A brief note on pricing changes, which ran long.

[Grumpity Linden]

Whew, I'm having a hard time keeping up. Calling in reinforcements! And thank you for the overnight ponies... 

There's still confusion about the pre-pay option.  Not surprising, because it's a bit different from how we usually do things, but here's what it will look like.  Say you're a monthly premium member today.  When you log into your account after June 3, you'll see these options:

If you chose to extend by one month, you will be billed $9.50 and your new billing date will be +1 mo from where it was. 

If you want to extend by a year, you'll need to change your membership type to annual, then do the prepay flow.  You'll be billed $72 and your new billing date will be +1yr from where it was.  The next time you get billed will be at the new annual rate (unless you change your premium membership before that).  But it will also be year 2020!

Hope this helps.  

Edited May 30, 2019 by Grumpity Linden
that gif refuses to embed :(

[Evangeline Arcadia]

@Grumpity Linden thanks for the clarification.

[Marianne Little]

I would like to see weekly stipends increase.

Is it really anyone at all who save up the stipend and cash out? Anyone at all?

Really? I spend it all.

So the stipend would just be adding a drop of sweetener to the taste of 26% increase in yearly membership.

[Asadora Summers]

9 minutes ago, Grumpity Linden said:

Whew, I'm having a hard time keeping up. Calling in reinforcements! And thank you for the overnight ponies... 

There's still confusion about the pre-pay option.  Not surprising, because it's a bit different from how we usually do things, but here's what it will look like.  Say you're a monthly premium member today.  When you log into your account after June 3, you'll see these options:

If you chose to extend by one month, you will be billed $9.50 and your new billing date will be +1 mo from where it was. 

If you want to extend by a year, you'll need to change your membership type to annual, then do the prepay flow.  You'll be billed $72 and your new billing date will be +1yr from where it was.  The next time you get billed will be at the new annual rate (unless you change your premium membership before that).  But it will also be year 2020!

Hope this helps.  

But what if your renew date for annual membership isn't due until like September? Does that mean that those of us with later renew dates will lose out on the grandfathered option?

[Sweet Valentine]

4 hours ago, Marie Sims said:

Free? I pay my premium per year, private region fee each month and LindeX fee, Cachout fee, Marketplace fee, events fee…  And what do I have for it? Just a platform ? 

then u were not the person i was referring to.... please reread....im talking non premiums who just sell and do nothing to support the economy of SL(there are many who do this) if you make money in SL its should be part of your overhead to pay premium as with any business its part of your overhead people want it all for free ...this is my opinion ...and land fees are going down it balances out ...they are not done yet restructuring and this was not thrown on us it was discussed at some town halls and office hour meetings a few times in the past year or so

[Jo Yardley]

12 minutes ago, Vick Forcella said:

I am preparing a blog post. This is what I have written so far.

Our landlord has giveth +512sqm and Bellisseria.
Our landlord will taketh a price increase of 26% ... 37.5% for Premium membership.
Also, if you are fortunate enough to make money in SL, the cost of converting L$ to US$ will increase 100% (from 2,5% to 5%, no caps).
Basic membership will have less groups and less off-line IM's.
A full sim will see a price reduction of 8%.

Ideas on how to improve the text?

Write "fewer groups" in stead of "less groups".

Sorry, couldn't resist.

/me runs and hides behind piles of stroopwafels.

[Grumpity Linden]

3 minutes ago, Asadora Summers said:

But what if your renew date for annual membership isn't due until like September? Does that mean that those of us with later renew dates will lose out on the grandfathered option?

Nope! You can pre-pay on June 4th and your renew date will be September 2020.  

[Sweet Valentine]

4 hours ago, Phoebe Avro said:

Well I am basic and I have rented a full region for about 8 years not to mention the seasonal regions I rent from September to January, there should be a mechanism where renters of full regions get all the perks I have paid $10,000's in rental over the years, my store funds the region and our 11 year old club.

Why did LL give extra groups to basic account only to now take them away? I know why I am sure you can work it out.

 

then your not who i was talking about your renting and putting money into the SL economy again please reread

[Malin Sabra]

1 minute ago, Grumpity Linden said:

Nope! You can pre-pay on June 4th and your renew date will be September 2020.  

I got a question for you, my renewal date IS June 24th, does that mean I can pay twice for 2 years?

[Grumpity Linden]

15 minutes ago, Vick Forcella said:

I am preparing a blog post. This is what I have written so far.

Our landlord has giveth +512sqm and Bellisseria.
Our landlord will taketh a price increase of 26% ... 37.5% for Premium membership.
Also, if you are fortunate enough to make money in SL, the cost of converting L$ to US$ will increase 100% (from 2,5% to 5%, no caps).
Basic membership will have less groups and less off-line IM's.
A full sim will see a price reduction of 8%.

Ideas on how to improve the text?

I don't know if Lindens were the ones you were asking for ideas

Factual corrections: The cost of converting L$ to USD is unchanged.  If you want to use that USD balance in SL, you won't be charged any more.  However, if you are processing credit to, say, your PayPal account, the fee will be 5% instead of the previous 2.5%

Also note, Buydown regions will also see a price reduction - something we hadn't done before. 

[Jenny Kaos]

I'm gonna put my two cents in here..for what it's worth. Rarely do you see LL going "oh you're right, our bad" on implementations, fee increases, etc. I do hope all these comments change their minds:

1) Price decrease for sims: yeah ok, those who can afford to pay that much money per month probably need the break..it's a way to try and keep them paying for their sims, thus keeping income for LL.

2) Premium fee increase: While I'm not happy about this, I understand their price has been the same forever. This will not convince people to switch to premium, most I've spoken with say they will NEVER go premium because of this whole implementation.

3) IMs/offlines: I'm basic and go premium when my budget allows. Why decrease our groups? Are you telling free users to "Suck it up" as Guy Faulkes has said? Yes there are subscription boards that we can (and I do) use, but what if the board is sending you a NC or a gift that you want/need? Several boards I'm subscribed to don't have an inworld store to grab a redelivery. If I miss it..I'm out. So you're reducing our groups AND offlines, please..explain this to me...why are you making it harder for basic users? 

Several people have commented about a tiered premium fee system. I'm actually all for this, think it's a great idea. For those of us who can't always swing the 10 (now more) a month, maybe for $5-7 you get a group and offline bump, but no house. For the full price you get everything, more groups, more offlines and a fancy new linden home. Please please please consider doing this. I think in the long run you would have more income, as more people who work in SL can make enough L to cover that per month.

TY

[Kendall Ferryhill]

53 minutes ago, Asadora Summers said:

Our Stipend has never been increased, yet we end up paying more on the hope that something will be introduced that will make not having a stipend increase worth it. 

actually I believe  stipend's were lowered  when they changed the homestead sims years back.  I use to get 450  then it dropped to 350  and i stopped prem.  went basic  a year later came back to  300 stipend..  I could be wrong and my memory failing but I seem to remember that 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

5 hours ago, Kira Balestra said:

FB is boiling all over now with this, a lot of post about this... and absolutely no one agrees or happy with the LL changes

Thanks for posting stuff from FB for the 9 of us who won't touch FB with a 10 foot pole.

[Yorkie Bardeen]

Just now, Kendall Ferryhill said:

actually I believe  stipend's were lowered  when they changed the homestead sims years back.  I use to get 450  then it dropped to 350  and i stopped prem.  went basic  a year later came back to  300 stipend..  I could be wrong and my memory failing but I seem to remember that 

My two oldest premiums get 500 per week, one slightly less ancient one gets 400. The newer ones get 300.

I noted in another topic, after taking my socks off to correct my maths, the price increase for a premium subscription factoring in the refund of stipend is effectively a 225% inflation in cost.

 

[Evangeline Arcadia]

1 minute ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Thanks for posting stuff from FB for the 9 of us who won't touch FB with a 10 foot pole.

Make that 10😀

[Grumpity Linden]

1 hour ago, Malin Sabra said:

I'm totally against micro transaction type platforms, but it may just work on a platform like SL, but I wouldn't call it a micro tranaction if people were able to pick their premium wants.

Set price for group increase, set price if you want the 1024 or not.

Basically a build your own membership. Check the boxes for all the features you want, then check out.

I'm sure this isn't something that could easily be done and may end up causing more issues in the end then it would be worth dealing with between technical issues and customer support.

There are many great and reasonable a la carte suggestions out here (and quite a few we considered internally).  The truth is, we would be neck deep in bugs for the next 5 years, and while we're still open to implementing _some small number_ of the premium features a la carte, we have to pass on the "build your own membership" as a full blown offering. 

[Malin Sabra]

1 minute ago, Grumpity Linden said:

There are many great and reasonable a la carte suggestions out here (and quite a few we considered internally).  The truth is, we would be neck deep in bugs for the next 5 years, and while we're still open to implementing _some small number_ of the premium features a la carte, we have to pass on the "build your own membership" as a full blown offering. 

Yeah i kinda figured that would cause more issues than its worth, not to mention the increase in support tickets and live chat.

[Jo Yardley]

10 minutes ago, Grumpity Linden said:

Also note, Buydown regions will also see a price reduction - something we hadn't done before. 

Can homesteads have a reduction as well please?

I'll send stroopwafels to the LL offices if you do.

[Norton Burns]

Hey !!

Starbucks just made me buy a coffee.

I just wanted to leech their free WiFi ! 

Man, that makes me mad !

Remember, folks, in SL you can actually make & sell stuff. Profit. Starbucks won't like you selling your own coffee.

[Sweet Valentine]

4 hours ago, Marie Sims said:

What??? All ads now are on FB,Flickr etc... who really need the groups to promote ? sounds funny

when your marketing for a store you use all advertising avenues available...Sl groups included

[Grumpity Linden]

1 minute ago, Jo Yardley said:

Can homesteads have a reduction as well please?

I'll send stroopwafels to the LL offices if you do.

Tempting! Unfortunately, not this go-round. But, as you may have noticed, we're committed to this land affordability direction. 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

Maybe have a sub-premie level for those who want like 50 groups or so, but no mainland ownership privileges except maybe a Linden home for like $20 month.

Regarding abandoned avis clogging up the groups you can clear avatars that hadn't logged in since 1894 and clean up the group. I did that recently. If they return they can always return.

[Mouse Bakerly]

I think it's pretty sad LL doesn't appreciate what they have. 

You use to care about your community and worked towards making it a great place for everyone. 

Over the years, I have watched you sink money into alternative projects such as Sansar... Not to mention the embarrassing Minecraft ripoff that was Patterns. 

More recently, you have continued to impose the cost of your failed ventures on the residents of Second Life. Making us pay for your failures.

Perhaps if you'd stop pouring money into these expansion projects, and instead reinvested in the platform that is beloved by it's community, you would find better success. 

I understand that as a company, you're worried about the longevity of Second Life, and want to have a safety net to ensure your future survival as a company. 

The recent houseboats are proof enough that if you would invest your time and money in us, you would reap the rewards and there would be no need to keep taxing your population to fund your other ventures. 

In short, stop trying to make alternative sources of income and actually take care of what you have. You will find better success, and the population of SL will grow once again. 

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by Mouse Bakerly
Typo

[Kendall Ferryhill]

I'm not for any type of micro transactions my self,  whats next Loot boxes ? 

 i've never understood the need for any type of off line messages from SL. most of what i get from emails is  " sign on to sl  you have a notice in work " I mean really whats the point. 

Group slots are a very touchy issue for those in blogging/ vlogging  business etc  you are forced to have groups to work with the designers  even with the newer systems in place  the groups are needed for events. Lets not even talk about the " fees"  you pay to join some groups  even as a ' free' member  now they will have to just toss those. 

If SL  wanted to ever  update something they have always needed to update the  email/ message/ notices/ group info system  this might be a 3d world but  you still need a way to communicate in it. So as I have always asked Why has that not be fixed and pushed on and on  kicking the can down the road to  no where. 

[Beth Macbain]

1 minute ago, Mouse Bakerly said:

I think it's pretty sad LL doesn't appreciate what they have. 
 

I think it's pretty sad residents don't appreciate what they have.