Is this really Linden Lab?

I am really surprised, but Wilder just promised he is going add some more information to the listing, so things can be more clear to bidders who not yet familiar with SL.

Anyway, I thought competition should be fun

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5841338939

We tried to make our own listing clear and easy to understand, but I am thankful for suggestion

coco

ROFL! Buy It now = $10k USD.

I haven't bothered to look at Wilder's auction.

I wouldn't mind owning a sim outright, without tier payments for a year. But honestly, 10k is too much, even for me

Wonder who will get it, I'm honestly curious.

<snip>

An exclusive virtual date with our celebrity CEO Anshe Chung valued beyond imagination

</snip>

Priceless!!!

Pick a Linden alt - any Linden alt...

It's just a marketing exercise, a rather ill conceived attempt to raise a bit of PR, you know:

'Island in Second Life fetches $10,000 on eBay!' in the media.

Hmmm, now if Anshe was really on the ball her island could be 'bought' before LL's and she could completely steal their thunder.

I don't share your pessimistic view of Linden Lab ethics.

Shill-bidding is against E-Bay policy, anyway, so why would they even bother? I'd prefer to think it was an experiment to see how things would go. Must every crumb of an idea be subjected to ridicule before it has proven or disproven itself?

There comes a point when desperation looks like slip-shod ethics. LL has definitely reached that point.

As for experimentation, let's just say that, in the spectrum of possible ideas to help the revenue stream, eBay islands is pretty far to the extreme.

They'd have better luck selling stock/ownership to existing customers. Not that they would ever do such a thing.

They'd have better luck re-opening charters for a quick shot of liquidity. Not that they would ever do such a thing.

They'd have better luck licensing the software to developers and permitting transit between their own grid and privately owned ones. Not that they'd ever do such a thing.

The list of possibilities is quite a bit longer, and these are picked from between the high and low ends of spectrum. Kindly note there are many more where this comes from.... and that none of them involve schemes so bizarrely off the radar of business sense as to be ludicrous.

Apparently, yes. Didn't you know that everything LL does is a sign of the apocolypse or of their sinister plans. Come on, Maxx, get with the program!

Bah, Chip. There are certain common signals that companies in bad financial straits give off in ways ranging from how they announce things to how they decide things to what priority they give to things. Anyone who has spent time in running a business recognizes them.

There is a point at which hopefulness becomes niavete.

I have much admiration for the potential of SL. I have much appreciation for those customers who have done amazing things with what they have at their disposal.

I have much hope for something like this to become more than 'just a game'.

But I am firmly convinced that Linden Labs will not be the company to manage it.

Nothing sinister about it. They don't have the savvy to manage it. They were wrong to pull event support, they were wrong not to have P2P in place to begin with (as opposed to devaluing their own economy by switching horses midstream), they were wrong to move to sim only auctions, and they were wrong to close the door on licensing this software to users to build their own metaverses.

About the only thing they've gotten right was pulling Linden sales/exchange in-house. But the manner in which they did it was completely tactless and did a lot to alienate.

They have consistantly shirked their duty to be both owner AND authority and this is somethign that has and will continue to bite them on the ass. They are not yet at a point where they can successfully be 'hands off' and their insistence upon keeping it all within the confines of Linden Labs (i.e., no licensing) means they are the ones to pony up for things like zoning, community support, etc.

They do not get this and because they do not (or will not), it will continue to be the thing that bites them the most often and the hardest.

There's nothing apocolyptic about this, Chip. Businesses fail due to lack of vision and poor management every day. Linden Labs has been struggling for the last year. If you don't believe me, check their filings. They will fail, if for no other reason than they have not planned well enough to succeed. It is simply a matter of time.

There's also a point where discontent becomes pointless cynicism. Since none of us are psychic there's really absolutely no reason to always assume the worst about everything. It's not healthy, and it comes off as bitter, mean spirited, and irrational.

Tell you what, you do the market research and analysis and if you come up with something that doesn't shout 'Linden Labs is tanking like the Exxon Valdez', I'll eat my hat.

I am *not* assuming. I've done my homework. Have you?

Finally, I'll thank you not to assume as to my mindset and motivation unless you have more than assumption to work with... it is never correct and the only thing it does is tell me things about you that I'm sure you would rather I not know.

What, that I'm not reactionary or paranoid? If you don't like a particular restaurant, for whatever reason, do you go stand in their lobby every day and rant endlessly about how incompetant and doomed they are or do you just stop eating there (provided you're not served with a restraining order first)?

As long as I am a paying customer, I have as much right to complain, state my opinion, post my thoughts about what I find when I do research, or pretty much anything else that isn't a violation of the ToS. But if you wish to refund me the money I've paid (since LL won't), I'll be happy to cut my losses, believe me.

By the by, in case you didn't realise it, you are being reactionary. Go look up the word. I do not care if you agree with me or not. But try to tell me I can't say what I have every right here to say and I'll call you on it every time.

You have every right to have whatever opinion you like of me, and to classify me in your own mind however you like. But you might wish to keep in mind (while you're at it) that people tend to classify others based upon how they see themselves, and condemn them based not upon how they are acting, but upon how they might act, and that is an extrapolation of how you would see yourself in that situation... which speaks much more about you than me. This is what I mean by telling me things about you that you may not wish me to know.... though I grant you, to anyone without training/background would read this paragraph and be confused. Which is, I suppose, how it should be. (grin)

LL auctions have been going nuts, LL has sold more sims in the last 45 days than they sold in the previous 4 months. I doubt this is a financial grab.

This is a PR deal, and I hope it works. My biggest beef with this is the ridiculously high reserve price. It is sitting at $4050 and hasn't hit the reserve yet. With reserves set too high, anyone already in SL will realize this is not at all a bargain.

I don't see why everyone thinks this is such a bad move. It would be really neat if LL gets another corporate client from all of this.

Good luck Wilder!

Uh, Cienna... we're all in the same situation, as we're all participants in SL, using the same service, provided by the same company. No extrapolation required. Of course you're entitled to voice your opinions, but to what end? I don't see anything constructive in rants that seem full of desire to see LL fail just so a few arrogant people can say "I told you so." There's a big difference between calm rational analysis and arrogant, pessimistic self-aggrandizing. The former is productive, the latter is anything but.

You have actually talked to me in-world. You have more reason than most to know the assumptions you're laying down here are off the mark. I'm curious why you prefer them.

What I am doing here is VERY productive. If you knew what my goal was, you would understand just how productive it is and continues to be.... but you're still categorizing without actually knowing my motivation. You are still assuming and so you are still missing my point.

It's ok. Really. I'd just be sad to see you turn into someone who is missing the point on purpose, is all.

With the current bid - and presumably, the reserve - you would already have paid the tier for a year.

Really? Then you must be pretty bad!

coco

Projection is such an ugly thing, Cocoa-nut. I assure you, in the overall scheme of things, I spend much less time contemplating you than you seem to me.

Cienna, you're right in a sense that people tend to classify others based on how they see themselves, because I don't in any way feel it is my "right" or that the money I pay in any way entitles me to insult LL's intelligence or impugn their character. If I felt so negatively towards them that that's all I had to offer, I'd simply stop doing business with them.

You're still assuming, Chip. Ah well.

No, I make no pretense at being psychic. I'm telling you how it sounds to me. No assumptions required.

You lack the information to make a conclusion on 'how it sounds to you'.

You assume why I am doing this or what I hope to accomplish by doing it and that assumption is what is bringing you to incorrect conclusion wherein you apply your own assumptions as to both and come up with 'how it sounds to you'.

Like I said, oh well.

I rest my case.