Beth Macbain

I do! And I'm also making note of all the whiny creators who don't want to put in the work to change their prices to reflect the increase the same way any other retailer would in the real world. It costs money to run a business. It takes work to run a business. From the consumer's side, I'm seeing a lot of really selfish and ugly attitudes from the creators of SL. That is having more of a negative impact on me than LL's perfectly reasonable price increases.

As a consumer, I absolutely expect creators to raise their prices in accordance with the increase. That's how it works. There is a cost to doing business. Expenses increase. Prices increase. As a consumer, I implore you to raise the prices on your merchandise. Please.

No, 60 is really not enough for some of us. I'm constantly having to trim my groups and I'm thrilled to be getting 10 more slots.

Why? What on earth? Why should I have to be segregated as if I'm something shameful? My lindens hold the same value as anyone else's. Adult accounts shouldn't be able to see or communicate with non-adult accounts? That's ridiculous. I have sex in the real world, too, yet I'm still able to converse with people who may not have sex. Children even! Priests! Nuns! Oh, the horror! Yes, I engage in adult activities in SL. A lot of them. I also shop nearly every event, live on Bellisseria, go see live music, explore, pay tier on another property, spend thousands of lindens on the MP on everything from BDSM gear to a bowl of pink roses as well as a ton of in-world retail shopping... I do all the things PG accounts do, spend the same money, AND spend even more paying for memberships to exclusive adult sims, clubs, and resorts as well as the expensive X-rated furniture the PG accounts don't. Segregate me? Absolutely not. If people don't want to go to adult sims or view adult profiles, they have that option. Hiding adult accounts and pretending we don't exist is absolutely ludicrous and offensive. Without us, SL wouldn't have lasted as long as it has.

Because LL is a business and their expenses increase just the same as every other business (or individual) for that matter and their employees might want cost of living raises every once in a while.

What would I do? Well, for starters I'd do exactly what they're doing. As we know they want to push towards a more subscriber-based model, and rightfully so IMO, so it makes sense to decrease the benefits free accounts get. I'm also good with paying more for my premium account and I'm really looking forward to hearing about whatever the new tier is going to involve. Secondly, and the PG people will hate this, but I'd quit trying to hide the adult side of SL and pretend it doesn't exist. I would look at many different marketing campaigns for many different segments and streams of potential customers. The joy of SL is the variety of options and the adult side of it is huge. There is enough room for everyone, even if they start marketing to certain segments of people who would only come into SL for the naughty stuff. Whenever I visit an... er... adult video site, I'm bombarded with sidebar ads for adult games and virtual worlds, and they are all crap compared to what you can do in SL, especially when it comes to the visual of how an avatar looks. That isn't to say they ignore the PG side as well... sure, market to the... okay, I don't know where to market that since it's the side of SL I'm decidedly NOT interested in and have no idea what the appeal of it is, but since there are apparently people who don't have SLex, I'm sure there's something that brought them to SL... Anyway, yeah... that's what i'd do. I'd quit trying to pretend that SL doesn't have a thriving and vibrant adult scene and capitalize on that.

As a data geek, that sort of sounds like my idea of heaven... lol!

Second Life is a luxury item. I make less than $50K US per year, I support myself, pay my own bills, groceries, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it's up to me to decide if I can afford this increase. I currently pay monthly. $9.50 x 12 divided by 365 comes to 31 cents per day. $11.99 x 12 divided by 365 comes to 39 cents per day. So if I stayed at that, it's literally an 8 cent per day increase. However, I'm going to change to annual now. I'm going to be paying less now... only 27 cents per day. And if I'd already been paying yearly, my increase would be 7 cents per day, from 20 cents to 27 cents. Seven cents. It's going to hurt me to pay that lump sum, but I'll deal and I'll end up with more money at the end of the year than I would have. I understand this isn't an option for some people. The maximum anyone's price is going to go up (in the US) is 8 cents per day. Yes, it adds up. Again, it's a luxury item that I'd hate to live without, but I could. I dropped Netflix when they increased their prices because I also have Hulu free through Spotify (who also increased their prices) and I have Amazon Prime and I just didn't see any need for Netflix. Sure, I have afforded it if I'd cut something somewhere else but, well, not I've got enough to pay for a LL price increase. It's all about choices. Netflix isn't closing their doors. Spotify isn't closing their doors. To say that they're pricing SL out of reach for poor people is a little extreme and hyperbolic. Again, SL is a luxury item that we can all live without. When my grocery prices increase... well, I have to have food. My electricity rate increases... well, can't live without that, either. Rent goes up, gas goes up, utilities go up, phone plans go up. The price on everything increases. SL hasn't increased their prices on premium in more than a decade. I can guarantee that in that time, their expenses have increased. I bet their employees have wanted raises to cover those increases in their groceries, electricity, gas, rent, mortgages, phone plans, etc. etc. I count every penny I have. I am one of the working poor. I have bills. I have debt, though luckily not a lot. I have unexpected expenses that come up that I have to pay. Second Life is a luxury item I've chosen to make room for because it's that important to me and is a great source of my entertainment. It adds great value to my life. To me, it's well worth 27 cents per day. If it isn't worth that to you, then okay. I'm certain they've factored in that they will lose some members. I'm certain they have advisers and consultants and have weighed the options as they've made these decisions. It is what it is, and from this poor person, I find it completely reasonable.

I might feel differently if I ever cashed anything out or used Paypal, but I think this increase is entirely fair and overdue. A 5% credit card transaction fee is higher than the norm, but most businesses, I believe, are also paying a fee for their merchant account on top of the transaction fee. Much like any retail operation in the real world, it's the merchant that eats those fees, though it also often shows itself in increased prices. I'm okay if that happens in SL, too. especially on the MP. I'm paying for the convenience of not having to TP around and find crap inworld. Of course, if I'm going to pay more on the MP, I would like if they'd invest some time and energy into making the categories make sense, and a search function that works better, but... maybe down the road? As they said, it's been more than a decade since they increased their prices on premium. I have no real knowledge of LL's finances, but I'm sure Sansar has been a drain on them. They took a gamble and it didn't pay off. Sucks for them, and sucks for us, because someone has to pay for it and there is no one else to do that except us. Much like taxes, though, I'm okay with paying more in order to keep LL afloat. I also think it makes sense to decrease the free benefits to give a not-so-subtle arm twist to encourage free accounts to upgrade to premium. Someone mentioned somewhere that there are 63,000 premium accounts - I wonder how many active free accounts there are. At the end of the day, LL is a business and a business has to make money. I don't know a single business that ever looks at their annual budget for the next year and says "Eh, we don't need to increase revenue... we're good." This is also going to persuade me to switch from monthly to yearly so I can be grandfathered in for another year and I'm sure I won't be the only one, so that will possibly give them a little influx of cash right off the bat. All in all, I think this shouldn't be unexpected. Prices increase. It happens everywhere. At least land prices are going the other way, right? (I don't, nor have I ever, owned land so that part of it all is really rather beyond me.)

There will always be people who want a huge plot of land with tons of privacy to terraform and build and do whatever they want with, same as now. This would simply be an alternative for those of us who suck at terraforming and building and feel like clicking the check box is privacy enough for them. And I seriously hope that LL is constantly looking at ways to promote new premium members above and beyond its current user base. What business doesn't want new customers? "It might do this, it might do that... it might, it might, it might it, might..." It might also incentivize new memberships, make current premium members increase and thus pay LL even more money, make the land barons reconsider and rework their own current practices, it might encourage designers to make more furniture, knick-knacks, curtains, add-ons, etc., etc., ad nauseum, it might increase income, it might do any number of things. I was just tossing out what I would, as I said above, personally love to see. I hardly think it's the worst thing LL could consider doing.

I am an eternal Pollyanna. 😊

I personally love the idea of having different premium memberships with different sizes of Linden Homes. Bellisseria, as it is now, would be the size of homes and boats in the lowest tier of premium and then have the ability to move up to equally beautifully landscaped neighborhoods with rivers and seas and docks and parks and all the same amenities with slightly larger plots and more prims. I say slightly larger parcels instead of double because I'd like to them still be not so spread out so it maintains the neighborhood feel. Actually, double size might be okay, especially since the houses would be larger, I'm sure. I've not seen anyone do this well outside of... well, Bellisseria, really. There are a lot of gorgeous neighborhoods that people have created and they rent parcels, but they're usually empty. I love the bustle of Bellisseria, but I'd also love to go a little bit bigger as well. Some people might even want a Linden Mansion in a Linden Neighborhood in Bellisseria Hills or Bellisseria Canyon on the third pricing tier.

Lucille Bluth is my spirit animal. 😁

I'm into a lot of things, but not really so much vore or dolcett...

Thanks?

Please tell me we get to make sacrifices!!

New version of add-on walls on the MP! https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/LH-Windlass-Houseboat-Interior-Skin/17327055?page=1 I found this one much easier to use than the first one... the rezzer needs to be moved and tweaked a little bit, but I found it super-easy to do, and I'm quite the moron when it comes to fine tuning things like that. This one is a tiny bit more expensive than the L$1 version at a whopping L$49 but I think it's safe to say that BOTH creators are marvelous and generous and kind and fabulous!

I actually just saw another version of it on the MP that has a rezzer and is all one piece that I'm going to try. This one is great, but for someone that is as spatially-challenged as me, the rezzer version may be easier. The add-on is mod, though. I'm just short on patience and motivation right now to tinker a lot... lol! (And the rezzer version I'm looking at is only L$49... a bit more expensive than the L$1 version I have now, but both creators are being utterly amazing about helping solve a problem for almost free!)

Not yet, but I got sent home by a zero second orb and then got distracted by something shiny... lol! And yes, I sent them a very polite notecard informing them of the Covenant rules regarding orbs.

Right?? It's already moved again... or I'm insane and/or have no idea what I'm doing (entirely likely). I'm quite convinced at this point that it's just me being an idiot because I just got a message from MFM (my favorite Mole) that he just looked at my boat and it's lined up perfectly.

i was able to move it a bit so it's not glitching in the wall. We'll see if it moves again over time!

It's the wall add-on for covering the navy. It, or the boat, moved a tiny bit over the last day or so.

I'm touring around Bellisseria today cruising at an altitude of around 2,500 meters... Methinks all those empty boats and houses are using their prim allowances elsewhere. SO MANY SKY DUNGEONS!