Introducing T Linden. What would you do to improve Premium subscriptions?

I have a few ideas that are not about changing what is already happening, but more about doing somthing new and innovative for SL as a whole..

Premiums are typically mainland owners so any efforts made towards improving the mainland will benefit everyone... from new player to land owner.

1. Lindens should sponsor mainland beautification and development projects, giving the opportunity to band together, consolidate land, and to build larger more consistant areas of the Mainland. (cities -- parks) Linden Labs should provide planning, project management, even go so far as hiring residents to build up stable zoned or themed developments. (beyond what has happened in Bay city and nautlilus which is a great start, but its a concept that could be pushed much farther)

2. Give mainland large parcel owners better control over the mainland estates.

3. Set up a channel for parcel and access related zoning issues for mainland.. ie ban lines and waterfront blockage.. mild prim / particle abuse instead or AR channel. Mainland Conflict resolution services for premiums.

4. Provide some kind of 'Linden authorized service' status for premiums who are selling high quality and TOS compliant services or products .

off the cuff. a few thoughts


-why

That's more than the current premium.

US$72/year - US$60 stipend = US$12/year and US$1/month for premium.

Ok, key words here NOVEL and IDEA.

Mr. T (no disrepect) why not have a cap at a certain threshold as previously suggested. Seriously, within 20 -30 years there maybe enough competition from other virtual communities that has yet been established that my beloved Second Life will be a Novel Idea much like horse drawn carriages as a major form of transportation or the pony express.

For the record I agree with:
First land program reinstated, with stipulations so those sales bots won't hassle you like a car salesman
Increase 512 lots to 1024 even to 1538.
Uploads to 3 -5L depending on based on what is being uploaded.
Bonus stipends on anniversary dates
Previous posts regarding mega prim, etc. I don't build or create, my husband does so it sounds good to me.
Having more control over mainland properties as I do own both mainland and private estate. I really like them both to mirror each other.
Offer a bonus for those going yearly. I pay quarterly and really don't see much incentive to pay yearly especially with the unexpectant change in policy for example the OS situation. Which btw I will not own as of end of next month and I am a member of the I A
AIN'T happy club.
Ability to buy OS directly from LL. Perhaps that was one of the initiatives to begin with. But wanted to do "feelers" to see what would happen if they offered them as they did and then change the policy to offer the homestead option.
Lower the cost of purchasing your own sim to offset the tier.
Land bonuses of 512 increments until they reach 4096. As pointed out it will absorb some of those yellow spots on mainland.

I'm sure I missed a lot more but from what I read its mostly onpoint.

For the record, I don't know what to think anymore. After the OS situation yanked the rug from under my feet, now attention is paid to the premium subscription. Will the same the situation be the same?

I want retain my 500L weekly stipend and if that is taken away well.......?


So we will see when we are shown:

Argent, Im well aware of the price structure that's why I said monthly, it can be structured accordingly.

My point is, remove the dang class structure. Let's face it what I read here are 'wishes' not options... and we all know if you 'wish' in one hand and .... in the other which will fill up first.

More profile picks. There's room for a few more, I think. Let premiums use the space.

If it isn't already, make premium status a criteria in the search rankings formula for classifieds, profile and locations for premium accounts.

Transaction history of more than 30 days. Automatically send the XLS copy via email once per month (an optional feature).

I fear the email forwarding feature people are requesting would be rendered useless by spammers. Definitely allow me to turn it off.

good one!

I suspect that any scheme that involves eliminating Basic accounts or radically restructuring Premium accounts will lead to significant shrinkage.

And... there really isn't a Basic/Premium class structure in SL. There's a bit of prejudice against NPIOF accounts, because they're more likely to be treated as "griefer alts", but even that has decreased significantly. I'm not sure you're solving a problem that needs to be solved.

am I more than likely a griefer alt? class structuring at its finest

CSV, so it can be used by ANY program (including being fed directly to databases). CSV is easier to generate, and the XLS they generate has no extra functionality over CSV. I honestly don't understand why they're bothering making it XLS and tying it in to Monopolysoft.

As I proposed it, it would be an option you could turn *on*. It wouldn't be on by default, for that very reason.

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!

If you're NPIOF you're more likely to be treated as one. That is NOT the same as my claiming that you are any such thing. And being Basic doesn't mean being NPIOF.

Don't put words into my mouth, please.

I'm sorry, but that kind of debating tactic really gets my dander up.

I've read all the postings so far to see what people are saying, where the trends are, and what applies to me.

I'm a basic member who has been a big contributor to the SL economy in my own way. I buy, I rent (I lost my home on an OS because the additional costs were over my ability to justify my entertainment and relaxation, and my landlord turned it in).

So many times I contemplated upgrading to a premium account, and never did. You really need to look at why people didn't do it, and if that really is in your business model. Is it really premium accounts that you want, or is it a stable and growing base of residents who contribute to the economy (creating, buying, renting...)?

What tempted me to a premium account (USD$120-72/year)? Support for problems!! Perhaps some land ownership, perhaps some stipend.

What kept me from going to a premium account?
- Stipend at 300L / week is around USD$1/week or ~USD$4/month or ~USD$48. ***I spend tons more than that every day that I'm online.*** I would love it to cover my uploads, but as an incentive it doesn't thrill me. If I had a premium account though, it sure better not be touched! It's just not enough of an incentive to start a premium account, but loss of it would be enough for me to drop premium account level.
- 512 land is so small, and always shoved in with really unattractive areas that land was no incentive.
- I really want that problem support, but then I realized that no one was really getting problem support on a realistic basis - you dump your problem into the hopper and maybe someday it gets addressed. I'm already using Release Candidate software as soon as it comes out, and I report bugs on it (and check bug status) regularly. I'm an extension of the QA department as it is.

So really, what do you really want? Is it a Premium user? What defines a Premium user? Is it just paying a monthly fee? Is it contributing to the SL economy? Is it debug support? Is it something else? Perhaps all these things are Premium users... perhaps it's other things. Is it longevity? Perhaps it's a custom set of actions that automatically bump you into status as a Premium User...

Grandfather existing premium users, tier levels, stipends, and then go to a reward system based on actual activities towards establishing a stable growing SL. You own this much land? You spend this much? You sell this much? You participate in these things? Then you get into a reward process. (Note, i didn't say you bought this much lindens - you either have to buy or sell things.).

I know, you didn't ask for a total redefinition of Premium account, but that's what just came out of my fingers. I hope this makes it into your thought hopper.

There is a "class structure" when it comes to support, however. Honestly, though, there SHOULD be one. I as a concierge level member should get some kind of priority for my money. And those who are invested as premiums should take precedence over those who don't. But certain kinds of basic support are very important and shouldn't be blown off - inventory, especially.

The author (Christopher Locke) is a clever guy, and a nice guy on top of it. I used to get his newsletter (Entropy Gradient Reversals)... in fact I've still got over 180 issues in my old mailbox.

Premium members could get to create group forums.

For another thing how about payment defaulting premiums don't get their inventories deleted if they miss payments for 3 months, while free accounts can keep their stuff clogging the asset server forever.
Taking back land is fair enough for defaulting payment but deleting 20k of inventory is a slap in the face.

Really? I've had pretty good response to my support requests. Maybe I just ask for reasonable things (Hey, I notice there's a Linden parcel at X/Y/Z and it's got no autoreturn) or something?

I had the same reaction as Chaffro and Lucinda and yes, I'd like an apology too. Since the OS announcement and M stating that we premium users were "immaterial", I keep wondering over and over again about downgrading my Premium membership that I've had for almost two years.

I'll admit, after that I read the latest posting from T with skepticism and wondered "Why is LL asking? What are they up to this time?" As a new resident I chose to be a Premium member because at the time I believed in SL. I saw it as a way of supporting a world I enjoyed creating in and being a part of. Headscratching moves by LL for quite a while now have been making me wonder why I'm still Premium though. After all, for the most part, Basic accounts can do almost everything we can.

I like a lot of the suggestions that others have said, so I don't need to repeat them, but LL...if you want to keep us as Premiums and have Basics interested in upgrading, make it worth the while and money!! And just in general, we know you can't make everyone happy, but try to listen to your residents--whether Premium or Basic as both are important--a little better. We wouldn't be here if we didn't WANT to be here.

but.... reading through the massive pages of wishes I see class seperation asked for repeatedly, its not a problem now perhaps but why force it to become one? Crippling the basic accts to force them to be premium seems very class acting, do I deserve less for not being premium? Its all abouit numbers, numbers of accts. Premium already has 512tier for ML, 300-500 stipend, Live Chat. And all Im seeing here is "MOAR"!!! "GIMME, GIMME"

Oh yes, especially when there's been plenty of cases of Paypal or Linden Labs screwing up and putting people into default without any good way of getting back.

This is why I make sure I've got my US$ balance always topped up... I'd rather leave that money in Paypal, where I could use it, but I don't want to risk it.

So argue against specific suggestions that have that effect, rather than proposing something that can't be implemented without causing a massive exodus of residents from Second Life.

Well NPIOF are more likely to be griefers, very few of the Patriodic Ninkom Ploops type would be Premiums.
It doesn't mean you are a griefer, just that you are not verified by that means to Joe Blogs is you could be completely anomymous disposable account, but your account age and active profile says otherwise of course.
Class structuring is the way it is, you pay for gym membership or you workout using house bricks.
You produce ID or you can't fly on a plane.
You pay for a licence or you don't drive a car.

my list is short-

1) KEEP STIPEND - make it L$500 weekly.
2) MORE tier steps - by the 512m please.

thank you.

Give Premium members something that only premium members can have
without reducing what they are already have.
Also for some money is no limit but there are people here, I bet the majority
who have to live on budget and have limits on what they can afford to spend here.
You can't expect limitless spending here when the average can only spend up to certain
amount and it will be even less if the technology to use SL majority exceeds what the users can keep up with it.
Computer industry seems to be always improving things but average consumer
can't always afford to keep up with it.
Also if you marketing to certain type of Resident it seems like you're excluding other Residents.
What do you Linden Labs truly want or willing to give to make premium members
feel it is worth it?
You Lindens know what you can do or not do in this regard.
It seems like though up to this point except for those of us who want mainland
and stipend and can't afford islands nor interested in renting from island or larger
land holding residents that there is very little incentive for majority to be Premium.
Also what makes me sometimes wonder if Premium is worth continuing is when their
is ongoing issues or improvements that make only those with higher end machines
truly able to enjoy SL.
More people would be Premium and probably be active residents if one SL was accessible
for everyone to enjoy and when we got here there were things we could find easily
to do and interact with.
At this point truthfully most of social interactions in my life are only happening in forum
because it is too difficult to do so in world.
I would love also the ability to create offline in my own private SL world with games
and ability to be creative without having to go to some other grid.
No one else is offering ability to truly be stand alone version of virtual environment that
could be done offline on one's own computer for testing, experimenting without distractions,etc.
I am not sure if it is possible but I would really like to see stand alone version one
could use to create and learn how to be better creator without distractions.
One thing I miss about where I started before beta and TSO was the community of where
I started doing creations, content it all started with The Sims.
Yet problem was that EA didn't design The Sims for what we did it with.
I wish LL would take the best out of what those in that community and other virtual worlds did that made the experience pleasant the creative freedom, the user based trading experience, the ability
to just focus on creating off line, yet be able to interact to with others through group games and sharing theme story scenes.
But I would hope LL also learn from mistakes of those other virtual worlds that also ruined experience and didn't retain them.
There is lot of endless possibilities that we with help of LL could do with the proper tools.
Big thing is these tools need to be usable for all people regardless of their abilities, the technology they can afford or knowledge level and just not the tech savy and high end
computer owners who can spend 3000 usd and up on computers and land a year.
It's our world, our imagination but there numerous things the residents can't do without Linden Lab's assistance regardless if we are Premium or not.
Thanks for asking, FD

Premium members are, almost by definition, holders of mainland. One of the major differences between mainland and Estate land is the Estate controls. While I realize that mainlanders can't be given full estate powers (even only in regions they hold land in), it would certainly be EXTRAORDINARILY helpful if we could have access to the Debug tools - Get Top Scripts/Colliders. That alone would be worth $72/yr for me.

However, I certainly support the calls for more fine-grained tier levels, PROVIDED they don't mean an increase in price for anyone's /current/ tier level.

Speaking as a Premium member who's just had his 2nd RezDay, I'd also very much support the graduated "free tier" bonus for long-term members.

Thanks for listening!