When one buys a company that sell things to consumers (whether it be physical items or a service) one also buys the 'goodwill'. It is not a tangible thing but the more the company has the more likely it is to be successful and endure.
This move by the Lindens is one of several that have already undermined consumers faith in Second Life. That loss of faith will reflect in a reduction of customer loyalty and a fall in the amount of 'goodwill' the company can call upon. The phrase 'shooting oneself in the foot' springs to mind.
Having said that this could merely be the opening gambit of a very old strategy used by many governments to minimise public outcry and long term damage to popularity when introducing rises in taxation. Taxation is not popular so this is one way of managing the potential for unpopularity.
Step one: Decide that a tax rise is wanted.
Step two: Decide how much you want the increase to be.
Step three: Publicise a proposed raise significantly higher that the figure decided in step two.
Step four: Remain quiet as public opinion rages
Step five: Announce that "after listening to the comments' the increase will be reduced
Step six: Announce the figure decided in step two.
Step seven: Sit back and look smug as people are hoodwinked into believing you are a good guy because you listened to public opinion and 'reduced' the rise..
In reality it is nothing more than a disingenuous way of price increase. It is effective because most people react positively to the removal of a perceived 'threat' to their 'environment' - in this case the illusory environment that is Second Life.
The sudden popularity of O/S sim ownership has probably been noted by the LL finance section. They have probably had a meeting and decided that the O/S sims were under priced. Rather than doing the sensible thing of raising the price on new sims they are trying to cash in in one big hit. The technological 'justification' doesn't wash - this is purely and simply a clumsy attempt to increase profit. It quite probably will for a short time however the cost in goodwill and loyalty may well prove a poisoned chalice in the long term.
A large part of the success of Second Life has been the willingness of large numbers of very creative people to freely create astonishing and beautiful interactive graphics. For a fee Linden provides the 'canvas' upon which to paint. If that canvas is priced beyond the reach of a large number of those creative people then the free tools are useless. Second Life then becomes nothing more than a bandwidth hungry chatroom for cartoon sex - its social, artistic and cultural aspirations sacrificed upon the altar of Mammon.
Rudie
(Not a sim owner but an appreciator of creativity and one of the hitherto silent majority)
Welcome to the Second Life Forums Archive
These forums are CLOSED. Please visit the new forums HERE
Openspace Announcement Discussion with Jack Linden |
|
|
Rudie Otoole
Registered User
Join date: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 1
|
10-29-2008 05:57
|
|
HoneyBear Lilliehook
Owner, The Mall at Cherry
Join date: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 4,500
|
10-29-2008 05:57
I'm not defending them, I'm offering what I think the reasons for them doing this could be. I never once said that what they're doing is right, or that I wouldn't be mad about it, but I just don't see how it's illegal... it's how business works, costs increase, the economy effects things in subtle and not so subtle ways. Basically I'm just not convinced they're doing this out of greed, but possibily out of necessity. Don't you understand what they're doing? They've increased the prices and people will be abandoning their OS sims en masse. Now they have the equipment THAT WE PAID FOR, and will tweak them so that they can be full, 15k prim sims, and then build more of their laggy mainland sims on them....AT OUR EXPENSE. But their biggest mistake in all of this was infuriating their customers. They want to bring in businesses and universities, and they've already alienated some of those with this action. And believe me, this is making headline news in places, or will be...and all those companies and schools they're trying to attract are going to think twice before doing business with them. Not to mention how many residents will leave. By the way guys, be sure if you do leave, that you delete your account, so it's not one of the millions of dormant accounts that they use to show how many people are inworld. _____________________
Virtual Freebies now has its own domain!
URL=http://virtualfreebiesblog.com The Mall at Cherry Park - new vendors, new look! |
|
DannielScarlet Destiny
Registered User
Join date: 24 Feb 2008
Posts: 2
|
Gonna be made homeless
10-29-2008 05:58
This idea is completely off the wall.
LL should be penalising thos people that abuse the use of Open Sims. I rent half an open sim from a group that provide land for housing and they do it very well by placing no more than two islands on the open sim and charge a reasonable rent. Any extra money made after paying LL is put back into the group of sims by providing facilities for the residents use. This is a gay gropu of sims and provide housing for alot ope people, with the new charges rents will inevitably have to go up and many will not be able to afford what they now have....a beautiful home surrounded by water. Am already disgusted with LL support Service and this is just the icing on the cake.... LL should re-think their strategy and target those that are abusing the system. |
|
Lucrezia Lamont
Neko Onmyoji
Join date: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 808
|
10-29-2008 05:59
And also FWIW, I think I now buy that the original motivation was actually performance impact of OpenSpaces, and not just on other OpenSpaces, but rather more because of much greater than expected impact to central services (asset servers, internal networks, etc.)--out of all proportion to the revenue generated by the product. There's a telling remark toward the beginning of the log, explaining how two OpenSims can pose more of a load to central services than a single full-primmed sim. When you think about that, it's clear they had to do something. (Why they did what they did... ah, screw it, I'm just tired of speculating about that.) I think you hit the nail on the head here. It is not a new business practice that when a product or service has such high demand, to the detriment of the company providing such in some capacity, to increase the price to perform a "weeding out" so to speak. It's very unfortunate and this should have been handled much better (i.e. offering free transfers of OS to full sims, a second OS option that is truly light use and throttled etc.). But, sadly, they want a percentage of people to abandon the OSs. It's quite the gamble because I've never seen (rightly so) so many residents up in arms. *shakes my head* _____________________
Ronin Neko Onmyoji
|
|
Hunter Lightfoot
Registered User
Join date: 8 Nov 2006
Posts: 3
|
Bailout plan info sharing.
10-29-2008 06:00
Many of you know much more than I do of the following issues. Can you advise me on the following three?
1. What if any Virtual World environments promote User-end created businesses? What currently are the best alternatives? Even if they are in the infancy of startup, do any of them have a business platform that will benefit from the current perceived SL exodus? If so... I'd like to check them out. 2. Is there a SL website showing the amount of sims, OS or normal which are being evacuated/abandoned/sold etc? Perhaps an automated public metric tracking site? 3. I saw the post for the pro-bono lawyer offer. Is there an update to this? Has any attorneys realistically looked at and analyzed to see if there is a case here? I reiterate the term "attorney" instead of people who may think they know. These 3 items would be interesting to watch. Incidentally, this thing screws me to. I have 22 sims, normal and open space. I'm doing my best to keep my residents in the loop of any changes. I don't wanna bail if I can find a way to adapt. But, there may be no choice if SL is indeed driving folk back to the mainland. I think ya made a bad move here Jack and crew. The public outcry is amazing. Fix this thing. If a real life deal was made like this to me where I could look the man eye to eye, I'd have to call'im out. That's not a threat, its just an opinion of a conversation between two men. One who tries to walk with integrity, and one who seems doesn't understand the word. Id never do this to the supporters of my RL business. Ever. We've all supported SL for a long time. Moves like this are unnecessary unless SL is in a full downward spiral. If it is, then man-up, tell us, and not whitewash it. Grandfather the existing open-space plan. Period. And most all these issues would go away. Its a simple fix. It could be done by Lunch. I'll be standing by for your post. |
|
Otenth Paderborn
Registered User
Join date: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 32
|
10-29-2008 06:01
The sim is not overextended. Look at the line just above your circle.
Take a gander at this, people! I guess because they make the rules, those rules never apply to themselves, only everyone else as they see fit. Uh-huh....yeh, okay. Whatever to make a buck. How many times has this product been paid for....over and over and over? How many millions do they make on a monthly basis? Greed is all I see. (copy/paste this URL in your browser and hit GO. click on the pic on the page to get a larger view) http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd292/wenmac9999/Second%20Life%20Protest/?action=view¤t=overusedOS-LL3withprims2.jpg Disgusting. |
|
MarkByron Falta
Just an average bird
Join date: 16 Jun 2007
Posts: 168
|
10-29-2008 06:05
Linden does not need to fix an alleged 'technical' issue with an obscene money grab. Having both an openspace sim and a parcel on the mainland, the lag on the mainland is always far worse than any performance lag on the openspace. Linden made great efforts to sell these 'light use' sims by doubling the prim allotment and allowing single purchase. Now only months later when they've sold them in mass, they're pulling a bait & switch to force residents into either abandoning the parcels (and losing their initial investment), converting them back to full sims, or dutifully ponying up the extra $50 a month. No doubt the corporate suits expect the latter two results, and from their post economic statistics, it appears they're in dire need of revenue to make up for deficits in other revenue streams such as premium membership. Contrary to the ivory tower suits, I believe this is a underhanded blunder that will spell the end of most openspace sims and have a domino effect to push people to significantly reduce land holdings of all types.
|
|
Felix Oxide
Registered User
Join date: 6 Oct 2006
Posts: 655
|
10-29-2008 06:05
Apologies to those who've seen this already, or who attended in-person, but Prok's blog has an interesting transcript of an in-world meeting with Jack, at http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/10/jack-jacks-the.html. It's extraordinarily painful to wade through the chatlog there, but if one just searches for "Jack Linden" to see his words, it's almost comprehensible. FWIW, I read this to contain some hope that something a little more reasonable will emerge. And also FWIW, I think I now buy that the original motivation was actually performance impact of OpenSpaces, and not just on other OpenSpaces, but rather more because of much greater than expected impact to central services (asset servers, internal networks, etc.)--out of all proportion to the revenue generated by the product. There's a telling remark toward the beginning of the log, explaining how two OpenSims can pose more of a load to central services than a single full-primmed sim. When you think about that, it's clear they had to do something. (Why they did what they did... ah, screw it, I'm just tired of speculating about that.) Poor Jack. Taking the heat from all the land barons that knew full well what these regions were to be used for. |
|
HoneyBear Lilliehook
Owner, The Mall at Cherry
Join date: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 4,500
|
10-29-2008 06:05
Note that many of the items cited were services: internet, electricity. Server time for a sim is exactly analogous. When you pay the setup for a sim, you're not buying something with zero ongoing costs. I'm quite aware of that. I was referring directly to her line items of consumables. Seriously, all of this is going on and you're going to nitpick? _____________________
Virtual Freebies now has its own domain!
URL=http://virtualfreebiesblog.com The Mall at Cherry Park - new vendors, new look! |
|
Lissa Fimicoloud
Registered User
Join date: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 75
|
10-29-2008 06:08
People, Pay attention. This has nothing to do with what OS can support. What LL does with theirs makes no difference. This is about money, pure and simple. Quit trying to think of LL as a friend. They aren't, they are a business. You mean nothing to them. Actually, now that they have set their sights on corporate clients, you are less than nothing. You are a liability they want to get rid of because you are using resources they want to lease to the corporations.
Stop fussing and go do something. |
|
Leandra Kohnke
Registered User
Join date: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 1
|
I am very much bothered by this.
10-29-2008 06:08
There are so many ways to have fixed this without turning around and soaking everyone with a 66% increase in tier and wrecking the investments being made. My two favorite are:
1) apply the charge to the abuser 2) apply the charges to new people as they come in This is not the first bad decision Linden has made. However, for me it is the last. I am going to swallow hard and pay the $50 extra each for my island home I an renting from someone because I love it. I don't think I am abusing it. It's just me and two or three friends at most there at any given time. However I am going to also sell off all my Mainland Land, Land I bought before the flood of new sims so it's now nearly worthless, even if I have to do at a substantial loss due to that bad decision of the Lindens, and I'm just going to go straight rentals. I'm not going to take anymore risks because the rules keep changing here and I can't do anything about it. Let other people take the risk. There is no point in investing any money into this Second Life world expecting to have anything worth anything. The Lindens keep changing the rules and structures, if we, the users, don't like it tough. We are only free to walk away and stop using their service. So I am giving up the idea of having any kind of business in here and I'm just going to use it to play in. In the short term I am going to lose money I invested in here but in the long term I'll be better off. No more concierge fees, just my island rental. |
|
Charlotte Bartlett
Registered User
Join date: 21 Sep 2006
Posts: 97
|
10-29-2008 06:08
I sent a trimmed down version of this to concierge support and they said to post it here, so here goes. Thru past experience I know it won't achieve anything but hey, i have to try for the sake of my community. --------------------------------------- I don't want to knee jerk react so before I abandon my estate, I want to make sure I understand the ramifications of the new Open Space policy before the tiers start falling due in a few days time. I need an answer within 2 days, and as I spend $70,000US a year with you, I would appreciate that courtesy. My situation is this. I have 44 tropical island sims called Irukandji: 11 full-prim sims and 33 open spaces. The difference between tiers that i pay and tiers i receive from rentals is about 1500US per month. I've worn this loss because I'm trying to create utopia, and as far as our population is concerned, I've succeeded. It's a work of art to me, not a business, or i would have walked off a long time ago. Irukandji is also SL's largest gay and lesbian community with residents from 56 countries, both gay and straight. It is a creator's haven, with every tree, animal, car, boat, plane, helicopter, and sea creature made by Irukandji residents. We have a tough covenant, no ban lines, little trouble from griefers or hate crimers, and our own police force to protect our residents. That's about a hundredth of what we're about. Last month, the problem was that I'm Australian - I believe Irukandji is the largest Australian-owned estate - and the exchange rate crippled us last month. But rather than give up, and with the support of our residents, I fixed the problem by abandoning a dozen or so sims, downgrading others to open spaces, and moving people to different sims. Finally we're close to breaking even so the currency issue was solved. But now, LL delivers this latest blow. The few open spaces we rent have a single land owner tucked away in a corner with next to zero traffic and the rest is open public space that's rarely used. We have no commercial district in Irukandji except a small info centre on a full prim sim, Tamita Island, and another dedicated commercial full-prim sim. The rest is sparse residential, predominantly on full prim sims, with a strict covenant re lag inducing activities which is actively enforced by the police and the estate team. Of the 2.88 million sqm in Irukandji, over 2 million sqm is public seas and beaches, with 100 paying tenants spread out over 44 sims. There are rarely more than 50 people in the entire estate at any given time. This latest action by LL now means that my tier debt will increase by $1650US per month from January 1, and that the bays will not only be unsustainable, but virtually useless given that it seems i can't even deed them to group. And if I could? How could I afford them now? So i'm asking you, Linden Labs, do i understand this new ruling correctly? If I'm right, given our extremely low effect on your infrastructure, and our extremely high value to marginalised communities and art itself, I can no longer sit by in good conscience and watch an already marginalised community be further extorted and destroyed. I've endured a lot of crazy decisions by Linden Labs over the last 18 months and the absolute worst customer service of any organisation i've ever dealt with in my 43 years of life, but this is one step too far. Despite my initial enthusiasm for SL, i CAN get over it, and I will. I'll abandon the entire estate rather than see it become a speckled bunch of isolated class 5's with no common areas to enjoy or meet other people. LL, You've successfully turned SL into RL, divided and segregated and awful. I'm disgusted in what SL represents. Another estate owner I spoke to today has put in a similar notice and is about to walk off 57 sims with equal outrage and disgust. People on this blog are asking where all the thousands of sims are that may be abandoned - Well there's a hundred between two people, and we're only small fry compared to some. Do the maths. I'm very used to being ignored by concierge support and LL in general - never bothered to help me with any of the three scam transactions you allowed to leave my account over the past eighteen months (only $500,000L) - and didn't remotely give a damn when you devalued my estate by $14,000US with the last bout of flooding the market with cheap sims (which you're blaming us for now) so I'll say it clear in a public place. If i don't see a damn big knight on a white stallion coming to the rescue before month's end - that's two days - I'll get the message. I'll give the community notice that the estate's closing down, then submit the relevant support tickets to abandon it. I've had a gutful of this ongoing extortion of private estates and your wholesale indifference to those of us who actually create the damn content you boast about. Your choice Linden Labs - I'm not saying another word. Xay Tomsen  Yet ANOTHER community impacted by this. Xay perhaps talk to the Sailing Sims and the other large community managers - all are in the same situation and I am wondering that between you all you have about 700 sims perhaps you can agree a package to move over to OpenSim or similiar (I am platform agnostic but there might be options out there for you) and migrate your communities.Most are still under development, but with such large communities moving I am sure the investment into their platforms from this situation on Second Life will increase pace and also you can be part of developing wonderful communities based on open source. Don't give up on what you have created. Take care. |
|
Lord Sullivan
DTC at all times :)
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,870
|
10-29-2008 06:10
Still that statement could come back to haunt you  hehe yeah i know im just so pissed at LL attitude to all of this, we are dropping our OS ocean sim and gonna invest what we save here in the openlifegrid, yeah i know just as risky but i would rather give them my money than LL at this moment  _____________________
Independent Shopping for Second Life residents from established and new merchants.
http://slapt.me  slapt.me - In-World HQ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bastet/123/118/26 |
|
Daydream Kaligawa
Registered User
Join date: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 1
|
10-29-2008 06:15
Is coming up with an alternative. Something reasonable. Something midrange. What casual users can afford a whole sim? Mainland is awful, full estates are too expensive and the alternative is getting smashed. Why don't you come up with an alternative that WORKS for people instead of penalizing them out of the market? It doesn't take a genius to understand that THIS is what the market wants. Most businesses put a focus on the needs and desires of their customers. Instead of fulfilling the need and reaping the financial rewards, you are making it harder to do business with you. If Linden Lab is unable to grasp the concept of the marketplace, they are doomed. Has 'M' had a look at this proposal? Totally agreed. |
|
Alf Lednev
Registered User
Join date: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 11
|
Lindens soon to be flipping burgers
10-29-2008 06:18
Well put Ms Toya, that would be common courtesy, i mean Jack isn't running LL on his own. Some common Courtesy would be very much appreciated. Its actually Kate's job to respond. If Jack is unavailable for whatever reason, he should have delegated responsibility. Kate is the logical person but it could have been anyone. Torely could have made a cute video of Lindens in bandit masks and big sacks of money sneaking out the back. Oh wait, that was real . Lindens treat customers with contempt, it will come back to haunt them, most will be flipping burgers in a year or so. |
|
Argent Stonecutter
Emergency Mustelid
Join date: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 20,263
|
10-29-2008 06:19
What if any Virtual World environments promote User-end created businesses? And... um... _____________________
Argent Stonecutter - http://globalcausalityviolation.blogspot.com/
"And now I'm going to show you something really cool." Skyhook Station - http://xrl.us/skyhook23 Coonspiracy Store - http://xrl.us/coonstore |
|
Isadora Graves
Registered User
Join date: 25 Feb 2007
Posts: 5
|
Bad Business All Around
10-29-2008 06:21
I've been reading the posts on this forum as well as the comments on the JIRA related to this issue (http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1776/) and wanted to share my thoughts.
I own half of an OpenSpace with another resident; we each have a home and some landscaping and rarely is there more than 1-3 people (if that) on the sim. After this hike, we will likely lose the place we have made our home. Obviously this is upsetting and I have to wonder what the PR people over at Linden Labs were thinking - surely they must have considered they would be angering an enormous portion of their user base and possibly even losing hundreds of customers over this. Was it really worth it to go ahead with this decision in light of this? We can never know what the heads over at LL discussed, but we see what they have decided and it seems - for all intents and purposes - extortionist in the extreme; in fact, one could even call it the old "bait 'n switch" scheme (which is actually illegal). Working for a large agency and being in i.t., I can see some of the problems the misuse of OS's might have caused and a need to do something about it. However, I cannot imagine sane people (or even the legal department!) allowing *this* to be the decision that was reached to fix the problem. Surely there had to be another way. Some have suggested monitoring OS's and reprimanding the problem users, or even disallowing scripts and imposing a limit on the number of av's that can be on the OS at one time. Either of these are viable solutions and - especially together - would have worked wonderfully without alienating the client base and screwing loyal customers out of thousands of dollars. I just cannot seem to wrap my mind around why LL has decided on this course of action; the "no grandfathering" is like adding insult to injury. Its really hard to understand how a company could make a decision so left field of what would be good or acceptable for and to their customers. I think a better solution could have been found, and I hope that one - after this boisterous outcry - is reached. I hope that LL decides to listen to its loyal customers and passionate investors and works with them to come up with a new solution that will benefit or at least work for everyone. I love SL, and I want to believe in LL. I hope that I am given that chance - much more disillusionment, and I can't see myself desiring to be a resident for much longer. |
|
Richard Palace
Registered User
Join date: 20 Oct 2006
Posts: 241
|
10-29-2008 06:21
As we know, mainland has reached at low of $2.4 L/sqm and that is even lower than the starting bid for mainland auction.
They might want to drive the demand back to Mainland or they could also be under pressure from influential island owner who are competing with Linden. Whatever the reason, I believe Linden did their sum and are aware of the consequence of their action. Naturally, Openspace owner are upset with the 66% tier price increase come Jan 2009. Some will go back to mainland, some will buy from influential island owner, some will never come back. It's a product that Linden should have not sold. |
|
Felix Oxide
Registered User
Join date: 6 Oct 2006
Posts: 655
|
10-29-2008 06:27
It's a product that Linden should have not sold. OSRs do have their legitimate uses, but it is a product that should have been tightly regulated to prevent what has occured. It was sort of regulated until they started selling them seperately and allowing them to be placed anywhere on the grid. Plus the owner of the OSRs should have never been allowed to be anyone but the owner of the regular estate. |
|
Catrina Dragonash
Registered User
Join date: 29 Nov 2007
Posts: 1
|
Openspace Announcement
10-29-2008 06:31
The Openspace SIMs were originally designed for very light use water SIMs or terrain SIMs. This was placed in the terms of service (TOS) everyone who purchased these SIMs agreed to.
I understand the outrage at the price increase and I agree with this outrage. Increasing the price of the Openspace SIMs at this point makes things look like a classic bait and swich tactic. Bait with a low price and when everyone has purchased and put there time into the creation switch to a higher price. However, I do not agree with the outrage on the policing of the SIMs. When Linden set up these SIMs they did not have a proper tactic to govern them. Hence the blatant abuse that has caused legitamate and law abiding Estate Owners to loose valuable business and tenants. The release of cheap low prim SIMs is one of the major reasons Estate Owners and paying accounts are abandoning beautifully created SIMs. We can no longer support the SIMs we purchased for retail, rental, parcel sale activities. As an accountant I have seen the SL economy go down the toilet since April 2008 due to the cheap low price Openspaces. The SL economy will not improve until commerce is somehow stimulated. Increasing the prices of the Openspace SIMs will in a small way reduce the number of SIMs available for rent or inworld ownership due to the abandonment by there owners. This will eventually allow the Estate Owners who use there SIMs acording to the TOS to recoupe some of there loss and stimulate the flow of Lindens in world. A better solution is 1. to leave the Linden TIER charged the owners of the current openspace SIMs as is. Charging all new owners the increased TIER as they purchase new Openspace SIMs. 2. Creation of a governing body of Lindens and Estate Owners. This governing body will talk with the Openspace SIM owners that are violating the TOS and come up with a solution to bring them into compliance or recommend that there SIMs be changed into a regular SIM to support the activities they need on that particular SIM. |
|
Delta Sweetwater
Registered User
Join date: 28 Aug 2008
Posts: 37
|
10-29-2008 06:31
I say, we all should calm down and cool off a bit. Its still 2 month till the fee changes will happen, 2 months are a lot of time where a lot can happen. I also dont see the problem to pay 50 bucks more. Wehn you are rich enough to own a whole sim and dumb thousends of dollars in, then wehy should 50 bucks more hurt you? Illogical.
Also, the name calling and endless rants wont bring us anywhere. If anyone has a solution, a compormise for both sides that we all can agree on, then post it, we all would be happy to hear it. Thing is, LL is a profit driven organization, like any big company, they reinvest cash and they also need to pay out stockholders if they have any. Upgrading from a Class 4 server to a Class 5 server costs money. Anyone here that ever bought a high-class server for gaming use, with low-ping/lag etc.? You pay between 50.000 and 125.000 Dollars if not more for such a rig. Now buy 20 or 50 of them, hell or 100 servers. Yeah, you just spend over a Million dollar in hardware. Now add the cost of installing them and mentaince too, then the programmers and technicans also want to be payed. These are long term costs and you also have to rember that you need to upgrade them regulary and maybe even replace full rigs from time to time. We are talking about a lot of cash, more then the 40 Millions LL makes every month or year (dont know exactly). Its awlays a question how you finace things like this and in the end, you have to roll off the costs to the user/customer. Its done in every business. But yeah, you guys would more likely be happy if the costs stay as they are, but sims get closed down and 200 Technicans from LL get fired. You want that LL is more customer freindly and should have a higher morale, but on the other hand, you people wont complain wehn people loose real-life jobs just you guys can be happy. Then again, there is still time to find a compromise and maybe in the end, we find a acceptable solution for both sides. So, stop complaning and ranting, sit down and think about this rational and we find a way. |
|
Naughty Dreamscape
Registered User
Join date: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 81
|
10-29-2008 06:32
I think there is ONE way to get Linden Labs attention. Please keep reposting this, so that many will see it:
Linden Labs is a California Company. This type of action does come under the California Attorney General's Juristiction as it could be considered Consumer Fraud, according to my attorney. While Linden Labs does have a TOS... A TOS is simply a contract between two parties. No contract can violate local, state or federal laws. Consumer fraud is illegal and can not be waived as acceptable, just because Linden Labs has a TOS. If MANY of us contact the California Attorney General, they will investigate. Here is the contact information for the Attorney General's office: Attorney General's Office California Department of Justice Attn: Public Inquiry Unit P.O. Box 944255 Sacramento, CA 94244-2550 (916) 322-3360 I would suggest calling them AND writing them. Please keep the following in mind when you do: 1. Their office is in the same time zone as Linden Labs, they are open from 9:00 am to 5:00pm, Monday through Friday. 2. Be polite. Remember, they are just a fact collector and they are always on the side of the consumer. 3. Be clear and have a talking plan. Most likely, the person you speak to, will not know anything about Second Life, so be prepared to clearly explain how Second Life works and why you believe their actions to be illegal and immoral. 4. Know Linden Labs Contact Information: Linden Labs, 945 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 5. Don't fear retialation from Second Life in any way. In California that would be a criminal act. They may not suspend cancel your account, or act in any adverse way against you for attempting to exersize your legal rights. Good luck everyone. |
|
Hans Zinnemann
ASP C# SQL XML & now LSL
Join date: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 10
|
HiJack
10-29-2008 06:32
Since this announcement came out I have been struggling to think of another company that massively increased prices in order to curb the abuse of a minority. I have still not been able to think of one, nor do I see how a price increase will prevent abuse. I can see how it will cause open space owners to close their open spaces in droves, making SL a worse environment, especially for sailors like me.
If this is how SL treats it's customers then bring on OpenSim so those customers can choose a fair service provider. |
|
Chaz Longstaff
Registered User
Join date: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 685
|
10-29-2008 06:32
the lag on the mainland is always far worse than any performance lag on the openspace. Agreed. It seems the lag on mainland is the elephant in the room they hope we won't notice. transcript of an in-world meeting with Jack, at http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/10/jack-jacks-the.html. OMG. I hope that Jack guy is getting some bonus holidays for going through that. It's staggering; it might be a new record for one company having single-handedly irked so many customers from so many countries all at once. There's a telling remark toward the beginning of the log, explaining how two OpenSims can pose more of a load to central services than a single full-primmed sim. When you think about that, it's clear they had to do something. Why they did what they did... Ah yep. The part that is still missing is the dots between the issue and the increase... They need to be saying something like, "this money will be invested in upgrading infrastructure" or something like that. Or, maybe it's like cigarette taxes, they want to discourage consumption, but in this instance they can't come out and say that. _____________________
Thread attempting to compile a list of which animations are freebies, and which are not:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=265609 |
|
Jim Perhaps
Registered User
Join date: 10 Dec 2005
Posts: 65
|
If so
10-29-2008 06:34
As we know, mainland has reached at low of $2.4 L/sqm and that is even lower than the starting bid for mainland auction. They might want to drive the demand back to Mainland or they could also be under pressure from influential island owner who are competing with Linden. Whatever the reason, I believe Linden did their sum and are aware of the consequence of their action. Naturally, Openspace owner are upset with the 66% tier price increase come Jan 2009. Some will go back to mainland, some will buy from influential island owner, some will never come back. It's a product that Linden should have not sold. If it is indeed a product that LL should not have sold than I suspect there is recourse for those that purchased the product. I heard that California has a class action suit against Mircrosoft over the Xbox because of the longevity of the product. My understanding is the Xbox originally had a 90 day warrenty and MS had to up it to 12 months. For those that say Linden Lab's owns SL and therefore they can do what ever they choose are incorrect. There many laws that protect the consumer. |
