Stipend as Welfare

Stipend payments occasionally are discussed here. But is stipend really that important? Does anyone rely on it to survive in sl?
It's barely enough to buy hair or an animation.
I never notice if it's paid in to my account - do you?

you should of had I don't get stipends at all.

I'm in a situation where I have to combat with my family just to get permission to spend money online in any way. Even the two times I paid my $72 annual premium fee were tumultuous events at my house. (>_<

So, yes, stipend is very important to me. I'm working inworld jobs and selling items to make more L$, but, I do depend on my stipend to give me some daily spending monies. (^_^)

And... L$300 Can't buy hair or animation? (O.o) What stores are you going to? (o.O)

I played this little game with my wife a few times... "Let's not spend any money until ...".
Have to admit its easier when you play it during a time when you're AFK for longer periods... vacation etc. Anyways, during such a game the stipend piles up quite nicely, especially when your premium's old enough to still get the old 500L/wk.

I voted 'I depend on stipend payments' because they keep the economic side of my Second Life ticking over as I make very few sales these days. I don't really depend on my L$400 a week as such, but I've never bought L$ - the only RL payment I've made for an in-world transaction was one land purchase a long time ago. Of course, I pay my Premium subscription and my monthly tier, but I've kept to my rule that my in-world income should come from in-world and not be subsidised by pumping in ££££'s My aim has been to make my Second Life self-financing, which it was for a short time a long time ago, but that hasn't been the case for ages (

because i only had $165L in my account, today was the first time i noticed stipend in 4 years. Woo Hoo $500L! I'm buying something to wear!

I like my stipend.
And I PAY for it so its not welfare.
I suspect you are just calling it "welfare" because many people hate that word so much that if you compare it to welfare they will automatically not want it.

In truth some people prefer to buy their game money as part of a yearly subscription rather than individual purchases on the lindex.
If the premium account did not give a stipend I wouldn't have originally taken it. And I wont buy money on lindex as I don't want to.

By selling me L$ as part of a subscription, LL makes money that they wouldn't otherwise make since I wont buy money on the lindex

People who have money in RL can simply take a premium account subscription and forget about all those tacky little purchases on the lindex.

I have 3 premium accounts each paying me 500L$ per week. If there was an option for larger amounts per week for more money per year when I signed up, I would have taken it and LL would have made more money from me.

Stipends are absolutely not welfare, thank you very much, and anybody who thinks so needs to look up what welfare is all about.

I get a stipend, and I pay for it. It's not a handout. I don't expect something for nothing like many people who haven't bothered to go premium, everything I have in SL I have earned. I work hard for any L$ I have coming in that I do not pay for in one way or another. Not by sitting in a camping chair either, I actually interact with people and provide them some kind of extra value from their time spent in SL.

When I was Premium the stipend was inconsequential to me, but I don't consider it welfare. More like a tax refund.

I signed up for premium when LL announced they were reducing the stipend from 500L to $300L. When I was new to the SL, I heavily depended on it along with profits from gambling and camping when it was lucrative. Since gambling and you might as well say camping (as I knew it) is gone, I have a greater appreciation for it. But I don't depend on it as much because I buy lindens now. However, it does come in handy when your buy order takes days to complete as I have just experienced.

That stipend allowed me to buy 7 Seas bait which I ended up winning over 2k in a contest. Not to mention, I believe it helps keeps our sl economy afloat. Especially for those that may not be in a position to buy lindens. If they want to purchase an item, they will simply wait for Stipend Tuesday to come. My stipend will pay for 5 dresses at Lemania's if I catch them at the $100.00 price before she raises the price.

I definitely don't look at is as welfare.

I have two Basic accounts that are old enough to still get the L$50 a week stipend, and no Premium accounts. Most of my accounts get no stipend at all, and couldn't care less. But that is largely because I run a profitable set of businesses in SL, and virtually always have a positive L$ income every week, even without the stipend.

On my main, I have to look hard to even notice the Stipend. My business income from texture sales and other activities in SL greatly exceeds the weekly stipend income, on any given day.

My one alt that also gets a weekly stipend just sends that to my main, unless he needs money for upcoming snapshots.

When I was new, the small stipend on my Basic account was a rather important thing to me. It gave me enough L$ to do a few texture uploads and get started in business, making T-shirts. But if I wanted to do any serious shopping, I got out my credit card and bought a fistfull of L$.

I could see some sense in offering a small stipend to free accounts, for a limited period of time. Enough to make a few initial purchases, and give people a chance to see if they liked SL enough to pay real money for L$. But cut it off after a while, so people don't create free accounts just to "Farm" them for that piddling amount, and link all new free accounts to some sort of verifiable User ID, and not allow completely anonymous acount creation, only giving the stipend to the first account with that ID info.

I don't see any sense at all in buying a Premium account and then getting most of that paid back in weekly dribbles of L$300 over the year. Why should I allow LL to have the use of my money for the year, when I might not even need any of those L$, and would end up turning around and selling them to cash out again? I would MUCH rather see a very small and reasonable membership fee, that did NOT include the weekly stipend, but that gave you support access and maybe the right to own Mainland. If people need L$, they should just buy them directly.

I depend on my stipend just to be able to pay my annual subscription and to have a little patch of mainland for myself. Sad, but true. As Cortex and RockAndRoll have pointed out, stipend is not welfare as it's money we've already paid to LL. Maybe LL banks the money and earns a bit of interest on it in the meanwhile. Well, good for them as it all helps keep the good ship SL afloat.

Unlike Ceera, I do not have a profitable business to fall back on. Nor do I have the deep pockets that some players have. I wish I had! I had a business that was moderately profitable and had half a sim for a while. Nice while it lasted but no more. There's no income to be had as a performing musician in SL so I have to make do somehow.

Or maybe I should just quit SL as the market forces have already determined that what I have to offer is unwanted merchandise?

the stipend helps me to put less rl money into sl. I can have a bit more land than I could if I didn't get it.

I really haven't had to buy L's since I opened a business. I don't make tier but I don't care really since I enjoy what I do in SL and why shouldn't I pay for a bit of enjoyment? Sames as going to the movies but more comfy and much cheaper in the long run.
Still, nice they give us back a wee bit.

it was really nice at the end of the summers when i would come back into SL and have all those weeks saved up..

When I first started it paid for a little apartment (thanks Cristalle!) and allowed me to buy things I otherwise wouldnt be able to. And yes I was able to find, hair, skin, shapes, eyes, clothing, ao's etc back then sometimes on sale, or I would save up stipend, til I had enuf and would buy higher quality. It made my SL more fun for me back then. No, it isnt welfare as it was part of the deal when I went premium, so I did pay for it.

A. Stipends are not welfare.
B. Vendors love super Tuesday more than the stipends receiver since we go out and puff up the SL economy spending the 50, 300, 400 or 500 lindens on something that we would never do if we had to goto the trouble of buying the lindens.

I never noticed mine when I was premium really. It really doesn't buy much...I just buy my own lindens in bulk now.

Since I still get a $L500/week stipend, technically, at this point, my stipend pays for my annual premium membership, which gives me 512m2 of tier-free land(563m2 with group bonus) a year and something over $L5000 extra to dump back into the SL economy or to cash-out.

Times that by the five pre-6/6/06 premium accounts I have.

Why would you consider it welfare? I paid for my premium membership which includes the stipend. I don't consider anything I pay for to be "welfare".

My stipend insures I never have to put another dime into this platform. Yay for me.

I think Obama should give LL some stimulus cash for some shovel ready SL projects and for increasing our Stipend.

Stipend is not welfare! My avatar works hard for his stipend in the prim mines beneath the grid, just as every other gainfully employed avatar does.

I used to depend on my stipend, until I got my shop up and running. Once it was making enough to support itself, I look at my L$500 as padding. Great to have, but I don't think I'd miss it terribly. It's just a nice thing to have, is all.

I might be willing to swap it if LL decided to give us 1024m2 as part of the premium package.

From my SL business I know many depend on stipends. I always had a spike in sales on Stipend Day that was pretty substantial. And People often told me they were saving up their stipends to buy X or Y. I was always a little amused that LL was basically subsidizing my business.

This posting is for those who feel they don't need their stipends anymore, feel free to send them to me I will gladly accept them on your behalf.

I will make sure they are put to good use.

You are shopping in the wrong places.

I know many people that the stipend is their only money to spend in SL. My mom is on a very fixed income. I bought her a premium membership specifically so that she would have some steady dollars coming in and did not have to rely totally on the freebie stuff.

Not everyone has the type of RL financial situation that lets them spend as they please in SL.


That being said, I often forget to log in to my other account and grab her money, so sometimes she is paying me a month or so of stipends at a time.