Prokofy Neva

Make sure to put your parcels for rent in "search/places," it costs $30 a week but it is worth it. Most people come through search. Make the ad attractive with a nice picture and good, well-spelled copy. Put a classifieds in, likely you will need to spend $1000 at least but try. Put an add on the Marketplace with a $0 landmark. Have a grand opening and announce it in the Events. Don't spam groups, people hate that. Don't put up a large, spinning sign above your property, that's not how it rents and only annoys neighbours whose good will you need for word-of-mouth. Put ads on the forums in the appropriate section. Don't be afraid to "go alien" if you think you can reach a market of people who like alien. But from my experience, they don't, so I only had it on one tiny corner of a property, and in the land preserve. Alien doesn't sell really.

The people who were on the Second Life Leader Board (which was based on inworld activity under the old reputational system) have 1) died in RL 2) left SL 3) have been forgotten. I do have a picnic set one of them made that is like 100 prims though.

For years and years, you were very much subdued under a very strong-willed and strong-voiced partner. You never used to talk at all. You would remain silent at meetings. Then, that person left SL and you began to find your voice. And now you boom it out whenever the whim strikes you. Perhaps it will balance out some day; perhaps not.

No. However, when I got to a crowded event, I take off jewelry or HUDs or things taking up scripts because it's a common courtesy.

It's a sandbox. If you don't like this happening, you have to buy or rent land so that you can eject people. Common courtesy is not something to expect in SL, as many throw it out the window when they enter.

People often drink to excess and take drugs while doing SL. This gives them the illusion they aren't drinking or getting high alone. And that may be why this guy is sounding stupid and engaging in reckless behaviour. It doesn't sound like you can do anything about this, and LL will not do anything unless he is violating their TOS or they have reason to think he is breaking RL law. Sometimes people in SL have had success in getting RL police to do wellness checks on SL residents but for that, they need to know their real address and have a real emergency. Someone spending their inheritance isn't that, unless you can show that someone has deceived him somewhere and maybe you can AR that person.

Yes, I realize, but if the top barons have 50%, but it is still true to say that the rest is in the hands of smaller barons and end-users LOL. Yes, it could be the next-level smaller baron is not smaller by not much. Even so, I believe there is a steep drop. If you are going to be in the island business, you have to go big or go home as the vacancies and fixed costs are too high. If you fly around looking at islands, you see a lot of them belong to single owners or to a store owner. Since it would take two entire days, spending one minute on each to record information, to see all of SL's sims, without sleep, I can't do that, and I'm not sure Tyche could even set a bot to do this as they might be ejected from a lot of the sims. But you might visit 240 and extrapolate. Qie, yes, I know of those other links for Tyche; the reason I chose this one is because it shows the total of Mainland sims, and the others didn't seem to have that number. The figures you quote are totals of categories that don't help us to understand either the rentals business or the impact of Bellissaria. Yes, there seems to be less abandoned land because some people with premium 1024s are absorbing it, but I also think the Lindens have been mandated to move faster on it. As for the punishment you suggest for the resident auctions, I don't think business in SL needs more punishment, with premium accounts having gone up and more annoyingly, the cashout percentage increased. Maybe it shouldn't be the Lab's percent, but some flat fee per listing, as there is for classifieds.

@Alwin Alcott it's showing up as a graphic to me, not mangled tables. If you add up the percentages of the table of land barons, you get roughly 50% -- where it shows Richmond 6.2%, Azure 4.9% etc. 47% to be precise, if 16% at the end about ACS is to be added in on top of the other line of 4% for ACS. No matter. The point is, the top land barons own 50% of the islands; then the rest are either end-users or small rentals companies.

Since another thread on "the effect of Bellissaria on the land business" was closed (but only at the OP's request and a Linden offered to re-open it), let's revisit not just that topic, but in general, the land business, and how it is doing. For me, the focus is mainly on Mainland, but not only. Without the kinds of economic statistics the Lindens used to give us, it can be very hard to tell. One way is to look at Tyche Shepherd's reports, which are wonderful and invaluable. Here's the latest (for some reasons gridsurvey.com isn't loading but I took it from cache). Second Life Main Grid size as of 1 Sep 2019 Ownership Total General Moderate Adult Offline Total Area (km²) Total 24264 2859 15184 6210 11 1590.17 Linden Owned 8113 1716 5911 485 1 531.69 Private Estates 16151 1143 9273 5725 10 1058.47 Summary Charts (Click to view): Other Key Statistics: 57% of Mainland owned directly by Linden Accounts (Contiguous Mainland is 6806 regions including Linden Home regions) 20.7% to 21.4% of Mainland by area is abandoned parcels (details - 11th Jan 2017) 55.5% of Private Estate regions are Full Regions, 43.9% Homesteads & 0.6% Openspaces (details including top 20 Estates - 15th Jan 2017) Monthly Tier Estimates - Private Estates c.US$2.970 Million, Mainland c.US$0.704 Million As of Jan 2017 36914 Linden Homes are occupied (details - 11th Jan 2017) on twitter for up to date announcements Top 10 Estates by number of regions (15th Jan 2017) The Top 10 Estates by number of regions held are as follows: Richmond Land Management 6.2% Azure Islands (ACS) 4.9% Dreamseeker Estates 4.9% Zoha Islands 4.2% Surreal Chung (ACS) 3.1% Weezles Real Estate (WRE) 3.0% Victoria Chung (ACS) 2.9% Miriam Chung (ACS) 2.5% Lorena Chung (ACS) 1.8% Fruit Islands Estate 1.7% N.B. Known ACS holdings are 16.7% Land barons are only 50% of island holdings? The rest are end-users? Anybody? From this, I see mainland is actually now not 5,000 but 6800; the Lindens own half of that, which means all kinds of things, various roads and waterways but also abandoned land and Linden Homes. But since she says 20% is abandoned, that means there are about 5400 sims on the Mainland that are "viable" -- I can't figure out from this how many are actually Linden Homes or businesses/rentals, but maybe someone knows . So the question is: what percentage of the Mainland is owned by end-users and business owners including rentals businesses? And the answer is -- probably most of the 3400 owned by residents. I'm assuming that "Linden-owned" means the Linden Homes as well, although when you take them, you become the owner and pay tier. It would be helpful if a land Linden could explain that (or Tyche). So my impression is, that just as there are more private estates now, for various reasons, there is more Mainland, or less abandoned, that it has not continued in the death spiral some imagine. But it is hard to know how this is impacted when a) we don't know how many land businesses and end-users are on the Mainland (how that 3400 breaks down) b) whether it is Bellissaria or other factors affecting it. So if half of the sims on the Mainland are now in premium account hands, and the other half are Governor Linden infrastructure and abandoned, I think that means the world is a little healthier. But how and in what direction? So all I can do is give anecdotal examples from the last two weeks about 20 of my own tenants. Every time someone moves out or refunds, I do an exit-interview just to see if they left for some fixable reason -- some people refund in a huff if a fellow tenant puts up some huge build that in fact I would remove but they don't realize it; some people don't understand a rolling restart is not the permanent death of a sim; some people face frustrations with prims returning and don't realize they have to join a group, etc. etc. So I try to eliminate those frustrations so the person can return if possible. NEGATIVE (move outs, move-downs, disappearances, and RL reasons) - Total - 12 1 - moved to cheaper lot due to lag 2 - MIA (I see this fairly often -- accounts completely disappear, i.e. you can no longer find their names in the list, or they never return). 3 - RL demand, can't be in SL (this time of year, people seem to have to resume more commitments with school and jobs) 1 - buying 1/8 sim - note: not all purchases are Linden Homes; the homestead or the larger and more expensive private island is still desirable as a step-up from a Mainland rental; BTW this tenant had been in my Mainland rentals for literally years -- all kinds of factors go into move-up or move-down, often related to SL relationships. 1 - can't terraform to suit - move out - this happens especially with newer people. They can't get the land to flatten like a pancake -- because it doesn't on Mainland! They get frustrated, and go to an island or give up entirely. 2 - no reason given (but haven't moved elsewhere) 2 - moving to adult for fear of ARs (I only have one small adult area as I don't want the expense or trouble, and this is a chronic problem) POSITIVE - Total - 12 2 - asked for 100 more prims 1 - can't pay new premium rate with donated tier - but came back then soon 1 - can't pay rent in cash - but then came back 1 - kept rental, bought Belissaria in addition 2 - return after long absence to SL 1 - added another rental to existing 2 1 - move to larger one of our lots 3 - brand-new tenants, some only 2-3 months in age So I could conclude from this that Bellissaria has no effect or little effect but then I don't know everything, and it's just my slice of life. There are also hundreds of people who in fact stayed in their rentals happily -- if there were way more negative than positive for months in a row, I would sell land or quit. But it has its ups and downs, and I will say that the one thing I notice still trending up is people using their 1024 to contribute tier and pay for a rental in my system; I also don't see as many moves to private islands, but who knows what that means (I only have one private island and one homestead). But here's another thing I noticed -- again, anecdotally. While it is ALWAYS a bad idea to buy land when the Lindens are making changes -- which they are doing by throwing 800 sims online with customers taking away at least something from rentals and Mainland sales -- I did buy land in this period "to save the view" and because I saw some great opportunities. But I also sold a lot of land the minute the Lindens announced they were increasing the premium rates and adding more Linden Homes. That's the prudent thing to do. So I can't really speak of any great shrink or addition, and it's just a "wait and see" sort of things. But because I had occasion to deal with land barons for the first time in quite awhile, it was interesting to hear them out: they view Bellissaria as a direct, powerful hit on their business, and are either winding it down in places or lowering prices or trying to pressure people like me to buy more. I'm not sure why this is, but I think it *might* be because they are selling smaller parcels, and trying to advertise parcels as being "free tier" if 1120 meters with the premium account much more. That's new -- I never saw that in 15 years of SL, which means they are competing directly for customers. Thus, it's not rental agents so much as land sellers impacted by Bellissaria. Overall, I see a trend of renting smaller parcels as well. I've broken up many of the 8192s I used to rent out as is. Another big impact on the land sellers appears to be the resident auctions. But then they themselves use this system, in ways I don't fully understand. I had the naive idea that the resident auctions would be a wonderful of end-users selling to end-users but of course it is not. There are mysterious things that happen here -- I see a resident auction. I see prime land going for $1/m because somebody unloaded it at that price. I see non-land barons picking it up and re-selling. Now, how do I know that? Because I recognize some of the people; some are even tenants. Then I see land barons ultimately acquiring that land and re-selling for a higher price -- but waiting forever -- months and months, probably past the prudent time for them to hold all that land. So only the Lindens know what impact resident auctions have -- but maybe someone has an educated guess. Mainland land sales are not what they were once -- due to abandoned land. And the Lindens have really stepped up their game here and now sell it within 24-48 hours, whereas before it might take 7 days or more. And they sell even waterfront and parcels larger than 512, which I don't recall them doing as much. To be sure, they usually want you to have land adjacent to it, or for it to be too odd shaped for them to put on the auction, but sell it they do, for $1. I also see their auctions picking up. I haven't tested this, but I think you can find some waterfront abandoned here and there and ask to buy it and likely you will get it. There are some people who watch for these opportunities, and are also like garbage men, who in the dead of night will accept your land for .5/m or less (yes, it sells for less) -- and thank God for them, as they give the market liquidity and prevent abandoning, and likely make something or they wouldn't do this. Remember Weedy? Who seems to have disappeared. She and a few others were those kind of scrappers who went around picking up bargains and reselling them at low margins and thereby making a buck. Those kind of sellers completely disappeared for awhile in the epidemic of abandoned land, but they are back. That's all I got.

@Rey It's funny, I think of a lot of time going by before we got to Blumfield, etc. I remember how determined some people were to keep Shermerville etc good-lucking (was Holocluck Henly one of them? I seem to recall...) and a woman who also made content who I think isn't in SL anymore, Jeannie? Jean? Something? But how it got messed up, nevertheless. The Colour Sims were some kind of FIC bastion, this was pre-history for me, but even today, you can still fine very old oldbies there in Green and Blue and so on. I see Schermerville still has insane prices -- God, I haven't visited in ages! The trees seem better in Schermerville than Brown, imagine, some people buy this expensive land to put up a public park with...Linden trees. And an area that looks like look-alike rentals is actually just filled with empty buildings. The problem with these areas has always been the lack of rules; here's a curiously ugly house that turns out to be the soi-disant Schermerville Science and Art Club, where inside, there is "the first prim". Well, OK, time's up.

Yes, the smart thing to do is to go to that yard sale and pick exactly what you want for pull price only, or even wait a few weeks where there will be less-than-pull price on the MP.

@Aethelwine yes, you are exactly right that the Lindens' compromise on the ban/orb issue has been crucial to Bellissaria's popularity. I really hate those group-only options that create obstacles everywhere, especially on waterways, especially by people who are never there. They could put it on just when they're there and give us a break the rest of the time. I don't allow ban lines or group/only in my rentals and few do on the Mainland because it's such a nuisance. The same with orbs -- I only allow them in the sky at 500 or higher, not on the ground, and set only to the area of the skybox. So is the Linden orb in the pack set only to the perimeter of the home, and only bounces people away rather than TPs them home? TPing somebody home just because they are out exploring and ding your compound is just so annoying and plagues the Mainland. If the Lindens cured this, great! It still won't be enough for some people, but should be for most. What most people hate is strangers coming into their house and using their adult furniture. If a perimeter orb prevents that without harassment to boaters and riders, great! I just decided not to sell some water today because the neighbours who bought my water on this sim in the past locked it all down to group-only, leaving only the narrow path of Linden water which isn't quite enough, given that boats go skewed sometimes. So I wanted to make sure there was enough area to turn around. It's a burden, because a long-time renter of the water left and it's hard to rent water. But I can't risk it going to seed or getting blocked. I wish others were as conscientious. Would I want the Lindens to institute this everywhere? It's a thought -- years ago I and others who liked to explore called for deprecating the bounce script because it was such a plague, and to our surprise, Philip Linden agreed! We were overjoyed. We thought that if you had ban powers on your land either with the power to put in names or eject on sight, that was plenty. But some Lindens and oldbies rioted over this and insisted it be put back in. They claimed it was needed for "elevators" or "drawbridges" -- of which there were about...two...in those days, and hardly a reason to keep the constant annoyance of planes, boats, etc. being TP'd home even by Linden water. Basically, there was a popular orb manufacturer who also supported a popular SL residents' forums outside this forum, and this lobby held sway. So then I wondered if there couldn't be an easement of 32 m around every lot where an orb could not apply. People on the forums now thought that 32 m was way too big. Well, what should it be? At a minimum, the "TP home" has got to go. I can understand that people hate it when griefers hang around and taunt them, but they can still come back and do that from nearby land often anyway. So the TP home annoys the people who shouldn't be ejected and doesn't deter griefers.

Maybe you need to review your post when you recounted why you wanted to "throw yourself into other things" and move to a PG sim (NSFW). So, er, that is definitely a blog about moving to a PG "anything" for sure LOL. Sometimes people aren't aware when their inner contradictions are showing. I hope no one ARs you there, it's so annoying when people do that, they have no lives. I don't have an internal narrative -- you do, and you expressed it, and I objected, and it's not personal, I don't know you, I don't care at all what you do, but you perfectly exemplified a generic anti-baron/pro-Linden sentiment that has plagued SL for years, which I haven't seen so much lately, and it's a shame it has now resurged with the Lindens' new much-ballyhooed project. FWIW, "Mole Appreciation Day" wasn't an official day announced on the official forums, it was evidently a resident-planned day to which Moles showed up. Correct me if I'm wrong. But that lets me know that the Lindens themselves aren't quite as interested in the rush to Trumanville and fandom of Mole overlords as one might imagine. And indeed you wrote here in your posts that you wanted the Lindens to wean themselves from land barons. It's not about "kicking them out," but making their business non-viable, which you were gloatingly happy to see with Belissaria, and indeed you wrote this, as anyone can see by reading all your posts here, which you didn't delete. Anyone can judge for themselves if I am "lying" about what you said LOL. Bye!

I can't put this in "Linden Homes" because Brown isn't a "Linden Home" sim, although it is a Linden-zoned sim of yesteryear, now largely forgotten. Back in the day, the Lindens tried an experiment with zoning two sims, Brown and Boardman (there weren't more at first, to my recollection) because so many people complained about newbies joining, putting up ugly plywood items, then disappearing, or oldbies with essentially grief-builds on their free-for-life 4096s. Hence, zoning. What was "zoning"? There couldn't be any commercial activity -- although because the drive for commerce was so strong, they put "marketplace stalls" in the center of the sim. It was a PG sim, and no skyboxes were allowed -- the Lindens simply removed them. You could not terraform the land (to prevent "terror-forming, which was popular then when lots of sims were at 40+/- m ability). There were streets laid out and prefab houses for sale. But you could build your own house. This area rapidly became hugely expensive and valued. I remember once an auction I took part in, where a mere 512 in Boardman sold for over $100 US to a famous builder of that era. Incredible! It was valued because while someone might go wrong with your view in terms of a house, the expense attracted not newbies or griefers but more solid citizens. Plus, there were all those easements in the form of roads and some grassy areas. At a certain point, people who had paid a lot of money to be in these sims began to demand that the Lindens make them prettier. The old stalls in the marketplace were awful; Jack Linden (who was in charge of the community back then and later promoted to VP I think) then took it upon himself to put in more aesthetic stalls. There were these ugly dead Linden palm trees -- Jack took out some but not all of them. The roads and sidewalks were spruced up by Michael Linden, who even used a resident's sidewalk (but this was back in the day when there were only 10-m prims). The streetlamps weren't changed because there was nothing to change them with. Back then, prims had an option of "bright" and not "light" or "glow" as they do now. And the Lindens retired that because it didn't look so hot. I found later that once a prim had that "bright," even a prim scrubber could not rid you of it. It was an interesting time. Today, Brown has a few end-users, a few rentals agents like me, but at least 10 lots are for sale. No one wants to live in a "G" sim as they are called now where a Linden might remove a skybox. They have long since forgotten this sim and wouldn't care nowadays if there was no nudity visible, but a particularly assiduous busybody resident abuse reports other people (the ultimate irony is this is a person who has skirted the TOS on such matters numerous times and been thrown out of groups as a result). So very SL. But I warn my tenants that if they put up a skybox, they have to expect that it may be removed by Lindens in theory. Nowadays, not only the Lindens do not care and don't always answer ARs, even the busybody has gotten busy elsewhere, I guess... It's a funny sim caught in time. Ryan Linden's original odd prefab, which I never saw anybody actually live in (although maybe you could make it into a stall), is still for sale there -- Governor Linden will sell you the all-perms item for $50, probably the last place you can still buy something from the Gov. Also for sale for $1 is a little sign that says "I am..." with the SL hand looming out at you in animations -- this was something you could put on your house lot to introduce yourself. There used to be mailboxes, too, that the Lindens had on all perms. That meant that somebody griefed mine with a talk script that activated and said "This rent is too high!". I thought it was Lindens griefing me at first (and it might have been), but it was more likely the full-perm problem, that was not turned off. I wouldn't mind if they kept Ryan's house and sign for sale for old time's sake, but that strange corrugated iron that looks like a shotgun shack in Appalachia sort of brings down the area. It was actually moved to this more remote lot near the edge of the sim (which has weird water) some time I go, I seem to remember, from another, more visible lot. A few people still have art galleries in the stalls area. One ancient oldbie put out a wheelchair and a couch on her lot in the year 2003, and it has remained there ever since, although I have never seen her log on. Likely this is the "free 4096 for life". The wheelchair, BTW, is quite a work of art! It weighs in at 80 prims and was made by the famous Albert Linden, who made the one-time ubiquitous Corbusier sofa and chairs in the Linden Library (which aren't there anymore). I don't know where you can still get this wheelchair -- maybe he made it especially for this owner (he's long gone). But there it stands, a monument to the idea that you can and should bring real life, even with its infirmities, into SL. You can also find a memorial to Garth Fairchang (once Nigel Linden) who was an amazing creative presence in SL with his wife Pituca Fairchang (the Lindens blended their last names when they married in RL). He died in 2009. I imagine if the Lindens at least convex-hulled the lamp posts, and picked up some of the side walks and lengthened them to 64, they'd have prims to use on making another lot or two they could auction off. Or offering double prims to residents. Or something to restore life to this abandoned sim. I still think residents make this a more or less good-looking sim with their own houses and landscaping. I personally have gradually sold land there because G is a horror to try to rent (because of the fear of being AR'd and having things returned). There are some cautionary tales here for Belissaria here, of course.

@Alyona Su I don't think it's right to take a scarce resource and spent only "0-10%" time in it. Once I found the houseboat was not compelling at all (ban lines, even if revised; "community" areas that were empty; a feeling that my Bama Boat would not be welcome, etc.) and I found I couldn't even give it away for people in our group to stay for short periods, I released it. I don't laugh at people in suburbia; I lived in it myself in real life as a child. And I wouldn't return to it, even virtually. If people who like that style have that in common and weld into a community, great! That's good for SL morally and economically, as they will stay in SL more and buy furniture. @Gingir Ghoststar (love that name!) Once again, criticizing Belli is not about jealousy or "fear of loss of income". I haven't lost any. And if I did, it wouldn't matter as I have RL jobs. If this were just a matter of people getting together and crowing about suburbia and Linden fandom, I wouldn't give it a comment, just as I wouldn't give a comment about people getting together on Zindra with BDSM themes. These are not my tastes or preferences but I don't need to cross the street to bash them. It's when people with these tastes attempt to take over the world, or put others out of business with a Linden-fanned economic scheme, I speak up. I say I don't think it's even in the Lindens' interest, and certainly not the economy's. That's why I speak up: because Beth isn't content to move to a PG sim for personal reasons in her SL life as we know from her blog; she has to elevate this into a collective farm for everyone. Then I object. I also see that Blush Bravin is selling add-ons to Linden Homes, so feels personally insulted if someone challenge's her business. Oh, well. If someone can make businesses out of LH add-ons, great! BTW I will put in a plug here for my Trash Can Cuisine set which is perfect for the upcoming trailers. I don't know how far back you go in SL, but the Lindens have experimented with planned communities since nearly the dawn of their time. Brown, Boardman, etc; then later Schermerhorn; Nautilus and Bay City; Horizons. These failed because they didn't supply the houses. They put in more prims, and nice green areas or roadways, but they let residents build any god-awful thing they pleased, and that drove others away. Schermerhorn had a long run with a few very dedicated residents who tried to keep it nice; same with Boardman in its day, with several builders like Barnesworth Anubis and Ingrid Ingersoll making houses specifically for these areas. But they didn't last. Then Lindens tried the new LHs in places like Elderglen, which I liked and even had a house there for awhile, which I made a wizard's den that people in the land preserve could visit and hang out at. But somehow, these areas, which cost the Lindens a lot of time and money, weren't as successful as you would think, even with controlled houses. Why, I'm not sure. The house styles were mainly awful, but there were some very nice ones, especially the Asian ones. Now they have Bellissaria, and finally perhaps, with mesh to help them, they have a recipe of green areas and roads and house designs that are more popular. Why, I'm not sure. The Asian and sort of Lake Tahoe type houses in the old LH sims seem more aesthetic to me. Why do you think? Perhaps it's Patch Linden's charisma -- I don't know if the Lindens laid on as much personal Linden time in those other areas. I don't need to make suggestions to Lindens about their houses, other than perhaps to do a little upkeep on their old, forgotten Linden-zoned sims which I'll do. And again, I'm not interested in "pooping on fun". I'm interested in standing up for diversity in the economy and culture when some people advocate that Linden Homes should take over; when they smugly assume this is in the Lindens' interest and any of us in the land business, tiny or large, be damned. Sorry, I speak up then. This thread was about how Belli impacts rentals and sales. There are 400 sims already (I listened to the promotional video and they tell you). I think another 400 are coming. So that's now 10% but now 16% of the Mainland, in a context where there is tons of abandoned land (will they take over any of that for LHs? Likely not). Some "enterprising" residents with their own island empires advocate the Lindens picking up slack and simply joining together all the Mainland and dumping all that abandoned land. I'm not sure the results of that would be pretty. Silicon Valley loves disruption, especially when they have legions of fanboyz to promote it as their own lifestyle isn't disrupted.

I wonder if you could use the same thing for a car or an animal, but usually they aren't on mod.

There's probably a way to figure this out for people who are good at math. I asked a Mole how many Belissaria homes there were -- and she said she was surprised, she didn't know the answer. So first I did a rough count of the squares across and down and said "444 sims," like a gross. And there are X homes per sim, depending on the size, you could count them. But of course that wasn't accurate. It was laggy and hard to pull up the map so I TP'd away, counted the squares better, then I got 22 x 17, with a lot of those squares unfilled. I then counted about 300 avatars (green dots). That's a lot for a long weekend, in the States, anyway, where people are at family barbecues. But maybe not, if they just managed to grab a rare Belli home. So, if there are 5,000 Mainland sims, this is 10% of them. Maybe the Lindens will be able to lay on another 300-500 sims but at this rare they could have A LOT of unsatisfied demand.

No, I made it clear in my post that for me, there are things that I treasure, that are valuable, that aren't even rares or even if they are, aren't expensive. In real life, you speak of "the most valuable diamond" and it's understood that it isn't just grandma's old diamond she left in your will but the Koh-i-Noor or whatever those hugely expensive diamonds are called. Of course it is subjective and unrelated to what people would pay. Sometimes it coincides, often it doesn't. I'm that way about the KittyCats, too. I imagine I have sent to the Menagerie all kinds of rares with rare traits that I missed because I don't care enough to follow them. As for that beanie, yes, people have put joke things like that on the MP, that's far from the only one. There's even an SL star diamond priced ridiculously that says you can "see it in world" but when you TP there, the land is for sale LOL. @Pixie Kobichenko I never even heard of Boogers bears. But then I have boycotted Arcade for years in protest against all the $75 or higher pulls. I would say out of all the creators in the super rares category, Schadenfreude shows up the most. I love her horror matryoshka dolls and a lot of her little creatures, they are so creative.

No, it doesn't have any impact on my business. My tenants are the kind of people who want more flexibility with a rental that doesn't cost $11.99 up front, but a fraction of that per month, from which they refund, and where they can choose their own house -- or chose from among many more styles that I offer. As I said, I had a houseboat which I was happy to give to any of my tenants for free for a month's stay, and I was only able to find one person out of thousands and she left after a week due to ban lines. The Lindens are at heart social engineers, so they went from the Burning Man sort of hippie/socialist techno-libertarian model to Trumanville, and that's understood, but even when they compete with their own customers, they realize they can't go too far with them or they won't have the top paying ones. That's just basic and it's silly to even raise "fear of business loss" as a reason for criticism, as the Lindens don't want to convert to all Linden Homes instead of private islands and Mainland, which simply pays them more, as Nikaj showed with Tyche's figures. (BTW I doubt that the MP produces $20 million *in fees* per year, but show me some plausible formula for calculating this, maybe it is that much. There used to be a figure that the average avatar would log on for four hours and spent at most $1000 Lindens in that time. Maybe that figure is higher now because of breedables and mesh bodies. Let's imagine 60,000 avatars log on per day -- that may be generous. Multiple their spending even by $1000 per day x 365 days a year. So let's say we have now about $22 billion *Lindens* which resolves to $84 million real dollars. Lindens can take 10% of that on the MP -- that's only $8.4 million in fees -- and these numbers are wild because neither concurrency nor daily spending per avatar on the MP are that high.) Any time anyone makes a valid criticism of Linden policy its fierce Linden fanhood, it is always ascribed to jealousy, or fear of their own business being lost. Ridiculous! Even if Belisseria turned out to be wildly successful and take all my tenants away, it wouldn't matter as SL isn't necessary to my livelihood. And I might simply make a replica, call it "Belissimo," with identical houses and roads, and rent it for cheaper LOL. If I don't, someone else will. Would I want to live in a world that reminds me of the 1960s style suburbia I grew up in, which I and many other young people fled? A Trumanville with Stepfod wives? If SL became that, I would run screaming and likely wouldn't be the only one. Yes, I TOTALLY get it that for some, Belisseria really does have community and fun -- there are parties where people have their avatars dance at barbecues on the beach or Buddhist retreats or walkabouts -- I totally understand this is fun. It's great that residents have stepped up to do this. It solves that eternal problem of "what to do". It shows that if the Lindens just control the environment a little bit, and control the view and newbie insanity most of all, and also control the griefing (I bet they are making a special effort there), people themselves will make more fun and have more things to do in a secure environment. Forums regs love to gloat how the Lindens want to wean themselves from land barons, but their original slogan of "your world, your imagination" and their continued over-emphasis on "creation" means they do not want to be world caretakers. They want to do enough to make it stick. But not have it take over completely. I'm not bitter that I and other pioneers of SL who for years tried to make events in SL, even going back to the days when the Lindens paid us real money in "dwell," and suffered from griefing and technical difficulties -- but mainly griefing -- and gave up. I ran an architecture club; a foreign policy discussion club; an inworld discussion club; a Moth swarm; explorations of RL sims, etc. etc. And I was only one tiny organizer in a world where there were people organizing incredible and sometimes complicated events. (And still are, like Racer's Snail Races, which are unfailingly on schedule and always a lot of fun). Griefing -- and to some extent an events list infested with monstrous amounts of idiocies, much of which don't really qualify as "events" -- are a challenge. But these type of events in Belli are just not for me (and I daresay a lot of other people who won't speak up) -- dancing identical dances with identically-dressed avatars saying inane swirly flowery gesture things in chat, surrounded by identical houses. My soul just wilts... Based on my observation of how other continents went, like Nautilus, I think inevitably Belissaria will run into the Lord-of-the-fly issues of any community. Remember, Nautilus started out great, if somewhat expensive; then some people built gigantic towers and destroyed the view (the Lindens refused to have zoning rules); then some guy decided he wanted to be mayor and bossed others around; then some began banning everyone from their land, lather, rinse, repeat. For a time there were multiple Nautilus community organizations -- even I had one -- they had fun, they did interesting things, but then battles for power began. I was long gone by then due to the destruction of the view. Zindra was also the same way, wearing out at least one Linden who was assigned to run the community. Perhaps it will be easier for Lindens AND residents to run a community where building violations are never an issue, nor despoiled views, because the Lindens built it all. And where as I said, the Lindens may be especially motivated to prevent and intercept griefing. Fortunately, SL is still free and has a variety of choices that don't rely on the structured life of Linden Homes.

Why thank you! But I don't expect that of the forums. Another reason to get back to inworld discussions. Remember how Jessica always used to tell people on the forums to "take it inworld".

I think there are three things that attract them which the Lindens and their fanboyz have played up: 1. The alleged ugliness and danger of the Mainland and the high prices and uncertainty of islands -- where you "buy" land and then the actual owner disappears. 2. The feeling of "free" that comes from paying for something online that automatically drops into your lap inworld. 3. The idea that there will be "community". This last thing is very elusive and people always talk about it in SL but mean all kinds of things by it and it is almost impossible to create by fiat or from above (though not only the Lindens try; their fanz keep wanting to come and try it with them). On the one hand, people want security orbs, ban lines, skyboxes, rejection of intruders, etc. etc. and live in bunkers with their shotguns at the ready with only perhaps one selected sex partner and a very few trusted friends. On the other hand, they have this notion that somewhere, somehow are "their people" who love and understand them. You can organize activities no one will come to. Or organize things like bars that are just pick-up opportunities and not really "community" although people might line-dance in them and feel "special". You can spend years working at the real relationships and property enhancements that lead to a community, let's say Philosophy House (which I think still exists) or Neualtenberg (which failed, although another socialist sim persists I believe). But those are niches that aren't for everyone. You can try holding regular, scheduled events like discussions or world exploration -- I used to do this for years but it was so heavily griefed, including by Linden alts, that eventually I gave up. I do hope to start them again some day. You can try to make educational communities or communities related to some kind of sexual preference or historical RP and that sometimes work but they all have their troubles. Rental agents sometimes go to a lot of trouble to put out water skiing and cuddle blankets and group seating around campfires with marshmallows, and nobody comes! I have found that an old-fashioned prim installation of a wolf grotto made by an artist who left SL after it went to mesh, with a few updates, on a remote cliff, has more traffic and more favourable comments from visitors, some of whom stay there for days, than other areas I have put a lot of effort and expense into with boating and picnics and what-not. Someone once complained that Botany's Grove was "like a Texas fish camp". Well, good! I want it to be a Texas fish camp (although I don't entirely know what that is, having only been to Texas once or twice, and fishing in Alaska and the Yukon once, and a few times elsewhere, and not really understanding it). I want people to feel they don't have to dress up or pose or take fabulous photos to come and enjoy the area. I used to bother with manager's receptions and even skits but it's too much work. Tenants entertain themselves, you can just lay out some nice houses and commons and they will do it without you, which is a good thing. I'm not paid to be a Gentil Organisateur at Club Med. It's also not necessary to do a whole lot of organizing. For example, yesterday, I was helping a tenant move to a less rocky area, then putting in a ramp, then another tenant came to help test it, and they expressed gratitude for the nice places they live in, on which I only lose money, as it happens, on that sim because it's mainly camping. But that's ok, I enjoy it. I have visited some rentals empires where the owners get people interested in buying racing cars and racing them or horses or whatever. Good! I'm not paid to be your friend or companion. And nobody, even -- especially -- the Lindens. You have to make your own way in SL. That's why it does not have many takers.

Right, they aren't socialism, and you paying them isn't socialism, yet *you want them to build you a socialist dream* and become more socialist to build that dream for you. 1. You want them to "stop their dependence on land barons". Why? That's their bread and butter. There isn't any other way than having servers paid for -- either as a part of the Lindens' cost of renting them, or as hook-up to them, which likely won't be cheap. What else do they have when subscriptions and taxes on content and current sales are simply not enough? 2. You want them to work only for the sake of altruism, not to be "greedy money-grubbers," only to get the minimum -- or less! -- so they can provide you with all this content for your premium account at only $11.99 a month. There isn't anything to prove that they already work that way, in fact -- they work like anyone works online with a modestly--paid web site or digital art job. Why do you begrudge them proper compensation? They didn't sign up to be in a socialist commune. 3. After you've essentially reduced the Lindens' revenue, and subdued their employees to share-croppers, you want them to "come out and play". You want them to be on hand to organize "community" and give you "socializing" and "things to do" and "somebody to love" who will love you unconditionally in return and keep rolling out more Trumanvilles. It's a pretty horrifying dystopian society you are constructing under the guise of a dream, so I think it's important to speak up. Then there's the hubris of imagining that you have fathomed Ebbe's "true desires" to align with your own dream. He can't wait to get rid of land barons and gleefully trashes those little dressmakers making a dime off his platform. Yet those two things are his revenue and his strength and even with his own socialist ideology, he's aware of this -- which is why he raises prices, after first adding more to the product to get people to feel they are getting more for their money. These views of yours are not new. They have plagued SL since the dawn of time. I remember that because of the forums' regulars campaigning crazily against land sales, Ben Linden specifically came on the forums and posted that it was more than fine to re-rent Linden land, that LL did not resent this at all; that they saw it as a help. Philip Linden even had a town-hall -- the first I heard -- in which he described a stereotypical real estate dealer named "Buzz" who would swoop down in a helicopter to scoop up newbies and show them properties. He knew he had to promote this to grow his world, even though he himself didn't ideologically like or appreciate the land business and arbitrage and wanted to make land all a flat $5/meter.

I'd have to disagree on this. Lots of people got their start in land businesses far, far more modestly. Scour the land for sale especially in somewhat bleak areas with lots of abandoned land. Find a very cheap plot and re-sell it. Possibly you can do this by putting a gatcha house on it that would transfer with the purchase, and any other plants, etc. that are on transfer. You could also ask LL to buy the abandoned land around it -- a 512 only, perhaps. Look at the user and Linden auctions and find something going cheap and flip it. Or improve it with houses and rent it. You could start with just a few parcels in a group -- it's fun, and see how it goes. Flipping land is SL is scorned by forums reg but it is necessary and even profitable on a small scale and it's how people can enter the economy and also unload land they don't want short of abandoning it. Then there are all sorts of jobs with the big rentals companies, they're all over.

Sputtering is what I would do over the evisceration of the State Department, not over some SL issue. Again, those you consider "the 1%" are nothing like that in real life, and your imagined activity of just "parceling out and renting" hundreds of regions shows you are simply unaware of what goes into the land business. Few "land barons" can have any customers unless they engage with them and provide good service, so the myth of the wealthy tycoons out playing World of Warcraft while their absentee avatars "kaching" has few actual realities. It's true that some Moles are well-known creators on their main accounts, but I don't believe they are the majority. And I don't know why the Lindens stopped making their own content on full perms (which meant it could be re-sold to people who didn't realize it existed in free form). Possibly it had to do with the demands of their contractors or the kind of contracts they signed with Moles (or those who made avatars for the Library), but I'm not sure, as it may have been part of an overall effort to tighten up copyright in SL. The hourly wages or contract wages that the Moles earn literally dwarf the wages that many designers can earn in SL, given their hours and "sweat equity". Moles are given adequate but not generous compensation because they are working "a real job" for "a real company" based in the outside world, not inworld, as real as the work is for inworld creators. Otherwise they could not do this job. With all due respect for the Moles, their trees and flowers, while better certainly than the original Linden Library trees and flowers )made by Eric or Ben Linden and others) are not the best in SL, and there are creators on the open market who far surpass them. There are numerous creators in SL who are "creative for the love of creativity and not to make money off it". Yes, some creators are tied to a seemingly soulless wheel of events to make a dime these days and yet that has enabled the economy to grow and numerous more people to be creative about decorating their own homes -- which still make up the majority of SL by contrast with the Linden Homes, which are limited. As much as people badmouth the wildness of some parts of the Mainland or unimaginative island rentals, the Lindens will never be able to shake the feeling of Trumanville or the Stepford Wives from their Linden Homes. I am not alone in appreciating the good job the Moles and LL in general have done, the improvements over past communities, and understanding why some people want this conformity, but after an hour there, I'm done. No creator should be apologizing for being in a market -- if their items are that "tired," they wouldn't sell -- yet they do. Free markets are normal and natural human activity and have been for thousands of years. What's strange is the desire of socialism and the following of an old man who wrote utopian blueprints in a library in Germany 150 years ago, mainly followed by tyrants ever since. From reading your blog, I can see you had personal regions for seeking a PG region at the time you did, and the comforting experience of "the community" you believe is there, which I imagine will fray after awhile. You're a good story-teller and this is part of your narrative for yourself. Adult virtual fiction isn't my thing, but I totally appreciate it is for many people and that's a great part of SL. But why extrapolate an entire economic ideology out of it and inflict it on the economy?! If your genuinely like your socialist choice, why is it necessary to make *all of SL socialist* for you to go on living your utopian dream? It isn't. "Socialism on one sim" is possible in SL, given Linden control, and you shouldn't feel it is "threatened" by most other sims embracing capitalism. After all, how are you going to decorate your home? Not with broken Mole vases alone. I sometimes find that people who are SL socialists are nothing like this in RL, where they don't vote for Sanders, but vote at least for Clinton, who is not hostile to business, or Trump, who supposedly represents business. I'm a Hillary voter myself, not a Bernie Bro, some of whom are responsible for Trump. The SL economy is already enough like Russia's or China's without a free press or independent judiciary and currency printing and controls and all the rest. I don't see why Linden content production and controlled communities need to be glorified and set up an as example to follow for all creators who are free and profitable in a more or less free sales economy. They are not "tainted" by wishing to make a profit, but absolutely normal. What's *not* normal is the idea is that everybody has to sign up to work on a collective farm for the glory of the Motherland. Some people want the management and "assisted living" that comes with Linden Homes. The high prevalence of orbs still operating in these areas let's us know that the desire for "community" is more of an ideal than a reality. Any community that relies on the Lindens to come out and organize Club Med-style line dancing or arts and crafts like senior housing is hardly for everybody and even those who might lean on this for a time won't want it forever if they have other choices. I find it strange that this socialist ideal is attached to Linden Lab, which, in real life, has to behave like a cut-throat and craven Silicon Valley company like any other and make unpleasant choices of staff cuts or price hikes or it wouldn't survive. It isn't that people "lose their minds" at the "hint of change" but they simply look at the reality of not only human history but the real present. Virtual worlds, like all forms of entertainment and media, cannot live on subscriptions alone. They cannot hope to survive only from skimming fees from currency and content sales. They will always need investors, and these investors come in the form of land barons in SLs (and of course VCs in RL). Furthermore, the land model of the economy versus the content model will always be the more sound model even if some day it evolves to "hook up fees" for legions of sim owners who attach to the LL mothership from outside for a fee. In real life, land is vital for food, housing, recreation, health and more -- you need a place to grow the food and put the buildings. It will always be the substrate of content and activity even in a virtual world that doesn't need food or shelter from the elements. Another advantage to the land-based economy, other than its stark reality as a revenue producer not likely ever to be displaced, is that it enables many people to join the economy who could not do so otherwise if they are not talented creators and merchants. Societies need to have diversity and freedom. You can't have a nation of RenFaires in which all of us are reduced to fair-goers gawking at the creations of a tiny elite of craftsmen. At least with land, numerous people can buy and sell and rent it even at a low scale and have an activity and a source of potential profit or offset of costs (many people rent out sims to cover the cost of their own creativity, in fact, or simply give themselves a larger Second Life). "Leveling the playing field" is the uravnilovka (leveling) of the Soviets, who want to solve the problem of one person having two cows and another only one or none by confiscating all the cows and collectivizing them. Then they produce less milk for everyone. Ebbe's flippant response to the "cash-out fees" is what any land baron's response would be to the serfs rebelling -- and make no mistake about it, Ebbe is obviously the largest land baron of all. Those crying about cash-out fees include a lot of those "little dress-makers" who have always been the scorn of SL ideologues since copy-bot days and more. There's nothing wrong with making a living in SL (which will never get anyone rich) or offsetting costs. I don't think there's anything to glorify here in contempt for people who want to get paid for what they do, as you no doubt wish in real life for yourself. Just as in RL, few want to eat only turnips on a collective farm, so in SL, even those glorifying the Linden Homes and living in them owe any individuality they do have to products made in the free economy, whether adult furniture or flower beds. So let's not be children here. Ebbe's model is the land model and remains so for the bulk of his revenue, and whatever socialist rhetoric he may spout about this he knows that to be true. Again, the future economy "not beholden to land barons" is not possible, as revenue cannot be placed by subscription and taxes, and only a future hook-up fee for server owners -- merely a different form of "dependency" could possibly reduce the Linden requirement to maintain a server farm. Ultimately, the only people who can inflate land prices are your own beloved Lindens, by increasing fees for premiums and currency sales, even if they reduce tier. And the hated land barons who put waterfront prices beyond your budget are also there to buy your lousy inland flat land that you may be tempted to abandon -- they enable the land market to be fluid and for people to risk buying individual plots. Hatred of land and those who work it was the hallmark of the Bolsheviks and the Maoists and many others. But land is here to stay as a basic human need, real or virtual. History shows that organizing collective farms or company towns do not solve the problems of human community.

I was just idly wondering about this while making a new build at my Gatcha Addiction Treatment Center. And I was wondering -- how could I find this out? So I plugged in the word "RARE" and did a search, then refined it with the check-off box "over $5,000" which I think delivers a fairly plausible picture, although not completely. I suspect some items are just artificially kept high in value by some people posting them with outrageous prices like $29,000. Could a gatcha really sell for that and has anyone paid that??? I recently went through and lowered the price of a lot of my gatcha rares. I realize what happens is that in, say, 2016 (that's how long some of them haven't sold!) you won the Sword of Awesomeness out of some set you spent $5,000 Lindens trying to get the SoA from, nobody else had it up for sale so you thought well, gosh, I'm putting it for sale for $5,000 because now that I have it, I don't want it and let me try to make back that loss. But then you fail to come back and check it for literally years and find that meanwhile, 30 other people won the SoA, too, and some have priced it as low as $175 now because it's not that hard to win, and if you don't actually do RP with sword-fighting, what can you do with the darn thing? So *no wonder* mine wasn't selling and people weren't laughing at me. Now, I could price it to $170 for a quick sale, or even put it up $275 thinking that lower-priced ones will "burn through" and then get to my slightly higher price -- a logic I find myself applying to the MP which is silly, because, the stuff might sit another year. People who are really in the gatcha sales business with stores are much smarter -- they price low and sell in bulk. Or they watch the MP like a hawk and what really moves and price high when they can and drop down. They know what really people will pay. This remains a mystery to me, but something I had overpriced at triple the price just sold when I under-priced everbody else, and now I feel bad I didn't charge more. But truly, why was I hanging on to a tub of banana splits for $975? Seriously. But to hew to my topic: what is the most valuable gatcha? I suppose I should be surprised to learn that from my perusal of the MP with those search boxes, I discover it's a...white headless...dog-mermaid...creature that you can use as an adult chair, by anc. No, I'm not kidding. So now I was totally fascinated, having passed up the white dog-mermaid so many times on trips to try for other hugely priced gatchas by this same artist. And on the 3rd try, I won this Most Valuable Gatcha in the World, so now I have a headless dog-mermaid to sit on. I'm happy...I think. You can see it here near the end of the quest (or select "Further Up" on the teleporter at the main landing). A LOT of the most valuable items are those sort of kawaii kewpie dolls, little animals or figurines you try collect as a whole collection. I almost never go for those but those are what people in real life really mean by gachapon, I'm told, and it's funny that it isn't in fact a Sword of Awesomeness or hair or a dress that is the most expensive but these little weird critters. Yes, I know about the retired Noah's Ark spice rack which is likely the most serious highly-priced gatcha as it has amazing craftsmanship and humour and just looks good in your kitchen. Someone told me about it and I started collecting it, and when I got some pieces for $200 and not $2000, a friend told me I was buying from a copy-botter. Oops! Too bad there is no way to tell, as you can with RL paintings. I see 8f8, the wonderfully talented author of the series of story times, and cafes, and grandma's houses which are really quite something is still very high up on these most-valued gatchas. But so many items baffle me. An AF golden milkshake maker with only three flavours? Well, at least it dispenses. A David Heather bin of men's hairbrushes? Huh? My own most valued gatchas are anc's the Berry Life, a kind of strawberry fountain over pancakes which I just think is an amazing piece of artwork, in that it can take different forms; some of the elaborate Contraption music players; 3rd_eye music boxes -- really, there's always something about music boxes -- some Spell items like the alien baby. Was that the time I sunk $12,000 into the machine?! I'm still selling the spares from that one, ouch! What do you think are the most valuable gatchas? And what are YOUR most valued? Because we all know that certain things that aren't even rares can be the most valuable for you for all kinds of reasons.