[The Second Life Economy in Q2 2011]

Maelstrom - Fancy baubles surprisingly don't seem to be holding on to new members, somtehing we all knew.  Instead they're tp'd in to events where people don't usually have time to help them figure stuff out.

Shockwave - totally agree with your main comment.

Market place has killed off SL shopping which means less places to go exploring, less events - just less everything. No places to go, no events - nothing for new people to do.

Land's for sale all over SL - our sim included now, and more going up everyday. Sl's just getting too expensive and regulatory now. We're not children, we don't need to be monitored at every turn, and we're not all rolling in extra cash to keep paying out when we seemingly get noghint back.

Want to keep people interested? LISTEN to them!

 

[September Update]

Very constructive Tako, I guess if we're geriatrics that makes you a baby by comparison. There are people who don't use the forum who were thinking of signing up for the offer as premium members. They stopped themselves when they read the small print and realised the limitation of it. ie. just a discount of one payment, then it goes back to normal. The people I know who were thinking of it are far from geriatric, as am I. They simply looked at the facts and worked it out fo rhtemselves.

[September Update]

Just because people don't jump up and down with enthusiasm we're labelled whingers, ignore them blah blah. Reading through the last 2 posts re premium benefits, I'd say the 'whingers' are in the majority, and on the last post about the previous benefits LL actually thanked everyone for their comments. I'm hoping they act on both the good AND the negative.

Fact is the 'whingers' usually explain their reasons for beng dissatisifed ie. they're dissatisfied customers, something all business should actually listen to Edward. No company ever managed to survive by ignoring genuine customer dissatisfaction. Customer loyalty and rewarding the same is a big deal in business, and when long term customers get ignored they take action. One big SL business recently got rid of half their sims because of service. Another former business in SL closed 10plus sims. This isn't whinging. As for me, put my money where my mouth is? OK. I did. My land is for sale and once its sold who needs premium? LL wil be down my membership and about $150 a month, and I doubt I'm anyhthing special. There's land going up for sale all over the grid. But please, just because people genuinely feel put out by these measures they're not whinging for the sake of whinging. Constructive criticism is good in all aspects of life, or else how does anyone learn from mistakes.

[September Update]

Lellani - If a business, any business, doesn't give its customers what they want (within reason of course) then it will fail. I've seen it happen enough with large businesses over the years. No, we're not all technical geniuses and no I can't put right a lot of the technical problems, but then that's partly why I pay LL so much money: to improve my experience in world as a customer. I'm sure they do have people working on the problems but some of these have been going on for three years or more, while time and resources have gone on other areas which maybe shouldn't take priority over the basics.

I run an RL business and if the basics aren't right, then I have no business. I need to make sure things work before I can attempt to build and get new customers. If I have an influx of new customers I need to be able to give them the customer service they deserve, or I'll lose them. I'm well aware that when it comes to servers like LL have there are going to be issues, I'm not completely stupid. I also know that there are limits to what they can and can't offer their customers. (We'd all like our own private island with 50,000 prims but that's a little unreasonable). What I'm saying is, the  grid is having problems supporting the number of people who already use it. The weekends are traditionally a nightmare for most of the events I've ever run or attended, and all we get told is 'we're dealing with it'. In order to grow and develop and hold on to the new customers the grid needs to be a lot more stable or they will leave. That maybe should be the priority for now, because as well as not holding on to new customers they risk losing older ones, and that's never good for business. (Again I've seen enough businesses back track on policies when they've lost a lot of customers).

LL's market is the people who log in to SL and use it and pay to use it everyday. They might focus their attentions elsewhere but bottom line is, if people leave SL as a lot are, or downsize as a lot are, there won't be much left for LL to work with.

I'm not against incentives for new customers, but you HAVE to look after your existing customers at the same time. Like it or not, they're the backbone of your business, and I can refer to a number of other businesses who have found that out to their cost.

[September Update]

Lellani - five years ago things might have been worse but in the last three years since I've been a member I've just noticed things worse. I crash more - that's a fact. group chat regularly fails - fact. And if you were in world yesterday major problems for a while when half the grid seemed to go. Bottom line is, if you don't look after your existing customers along with your new ones, your existing customers who have proved their loyalty will leave. It's already happening. If you lose your loyal customers, you're left with people who may or may not stay, so you have a very dodgy customer base. This has been proved by enough businesses. By all means encourage new members but getting them to stay wont happen if they constantly crash, can't TP, see the world grey because nothing rezzes and have fewer older members to ask for advice. My LL fees are about to halve as a result of these measures. Why? because I'm not getting my money's worth. Simple as that.

The day LL does soemthing worthwhile to show it's support for it's loyal customers I may reconsider. I've long given up on a grid that works, especially if its resources will be overloaded further.

[September Update]

Lillani - a successful company does not listen to its customers on how to run its business and in which direction to take it-- you guys know your market and data far better than any resident who only thinks they know from their perspective!

That's the whole point. A business depends on its customers. If it doesn't listen to them, it loses them. simple as that and I have been around long enough to know that I crash a whole lot more than I ever did before, and long enough to know that lots of the things people have been asking for (though some would call it complaining) have yet to be implemented in spite of continuous promises from LL. And that's simple things like making things more stable, making things run smoother, allow us to speak and not have to return an hour later to see if what we've said has arrived in chat. Give us 42 groups but make the chat work. let us spend lindens without suddenly find we've got -1. Lag is en ever increasing problem, and yes, of course new members need to be encouraged, but if the basics aren't stable (Which is all most older members want) then you don't have a good base on which to maintain growing numbers.

The reality is, and just check comments on the previous 'supposed' premium gifts, most older, long term members feel totally and completely left out. LL seems only interested in attracting NEW members at the cost of alienating OLDER members. Should they listen? If they want to keep going, yes. Why? Because those older members have proved they're loyalty. Newer members can come and go, and let's face it. there'll be a big uptake in premium members which will simply go down when the next full payment becomes due in December - right on top of Christmas when people want their money for other things.

[September Update]

Having just checked the discount out - it's open for about 48 hours and applies to one quarterly payment only. So if people spot it there'll be lots of new accounts open for 3 months, unless things like crashes, linden balance problems, lag, chat lag, group chat issues, inventory issues, support which doesn't just tell you to file a ticket which takes about a month (or more) to get looked at,  and all the other day to day 'issues' we experience in world are dealt with.

 

Encouraging new people is good, but only if you have a stable system in world to be able to support them.

[September Update]

Kamala - Victor's been a content creator within Second Life for quite some time. ie. He's given a lot so why shouldn't he be upset, like the rest of us, to learn that LL is not doing anything for existing members. People who have supported them all this time and so far have got nothing (and if these offers are anything to go by I don't think we ever will get anything.

As for options being forced on us. You're quite wrong. The new online profiles WERE. We were automatically signed up and for some of us there was a long drawn out process trying to figure out how to opt out.

As for me. I've got land, who needs a sandbox. I've got an inventory stuffed with furniture. I've been paying my premium for 2 years now so this discount is worthless. And all these links designed for stuff OUTSIDE second life - enough! Someonf pay to be IN Second Life, not on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere else. Second Life should be where we find out about Second Life. Second LIfe should be where we connect with people. and it would be an extremely respectful and courteous gesture if LL actually acknowledged those who have supported them over months or years and rewarded them with something, instead of simply trying to encourage just the new members.

More on the way? I won't hold my breath.  

[New Premium Membership Features]

to Potosi - we've been making suggestions on THIS forum for a long long time! Not ONE has yet been acknowledged.

[New Premium Membership Features]

SO after over 2 years of premium membership I now get free furniture and a place to build. Well guess what? I have land and a house and plenty of furniture. These measures as always are aimed at new members but what about the EXISTING premium members who already have this stuff?  no tier reductions? no extra land allowance? no increase in stipend? No lag reduction? in fact nothing to encourage older existing premium members who've invested in SL to stop.

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

We also asked about some abandoned land right in the middle of the rest of the sim we own. As the only landowners on the rest of the sim we hoped to get this. After getting the land up for auction, we bid and were outbid with a massive bid. We then realised that not only was someone deliberately increasing prices, but that there was also a fault with the way the bidding was being handled by the site. 3 calls to Live Help, a ticket as the auctions were incorrect and finishing that day and a notcard to a Linden. Bet you can't guess what happened? That's right. Nothing. There's a technical fault with the system and no one at LL cared about it.

We'll lose the land and the end of our dream to own a whole sim. OK that's down to someone delierately trying to scam us (assisted by LL refusing to allow people to simply buy plots of abandoned land they are interested in) but what really angered me was the refusal to acknowledge a fault on the site with the bidding. So fair enough. I've lost interest really in reporting things. There's simply no point and as a result our hopes and dreams are crushed. Result - less income for LL because we don't want our land anymore.

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

Improved comunication would be to STOP sending e mail notifications from this forum when I have very clearly turned that option off! I do not want to be communicated with when people post to this thread and yet my e mail in box is going mad! i do hope the new forum stops this one

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

I've looked at the user groups with a view to taking part. None of them are of any interest to an older use who doesn't use Viewer2. I'm interested in making the existing SL policies to make SL better for the residents.

And while the forum's being revamped, I still can't get group chat to open in world, and I couldn't even tp home having eventually persuaded my av to stop looking like an egg. A usergroup to resolve existing problems would be a great idea I think (or maybe a brainstorming one)

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

There's plenty of comments from plenty of residents right here in this forum. It would be nice to think that a few Lindens sat and read them and took note instead of encouraging us to go to Facebook or Twitter (I do neither).