How aggressive should Linden Lab be in converting residents to premium?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

7 minutes ago, KanryDrago said:

I agree that there is no general warfare Lindal, but yes I am strident on this topic when suggestions such as gate major world features like mesh behind premium comes along, or as in a previous thread some people were suggesting that basic members were freeloading off of premium members.

Kanry Drago, SJW.

Welcome to the club! We meet for tea and bickies on Sunday afternoons (I'll send you an invite) and have freebie tee shirts and baseball caps at the door!

[KanryDrago]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Kanry Drago, SJW.

Welcome to the club! We meet for tea and bickies on Sunday afternoons (I'll send you an invite) and have freebie tee shirts and baseball caps at the door!

For some reason I am now scared

[Kyrah Abattoir]

41 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

So, to use the example of mesh which someone raised above: had mesh been "restricted" to Premium members when it was introduced (and really, I don't know how you would do that, or what it would look like even), then the potential market for mesh items would likely have been restricted to 10-15% of the resident population.

I was only talking about the upload of mesh not their use, THAT would be truly ridiculous.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Kyrah Abattoir

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

I was only talking about the upload of mesh not their use, THAT would be truly ridiculous.

Agreed. Sorry, I wasn't clear what you meant.

The example, although an extreme one, still sort of stands though: whatever perks are made available, they have to be at least somewhat marginal to the everyday function of SL for non-Premiums as well as Premiums.

[Blush Bravin]

1 hour ago, KanryDrago said:

Its actually worse than that though blush, I personally would see premium as a worse option for land for me. The year before last just before christmas I got laid off and took me till the end of March before I had money coming into the house again for various reasons.

If I was premium and had my land 8192 metres the end result is that the Lab would have tried to take payment and then locked my account until I could pay them. Not being premium however I talked to my landlord and explained and he was kind enough to say no worries keep the land then when back in work you can catch up. End result while unemployed I could still log on and keep my house and while I had no lindens to spend I could still at least enjoy sl

If you had enough premium accounts to cover that 8192, granted that would be a lot of premiums but people do it, and had paid annually you could have been out of work for many months without any trouble at all because you wouldn't be paying monthly anyway. And the bonus is you wouldn't have to catch up on back payments once you were working again because there wouldn't have been any payments due. Of course you would have had to have the money to pay the annual fee up front, and you'd have to have some self discipline to not spend the weekly stipends, so that all subsequent years your actually out of pocket expense for paying additional annual fees would be minimal. I used to run 5 premiums so I could cover my monthly tier with no monthly payments. It was really nice and extremely economical to do it that way.

[Jermanbite]

10 hours ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

 

Should Linden Lab be more aggressive in getting basic users to upgrade?

Yes, here are some ideas which might work

* Non-premium users should not be allowed to rename themselves inworld

* Make "Basic Resident" the default surname for new basic accounts

* Make Basics pay to TP

* Remove Basics' ability to fly and/or script

* Restrict all Basics' draw distance automatically

* Tax Basics 15% of all transactions (inworld tips, gifted money, etc)

* Add a floating tag to all Basics, saying "Saving to be a Premium!" or "One day, I'll make it!"

* Log out all Basics after 2 hours inworld

* Charge Basics 50L for a photo or 100L for an upload

* Remove Basics' ability to file ARs

* Restrict Basics to only 100 items in inventory

* Restrict Basics from posting in the forums

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KanryDrago]

7 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

If you had enough premium accounts to cover that 8192, granted that would be a lot of premiums but people do it, and had paid annually you could have been out of work for many months without any trouble at all because you wouldn't be paying monthly anyway. And the bonus is you wouldn't have to catch up on back payments once you were working again because there wouldn't have been any payments due. Of course you would have had to have the money to pay the annual fee up front, and you'd have to have some self discipline to not spend the weekly stipends, so that all subsequent years your actually out of pocket expense for paying additional annual fees would be minimal. I used to run 5 premiums so I could cover my monthly tier with no monthly payments. It was really nice and extremely economical to do it that way.

yes a potential solution but 1) it would mean I have to find 8x72 dollars in one month and the other issue which is I really don't like mainland

[KanryDrago]

6 minutes ago, Jermanbite said:

Yes, here are some ideas which might work

* Non-premium users should not be allowed to rename themselves inworld

* Make "Basic Resident" the default surname for new basic accounts

* Make Basics pay to TP

* Remove Basics' ability to fly and/or script

* Restrict all Basics' draw distance automatically

* Tax Basics 15% of all transactions (inworld tips, gifted money, etc)

* Add a floating tag to all Basics, saying "Saving to be a Premium!" or "One day, I'll make it!"

* Log out all Basics after 2 hours inworld

* Charge Basics 50L for a photo or 100L for an upload

* Remove Basics' ability to file ARs

* Restrict Basics to only 100 items in inventory

* Restrict Basics from posting in the forums

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am choosing to assume this is sarcastic.

[Kyrah Abattoir]

9 minutes ago, Jermanbite said:

Yes, here are some ideas which might work

* Non-premium users should not be allowed to rename themselves inworld

* Make "Basic Resident" the default surname for new basic accounts

* Make Basics pay to TP

* Remove Basics' ability to fly and/or script

* Restrict all Basics' draw distance automatically

* Tax Basics 15% of all transactions (inworld tips, gifted money, etc)

* Add a floating tag to all Basics, saying "Saving to be a Premium!" or "One day, I'll make it!"

* Log out all Basics after 2 hours inworld

* Charge Basics 50L for a photo or 100L for an upload

* Remove Basics' ability to file ARs

* Restrict Basics to only 100 items in inventory

* Restrict Basics from posting in the forums

Did someone get triggered?

[KanryDrago]

Just now, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Did someone get triggered?

They forgot

*Basics must perform any act required of them by a premium member

[Kyrah Abattoir]

So is this turning into a sarcasm topic?

[Blush Bravin]

14 minutes ago, Jermanbite said:

Yes, here are some ideas which might work

* Non-premium users should not be allowed to rename themselves inworld

* Make "Basic Resident" the default surname for new basic accounts

* Make Basics pay to TP

* Remove Basics' ability to fly and/or script

* Restrict all Basics' draw distance automatically

* Tax Basics 15% of all transactions (inworld tips, gifted money, etc)

* Add a floating tag to all Basics, saying "Saving to be a Premium!" or "One day, I'll make it!"

* Log out all Basics after 2 hours inworld

* Charge Basics 50L for a photo or 100L for an upload

* Remove Basics' ability to file ARs

* Restrict Basics to only 100 items in inventory

* Restrict Basics from posting in the forums

 

Seriously the funniest thing I've read in the forums in a long time!

[Adam Spark]

6 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

yep... clearly the same disease

a basic isn't less than a premium, it's just a different subscription. NOBODY says a basic adds no value to SL, nobody says a premium is more.
It's somehow a feeling of guilt that some basics have, for no reason at all. Shove your calculations in a place where you wish my premium subscription

btw.. i'm not premium.

 

Lots of people say basics are freeloaders. LOTS of people even vouch for doing away with basic and making everyone pay a monthly fee. Its been an ongoing argument for years.

And taking things away from basics does feel like punishment for our lack of interest in premium. Its not entitlement or anything of the sort. Its just an opinion of a strategy that in my opinion could use change.

[Nextio]

Premium membership makes no sense because of the way the Linden Exchange works with real money.  With enough effort, you can bypass all the premium services.  You can get a bigger plot and a better home with enough lindens, provided that you make enough lindens in-world.

[Selene Gregoire]

11 hours ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Title pretty much sums it up, how do you feel about the whole basic vs premium thing?

Should Linden Lab be more aggressive in getting basic users to upgrade?

Sure,  if they've learned how to squeeze blood from a turnip.

The more aggressive they are, the more they will turn people off because people will see it as being forced. If they were to try those sort of tactics on me all it will do is piss me off and make me not want to log in. They do a good enough job of that as it is.

There were things LL could have done years ago that would have made things better. They didn't and it's too late now.

 

[Fionalein]

8 minutes ago, Adam Spark said:

Lots of people say basics are freeloaders. LOTS of people even vouch for doing away with basic and making everyone pay a monthly fee. Its been an ongoing argument for years.

 And taking things away from basics does feel like punishment for our lack of interest in premium. Its not entitlement or anything of the sort. Its just an opinion of a strategy that in my opinion could use change.

Yeah there are some of those folks around - and gladly no one takes them serious - do you really believe everyone will upgrade? Nope they will leave - then designers will leave as they won't sell enough anymore and finally people will leave as it became another boring virtual world with nothing to do by then.

 

[Selene Gregoire]

5 hours ago, suzyst said:

Aggressive marketing doesn't work, it just annoys those who can't afford or don't want what's being sold and sometimes those who have already bought the product. I'm premium cos the stipend and the linden home almost pay for cost. I don't consider myself superior to basics and I'm sure they don't either. While it's a choice and the perks make it worthwhile I'll probably continue, the moment it looks like it's penalising basics or making them second class citizens in SL I'll drop it.

They already tried penalizing basics by taking away some of our groups recently. Very recently.

So... have you dropped premium yet?

[Beth Macbain]

I know I'll get shouted down and/or mocked for this, but I think it's really sad that no one thinks that paying for premium is just a nice way to pay LL for the platform they've provided us. It's all me, me, me.

LL is a business, and it would hurt me, and a lot of other people, greatly if they went out of business. Right now, I'm paying 27 cents a day for my premium account. They could quadruple it and I'd be pretty chill about it. Whatever the super premium costs, I'm already planning on upgrading not matter what the benefits are. That's not what it's about for me. It's about keeping one of my favorite businesses from shutting their doors.

#unapologeticpollyanna4lyfe

[Kyrah Abattoir]

Well the freemium format is a souble edged sword, yes it does grow your userbase, but not with people who are likely to tier up.

And before someone come screaming, I know that basic accounts contribute to Linden Lab indirectly. But that's through buying things and services other residents are making.

What I mean is that the vast majority of SL users don't believe the service LL provides, on its own, is worth a cent.

[Janet Voxel]

Little story: My meme is 87. She has a pc and Facebook, can get around windows fairly well. She just started paying her bills online ehhh...maybe 5 years ago. I tried to show her how to do it years before that, but she wouldn’t do it. Know what made her finally do it? The idea that it would save her the cost of a stamp. That was it. It wasn’t the convenience, it wasn’t the instant payment...it was the cost of a stamp.

I don’t think anything can be done to entice free members to become premium. It’s something you just have to want to do. Heck, I didn’t become premium until about 2 years ago and it was because I just got tired of paying rent to someone that may or may not own the land I was renting next week. That was my stamp. You just have to see added value in being premium. I’m not really sure what LL can add that would make more people come around.

I still can’t wait to see what “Sooper Dooper Premium” is though.

Edited July 8, 2019 by janetosilio
It’s Soooper Dooper Premium dangit and I’m trademarking it!

[Adam Spark]

1 minute ago, Beth Macbain said:

I know I'll get shouted down and/or mocked for this, but I think it's really sad that no one thinks that paying for premium is just a nice way to pay LL for the platform they've provided us. It's all me, me, me.

LL is a business, and it would hurt me, and a lot of other people, greatly if they went out of business. Right now, I'm paying 27 cents a day for my premium account. They could quadruple it and I'd be pretty chill about it. Whatever the super premium costs, I'm already planning on upgrading not matter what the benefits are. That's not what it's about for me. It's about keeping one of my favorite businesses from shutting their doors.

#unapologeticpollyanna4lyfe

The problem with this is that you don't need to be premium to be pumping money into the system, which in turn makes the product more valuable, thus making premium more valuable to those who pay for it. Linden Lab is a business propped up by premium AND basic users.

[Beth Macbain]

1 minute ago, Adam Spark said:

The problem with this is that you don't need to be premium to be pumping money into the system, which in turn makes the product more valuable, thus making premium more valuable to those who pay for it. Linden Lab is a business propped up by premium AND basic users.

Eh, I want them to have the full amount of what I put into SL specifically for them, not just a slim cut after whoever else takes theirs. 

[Adam Spark]

7 minutes ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Well the freemium format is a souble edged sword, yes it does grow your userbase, but not with people who are likely to tier up.

And before someone come screaming, I know that basic accounts contribute to Linden Lab indirectly. But that's through buying things and services other residents are making.

The word "but" is not needed on that last sentence.

Through putting money into the system, the system becomes more valuable, which makes premium more valuable.

Indirect contributions propel direct contributions. This basic user feels its worth paying for, and therefore I do. I just pay for it when I can and how I wish to. If I am going to spend 10 bucks a month I want 10 bucks in Ls. Which is why I buy Ls instead of pay premium.

[Alwin Alcott]

43 minutes ago, Adam Spark said:

And taking things away from basics does feel like punishment

and we were not talking about taking away, but about adding value to premium, really sad it always ends in a pro or contra basic .. it's not always about us!

[KanryDrago]

5 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

Eh, I want them to have the full amount of what I put into SL specifically for them, not just a slim cut after whoever else takes theirs. 

Every basic that pays rent is demonstrably paying about 92% of their rent to the labs via the landlords tier. Mine works out over 30$ a month after the landlord takes his cut hardly a slim cut. The landlord's cut is maybe 4$