Adam Spark

They charge 5% of what you are cashing out (the USD amount at the end of L$ conversion) and make no bones about it. It works the same as commission fee on the MP. You sell something on MP for 100L, 5% comes out (soon to be 10). 5% of 100L = 5L. $237.50 is not 5% of what you are cashing out if you are cashing out $5000 USD. 5% of 5000 is 250, so that is what comes out. https://secondlife.com/corporate/pricing.php 5000 minus 250, not minus 237.50, is 4750

Hopefully both. I think it could, and I hope it will, re-energize, older residents. I certainly know it has for me. I've never left the platform, it still has a lot for me, but I've found myself less enthused about the product - and thus less vocal outside of Second Life - largely due to the loss of the community culture and the loss of the bold game changing 3D web dreams. I know that I can only speak for myself, at least matter of factly, but I do have a firm belief that the explosion in 2006-2010 was due to word of mouth and an excitement about what SL could become - about the fact that it was way more than anything you could call "a game". This alone would, I believe, engage new residents. It did the first time. Not to mention the positive effect that an energetic and positive userbase can have on new users coming in. Linden Lab has done a lot to reach scores of new users over the last few years. Steam (gamers, don't get me started), Facebook integration, ect. What has it led to? Inflated numbers of bad retention rates, incomplete signups and fixes for said problems that don't get anywhere near the root of the real issues. Just my opinion. Yes I'm passionate about SL lol. Or at least about what SL could be.

I am an oldbie (or as I like to say, older than prim dirt LOL). My account was created on Oct. 26th, 2006. I missed being the millionth account created by almost precisely a week. I would say your assessment is pretty spot on. I think, and hope, we are entering a new generation now with the growing popularity of Bellissera and Linden Homes, which were, in the beginning, suited only for new residents. It feels, to a degree, like a return to the oldbie generation, which was an era where Residents were far more united as a community than they are today. I've been feeling a near full circle ride (albeit slower a ride than I'd like) back to those days ever since Ebbe took over. The dream of a 3D web died with Linden Lab's failure to execute it, and I will go to my grave believing in the possibilities of a 3D web, and believing that the death of that dream is what led to the decline of Second Life ever since. 3D web can happen, Second Life proves the concept and I believe it will one day.

I always liked the first name/last name structure. The pre-selected list I wasn't a fan of, either. I would have preferred a last name of my choosing. I just liked the first/last naming convention as it mirrored the real world and made sense to me for this world for social and other reasons.

Not me. Here since 2006. I saw the discontinuation of last names as just that. The system just put Resident next to your name for you to satisfy backwards compatibility. If you picked Avenger20587, that is how I always viewed your name to be, regardless of how the system needed to identify you. Thats why I don't view Resident as a true last name. Your name to me has always been and will always be the name you selected.

I do agree with the solution of creating an Adult category in events. It would go further to isolate it from those who do not want to see it, yet still be easily accessible to those who might. Unfortunately the Sim rating vs Club rating issue is a tricky one. So many variables go into where club owners put their land - whether its what they know about a landlord, cost of the parcel, availability of land, ect. It is also very easy to miss the rating when you are shopping for land and not even realize what you are getting. Its similar to how DJs sometimes list events in Live Music instead of nightlife. Difficult to police without doing so manually. It isn't spam, however. One legitimate event appearing before another isn't spam just because you are looking for the latter one. Linden Lab just needs to do a better job at providing a calendar that works better for everybody, including the trashy sex joints and escort services. Getting rid of spam - events posted more than once, in all genres of event (I once saw a live singer event posted 32 times in live music, so even that category does get some spam) would be a big help, and I think these changes are a start. An adult category, as you suggested, would really be the only way to move adult events out of the way of more General/Moderate ones. The "trashy" event hosts have every right to put their events up on the calendar and nightlife is the more appropriate category for such posts right now. The only other way I can think of is for M/G event hosts to try and get their events up sooner, as events submitted sooner appear higher in the list. Perhaps adult events are getting posted way earlier, since they don't involve (mostly) scheduling entertainment like DJs and live singers?

Difficult to say. If its like most well known clubs in Second Life's history, chances are the clientele will split off into 20 different clubs trying to be the next Frank's.

Trashy isn't spam. An event doesn't have to appeal to our sensibilities to be legitimate. Matter of fact the fact that the vast majority of it is in the right category is refreshing. There is spam in this example - and I do think it will be curbed. Such as at 7am - the Don't Kiss & Tell event listed 3 times. That needs to stop and while I'm not sure the cost is enough to stop it, its a start. Until Linden Lab does away with the Adult category and says that anything considered Adult content, by the standards set with the establishment of maturity ratings, is now banned, "trashy sex joints" will never go away, nor should they have to.

It has been done before. There used to be several real world companies doing business in Second Life. Dell once sold computers on the grid. This was back before the unfortunate loss of the dreams everyone had for the grid. It was supposed to become a game changer for doing business before it turned into just another "game". Oh well. The potential is there still. Maybe one day!

The best practice to finding your way in SL, in my opinion, is to just absorb it all. You don't need to know how to do anything on day 1, day 19, or day 99. I've been in SL 13 years. I still learn. Early on, I didn't concern myself with what rez meant, or what texture meant. I just learned what the terms did. Right click, click create and click land to make a box. They call that rezzing? OK. Eventually I heard the terminology enough that it became second nature. Just learn one thing at a time. Biggest mistake I ever made here was learning to do and taking on way too much way too fast. I owned and operated my first club in SL before I had any business even building one. I was in over my head. Start with learning how to move. Continue with learning how to sit. Right click on items. Look at the menus. Bring up the edit window. Don't concern yourself too much right away with everything in there, just study it. You'll get there. Think of yourself like a sponge. Soak everything up. Bring up the map. Learn search. Learn teleporting. Explore. This is the main one you should concern yourself with for a while. Discover freebies and learn how to use them. Right click on yourself, learn what the menus contain. Check out edit shape, play with it. Carefully, as you can mess your avatar up - not permanently though, so don't stress about it either. Decide how you want to earn lindens. Buy them? Work for them in-world? Either is fine. Just don't ask for them (certainly not habitually). If you work for them, take your time learning about the jobs and whats involved. Don't pick something because its "easy money". It is not worth it, trust me. Pick something you know you'd enjoy, preferably something you'd do (or better still, are doing already) for free. Discover SL and how to use it to suit your needs. We tend to make SL way more complicated than it is. It matters more what things do, then what terminology means. You'll understand all that as you apply it. Texture is just a picture that serves as the "paint" for a building block, whether a floor, a wall, a piece of furniture, or what have you. Its the surface. Everything in the world has a texture. The meaning is a bit different - in the real world the texture usually refers to the feel of a surface (sand paper has a very rough texture), whereas texture usually refers to the image and colors that make up what you see when you look at a building block (known as a prim). Look in the library of your inventory and you'll see examples of some of the terms such as scripts, textures, objects, ect. Double click a texture to see it. Once you get somewhere where you are allowed to build, you can rez (drag to ground) objects. Contact me if you get stuck and need any one on one help.

Some people who use events don't want to find specific events, they want to see everything that is going on and find something interesting. Spam does get in the way of that. I'll often browse the live music category to see what singers are there. That is a cleaner category than most, but it illustrates my point. Search functions do no good for some of the use cases as search won't always accomplish what people are after. And thanks, I misread. On the heels of the fees indicates that premium won't be paying extra, but the lack of explicit statement suggests we better wait and see.

Sure, the fact that it didn't work then doesn't mean it will never work. But the fact that that it died so fast and so completely with choruses of "it'll never work" by the very audience that would be paying them is a strong indicator, along with the way SL residents are tipping less and less. People in SL demand freedom to pay as they choose. If you do a DJ set or a live performance and I'm a fan of yours who shows up to all of your events, pays lindens whenever I can whether its 50, 100, or even more (which add up over time), and suddenly I see I HAVE to pay 300L to show up each and every time I want to hear you. I might be able to do that, and if I can I would. No problem. But if I can't and I no longer show up, you're out what I would have tipped. Second Life is a micro economy. It isn't just roleplay (usually) to run a club, but it isn't real world business either. Not everyone will ever tip. But even the most generous of tippers can only tip so often. Like RL dollars, linden dollars don't grow on trees (even if they used to, LOL). I would much rather be reminded about tipping every 20 minutes (some newbies don't even know of the concept, and others - like myself often - get wrapped up in the event and forget to tip - so I feel its a necessary evil) than to be forced to pay.

There was a MAJOR push for cover charging a few years ago. Artists banded together and some decided that they would require clubs to set a cover charge to book them. It fell hard and fast and nobody does it. The people who tried stopped trying after they learned it was never going to work. In my opinion, one of the tenant principles that make SL what it is is free entertainment with a voluntary payment system. For me, I think there needs to be some sort of way to better encourage people to CHOOSE what and when they pay, rather than tell them if you don't pay stay home. With few exceptions, the SL audience has shown it does not want that.

There are moderate venues who rent land on Adult sims. They should be punished because their parcel has less than adult activities? Adult rating never was intended to guarantee you'll find anything Adult, but to warn that you might and to give the freedom to place such content IF YOU WISH. The rule is do not go beyond your maturity rating, not make sure you push the limit of your maturity rating. Source on extra charging for recurring events?

Recurring events will be added, so there won't be a tremendous amount of per week paying for event posting. Turn off Adult and you won't see near as many non-adult events, either. Regular events occur on adult regions all the time.

I laughed way too hard at this. Thanks Matty.

Unless you are searching for a specific singer or DJ. Many events are at least semi-regular so it isn't hard to know something about them after a while without browsing the general list. I'm out of group space and will often type names into the events calendar, or even venue names.

This is a problem (the 12 events every day). DJ sets are not. You previously said DJ sets are not events, suggesting that even one doesn't belong, much less 12.

All tools, groups, event calendar, ect., are equally appropriate for everything and should be used for everything. People can frown upon anything. Am willing to bet that no two people share the EXACT same standards as to what should or should not be happening anywhere. Irrelevant if rules are being followed. The biggest gripes I have seen about calendar over the last decade is indeed spam. That is, the same event being posted 20 times; NOT which events do or don't belong. Should linden lab do away with the Nightlife category? If not DJs, what appropriate events belong there? What about the Discussion category? Education category? Games/Contests? What makes it an appropriate event?

While 12 event listings for 12 DJs a day is a problem, they still should be allowed on events in and of themselves. If I run one two hour set at my club on an otherwise day off, I should have it listed on the events calendar. Its an event I want people to attend.

A news clip from Reuters News Agency about their location in Second Life in 2006

Anything done for entertainment purposes is an event. Why would there be any such thing as a DJ (in or out of SL) if DJ'ing didn't warrant advertising as an event people should check out? Now, putting it in the right category (not live music), thats a whole other issue.

And it isn't even per week, since many events run weekly. The upcoming ability to post recurring events will render most costs a one time payment.

A cleaner events calendar will hopefully equal event listings that are easier to find, and will not only hopefully increase use by venues, but by potential patrons too. $10L per event would add up fast, but if it highlights and puts more eyes on posts due to less spam, that expense could potentially wind up being offset. If one person tips $100L after finding an event they otherwise would have missed in all the spam, thats 10 event listings paid for. Its a small tax to pay for an improved service. Other changes like recurring event posts will make posting way easier and help with costs. No more posting the same event every week? I'll pay for that! Also a shareable calendar and the ability to follow hosts and a news feed could make finding and promoting events a lot easier. That fee actually won't add up if a venue has a lot of weekly acts on their stage. One post will cover all of their events. My Washburn Lounge has 15 events a week right now, with every one either weekly or bi-weekly. It will cost me $150L to post all of my events for the forseeable future, with the occasional $10L as I add events or things change, thanks to recurring events.

Are meaning how do you collect the lindens, or how to turn them into RL money? If you mean lindens, they should already be in your account. The tip jar collects for you. If you mean turning those lindens into money, you have to go to the website and withdraw your linden balance.