What services has LL co-opted and what services will LindenLab co-opt or just kill?

Right.

coco

Not to turn this into an advertisment for Azure but I agree. They do such a wonderful job of giving each sims its own "feel". Although I did have to sell most my land there because I couldnt justify paying the fees since I have so much unused land on the mainland. All I have there now is my land in Alpha Centuari for my shop.

Yep, that's definitely a good point. I think as long as they "keep it in the family," so to speak, by using stuff we make (with just compensation), their acting in a managerial and organizational role isn't such a big deal.

I'm feeling ambivalent on the subject, but... Gah, I dunno, if we're retaining more people than we did before, I think it's got to be a Good Thing.

I think LL is probably hoping that people like you who are enthusiastic about the concept are ready to jump in there when the time comes.

Thanks for the inside tip there! That's really swell of you.

Is there a max size on an ignore list?

OooohOooh, can I be on it?

Can't we all just get along?

Great to hear about success, shows that this really is a good thing!

Whats funny is blaze announces, like we see it like some type of punishment.

[troll]Probably, but luckily the potential for ignorance is virtually unlimited.[/troll]

What's funny is that you assume I'm talking about you

Now you just got a damn Carly Simmon song stuck in my head. THANKS

I hope so. That would rid the virtual world of some very unethical land barons.

when i see posts from a certain troll it makes me pull my hair out wishing for a way to neg-rate them over and over and over again.

We need a reputation system pronto.

Briana Dawson

Because LL wants the money, goof.

Bah!! And now YOU put it in MY head!!

I suspect it's more an issue of control then it is money.

Blaze, it's about the money. The money from converting basic accounts to premium.

coco

I had a fantastic idea many years ago to wait until a thread had escalated into chaos and mudslinging, then I would drop in out of nowhere like a ninja and say, "This thread is not appropriate for the SL forums and as such is being closed." or something along those lines... I had to abandon this project due to strong Linden competition.

There are a lot of paths to that goal.

The path they decided to take is 100% linden controlled.

I suspect they would have been much better off at letting the various ingrids of the world controll that path.

I suspect it's probably hard working at lindenlab. I get the sense that there is a school of thought at LL that believes in the power of the platform, and there is another school of thought that fears loss of control.

I believe everything interesting about LL has come about because of its platform nature.

Nobody writes articles in fortune about lindex. You're not going to see wired doing an expose on "newbie" island.

I really have a hard time believing that Kapor and Pierre signed up for Bumfield.

I would imagine it is far more about the money than the control. Their new user conversion ratios are terrible. There's a big disparity between premium and basic accounts, and LL's income comes from tier and premium fees. Looking for new ways to make the user experience more compelling, and in turn, getting them to stick around, certainly involves getting them to buy land sooner to add more permanence for them. Islands have a whole plethora of rules, pricing, alternative ways to pay tier, etc.. which is all well and good and appeals to many people. However, getting new users to stick around and rent or buy land on private islands and pay tier or L$ does not help LL that much, as they get far less tier in that manner than if the user is buying directly.

People have been screaming since beta for zoned sims, and LL originated the concept. Some people will want wide open empty sims to build whatever they want, and some will take comfort in buying into a neighborhood that has a familiar feel - especially new users. There is nothing wrong with this, and doesn't kill the island land market at all.

The bottom line is that LL without income=no SL. I don't know why people bedgrudge LL making money.

I believe if it really had been about the money then they would have empowered people like Gigas, Anshe, and Ingrid to make this happen. Because they would have done it right.

As it goes, they decided they couldn't trust these peoples to do it up in the way they want it done.

So what happens?

Everyone suffers. The new users suffer because they get a sub par experience, LL suffers because they don't convert as many new users, and we suffer because we lose our faith in SL the platform.

Ding! Ding! Pick a prize from the top shelf.

Blaze, I have to ask. Do you see _everything_ from the "glass half empty" perspective?

I agree with this. LL is a for profit company that needs money to stay viable. I don't blame them for this as it is a sound business move. In a way, Linden owned/operated land makes more sense for a new resident than one that is offered/rented by a private land owner as in the sense that while LL will not step up in case something happens to let's say Anshe and subsidize/cover expenses, they will take care of their own, thereby offering a sort of safe haven for new residents who wish to start owning land without the fear of a private sim owner going bust and losing their plot of land. Seeing as how these plots look to be only 512 which is the size for a basic premium account, I don't really see how this is going to cut into the other pie that is out there. From what I have seen, the land is no edit and it looks to be zoned. There may be only a small handful of residents that will even remain there as the ones that are there either want to move on to bigger better things, don't really like SL anymore and leave or just don't want to pay for the land anymore and drop to a basic account. If the land is no edit, perhaps perma-blocked by some setting, this also looks to mean that a resident won't be able to have 2 plots and merge them as one larger 1024 just to sell for a higher price. If LL can block the land edit ability, then there may even be a way to block who can purchase a lot that goes up for sale, and even perhaps the max price can be kept down. Or, since the land was given away, they cannot sell it but rather give it back by releasing it where it gets controlled by LL again to be recycled for the next new resident.