Please rework premium homes acquisition so everyone has a chance

[Mercy Corvinus]

Hello. I've been a Premium account for many years.  I'm posting here at the advice of LL customer service about my unhappiness with the way premium homes are acquired.  Right now, the new homes are highly promoted for the premium accounts and indeed, mentioned as one of the rewards for membership and a reason for the new higher fee.

My problem is that with the current system of 'first come, first serve' I will never be able to claim one of the new homes.  People camp the website and I read about folks claiming multiple houseboats and such with alts.  I can't do that.  I'm an RN, I work long shifts, I have no ability to camp the site when these releases occur.  I can't even preview what these homes look like from the land acquisition page as they won't populate the pull-down menu unless they're available.  If my premium fee is supposed to be allowing me to have access to one of these newer homes, I'd like to have a fighting chance to actually HAVE one.

I'm requesting the following changes:

1.  Stop making it first come, first serve.  Instead create a wait list queue for premium account holders.  Allow us to 'shop' in advance and pick the home type we want.

2.  One premium home per account.  Stop allowing people to claim these high-demand homes for alts.

Thank you.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Masha Eilde

[Gearhead Gaffer]

Everybody will have their shot eventually. As has been repeated. Often. This is an ongoing process to replace the old Linden Homes.

Time is a flat circle.

[MoiraKathleen]

People are thinking that there will be a preview area at the SL16B celebration, and that the preview may include a third theme of house style.  None of us know yet what this third theme will be, or when it might be released (but many are expecting it may be not to long after the end of SL16B).  From comments Patch has made, it sounds as if there will be even more themes to come in the future.   One thing that is different from the prior Linden Homes is that each of the two 'themes' released so far allow the parcel owner to change between 4 different homes in that theme on the same parcel.  

In the meantime, anyone can go and visit the new continent, participate in resident hosted events and activities out there and join the resident created groups that have sprung up (search for groups starting with Bellisseria).   You can also see where the Moles are currently at work adding a small group of traditional homes and houseboats for release before too long.  

One of the two main groups (or perhaps both) have had a HUD available to group members which provides a 'tour' of houses and houseboats where people have given consent to allowing visitors to stop by and check out their homes. 

I'm not sure that the new homes themselves are specifically the reason for the higher premium fees.  To me, I see them as one of many improvements to the premium benefits over the past several years, and specifically over the last year or two when the premium free land allowance was changed from 512 sqm to 1024 sqm.

[roseelvira]

or  just abandon your linden  home  and rent  and then instead of paying now wait till more of the information is released in July.  I would have loved to have had a tahao  with the ability to have land outside of the  512    a cabin with the land not just a changeable patio   you now have  but a lawn as the new homes have ,,,, i would have gladly stayed in that home ,,, i love log cabins ,,,, the  new homes none are log  cabins ,,,it would have be wonderful    if  the  lindens decide to keep that theme   and around winter time perfect ....who knows could be that is in the works ,,,,,, and to change  the cabins as you do the new houses ,,,,,, ,,,,,  i do love the cabins ,,, the fence i wish could have  been made invisible or changeable...... anyway ,,,, if any linden is listening,,,,,,, log  cabin theme,,,,,, and the  1024 land for the lawns  .......  one  can dream 

    

Edited June 8, 2019 by roseelvira

[roseelvira]

☕

[Teager]

I actually prefer the random lottery over a waiting list. If there was a waiting list, it would still be a first-come-first-served list, just based on when you found and signed up for the list, as opposed to when you found Bellisseria. But having a list would allow no hope of trying to switch to a different home location. If you weren't happy with the location you were given, you'd have to wait until every other interested resident had a home before you could try for a different location. As it is now, there are several residents abandoning their homes each day, and opening those homes back up into the pool, so it's possible to try for a spot that better suits you. If a list were implemented, I would want it to apply to only half of the homes for each new release, and leave the other half to the random lotto.

[ananoelle]

It is one home per premium acc. People who have two new Linden homes have two premium accounts. 

1 hour ago, Masha Eilde said:

2.  One premium home per account.  Stop allowing people to claim these high-demand homes for alts.

Thank you.

 

[roseelvira]

 i did not know you could have  more than one premium account . I thought it was one premium account per person  i need to read more closely and get new contacts ,,,,,😎

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

Just now, roseelvira said:

 i did not know you could have  more than one premium account . I thought it was one premium account per person  i need to read more closely and get new contacts ,,,,,😎

Your alts can be premium as well. Of course, you have to pay the premium fee for each one that you want to make premium.

[roseelvira]

How many alts are allowed ,,,,always wondered about that 

[Mollymews]

7 minutes ago, roseelvira said:

How many alts are allowed ,,,,always wondered about that 

the LL documentation on the wiki says that its 5 accounts per person (?? possibly email address as the definer of a person ??)  I can't remember exactly where it says this without looking it up. But I think the 5 rule has never been strictly enforced, so its all a bit murky

Edited June 8, 2019 by Mollymews
accounts

[Cindy Evanier]

1 hour ago, Masha Eilde said:

2.  One premium home per account.  Stop allowing people to claim these high-demand homes for alts.

rubbish.  A premium alt pays the same as a main account.  No reason to restrict it.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Masha Eilde said:

Stop making it first come, first serve.  Instead create a wait list queue for premium account holders.  Allow us to 'shop' in advance and pick the home type we want.

What rules for the signup list?  First come, first serve?  Older accounts get priority?  Newer accounts get priority?  Those who pump the most RL $$ into SL get priority?  Randomly pick names from the list when something is available?  

Once something is available, how much time do we allow the person to claim it before going to someone else?  What if that person is on vacation and can't get online? What if they are sick or in the hospital?  What if they are a fire fighter working 2 solid days and are not allowed to access gaming sites while at work?

If the time expires, does the person go to the bottom of the list or back to the top (even it they were randomly drawn initially)? 

So many questions... so many decisions to make.

 

 

1 hour ago, Masha Eilde said:

One premium home per account.  Stop allowing people to claim these high-demand homes for alts.

How does LL know an alt account versus a non-alt account, assuming that they have different email addresses and different payment methods?  You can't go off of IP because there could be multiple RL people in the same house and due to the way routers work, what is my IP today could be my husband's IP tomorrow.  

If the alt account pays their money, why should they get shut out?  

 

[Chic Aeon]

16 minutes ago, roseelvira said:

How many alts are allowed ,,,,always wondered about that 

Historically (13 years ago or so) each "typist" could have five accounts. You paid $9.95 for EACH "alt" account that you wanted to be legal. This did NOT make them premium of course, just correct in the eyes of The Lab and with a "payment info used" designation.   That didn't last too terribly long and the fee was eventually dropped. Note that back then "no payment on file" accounts were looked down on more than today. Back then there were oh so very many griefers and all of course were "no payment info on file".  

 

For many years now and at one time (no longer) it was written in the official documents that we cannot copy and paste from   people were allowed any reasonable number (no number was ever given that I saw) --- as long as they were good citizens and not griefers.  Alts becoming premium became popular in part for mainland ownership and free tier reasons. It is much cheaper (and still we be after the current membership fee rise) to have several premium accounts rather than paying the tier fee on a larger than 1024 parcel. There are folks here on the forums who have "armies" of alts and Linden Lab knows. There were folks that made an alt for every letter of the alphabet when lucky chairs were a huge thing. It is really in The Lab's best interest to have as many premium members as possible. They really don't seem to care who's Visa card the bill goes on.  

 

As we have seen repeatedly the wikis and knowledge base seldom reflect the current state of affairs.  

 

And to the OP.    A waiting list will never happen. For OH so many business reasons it would be a waste of resources when the new homes are supposed to be HELPING that bottom line. 

Everyone has the same chance. Those paying closer attention will have a slightly better chance simply because they are paying attention.  If you will not be able to take part in the next feeding frenzy rollout because you are working -- you are not alone.  And congratulations on having an active, full and busy REAL LIFE :D.

While there may be folks that have more than one new Linden Home, they paid the fees and took their chances with the rest. I don't personally know of anyone that has more than two plots, but there could be.   

 

And I think @Teager made some really excellent (and new to me) comments.  

 

 

[Hedy Heartsong]

29 minutes ago, Cindy Evanier said:

rubbish.  A premium alt pays the same as a main account.  No reason to restrict it.

Agreed.  What defines the main account or the alt?  Just you or I, correct?  

[Mercy Corvinus]

37 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

What rules for the signup list?  First come, first serve?  Older accounts get priority?  Newer accounts get priority?  Those who pump the most RL $$ into SL get priority?  Randomly pick names from the list when something is available?  

Once something is available, how much time do we allow the person to claim it before going to someone else?  What if that person is on vacation and can't get online? What if they are sick or in the hospital?  What if they are a fire fighter working 2 solid days and are not allowed to access gaming sites while at work?

If the time expires, does the person go to the bottom of the list or back to the top (even it they were randomly drawn initially)? 

So many questions... so many decisions to make.

 

 

How does LL know an alt account versus a non-alt account, assuming that they have different email addresses and different payment methods?  You can't go off of IP because there could be multiple RL people in the same house and due to the way routers work, what is my IP today could be my husband's IP tomorrow.  

If the alt account pays their money, why should they get shut out?  

 

Hi! Good questions.  For sign-up, I would imagine it would still be first come first serve, but at least it's not gating out those of us who can't camp a computer and feels far more fair.  Your example of a fire fighter is pretty much my work life.  I'm a Registered Nurse and I'm busy with it for a solid 10 hours per shift with zero time to faff around with my personal phone let alone finding a computer somewhere to check Second Life.

I could see them implementing a time limit on reservations so it doesn't hold it up forever.  On the other hand, when someone is near the top of the waiting list, perhaps inworld and email notifications to get someone's attention?  I wonder if it could even give the premier member an option to pick a date/time window and if it's missed, then the home goes to someone else... just random thoughts. I'm not a programmer and have no idea what's actually feasible.

For alt/versus non-alt, I would guess at IP address, but then again, see above. Not a programmer.  I was unaware that people are paying for premium on alt accounts as well, so that does put a different texture on it. Still, with a limited availability, promoting these premium homes as one of the major incentives for increasing the cost of premier membership, gating out those of us who do not live/work at computers on the daily feels inequitable to me and demotivating for continuing my premium membership.

As to people having multiple alts, on Plurk I've seen people sharing that they have 3, 4, even 5 premier homes between all their accounts. It's frustrating to me when I can't even get one, thus this post.

Thanks for the congenial discussion.

[Mercy Corvinus]

1 hour ago, Teager said:

I actually prefer the random lottery over a waiting list. If there was a waiting list, it would still be a first-come-first-served list, just based on when you found and signed up for the list, as opposed to when you found Bellisseria. But having a list would allow no hope of trying to switch to a different home location. If you weren't happy with the location you were given, you'd have to wait until every other interested resident had a home before you could try for a different location. As it is now, there are several residents abandoning their homes each day, and opening those homes back up into the pool, so it's possible to try for a spot that better suits you. If a list were implemented, I would want it to apply to only half of the homes for each new release, and leave the other half to the random lotto.

I would be content with a half random/half waiting list approach.  More choices is always better and again, would address the lock-out that I'm currently experiencing.

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

You are "locked out" from getting a home at the moment because there aren't any available. It's not really tied to how many hours you work, etc. I doubt that most of us who do have homes "camp out" at computers. I too have a full time RL job and on the day the homes were first released, had no idea because I was at work. That night, when I finally noticed (at just before bedtime), I got a home. 

My point being, it's mostly down to luck and paying attention, not "everyone but me lives in front of their monitors". Are there some doing that? I suppose. All I can tell you is that based on my own experience, and from other stories I have read in these forums, it is not a requirement to be watching 24/7. There will be more homes released, and you have as good a chance of getting one as pretty much everyone else. Heck, with your hours, you get more days off than I do, I'd be willing to bet. What if they release homes on your day off?

[Laurel Starchild]

You can have 5 characters on your account per email address.  That is one account. Even though 2 of mine are premium on one account, only 1 of them can claim a home.  One premium home per account/email address.

 

I'm sure there are others that sign up on multiple email accounts, but each account would have to be premium to get get a house on each.

[Aethelwine]

I claimed one Bellisseria home on an an Alt I made for the purpose, from the first release. Had I thought harder about it I would have messed about handing their tier over to my land group, reclaiming 1024 off it and then getting a home in my name.. But I didn't think of that so my Alt has their name on the parcel.

The last limited release was about 5 pm UK time if I recall right, maybe a bit earlier I remember reading about it on the bus home from work anyway. The release time suited the quarter of the globe east of me anyway, who would have had the release during their evening after work. It took a couple of days for them to go the first time, so everyone had an opportunity at the start. Just the last batch of houseboats that went in 30 minutes makes me sympathise with the idea of a waiting list.

A waiting list would have an additional advantage that it would help Linden Lab gauge interest and allow them to factor that in to when to release the next batch of homes. It might even encourage them To release in a steady stream as each sim is completed, rather than holding them back for one big release, which with all the complaints about fairness from the last release is probably the most likely current plan.

It is perhaps ironic the complaints about fairness born of frustration are, without a change in the process, if anything, going to delay the next release until they get a big enough batch to release that it won't sell out immediately.

The waiting list idea at least gives a potential to avoid that problem allowing them to release a few sims at a time to the waiting list, and people will at least then be able to see their names working up the list.

Edited June 9, 2019 by Aethelwine
grammar

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

2 minutes ago, Jica Batista said:

You can have 5 characters on your account per email address.  That is one account. Even though 2 of mine are premium on one account, only 1 of them can claim a home.  One premium home per account/email address.

This is not accurate. You can use the same email on multiple premium accounts, and each of those premium accounts can have a Linden home.

Also, there is no known limit on alt accounts that is being enforced. 

[Adelaide Noelle]

2 hours ago, Mollymews said:

the LL documentation on the wiki says that its 5 accounts per person (?? possibly email address as the definer of a person ??)  I can't remember exactly where it says this without looking it up. But I think the 5 rule has never been strictly enforced, so its all a bit murky

I would think this would be difficult to manage because even in a situation where they went by IP addresses, more than one person per household could be playing and yada yada

[ananoelle]

I had seven on one email address at one point and i wasnt charged. I was trying to prove to a ex, that my old dinosaur of a laptop couldnt possibly handle the amount of alts he accused me of having. Not only could it handle 8 avatars at one time it could also have them walking around dancing lol ... it wasnt until I took some to a club that 2 of my alts crashed. My 'proof' failed thus the accusations got worse 😔

I deleted them right after that. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, Jica Batista said:

You can have 5 characters on your account per email address.  That is one account. Even though 2 of mine are premium on one account, only 1 of them can claim a home.  One premium home per account/email address.

 

I'm sure there are others that sign up on multiple email accounts, but each account would have to be premium to get get a house on each.

I previously had 5 of my Premium accounts using the same email address and 8 using the same payment method.

The rules you mention are more than a decade old.

Edited June 9, 2019 by LittleMe Jewell

[AutresDeSade]

Hmm what if they did it alphabetically and numerically? For instance they announce "june 30 there will be 1000 houses and 900 houseboats available for premium members with names from a to e". Whatever is leftover could be offered to the next 0 to 2 starting names. If the amount of a-e goes above then they would be in line for the next lump of homes along with f-j names and 3-5 names.Or wait till the end of the alphabet and start the letter and number groups over for remaining that didnt get theirs in time due to whatever reason. It may sound confusing but it could be worked out better. Its a thought tho😜🤪

Edited June 9, 2019 by AutresDeSade
Misspelling