Adam Spark

I don't even want to take the high road here, but I will take at face value that you want to discuss this because you just don't know. Not a single premium member with 2 brain cells will be happy if this happened. Not a one. But lets assume, for a sec, they were... It wouldn't last a week before they got their pitchforks out. I went premium eventually, but let me tell you, I spent more money on SL while a basic resident than since I was premium. I bought Linden dollars fairly frequently and in bunches. I also work in SL. You don't even need to buy Ls to get them. And either way, once you get them, you spend them. Add this to the fact that segregating them means premiums would have less people to socialize with, perform for, and sell products to. Right now, SL concurrency is on a 13 or so year slide. At one point, peak hours saw 80K avatars logged in at once. These days, they struggle to hit 50k. I'm not sure they even do anymore. I think they are struggling to get 48K, if not 45K right now. Lets put the number at 50K. That is a 40 percent drop. Lets say out of the 50K online at the peak of any given day, even 5 percent are basic. Which we all realize, I think, does not scratch the surface. Overnight, peak concurrency goes from struggling to hit 50k to struggling to hit 45K. OVERNIGHT. Nobody wants to be in a ghost town. The biggest issue with other grids is that everyone interested in virtual worlds are all in SL. Axing free accounts would give SL that same problem. People draw people. Its bad enough that creators and consumers get classed in the attitudes of a lot of people, and far too often in the actions of LL, failing to realize there is only one class of user in reality - the SL resident.

I'm not trying to claim anything, I'm just posting my opinion on a forum like everyone else. I respect yours. Have a great day.

Far be it for me to guess why gambling addicts become addicts I suppose, but without the possibility of winning something eventually, it is not gambling. Its just a buy-in fee, like a cover charge to access a club. The tokens, the twitter post clearly states, have no real value and are not exchangeable. Entertainment purposes only. I doubt many gambling addicts would bother with simply virtually pulling slot levers without the slimmest hope of getting anything else out of it. Its the hope of one day hitting a jackpot that has them hooked, isn't it?

I've seen some highly interactive, very sophisticated games in SL. I think LSL allows us to do about anything. The issue, in my opinion, is whether the content can keep a region running smoothly. I don't think there is very much we cannot literally do. I think the platform serves that. Your imagination, I think, is really your limit. I don't think that is just an ad slogan. The question isn't is it creatable. The question is, would it have high value on this lag-prone platform?

You don't even need a script. Go into about land and uncheck "Anyone can visit" under the access tab, and the OP can keep everyone else out

You could turn access off in about land after a certain number is reached, or send invitations if you want 25 specific avatars, and turn off general access and put the 25 you invited into the always allowed list.

Things I miss from my early days (beginning in Oct. 2006): - The majority of residents seeing SL as something far more than a game - Openness and a desire on the part of the vast majority of others to socialize as opposed to staying in their corner. - The supporting of one another, even in business. The understanding that you don't do well in SL unless the industry you are in (whether its clothing, music venues, or whatever the case) does well as a whole. Work together. Prop each other up. Its a win-win. - When people opened venues because they cared about their creation more than the owner tag above their head. I'm not saying this no longer happens. But the opposite exists far too much today. - When people wanted to help each other and understood that they were new once too. - When people cared about the grid and the promise of its future, and not just their own slice of it. - Collaborative building that could be seen as you built, in-world. Yeah the builds look better today. It just sucks you can't be in SL (at least actively), to build them.

I missed the old venue I had in 2007. So I made it again. I still missed the old one, because SL has changed. It isn't about the location's existence, but the experience within it. That is hard to recreate. Besides that, some are creators and some enjoy creations. Both are equal. Missing something is not illegitimate just because they could, theoretically, just bring it back.

My thought on this? Its akin to a grower of apples creating an apples vs oranges webpage. IMVU even calling itself a world almost makes me laugh. There are similarities, but they are barely at best in the same arena. IMVU reminds me a lot of Sansar. Not knocking either one, by the way. I'm just confused by the comparison to SL - it sounds like a reach. And while graphics power is a fantastic bonus and should never be glossed over by a developer, its really just fit and finish stuff. It says nothing about your product and does nothing for one's social persona - that comes from who you are and your style choices, and features that promote social interaction. A graphics award does not even touch why IMVU is a social interaction winner. It might be, for some people. But graphics don't accomplish it. You can be better at producing social interaction and have 8-bit graphics for pete's sake. Oh, and at least as of a few months ago - my most recent foray into the thing - IMVU being better graphically is also arguable at best. It's all business spin designed to reach the SL audience because of the high numbers of people. Its akin to when Linden Lab heavily targeted the Facebook audience to boost numbers and put SL on steam to try and bring in gamers (SL is not a game. Yeah I'll keep saying it). That hasn't moved the needle much, assuming it hasn't actually hurt SL, which I think it has. But I digress on that. They should be advertising their product, not posting random, out of thin air arguments as to why they are better than something else. This more resembles a shot fired than an advertisement in my opinion.

If you are using Firestorm, and you are not photographing any objects that do not belong to you - go to World-Options-Show only my objects In this case he could spend all week tossing stuff out and you'll never know the difference. If you are photographing others objects in your scene, take it somewhere else like a sandbox. You might get griefed there too, obviously, but its a good play to escape this person and there are many you can visit, some with very low traffic.

In the tiniest of ways, I suppose. But not in a meaningful one. I guess it depends on how much of a reach you are willing to make to say that, in a way, it was SL2. For me, I don't see it that way because it wasn't even a world. It was a set of shared spaces, like a 3D web. There was no connectivity. No map, no crossing from one to another outside of a portal on their website... The fact that it was 3D graphics was the largest connection to SL that it had in my opinion. Games, like World of Warcraft or Ark Survival Evolved, have that.

oh the slip was way before this, in a media interview. They were forced eventually to come here and face us and give us more info, probably earlier than they should, and I think that may have forced them to placate us with some things. In no meaningful way was it SL2 - it was not a connected world but a set of shared experiences. It was to run in Linden Lab's product line beside SL I fully believe. They did eventually say that they would work on transfer of items, but they were pretty quick to point out that because they were different platforms in basically every way, it would be hard to cross over anything in a meaningful way, as most everything would break and they were not planning on preventing that.

incredible storytelling right here.

I sure hope LL is back in the metaverse sweepstakes. Leaving was a huge mistake in my opinion. As for mobile - it looks way better than I expected, but I'll need to see how inventory, chat, groups, notices and all that is managed, as well as interacting with objects and paying for items and all that. I'm still of the belief that SL on mobile is several times better in theory than it will be in practice, but who knows. Emoji viewer? Ok that is awesome!

If only this were true. Well, I guess we will never know for certain, I should preface. But I see it differently based on all communication from LL during development, and seeing what Sansar is/was since launch. But by all accounts, Sansar was supposed to be another product. I think one of the things that really hurt Sansar initially was the expectation of so many that we were getting a Second Life 2.0. (I pinned that on Linden Lab at the time, for their way too early "accidental" slip about its existence, and their about face of "we can't yet talk about that". It led to too much speculation) That was never supposed to happen. Yes, it was supposedly built in the spirit of SL, but that was it. Unfortunately, the intention to NOT replace SL with a rebuild from the ground up was a horrific decision from LL at the time, in my opinion. Building a separate VR-centric product was a disaster. Once they realized the state of their VR pipedream, they improved Sansar way too late and way too slowly with their mouse and keyboard improvements. Rebuilding SL from the ground up using modern technology was sorely needed and could have made for an even better grid than we have today. I still call for it today. I agree though - it is dying, in the sense that it has a shelf life. Many of us will eventually see the death of SL, I think. It just isn't months or a couple years away.

They are fine with receiving their 20% in VAT on anything bought with currency of value, which Linden Dollar tokens are not, yes. Either that or they have not yet stepped in and said they are not yet.

Exactly, otherwise they would not be allowed to do this.

The VAT office receives everything they are owed. They are not owed money from those who pay with $Ls, because $Ls have no value. They would not ask for customer Bs money if they looked into it. Your problem is with the tax regulators in your country for not forcing a tax on Linden Dollar payments, not with Linden Lab.

Every business could improve upon their customer service. I agree they have a long way to go. As for Lab Gab, though, I would love for it to turn into a free for all discussion, but that doesn't happen anywhere, at least not where you can be certain you're hearing the truth. In terms of customer service, Lab Gab is an improvement over the years of "Lindens don't even log in due to company policy".

Every interview is like that. In a "genuine" interview setting, the interviewed clears the subject and often reviews questions and will not answer honestly or at all any questions they do not wish to. They often do it to talk about something or promote something. If they clear taking follow up questions, they choose carefully what to indulge and how to indulge it. Almost every interview is an advertisement of or explanation of something going on presently. If they welcome an ask me anything session, its either lip service and you won't get the truth (most public figures, if not all, are coached on how to handle interviews. Heck, LL is probably told by lawyers what not to indulge at times, if not often), or you'll get it by THEIR choice. The interviewed is always in control and will refuse to answer off limits questions (sometimes to the point of ending the interview). I would much rather just hear from them what they are doing than not even bother to make their presence known like lindens did for so many years.

Actually, that is typical of any business that does not want to have to shut its doors. A prerequisite, actually. Once growth becomes secondary, the business sinks and closes up. Not just these days either, thats always the case. And yes, only when things are too bad for them do people leave most any business. If they didn't care about getting new customers, this place would eventually turn into a boring ghost town, as people disappear at one point or another for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with SL itself. We'll all be gone one day, and not necessarily by choice. So yes, they are focused on new customers. Current ones benefit by that as it keeps this place running.

The only reason they collect VAT is because legally, they HAVE to. What are the odds that they made this change without making sure it was not legally a scheme to get around tax collection? Spoiler alert: Less than zero. They are a business with a ton of oversight. Once it became illegal to gamble in many US jurisdictions, they were FORCED to close casinos fast. LL does not have the freedom or lack of oversight to do things that get around laws. If they are messing with tax collection, there is a perfectly legal and lawyer cleared reason its happening. Further, its a beta program you have to sign up for, even if you have a qualifying subscription. If red flags are raised (by governments that impose these rules), it will get scrapped. The same thing happened with banking schemes back in the day. Banking got wiped from the grid when legal authorities got involved. Neither Customer A or B has legal reason to declare anything unless he cashes out his Linden Dollars, as only then does it become something of value (real world currency). At this point, he pays all the pertinent taxes. If either withdraws, then he pays taxes. With this feature, neither customer has to withdraw. Basically what this does is allow users who do not withdraw or purchase many/any Ls (which in-world have no value) to use them to pay for land from LL in a similar way we all pay for texture uploads or mesh uploads. Its the real world income that you convert your lindens to that gets taxed. L's generated in world can now be used to buy land, and that only makes basic sense in my opinion.

Creations are up to the creators, and categories of users/cultures/communities are up to the user. Linden Lab provides the platform, only. What we do with it is up to us to figure out. If you are looking for creations more suited towards your avatar, request it via notecard to creators of similar content. Linden Lab thankfully does not dictate too much (most of the time) or get their nose in what creators create too often (so long as its within the TOS rules). I get frustrated with the fact that there is so much less male clothing in SL than female. Linden Lab will not, and should not, do anything about that, either. Contact stores and let them know what you would like to see. Some might even do custom work for you, at a higher price usually. Linden Lab provides us the ability to do what we do (the servers, features, ect.). They play no policing role in what is on the grid - unless it violates the TOS and copyright laws. If its perfectly legal and within rules, they are a-ok with whatever we decide to make and whatever we do not.

The reason other grids struggle, in my opinion, has more to do with what is essentially a virtual world monopoly here in SL. Its really hard to get someone interested in a grid in its infancy (when OS and other grids were/are new), when there is already a grid with nearly 50K people populating it at peak times, 20 years of history, events every hour, shops on every corner, and the common misconception that joining another grid means "starting over" (I've been on both at once at various points). I've talked about other grids with so many people only to get responses like "I've spent so much here I don't want to start over" and "But there is nothing to do and no people over there". Its really difficult, I think, to compare features and price points on grids that are so lopsided in population. It makes it hard to try a grid out when it takes hours or days to find an unempty sim and you rarely if ever see more than a dozen events a week. Many people are interested in the price points, but not interested in leaving for ghost towns. Plus most, if not all viewers are based on the SL code. So SL is very ingrained in the virtual world system as a whole, which makes it very easy for folks to flock to and stick with SL. Cheap land does create interest. A lack of an audience/consumer base loses it faster than the grids can improve on it.