The First National Bank of Shebang is now open for business

feniks: I hear what you're saying. I am not a fan of giving negative ratings. I myself have not given a single negative rating on SL, although I was very tempted in one instance.

So how do you suggest I collect on unpaid loans?

As to longer term loans -- as I have more money available to loan out I'll have no problem with that.

If I could tap into the automatic debit system used by the taxman this would be a moot point (or a "moo point" if you're a Friends fan).

#!

Shebang,
If you are looking for investors in your bank, let me know. I don't have a ton of money, but I may have enough to help make the bank more effective. We'd have to chat about how open your books are to investors and how investment you are interested in taking.

WRT negative ratings, my 2 cents are that someone stealing money from you (which is what non-repayment is) is grounds for a negative rating. I am assuming, of course, that the rating bonus will become more important (or ratings will have other effects in SL).

LM

Shebang;

I can write some pretty nasty scripts... hell Andrew and I can take down an entire sim with 2 objects . They don't pay just come talk to me - I'll write a lag monster to follow them around. It will be a giant 1000 object, flashing, spinning thing that screams LOSER! and has more timers than you can count. I'll name it Guedo the Enforcer.


Xavier's - Muscle for Hire and Flower Shop coming soon near you.



YES , I AM JOKING - I would never own a flower shop

and we are happy to report that we have approved the loan =)

Law, I've put you on my list of potential investors. Thanks =)

#!

Shebang,

I honestly do not know how you would collect on unpaid loans without going down your well volunteered loan shark route or without Governor Linden becoming involved.

I don't think that tapping into the debit system is well advised for any SL avatar. An agreement between lender, borrower, and the taxman (or powers that be), IMHO, is a much safer way to go.

It could be that a need for government is developing here.
Elected politicians as the liaison between the communities and the Governor (or powers that be). We may need some taxpayer voted on laws to govern repayment of unpaid loans, along with a whole slew of other situations that may arise in SL.
-Or-
We could go down the muscle route. I have to admit, I do love "The Sopranos".

ok just so everyone knows, last I heard a negative rating was really a bad thing because instead of recieving money, you are debited it, i.e. you actually have to pay to be bad. And I was told that the curve is pretty nasty, like you pay exponentialy more for each negative rating you recieve...hmm anyone want to help me do some research on this? we can find a young one, and with their consent give them a negative rating, find out what actually happens, I will fund it so that they don't lose any money... or maybe a linden can just tell us the consequences, maybe even give us the equation???

the only other thing that I have to say is that although i really appreciate what you are doing shebang, I prefer to barter myself When you barter, almost always, the parties come out feeling like they got the better end of the deal...

Let me clarify our current regarding negative reputations:

Your total reputation = positive votes - (negative votes)*factor.

We tune the factor (>1) to compensate for the fact that a negative rating is more important (and hence heavily weighted).

With respect to stipends, a low reputation will never 'take money away' from you. There is a base component to the stipend (which everyone gets) and a bonus component (which is a function of reputation). The bonus portion doesn't ever go negative - you are not monetarily punished for being unpopular, but your bonus can go to zero.

Orrey's rep rating is a bit lower than mine, but he received $249 last week, and I received $72. He's predicted to receive $200+ next week, and I'm predicted to received $55. Is this a bug or a 'feature'?

Thanks -
Kerstin

OK...

We are changing this right now, but let me explain:

Currently, your base + bonus stipend is limited to be at most equal to your taxes. So you always get the base, and you get a bonus up to your tax. So probably you had less land + objects than Orrey at the time the assesor ran for each of you.

With the updates we are putting in, the behavior will become:

Everyone gets a base stipend.
If your bonus stipend + base would give you more than your taxes + the basic allocation in cash (which is about $3500), the bonus is capped to that amount. So inotherwards, if you have a great reputation the system will attempt to pay all your taxes and leave you with $3500 in your pocket. It won't do more.

So the new design is more liberal than the last, and as I have previously mentioned, stops overpaying accounts that have never logged in (the more serious problem).

These changes will take effect tonight... so those who are paid today will see different amount tommorow.

Regarding the predicted amount:

The prediction includes this 'cap' in it's calculations... so if you have spent a bunch of money, the prediction will go up, or vice-versa. So comparing between two people isn't useful b/c they have different immediate cash balances.

We will make this more clear in next release by adding data in the account history. We realize it is very confusing right now - so bear with us.

The bank is now on the Welsh sim, in my tower, downstairs. If anyone needs a landmark just IM me in world (if I'm not in world, use the Find People dealie -- put Shebang in the name field, hit Search -- then bring up my profile. You can IM from there whether you have my calling card or not!). I'll respond with a landmark for you (as soon as I get in world, if I'm not there when you IM).

I'll be putting up a billboard near the Welcome Area that will give the landmark when touched tonight or tomorrow.

...



"Very confusing" is an understatement. I've had less trouble with IRS tax forms =)

#!

The subject of Banks came up yesterday and i was wondering how or if this had been attempted before. Now i guess i know. I suppose the question now is - How is it going now being this thread is 4 months old and nothing new has been stated about it?
I asked David Linden in game about it and he seemed to be unfamiliar with any current projects like this, so i was assuming that the bank idea is either defunct or not a very popular way to go for money. The issue of repayment is a very serious issue, especially considering the volitile nature of player activity. One day they're there, then you dont see em for months....perhaps someone should give it alot of consideration, but how much should their account suffer for fake money? Would this system generate fun for everyone involved, or animosity?

just curious

Hehehe....

for a topic like this, you need to create a new thread to get a good response dude.

And, hopefully this isn't offensive in any way, but David Linden joined the game after this whole bank thing occured, so he's not really familiar with the past.

But, hey, I wasn't around during this whole bank thing either, so I have no idea how to answer your questions. Bring up a new topic and that'll help get the conversation flowing about this subject again

What if the server crashes and the script is restarted???

Mark read the posting dates.

This thread has been resurrected from its grave

ideally this would be run through email(if/when emailing into the system gets working) so all transactions are kept in order outside of SL. I think it is a great idea personally, we just don't have all the tools necessary yet.

Wow.. blast from the past <G>

Yes, the loan script did email me -- nothing was stored in it. The script did *not* give out the loan monies -- I did that manually, av-face to av-face.

There's been no animosity, but...

I'm currently owed about $8000. I haven't made a loan in over two months, so the ones out there -are- "overdue". I haven't and won't be handing out negative ratings. I'll remind the people who still owe me money when/as/if I see them in world again, but ...

Here's the thing -- a lot of people don't want to pay back interest monies. They want to pay back the interest (and sometimes the principal as well) in textures or sounds or scripts.

I really think the whole in world banking industry needs to wait until there's a way to automatically collect payments, but that's just my thinking on it. I've gotten to the point where I no longer "loan" money -- I flat out give it or pay for a "consulting fee" or something like that.

Anyone who's still thinking about starting some type of bank operation in world, if you have any specific questions, I'm always available - for a small consulting fee (<G>.

Thanks for the update Shebang. i agree with you about the 'in-game' support for such a system. Banking seems too serious of a business to be run with so much hanging in the air (e.g. Dissapearing loanees, questionable repayment methods, no insurance, no enforcement, etc, etc...) I'll have to go visit your bank for fun...or does it no longer exist?

By the way, if i had brought this question up without checking for previous threads, I'm sure i would have been reminded of that too.

It no longer exists. I got tired of paying the taxes on the objects when no one was even applying for a loan, ya know?



Oh absolutely. But it wouldn't have been in a mean-spirited "you really should learn to search the forums before you speak" kind of way. It would've just been meant as "oh yeah, that was tried, why don't you check this thread to see if there's any info in it that can help you with your endeavor?"

Yeah, it's kinda a catch-22, i don't like to really drag out a old long thread since people not familiar with it would tend to read and comment on some of it as if it were recent. That can be troublesome since many of the original posters may no longer be active anymore, or the information is horribly out of date and discussed on another seemingly unrelated thread, etc...oh well, so it goes.

Awww, no more bank? i was looking for a loan! =)