Second Life Survey

*twitch*

This isn't for a college or academic research project, is it?

While I really appreciate this post, it IS a bit late for it, isn't it? Next time, a better way would be to write a blog entry or something BEFORE it happens.

Aside from that, this post bears a certain irony...

I doubt that Andren is going to read this thread, but just in case (and since I wasn't given the survey opportunity or, if I was, I didn't see it) ...

There are different types of business in SL, one of the major ones being selling items - stores. For item sales, confirmation of delivery is an ABSOLUTE ESSENTIAL. Without it, SL is just a Mickey Mouse business environment. Yes, decent money can be made but, when people can simply state "I didn't receive it", and there's no way to check the veracity of such statrements, it's still a Mickey Mouse (laughable) business environment and cannot possibly be seen as anything else.

/me pouts...I didn't get to take it

I didn't get it either *pouts alot* Ah well, I'll live.

Well, for once, there's a survey posted here that LL DOES back. Now, if we could get the rest of the survey givers trained....

THIS is a key point, THE key point. Land pricing drives the entire SL economy. It is the "tax" we pay to exist here, to have a business here, to make and display products in the virtual world. You saw it yourself...when you made OpenSpaces a bargain, the world expanded quickly. When you took that bargain off the table, the world contracted.

In addition, a better avatar mesh and more attachment points would support additional content creation.

Finally, yes, better creation tools. A way to easily import 3D content and animations from popular software like Maya, LightWave, and 3DS Studio. Better image importing, without the silly roundoff to dimensions that are powers of 2. And better connection to the web...for example someone here just asked yesterday why we can't put clickable URLs in notecards.

All that would be good. But it's secondary. Land pricing is the key.

The OTHER key is freedom. So far, LL has done well in this regard, only limiting residents' freedom of choice where it conflicted with RL laws (gambling, sexual age play) or where it negatively impacted the community as a whole (banking scams, adfarming). Stick to this principle, please. If, for example, Second Life follows the path of some other virtual worlds and bans adult content, it will die. Fast.

Freedom of expression. Land pricing. Keep those two firmly in mind.

Yes, but at the same time, there is such a thing as living within your means. Very few people NEED a full island. These are all luxuries. If your business has the income to drive paying for an island, then you can afford a full island. I don't like the new pricing for the homesteads, but still - too many people here want something for nothing. When your business is ready for a full island, you'll know, and you should buy the full product because you'll need the performance.

In a virtual world, it's nothing but a design flaw (a fundamental one at that) that land *area* is so tied to computational resources, and comes at such a premium. Now other features such as prims or scripts, I agree. But space? Space isn't real.

It's an aside, definitely, but the lack of space in SL is disappointing. It's manufactured value where completely unnecessary. So, er, if you fix that Linden Lab, I'll create stuff. Promise!

Can I take the test again Sir, pwetty pwease? These people all have much better answers than me *sob*

Heh.

I agree, why does a region have to be 256 sq m? It could be 512. Maybe then it would really be worth paying 195 or 295 USD/mo for it.

I was wandering around Nautilus and Bay City last night. As nice as some of it is, you're still right next to your neighbours. It's like a subdivision. Why why why?? Why can't everything be spread out, at least a little bit?

I mean, who wants to drop between $150 and $300 USD for a little row house plot? Yes, people do, because there's no alternative, but it could be *so* much better.

If you're paying sim prices for 256 sq m, you're being robbed

"You WILL be a Community damnit!!!!"

I was not asked to take the survey either that I know of... but I totally agree with this post. Lately it seems like it is happening more and more. I could see if it was several people during the same time period that did not receive item/items but more and more it seems to be just random indivduals. And while I always send them the item(s) again....I really do wonder if I'm being lied to. It is not a good feeling...LL needs to do something about it.

lol, good catch. I meant 256 meters, squared.

One of the questions asked what my goals were, giving three options, something like:

1) make RL money
2) make RL money while having fun
3) make enough lindens to support my SL

None of these are true for me. They needed:

4) have fun

For me, the lindens are the score. Sort of like monopoly money, allowing me to build hotels & fun stuff like that. But, I'd play even if I couldn't earn any money.

I didn't understand the question about land apportionment. It sait to consider all the land we owned, while in the same breath only considered land for business. Which did they mean? All the land I owned, or all the land I owned for business purposes?

What's "homestead", which was one of the choices? I didn't see a choice for "private island land", so I picked "homestead". The land I use certainly isn't any of the other kinds (openspace, mainland, and "entire sim".

Maybe I'm just dense.


What do I want for content creation? Well, if it really could be done, the permissions system should support value-added resales without using copy/xfer model and 'license agreements'. A lot of folks don't appreciate what a huge benefit this would be to the SL business marketplace. I rarely sell my anims full perms. A value-added sales model would allow me to do that without fear of seeing my content wind up as freebies. It would encourage lots of folks to specialize in component parts that would be easy and inexpensive for others to combine into sophisticated products, without the hassle of requiring trust at each step in the chain.

Lear, I'm a bit surprised you don't know what a Homestead is. It's what we used to call a "void sim" or an "Openspace". It's 3750 prims and limited other resources. Previously cost $75 per month, was "upgraded" and now costs $90, will cost $125 in July, and nothing else about it has changed. What is now called an "Openspace" only has 750 prims and allows 10 avatars, and costs $75 per month. The changes caused a huge outrage that's still smoldering.

That said, the question about land threw me off too. My store is on a full region, but it doesn't take up the whole region. I do own a full region, but my store isn't on it. Compounding the problem is that I just bought a full region last night, but it hasn't transferred yet, and up til now I've rented a Homestead for my building and entertainment. Which was I supposed to answer about?

There were also a few questions about renting vendor space, that made little sense and seemed to be asking the same thing over and over. Do I rent 1) Mall space, 2) A store, 3) Vending machine, 4) Vending machine in someone else's space....What? Aren't those last two the same thing?

I also realized AFTER I submitted my answers that I should have added a lot more about things to add for content creation

We should keep this thread bumped as proof that Linden once visited.

And the tale will be passed on to future generations, to become legend, like "The Postman".

The Lindens visit Residents Answers a lot, but don't use their Linden names.

Pie (And get annoyed when no-one takes any notice of them)

How do you know this?

Shhh...don't take any notice of him.

Didn't you know that Pie is really Torley's alt? It gives him a chance to counterbalance his perpetually bubbly, watermelony, good mood and let off some steam.

Torley must be the happiest person alive.

Ah yes, now I remember. I didn't follow the whole OpenSpaces fiasco. I was disappointed that the original intent of OS was thwarted, and disappointed that they had been "abused", and disappointed that LL apparently encouraged or turned a blind eye to the abuse, and disappointed that LL's plan caused serious upset, and ... so I quit.

But really, I was just disappointed that it meant I'd have more trouble finding places to sail. I'm really ignorant about most SL real estate issues, except the obvious fact that it's NOT likely to increase in value just by holding it. Like RL property, um, used to do.

Well, they got bad data for me on that question, by not providing any option that applied to my case: a store on a region in a private sim. I'd expect that to be the most likely case, too.