Openspace Announcement Discussion with Jack Linden

Last year we experiancing a pop peak of between 20k-40k...for only a bit less total resident

now they have to afford the bandwish cost for allow 70k user peak they can't

it the reason they have planned that like giving us a good drug and put fee higher after

I'm not alone in this thinking most of RL journalist on that say exactly the same you can read that on a lot of papers and e-zine around all the globe

some extract:

But that doesn't mean Linden is doing well. The base of paying customers is declining, prices in the avatar-to-avatar aftermarket for land have bottomed out, and the company has been unable to introduce new land into Second Life for months amidst the glut. And if Linden isn't introducing new land, it isn't growing its bottom line. So the company came up with a new way to make money -- charging its existing customers more.

In the short term, this was probably a smart move by Linden. The company introduced "Openspaces" months ago as budget option with reduced performance, thinking most of its customers would still prefer the more robust experience of being on Second Life's mainland. Many more users went for the cheap low-performance virtual land than expected, so much so the company can't even sell its more expensive product anymore. (That would be the credit crunch. Or the end of a fad.) Second Life's avatars are already screaming and howling over the price spike, but even if a few customers are lost, the company will most likely score a net positive.

That being said, there's only so much blood that can be squeezed from a stone. For Linden Lab to survive, it can't keep raising usage fees, and it can't try to con business users into teleconferencing in Second Life when the product is so poorly suited to enterprise use. In the end, Linden needs to pull off an image overhaul and make Second Life once again a hip place to be, with a growing population and a steady influx of new land-owners (read: paying customers). If Linden can do that, it prospers. If it can't, it's doomed.

That it.

Right Paean: "JACK"TAXMAN


Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the jacktaxman
Yeah, I'm the jacktaxman

Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the jacktaxman
Yeah, I'm the jacktaxman

(If you drive a car car) I'll tax the street
(If you try to sit sit) I'll tax your seat
(If you get too cold cold) I'll tax the heat
(If you take a walk walk) I'll tax your feet

JACKTaxman!

'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

If I reduce it again you'll see
Get back more at the V.A.T.
'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

If you get a head head, I'll tax your hat
If you get a pet pet, I'll tax your cat
If you wipe your feet feet, I'll tax your mat
If you're overwieght weight, I'll tax your fat

Now my advise to those who die
(JACKTaxman!)
Declare the pennies on your eyes
(JACKTaxman!)
'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman.

And you're working for no one, but me
(JACKTaxman!)

Yes, I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

Obviously someone with a reason to benefit from the end of SL.
Perhaps google? Who would be a partner to google and be in the braintrust of sl?
Hmmm?

ANY smart company will not get involved with LL unless for personal gains, the risk of doing suicide with getting your name tied to LL is huge

i wonder what the people involved at IBM are thinking right now

lol a thank for giving us a way to laugh during this end of days time

.....I forgot to mention. As an Australian, have you ANY idea how hard a price hike hits? Your not charging say $125 ....Your charging me $196 AUD!

Some of us bought when they cost alot more money to buy and were grandfathered in on tiers and were then nutty enough to buy more for even more when the tier was higher too.

Some of us will see a 150% increase on groups of sims we've been paying on for years. 50.00USD per OS to 125.00USD x 4 or 8 or 12 or 16

I do feel bad for the people that bought last month or 3 months ago though too. They haven't even really had time to enjoy their bit.

Maybe IMB...........................they look partner but maybe they wait in the shadow...

local chat fubar`d it up, just recieved it in a notecard so here`s the full version

Right Paean: "JACK"TAXMAN


Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the jacktaxman
Yeah, I'm the jacktaxman

Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the jacktaxman
Yeah, I'm the jacktaxman

(If you drive a car car) I'll tax the street
(If you try to sit sit) I'll tax your seat
(If you get too cold cold) I'll tax the heat
(If you take a walk walk) I'll tax your feet

JACKTaxman!

'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

If I reduce it again you'll see
Get back more at the V.A.T.
'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

If you get a head head, I'll tax your hat
If you get a pet pet, I'll tax your cat
If you wipe your feet feet, I'll tax your mat
If you're overwieght weight, I'll tax your fat

Now my advise to those who die
(JACKTaxman!)
Declare the pennies on your eyes
(JACKTaxman!)
'Cause I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman.

And you're working for no one, but me
(JACKTaxman!)

Yes, I'm the JACKtaxman
Yeah, I'm the JACKtaxman

It appears Linden Labs is in violation of their own policy. Can you please explain how there is a mainland Open Space sim with 3331 out of 3750 prims rezzed? I'll be glad to post/send a photo to anyone wanting visible proof of this.

We are all awaiting your explanation......thank you.

SIM Name: Mos Ainsley (Space Base)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mos%20Ainsley/132/131/48

this months drop in the exchange rate alone is a 30% tier increase. 30% exchange rate + 66% ll price hike = a 96% increase in costs for australians
i cant wait for ll to get bitten. i hope hurts and i hope it bleeds them dry.

As a reference (made by Sierra Janus):

http://jira.secondlife.com/secure/attachment/19920/DoubleStandard.jpg

With the economy bad enough as it is Second Life is the only escape we have, I already took away allot of my luxuries to pay for my land and pay my membership costs because I feel this place has given me much enjoyment. But I can only pay so much, a higher fee like that is just too much, I can't afford anymore then what I give every month. What is next, increase membership costs? You can't increase this much and promise better quality when the upgrades already don't do much. There just isn't enough I or anyone else has seen that can justify the excuse that cost increase will improve service when service has alread faltered in each upgrade.

funny coincidence

Frank Ambrose came from AOL to play CEO here and history repeats it self

Less sims = less tier = less overall prosperity in SL. I own three OSS's, and spend freely in SL....racking up well over 1.5 million Lindens spent in SL annually. I am incensed that the Lindens see "opportunity" in the popularity of OSS's, and our enjoyment of them. I promise this, I am gone as gone can be if this increase takes effect. I purchased these Open Space Sims because they were properly priced, and I made my purchase decisions based on "what is". I'll be damned if SL will collect an additional $1500 USD per year from me just to retain what I already have. As for those that stay, will they be inclined to spend and shop in other areas of SL like they normally would? I think not. There is only so much to go around. There is a dynamic here that the Lindens are overlooking entirely with regards to its economy. Full sim owners who depend on shoppers will soon feel the "pinch", and I fear many of them will fail.

This action is profit taking...like the gas and oil companies....doing it just because they CAN.

Mr. Jack Linden...come to your senses...please...before an exodus occurs. There are better ways of raising revenue...like eliminating free accounts after an avatar has had 30 days to experience SL. This would solve the "alt" problem that runs rampant in SL too!

For a guy who never gets angry, you sure have found a way to break through my calm exterior.

We have several retail facility's, one on the mainland. Observing the various sims as to load I have to state the single mainland sim I watch runs a full frame time of 22.3 ms all the time with spikes to 70 or 100ms. Why is this? Well LL never cleans up the crap dropped by their inept customers that floats in the sky. There is more trash just hanging in space above open plots or the company owned land that pollutes the environment. From observations of this single sim it can be concluded that most mainland sims are maintained as this one is. Sims with a maximum frame time loading the grid. I have also observed some of the OS Islands that appear to have the same mentality in control. A total over loading of the system. The OS Islands run at a conover of 200 or less making them un usable. BUT, the bulk of the overload comes from the mainland and the lack of what can only be called normal maintenance. So Linden Lab you have only one group to blame for all of this it seems.

OS Islands are fragile at best the one we will be releasing has a 50% prim build out and 300 or so well written scripts. This island used to run at a conover of 3500. For the last two months, with not a single change the conover has dropped to less than 2000 frame times have remained constant as well as top script times. So where is the problem perhaps it has something to do with the additional mainland added to the game along with just piles of trash building up on company owned land plus very poor regulation by Linden Lab of the open space Sims. You really only have yourself to blame LL. Long ago you should have appointed administrators on your mainland Sims to manage the trash pick up, is that so hard to rationalize. Simple organization is the most glaring omission here reflected in the business practice now being portrayed.

This game had such potential, but seems to have slipped into the morass of greed. This is a guarantee of failure with the alienation of your customers.

Tonight I checked out the openlife setup it reminds me of the early days of second life innocent and peaceful. When they develop an economy they will be something to definitely consider. But for now I suppose we will live and die by the decisions of the Lab but many will choose to exit and spend the money on real life.

Oh someone made the comment that linden lab owns all the land there is no land there is a server with a program running on it never make the mistake that anything in second life is anything more than a data bits on a video screen you own nothing and they in fact own nothing except a customer base that uses imagination to create a virtual world. They sell space on servers just like any other data management company. Just a glorified chat room with nice visuals. Now I ask a simple question what is a chat room with 3D visuals worth these days of economic stress.

As a result we have seen tremendous demand for Openspaces - with many thousands of them being ordered.

So we at Linden Labs have decided to jack up the prices and stick it to ya good!

* Seems this was not a good thing to put into a blog where you are announcing a price hike, and an outrageous one at that!


We’re delighted that so many of you have found them to be a useful addition to your estates.

If you are so delighted why would you do this??? To make more money?

Come on the economy is crumbling all over the world and you think people want to spend more money on a virtual world?
What you are about to do is screw yourselves, as I think most people will not pay for this and end up abandoning land! I know I got rid of my land on the mainland due to over pricing for what I got and had to put up with, like, major lag, tacky flying stuff in the sky, too many scripted items. After I got rid of the land I went back to a free account and dont plan on getting a premium account nor buy land.

While Typing this....I just heard that a major sim owner has closed all the sims which they paid $120,000 a mth to LL, yes they closed them due to the greediness of LL!

Jack Linden has purposely used illegal price gouging. He is a criminal and needs to be locked up. End of storyl.

if this is legal, i`ll eat my ashtray

if estate owners team up and take LL to court, i`ll celebrate on the forums and prolly get a life time ban

I have been a supporter of Secondlife right from the beginning. I have enjoyed every moment i have been in Sl and met some of the most amazing people in my life. Thank you for that Jack...but as an owner in 3 openspace sims, one i bought just yesterday, I feel like i have lost everything with your news today.

I began with mainland and started a beautiful community with water and parklike settings. And one day right in our bay, a mall was set up , with all the stupid signs and scripts that i was unable to use my land as the lag became to much to even move around. So, i did my research and looked into the Openspaces Sim, good plan, i was finally able to have my artist community without a mall being in the middle. Which is set in a beautiful parlike setting.

However now with this 66% increase, i I feel you have given me no option but to abandon SL. Why could you not just put a cap on the prims? Why take it to this extreme? Why destroy SL for so many. We are the ones in here making a beautiful community. I guess its good bye to all the beauty in SL.

first time in my life to see someone who is going against the wish of all his customers lol... if LL wants more money then i think they best way is to fire 80% of their staff which are clueless about how to run a business!!!

If they don't want one to *rez* 3750 prims...

They shouldn't ALLOW 3750 prims.

It is not "abuse" to use what you're "allowed."

"first time in my life to see someone who is going against the wish of all his customers lol... if LL wants more money then i think they best way is to fire 80% of their staff which are clueless about how to run a business!!!"

I've been in SL for 2 years, have been providing free for everyone to enjoy content since I have been here and my open space is used to provide more CONTENT for users of SL to enjoy, I make NOTHING from this sim but only provide interesting content (and several users a place to call their own at no cost to them) and now my tier gets almost DOUBLED?? I am ditching this if they do this PRICE GOUGING and this content will be gone from the grid. Thank God I didn't trust LL enough to buy this and only rent it from a friend who did buy this. I never asked to have my prims doubled and would NEVER have gotten involved in this part of SL at this new price level. Basically SL is going to start getting $600USD per server with these???? I hope EVERYONE throws these right back at LL!!!!