MoiraKathleen

However, the tier cost for a 1024 sqm parcel is $7 month (or $84 a year) so I feel that I still come out ahead, even with the $99 annual premium cost.

You can follow Patch's post: In a way, I would say that checking the latest posts in the LInden Homes section of the forum will be the best indicator as to when it looks like work is going on indicating that a release might be imminent. For example, people were hanging out around the edges of the most recent houseboat release for at least a day if not more, before that release, and were talking about and posting pictures about it here in the forums. That kind of activity would be a key sign to really keep vigilant with watching this section of the forums. I wouldn't expect that there would be anything released before SL16B, but if there is a preview there, I would start watching more closely here afterwards. We could see when parcels and houseboats were being placed. We could see that there were moles out there. I would imagine that there will be similar sightings for the next release.

I don't even have Flickr any longer, I've never had FB or Twitter for my avatar either. I can't imagine why I would want Instagram (which I don't have in RL either). This site is really the only place where I'm social at all and the only place I post a few of the pictures I take.

I am glad that they didn't increase the price each time they added a new feature. I actually prefer a less frequent increase (even if it makes the increase amount seem large at the time) over an every year increase. I don't even think an increase needs to be specifically tied to a new benefit or feature. Of all the increased costs I've had recently in RL, the increased premium cost here is actually the least of my concerns.

I am aware that there are a lot of items that are not demos sold for L$0 in the marketplace and generally they are only copy/mod or mod/trans. A copy/mod/trans item being sold for L$0 is not very common, which is why checking to see if it was a demo or not came to mind. If it's not a demo, and it doesn't contain something in it's contents that is no copy or no mod or no trans, then contacting the creator is the best thing to do. You can check the creator's profile to see if they have a preference in how to contact them. As ChinRey suggested above, if you don't get a response from the creator, then you can flag the item as not as described.

I like landscaping, which is why I had LI difficulties with the traditional homes. I could easily have used 300 or more LI just inside the house - or have used 300 or more LI just in the yard around the house. Ultimately I finally went with a houseboat, where I don't feel like I need to do very much decorating outside of the main living area.

and that's something I probably wouldn't have even noticed - unless I was trying to do something like hang 2 sections of a banner across the entire length or something similar.

I apparently don't have the OCD issues that some of you have, which is good as I live in a RL house where nothing is straight or perfectly lined up. When I still had a traditional house - and I tried them all - my favorite was the Continental. I especially liked the little landing at the top of the stairs.

Either way, it's a good deal (and I agree there isn't anything to indicate otherwise that I've seen). Anyone who is thinking about going to premium, even if they aren't considering renewing it again in the 6/4 - 6/23 period, it's still a good idea to get it now.

They are also working on other brand new themes of housing. Perhaps people who think they want a houseboat now will end up really wanting one of the new theme housing instead, or perhaps someone currently in a houseboat will want to move to the new theme housing when in becomes available, which would free up a houseboat at that time. My understanding is that the last release of just 709 houseboats was an unplanned extra release of houseboats due to the demand, and that the time spent for that resulted in time being taken away from working on the next new theme. The problem with I see with lists is that they take time to be kept current, and people tend to not be good about letting the list keeper know when their situation has changed and what they applied for is no longer what they want.

Glad you got it figured out!

True, but there was a decrease in mainland tier prices around the time I think that the premium free tier amount was changed from 512 to 1024 - and we got both of those benefits without any corresponding increase in premium rates at that time. My point was that if they are trying to balance out where the income comes from, if they lower one area (like land costs) it is reasonable that there will be an increase in a different area.

I'm fine with the increase if it is what allowed them to lower land costs a little bit. People have been asking for reductions in land costs for quite awhile, LL has talked about moving away from a model where the land costs are the major income support, which would mean something else would need to change to help balance that out. I just saw this increase as part of the steps towards that.

There was one group which lowered their join fee after the announcement came out. I don't remember which group it was, or where I saw the notice, but I thought that was a good move. When I decide I want to reduce the number of groups I'm a member of, the fact that a group had a join fee does not stop me from dropping it if I feel that I am no longer getting any value from that group.

I don't think it's very common for full-perm sellers to be selling items for L$0. Did the item happen to be a "demo" version? I can understand that if a full-perm maker wanted to be able to provide a demo, they would not want the demo itself to be full-perm (all permissions).

There could be a lot of different answers for that question. Maybe personal preference or perhaps that full-perm creator doesn't have the DEV kit for rigging for Belleza, or maybe they don't own Belleza bodies for QA testing, or maybe they just choose to rig for 2 bodies. On one hand, there seems to be ever-multiplying mesh bodies available, and on the other hand, many creators seem to be cutting back on the number of mesh bodies that they create for.

Both premium and basic accounts are necessary for the SL economy. There is no clear dividing line or formula that can state that one group or the other pays more to Linden Lab indirectly. I'm premium, but I also rent from a private land owner's estate. Until a few months ago, I was also paying tier on 8192 sqm of mainland for about 9 months. I haven't relied on just my LH except for maybe a few weeks when I first joined. Just like with anything else, we need to be careful about stereotyping groups.

Many years ago, my mother-in-law liked to say that after you're over 50 you can act however you want, because people will just consider you eccentric. That probably needs to be updated these days to be when you're over 70 (or maybe 80) ...

My Way

I think there would be a lot of backlash if LL took it upon themselves to across the board automatically clear inactive* accounts from groups. Not all groups are store or event groups. Some are personal land groups or other friends/family groups and sometimes group owners keep names in the group for sentimental reasons. * providing a fair definition of inactive could be determined

When more than one parcel is owned by the same owner on the same region, the total LI available from all the parcels owned by the same owner is "pooled" and can be used in varying amounts on the parcels. From what you've shown, it appears that your parcel is part of a group of parcels owned by the same owner, and of the total 439 pooled LI, only 17 is left. So one of the other parcels is using more than its own parcel capacity. Do you (or your group) own the parcels? Or are you renting a single parcel? If you are renting, and you have been told that your rental includes the entire 175 LI, then I would suggest talking with the land owner. (Sometimes land is rented where the rented out LI limit is lower than the actual land capacity, so that is why you would need to doublecheck your rental agreement and then contact the land owner if necessary).

In terms of the group limits, I'm just wondering what the reaction would be if the limit was raised for premium accounts and the basic accounts were left at 42, or if that announcement was separate from any mention of a monetary increase. It seems to me that having the group limit raised is a request that we have often seen in various forum posts over the last several years.

I have never seen abandoned land automatically set for sale in my 5 years, so that program must have stopped. During the time last Fall when the Auction system was out of order (and shortly after the tier allowance was raised to 1024 sqm) LL really relaxed the factors (or removed them altogether) for people submitting a ticket to buy abandoned land. Prior to that it was 50-50 as to whether you'd get the parcel set to sale to you or whether it'd be put up for auction instead. I haven't tried to buy abandoned land since the auctions became operational again, so I don't know if the factors are still relaxed or back in force. (If I remember correctly, the factors had to do with whether you owned other land in the same region, whether or not the abandoned land bordered your existing parcel, whether the abandoned land had protected sides and so forth...)

If someone who appears inactive - hasn't logged on for a year or two or several - but owns land, then that account is still paying for the premium membership and potentially additional tier (depending on the how much land they own). I don't think that should be considered inactive, and as they are paying for what they have, it seems like it would not be wise for LL to repossess the land. If by "potential of improving performance" you mean because they would be removed from groups, currently group owners have the ability to eject people from their group.