How did I deserve this?

Last week, when I tried to log in, one of those short startup messages suggested, that I check my account balance. After login was complete and was surprised to see, that my weekly stipend was now estimated at 900L$. I was totally surprised and still do not understand that.

I am on a premium account and expect to get 500 L$ stipend per week. I have read somewhere that you get more when you create things, have an extremely good rating or have lots of other residents coming to your land. (There was also a lot of discussion about some changes to this mechanism by the Lindens, around the time I joined.)

Nothing of this is true form me. Until now all I have created is some furniture. My rating is that of a typical newbie. I like to rate other people and always rate back. But I am not a very social animal. Often I am more of a hermit, stay at my house, stroll through some of the more beautiful parts of SL or experiment in one of the sandboxes. And there is only my house on the land I own – which is far from spectacular. So where does the money come from? I definitely did not 'earn' it.

Uh.... divine intervention?

On a more serious note: The changes were already well in effect when you joined (I think- Feb 2005, yes?). But in any case- welcome to SL!

Keep at building- we always need more talented builders in SL. And who knows, you might make a buck or two.

Are you a member of any groups? If so, you may be receiving group dividends in addition to your regular weekly stipend. These can come in the form of dividends from sales of group-owned items and/or traffic (dwell) dividends from group owned land.

Thanks for the warm welcome, Lance.

But I really would like to understand that stipend and bonus thing. Especially after all the heated discussion in Feb. And, Yes, I joined at the beginning of Feb (read about SL and checked the blogs and forums for a week before, though.) Is there some info on it anywhere? The system I mean?

And building is fun. Lotsa fun. I am not the visual creative type, though. And I am always in awe at what the oldtimers can do. Maybe I will be more into the software side of SL. Will have to see ...

I am, but got more or less by accident into these groups. I don't think, they are very ... profitable It's an idea, though.

Hihi Kim As a matter of fact, yus there is a formula for determining stipend. Refer to Jeska's post here:

/16/fc/38681/1.html

Hope this answers your Q!

As people with inflated ratings lose them, it's possible that a lot of other people will have increased stipends... but 80% increase... you sure it wasn't from traffic? Have a party or two?

Sorry, Hiro. No party! Sigh.

You know ... I am really more the hermit type. Reminds me, that we talked about meeting F2F in SL. Got some time this weekend? Would drive up my dwell too, I think

Thanks, Torley. You never fail to amaze me. Do you read EVERY post on the forums? Do you never sleep?

Haha, I'm usually in awe with what some people build, too. I can't build my way out of- er, into? a paper bag.

Just checked it out. I understand the formula for highscores. The explanation for bonus seems a little ... terse; though.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I have anything against 'Lindens for free' (I promise, I will spend it all for rating). Just would like to understand.

Lance, the nice thing with SL is, that even though I have two left hands in RL (and all thumbs), I can build anything at all in SL. And some of it is beautiful. Even though it costs a lot of time. I spend nearly a full day building my first furniture (add to that 3 hours in the Ivory Tower.) But anyway: Thats a kind of enabling technology which amazes me much more than virtual clubbing or prepping up my avvie

Oh, and I forgot to mention, if you need any scripting help, give me a ring.. though I'm not on as much these days.

Pffft, we'll change that. I'll bring some friends and the keg. You provide the music and the liquor and the matrix movie trivia, k?


This weekend = eh, we'll see; it's my weekend to work RL and I have a lot of work SL to do. If you see me online drop me an IM. Next week is a whole lot better.

LOL. Hiro you are ... great! OK. I will organize lots of booze. Even though I suspect dark intentions behind the suggestion of 'matrix trivia'! No one would beat you at that game. I read your ramblings. Very enlightening. (I just did not find the time to respond, cause I am travelling a lot. Sigh.)

NP. It's not 'urgent'! And don't wanna disturb your work. Can't wait to try out the pose cubes. Next week it is.

Put simply every Monday night/Tuesday morning the system compiles everyones rates into a table. For EACH catagory the top 50% will get a bonus payment. So that's a posibility of 4 bonuses. One for the weekly gain in each catagory, and one for your overal rate level.
So out of 15,000 users, if you come say 1300 in the table, you are in the top 10% and so recieve L$100. You could be in the top 10% for each list, Weekly Apprearence, weekly behavior, weekly building and overal rate. that would give you a bonus of L$400, added to your Stipend of $500, gives you a total payout of L$900.

How much did you say your estimate shows?

Thanks, Surina, now I am beginning to get an idea

The estimate was 900L$ (400 Bonus). Maybe I had a good weekly score... The absolute numbers definitly would not justify such a bonus. Or the system simply made an error

I think you'd be suprised at how low your rates can be and still get a bonus. Since the culling of the old rates, some of which were over 2 years old, some very high rate scores have dissapeared. Add to this the slowdown in new ratings due to the increased cost and it becomes very easy to gain a bonus.