Deal with it or Buy mainland

No. Respectfully, the killer of the mainland is ad farms- lag- lack of zoning - the allowing of cutting of land into little 16m blocks and the flooding the market with two new continents for the same to be done to them.

You're right, Richard, OS were underpriced... but not by 66%.

Actually, I think the $95/month price tag they are envisioning for their first stage from Jan to July for homesteads is a fair and appropriate price as the usability value of the product is just about half way between a quarter and a half mainland sim.

As to the whole mainland vs. estate question, I used to be a mainland advocate for similar reasons as those mentioned by VonG and some others in this thread. For about a year, I had a little more than 1/8 of a mainland sim, most of the rest of which belonged to a group of close friends of mine. We had similar ideas about what the environment should look like and what we wanted to do there. It was as good as you can expect it to get on the mainland. Except that of the 3 plots in the sim that didn't belong to me or any of my friends, one was a resources hog who often managed to slow things down to a crawl, one was an ugly ad farm and one a big eyesore of a shop peddling copybotted warez. Furthermore, in the neighbouring sim right at the sim border there was a huge plot belonging to a shop owner whose idea of architecture was dropping a plot-sized, cube-shaped grey concrete building on his land.

So that was my mainland experience. We had a lot more control over the environment than most mainland residents can expect to have, but it was still laggy and ugly as hell.

Then along came VAT, which for me meant tiers going up by 19%. At that point, it just wasn't worth it anymore. When I got the chance to rent an OS from a friend who charged me just enough to recover his setup fee over a period of about 2 years, naturally I moved.

I'll be staying on my OS until July, but when the final hike comes, which will translate to something like $140 for me, I'll have to give up my little paradise. So, what then? Will I be returning to mainland? No way.

I might consider it if some really effective zoning and planning were happening which would ensure that there's an aesthetically pleasing environment to be found on the mainland, but frankly, I can't think how LL can do that without first buying it all back from the current residents.

So yeah, mainland was a good idea, but the time when it was the heart of SL has long gone. All the interesting, worthwhile places to visit, all the nice environments to live in, are on private estates nowadays. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I don't think OS is Mainland killer. a Builder will prefer mainland at an OS because can found more prims on it.
I am agree with Lucinda and not only 16sqm parcell but when you have alot of people on a mainland sim you have many kind of build that include beautifull build and ugly ones....
And of course, I hate ban line.

More prims if you buy more land and pay more tier of course.

The mainland was already dead. What has killed it is the proliferation of *real* abuse that the Lindens can not or will not tackle. That - and the constant threat of ugly behaviour and ugly neighbouring builds. I suspect that I am not the only one who considers a transfer back to the mainland unthinkable.

In response to:

[Deal with it or Buy mainland

I am amused by the reaction of all the people who are getting caught with more than just their Hands in the cookie jar..


As a semi noob.. even I understand the original intent of LL's Open Space Sims and can see that clearly the majority of people who are complaining about this somehow abused the system by treating these as cheap rental property that they can make more profit on.

I am sure that some even invested a lot of money and made big plans on how to get rich selling and renting OS as if they were regular sims...

To get straight to my point:


If you want cheap land - buy Mainland

I think that the recent trend of shifting all the rental businesses to these open space sims has been destroying the value of Mainland. If Mainland looks like its not working, SL looks like its not working.

Why would a new player who sees nothing but cheap yellow on the map and no people to interact with want to stay and play?

When I first started it was hard to find good land cheap and it was a challenge and there was a lot of activity - all the things that made this fun. Now for the last 6 months it appears that MAinland is virtually desserted. Everyone is probably out renting OS and spending all their time trying to figure out what their Landlords prim limit is that day.. and checking their Lost and found for items that didn't stick..

LL and those who are the big players need to help restore the most visible part of SL and by bringing the prices of these OS sims back to a realistic competitive price with the other products LL has made a good step towards accomplishing this. Now its up to the people who bought all these to make the right move.

Either deal with it - or Buy or Rent what is still the cheapest Land - Mainland ....

And if you are quitting because of this....Bye! See you in a week with a new name....


Edit: If you look at SL like if it were a restaurant...

A restaurant with 20 Seats and a Line out the door with people waiting for a table is more popular than a restaurant with 1000 seats and only 50 people sitting at tables...]



My Response:



Look up the meaning of the word COMPASSION and then maybe we can talk although knowing what I am speaking to I highly doubt you will Understand The DEFINITION.

Number two (If you can get past/passed that) I Have a Quote for You although I am sure you will disregard it being you, and the quote is this:

If one looks into the genealogies of many "old families", one discovers episodes of slave trafficking, bootlegging, gun running, opium trading, falsified land claims, violent acquisition of water and mineral rights, the extermination of indigenous peoples, sales of shoddy and unsafe goods, public funds used for private speculations, crooked deals in government bonds and vouchers, and payoffs for political favors. One finds fortunes built on slave labor, indentured labor, prison labor, immigrant labor, female labor, child labor, and scab labor -- backed by the lethal force of gun thugs and militia. "Old money" is often little more than dirty money laundered by several generations of possession.

The goal of a good society is to structure social relations and institutions so that cooperative and generous impulses are rewarded, while antisocial ones are discouraged. The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: ruthless, competitive, conniving, opportunistic, acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment -- or at least much handicap -- to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love of justice, and a concern for those in need.

Sound Familiar to You? I am sure it does.

The Balls are Now In Your Court. What little there is. From What I Am Seeing There Isn't Much.

And as You So Politely Say DEAL WITH IT!

Uh Huh.

Smiles.

Not sure for example, an Homestead will cost 125USD/month in July and a 1/2 sim mainland will cost 125USD with around 8000 prims... A 4096sqm mainland contain 950 prims and an OS will contain 750 prims...

But well mainland still expensive especially for european people with VAT. In France 19.6% is really high.

Last I Heard. So for all of you out there who say go buy Mainland, guess what? LOL!

Rumors abound at the moment lol Yeah they probably will at some point or restructure the land owning rules but even so owning a mainland sim is still at the moment 100 USD cheaper whatever way you look at it. We were more worried about the private island price being hiked so did a deal with a friend as they wanted a Full sim and we have moved back to the mainland.

Our presence here is just to promote our RL adult profile website and its dam cheap advertising for us and saving 100 USD from the island we can use that on OLG now so its a win win for us, but the mainland gets another adult business back lol

You keep doing this and missing the point. You're comparing estate rental with mainland ownership. You can rent a 4096M mainland parcel for less than you can rent a 16K openspace parcel or a 4096M estate parcel.

You are right about renting a 4096sqm mainland parcel can be cheaper than 16k openspace parcel or 4096sqm estate parcel.

BUT, Linden isn't targeting these group of resident as they probably still staying in Mainland because it's cheaper.

Because OS is so underpriced and sell like hotcakes while Mainland remains in a dying state. Linden cannot afford that, so they get rid of mainland advertisement and later raise the tier to make OS cost of renting or ownership to be higher compared to Mainland.

As you can see, Mainland price is slowly creeping up. It's probably at $3.0 L/sqm now compared to $2.3 L/sqm before the announcement.

It's 3.2 but if you keep an eye on the land sales forum you'll see plenty of full estates being sold off. If residents weren't buying at the low prices they're not going to rush there now, this is speculators hoping that they will be an influx of new mainlanders.

Plenty of people however will simply be put off by having the work they've put so much effort into ripped from beneath their feet. They'll be out of here, that's not good for anyone.

The market worked until that magic moment in like April. I used to think it was the dumping of land exclusively, and it took some time to realize that the dumping of land was done at the same time as the lowering of prices for Estates and the offering of Open Sims.. so the correct answer is, as I said.. All of the above.



and no.. far from nay here.. I am for it .. all of it! and I am having a blast too..

In business and War there are no Gentle and Kind Ways to handle major issues.

"In business and War there are no Gentle and Kind Ways to handle major issues."

And ultimately leaves the landscape unable to support life. So what were your goals again?

What a self defeating attitude. There must always be a balance of *reasonable* profit and thoughtfulness for the future. Greed destroys the future.

my Goals are simple.. I would like for my Avatars skin to not be black from the neck down and for me to find a spoon to go with my cartoon knife and fork. This way I can eat liquids - to sustain life you need liquids -

I think that this whole Uproar is over the thoughtfulness for the future. The future of LL and its survival. I think Greed was not the reason that forced this change.

I just read the economic stats for the 3rd Q and it is now obvious to me that I was correct in assuming that there was such a huuuuuge shift and focus towards the Open Sims .. it devaluated the main product, which is Mainland and the full priced estates.

When big SL Fake Estate Investors got in on the action and started renting out the OS sims in competition with the other areas, this caused a great unbalance. The people who really got the shaft were the ones left paying full price.

let me ask you a question..

If you were to sell a product and then one day started to offer a scaled down in feature version of the same product that looks identical to the main product on the surface....and then found that there was a mad rush of people buying this cheaper lesser product and turning around and offering, marketing and reselling ( renting) it to your clients for less than your main product costs in direct competition with you, causing your clients and potential clients to pick your resold product over your own original?

What would you do?

Interesting question considering the people who are allowed to resell it have to own the original version in the first place and the company selling the original scaled down version have gleefully posted how it led to such wonderful growth.

What would I do? I'd not bite the hand that feeds me.

exactly.. and the growth statement was funny... as was the projection of slowdown due to the adjustment period...Impending Doom Looming?

Correct as well as Chris Norse's comments