The real reason the "abuse" claim is so jarring..

Seeing the comments made here about how "LL said how these sims were intended to be used and you shouldn't have violated that", I have to mention the reason for this:

SL has *long* had a culture of using things for other than they were intended. And the Lindens, by not acting against it, have effectively encouraged it - especially because, in the absence of action against them, the market tends to reward them.

Megaprims. Just banned from new creation, not banned overall. Originally they were sold for money, making the original creators instant business monopolies. (Ok, they became freebies later, but still.)

Scripting. In this area it's all over the place. You weren't "intended" to rez twisted spheres on top of people to slam them down to the ground. You weren't "intended" to be able to push an avatar so hard they pass through walls. They weren't banned, though, and crush weapons and local teleporters made their creators money until they were so ubiquitous that the Lindens (apparently) had to modify Havok 4 to enable them to continue working.

Building. Ever dimpled a box? You had to fiddle with the Prim Type to make that happen, remember? LL could have put that option on the Box type if they meant it to be there, so, gee, I guess you went against LL's intentions... will you be paying per prim created or a global monthly fee?

The point is that the rise and rise of tricks and traps and secrets and similar in SL has created a culture which has said "ignore what seems to be intended, just do what works". For LL to suddenly turn around and use the fact people did that to justify increases in this way is a huge betrayal of the values they have allowed to develop in the world.

Oh, and on the same topic, a vote or so on https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-527 (the same thing as this post but related to the building issue above) would be appreciated.

Nice analysis. Some good points
On that note I am going to McDonalds for dinner.

Snap, my co-worker just went out to get a Mc Splurge for our lunches........I really hope the 1/4 Pdr with cheese meal price hasnt been hiked by 67% though

This is exactly the point I have been making. The entire history of SL has been people squeezing every ounce of use, value, and functionality out of SL's tools and features. To not keep this in mind when increasing prim counts of openspaces and reducing costs (and adding other minor features) is to be blind to a basic truth of SL.

I have personal experience with this; my business in SL has revolved around sculpted prims- in particular, squeezing out every bit from every polygon of sculpted prims, and make them do the unexpected (sharp edges, multiple objects per sculpt, etc).

This isn't just me doing such things, but a great number of residents.

I am sorry.

No, they never forbade any such use. There was another thread here that said the exact words, but it was nothing like prohibiting other uses. It was more like "we don't suggest" or something.

Anyway, 'use' is an excuse. It was a bait and switch, in my opinion. Lower the price substantially, wait until you sell a ton of them, lower the boom once people have paid their non-refundable setup fee. This was no reasonable raise in cost. This was a punitive, egregious act by a company that is either totally without ethics or in total panic mode.

Use of words like "abusers" to describe customers: bad

Use of phrases like "pushing the limits" for customers: good

Most of this debacle is grounded in the area of communications skill and public relations.

Again, LL needs to put a full stop on employees posting anything on the blog and send all proposed information first through legal to make sure it is safe and then allow a communications PR expert to formulate the announcements. "Shooting from the hip" style communications are not good for a planetary level organization.

Of course this would not stop office hours gaffs but the thought of having to have a legal gargoyle sitting on each Linden's shoulder filtering everything they say is a bummer.