Luna Bliss

I was once contacted by a Psychologist who considered creating a RL psychotherapy clinic in SL and wanted me to build it, and I've done Reiki on people here and have a degree in Psychology -- my clients said it helped them (a lot of talk was involved too). It's pretty amazing all the therapy clinics coming online in general, using Skype or text-based communication, or both. The important point is to be honest about your qualifications I think, perhaps offering some RL proof of those. A few revues by others who have used your services can't hurt too. There really is a need for people to help who have a better grasp of issues in SL, as they are often quite different from RL issues and hard for a RL therapist to understand in many cases, at least at this point in time.

I'm very sorry Ms Sirhc

You have trouble denouncing it and that is supporting it. I don't hallucinate anything of the kind. I guess you don't read mainstream news, or you would see that the critique I've made of entities like Google or Facebook for years is now standard and there are even huge uproars about their overreach. I don't know what all your ranting about fascism and mentally ill people is supposed to relate to, but you've come to the wrong address obviously and deserve an abuse report for that sort of thing. Recounting your over-the-top statements isn't an "attack," but, as they say, don't blame the mirror if you have a crooked face. The end. It's not worth continuing with you. Not denouncing it means I support it? Guess what, Prokofy -- it's not my place to denounce or support. If people want to experiment with power in relationships, or if they want to have pain in their relationships it is THEIR business and has nothing to do with me! I'm not in a relationship with them for God's sake. Fascists spew hate and believe they have the right to control others -- they can't tolerate or understand people different from themselves. Stop including me in your BDSM paranoia issues. All I did was say you need to open your mind and see how bionanotechnolgy can help people, and then you suddenly went full-on Kraken against me on your blog and connected me to techno-cultism and BDSM approval. Jesus Christ, get a grip.

I can't see how MP improvements will increase sales for merchants. I'm not the only one who thinks this, btw. So all this focus on MP improvements seems futile to me, and detracts from the real issue we should be focusing on -- these coming pay cuts via additional commission fees (whatever the amount will be). However, I'm not saying you should not have this survey at all. I think it's useful for some who enjoy playing shopkeeper -- it can be fun to do this, play with new bells and whistles and all. My concern though, is that some will spend time on MP changes believing their sales will increase -- some who actually need this added income in RL and so should be spending this wasted time on RL jobs. I don't want to be a part of deceiving these merchants, I don't want them to be harmed, and so I want to warn them to be cautious.

Thanks for the offer of help -- it means a lot.

Yes Luna, they are corporation, and because they are, allow me to say this: Ако желиш да те људи разумеју, говори њиховим језиком. Don't be confused. As much as you don't understand the line above, corporations do not understand language of emotions. They will do what they think they have to do for one reason or another. Haha, didn't know if my computer had gone bonkers, or if you had and starting writing jiberish, or if my frequently blurry vision had suddenly taken a severe turn for the worse! At least I got a big laugh. But how DO we speak their language? I just assume they are people with feelings too, once nudged out from a corporate mentality. Thanks for the kind words regarding my daughter.

So sorry Luna, truly. I have heard countless merchants mention that the reason they are working in SL is because it is their only way of making extra money for things such as you mention, or to pay basic living expenses. SL has saved many lives. For me, the time came when in addition to my disabled husband, I moved my disabled mother here post surgery -- and wondered how I would leave them to their own devices while I marched off to teach school every day -- it was an impossible situation. And every day I thank God I was able to quit teaching to work full time in SL. Thanks, Pamela. Yes I remember you mentioning a disabled spouse but did not know your mother was added to that. Yes thank God you can work from home and more easily handle all your responsibilities. I've known some of these people you mentioned too...who can only afford to pay for their SL land because they sell a bit on the MP, or pay for their cable from earnings here, or electricity. I don't know how many there are out there, but I know we'll be hearing from at least a few on the forum when their commission fees increase.

Rohana, I would like to think of LL as a friend or partner, but they are a corporation. I do believe that my evaluation of them has been way on the tough side, as a percentage of what they've done in the past and are trying to do now is due to lack of empathy rather than maliciousness. I'm angry...these cuts, for me, mean I can't visit my daughter who has brain cancer as much, and her new baby that will be left motherless, or send her stuff to help. Actually, I'm surprised I'm as calm as I am and never have exhibited a full-on Kracken attack even once... But this increase of empathy you advocate....YES, a thousand times YES. This is the main reason I am expressing my feelings here and applaud others who have done the same. I'm trying to express what this will do to me personally, and explaining what this will do to others whose ability to work here could be ruined with such severe cuts. Professionalism...the type that others have advocated here....it might be fine for them but for me....meh...it's overrated, and often used just to mask feelings, to hide -- I want feelings, feelings that express what matters to us. We need to do as much as we can to show LL how this will be affecting us personally. See, I do have some hope that LL truly values community and is not ONLY going for the bottom line, or that they might see they are going after the wrong people to increase revenue (the creators) -- I'm hoping LL will see all this and care.

Let's go back to some of your comments (and Charlotte's) from the first page: You said: "I desperately need everything Charlotte listed. I would be willing to pay monthly packages for premium features for merchants on marketplace, gladly" Charlotte said: "There needs to be a store manager option who can edit or create listings, because we want to be able to delegate but we don't want to break TOS or put our account in any danger. " You replied to Charlotte regarding the above comment: "omg this x 1000000. Would create a secondary employment market in SL as well as trust me I would pay somebody to do that for me RL rates." From the 3rd page, Charlotte said: "I think the point with paying more would be having merchants on marketplace who pay for that privilege with a pro-merchant account - most high volume merchants I know are down with that approach. I also would not have an issue with a manual migration if a new marketplace met the majority of our requirements, for the effort it would take the benefit would soon pay off." And: "If we are going to start paying closer to professional fees like we do on sites like Turboblahblah, I am expecting a professional model to operate within " When you advocate for policies that would make the "high-volume sellers" (as Charlotte put it) earn even more money -- policies that the low-earners on the MP CAN NOT AFFORD -- you are demonstrating a profound insensitivity toward those who earn less. Likewise, when you easily accept the notion, without question or analysis, of a possible 30% pay cut you are demonstrating a lack of awareness regarding how that would unfairly affect those who are not top earners here. Low earners most likely cannot pay for the "monthly packages for premium features" that would help you earn even more each month, nor can they pay for a store manager to acccess their account to do the grunt work of listing. Is this an insensitivity toward those who earn much less than you do, or is it demonstrating that you don't really care about anyone but the top earners like yourselves? I'll let you be the judge of that for yourself, and I will judge you on the policies you advocate for in the new MP features. I prefer to think some of you were just unaware of how many of the policies you advocate for would ONLY benefit the top earners. We all, initially, only see things from our own perspective. I asked you basically, it was a question if you go back and read it..."Do you not care about the middle range people who have so much more to lose if they take a 30% pay cut"?? I am kind of 'picking' on you guys a little bit, you and Charlotte, because you are leading the charge here. While Charlotte is advocating that this survey should be sent out to ALL merchants (and I applaud that), the two of you are influencing other merchants (especially Charlotte being the leader of the Facebook group). I don't think either one of you are 'evil bad people', in fact I get a sense both of you are quite nice. I just want policies to be as fair as possible, and not policies that unfairly favor the elite merchants.

My #1 request for a new MP feature: Whenever somone purchases one of my items, I would like an IM sent to them immediately. I would like this IM to say: "Hi"

Haha, I appreciate your bluntness and willingness to look reality in the face -- I feel it is best, as you said to Chic above, to base reality on what has actually happened in the past rather than falling to the illusion of blind faith. It saddens me how so many people, when faced with the powers that be, allow themselves to be duped. I can't blame them really -- it's hard to be creative and exist in love when the owners of the world you create in are being so manipulative. It's marketing 101 - the procedure that occurs when a business wants more from their customer. They pretend to give something to their customer as a cover-up for actually taking more from them. Sometimes the business actually does give a little, but the business usually gives something that doesn't cut into their bottom line too much, or in some cases actually benefits the business even more. The customer is fooled and thinks they're getting a good deal. I have to wonder, Charlotte, Blueberry et al. -- are you able to see this? Or do you see it and think you have no power to change it (and so don't agree that one of the survey points should be a negotiation on the amount of our pay cut)? Do you just not freaking care about all the others on the line losing the loss of a dream as an artist, or losing their quarter or eighth of a sim land they need for a store, because after all you're earning 4,000,5000, or 6,000 usd monthly and with 25% less of that you'll survive just fine? Originally, Charlotte, you seemed to think you could make up for the pay cuts through some kind of marketplace magic -- does maintaining this belief bring you some kind of comfort in the face of what's going down? I agree with the assessment of many others, and I just can't see how most affordable (for them) MP improvements will cause our MP sales to increase. I just can't participate in this survey. For me it's like agreeing to being manipulated and accepting the few bones they are (or might be) throwing our way while they take far, far more from the creators here. Is 'something' better than 'nothing'? Sometimes, it's just not.

In their eyes stolen items are apparently just as good as the items we create, yet they laud all this creativity here, even using this 'praise of creativity' as a marketing tool to lure in new residents, pretending to care about something noble in society, positioning themselves as doing something good as a company. Allowing stolen content shows they don't really care where their money comes from, and they are supporting thieves, not creativity. It's another slap in the face to us, and shows they don't really care about creators.

Oh no Rya, this makes me very sad. I did think of you when some alarmed creators contacted me who were also trying to make a RL income here, in the 1,000 usd or so a month category, and who will need to leave SL and find a RL job if the income cuts are too great as they are right on the edge as it is. I watched you from the beginning bloom into an artist, get better and better at your craft, and I have used the flowers from your other avatar more and more in my custom jobs. Often I log in with my customers avatar to purchase, and in fact will be getting some more very soon! I've always loved to see people bloom into artists here, as well as how people grow and change in all areas of life, and that's probably why I majored in Psychology. Often one can see when a creator has that spark in the very beginning and could likely become a competent artist, but sometimes it manifests later. I value art because an artist sees the beauty in life and is able to show the beauty to others. What a struggle to see the beauty, and then more struggle to express it adequately! If I'm lucky I get to dance in the beauty from time to time. One of my biggest fears is that I will feel so ill that I don't have the energy to know the joy of creativity anymore. So I have a lot of empathy for this loss you're describing, and it saddens me to see yet another artist have to go back to rote work and not be able to utilize their talents here, or not much as you say because we only have so much energy in a day and RL work can zap most of it. It's a strange and confusing dynamic going on for me with these changes, an appreciation for the opportunity SL has given me, juxtaposed with the anger over those in power attempting to manipulate others with market-speak. These supposed improvements, our birthday 'gift' in sickening market-speak, yes a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, but is there really even any sugar here...even for the non-creators?

https://media.giphy.com/media/PpJfoFy9nLImA/giphy.gif

Well you responded to something that Love had responded to me with...so back on track...why do you think LL has never gotten serious about removing stolen content? I want to know because should I actually decide to take part in this possible survey I need to know if it's something to realistically request. *You are so technically minded, so that's why I'm asking you....but if anybody else knows how difficult it would be to implement this feature I'd love to hear the info.

I am in-game, especially when doing custom jobs, though I spend a lot of time on a building platform too. I kind of look at it like my thing is to roleplay as a creator here, as a builder -- it's my passion.

Pierre, they may have started the game but they need us to fulfill their goals, and it's only fair they should pay attention to our needs too. So much of life is going online, and we can't let the toolmakers have all the control, on the internet or in Second Life. I defer to their ultimate decisions as owners of course, always...but I want them to take our needs into consideration too. Praise be to the tookmakers yes! But they are nothing without someone to use their tools, and we are nothing without their tools. ** Added: The economy of the internet is something very important to consider. Those who create the tools, or the Facebooks, or whatever should not be the only entity allowed to earn a living (or have a gold mine really) while our time and effort has no value!

Happy Birthday

I know what I know, from being in SL for 14 years. And I KNOW all the people that left SL because of the way they were treated by LL. We are wise to be wary.

They just raised cashout fees in January, and now they're talking about more fees -- it's March -- this does not seem slow. Also, LL needs to do a lot of work to establish trust given all we've gone through over the years. I believe a company can change, but you can't blame us for being wary.

You are sounding way too much like you just got off of the blueberry boat. LL in the past made quick changes with disastrous consequences for people. Think of the education islands who suddenly lost their 50% discount and so lost their sims (hello LL, maybe talk to them before you take action and see when new budgets are planned each year), or of the homestead/open space fiasco that cost residents tons of money when they ended suddenly. There's more.

Maybe....us high-earners, mesh police peeps, and all.....want SL to be much more professional for us creators than it can be, or should be. But for now I want to blame LL and go work on a pretty waterfall...........@#$%^

!!

Maybe they can't modify the MP easily to remove the thieves because they use a template for the MP that is impossible to mod... Ok, I agree with Charlotte, we need a new MP ;0