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A proposal for a strike: changing the way people think about events

Trinity Cole
Akasha Owner
Join date: 26 Apr 2005
Posts: 57
02-07-2006 14:11
From: Vivianne Draper

So what do you think? Should we strike? Would the absence of events change the way people think about them?


I run Club Akasha and we do about 4 events per week, plus, Akasha Art Gallery which is twice per month. These events are because we want to and have fun with it. In addition I think that an event is going to be as productive and entertaining as the energy put into it.

The real solution would be for event producers to work together to a degree in the sense of maybe being creative! Actually do things diff then the norm they will cause people to want to attend because its a great idea and not because all of a sudden there are no events to attend. lol

So to change how people think about events.....change the events. If the energy you put in now is not working for you, change the energy but lets not try to change the people.
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Cheers!!
Trinity Cole

As a friend once said about honey:
"...but I hate honey....it makes me feel creepy from its sweetness"
Barbarra Blair
Short Person
Join date: 18 Apr 2004
Posts: 588
02-07-2006 17:39
I happen to like Tringo. But I like variety more.

I wish there were more just-get-together-and-talk kinds of events. But would anyone come??
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Alan Kiesler
Retired Resident
Join date: 29 Jun 2004
Posts: 354
02-08-2006 00:55
From: Barbarra Blair
I happen to like Tringo. But I like variety more.

I wish there were more just-get-together-and-talk kinds of events. But would anyone come??


The IRC channel has appeared to have taken that niche; Not sure if that's entirely a good thing though...

:link:
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Timothy S. Kimball (RL) -- aka 'Alan Kiesler'
The Kind Healer -- http://sungak.net

No ending is EVER written; Communities will continue on their own.
Sabrina Doolittle
Registered User
Join date: 15 Nov 2005
Posts: 214
02-13-2006 08:22
From: bladyblue Bommerang
I formed the Second Life Content Providers Association. Unlike the FFRC, SLCPA believes that Linden Labs continues to have some responsibilities to provide financial support to their Content Providers.
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I don't understand this point of view. And I don't mean that snarkily. I really don't understand it.

We pay (or don't pay) LL for the use of the SL platform. It is up to us, collectively, to leverage that platform to meet one or all of the following goals:

1) Having a good time
2) Providing a good time to others
3) Making money

For me, having a good time entails building truly fantastic, high-quality, themed venues. Providing a good time to others means hosting fully themed events at these venues. I make money doing this. I am completely willing to give away my trade secret for accomplishing these goals and not even thinking about looking to LL for support.

Land rental + Charging for Events - Ongoing Overheads = Profit

Last night I hosted a Black Tie Valentine's Ball. 47 guests bought tickets. I rented the required land/prim allotment for 24 hours. We built the venue. We TPd people to the location at the right time. Everyone had a fabulous time for 4 hours and went home. We pulled the venue back into inventory and hey, event done. Enjoyment had. Money made.

The thing is, there is a ton of empty land going in SL. There is no need I can see for me to carry the ongoing cost of owning land in order to host events. I rent what I need for 24 hours and my profit margin goes way up. I have yet to find a land owner who wasn't willing to rent me large parcel lots for 24 hours on a pro-rata basis. Money is money.

I do this on a large scale once every 3 months with elaborate events for which I charge compartively high ticket prices. But my friend does it weekly for games. She rents the land (anywhere really), places the ad, rezzes her venue, and charges people on the spot to buy an item they need to play the game.

I need 6500m2. She needs 512m2. I charge $250L; she charges $10L. My builds are unique to each event; hers is the same every week. Fewer people are willing to part with $250L for a few hours of entertainment; many more are willing to part with $10L. I make more at one go but less often; she makes less money but more regularly.

The point is that this model can work at both ends of the spectrum; your ticket price just needs to be balanced against your land requirement/cost.

Maybe I'm missing a huge point here; maybe people want to hold events on land they own because their primary goal is to support the cost of the land or of a permenant build situated on it, not to actually hold events. But if what you want is hold events and the specifics of the land is irrelevent, then I think renting is a really good solution.

Or hey, why not club together? If someone owns land and has a weekly X event on Tuesdays, couldn't someone else use it for Y every wednesday and a 3rd person use it for Z on Saturday, sharing the cost of the land between them? The venues specific to X Y and Z can be rezzed and killed as required, right?
bladyblue Bommerang
Premium Account
Join date: 7 Feb 2005
Posts: 646
02-13-2006 12:18
From: Sabrina Doolittle
We pay (or don't pay) LL for the use of the SL platform. It is up to us, collectively, to leverage that platform to meet one or all of the following goals:

1) Having a good time
2) Providing a good time to others
3) Making money

There are those of us that believe that we made SL more than a sandbox and we contnue to provide content daily to SL so LL can increase its profit margin. LL has 'leveraged' our contribution to SL into more paid accounts fo themselves. And LL had, up to now, done the right thing by providing incentives and supporting content providers.

From: someone
For me, having a good time entails building truly fantastic, high-quality, themed venues. Providing a good time to others means hosting fully themed events at these venues. I make money doing this. I am completely willing to give away my trade secret for accomplishing these goals and not even thinking about looking to LL for support.

Land rental + Charging for Events - Ongoing Overheads = Profit

Building high quality themed venues and taking them down after 24 hours seems a little odd to me.

From: someone
Last night I hosted a Black Tie Valentine's Ball. 47 guests bought tickets. I rented the required land/prim allotment for 24 hours. We built the venue. We TPd people to the location at the right time. Everyone had a fabulous time for 4 hours and went home. We pulled the venue back into inventory and hey, event done. Enjoyment had. Money made.

There is definitely a place in SL for $250L a ticket events. Venues that offer daily events can't do this. New players with $50L to their name would be on the outside looking in. And those of us that don't own a sim can't fit 47 people in the sim we own land in. It's difficult to get 20 in without lagging to a stand still.

From: someone
The thing is, there is a ton of empty land going in SL. There is no need I can see for me to carry the ongoing cost of owning land in order to host events. I rent what I need for 24 hours and my profit margin goes way up. I have yet to find a land owner who wasn't willing to rent me large parcel lots for 24 hours on a pro-rata basis. Money is money.

I do this on a large scale once every 3 months with elaborate events for which I charge compartively high ticket prices. But my friend does it weekly for games. She rents the land (anywhere really), places the ad, rezzes her venue, and charges people on the spot to buy an item they need to play the game.

The point is that this model can work at both ends of the spectrum; your ticket price just needs to be balanced against your land requirement/cost.

Maybe I'm missing a huge point here; maybe people want to hold events on land they own because their primary goal is to support the cost of the land or of a permenant build situated on it, not to actually hold events. But if what you want is hold events and the specifics of the land is irrelevent, then I think renting is a really good solution.

Or hey, why not club together? If someone owns land and has a weekly X event on Tuesdays, couldn't someone else use it for Y every wednesday and a 3rd person use it for Z on Saturday, sharing the cost of the land between them? The venues specific to X Y and Z can be rezzed and killed as required, right?

I don't think the Linden's will endorse the plan for hundreds of folks to tier down and share one parcel of land. Kinda goes against thier monetizing plans.

From: Hox Hauptmann
So say that on average in the future Linden sales increase by $80,000US a day (unlikely). That's $2400 per day revenue @ 3% commision.

OK.. But how much is LL going to lose in income from people reducing their Tier tremendously because they can no longer sustain the land due to lack of DI incentive?

If LL lost 500 sims worth of Tier because of this (which could easily be the case?). They would be losing a minimum of $200 x 500 = US$100,000 per month in Tier payments. That's equivalent to $3000 per day. That far outweighs any increase in $Linden Sales Commision.

So.. If LL is losing money, why are they doing this? Do they have something else planned to keep people paying tier?
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Sabrina Doolittle
Registered User
Join date: 15 Nov 2005
Posts: 214
02-14-2006 00:58
From: bladyblue Bommerang
There are those of us that believe that we made SL more than a sandbox and we contnue to provide content daily to SL so LL can increase its profit margin.


OK I guess that's where our POV is different. I provide content so *I* can make money. LL can look after it's own profit margins.

From: someone
Building high quality themed venues and taking them down after 24 hours seems a little odd to me.


Does it? It is a lot of fun, though. Obviously we have a system, and componants are built or recycled ahead of time but it makes it a really special "one time only" event.

From: someone
There is definitely a place in SL for $250L a ticket events. Venues that offer daily events can't do this. New players with $50L to their name would be on the outside looking in.


No that's true, you couldn't use this the rental system if you had to have a daily event, unless you rented out 7 different venues for a few hours every day of the week. That is what *I* would do because I am positively allergic to tier. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 11 places that would be great for different events which can be rented hourly or used free of charge. My friend used to runher weekly game in an ampitheatre she rented for $50L for three hours. It was never used otherwise. The guy was just happy to see it being used.

From: someone
And those of us that don't own a sim can't fit 47 people in the sim we own land in. It's difficult to get 20 in without lagging to a stand still.


I don't own a sim either. I don't own any land beyond my first 512. I rent commercial lots for my businesses; each business must support itself financialy with a reasonable profit margin or I close it and don't renew my rental. I rent a residential lot for my home, which I pay for with my business profits. I rent event lots as required for events.

I would never try to fit 47 people onto one sim btw. For events I rent adjoining plots on 2 sims and build to balance load accordingly.

From: someone
I don't think the Linden's will endorse the plan for hundreds of folks to tier down and share one parcel of land. Kinda goes against thier monetizing plans.


This is your profit we're talking about, not theirs. I look after my own profit margin. LL's business plan is their own business and I do not have a responsibility to throw money at LL. And I think that what I'm saying is that three or four people could share a parcel of land; it is not like that doesn't happen regularly anyway.

From: someone
But how much is LL going to lose in income from people reducing their Tier tremendously because they can no longer sustain the land due to lack of DI incentive?... if LL lost 500 sims worth of Tier because of this (which could easily be the case?). They would be losing a minimum of $200 x 500 = US$100,000 per month in Tier payments. That's equivalent to $3000 per day. That far outweighs any increase in $Linden Sales Commision.


This is a little outside my box because I don't buy Lindens and I don't pay tier. But there are what, 1200 sims now? LL is not going to lose 500 sims over DI tier drop - that scenario assumes that a sizeable percentage of the population was depending on DI to support their land. The largest land owners (Ansche, Hiro, and I can't remember who's in between) are not depending on DI to pay their tier; they are renting commercial and residential space to people maintaining homes or stores, neither of which depends on DI for sustainment.

And if 500 sims did fall off the grid (which is really a very sky is falling sky is falling assumption) LL will save itself a bundle on servers for the next 500 sims to come along. :)
bladyblue Bommerang
Premium Account
Join date: 7 Feb 2005
Posts: 646
02-14-2006 16:06
From: Sabrina Doolittle
This is your profit we're talking about, not theirs. I look after my own profit margin. LL's business plan is their own business and I do not have a responsibility to throw money at LL. And I think that what I'm saying is that three or four people could share a parcel of land; it is not like that doesn't happen regularly anyway.


Sabrina, you misunderstand my motivation. It's not money we are talking about here - its providing content to SL. You are in SL to make money - some of us are here to help establish community and standards. We employ hundreds of residents and, with or without camping chairs, provide daily content to whoever wants it. There is absolutely no reason that we now need to sell our land and take the show on the road.

From: someone
This is a little outside my box because I don't buy Lindens and I don't pay tier. But there are what, 1200 sims now? LL is not going to lose 500 sims over DI tier drop - that scenario assumes that a sizeable percentage of the population was depending on DI to support their land. The largest land owners (Ansche, Hiro, and I can't remember who's in between) are not depending on DI to pay their tier; they are renting commercial and residential space to people maintaining homes or stores, neither of which depends on DI for sustainment.

Those Landbarons aren't running clubs, museums, theatres and meeting places. They are buying land to make a profit. DI is a plus for them. Alot of people took their DI funds and re-invested it into expanding their venues. The DI is there to encourage folks to provide content and that is what they did. Now a number of these folks - and the residents they employ- are being told they have to function without the system that was put in place to support SL Content Providers in what seems a arbitrary Linden decision.

From: someone
And if 500 sims did fall off the grid (which is really a very sky is falling sky is falling assumption) LL will save itself a bundle on servers for the next 500 sims to come along. :)

Sounds like a plan Sabrina:-)
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