The End of Premiums

The End of Premiums

Why are you hanging on to this stupid premium account for the Linden $$ stipends, that's like highway robbery?! Hang it up, dump that stupid 512 you're not even using, go buy $2,979 worth of Lindens for $9.95 on the LindEx for crying out loud -- at today's rates of $334 L/$1.00 USD! Better yet, buy $22.50 USD *right now this evening* -- that will instantly get you $7,326 LL at the instant buy rate of $325/$1.00. That's $1,326 more Lindens than you'll get hanging around waiting for your box to fill up for 90 days with that $6,000 off the premium quarterly subscription.The Lindens will still come into your box "like magic" from Linden Lab and they will still invisibly charge your credit card!

Wow I cant belive i didnt realize this, the greatest argument for premium stipen removal: you get a crap load more for your money on the exchange. Ontop of that it removes the huge inlet of "illigetimate" money from the market.

/me goes and contimplates why it didnt hit him before

PS: do you have to be a premium user to own land?

Yes you do. Several folk have commented that it may be a better system to dump the premium account offer and go with a straight land tier system.

I don't look at paying my premium account as away to get my allowance.

Yes, i use the 512 for some spare land I don't use much, but i do use it.

I look at my premium account as a way to show my support for LL, if everyone left the premium account, then LL would show even less profit then they do, so would mean less staff, less upgrade etc, etc..so it is the least I can do to show my support for a great product that have given me loads of fun, after all if I was worred about that 9.95, I would just not have to eat out once this month and it is taken care of, or not go to a movie (which 9.95 is about 1/3 of that cost).

So it is a way to show my support, not a way to get my spending money in SL.

26,000L/$72 is 361L$/$
Rent for 512 of land - $1000L/mo - or an additional 12,000L

So call me when the Sell offers are locked above 530L/1US - because thats what it'll cost me to replace my premium account

That could be a very good idea

I'm with Ranma. Dump the free accounts.

Didn;t hit you before because the current exchange rate of L$ is to large degree a result of this very "illegitimate" stipend money being routinely inserted into economy and cashed out.

Once this aspect is removed, the L$ is drained out of economy (as sinks are still in place) ... rate goes up as money becomes in increasing shortage, and there goes the argument of "you can buy it at better rate from lindeX than you get it with the premium". Because it's then no more the case. So ironically, if your desire is to get the most L$ for your USD, then it's in your best interest to have the premiums still around... (although it might make more sense to _personally_ not have such account)

It will be the case. Linden Lab can sell new lindens on the Lindex to keep the valuation stable and prevent deflation. It will defray the some of the cost of getting rid of premiums.

Alternatively they can keep things the way it is, and not bear any costs of getting rid of premiums whatsoever. After all, if the current situation results in LL getting their premium fees and non-premium members being able to buy L$ cheaper than with premium... there's very little incentive for LL to kill their own profits (and while L$ exchange rate might sink even further, this mainly affects the aforementioned premium members with their fixed stipends)

There's a huge incentive Jonnah. As the Linden devalues, premium account stipends become worth less and less.

When the linden is selling for 500 or 1000 to 1 USD, the stipend won't be a good reason to get a premium account anymore.

As Prokofy has pointed out in the past, it's already getting to the point where unless you want land, it's better to just buy $10 on lindex each month. Pretty soon even the quarterly and yearly deals won't be worth it for the stipends.

So what should LL do then? Double the stipends? That's a real downward spiral, it'll devalue twice as fast then. LL isn't on a sustainable course right now. Something *will* have to be done. Cutting new basic stipends and bonuses only staves off the inevitable.

This is true, but then it sort of depends on the premium account owners actually acting upon this devaluation, by switching to basic accounts ^^

and even if/when they do? Then what you have is a gradual transition, both in terms of LL profit from the premiums, and in the amount of stipends being injected into system every week. (which reduces along with amount of active premiums) While the alternative of removing all stipends at once means much harsher, immediate consequence on LL's bottom line and the state of SL economy. So overall it really may be more convenient for LL to let things run the way they do, and allow eventual changes happen at their own pace... than enforce them overnight.

Removal of the stipends = Punishing the premium account holders for the mistakes of greedy individuals on LindEx. These individuals could just as easily bring up the value of the L$ if they wanted to but the fact is they dont want to sit around and wait for their money to sell. You claim that LL can introduce new money into the economy to balance it out well there creates another problem especially for those that do cash out.

They need to cash out below what LL would be selling for then to sell faster and then you just end up with the trend we have now continuing on. See the thing is there really isnt a solution to this problem without creating some horribly twisted thing favoring one side or the other. The stipends help keep a balanace of the two. If people have such a problem with their stipend give it to me go help out a basic account holder that no longer gets any L go do something with it other then spend it on yourself or use it to cash in on something.

We all rely on the stipend. Any of us that have ever bought anything in SL have relied on it. Any of us that have ever bought L of LindEx have relied on someones stipend somewhere. Any of us that sell products rely on it. The stipend is in fact a signifgant part of Sl's structure wether you want to admit it or not. It allows those that come here for leisure to be more leisurely.

And to the people coming together for bringing back the 10 dollar charge for basic accoutns they need to reintroduce basic stipends then or its really just stupid. Thats why they got rid of the stipends cuz of complaining like this then the accounts became free to sign up for. Lets not forget if these people want any money in SL really they have to be given it or have a valid form of payment. And we could just as easily get kids or greifers with or without it. If they know how to sign up for an online service and are ready to do that kind of stuff they are probably going to lie about their age.

People need to realize more and more what actually makes up the economy of SL. The value of the linden isnt going to go up as long as LL can put in a balance either as i said it will continue on its trend. There isnt some little balanced area you all are hoping to acheive without LL just setting some basic interval of which people cant go above or below in the value of L.

Bad idea Ranma. Especially limiting access to SL. If thats how you wanna play go to There because that is the same stuff they do and it is unenjoyable as hell. Thats a big draw to SL your not limited because you cant pay and i dont think its really fair to expect them to. Folks rallied to get rid of the stipends so much and they got rid of the basic stipends and basic signup bonus for new accounts which now really have no incentive to be a pay account.

You may look at the new signups as a bad thing but we're going to get greifers one way or another and if they want money in SL they gotta provide a form of payment one way or another. I for one look at it as better oppurtunity however i do view it as unfair that their stipend and signup bonus was taken away so i can see why LL did what they did. You people rally for something then dont like the other outcomes that come with it well tough luck your the ones that called for this.

As i said before there isnt a balanced area without LL controlling things...

The 'dump the basic stipend' campaign was an amazingly effective piece of astroturfing. Textbook example, almost.

Prok, I have a question: Are you a landowner in SL? If so, why all the 'Do as I say and not as I do' as regards holding a premium account?