Yay!

YAY!YAY!YAY!
I LOVE SL TYTYTY
"Referral Program Changes

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Effective today, we will be eliminating the $L1000 bonus for Basic Referrals.

The reasoning behind this move is twofold:

1. With the move to a Free model and the elimination of the credit card requirement, it has become increasingly difficult to justify economically

2. There has been a profusion of Referral-farming in recent weeks and we wish to eliminate the negative effect this may have on the L$ market value

Going forward, we will evaluate the effect of this change on the Linden dollar and implement a form of Referral Bonuses that makes more sense with Free Basic accounts. We have always valued all members of Second Life and will continue to do so; we just need to construct a way of showing that appreciation that doesn't present such a risk of abuse."

Hmm, this kinda sucks, because I recruit a good many people to SL, but I understand why they did it. Hopefully this will help the economy.

I agree with the removal of the basic referral bonus...

I pay for my teir with $L. As the value of those $L drop it gets harder to pay for my teir. Eventually I'd have to raise prices on products and rentals to make ends meet.

I'd rather get rid of refferal bonuses on free accounts than have to raise prices to deal with the inflated economy. LOL I even found myself asking a few friends to sign up just so I'd get the bonus.

This one bonus probably did more harm than it does good because if the game is good I'm not going to stop reccomending it simply because I'm not longer getting anything out of it. I am going to stop asking people to sign up (telling them to try it out when I know they won't really play) just to get that nifty bonus.

Personally, I'd still pester my friends to join. Providing a good SL experience is a better carrot than L$1,000 anyway.

So there won't be any CC required? How will they make it so we all can't have 300 alts?

Sounds good to me.

Without the $1000L kicker at the start, farming basic accounts for less than 20cents US a week seems shear lunacy to me, even with possible automation.

It takes you almost half a year to accumulate what you were getting instantly in one hit before...

There should still be a bonus for second and third accounts, since Linden Labs gets ten bucks for each of them and you can get L$1000 for a good deal less than ten bucks... and if the account's upgraded to premium you should get the same bonus as if they started out premium.

Nimrod, they are going to notice if someone has more than a couple of alts and then they'll ask for a credit card. You only get the first one free.

Argent, that is what they are trying to put an end to. You don't need more than two or three accounts, top. You might need two, one for testing stuff built by the other, for example, or to have an alt without a heavy inventory load, but why would you need more? Anyhow, you shouldn't get a bonus for having alts.

I checked. The alternative to using a credit card is to verify ID via a cell phone. They send a text message to your cell phone, and you have to reply. So instead of needing a bunch of credit cards, you'd need a bunch of valid, functioning cell phone numbers.

They also seem to have dropped using PayPal as a start-up method.

Why people try to see from their point of view only?
one can need 4 primary alt accounts if he has 5 sims to pay the tier at the different times of the month. Maybe paying 5X$195 at once in a month is bad for him and wants to pay 5 different times in a month?!
Just dont pay stipend if needed. Or can limit basic alt accounts but if one wants to play 5 different CHARACTERS or if one needs 5 different account, he can have them as primary accounts. I am paying for all of my alts monthly premium fee. I am not using them for FARMING. Dont pay me stipend base or something, dont pay referral bonus or something like this. But if i want to PURCHASE 5 different accounts. I MUST BE able to buy.



I agree at this point. Dont pay bonus for alts.

I think we're talking about different things.

If you refer someone, and they sign up with a basic account, then go on to get a second account (and thus pay LL) or upgrade to Premium from Basic (and thus pay LL), shouldn't you get some kind referral bonus at that time?

Though now you mention it I don't even see why LL would object to self-referrals for second accounts: the US$10 for the second account would have netted you L$2700 at LindeX and Linden Labs would only get US$0.35 of it right away... seems like they're ahead of the game even if you get L$1250 instead of L$250 with the new account.