What in the blue lagoon is stipend?

I should really know this, but I'd like a definitive answer on how stipend is calculated and how often its paid out please, who qualifies and who doesn't..

I get paid it every now and then (if I'm paying attention) but have never really figured out why.

Thanks in advance!

paid every week, on a tuesday. Amount is based on when the premium account was made..or maybe signed up for, not sure. Current ones get 300, older ones get more.

Stipends are only offered to premium accounts.

Premium accounts OR accounts made long before 06/06/06 and haven't upgraded to premium. Those that went premium and then tiered down, I believe lost their 50L a week.

So its the equvalent of an (approx) $1200 a month salary for premium account holders, for just turning up and kicking about? Sounds more like RL every day...

Actually, if you are premium you don't even have to show up and you will get paid.

it's like Congress

Well, not really. You do actually have to pay the premium fees first. Then some portion of that gets kicked back into your account as Linden dollars. So it would be the equivalent of a lower premium payment, and no Linden dollars.

For a Premium account today, Stipend is like paying money into a Christmas Club, but in reverse. You pay a lump-sum US Dollars fee to Linden Lab, for the sometimes dubious privilege of being a Premium member and being able to buy Mainland and file support tickets. In return, they 'generously' give back to you about 80% of what you prepaid, doling it out at L$300 per week on the newer accounts. What you get back is less than what you paid for the Premium account, and make no doubt about it, those L$ are ones you pre-paid for when you paid your dues as a Premium member. If you have no need for Mainland, it's more cost effective to purchase L$ on Lindex as you need them.

Older Premium accounts get either L$400 or L$500 per week, depending on what the going rate was when they signed up. Their rate is locked in fron the time they signed up.

It used to be that a Basic/non-premium account got L$50 per week, contingent on them logging in at least once per week. I still get L$50 per week on two of my oldest accounts. But that was back when you were limited to no more than two accounts per person, and 5 per household. When they abolished any requirement for providing identifying information or payment info to sign up for new accounts, they also elimiated the non-Premium stipend for any new free accounts, to prevent people from creating thousands of them just to mine that meagre amount every week.

This isn't true you know. I've downgraded to basic on numerous occasions (after September 2006, and again in 2007) and still got a 50L weekly stipend. Also, after upgrading to premium again during August 2007 (annual subscription) I get 500L a week again.

A basic account holder just has to make sure they login once a week to get their 50L .. maybe people with alts born before Jun 6th 2006 don't realise that.

it's micro algae around the edges.

Only we don't molest each other in the bathroom stalls...

Oh I dunno. I thought I heard foot tapping by the Hangout Outhouse the other day. I didn't want to go look for fear of having my fantasies dashed......

That was me. I like to dance after a big job.

Any guess why you have to log on? Couldn't be the "logged on in the last 7/30/60 days" stats padding.... lol

Also can back up that changing from premium to basic will not loose your $50L a week.

Maybe instead of answering, "not true," I should just in the future revise the list of places I visit in SL.

lol. All I know is that when I joined, the requirement was to login once per week to collect a 50L stipend. It just occurred to me that may not have been the case for people who registered months or years earlier? Maybe you just got the stipend regardless.

I upgraded to premium ... collected 500L every Tuesday until November 2006. Downgraded .. and collected 50L every Tuesday provided I logged in once a week. (Worth mentioning because at that time, brand new Basic accounts were no longer entitled to a stipend at all.)

Upgraded/downgraded to premium a couple of times after that, but mainly stayed Basic and "bought" land on PIs when required. Collected 50L a week all that time (many months).

Upgraded in August 2007 for mainland ownership reasons, and I'm back on 500L a week again.

Well more actually because I have two premium accounts, but that's beside the point. =D