

47 minutes ago, adriannesuz McMinnar said:

And they need to address and dispel the reputation that SL has of being populated by perverts and weirdos.  

Personally I believe they should fully embrace it. The SL userbase is very diverse and what little advertisement Linden Lab does doesn't really capitalize on the massive amount of creativity within SecondLife. After ~15 years looking at them dancing around the topic I'm starting to assume there must be some sort of implied hill in the USA where companies that promote lewds are sent to die on.

So yeah they should absolutely advertise the "seedier" side of SL because it's simply better at it than the competition. But they should also advertise:

• The boating/flight/sailing capabilities of SL, which despite the lag can be a very chill entertainment form.
• The fact there is a ton of amazing combat related content, and while it will never beat your typical FPS game, it's functional and fun, which is all that matter.
• They should advertise to anime/manga fans.
• They really really need to put the fact you can build and script anything you want, right where you stand, back into the spotlight because that's what the early adopters came for and newer users sometimes barely know those tools exist.

[steeljane42]

12 hours ago, Beth Macbain said:

I guess I'm all alone on this but I would LOVE to pay boutique prices if it means 10,000 other avatars aren't wearing the same thing I am. I might even actually wear things more than once if I'm paying a higher price AND not seeing clones of myself everywhere I go. I'd pay quite a lot for that, actually, since I wouldn't be buying all the disposable clothing everyone else is wearing. 

You can do it so already, there are some stores and people who are willing to make custom mesh, textures, animations and scripts for you. Just the price will actually be a boutique one, not the "couple of $ more than everyone else are paying". Those custom work prices don't scale down for the usual SL prices too well, since it's all about the creator's skill and time needed to create something, as well as about their interest to create something unique for someone. Because otherwise, if they are talented, value their time and skill and want make some business in SL, then (for example) selling 400 clothing items for 250L$ is more likely than selling the same item in a single copy for 100kL$.

 

12 hours ago, Beth Macbain said:

I've been in SL long enough to have gotten pregnant and raised a teenager (I didn't, thank god, but I could have... lol). It would absolutely kill me if SL went away... that's a big part of the reason why I don't object in the slightest to LL raising prices and charging more in transaction fees. 

It's more complicated than that. You might not object and be fine with it, but if something that LL does will drive enough people away, then your SL experience will suffer as well. Less things to buy, less people to hang out with, less places to visit and most likely even more fees for remaining people to make up for those who've left. And then next round of increased prices and fees will push even more people away and so on, until there's almost no one left in SL. I've seen it in a few mmorpgs I used to play back in the days. Bad and not thought out decisions, sometimes pure greed and what did look like a healthy game a year ago starts to go through things like server merges, old team leaving, reduced/slowed down/zero actual content releases, more microtransactions for those who are still playing until there's only a few hardcore "veterans" and mmo surfers (who just try games for a few days or weeks and move onto the next one) left.

 

 

1 hour ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

I have never understood how anyone can make something as mercurial as an online venue their sole source of income, be that SL, Youtube, twitch, Instagram, whatever. You are relying on the whims of complete strangers to pay your bills. Look what has happened to many huge Youtubers. They had a scandal of some sort and lost millions of viewer/followers. and a boat load of money. Same with SL, not the scandal part, more the there is a hundred thousand competitors selling the same thing as you. Even in a niche market you will eventually get competition. Someone who can make it better, shinier, smoother, better animations or whatever. 

And many more big youtubers/streamers either continue to make a decent amount of money or just moved on, without any kind of scandals and monetary losses, it's just drama that gets noticed, that's why it looks like it happens a lot.

Now the SL is a bit too niche market, but with youtube and twitch it's somewhat "easier". It's still a game of chance, though. Some people get noticed, some always sit down there with a few views/viewers while they invest roughly same amounts of time and energy into streaming/videos making. But sometimes stars align and someone gets to the top and that's where the jackpot is, really big streamers make more each month than they'd make with other "good normal job" in a few years and that's even without extreme cases like Ninja's who made around 10m$ in 2018 thanks to Fortine's popularity. Most streamers are between 18 and 30 I think, so I'm not really surprised that a lot of people trying. There's not TOO much harm done if you take the 1-2 years delaying your education or taking a break between education and actual work, given someone has a supportive family and/or friends. If you luck out, then it was worth it, if not... people do way more pointless things around this age, without even having a chance to succeed.

And, well, sometimes it's just about the dream too. Maybe you heard about Stardew Valley and how a single guy made it by working 10 hours a day for years? It did turn out amazing, but it had a good chance to remain unnoticed in the sea of games. It's chasing the dream, same as being a content creator and making living doing so. I'm glad we have plenty of those dreamers in SL, otherwise it wouldn't be nearly as good and creative.

[Bootlegger6971]

you want my opinion ok hey LL how about you make sure your sh*t is working properly before you go charging more money for it

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

2 hours ago, Evangeline Arcadia said:

Although,as advertising costs,  I expect it would push up costs to the user through premiums or whatever else:(

Advertising should already be included and implemented in any decent business plan.  As it is now (and I may be wrong), it feels like SL is using us as a word-of-mouth advertising method. 

[Alyona Su]

18 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

selling for next to nothing to become popular

There are two kinds of markets: the price-shoppers and the quality-shoppers. You can be the Kia (low-ball pricing going for the volume) or you can be the Rolls Royce (Quality-centered for discerning clientele,) or best option: somewhere in-between. Who do you suppose makes the most profit? If you low-ball your own worth to be popular then that is your decision (and your own perceived worth.) However, because the fees for a cash-out are based on a *percentage*, even the "Kia" of SL pay the exact same cash-out fee ratio as the "Rolls Royce" of SL cash-out fee ratio.

You can focus on the number of sales (high-volume, low margin) or focuses on profits (low volume, high margin) - in any case, with SL *everyone's* cost of doing business it, with very little variation, the same. And in every case, it's nowhere near to the "cost of business" in the percentage of money-flow that a RL business must suffer. Not even close by a long-shot.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Da5id Weatherwax]

I made this point in Grumpity's thread but it bears repeating here.

There are more merchants and creators of saleable content in SL than there are performers, so it's natural we are hearing more from them in this discussion. However consider us for a minute. As a live musician my costs to play a set in SL are identical to my costs to play the same set in RL, with the sole exception of transportation costs to get my gear to the venue. SL income is not my sole income but it pays for me to be in SL and from time to time allows me to replace worn out gear a little sooner than I could otherwise. The costs are identical but income is not. The margin in SL is tiny, but every little helps on a musicians irregular income. This is not the venue owners fault, they are on an equally scaled down margin and can't afford to pay anything like what they would for me to turn up and perform for them IRL.

These increases are not going to bankrupt me or anything over-dramatic like that, but they are going to decrease my already-tiny margin over my costs. I have no idea at the present if that decrease will take my SL income below my SL costs but the possibility is very real. I want to continue to be part of this community but, like I said, a musicians income is irregular and currently the little I make in SL helps a bit. Changing that to an equally small loss thanks to elimination of my margin in increased fees will unavoidably put my future as a SL resident in doubt. I won't be alone in this, the same will be true of everybody with any kind of "SL business" whose margin is this close to the wire - and that's most of us, whatever line of business we are in.

[Luna Bliss]

1 hour ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

consider us for a minute

A person such as yourself and Adriannesuz, with all the years of dedication, are not easy to replace. LL should take care in affecting your income. It's not like we presently have hoards of people beating down the door to get into SL.
People like you are the lifeblood of SL, providing valuable services in SL out of love for your craft, yet unable to continue if the cost becomes too much of a burden.

I'm also thinking about all the disabled people here, or the mothers working from home with children, who depend on their work in SL to fund their SL life, and even make an extra $100 or $200 a month in some cases to assist them in RL.  Will they reach a point where it's either too expensive or not worth their time the more LL takes of their earnings?

[Coffee Pancake]

4 hours ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

Blender gives me migraines. I buy full perms and spend hours upon hours making textures for them. Please dont call that asset flipping, we put a lot of work into those textures. 

Many (not all) full perm mesh vendors I have seen are all selling such an incredibly broad range of content, in so many styles, using many different techniques, I find it highly unlikely they are making a single asset themselves (3D modelling is a bit like painting once you get above a certain level, artists do have their own style and do specialize), even more unlikely that they have licences that would allow them to pass the item on for resale... Although I bet the licence you have contains restrictions on what you can do.

I'm not saying that texture painting isn't hard work or an entirely valid skill in of itself. Good texture painting is fairly high demand skillset (especially if you can do procedural work, generate normal & specular maps).

[Drake1 Nightfire]

36 minutes ago, CoffeeDujour said:

Many (not all) full perm mesh vendors I have seen are all selling such an incredibly broad range of content, in so many styles, using many different techniques, I find it highly unlikely they are making a single asset themselves (3D modelling is a bit like painting once you get above a certain level, artists do have their own style and do specialize), even more unlikely that they have licences that would allow them to pass the item on for resale... Although I bet the licence you have contains restrictions on what you can do.

I'm not saying that texture painting isn't hard work or an entirely valid skill in of itself. Good texture painting is fairly high demand skillset (especially if you can do procedural work, generate normal & specular maps).

Many of them are a team of users who make different mesh items. How they get away with using a single av between a team of people is beyond me. And yes, they all have restrictions, most make sense, one is against the law in the US. Thats the one I ignore. 

Personally, I feel that if you  dont have spec maps and normal maps on your mesh items, you havent given 100% to your creation or customer.

[Kyrah Abattoir]

59 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

A person such as yourself and Adriannesuz, with all the years of dedication, are not easy to replace. LL should take care in affecting your income. It's not like we presently have hoards of people beating down the door to get into SL.
People like you are the lifeblood of SL, providing valuable services in SL out of love for your craft, yet unable to continue if the cost becomes too much of a burden.

I'm also thinking about all the disabled people here, or the mothers working from home with children, who depend on their work in SL to fund their SL life, and even make an extra $100 or $200 a month in some cases to assist them in RL.  Will they reach a point where it's either too expensive or not worth their time the more LL takes of their earnings?

Does this means I'm replaceable?

[Coffee Pancake]

16 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Does this means I'm replaceable?

Only by 11 hamsters in a trench coat, a hat and 3 rolls of vinyl tape. Anything else, and we'd know the difference.

[Luna Bliss]

54 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Does this means I'm replaceable?

Most definitely you are irreplaceable and unforgettable!

But don't forget, that can be good or bad  ;0

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

A person such as yourself and Adriannesuz, with all the years of dedication, are not easy to replace. LL should take care in affecting your income. It's not like we presently have hoards of people beating down the door to get into SL.
People like you are the lifeblood of SL, providing valuable services in SL out of love for your craft, yet unable to continue if the cost becomes too much of a burden.

I'm also thinking about all the disabled people here, or the mothers working from home with children, who depend on their work in SL to fund their SL life, and even make an extra $100 or $200 a month in some cases to assist them in RL.  Will they reach a point where it's either too expensive or not worth their time the more LL takes of their earnings?

LL doesn't own anyone an income. 

If LL ever raises their fees such that it truly causes enough people to stop doing the things inworld that give them those fees, then I have no doubt that they will re-evaluate and make changes in the opposite direction.  Ultimately LL is a business and they are here to make money.  If they continue to make money and increase their income, even at the loss of some performers/creators, then LL is still doing what they are here to do.

[Luna Bliss]

14 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

LL doesn't own anyone an income. 

If LL ever raises their fees such that it truly causes enough people to stop doing the things inworld that give them those fees, then I have no doubt that they will re-evaluate and make changes in the opposite direction.  Ultimately LL is a business and they are here to make money.  If they continue to make money and increase their income, even at the loss of some performers/creators, then LL is still doing what they are here to do.

I never said LL owes anyone an income.

I disagree with your characterization of LL as only a business to make money -- that's really an insult to them. Everyone, when they sell something, is in business to both make money AND please their customer.

I may create for myself, but the minute I stick a price tag on my creation I am thinking of how I can help make a residents life here more enjoyable, and I adjust my product accordingly.

That's the problem with the Western world these days, we think business should be only about making money. It's why the whole world is going down in the not too distant future, if you read the stats on what's happening with climate change and economic collapse.

If enough people need to fund their existence in SL via making some cash then LL should cater to them.

[Da5id Weatherwax]

1 hour ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Does this means I'm replaceable?

Not one of us is replaceable or expendable, really. None of us "do our thing" in SL in isolation and we all depend on others for it to be a success or as rewarding as it can be. If I'm booked to play somewhere I will turn up and play my set whether there are any punters there or not - I've played to empty clubs because that was when I agreed to be there and put as much into my set as I would to a crowded venue. I appreciate everyone that does show up, the unmeshed newbie, the anthropomorphic sea slug, the fashion diva, the demon, the robot or the brazen strumpet working the crowd to try and drum some of her own particular kind of business. I make a point in every set of acknowledging the venue owner and their staff and encouraging folks to contribute to them even if they dont find my music to their taste and dont feel like tipping me. Every single person who spends less time in SL, who decides to forego buying land or who goes from making a modest profit to having to buy lindens to purchase the stuff they want makes life harder on all of us. They aren't buying as many new outfits. They aren't looking to rez and furnish their place, they have fewer lindens in their pocket to drop in my tip jar. If it wasn't for venue owners I couldn't perform in SL at all - you cant set the stream on LL-owned land, street corners and transit stops aren't a music venue inworld! Now, to a limited extent LL clearly understands this - they have left the fee for buying $L alone! Trimming the margins of a merchant might force them to raise prices, but just because prices go up doesn't mean folks will start tipping 110 when they used to tip 100, if anything they'll have less to spare for folks like me and my margins are getting trimmed just like everyone elses.

 

Edited to add: It;s not about LL owing anyoen a living, it's about the kind of environment they want SL to be - which does have an impact on its profitability. Do they want there to be a live music scene in SL? If so, performers are a group they need to not price out of inworld existence by a few percentage points here and a few percentage points there.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Da5id Weatherwax
additional note

[Beth Macbain]

12 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Everyone, when they sell something, is in business to both make money AND please their customer.

I don't know why I respond to you... something about you telling me to shut up, perhaps.

Anyway, are you aware of who is president in this country? And how many (temper your words, Beth) sycop-, moron-, deplor-, villain-, idio-, people who support him believe him to be the bestest, smartest businessman who ever existed and that they should emulate him? Do you think he, or they, care about anything other than themselves and making money? Do you think Walmart cares about pleasing their customers for any reason other than to keep them spending money there? Amazon? Target? Noooooo... They singularly want to make money for themselves and their share holders.

LL, I hope, has people who don't hate their jobs. Philip is long gone, and he was the visionary behind the dream. Make no mistake... LL is a business, period. Pleasing the customer makes it so they can make money. They do not make money in order to please the customer. 

23 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

That's the problem with the Western world these days, we think business should be only about making money. It's why the whole world is going down in the not too distant future, if you read the stats on what's happening with climate change and economic collapse.

[Selene Gregoire]

7 hours ago, adriannesuz McMinnar said:

There IS a thread discussing exactly how LL could improve its business model and suggestions for more profit (many of which have nothing to do with increasing already excessive, IMO, fees). I paid almost US$600/year for 5 years AFTER already deducting the stipend, which I basically spent on land search and classifieds anyway.  That doesn't include continual event fees, upload costs, hiring of bloggers or models, buying builds, shop decoration, etc. That was in an effort after 5 years of being an unknown boutique to try and grow and compete with some larger brands. Recently, I downsized all that.  Mainly because trying to compete with brands that have constant new releases forced me to push out some things that really didn't inspire me (constrained by time and or event themes or colors) and I couldn't take the time to really add the quality and detail that I would have liked.  I wasn't feeling creatively satisfied so I decided to cut back on as much overhead as possible to allow myself more time for quality over quantity. 

I would hate for it to go away either.  Apart from the money invested, I care more about the decade of time I spent trying to create something different and unique to what everyone else makes.   But apart from you and I guess another 1%, most people don't go into the boutique they drive by on their way to Walmart.  BUT, if they keep raising fees, it would be like SL was going away.  For me at least. I would be pushed out in terms of what I want to get out of SL.  Just as if they removed the ability to have SLex. It doesn't affect my experience and technically SL is still here, but it might as well go away for some other people who rely on that for their overall experience here.   I appreciate constructive criticism and opinions, but you are looking at SL from a completely different dynamic and your opinion would probably be better received if you had any experience as a merchant or creator.  But I sincerely do appreciate hearing from the consumer end and I am open to knowing anything else potential customers would like to see from SL creators, so for that, I thank you. 

IMO, what SL really needs to invest in is some decent outside advertising.  In the 10 years I've been here, I've seen perhaps two banner ads and the quality was laughable.  They need to hire ANY decent blogger or SL photographer to really show what is possible here.  And they need to address and dispel the reputation that SL has of being populated by perverts and weirdos.  

 

[Luna Bliss]

39 minutes ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

It;s not about LL owing anyoen a living, it's about the kind of environment they want SL to be - which does have an impact on its profitability.

Well, it could be about the way they see SL becoming, and so have to cater to this to make money.

I wish I could see all of SL and know the reality, but I'm not sure anyone knows, not even them.

Anyway, I just hope it remains a place for creators and musicians too...and those new creators having fun learning about art, developing a business, and earning a little cash...I remember those days..

Edited June 4, 2019 by Luna Bliss

[Luna Bliss]

Let's get back on track here.

What effect does anybody think these price increases will have for various populations in SL?  Will it have a ripple effect and actually decrease the population instead of making SL viable into the future?   I can sure see why LL is making the changes slowly...

[Selene Gregoire]

51 minutes ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

Not one of us is replaceable or expendable, really. None of us "do our thing" in SL in isolation and we all depend on others for it to be a success or as rewarding as it can be. If I'm booked to play somewhere I will turn up and play my set whether there are any punters there or not - I've played to empty clubs because that was when I agreed to be there and put as much into my set as I would to a crowded venue. I appreciate everyone that does show up, the unmeshed newbie, the anthropomorphic sea slug, the fashion diva, the demon, the robot or the brazen strumpet working the crowd to try and drum some of her own particular kind of business. I make a point in every set of acknowledging the venue owner and their staff and encouraging folks to contribute to them even if they dont find my music to their taste and dont feel like tipping me. Every single person who spends less time in SL, who decides to forego buying land or who goes from making a modest profit to having to buy lindens to purchase the stuff they want makes life harder on all of us. They aren't buying as many new outfits. They aren't looking to rez and furnish their place, they have fewer lindens in their pocket to drop in my tip jar. If it wasn't for venue owners I couldn't perform in SL at all - you cant set the stream on LL-owned land, street corners and transit stops aren't a music venue inworld! Now, to a limited extent LL clearly understands this - they have left the fee for buying $L alone! Trimming the margins of a merchant might force them to raise prices, but just because prices go up doesn't mean folks will start tipping 110 when they used to tip 100, if anything they'll have less to spare for folks like me and my margins are getting trimmed just like everyone elses.

 

Edited to add: It;s not about LL owing anyoen a living, it's about the kind of environment they want SL to be - which does have an impact on its profitability. Do they want there to be a live music scene in SL? If so, performers are a group they need to not price out of inworld existence by a few percentage points here and a few percentage points there.

It's not just the live performers. DJs fit into this group as well. The other half DJs and he would say the same thing. Me? I'm having to make do with a 50L stipend to try to relaunch my puny SL business for the time being. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to have a store on the MP by the end of summer. Maybe. If I'm lucky. If, a big word for such tiny letters.