Should technical support (Liaisons, email, phone) be for Premium users only?

Gwyneth's suggestion, while sounding good at first glance, would deny technical support to the many basic account holders who rent land and are indirectly pouring a considerable sum of money into LL's coffers. So, as a premium account holder, I would have to vote no. 'Freeloaders' will be a problem no matter what business model LL adopts. People will always find a way to game any system.

If you go into a shop and the sales assistant offers to sell you a cigarette lighter for US$10.

Do you buy it - or do you say "No thanks - I don't smoke" ?
( I choose the latter )


Why should I pay US$10 for something I dont use ?
( Land ownership - Don't need it, I rent )
( Ability to Vote - Don't use it )
( Land management - Have tools to do that already )


Someone on another thread said it correctly - There is absolutely no incentive to use premium membership unless you want to own land.

(And taking away support isnt an incentive to upgrade to premium - It is an incentive to walk away )

And if they're all alts, then they aren't all calling for tech support.

Problem solved.

Weeeell.... There's certainly an autoresponder - does that qualify?

That's what I meant

FYI, an alt still uses resources — CPU, bandwidth And naturally enough, if that alt is a very active and productive member of SL (say, a top builder, clothes designer, event hoster...) it'll also use database space for textures, sounds, animations, and the like. Don't simply dismiss the case "oh, it's an alt, so it doesn't count" or: "oh, it's a basic account, what harm should it do, since it's not owning land, but renting from other, premium accounts".

Basic accounts can and do have a real cost in maintenance.

That may not be down to alts at all, it could be just down to the removal of the $9.95 basic account fee.

Make anything "free" and many more people will "give it a go", especially with the huge amount of publicity that SL has received. You're bound to find that a fair number of those people try SL, find that they're not particularly interested, and never bother to log in again. Their basic accounts still exist though.

Well seing that 'No way!' is at '79 66.95%' we can rest assure the basic accounts will never have to pay for it. I planned on going to basic soon but if this ever happens it would meen a lot more problems in SL would never get fixed. I think its a bad busines tactic. The lindens have to listen to their customers (paying or not) if they wish to stablize their virtual world.

Yes, someone pointed to me that the statistics on "active users" are a bit weird.

According to ToS, when a Premium user defaults on payment, they are suspended for 30 days. After further 30 days have elapsed, their land & objects within are sold to pay for any debts they have, and the account is shut down. So a Premium user can effectively be "shut down" (it's my understanding that if you happen to talk to the "right" Linden employee, you're always able to unlock an old avatar if you can prove it was your account; I don't know what exactly happens, but you might even get your inventory back, if you settle your outstanding debts to Linden Lab...).

On the other hand, this does not apply to basic accounts. They stay open indefinitely. I have looked up some very old accounts from early 2003, who clearly haven't logged in ever again (this can be found out if you happen to share one group with them; that way, you can see things like people not having logged in for over a year or even two years...). So these might actually be counted towards the total of "active users", although they quite clearly aren't active at all

The new statistics page shows "only" 112,789 or so active users (who have logged in) in the past 60 days (not too bad, but nothing spectacular, either). Someone pointed to me that from this very same page you can easily calculate the maximum number of Premium accounts. You might be surprised on how few they are, in percentage. My early assessment of 20% of all users being Premium is way too high; make your own calculations from the data and see the figure you come up with...

not just no
not just HELL NO
but <FOUR LETTER WORD THAT RHYMES WITH "DUCK"> NO!

Hi Gywnn et al!

I am one of those Basic Account Leeches you so fondly refer to.

Oh? Do I contribute to the SL & LL? lessee ...
I spend approx $28 per month on rent - which ends up in the hands of LL thru my Landlady (Hi Marmela!!)
I upload hundreds of textures & other files per month - say another $5 worth per month.(yeah 5 per day is about average)
I help out many newbies each month, thus preventing them from having to use LL in game help resources.
I help other friends solve their computer, network, and ISP issues, thus preventing them from haing to call LL tech support.

Oh yeah, and I build content that enriches the SL experience for all - stuff people like and enjoy, mostly for free - 'cause I am a nice guy.

So dont give me this bullpuckey that I don't deserve support when I need it. Just because you happen to have a Premium Account, doesn't make you "special".

Hmmppf!!

All you need to do is email support from the email account attached to your old avatar. FIC membership is not required
There is a fee of $10 to reactivate it. You won't get your inventory back unless it's only been inactive for less than... a month? I don't remember.


There were no basic accounts in early 2003
When SL launched you could only get a premium account for $14,95 / month or a lifetime membership for $249,95. Some people who signed up during beta got a discounted lifetime membership for $159,95.

Odd i reactivated a alt i had about a year ago and i still had its inventory. O.o