Introducing T Linden. What would you do to improve Premium subscriptions?
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Insky Jedburgh
Registered User
Join date: 2 Feb 2006
Posts: 19
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11-21-2008 17:57
1.) I fully agree with the 1024m free tier, because it gives enough flexibility for space and enough prims to actually build & sell significant things while occupying your space.
2.) A premium members products showcase on the SL website
3.) Sea lanes: most of SL is crowded with security fences and prims that inhibit sea and air travel. If SL could allocate Gov Linden land (open space perhaps) to create lanes of travel between major land masses and around major continents, a perk of having a premium account might be the ability to enter these sims and travel in them.
4.) SL parks designed for large group events, set aside for premium members to rent for non profit events.
5.) Increase max number of groups premium members can have to at least 30
6.) A premium members mainland parcel lottery
7.) live chat support from in world and on website, available to premium accounts.
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Gusher Castaignede
SL Builder
Join date: 8 Oct 2007
Posts: 342
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11-21-2008 18:04
If premium still stays I think Premium holders should have the benefit of being able to work in Linden private non-public sandboxes where the absense of griefers can become reality, well maybe.
Other benefits include VIP passes to special Linden held inworld/realworld events, only for Premium holders! C'mon now, make us feel like important people too, we're your customers!
Along with we should have the benefit of being alerted through email whenever Linden make changes to their Policies....at least 1-2 months ahead in time.
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Carl Metropolitan
Registered User
Join date: 7 Jul 2005
Posts: 1,031
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11-21-2008 18:07
From: Jannae Karas Given SL's recent history, I would suggest that the idea that they are going to give premium members more free tier or increase the stipend ludicrous. I expect that they are going to eliminate the stipend, and will give some silly perk(s) in return, that most of us won't really need or use. An increase in premium pricing is also a possibility. I suspect that is what they are planning, too. That doesn't mean I will not yell and scream and make a fuss. They screwed over Openspace owners, and now they are coming for Premium users. I hope I'm wrong. But I just don't trust the intentions of LL anymore. From: Jannae Karas Most likely the decision has already been made, and the announcement will follow as soon as this thread is closed with a polite thanks for all of the great ideas. Sorry to be so negative, but the real world is what manages SL, and that world follows the bottom line. I don't think you are being negative. You are simply making realistic predictions based on past actions. If LL wants less negativity, they know how to get it.
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Sindy Tsure
Will script for shoes
Join date: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 4,103
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11-21-2008 18:15
As I read (or at least scan through) all the posts, it keeps popping into my head that a lot of people are asking for stuff without mentioning how much they'd be willing to pay for it. If they increase stipend to L$500/week, people who pay premium by the year are going to get _paid_ to be premium. Yeah, it's not a huge return on the US$72/year but we've seen premium be horribly gamed before (first land) so suggestions of anything else that can be gamed makes me nervous. I like my L$400 stipend as a convenience but, again, if it's a choice between LL raising other prices but giving me more stipid and keeping what I've got, I'll keep what I've got today, TY. I like Desmonds idea on advertising during TPs. I'd been wondering for a while how LL was going to get in on the ad market and hadn't thought of that. Might be a little tricky to get SL into a state that somebody can act on an ad, though. LL has made it very clear recently that there's no free lunch, especially if you've shown that you already have money enough for, say, an openspace sim. Be careful what you ask for... From: Carl Metropolitan I hope I'm wrong. But I just don't trust the intentions of LL anymore.. Not LL management anyway. Individual worker-bee Lindens are a different story..
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Viktoria Dovgal
…
Join date: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 3,593
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11-21-2008 18:16
One really awesome benefit LL could give to premium account holders, is to gracefully revert their accounts to basic if the resident has to go away for a while. Stuff like this is shameful. /111/44/291829/1.html
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Chakalak Skall
Registered User
Join date: 13 May 2007
Posts: 4
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11-21-2008 18:17
Premium accounts are outdated in a way.. maybe think about another way to spice up your resident's sl
- 1000 user-online-hours = 1000L$ - 10000 self-earned L$ are a Lindenprice ( like with what you get by post from ebay when you sold or bought stuff) like... Hey, we noticed you're there! - Keep on making this place YOUR hood! - 100000 L$ spent could give a price/status too perhaps?!
.. things like these...
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Nimbus Rau
Salmon pie? Where?
Join date: 15 Apr 2007
Posts: 292
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11-21-2008 18:19
From: Osprey Therian One size does not fit all. I like choices. Seconded. I think this would be a *great* idea - have a selection of "premium perks", have the major ones applicable to all premium accounts (such as access to live chat, improved tier structure, things of that sort) and then allow each resident to pick the one (or two, or three...) of the "small stuff" perks that they want. And make it changeable, so that if they find that they're not really getting much benefit from having a stipend, or an extra 15 groups, or whatever, they can switch to a different perk just by selecting a different checkbox on their account settings webpage. Of the ideas suggested so far (many of which I think would be great!) the ones that I personally would be most keen to see implemented include: - "pay as you go" type tier structure - if it was a flat rate of US$x per sqm owned I think that LL would gain hugely from this, since the current tier structure is a vast barrier for potential land owners increasing their holdings. I'd certainly wind up buying "just a little bit more" land on a regular basis if I didn't have to face my tier fee jumping in huge increments every so often, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. - automatic emailing of the month's transaction record at the end of each month - what a lovely convenience that would be! And it would cost LL so little to implement. - removal of the IM cap (or maybe have it happen at a *much* higher number). As a business owner, having it happen at around 20 or 25 IMs is ludicrous, and when capping happens I find that SL will often silently drop not only IMs but inventory offers (such as notecards) as well. It is *extremely* frustrating, and makes a mockery of my attempt to give good customer service if basic communication is unreliable. - increasing the max number of groups, possibly in conjunction with that wonderful idea that someone suggested of having different sorts of groups with different sets of functionality options (e.g. land/chat/notices/group tag) - the option of combining all of one's alts under an umbrella account, and allowing L$/inventory/group management between them via a web-based tool. This would be *so* useful! - I love the idea of "loyalty bonuses" for folk who maintain premium accounts for a long period of time. Rather than an annual thing as some folk have suggested, it'd be more motivating to many folk to have smaller rewards more frequently - how about an extra group membership slot added every other month, say; or a small monthly increase to "free tier" (45sqm each month, rather than an extra 512 each year)? There's nothing quite like regular "presents" (even if they're very small) to make folk feel valued!
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Nexus Burbclave
Live Free or Die
Join date: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 29
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11-21-2008 18:23
From: T Linden From: Nadine Neddings Probably the simplest, easiest to implement (and maybe most boring but effective) change would be to go back to providing at least L$500/week or better stipends for premium accounts.
In one sense, the stipends are a bit like Premium Account Residents paying us dollars to get linden dollars. The lindex and third party exchanges are pretty good for this, me thinks, but I'd be interested to know if you look at stipends in subs as "just a low effort way to get lindens" - because there is value in not having to actively go get lindens. I guess that's like avoiding a trip to the ATM...:-> T, This is exactly why I am a fan of keeping the stipends. I can only speak of my own experiences, but I certainly own land and items that I probably would not have bought if I had to go through the trouble of buying Lindens first. Additionally with the number of automatically debited items (such as land appearing in search) having the automatic stipend means that if I am away from Second Life for a bit, I don't have to worry about my account going negative and my land disappearing or some other sort of mishap in my absence. I have probably circulated far more Linden dollars because of stipends than I would have if I had to purchase them on the exchange. It is, as you say, a convenience like avoiding a trip to the ATM, but it is a convenience that I personally value. [addendum] Just wanted to add one more thought. If you do phase out stipends it would be nice if there was some other mechanism for an automatic monthly purchase of lindens to help keep a handle on some of the automatically debited expenses. [/addendum] Oh.. and welcome.
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Crap Mariner
Idiot-In-Chief of Edloe
Join date: 23 Jan 2007
Posts: 8
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11-21-2008 18:23
In the comments on Tat Nino's Massively post, I suggested taking a "level up/unlocks" approach SL-style. Fleep's suggestions echo or add to many of them: From: Fleep Tuque My votes for best suggestions to improve Premium Account subscriptions: 1) Remove group limits for premium accounts. Period. 2) Increase tier bonus annually to reward long-term Premiums OR Discount tier annually to reward long-term Premiums 3) Ability to group Friends/Contacts into categories 4) Free or reduced texture/sound uploads Set Status 5) Reduce or eliminate the $30L fee for parcels to in Search 6) Change tier structure to include more levels of land Set  Create SL email address [email]first.last@secondlife.com[/email] 9) Remove IM cap or increase cap limit 10) Bring back First Land, w/ important changes I've also seen references to adding picks, adding more characters to profiles, All good. Add: Hidden mode, Discounts for uploads. I'd also suggest cutting back on features that Basic members have, or have them timeout after 30 days somehow.
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T Linden
Linden Lab Employee
Join date: 30 Sep 2008
Posts: 19
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11-21-2008 18:33
From: Sigmund Leominster I have simple needs: more space and more prims. Actually. I don't mind buying more space but the tier fees make it unattractive.
I suspect that part of the "what would you like for your premium account" presages an increase in the premium fee. So if upping my $72 to $90 per year also let me have cheaper tier fees, I could live with the increase. Upping my $72 to $100 would have to include some really sweet "benefits" to make me happen. Space and Prims - that's pretty straightforward Sigmund! If I wasn't clear in my post, I want to hear what would increase your delight with premiums, not your price... To be clear, a premium subscription needs to be worthy of the name premium.
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T Linden
Linden Lab Employee
Join date: 30 Sep 2008
Posts: 19
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11-21-2008 18:40
From: Emerson Sweetwater If LL wants to make money and stablise the L$ exchange rate, get rid of the premium accounts.
definitely fits the goal of "simplification"...
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Jannae Karas
Just Looking
Join date: 10 Mar 2007
Posts: 1,516
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11-21-2008 18:41
Originally Posted by Sigmund Leominster I have simple needs: more space and more prims. Actually. I don't mind buying more space but the tier fees make it unattractive. I suspect that part of the "what would you like for your premium account" presages an increase in the premium fee. So if upping my $72 to $90 per year also let me have cheaper tier fees, I could live with the increase. Upping my $72 to $100 would have to include some really sweet "benefits" to make me happen. From: T Linden Space and Prims - that's pretty straightforward Sigmund! If I wasn't clear in my post, I want to hear what would increase your delight with premiums, not your price... To be clear, a premium subscription needs to be worthy of the name premium. Notice T Linden picks this post to reply to. Look for increased premium fee coupled with an increase in "free" tier. Most likely you will end up paying the same for 1024 as you do now (with premium increase), minus the weekly stipend = net loss for you.
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Zena Juran
Registered User
Join date: 21 Jul 2007
Posts: 473
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11-21-2008 18:44
Why would I even consider a Premium account? I've been in SL for over a year running a very successful business on a Basic account.
My land rental fees have never justified moving to a Premium account for the sole purpose of "purchasing" any land.
I never have to worry about losing any land "startup" costs if one day I could not make tier.
Linden Engineers (Office Hours) and Technical Assistance (Customer Support) supply me with adequate in-world technical problem solving.
My IMs go to my email account to which I can flip to any other email account and reply to without having to be in-world.
I go thru XStreetSL for all my $Linden transactions.
I have the forums and jira to provide feedback if I feel it necessary.
The Beta grid is accessible to me for product testing and if for some reason I need more space, there are plenty of sandboxes to work in.
My business supplies me with all the $Lindens I need.
And the list goes on...
I really can't think of anything that LL can add or do that would justify paying for a Premium account.
Maybe it is time to for LL to eliminate the Premium account and adjust the business model accordingly.
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Argent Stonecutter
Emergency Mustelid
Join date: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 20,263
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11-21-2008 18:44
From: Carl Metropolitan Linden Lab prints L$. They can make as many as they want. It costs them nothing. This fallacy has been addressed over an over. Stipends represent money Supply Linden can't sell on the LindeX. They are a real cost to LL.
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Argent Stonecutter
Emergency Mustelid
Join date: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 20,263
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11-21-2008 18:47
From: T Linden From: Emerson Sweetwater If LL wants to make money and stablise the L$ exchange rate, get rid of the premium accounts. definitely fits the goal of "simplification"... Doesn't fit the goal of customer retention, though... unless a shrinking customer base is part of the "simplification" goal.
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Jannae Karas
Just Looking
Join date: 10 Mar 2007
Posts: 1,516
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11-21-2008 18:50
"Simplification" refers to the state of mind of LL these days.
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T Linden
Linden Lab Employee
Join date: 30 Sep 2008
Posts: 19
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11-21-2008 18:50
From: AshleyMarie Eberhardt There are a lot of great ideas here and I'll let the others cover that, but I have to give respect to you T Linden -- one of the few people I've heard cite the Cluetrain Manifesto (besides myself  ). Welcome! Thanks for the welcome! Cluetrain really opened our collective hive mind at Macromedia and it became a bit of an article of faith. We ended up being the first tech company that promoted employee blogging because of it...
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Peggy Paperdoll
A Brat
Join date: 15 Apr 2006
Posts: 4,383
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11-21-2008 18:52
Something that would make "premium" premium for me is customer service. I've seldom had the need for CS since my very first encounter with SL back in October, 2005 but the very few times I've needed it I really needed it RIGHT THEN!!
Giving Premiums priority in the area of help........OFFICIAL HELP from real Linden Lab employees...........would be my number one request. As it is right now it seems I have to get in line behind the non premiums. I know the arguments about how much the basics contribute to SL. But that does not wash well with me. Let them make as much as they can with their businesses.....it matters not one bit to me. But when they can get the same level of support as me it does matter (let them work harder for their prize....or upgrade to my level). My thinking is simple......they want more customer service then become premium.
Oh, and by the way (if you haven't sensed it, I think LL's CS is really, really bad...sucks fits very well).
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Poppyseed Poppy
Registered User
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 22
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11-21-2008 18:52
From: Argent Stonecutter Doesn't fit the goal of customer retention, though... unless a shrinking customer base is part of the "simplification" goal. Yeah, what Argent said! I happen to enjoy my stipend, for what its worth. My stipend and the free 512 are the only 2 things that keep me Premium. I for one dont want to trade one for the other either. Now, I am also one of the "granfathered" residents that gets the 500L stipend. I do not want to see that lowered or see it disappear. If it does, so does my premium account. I'm loving the ideas of auto sending 30 days of transactions! Of course rez day gifts and bonuses would show us that LL cares, but I dont want to lose what I already get, in order to get something possibly less. Be careful how you word what you say in here, people. It's how we manage to get less and pay more for it!
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Jannae Karas
Just Looking
Join date: 10 Mar 2007
Posts: 1,516
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11-21-2008 18:55
From: T Linden Thanks for the welcome! Cluetrain really opened our collective hive mind at Macromedia and it became a bit of an article of faith. We ended up being the first tech company that promoted employee blogging because of it... Obviously T Linden is online and monitoring this thread. Speak to me T. What is LL thinking. That would help us to refine our pie in the sky into constructive suggestions.
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Isablan Neva
Mystic
Join date: 27 Nov 2004
Posts: 2,907
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11-21-2008 18:56
Ideas I liked:
1) Increase free tier to 1024.
2) Bring back first land -- but only for YEARLY paid memberships. This removes the incentive to create accounts for a quick buck.
3) Even stipend out at $500 for everybody.
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Tabliopa Underwood
Registered User
Join date: 6 Aug 2007
Posts: 719
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11-21-2008 18:56
From: Sindy Tsure Yes.. They owned most of that region before the club showed and ended up buying an island because the sim performance was so horrible when they could even get in.
It's literally like that all day, every day and has been for over a year. /me wonders what would happen to the club if a "get ur free $1L per day" ""store"" appeared on the sim.
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Jannae Karas
Just Looking
Join date: 10 Mar 2007
Posts: 1,516
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11-21-2008 18:57
From: Peggy Paperdoll Something that would make "premium" premium for me is customer service. I've seldom had the need for CS since my very first encounter with SL back in October, 2005 but the very few times I've needed it I really needed it RIGHT THEN!!
Giving Premiums priority in the area of help........OFFICIAL HELP from real Linden Lab employees...........would be my number one request. As it is right now it seems I have to get in line behind the non premiums. I know the arguments about how much the basics contribute to SL. But that does not wash well with me. Let them make as much as they can with their businesses.....it matters not one bit to me. But when they can get the same level of support as me it does matter (let them work harder for their prize....or upgrade to my level). My thinking is simple......they want more customer service then become premium.
Oh, and by the way (if you haven't sensed it, I think LL's CS is really, really bad...sucks fits very well). Live chat has worked for me.
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Richard Palace
Registered User
Join date: 20 Oct 2006
Posts: 241
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11-21-2008 18:58
For Premium membership to be attractive, you need to make improve on things that will make people upgrade to premium account. Example. 1) Group. Max is 25. Premium should get unlimited. 2) Instant Message. IM get capped. Premium should have unlimited IM 3) Image Upload. $10 per upload. Premium should pay nothing or $5 per upload. 4) Profile picks. Max is 8. Premium should get more than 8. 5) Profile Note. Premium should be able to write without limitation. Whatever it is, there should be a "Click here to upgrade" and Premium users should enjoy more benefits than free users. Also, during teleport, Free users get to see Advertisement  instead of watching the loading. That's a good revenue source for you, linden. P/S:I am a premium member.
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SuezanneC Baskerville
Forums Rock!
Join date: 22 Dec 2003
Posts: 14,229
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11-21-2008 18:58
Some physical thing - a t-shirt or a keyring.
Or...
Store premium accounts preferences on your servers so you never have to reset them, even if you log in from a different computer than normal or have reformatted your hard drive.
Give premium users the option of never seeing the new user warnings.
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