diamond Marchant

Sakura's Kodokuna Josei Airfield (Lonely Woman Airfield) (actually is just an unbuilt space)

Is the blue fairy ad the photo on the start page of www.secondlife.com or something else? I have always thought that photo was not a good choice (no issue with the fairy, just think it is a poor image). Here are some better ones 🙂

Oops... Sometimes there are Newbrookes on BOTH sides of the shallow river, as is the case in SSPSiddhartha

On www.lindenlab.com they list the management team in this order... Second Life (and engineering and legal) are at the bottom. I sympathize with the lawyer. On www.tilia.io the first thing you read is... We know about Second Life and Sansar. What is Upland? On www.upland.me the first thing they say is... Any thoughts?

Confirmed... the shallow river that runs thru SSPObladi is the divider between Newbrookes and Chalets

Why is this phrase popping in my mind...

I wish Mr. Feuling success in his new job. The best marketing person I worked with defined marketing as the "right stuff"... right product, right time, right place, right branding, etc. Linden Research, being private, is somewhat of a black box... but on the outside we see a payment processing company (Tilia) whose main customer (Second Life) is captive, as they share an Executive Chairman. It looks like Mr. Feuling was hired (or contracted, not sure) by Mr. Oberwager to do marketing things that will result in increased revenue for Linden Research. However, it is not clear that Mr. Feuling is well suited to conceiving the "right product" in the metaverse/virtual world space. He may turn out to be just a barker for the current state of affairs, which we "weirdo pervs" both love and hate. (Coffee should trademark that phrase)

I am delighted by my 512 (Topaz Tea House and Bath Open home with Tea, Coffee, Whisky, Treats, PG Bath) - Feels very private with views of Sujisan in the back. Got this on my 5th roll 😄

Sakura - House - Benibara - 512 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Airashii Mogura/138/17/33 Topaz Tea House and Bath

More Newbrooke Railway.... a map and Abnor building

More detail on the railway connector between Newbrookes and Chalets - SSPDrama LLama to SSPQueeg The connector regions are separated from the Chalets by a narrow shallow river, which is waist deep and navigable. The station is in SSP Drama LLama, just beyond the "train elevator" in SSPBoomp. Note the double tracks merge to one track. The railroad crosses the shallow river in SSPPierless.

Seems so. Premium Plus may be the latest financial engineering effort to this end. Premium members who currently pay no tier may be lured into Plus to get 1024 of additional included tier. Of course they are paying for that extra 1024, thankfully at a low rate. Anyone currently paying tier will see (and pay for) 1024 more headroom. This is not always bad of course and many will appreciate it. Linden Lab likely expects to see an increase in revenue.

So this innocent question turned into YAET (yet another existential thread) by the second comment, which is fine as it shows what is on people's mind. To me, SL is in its golden age and I will keep riding this ride as long as it is there. SL's demise is like earthquakes in California... you KNOW it's coming, just not when. The best we can hope for is that the knowledge and wisdom that it fostered, much of which appears in this forum, is not lost. There will be another virtual world where “there is no manufactured conflict, no set objective” and hopefully we will make our way there.

Why is tier organized and priced the way it is? The numbers reveal all... The key numbers are the rate for the first 1024 (when you have no tier), the rate after you have a region of tier, and the repeating rate beyond a region. These are all APPROXIMATELY THE SAME NUMBER.. 3.22 cents per square meter in this analysis! This is the "sustain rate" that Linden Lab needs to maintain a sustainable margin and make their financials look good. The rates from 512 to 16384 are the "sweet spot" where tier is more profitable. Beyond a quarter region, marginal rates decline so as to converge to the sustain rate. The sustain rate also allows land barons to operate profitably, which Linden Lab probably enjoys. Why is Linden Lab introducing Premium Plus? I speculate that the "sweet spot" needs to be made less sweet. Premium Plus gives residents the "sustain rate" for 2048 sqm, which should cause more residents to own land and perhaps, stick around longer.

Kinda did already. See Premium Plus Membership is a Good Deal.

In real life, it is not uncommon for the same product to have different prices. For example, a person sitting next to you on a plane may have paid a different ticket price. Usually, the seller has good reasons. In Second Life, we pay Linden Lab a fee called tier that allows us to possess land. However the cost per sqm varies based on how much tier we acquire. Why? Also, why do the tier levels increase by a power of 2 for the first quarter region, then by quarter region chunks, making it likely that we will be buying more than we need? Why this complexity? The data and line graph below shows shows the price differences. The data is annualized. Group bonus is omitted for simplification. An annual premium membership of $39 is used because $60 of stipend can be redeemed for dollars at today's exchange rate. The blue line shows the average cost per sqm for each tier level. The orange line is the marginal cost, computed as increase in cost to go to the next level divided by the increase in sqm. The last orange data point is the cost for all tier above a region, in 1/4 region chunks.

People into land vehicles are using the well scripted ones. Many free or cheap ones are very difficult and put people off. Aircraft are fun because you can go almost anywhere as long as regions are connected. Sailing is wonderful because many boats provide a very realistic sailing simulation. Also vehicle users tend to be in groups that have vehicle events and parties. It is very social. And, we have little zen games too, like GTFO for freight hauling and BelliBin for trash collection.

Premium Plus Membership is a Good Deal This analysis compares premium to premium plus membership on an annual basis. If you pay monthly, everything is more expensive. I have not shown group bonuses as that doesn't change the conclusions. Annual dollars spent on membership have the stipend subtracted, as one can convert it back to dollars or spend it inworld. Assumptions About Premium Plus: Membership fee is doubled, stipend is doubled (L$300 -> L$600), and included tier is doubled (1024sqm -> 2048 sqm). As this has NOT been officially announced, it is NOT guaranteed as of the date of this post. Analysis: Members that want just a Linden Home and/or 1024sqm of tier should be Premium as that is the cheapest plan. Members needing no more than 3072sqm (except for the 1024 case) should be Premium Plus as that is the cheapest plan. Members needing more than 3072sqm can choose based on exactly how many sqm they need. The differences depend on when you are bumped to the next tier level. In Premium Plus, you always have 1024sqm more headroom. The costs per sqm is approximately the same in both plans in this range. In both plans, the cheapest tiers are at the beginning (3.57 cents per sqm) and end (3.22 cents per sqm). This suggests a strategy of giving alts a premium plus plan, giving you 2048sqm at the cheapest rate or giving you a Linden Home plus 1024sqm at the cheapest rate.

What he said ^^^^^ Sometimes I get excited and buy sale items before fully grasping that the thing is no mod or that the martini shaker does not come with the bar, even though it's in the picture. But because the item cost pocket change (remember when that existed?), I just write it off and move on.

Perhaps my favorite sentence ever written in this forum. Long live the weirdo pervs!

I like this thread because it deals with existential issues... Some random existential questions in no particular order... 1. Why did "an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager" acquire Linden Research, Inc. in 2020? Why is Brad an Executive Chairman (salaried top boss)? Why was was Ebbe never replaced as CEO? What is the exit strategy for the investment group? 2. Why would anyone purchase Linden Lab? Cash cow? Brand? User base? Proprietary IP? Employees with unique skill set? Plans to monetize something? 3. Do you really own anything in Second Life? Should Second Life close, what happens to all the stuff we bought? 4. Do Second Life residents have "low expectations"? Is "not crashing" or "being able to walk in a crowd" enough? 5. Is Linden Lab critically understaffed? Is Brad keeping expenses down? Why does governance take so long to address obvious problems? Why is Bellisseria being built so S L O W L Y? 6. Why do Second Life residents (including me) bristle when Second Life is called a game? Is it because we see our avatars as ourselves, not game tokens? 7. Is Philip Rosedale's current association with Linden Lab just a PR thing? That was fun 🙂

As you purchased via an auction, Linden Lab automatically increased your tier level from 0 to 1024, which means they will charge you $7/month for the 1024 tier. All is well at this point, you need take no further action. There is no reason to deed this to a group, as you are the sole owner, and the 10% group bonus only gives you 204.8 sqm , which as Alwin points out, may not be useful. However, there is also no harm in deeding it to a group. In this case, you would use the "owner makes contribution with deed" option. Group ownership is useful when you have larger tiers and corresponding larger bonuses, when multiple people are sharing ownership, or when you are using alts in a creative way to decrease your tier payments.

Purple means auction (details here). Hardknott, Helvellyn, and Whinlatter auctions close at noon SLT on Friday, May 13, 2022. If you wanna go all "land baron" on this, stock up on the Lindens. Once you acquire a full region of tier, you can add additional tier at $44/month for an addtiional 1/4 region. (diamond is practicing being a land baron)

Further research teaches me that a resident can acquire as much mainland tier as they wish, in 1/4 region increments. The annualized marginal cost of a sqm is 3.22 cents which is approximately the same as the 3.25 cents paid by a premium member with no tier at all. This is how one becomes a land baron (on mainland). This table comes from Buying land. It is curious that Mainland Pricing and Fees does not include pricing beyond a one region tier.

First thing, "PriMcess Dolly" is one of the greatest Second Life names ever. Second, if there were an Angels Airport on every other region in SL, that would be a good thing, Third, that tree needs to be chopped. Now the bad news... Sylvia/Molly/Rowan nailed it. LDPW as a rule, never (well... hardly ever) makes changes to anything. In Bellisseria, they tell you this BEFORE you even ask. I think Rowan is on the right track. For starters, the part of your roadway that is over Linden protected land should look exactly like the linden road. Then put some dirt around the tree. Then change your connecting road so it looks like it merges down to one lane. Then STOP posting in this forum cause they may catch on to our conspiracy,