Nothing for Something - Tipping in SL and RL

It's been asked before but times change and so do expectations for gratuities. I consider rewarding personnel in the "service industry" (who have served me) with a tip. In those terms I will give that person 15% to 20% of the total bill notwithstanding added on gratuities in the bill itself. I have always done this and I will always do it. I don't consider that overlly generous -often these people are on minimum wage scale or are students on fixed incomes. Okay, so 15% to 20% in real.

In sl I apply the same scale when I think I should tip. But translated to sl standards 15% or 20% is a piddling amount for every 100 bucks, so I end up sometimes tipping much more than the product is worth. Now, I dont mind - I can afford it. But my "generosity" can offset the balance for everyone else.

I dont care that I may be upsetting the real balance but what about sl? What do you tip in real and sl?

You are making a huge assumption, Jig, as do so many in SL, which is that "tipping" is a global phenomenon. It isn't.

Pep (nothing further to add to discussion of the issue since last time it was indecisively beaten to death in these forums. )

RL: I tip restaurant staff if I've had a good meal and the service has been good. I tip my electrologist and my tattooist; something about staying on the good side of people sticking needles in me. Sometimes my hairdresser. I don't tip taxi drivers, any more than I'd tip a train driver or bus driver.

SL: I tip DJs and live musicians if I've enjoyed the set. I tip teachers if the class has been useful and well-presented (sadly a rare thing recently: the last class I attended was bland and uninformative, presented agonisingly slowly, in poor English, by a teacher who was late). I rarely tip content creators. If I do, it's probably at a store where there has been nothing I wanted to buy, but I've picked up some tasty freebies. I'll often tip what I consider the freebies to be worth in these cases, going back to the store if necessary.

RL--No tipping. Everything we buy here is priced to cover all costs, including at least award wages.

SL--I definately tip DJs and performers if they have been good. And I will pop something in the tin if I visit a really beautiful sim. Having no RL precedence to base it on, I just think up any number that feels right.

I am curious why you tip an electrologist and a tattooist, yet "sometimes" tip the hairdresser?? As a hairdresser, who get considerably less for the services mentiond before and basicly holds your vanity in their hands.... I really dont understand why you would not tip them.. In the 25+ years I have done hair I have never not got a tip. (it might have been a few coins but everyone tiped the hairdressers) Who also I might add have sharp impliments and caustic chemicals handling on near or around you.

I tip upon service rendered, if appropriate in rl. I do not tip on a scale but upon how pleased I am with the service. I have left a quarter once for a waitress who totally forgot my order, served my food cold when I asked about it 30 min later then spilled our drinks all over the table.... And I've tiped a waiter once who served me like a queen 50% of my ticket. (I have done this job to, and I know it isnt easy) But these are the working class people here, the ones who actually need a few extra bucks and who dont get paid 250 an hour or so for services..

in sl I tip the dj's the dancers the musicians the hosts the venues and I tip content creators I have gotten somethign free from and was impressed and felt guilty about getting it free. (doesnt happen often though) I also tip the jars set out on sims I explore and enjoy and use what they have available.


I will say 50% of my spending on SL goes to tipping.

Depending on the country I am in (I tip according to local custom), and for those regions where tipping is expected, I tip 0% (this is intended to be seen as a grave insult and I have tipped this in the past) to 100% of a bill for service industry. This is a sliding scale based on their performance and my satisfaction as well as the industry itself and how generous I am capable of being at that moment. I start at about 15% and shift accordingly from there.

In SL I am only in situations where I would be tipping DJs, musicians or sim owners (to offset their tier for creating beautiful public spaces). I tip according to what I have on me (although have borrowed from friends on line when I really wanted to tip more) anywhere from 150L to 2000L depending again on their performance and my satisfaction.

On a final note, I don't know what the standard is in SL or if there will ever be one since even in RL this ranges from country to country and region to region etc. Just try tipping in Japan -- /me chuckles.

Yeah, this pretty covers my SL tipping, though I will sometimes tip a clothing creator for a really nice freebie if it is a store that I have bought nothing in.

I live in the US and I do tip restaurant servers and my hair dresser. I tip cab drivers if they are pleasant and helpful --- ditto for the dude that drives the airport shuttle bus. I also tip the various food deliver drivers as their wage is also based on the fact that they usually get tipped.

You say you don't understand, and yet you continue with:


Now I'm confused. Is it not possible that I'm not always happy with the service I receive from hairdressers? Should I tip them if I'm unhappy?

I feel so lucky to have found a great hairdresser in RL that I tip him 10 bucks everytime I go...even for a simple haircut. I have to book him for every 6 six weeks... 6 mos in advance and he no longer takes any new customers so I consider him one of the more valuable "services" in my RL. Everything else in RL I tip the standard 15%.

In SL when I go to a live event I usually tip rather well...but I really don't go to many so it doesn't make a dent in my SL funds.

Mainly I tip for classes... up to 300L if it is a really good class. And I tip well if I have something custom made. I do have to say that I have been quite pleasantly surprised at the tips I get for custom work..which is about 10% of my business. I never expect tips so when I get them it is always a treat.

America = World
Everybody Else = Bunch of freaking illegals.



Not directed at Jig. But that is typical US thinking. Actually it goes like this:

White and Black America = World
Everybody Else = Bunch of freaking illegals.

I've had people tell me that Native Americans should be 'sent back to where they came from.'

So, in light of that, not getting that tipping isn't a global thing is a pretty minor sin.

That said, in SL, a 'tip' is not what it is in RL. Instead an SL tip is more like a busking jar - its a 'pay what you can and feel is right for my work or services' rather than a set or even negotiated price.

Some people under-pay, because they can't pay or are not willing to pay, some people overpay. If you set up a jar on a street corner its the same thing - difference being that passerby didn't ask to hear you perform there.

But consider it like public radio in the US. You did choose to turn the dial to that station - so when they have a pledge drive, do you owe them money, or is it just nice of you to pay it? And if you do pay, for either reason, what makes a fair amount? What they need or what you can give?

None of this is **typical US thinking** in the part of the US that I am in.

If you are not in this county legally, then you are a "freaking illegal"

And in my mind the US is far from being the "world".

Actually 0% isn't as much of an insult as leaving .01 cents.

Parts of my family have been in the US for 40,000 years. I get asked to prove it all the time. I'll pass white Russians who can't speak a word of English daily who get treated more like an American than I do.

But my point was that Americans tend to assume everywhere they are is their spot with their rules and that everyone else is an outsider - and that this does carry into SL.



Agreed. YOu leave .01, its saying you know about tipping, you know you feel this is a place where you should tip, and you want to tell that person they aren't worth anything.

The few Native Americans left in the United States would love to do so if it would mean evicting millions of people off of prime real estate and enriching the Native Americans to the tune of billions of dollars of real estate.

Here ya go, take back your bag of beads and I'll take Manhattan

America, the greatest country ever stolen

I tip musicians a few hundred lindens a show and a hundred linden to the venue. I don't order custom services in SL so I can't comment on that. If a host manages to fill a place and it adds to my experience I tip them a hundred linden or so. I tip dancers just for the heck of it as long as they are not AFK but it can be really small unless I actually know them outside of the club as an SL friend or frequent acquaintance.

I always tip 100%.

Hm. Went to a French restaurant last night, the total bill was 145 USD and I tipped 30. Was really good there as always.

At the car wash I'll tip a coupla bucks to the guy who actually did the work; imagine washing cars *all day* in the California summer heat, no shade, and making 8 bucks an hour... then people coming around saying "you missed a spot" on their giant SUV filled and stinking with fast food trash and making you do the whole car over... I wouldn't do that for 80 an hour.

People used to tip at the car wash all the time, but it's getting rarer and rarer from what I've seen. And yeah, hotels, cruise ships, airports and so forth, I do the usual.

Second Life... generally I only tip DJ's. If it's a huge event on my estate and I show up, I'll drop $L 5000 on them sometimes. The only exception, sometimes we've got multimillionaires (RL) waaay richer than me, who like to dabble in such things for fun, and in those cases I'll donate to whatever cause it was they are DJ'ing for, instead.

That's maybe a few times a year, and yeah maybe that's a bit heavy but realise, it's my estate. People who regularly go to such things likely end up tipping more than I do, over a year's time.

What other people do, doesn't affect me at all... if they want to tip, not tip, or whatever it is... it doesn't phase me any.

I rarely tip. I am a scrooge.

I tip people who make less than minimum wage and live off of tips.(Waiter,cab drivers etc..) Sorry Miss Dunkin donuts who makes $7.75 an hour,you are not getting my extra dollar for work you are already paid to do.

One thing we aren't talking about here is tipping sims (or people, I guess) who are offering a free service that we consider worthwhile or even "charitable." I am thinking of things like libraries, museums, galleries and art installations, information hubs, help centres, and so forth.

My bookstore is really only nominally a "store": as 90% of the books sell for L$1 (less the 2% of what it costs to produce each book or bookset, even excluding the time I put into making them), I am not exactly making a profit from sales. And while traffic is pretty good for a bookstore/library, it ain't no Armidi or ETD. Moreover, the books are all free to use within the store, so there isn't, for many, much incentive to buy them, unless they like them on aesthetic grounds (and I flatter myself that I DO make nice looking books).

I sell the books because I want to maintain the polite fiction that it is a bookstore, and not a library, but really, I am far more interested in making the 500 or so literary texts I "carry" available than I am in making money.

What keeps the store afloat is tips, generous donations by people who see the value of a resource like this in SL . Were I dependent upon proceeds from sales (and the books DO sell), I would have gone under in the first month. Fortunately, there ARE many people who DO tip generously: otherwise, there would be no store in SL devoted to women's writing.

The same can of course be said of most museums, libraries, and galleries in SL.

So, how do we feel about THAT kind of tipping? Is it worth a reasonable tip to keep content that might not be profitable viable and going in SL?

Yes, totally agree...this is a good way to go about it.

Your place sounds really nice, LM please?

As soon as I am in-world, it is yours!

(Sorry, didn't mean this to sound like an advert . . . )

Oh no, I didn't take it that way...but I love books and I don't believe I have come across your store yet, so please do drop me an LM. Would be greatly appreciated.

Money for nothing and the chicks are free

I tip RL and SL

TOTALLY with you on hairdressers!! I once had an acquaintance who lived quite a comfortable lifestyle. As an example, her Christmas present the year in which I knew her was a Mercedes.

I had just begun going to the hair salon of this woman upon her recommendation. I'm never quite sure how much to tip (and I tend to be a generous tipper) because, from what I understand, different salons have various methods of payment from a percentage of their sales to renting a space. I've always heard to not tip the owner of a shop if that person is also one's stylist. (I still have.)

I asked this woman how much she generally tipped there and suffice it to say my jaw hit the floor when she said, "I don't. Their prices are so high that I consider that the tip."

This was, again, from a well-to-do woman who chose to go to this shop knowing their prices. I had never, EVER heard anyone say anything like that.

I'm surprised that woman didn't end up having a mohawk or something with her tipping attitude!!!