Prokofy Neva

Any ideology that involves hatred and violence and subjugation of women *should* be condemned, and condemning Gor, BDSM, capture roleplay etc. is a good thing. It's not about me needing a soapbox or even about me, as many people share these views and indeed, this behavior is a crime in RL, like it or not. It's fine to shame people with these violent and criminal views. That's how you maintain civilization. Stalin is the opposite of civilization and himself justified violence and slavery. A survey of some limited number of people put in a popular magazine doesn't prove anything, and even if there was some rigorous scientific study, it doesn't mean this is something to be encouraged. I'll go on condemning violence and slavery because these are antithetical to freedom and civilization. Yes, it should be shamed. Deal with it. It's not about being evolved, but backward.

Because there is no free press inworld or on the forums. With a free press, you could report on violent and terrible behaviour freely, and call out people and businesses by name, which is not allowed on the forums. You could copy chat and publish it. These are basics that would be required to raise public awareness and consciousness about reprehensible activities such as "capture roleplay" or worse. It shouldn't be socially acceptable to simulate rape.

I don't think the Lindens "make money" as such from events, formation of groups, or any other inworld charges, like texture uploads. Those are what are known as "sinks" in the monetary system, they merely take money out of the supply. In theory, if there are more sinks, the value of the Linden dollar rises as the money supply is tighter. But I gather the Linden fees paid on the MP are revenue, and not sinks. But perhaps a Linden could confirm this.

Yes, it might have made more sense for the Lindens to charge adult events more, or admit that many "events" are merely sales opportunities sometimes not even with the "event planner" present, andthen charge specifically for sales events, then maybe Live Music could have been left alone. But...If you don't have $50 or $100 to pay for a live music event every day, and can't get that back in tips to the venue or musicians, then maybe you shouldn't be in the live music business. Or just make a group and IM your group members. I am really looking forward to reading the events list again if it cleans up. I stopped looking at it literally years ago, it's a morass.

Technically, we're all renters here, even those of us who buy sims directly from LL and then pay tier and rent them out to others, or those who buy private islands and homesteads and "sell them" (really rent them, because they can seize them back any time) to others. You don't need a premium account either to rent on the Mainland or rent or "buy" on an island -- it's all done without the premium. The premium is only if you want a Linden Home or to own land on the Mainland. It's cheaper to rent on the Mainland from rental companies or another resident because you aren't paying the $11.99 premium per month and other costs (sometimes a house or skybox cost if they are provided), and they will have a bulk discount and typically a group 10% discount so they can give you a much cheaper price and/or more prims per parcel. Private islands are usually more expensive to rent or "buy". Rentals have all kinds of levels of rules or freedom, some with no rules, some with a few rules (like in mine, you can't have a security orb except in the sky above 500 m) and still others with heavy theme or RP or community rules. It's a renter's market, you have a vast array of options to choose from. Look for those that are refundable, usually for a small fee so you aren't locked in for a month until you settle on what you like.

The stalls are both together with a mall, which I prefer to call a "plaza," which might have a dozen or so stores, and also just on a boardwalk, where there might be only a few stores or no stores. Yes, people used to rent these stalls merely to place their XStreet boxes because they had to be out inworld someplace and not everyone wanted to rent land. Perhaps they might want a stall or store now if leaving the Marketplace, but I tend to think people leaving the Marketplace due to the 10% cut will leave it for good. Especially if they made the migration from inworld store to MP and didn't do so well. It seems things sell better on the MP; certainly gatchas do, because you can leverage search. Yes, serendipity inworld helps, and certain things, especially houses I should think, just have to be seen inworld before a purchase. But I just don't know. It's always hard to tell because we don't have enough information. I have closed one mall in the last decade because it was in PG which is always hard to fill. But I like them. I think they are needed.

I have no idea what this percentage is that you've invoked, but a store in my rentals, for example, if they paid, say, $700 for 850 prims and got 10% discount for 4 weeks in advance, they would have to sell past the $2520 for the rent -- and they do, often by just selling a few of their more expensive products. They can also be in a $25/50 stall and do it that way and have less of a cost.

Yeah, Alyona must be a fan of Ayn Rand. How much putting up and shutting up does she do? I see nothing wrong with bitching about the change of the exchange rate and asking pointedly if this is a function of Linden Homes and trying to get people to feel like their Lindens are cheap so they can buy all the add-ons for the Lindens homes made by the Lindens' friends. Oh, and as Qie pointed out, the cheap currency flooding in from all those stipends attached to the premium accounts. So thanks! Linden Homes has been swell for the economy -- the Lindens' economy, not just those in the inworld economy.

No, I'm not "way off" on the cost of events, dear. I am describing the lower end of merchant events that *I myself take part in*. Imagine, there is such a thing! I make stuff, and take part in events, even some "famous" ones. So I'm reporting what *I pay*. I write about *what I know*. And I don't think these are "third tier" because one of them is on Seraphim. The price is $1000 as ordinary merchant and $1500 as sponsor on one, for example. But another one is only $400 and yet another is $500. I guess they're beneath you. We could have a debate about what "first tier" and "second tier" is. But it doesn't matter. $500 or $1000 is the minimum, and it goes up. Sure, the very top events probably pay more like $5000. But we don't know because they don't openly tell you their price and it seems a closely-guarded secret. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the fee for the most crowded, popular events, however. And I don't doubt that after only two people play the round of 20+ at Epiphany, say, to get the prize, that the merchant makes back what she put into it and the rest is gravy. I don't doubt the top tier make money but then they get fatigue. There are too many events. They come too frequently. All along the way, they harangue the merchants with all kinds of rules and reprimands and intrigue and it gets really tiresome. I am near to done with it myself, with most of it. My feeling about the Lindens isn't one of gratitude because I pay them. I am not grateful to my phone company or electric company. I appreciate them. I appreciate that they function better than their counterparts in Russia.

But isn't what he is saying that *per sim* it will count as 512, i.e. they can't spread their microparcels all around with the one 512.

Well, no. Plenty of things don't happen "as they shouldn't"; this one thing happened which you are describing, not many. That's not just nit-picking, it's merely pointing out that you can't extrapolate, even if you have "this impression" that there are "lots of other cases". I could note, for example, that a number of times I simply didn't get the auction to work. I thought I had bid, and even had the highest bid, and in fact it wasn't registering. So yeah, stuff doesn't work. But the reason I am objecting to your portrayal of this is because you are modifying your behavior and waiting a month to do something when ALL YOU KNOW is that: one person didn't get the auction to work. That's it. That's really all you have the facts about. And yes, I've found the auction doesn't work. But it does work in general because you see all this land selling. But taking tier out and having it immediately available -- that is something that generally works. Abuse reports "go nowhere". But I have never known a ticket about land or your avatar to go "unanswered". It might take 3 weeks to answer. You might have to add a comment and try to nudge them. But they do answer.

What are these policies you protested?

Well, it isn't just "theory" that doesn't work; it *doesn't* work that way. I have alts that sometimes put in 1024 when they need to because a tenant has pulled out; when they pull it out it is available and they can put it in another group, or take land as an individual and sell it; or cancel the premium (and there, once you *cancel the premium* even though your account isn't over yet, you can't use the 1024). I have literally done all those things recently; got a Linden home and abandoned it; immediately applied that tier to a group; taken that tier out of a group and put it on land as an individual to sell as an individual etc. So the question is *whether you canceled the premium account*; if you didn't, that 1024 is available immediately to be used elsewhere. If somehow it isn't, you shouldn't be waiting months; you should contact support because something isn't working right. So it's expected behavior that canceling the premium, you immediately lose the use of the tier. But merely withdrawing from a group doesn't mean there is some "waiting period". I have never seen that. So you need to get support to fix that. Occasionally I will see an account of mine that says I have 512 free. But I know I don't have it free; it's taken, in a group. So why is it saying that? I've even asked Lindens, and they don't know, but assure me that no, it's not available if it is in a group. Yes, you have to refresh the page and re-log. You will not see it available without those two actions. But there isn't any mandatory month-long period, truly there isn't. Yes, there are glitches as I just explained. But this is not normal and not required.

Charging to list events like you charge for ads in land or making a group or whatever is really a brilliant and overdue feature and I do hope it will get rid of the gadzillion of spam events at which the event "planner" isn't even present as they are merely glorified ads to sell stuff. I'm all for ads to sell stuff, and we don't have enough capacity for this in SL. But because we don't, it bleeds into other venues like events or 16 m parcels. The Lindens tried to wrangle events in the past at oldbies' behest who hated commerce and hated new people doing commerce, and they took a very punitive approach. They revised this with a notion that yes, you can advertise a new product you made or a new condo development as an "event". That is now abused, of course. $10 is not really enough to restore sanity. I think $100 might so clean up the events list that it might finally become usable again.

What's the major problem? You aren't saying what it is, and proving that it is major. You can search for things and buy them easily on the MP. You can sell things on the MP which can be hard if you aren't big and important and have a big ad budget.

She didn't have a premium account? That 1024 should stay with her as long as her account is paid, and if she withdraws it from a group, as soon as she refreshes the web site page she will see it as available again. But tier is always billed in advance. So in a month, you are billed for all the tier you used that month, it's highest level, regardless of whether on day 2 of that month, you withdrew tier from a project and didn't use it again.

Well, you mean coastal properties. Inland, you find prices as low as half a Linden or even .02/Linden as people want to unload the bleakest, flattest, landlocked parcels.

I've been studying this quite a bit and I'm not sure what you are saying is true. No one has a computerized ability to fetch all the prices of land on the Mainland and analyze them over time. That is, perhaps Tyche does but she's never put out any report like that. The reality is, there is a small group of land barons who bought up the best coastal properties and either rent them out at a high price or re-sell them at astronomical prices. And they themselves ensure that those prices stay very high, disregarding even market signals that might tell them otherwise. It's not a market in any real sense, but it's more like a black market, when a good is artificially made scarce due to government control of resources or lack of a free press to understand prices and economic information. So what can break such a cartel? Only when the government dilutes the supply, as Linden does by creating Linden Homes with house boats. But the Linden house boats aren't really sailing areas. That is, they are and they aren't. Some people in them just want the water ambience and have parties or sit on their deck. Others might actually sail from them, but they face in the other direction the problem the legacy mainland faces with no Linden void sims, so they have to hug the coast and it gets laggy and crowded. I think you also have to ask if a $10/m parcel is actually sailable. So often they aren't. They are land-locked, or near other parcels with aggressive orbs, or near ugly builds. So you really have to inspect them and see if you can really sail from them. There are some even for $2/m but they are totally landlocked, i.e. the water is owned by other tenants who can block it at will with "no access" and "group-only" or bans. Coasts on the original continents like Sansara have never been as expensive as the Nautilus etc ones around Blake. There is sort of a hype and a mystique around Blake which comes from tony yacht clubs making it seem like high society and keeping out the riff-raff. Also, I think the original Mainland has the problems of more ugly builds than the later continents. A land baron can afford to leave a parcel out at a high price unsold for months and months and MONTHS. Years, even. Because he can sell a few, and still make a profit. Or because what he paid will be more than covered with the sale price, which will also cover his months of tier, likely at a group discount and bulk discount. Nothing can break high prices except Linden supply; if people decide they will cease renting or buying, they never get enough company, they are always divided, sometimes artificially so.

I think likely it's the fact that your sign says VOTE TRUMP that people object to it. You could make it as pretty as you like, but it can't fix that basic ugliness. Just sayin'

That's quite punitive and LL doesn't like punitive. But it's an interesting idea. I could note it's not just signs, but various surveillance devices that track avatars passing, vehicles passing, land going for sale, or whatever they track. Some trackers are still there even tho their owners don't maintain the site that used to have the tracking info on it any more. If they used their Charter Account for their microparcel empire, we are SOL as far as getting rid of their signs and trackers. Again, the solution to the ugliness and intrusiveness and idiocy of signs and trackers and billboards is to have the Lindens run a networked ad board service roadside. It will drive most others out of business. The objection to billboards is that they are ugly and therefore people think the Lindens shouldn't run an ad agency. I would submit that we have ugly billboards ANYWAY and Linden designs are usually tolerable if not great.

I used to think that was true, and generally it *is* true as I have found to my newbie sorrow. But to my surprise, I stumbled on a community the other day - Therese showed it to me - run by an Italian gentleman which had plots openly for sale. And for a cheap price. And roadside. They must be mad!

Well, you could start by having a greater ability to determine which of the females are actually female. For starters.

Oh, I disagree. I don't want the Lindens to "clean up" the MP because they don't know what is gold. One of my favourite things is to search on the term "Soviet" to find absolute gems. Things that no one knows exist. I have sometimes spent entire evenings with SL friends discussing our "finds" of obscure items on the MP. Really, someone could make a blog on the weird things they found on the MP and they could fill it every day and keep people constantly riveted.

Well, what is exactly wrong with the MP? It generally works. Oh, except for those times when LL accidentally unlists ALL of your products. ALL. Which for me is like hundreds, given not only the gatchas but all these little tschotchkes I make. Hey, what's up with that! And then you yourself have to list them all again. There's no "going back in time" as there is on a sim. The re-delivery page is great because so many merchants either don't offer it or hide it so well in their stores that you buy 10 things before you find it. Oh, I guess that's the reason they hide it, then. The only problem is that it is SO SLOW. I don't understand why. I do realize that searching for an item I got in 2016 is something I have to "leave and go cook dinner" to execute. The Lindens listened to all the forums agitation, which isn't representative of anything, really, and now they're going to enable the blocking of limited quantities which are mainly gatchas. Who is going to use it except a few forums' harridans? I'd much rather they block the textures of certain farm game crates so that you can look for actual textures and items, for that matter. What's not to like? The MP is great!

I have to laugh that this has been put in, given the history of what I consider a bug, but Soft Linden considers a feature. You can set up group permissions so that an ordinary member, or a member with more permissions (like visitor versus resident) can return non-group-set items. You don't want tenants to return group-set items because then they can return the rental box and other tenants' builds they don't like even within the rules. Yes, you can devote little 16m parcels to a rental box in another group like Desmond does, but some of us need every prim on the Mainland and don't have that luxury. You can then have only officers of the group return group-set items, i.e. a tenant whose rent has lapsed. But if any item is put in share, anybody who joins the open group can then return that item, regardless of whether that group has assigned you the role to be able to return group-set items. "Share" overrides group rules which it shouldn't unless you believe in forced sharing under communism. Especially when the Library items used to all come in "share" (now they don't, but old versions still have that default). Some people don't understand "set" versus "group" and set themselves up for griefing and theft by their "share". In reality, few people who aren't in a circa-2003 furry collective use "share". I could be wrong about that. But "share" is almost always used by mistake, not design. If you want to "share," you have another thing you can do, which is give perms to a trusted friend. In any event, regardless of your beliefs about "share," it shouldn't override a group-set role and group-set power.