[SL Marketplace is Open and Ready for Business]

Anyone who can't see the rats jumping off the ship is blind.

It's a monthly occurance. We use ratapults to launch them, followed by bars of soap on a 30 day cycle to bathe them! Not to worry, they can swim back and we leave little ship ladders out.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

Forgive the humor with the factoids and suggestions, in one of those odd moods ...

A bit perplexed by eluding that a price hike and a still attractive buy-in deal (homesteads without estate requirements) and how that becomes a political thing.

Years of doing car washes, bake sales, tag sales and a plethora of 101 fund raising efforts. With a bare minimum of effort and any worthy cause I can raise enough to buy a few sims and pay tier for a year with a half dozen events over the course of the year. Actually I could probably pull that off with one event.

How many educators and non profits does it take to disengage from the computer long enough to do some fund raising 101? Wondering if teaching courses on this qualifies me for a discount

But, if you don't want the deal can I have it?

-- Dean of Dartagan's Redneck School of Fund Raising for Educators and Non Profiteers. Introductory courses opening this fall at a 50% discount.

About those free (non SL building and scripting) adult education courses I can't find anywhere, I've got a few hundred thousand people that could use basic bookkeeping and accounting, introductory architecture ...

[SL Marketplace is Open and Ready for Business]

Congrats on a job well done! Good to watch the Marketplace evolving before our eyes and thank you for getting us back down to a singular Marketplace again.

The team deserves much more than a pat on the back, and I really wish we could give that to you. I know they've been under some serious pressure the last couple of months.

Thank you, thank you!

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

I see what you mean if the discount was 50% on buy-in. Mainland and partial regions aside, the buy-in for a couple of homesteads is still less than the buy in for estates for us regular folk and holds your 40 avatars.

I admit that I'm not familiar with exactly what "most" educational sims do, although the ones I've seen don't regularly hold events or classes within SL itself with 40 avatars, and in many cases don't seem to need a high prim count for what they're accomplishing which is information or presence based.

Please don't take that wrong, as I'm sure there are educational sims that do make higher use of high traffic having 40 avatars on site, just that I've not seen them outside of the occassional event, but then I'm not an educator. Also haven't seen courses available to the general public.

Also, probably shouldn't say this in the same breath as I'm already fearful of being misinterpreted here, I'm all for education in SL ... when are you folks going to start offering free adult education courses in SL as a loss leader to the business of education? Your non-educator populace here is ripe for it, and it's a great way to reach out beyond your walls and interface with the general public and make some waves. Sorry for that side path, I'm just a big one for adult education and RL working skills for those who can't afford it.

If the needs and the budget are lean, it seemed a nice match to me. Apologies if I'm way off base here.

[Two Important Updates on 2011 Land Pricing]

This is actually a better entry deal for Education and non profits than full estates. I'm envious of openspaces and homesteads without the buy-in requirements of a full estate.