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"Merchants and Creators" membership level - proposal

animats

By animats,
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animats

animats

Posted
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There's been talk of a "super-premium" membership, and some LL people have solicited suggestions. Here's my take on this.

A "Merchants and Creators" account, for people with enough assets in SL that they need assurances they won't disappear.

  • Costs more than premium. Cost to be determined.
  • All premium features.
  • Uploads are included.
  • 2048 m^2 tier included.
  • Up to 5 associated alts included. Alts don't get tier, but do get uploads, can own land, and can visit premium regions. (A convenience for people who need to separate their landlord account, merchant cash account, etc.)
  • Business to business terms. No "at sole discretion" actions by LL. Contract breach must be alleged and described in writing, customer has 10 days to improve situation and 30 days to cure. Disputes to be resolved by mediation, arbitration, or courts in San Francisco, buyer's choice. (This is pretty standard for B2B. I lease a dedicated server from a data center under terms like that.)
  • Any requirements for identifying the customer must be satisfied during signup for this account. No additional conditions may be required for withdrawals. (That's how real stockbrokers and banks work. None of this "we need more ID before you can take money out".)
  • ID information required is limited to that required by US law.
  • Withdrawals for amounts over US$100 must be paid, at customer request, via some legitimate banking channel, such as ACH or wire transfer. No non-bank third party can be required of the customer. (You don't need PayPal and its problems.)
  • Account balances with Tilia or LL are obligations of both Tilia and LL to the customer. (They don't go away on termination.)
  • Account balances denominated in Linden dollars are also obligations, at 95% of the current rate at which Linden Labs is selling Linden Dollars. (None of this "Linden Dollars are worth nothing" stuff. Yes, there's an SEC compliance issue. So LL needs to have their compliance people get a no-action letter saying that Linden dollars are not a security.)
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Chic Aeon

Chic Aeon

Posted
Posted

I think that the FEW creators that would be interested in this level of membership would be so small that it wouldn't be cost effective for LL.  Not a bad idea, but really -- a tiny tiny percentage from my point of view.  And likely they would want more than a 2048; even "I" have a 4096 plus a 1024 industrial demo plot and I am a very small fish.   

 

But interesting reading and they might get some ideas :D  

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Coffee Pancake

Coffee Pancake

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, animats said:

There's been talk of a "super-premium" membership, and some LL people have solicited suggestions. Here's my take on this.

A "Merchants and Creators" account, for people with enough assets in SL that they need assurances they won't disappear.

Assets don't vanish randomly, no assurance is needed.

On the other hand, if a creator breaks the ToS to such lengths that LL drop nukes from orbit .. well damn.

Your plan drops off the deep end pretty fast.

 

 

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suzyst

suzyst

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, animats said:

There's been talk of a "super-premium" membership, and some LL people have solicited suggestions. Here's my take on this.

A "Merchants and Creators" account, for people with enough assets in SL that they need assurances they won't disappear.

  •  
  • All premium features.
  • Uploads are included.
  • 2048 m^2 tier included.
  • Up to 5 associated alts included. Alts don't get tier, but do get uploads, can own land, and can visit premium regions. (A convenience for people who need to separate their landlord account, merchant cash account, etc.)

Congratulations, you've just annoyed half the none merchant/creators in SL. The other half are contemplating becoming merchants selling distorted prims as art to get the extra tier and perks.

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Mollymews

Mollymews

Posted
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two things that crafter merchants would want to pay for I think

1) a market place store which they can skin, and block adverts from other merchants being displayed on their market place store pages

2) NEXT_NEXT_OWNER Copy|Transfer permissions.  Set NEXT_NEXT_OWNER to Copy and the next owner can be given the asset Copy + Transfer, but the people they give it to get it Copy-Only No-Transfer.   Set NEXT_NEXT_OWNER to Transfer then No-Copy Transfer-Only

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Qie Niangao

Qie Niangao

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, animats said:
  • Withdrawals for amounts over US$100 must be paid, at customer request, via some legitimate banking channel, such as ACH or wire transfer. No non-bank third party can be required of the customer. (You don't need PayPal and its problems.)

In the FAQ thread they claim to be working on something like this as part of Tilia anyway -- they have good reason to cut out PayPal and Skrill as soon as they have an apparatus in place.

By the time they're ready, it may be that Libra will be more relevant than direct bank transfer (so I asked if Tilia has any plans for Libra or Calibra interaction). Or Libra may just vanish -- but I wouldn't plan on that, if I were setting up Tilia today.

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Alwin Alcott

Alwin Alcott

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Qie Niangao said:

By the time they're ready, it may be that Libra will be more relevant than direct bank transfer (so I asked if Tilia has any plans for Libra or Calibra interaction). Or Libra may just vanish -- but I wouldn't plan on that, if I were setting up Tilia today.

Libra?... good lord.. next to all our personal info also provide all finacial info to mr Zuckerberg?  ... 

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Qie Niangao

Qie Niangao

Posted
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13 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

Libra?... good lord.. next to all our personal info also provide all finacial info to mr Zuckerberg?  ... 

But like it or not, if Libra succeeds, a whole lot of SL users will already have a Calibra wallet and they'll likely expect to be able to use it with Tilia. For secure online value transfers, it should be considerably safer than sharing bank account information.

Granted, the Bitcoin bruhs expected the Lab to do that, too, back when it looked like it might become a real thing someday. One big difference is grown-up financial services firms as founding members of the Libra Association, but sure, it still could all wither away.

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Selene Gregoire

Selene Gregoire

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Mollymews said:

2) NEXT_NEXT_OWNER Copy|Transfer permissions.  Set NEXT_NEXT_OWNER to Copy and the next owner can be given the asset Copy + Transfer, but the people they give it to get it Copy-Only No-Transfer.   Set NEXT_NEXT_OWNER to Transfer then No-Copy Transfer-Only

As a creator, absolutely not.

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ItHadToComeToThis

ItHadToComeToThis

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Mollymews said:

two things that crafter merchants would want to pay for I think

1) a market place store which they can skin, and block adverts from other merchants being displayed on their market place store pages

2) NEXT_NEXT_OWNER Copy|Transfer permissions.  Set NEXT_NEXT_OWNER to Copy and the next owner can be given the asset Copy + Transfer, but the people they give it to get it Copy-Only No-Transfer.   Set NEXT_NEXT_OWNER to Transfer then No-Copy Transfer-Only

Ability to split your store into sub stores / folders instead of the big ole mess with a few categories that we have now

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Female Winslet

Female Winslet

Posted
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16 hours ago, animats said:

 

  • Business to business terms. No "at sole discretion" actions by LL. Contract breach must be alleged and described in writing, customer has 10 days to improve situation and 30 days to cure. Disputes to be resolved by mediation, arbitration, or courts in San Francisco, buyer's choice. (This is pretty standard for B2B. I lease a dedicated server from a data center under terms like that.)

With respect to your point about contract breach being alleged and described in writing, this is a point Linden Lab needs to improve on for all members. Not too long ago, someone said something that got me curious so I took a look at the specific BBB complaints against Linden Lab in San Francisco. The most common complaint is that the Lab took action against someone's account but never explained what they had done wrong. The Lab's response is typically to say they reviewed the incident and determined TOS was violated but not to say how.

 I personally have received one warning in my nearly 13 years in SL. It did not explain what I did wrong. I took a look at the TOS and all other relevant docs incorporated by reference and still could not figure out what I did wrong. And I'm a lawyer in RL whose expertise is contracts, so if I can't figure it out, I can't imagine how people without the background in studying contracts like the TOS can possibly figure it out. My best guess is that the Lab sent me a warning about violating a non-existent rule.

Improving on this regard would be to the Lab's advantage as well as the users. Telling people "you violated the TOS" without explaining how makes it difficult for the user to improve their behavior because the user doesn't know what they did wrong. Since they don't know what they did wrong, the user cannot avoid similar conduct in the future. This leads to accounts being closed or other actions taken that ultimately lead to less money being spent on Second Life and put into the Lab's pocket. 

 

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Selene Gregoire

Selene Gregoire

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Female Winslet said:

Improving on this regard would be to the Lab's advantage as well as the users. Telling people "you violated the TOS" without explaining how makes it difficult for the user to improve their behavior because the user doesn't know what they did wrong. Since they don't know what they did wrong, the user cannot avoid similar conduct in the future. This leads to accounts being closed or other actions taken that ultimately lead to less money being spent on Second Life and put into the Lab's pocket. 

And is another reason a lot of people don't want anything to do with SL.

It's one of the most ignorant policies I've ever seen in 60 years. It's no different from punishing a child and not telling them what they did wrong. How the hell are they supposed to do anything about it if they don't know what is wrong?

You can NOT expect someone to change their behavior if you do not inform them what the offending behavior is. That's like crapping in one hand, wishing in the other and expecting the one you are wishing into to fill up first.

Edited by Selene Gregoire
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Fionalein

Fionalein

Posted
Posted

Lots of creators started on basic accounts - some even stay and prefer renting for more from private land barons...

Nevertheless they all contribute to the Lab's wealth - a specialiced account required would just drive more away

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