Nasty tier rumour

I agree and considering they are feeling their way in a business that is still embryonic and they are the first in this space (and I mean exact space, not alike in a passing way!) I don't find this all that surprising, in fact it is to be expected.

Yes, there is a long history of well-intentioned false starts, and they certainly are pioneers in numerous areas. But I must acknowledge that it's not COMPLETELY random.

I sense a bit of Microsoft thinking in a lot of things they do. Microsoft likes to make changes to their products that will make their products simpler and more attractive to new users- even if those changes piss off existing customers. The thinking, I reckon, is "existing users will get used to it, plus they're not going anywhere anyway- they don't have a choice." When Linden Lab makes a decision that forces business owners to change their business models or close up shop altogether, you can be sure they knew that would be a consequence ahead of time. But they're not thinking about the extremely small minority of SL users who actually make a profit in Second Life; they're thinking about the masses of people who create SL accounts, log in once, and then never log back in again. Let the oldbies and olderbies fend for themselves (it's not like they've got anywhere else to go)- it's the newbies they're interested in appeasing.

They just don't always make the right decisions. (See the now defunct orientation island "upgrade" of 2007/200.

Which begs the question: "And what about private sims? Class 4 and Class 5? Same answer?"

This was not covered in the chat with Jack so I do not know their stance. There are rumours of course but i doubt there is any official word at all except with Openspaces and you know all about that presumbly.
I try not to speculate personally.

My psychic rock says that you are correct - something will change over the next two years. *grin*

I highly doubt they are going to increase mainland tier. After all, they are looking at ways to make premium accounts MORE attractive, not less and 512 of land is not enough to build on.

and you only realise 512 is sooooo small once you get one then you need more...the rest is history Merry Christmas!

You kidding!? (O_O)

/me hugs her 512 parcel.. "I LOVE this thing!" =^-^=

The stepped tier system is pretty good for discouraging me from making ridiculous land purchases I don't really really need which is a good thing

On the subject of grandfathering, my opinion that probably doesn't sit too well with my partner is that the grandfather status should end on transfer and probably should have been that way when the maintenance fee was locked in at the beginning, with LL having a duty, morally at least (stop laughing at the back) to keep their deal with the customers who entered into that contract. I don't think they really owe that courtesy to subsequent owners of the grandfathered islands.

well with the prim count on slot machines going down i could fit alot of machines down on a small piece of land.

The reason is that the grandfathered sims are actually inferior (class 4 rather than class 5). Putting the tier up on transfer would leave owners unable to sell them on, as nobody would buy a lower class sim unless there was some benefit to make up for it.

There was a recent statement by a Linden, maybe Jack, that he believed they had no class 4s left now.