L$1 a freebie or not ?

I've been in SL over a year now and I had months and months of living on camping and freebies, so I really sympathise with cash strapped newbies.

I still prefer to buy skin demos for L$0. If L$1 items are referred to as dollarbies, fine.
One penny isn't the same as free in real life....dead cheap, yes, free....no.

Camping spots are now harder to find than they were in summer 2007...and the big camping sims like HippiePay seem to have vanished. Have a heart for the poor newbies...set it to L$0, please.

It would be better to say "There was a time when scripted vendors couldn't deliver couldn't deliver freebies." Because the NCI freebie walls and Arcadia Asylum vendors work just fine. Then again, they may be freebie-specific vendors. (^_^)y

YOU CAN NOT PAY 0L. It's impossible.

The NCI vendors can not be using "PAY" (money) as their trigger. If they are scripted delivery devices, they are probably using touch... which makes them "givers" (like landmark/notecard givers) not "vendors".

You can touch a scripted "giver" for 0L, you can "buy" for 0L, you can even "take a copy" (when it works) for 0L, but you can't "pay" 0L.

L$1 > L$0

That said, it's only a Linden. And, to paraphrase someone else on th' group, I voted no, but it's more of a no-ish.

I bet if we asked someone who has big business and sell their demo's at 1L if they think 1L is free they will say no (I am sure those 1L's from the demo's add up very quickly when 1000's of people are buying lots of demo's)

I voted no, 1L is not free and should not be advertised as such

nearly free, almost free, and dollarbie would be an adequate and acceptable descriptions in my book

anyone who sets their stuff to 1L and claims it as a freebie are falsely advertising (in my opinion)

do I feel 1L is a lot of money, of course not, however technically it is not free

Time for a history lesson with Uncle FlipperPA!

Adding to Winter's excellent summary, it used to be that L$0 transactions were NOT tracked in any way in account history. As a work around to track popularity of items, L$1 was charged - about 1/3rd of a penny - I've never understood the gripe.

Then again, I've never understood why people expect customer service on items they get for free - or for less than the cost of a soda. If you go to buy a soda, and it doesn't come out of the machine, would you really contact Coca Cola demanding satisfaction? I consider my own time a little more valuable than that.

I guess it is part of the role play.

[Disclaimer: I've been told I have excellent customer service.]

Regards,

-Flip

Lindens can be sold for real currency in real life. If you're on benefits due to a disability or similar you have far less disposable income, if any. A close friend of mine who is paralysed from the neck down uses SL to escape for a while. She relies on gifts of cash from friends. So every last little linden counts for her.

Call L$1 items dollarbies and L$0 items freebies. Simple.

Nope, not a freebie but certainly close. I concur that I wouldn't call it a freebie cause there are those just coming in who are particularly clingy to every $L they might have made camping or plucking from trees (I was) and even though it's certainly close to free, it's not and the prospective buyer needs to be able to make that choice of whether they want to let go of one of their precious $L. *hee*

For me, a 1L item is not a freebie. As already pointed out, those 1L's add up. I have in the past 'sold' freebies, set for 0L, anything for 1L is called a dollarbie so folks know what to expect.

Not a freebie.

For anyone with a reasonable SL income stream, a L$1 item is *practically* free. But that doesn't cut much ice when you have L$0 in your account. If you have no money, L$1 is as out of reach as $L1000. So someone searching for freebies is usually expecting exactly that. They generally don't want to wait for things to rez, orient themselves and then find there's nothing in their price range.

Free is for nothing,zilch,nada.1L$ is not...........I think if you pay 1L$ for a demo and don't like it, a refund is in order.I am not fond of rip offs even small ones. Dollarbie sounds fun and should be used more often.
Slightly off topic,I am always amused by the term "Penny Loafer" I am not from the US.Were they for sale for a penny?I bet they cost more now.LOL

They actually didn't cost a penny, they were loafters that had a kind of strap or tassle on them. People started to put a penny in the strap, and then they began to be called penny loafters. I used to wear them in the 80's for that classic preppy look.

well i have adopted the term "dollarbies" in my description, and set a large portion of my files of all types to L$0 to avoid any future dissapointments

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Instead of "Just a Dollar" why not "Just a Linden" if Dollarbie is dumb

I like the idea of using the phrase "not quite freebies"... you get the benefit of truth in advertising, while still getting the search-friendliness of using the word "freebie" in your description. While I'd definitely use the term "dollarbie" as well, making sure you work the word "free" and 'freebie" into the description is a great way too take advantage of SL's loose "search relevance" subroutines.

"A great place for new users (newbies) to find dollarbies and cheap items. While they're not all freebies, they are inexpensive and great quality. Whether you're getting dressed up for a night at the club, or you're just hunting for a new shop or mall to bring your friends, Our selection of great items can't be beat."

That single paragraph is going to get positive hits on:

new user
newbie
dollarbie
cheap items
freebies
inexpensive
quality
shop
mall
selection

Funny thing, is how keywords can mix and match in search. So even if you're not intentionally misrepresenting your business, you can come up with some surprising results. And a few people can show up in your shop, who might be looking for something else.

great night club
inexpensive mall
freebie hunting

But that's more of an indictment of the powers that be at LL who designed the search system.. rather than the shop owner using the above paragraph.

That's just over 3 centavos in Mexico

Like "not quite a virgin"?

Pep (You can't be just a "little bit" pregnant)

If one has the resources to have a computer capable of running Second Life and a high speed connection it's unlikely that one lacks the ability to purchase L$. More often than not people are just too cheap to buy L$. There's nothing wrong with that but the idea that someone would have the audacity to complain to and loft accusations at a resident who is trying to help the SL community by supplying L$1 items for other residents' use and enjoyment really rubs me the wrong way. I'd write such people off as ingrateful SL leeches and put them on ignore.

That being said freebie does imply free so a L$1 item, however charitable and well intentioned is not really a freebie. I wouldn't worry about it though. I doubt Linden Lab is going to take issue with it and personally if I were searching for freebies I would want to catch $L1 items in my search as well.

lol, i highly doubt that too , i was more concerned about the average visitor experience

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While that might be true in the majority of cases, it is absolutely not true in at least one case that I know of and possibly many more similar cases (based on some stories I have heard). I know someone with a pretty awesome computer - that was donated to them via a local charity project - because that computer is pretty much their only link to the outside world. Our charity project provides them with enough money to cover the internet cable hookup, pay for a variety of online venue membership fees and a bit extra for their discretionary spending on other online stuff.

Maybe scripted vendors should have a touch-to-acquire mode? Is there a reason they must use the money event?

Thanks for the thorough explanation, BTW.

I have some items that are freebies, and some that are "dollarbies". In general, people pick up more freebies than dollarbies. So why have dollarbies at all? Those are generally things that would have sold for a few hundred if I hadn't made them a freebie.

This sounds silly, but I think having to pay a Linden makes people pause and think "Do I really want this?". If they really want it and are going to use it, I'm happy to share. Perhaps that doesn't really make sense, but it feels right to me.

There's another reason for charging L$1 for what is essentially a "freebie". Although today we do have 0L$ transactions tracked, there is no easy way to sort those out from the 0L$ trasactions that are created when you give someone a notecard, or a snapshot, or...

Charging 1L$ usually puts these items in a class by themselves in the transaction records.

Many scripted and networked vending systems do allow an item to be purchased for L$1, and to have that L$1 refunded immediately on delivery. But a lot of the free vendors don't do that oprion.

Also, the practice of charging L$ 1 for a "freebie" dates back to when even the lowest Basic account still got a stipend of L$50 per week. So paying L$1 was nothing, back then.

For the locations that are giving out lots of stuff mostly intended for newbies, I think the should be completely FREE.

For designers that set out items sometimes for people that come into the store, I have no problem with charging L$1 -- though it should not be called a Freebie (dollarbie is fine with me). I think that the L$1 lets the designer better track the item and recoup a bit of the cost of the time put into making the item and uploading the texture -- many of these types of dollarbies do have a picture on the box.

I suppose which side of this debate you stand on, is pretty important. I have a sim and dedicated a room for freebees. About 150ish boxes and counting. And they are all 100% free. It is not the $1 that most people complain about. It is the fact that it is any money at all really. The ethical decision I made to give away freebees relied heavily on the fact that I collected them for about 3 years. And I got them for free as well. So if the creator intended them for free, for all sorts of reasons. Some are limited or restricted editions, some are still full perm, some were business in a box type things I got that give away, single copy, for free. Either way if these are not my work, and realistically they are not. This is a collection of free things, that I got for free, and give away for free as well. If I happened to charge one dollar, I am going against the wishes of the original creators. And as for the items I contributed myself, I should hope they exist as freebees as well. If they happen to be given away to somebody else.