Increasing the 300 Linden Stipend

[Janet Voxel]

6 minutes ago, CoffeeDujour said:

They really don't. They buy what 'feels' like a good amount of L$, and then the actual value is forgotten. It's further compounded down by people who don't/won't buy L$ and instead play fish based mini games for 10L a day or something stupid.

 

“Just a couple more months of fishing and I can get a Maitreya!”

Seriously though, I met a guy a few months ago that randomly IM’d me asking about prices for profile pics. I gave him the average price and he goes on to tell me about someone that charges $L750, but he didn’t want anything special. So I tell him to go with $L750 lady and he goes “Yeah....but $L750 just seems like a lot.” I’m like “Dude, it’s $3....it’s $3! You should give them something even if it’s just a touch up job.” He stopped talking to me after that.

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 hours ago, janetosilio said:

At the current rate of $L 300 per week stipend and the increase to $99, you’re still basically paying $51 a year.

L$300 for 52 weeks is L$15,600.  Per the below, I can sell that right now and net US $57.62 --- meaning my $99 membership costs me $41.38.   If I'm willing to wait a few days, I can probably do a Limit Sell and get a tiny bit better rate and thus bump my real cost down a smidgen more.

Anyway -- $41.38 a year at today's L$ sell rate - rather than $51 per year.

[Erwin Solo]

In economics the term is fiat money.  Managing a fiat money supply is a balancing act.  There is a little bit of truth in most of the statements here.  Wikipedia has a decent article on fiat money if anyone is interested, but most of us are just trying to get to 500 posts so we can have a vanity title. 

[Erwin Solo]

Just now, Erwin Solo said:

In economics the term is fiat money.  Managing a fiat money supply is a balancing act.  There is a little bit of truth in most of the statements here.  Wikipedia has a decent article on fiat money if anyone is interested, but most of us are just trying to get to 500 posts so we can have a vanity title. 

Sometimes messages with external links get deleted by the bots; hence, a separate post.  Here's a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

[Coffee Pancake]

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Erwin Solo said:

In economics the term is fiat money.  Managing a fiat money supply is a balancing act.  There is a little bit of truth in most of the statements here.  Wikipedia has a decent article on fiat money if anyone is interested, but most of us are just trying to get to 500 posts so we can have a vanity title. 

The first 500...

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Erwin Solo said:

Sometimes messages with external links get deleted by the bots; hence, a separate post.  Here's a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

is a bit of a steep slope to climb. After that you don't really give a flying flip any more. 

Edited June 4, 2019 by Selene Gregoire

[Mollymews]

12 hours ago, janetosilio said:

I’m starting to feel like even if LL gave premium subscribers an entire sim AND a unicorn, there’d  be a thread asking for two sims with premium.

i rather keep my 1 sim and unicorn, than have 2 sims and no unicorn

annnnd there is o.b.v.i.o.u.s.l.y something wrong with anyone who doesn't want a unicorn

[Coffee Pancake]

38 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

annnnd there is o.b.v.i.o.u.s.l.y something wrong with anyone who doesn't want a unicorn

damn weirdos

[Kweopi]

1 hour ago, Mollymews said:

i rather keep my 1 sim and unicorn, than have 2 sims and no unicorn

annnnd there is o.b.v.i.o.u.s.l.y something wrong with anyone who doesn't want a unicorn

can i get a unicorn too? please...please...please

[animats]

The price increase on premium might be good for SL. Right now, you can do the land baron thing by buying premium memberships, cashing out the stipend, and using the tier to pay for land you rent out. You get 1024 m^2 of tier for about $6/year. This is not good for SL.

With the price increase, the economics of that trick become much worse. We may see many of the marginal landlords drop out, and we may see less land hoarding of unrented land.

[Coffee Pancake]

17 minutes ago, animats said:

The price increase on premium might be good for SL. Right now, you can do the land baron thing by buying premium memberships, cashing out the stipend, and using the tier to pay for land you rent out. You get 1024 m^2 of tier for about $6/year. This is not good for SL.

With the price increase, the economics of that trick become much worse. We may see many of the marginal landlords drop out, and we may see less land hoarding of unrented land.

 

1024 additional premium is $7 per month, no extras, no perks, just a flat $7 for 1024.

Cost per year $84

1 Premium will cost $99 per year and comes with L$15,600 in total, which is roughly $62 per year

1024 extra tier $84 vs 1 extra prem $37 

2048 extra tier $156 vs 2 extra prem $74

4096 extra tier $264 vs 4 extra prem $148

8192 extra tier $420 vs 8 extra prem $297

16384 extra tier $804 vs 16 extra prem $592

32768 extra tier $1344 vs 32 extra prem $1184  

 

7 individuals with 5 alts each..  all on premium with half a sim to play with (ignoring group bonuses!!). Cost to each person $500 per year and they will each have $100K L$ that they can either save to offset the costs, or if they were going to buy L$ anyway .. spend. Max spend of $41 a month per person in SL is not a huge deal.

 

For small groups up to half a mainland sim.. it's still viable. For whole regions its not quite viable, and a lot more expensive that the previously .. although I think the headache of keeping so many premium accounts separate would be a real chore .. again that's if LL actually do anything.

For owning huge swathes of mainland .. I don't think this would ever have been viable, just the logistics of having so many accounts.

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

Instead of raising the stipend, I don't understand why LL didn't just leave everything as is and THEN release their super premium plan for those who want more.  It seems like a shock to current premium members to suddenly have their membership fee increased then hearing they can choose an even more expensive option later.  It just feels a bit like a money grab to me, but then I'm one of those who are kind of clinging on as best I can because of a limited economy.  I already feel like I'm paying that $4.50 price for a small soda at the movies and then hear "Oh our small sodas are now $6.50 instead of $4.50, but wait!!! For just $2 dollars more you can get a slightly bigger already overpriced product"!  

[Kyrah Abattoir]

1 hour ago, adriannesuz McMinnar said:

Instead of raising the stipend, I don't understand why LL didn't just leave everything as is and THEN release their super premium plan for those who want more.  It seems like a shock to current premium members to suddenly have their membership fee increased then hearing they can choose an even more expensive option later.  It just feels a bit like a money grab to me, but then I'm one of those who are kind of clinging on as best I can because of a limited economy.  I already feel like I'm paying that $4.50 price for a small soda at the movies and then hear "Oh our small sodas are now $6.50 instead of $4.50, but wait!!! For just $2 dollars more you can get a slightly bigger already overpriced product"!  

I'm not entirely sure to be honest, it could be related to the old accounts? I currently have about 3 accounts that are still elegible for the 500L$ stipend.

[AyelaNewLife]

5 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

I'm not entirely sure to be honest, it could be related to the old accounts? I currently have about 3 accounts that are still elegible for the 500L$ stipend.

500L/wk for a calendar year comes out at $103/yr. Billed annually, this means that LL are paying these grandfathered premium members $30/yr for the privilege of going premium. (Billed quarterly halves that, and 400L/wk 'only' results in a $10/yr net loss.)

This is why grandfathering benefits is ridiculously stupid and shortsighted. If you ever decrease the benefits of a premium account or service, you honour everything that's already been paid for, and any renewals fall under the new scheme. This is Paid Service 101, and LL have got it wrong. Somehow.

[Erwin Solo]

19 hours ago, janetosilio said:

I’m starting to feel like even if LL gave premium subscribers an entire sim AND a unicorn, there’d  be a thread asking for two sims with premium.

Some people would claim they were cheated because their unicorn only had one horn.  

[Sister Nova]

38 minutes ago, AyelaNewLife said:

500L/wk for a calendar year comes out at $103/yr. Billed annually, this means that LL are paying these grandfathered premium members $30/yr for the privilege of going premium. (Billed quarterly halves that, and 400L/wk 'only' results in a $10/yr net loss.)

This is why grandfathering benefits is ridiculously stupid and shortsighted. If you ever decrease the benefits of a premium account or service, you honour everything that's already been paid for, and any renewals fall under the new scheme. This is Paid Service 101, and LL have got it wrong. Somehow.

I don’t think that this is as big an issue as is feared. My oldest av falls into the L$400 per week stipend, and I think it’s nice that my account is potentially rewarded for having been here so very long.

I say ‘potentially’ as in the last 13 years that av has only been premium occasionally. I have other avs that don’t qualify for the higher stipend that have been premium more often and longer. The choice has been mine, and the decision has never been made in order to make money out of the situation.

We’re unlikely to ever know what proportion of the current active premium accounts get the enhanced stipend, and I’m certainly not going to pluck a number out of the air, but I’d be very surprised if it was sizeable. Maybe it would also be surprising to see what the ratio of premium/basic is of these old accounts that are still active.

It’s not ALWAYS about the money.... or maybe it IS, and I’m just odd.  

[Yorkie Bardeen]

Well, if you agree that the stipend has a real value, you have to also agree that the price of a premium SL membership for most people has more than tripled... That is not a headline Linden Lab would probably want to see, and no doubt why they talked about price reductions and price changes which is a nice euphemism for "increase."

 

[Kyrah Abattoir]

Tripled?

[Madelaine McMasters]

10 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Tripled?

Thereabouts, ignoring the one-time signing bonus and using a 250L$/US$ exchange rate and L$300 (US$1.20) weekly stipend, and ignoring cash-out fees...

Before: $72 annual premium - $1.20 * 52 weeks = US$9.60/yr

After: $99 annual premium - $1.20 * 52 weeks = US$36.60/yr

So maybe closer to quadrupled?

Edited June 5, 2019 by Madelaine McMasters

[Kyrah Abattoir]

Well reselling your stipend was never guaranteed...

[Madelaine McMasters]

10 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Well reselling your stipend was never guaranteed...

Nor is the SL ground you stand on. From the ToS...

"You acknowledge that Virtual Land is a limited license right and is not a real property right or actual real estate, and it is not redeemable for any sum of money from Linden Lab. You acknowledge that the use of the words "Buy," "Sell" and similar terms carry the same meaning of referring to the transfer of the Virtual Land License as they do with respect to the Linden Dollar License. You agree that Linden Lab has the right to manage, regulate, control, modify and/or eliminate such Virtual Land as it sees fit and that Linden Lab shall have no liability to you based on its exercise of such right. Linden Lab makes no guarantee as to the nature of the features of Second Life that will be accessible through the use of Virtual Land, or the availability or supply of Virtual Land."

[Kiera Clutterbuck]

Just gimme MOAR that's all I know 

[Allen Parks]

On ‎6‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 8:25 PM, Erwin Solo said:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/What_is_a_Charter_Membership Quote: "Occasionally, an older Resident may be listed in his profile as being a 'Charter Member' of Second Life. This is a privilege extended to the oldest Residents who were willing to risk a larger upfront payment for never having to pay subscriptions ever again for life prior to version 1.2. This membership type was extended at the introduction of land tier to provide a free 4096sqm of land tier per Chartered Member."

A Charter Member once told me they paid $160 for the membership (but either their or my memory may be off), and they get 4096 tier and a stipend, but I don't remember the value of the stipend.  Your @LittleMe Jewell comment of L$500 sounds about right. 

 

It Actually cost $240.  I Darn  near bought 4  of them  now  im  sorry  .  LOL

[Kyrah Abattoir]

I believe charter member stipend might be even higher, the 500L$ stipend is for all accounts before september 2006.