Thunes to acquire payments platform Tilia LLC

[Sid Nagy]

5 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

LL has no influence on paypal fees, only at their own.

Overwolf was very vague about it, but I'm afraid that will be the case with Thunes fees too in the future.

[Love Zhaoying]

14 minutes ago, Ineffable Mote said:

I had been thinking earlier how LL has kind of had a string of those where they try to branch out, Patterns game under Rod and I vaguely recall a gaming platform and a couple other little things they sold/let go of that LL were working on, then Sansar of course under Ebbe too (could probably count Philip's side projects as well, fairly or not)

Sometimes, people (and companies) give up instead of "fully committing". 

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

That's a shame, because they could have "baked into the deal" some stable costs which LL could use as a sweetener with users.

I thought I DID see something in the summary, or elsewhere in/around the video related to either "lower costs" or something..maybe I need to use more than 2 brain cells when listening.

What I remember hearing is that he tries to do like a trade off with things.. where they may have to charge more for one thing, he tries to decrease somewhere else..

I think it was something like when they gave an increase in memberships, but a decrease in land or something like that..

It's the part where he was talking about charging a dollar for five dollars of value.. Around that area.. hehehe

I'm still processing a lot of it so it's a bit scattered still in my head.. I'll probably have to watch it again.. But I will say, I wish they would have did this with the other lab gab or instead of the other, because I feel much more relaxed about things now..

They should let us in on something like this, before we hear it from the streets first.. hehehe

I gave up some sweet Beliss spots!! \o/

lol

 

[Love Zhaoying]

28 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

What I remember hearing is that he tries to do like a trade off with things.. where they may have to charge more for one thing, he tries to decrease somewhere else..

I think it was something like when they gave an increase in memberships, but a decrease in land or something like that..

It's the part where he was talking about charging a dollar for five dollars of value.. Around that area.. hehehe

I'm still processing a lot of it so it's a bit scattered still in my head.. I'll probably have to watch it again.. But I will say, I wish they would have did this with the other lab gab or instead of the other, because I feel much more relaxed about things now..

They should let us in on something like this, before we hear it from the streets first.. hehehe

I gave up some sweet Beliss spots!! \o/

lol

 

I'll go back and "close listen" more again and even transcribe if I get curious enough. I just liked his attitude. I am mostly soothed and reassured.

Those who are still negative Nellies just weren't listening!!!!1!111!

Edited April 26 by Love Zhaoying

[Vanity Fair]

5 hours ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Same for me. If Elon bought it I would have some level of confidence and hope that it would be of benefit to residents. I'd suspect a major purge of employees but that might just be what is needed.

I can think of very few situations that would get me to quit Second Life for good, but Elon buying it would be one.

[Sammy Huntsman]

Just now, Vanity Fair said:

I can think of very few situations that would get me to quit Second Life for good, but Elon buying it would be one.

I wouldn't up and just abandon SL, I would at least give it a chance. Even if Elon bought it out. 

[Istelathis]

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I'll go back and "close listen" and even transcribe if I get curious enough. I just liked his attitude. I am mostly soothed and reassured.

Those who are still negative Nellies just weren't listening!!!!1!111!

All is well and good, but having just finished watching Fallout, and playing Fallout 4, never trust 'da man!  You'll find yourself being tossed in a vat of FEV, or experimented with in a vault.

 

[Vanity Fair]

4 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

here's the info on tilia's own page

About Us | Tilia

Oh, innnteresting! I see J. Randall Waterfield listed as co-director with Brad Oberwager.

 

Fun fact: Waterfield Holdings includes, among dozens of properties in its so-called "Waterfield network" (https://www.waterfield.com/, scroll to the very bottom for the full list)...blue-chip investment firm Goldman Sachs. 💰

[Vanity Fair]

2 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

It sound like from the video that some of the major beneficiaries will be non-US users, who will have easier exchanges between their currencies and linden dollars. Oberwolf says US users probably won't notice much difference.

*cries in Canadian*

[Istelathis]

5 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

*cries in Canadian*

/me wonders what the exchange rate is for Canadian tears

[Vanity Fair]

1 hour ago, Anna Salyx said:

It sounded to me that while there might be a few customers signed on that they are not doing anything at scale and at the end of the day SL is effectively it's sole customer.

Interestingly, I just updated my most recent blogpost, with a very insightful comment posted in one of the Discords I follow, who foresees trouble ahead with Meta's Horizon Store plans on the VRChat in-world creator economy, which is still in beta. Quote:

----start quote---

UPDATE April 26th, 2024: I sometimes post my blogposts to the various virtual world and virtual reality Discord servers I belong to, in order to drive a bit more traffic to my blog (I don’t do it nearly as often as I used to, though). And PK, on the MetaMovie Discord server, made the following insightful and thought-provoking comment on this announcement from Meta/Facebook:

    "I want someone to dig into what sort of access Meta would have to data on these third-party headsets, potentially, through various software that would be required. I think it’s existential that we need to keep metaverse data out of their hands.

    Even now, having failed with five or six different social VR attempts so far, they still manage to collect 1/3 of every virtual transaction in VRChat, at least those using Quest headsets, which is the majority of users now. Their [i.e., VRChat’s]creator economy is only in beta so far, but thanks to Facebook and Steam, and Apple for pushing this model, we don’t have the thriving virtual economy we would have had by now, because even taking 1% of every transaction just for monopolizing app downloads, that would be too much. A third is robbery, but because [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg could afford to make mobile headsets affordable without worrying about profits so far, they’re now cornering commerce in this space. I don’t think it’s safe to trust them with our future, and so I’m very skeptical about these sorts of initiatives."

PK is correct; it is troubling that the walled-garden gatekeepers like app store owners (Meta, Google/Android, and Apple) are each taking a cut of any in-world transactions. It has a chilling effect on anybody trying to make money within VRChat (of course, the social VR platform has long had a booming economy going on outside of VRChat, with places such as the Virtual Market series of avatar shopping events and the VRCMods Discord server, where avatar buyers and sellers can connect).

Linden Lab was luckily able to avoid this entire mess by creating its own in-world economy within Second Life well before the advent of Google Play and Apple’s App Stoe—but now that they are actively working on a new mobile Second Life app for Android and iOS, it will be interesting to see whether Second Life, too, will be impacted by other players like Meta wanting to take their cut. (Probably not, since you can do things like buy Linden dollars directly from the Second Life website.)

---end quote---

(if you want to read the whole blogpost, the link to my blog is in my forum signature line; you all know where to find it!)

[Sammy Huntsman]

5 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

/me wonders what the exchange rate is for Canadian tears

the exchange rate is 1.3869. I looked it up on the Bank of Canada website. So for every USD, it costs 1.3869 in CAD 

[Vanity Fair]

1 hour ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

I wouldn't up and just abandon SL, I would at least give it a chance. Even if Elon bought it out. 

True story: I signed up for a Mastodon account the instant Elon started publicly musing about buying Twitter. The day he walked into Twitter HQ in San Francisco, I pulled the plug. I watched the mass firings and the ongoing dumpster-fire safe in my Mastodon cocoon, chortling to myself.

Eventually, I realized that even though Mastodon was not founded on an evil surveillance-capitalism revenue model like Facebook (which I had quit years earlier) and Twitter, it was still a waste of my time, and bad for my overall mental health. So I have pretty much stopped using all social media, except for a half-dozen snark subreddits (because I am apparently, at heart, a mean girl who sits at the mean girls table 😉 ...and I only use Reddit anonymously, I deleted my previous account there and just use the website on desktop or mobile)

So, in a way, I have Elon to thank for breaking my social media addiction. Thanks, Elon! Oh, and f**k you, Elon.

Edited April 26 by Vanity Fair

[Scylla Rhiadra]

4 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

the exchange rate is 1.3869. I looked it up on the Bank of Canada website. So for every USD, it costs 1.3869 in CAD 

Not even close to what we get buying Lindens using CAN$.

We need to cry harder maybe.

[Anna Salyx]

1 hour ago, Vanity Fair said:

Wait, Second Life is moving away from Vivox? I must have missed that news.

Blog Post 19/March.  Though to be fair, I caught the news of it at the Server Users Group meeting.  And I was mistaken in thinking it was something that was being developed in house. The meeting was over a month ago and my memory is fuzzy on granular details.  So, it's apparently something different/better than vivox, and maybe better privacy security, but not an in house dev project.

1 hour ago, Ineffable Mote said:

I still don't see SL lasting more than another 3-4 years, partly due to external factors(economies etc being where they are presently) but 25-ish years is still all well and good for a stand alone gem. SL doesn't have the relevancy to be an SNL.

I point back up to my ramble about Ultima Online.  So long as SL is able to pay it's own bills and still generate some profit for whomever is running, I don't see it going away for a long while yet.  for a given value of long.  It may shrink and loose what relevance it still has, but it'll still have a heartbeat and active, though admittedly  diminished, development.

that's my own personal take so we'll see in 5 years who's right.

Edited April 26 by Anna Salyx
clarified a confusing pronoun reference.

[Vanity Fair]

7 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

the exchange rate is 1.3869. I looked it up on the Bank of Canada website. So for every USD, it costs 1.3869 in CAD 

I think the U.S. and Canadian dollars were at par for one brief, shining moment in the 1970s. It was a blip.

*cries some more in Canadian*

And people wonder why I prefer to hang out in the metaverse?  🤣

[Love Zhaoying]

12 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

True story: I signed up for a Mastodon account the instant Elon started publicly musing about buying Twitter.

I signed up for Mastodon shortly after the Musk Event. @Coffee Pancake was helpful in advising me on signing up. Over time though, I wasn't getting much out of Mastodon so stopped checking it. Later, Threads came along. Threads is awesome!!!!

[Vanity Fair]

24 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I signed up for Mastodon shortly after the Musk Event. @Coffee Pancake was helpful in advising me on signing up. Over time though, I wasn't getting much out of Mastodon so stopped checking it. Later, Threads came along. Threads is awesome!!!!

Yep. Nope. Sorry, I am not touching any social media with Zuck's icky fingerprints on it. I'm DONE done.

Edited April 26 by Vanity Fair

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I signed up for Mastodon shortly after the Musk Event. @Coffee Pancake was helpful in advising me on signing up. Over time though, I wasn't getting much out of Mastodon so stopped checking it. Later, Threads came along. Threads is awesome!!!!

 

Just now, Vanity Fair said:

Yep. Nope. Sorry, I am not touching any social media with Zuck's fingerprints on it. I'm DONE.

Yeah.

For me, the red line for Threads was that 1) it was linked to your Instagram account, which I don't have and don't want, and 2) the ToS and permissions required for access to personal information -- which included things like credit score, FFS -- are insane.

Twitter is a hellhole, and getting worse daily, but one thing I will say for it is that it doesn't seem to data harvest to anything like the degree that Meta does.

[Anna Salyx]

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I signed up for Mastodon shortly after the Musk Event. @Coffee Pancake was helpful in advising me on signing up. Over time though, I wasn't getting much out of Mastodon so stopped checking it. Later, Threads came along. Threads is awesome!!!!

I was lucky to get a Bluesky invite fairly early on.  I've not wholly divested myself from X née Twitter since there are a tiny handful of personalities I follow who are still there (some have a BlueSky presence but don't do anything /sigh).  I've got threads via instagram but don't do much.... with either.

I do like Bluesky a whole lot.

[Sammy Huntsman]

11 minutes ago, Vanity Fair said:

I think the U.S. and Canadian dollars were at par for one brief, shining moment in the 1970s. It was a blip.

*cries some more in Canadian*

And people wonder why I prefer to hang out in the metaverse?  🤣

2008 the CAD and USD were worth the same. This was when Canada was going through a huge economic growth and the US was not doing so well. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Inara now has one of her invaluable summaries up on her blog.

https://modemworld.me/2024/04/26/summary-of-tilia-acquisition-lab-gab-sl-round-table-news/

[Vanity Fair]

Watching the Oberwager Lab Gab episode now, and every time he says "Thunes" (it's promouned "Toonz"), all I can think of is this SNL skit:

 

Also: you know WHY Brad is so gung ho on Second Life. right? Philip Rosedale got him to see SL his with his vision (I believe they used to hang out at Burning Man together, but I could have that part wrong).

Edited April 26 by Vanity Fair

[Scylla Rhiadra]

4 minutes ago, Anna Salyx said:

I do like Bluesky a whole lot.

I do too, actually! I just wish there were more active people there.

But it's a very simple, elegant platform, and the level of toxicity is MUCH lower than on Twitter.

[Sammy Huntsman]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I do too, actually! I just wish there were more active people there.

But it's a very simple, elegant platform, and the level of toxicity is MUCH lower than on Twitter.

I just use FB and IG, I honestly don't use twitter. I think two is enough for me.