Support Network for VAT Victims?

It saddens me to see the number of our European friends who are leaving SL due to the latest blow of imposing the VAT tax.

There's not a lot I can do about that...I'm not a lawyer or a diplomat or an LL employee.

But something Alicia said got me thinking. She noted in another thread that she'd gladly follow us to a new and better virtual world, if and when one is created. That's all well and good...but how will we know her, and how will she know us?

In other words, how can we keep in touch with our friends who are leaving SL?

A couple of possibilities come to mind.
1. People who are leaving, downgrade to a free Basic account. Log on to the forums once in a while and keep in touch. Disadvantage: When LL either discontinues the forums, or finally goes under due to mismanagement, we lose our line of communication. The loss could be very sudden, without warning.

2. People who are leaving, create a free anonymous email account on hotmail, etc., using your SL avatar name. We could maybe even compile a directory. Disadvantage: Somebody needs to be the clearinghouse and librarian for the email directory.

3. Everybody could register as users on one of the third party SL-related forums, and stay in touch there. Which one should we use as our "mail system"?

Does anybody else have thoughts or ideas about this? Whatever we do, we need to to do it quickly. The hemmorhaging has already begun.

bump.

msn or yahoo or a website registry something for people waiting for a stable virt world
but yahoo and msn would prolly be the easyest to do.

VERY cool post tho
Ya I have alot of friends from europe that will prolly leave most of the old times I know have gone already but I chat with them on msn.
it does kinda feel that SL is dieing now to many BAD screw ups has sent to many good people packing up and leaveing

It's bad and unfortunant that the European users of SL have had this tax imposed on them. And the ones who leave because of it will undoubtedly be missed by many of us (my favorite clothing/hair/shoe/skin designer is Euporean). However, how can LL be held responsible for the value added tax? It's something I'm sure they did not want...........for the same reasons the Europeans did not want. SL's stability and business mismanagement has nothing to do with this tax being added.

ya actually it does lol
the VAT got added when LL moved billing to the UK

What a nice thought. But are that many Europeans really threatening to leave SL completely? I know Island or multi-sim owners are going to be hit hard, especially those truly wonderful people who operate their island or land on a non-profit basis, but for me the increase is about the price of a pint in a London bar. It's hardly make or break.

A good move would be to step up financial support for people who create great places to visit without any commercial motive. We could all nominate places we believe deserve donations.

Aside: What pisses me - and many others - off is YET AGAIN the lack of warning or any communication whatsoever from LL.

You said it cousin. Just another example of what an incompetent , 3rd rate business LL is running. They might be technical whizzes, that I'm not qualified to say, but the rest of their operation stinks.

Perhaps we can have a Forum Cartel rent party and use proceeds to prop up some of our Euro friends.....

With 40% of our users being affected by this, it better be one hell of a successful party. But the thought is nice.

OK a Cartel Savings and Loan...never mind, bad idea. Uhmmmmm Credit Union? We can kick in and offer no interest loans.....I know, I'm grasping at straws, but I'm not virtual worldly like you guys.

And we Europeans could set up a fund for people who are forced to live in New Jersey. Hey, there's always someone worse off than you)

Word on the street is Ginko's preparing a Eurobond issue.

Shhhh, Godwins's law has now been extended to incluce any mention of Ginko)

still have a domain free to install some portal system and free for all wave ur rights to breath ruled (fuckoff if u can`t take it) forum

if anyone knows a good system i can download and install, i`ll gladly make it available aslong some are willing to keep it abit tidy for it not to get abused

...not _that_ Ginko, Chas... I mean this one:

http://www.ginkojapaneserestaurant.ca/

Actually it's being changed..to Ginko's Law.

ROTFL

This is another one of the disgusting restrictive and short term things that LL has done to this once free thinking virtual world in the last year... it is a serious sign that things are going very wrong

despicable policy

phpBB is a nice and simple system. I've read very good reviews on it and a couple of friends use it in their sites.

http://www.phpbb.com

.d

I apologise for bumping this up, but I've been away for a few weeks and when I saw references to VAT.... had to go through all the blogs and all the residents comments. I gave up when I got to here I had no idea about this until tonight and, while I appreciate some threads offering thoughts of support to EU people, that won't be enough to make me stay. By the way, I am not a European: I am English. My current payment to LL is about £17 per month and I can cope with that. The vat increase is 17.5% - but you need to understand the psychology behind this: at £17, it's only a little over £15... and the increase will take it to over £20. Psychologically - almost a 25% increase. I hope you see what I mean... I have a little place on the mainland, which I've really enjoyed playing with, and I like having a base... a 'place' of my own. Also - I think I've made it really nice (within the constraints of a water lot - limited landscaping)... it makes me really very sad to leave it. Silly really; it's just a cartoon place in a cartoon world... but I really liked it. So I'll be downgrading to a free account, which puts me on a level with all those who visit but don't invest anything. Sad.

Cesce, I do think it's sad that costs go up, especially as it's a government thing, rather than just an increased cost of service. But I'd like to pick up on two of your comments:

Europeans are defined as people that live in a European country. Last time I looked, England was considered part of Europe, and is even in the EU. You may not *think* of yourself as European, but most of the evidence would indicate the contrary.

I get a little miffed at those that assume that non-Premium accounts do not contribute anything to the SL economy. Many bring in money through the Lindex all the time. In fact, I would suggest that the better the SL experience is, the more money the non-premium accounts are willing to bring in - I don't have numbers but it seems like commonsense to me. This would be an incentive to LL to actually make things better in SL, rather than sitting back on their laurels and waiting for the premium fees to come in. There is a whole spectrum of non-Premium users, from campers all the way up to people who probably contribute *more* to the economy than Premiums.

Sorry to derail this discussion... now back to your previously-scheduled topic..

VAT is a fact of life. I really don't see how anyone can be called a victim of it as a result.

Victim of a scam, yes.

Victim of a fraud.

Sorry - pedantic maybe, and I have every sympathy for people who have been affected badly by the VAT thing. I don't consider them to be victims though.

I am sitting at work here, interrupted in writing this, by a girl I work with telling me that her second operation to remove tumours has to be a major one not keyhole ... and she's smiling. She isn't a victim, she's a survivor.

I suspect a lot of people here will find other ways to cope with these things.

Bravo to you, cousin.

Over £20? OOOOOOOOOOer.

Sorry but come on ... you don't have £20 to spend on an entertainment budget? Keeping Brenda in undies costs more than that a month!!

I wish my costs were £20.

Are Ginko Nazi's now?

***edit*** LOL ... I meant to say not Nazi's yet ... and I Godwin myself.