M Linden Speak's Finally !! Letter to Residents

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/11/05/a-letter-to-second-life-residents/

First

M Linden here. Many thanks to everyone who responded constructively with their concerns and suggestions about our Openspaces announcement. We’ve listened carefully and your feedback has led to some amendments to our original plan.

Before I jump to the policy amendments, I’d like to provide some insight into our decision and then recap what we’ve heard from you. When the Openspaces product was originally launched, Linden Lab offered Island owners the opportunity to add Openspaces to their land for light use only –- such as ocean or park land. But we didn’t build in and enforce specific, quantifiable performance limits on the Openspaces. Why? For two simple reasons:

1. As you know all too well, many things affect performance of a Sim in complex inter-related ways (i.e., scripts, prims, avatars, media). We were reluctant to limit the overall experience and your creativity by posing specific limits on all these variables – partly because Linden Lab has always been pretty free-form and believes in the innate goodness of Second Life Residents and partly because imposing limits require that we hire staff to enforce them.

2. We wanted to get this product to market quickly. Openspaces was wildly popular. Some Island owners added ocean and park land, as intended but many built empires – glorious builds, beautiful rental properties and other great things. Since land-owners co-habitate on CPUs, if one owner adds an ocean and one builds a carnival, the shared CPU gets overloaded. The ocean-loving Resident who followed the original intent suffers and we are called in to resolve the conflict. Second Life is much too large to do that.

When we sorted through the good and bad in the many conversations, comment cards, emails, and calls, you shared many things but there were three consistent themes we can work with:

1. Those of you who used the Openspaces as originally intended — for ocean or park land — want that product at the original price point and are willing to accept clear restrictions on usage.

2. Some of you have built businesses on the Openspaces product, set your rental rates or built your groups and although you acknowledge you built more than was intended for Openspaces, a large and rapid price change is too much for you to absorb.

3. Some of you created builds that were between an ocean and a carnival and want some kind of “normal region lite” product – a lower price point than a normal region but with the ability to build a certain amount of content.

We’ve launched three land products in the company’s history: Mainland, Islands and now Openspaces. Because we have complexity everywhere else, we’re loath to add a highly complex pricing structure. Nevertheless, it’s clear we have to build a product mix and pricing structure that offers more flexibility.

Here is how we are amending the price change:

1. We are going to retain the Openspaces product at its original price point and its original intended use (forest, water, etc.). We will have technical limitations to help regulate their use, initially avatar and prim limit restrictions, eventually event, classified and script limits. Those of you who chose to use the Openspaces as intended may stay at the US$75 rate, but will need to contact the concierge team to do so.

2. If you want more than an Openspace, we will offer you the choice of moving to a new product called Homesteads that is intended for light use such as low density rentals. For existing Openspace owners we will phase in the price increase for this new product over the next 6 months. Homesteads will also have technical limits for avatars and prims, and eventually script limits as well.

* January 5, 2009 – non-compliant Openspaces will transition to Homesteads and the maintenance fees will go from $75 to $95 per month. We will offer an educational discount to qualified educators on the new Homestead product. The discount amount will be the same as Private Regions, roughly 30%.

* July 2009 — the maintenance fees for Homesteads will go from $95 to $125 per month

For detailed information on these changes, please go to the Knowledge Base.

We believe this is fair. Jack and I will join you in the forums throughout the day today to discuss this. Comments are closed on the blog, not because we want to limit dialog or free expression but because this is a conversation with Residents and the forums require log-in. This is a policy we are going to follow moving forward with all major announcements. Blog the announcement, express and discuss in the Forums.

One thing I learned and others were reminded about in this process is that we have a very connected, passionate Resident base and we need to bring you into the dialog earlier, before putting forward these decisions. The input we received after Jack’s announcement was prolific and by-and-large very, very constructive. Second Life is at a size where 1:1 conversations are difficult and the forums are inadequate for full dialog. Office hours come up short, too. We have some thoughts on how to bring Residents into the dialog earlier which we will cover in a future blog post and Forum discussion.

I’d like to close on this thought: An area of concern for Residents over the past year has been platform stability. Through the hard work of many, many people, including Residents, we have made great strides that are very well documented. Crash rates are down. Substantially. Period. And until this price change, we were riding high in user satisfaction so we know you have recognized and appreciated the improvements we’ve been making. Our breakthroughs in stability improvement are particularly noteworthy because our land mass increased enormously this year. And, a good part of that increase was from Openspaces. However, the original plan was to expand land mass but expand load at a much lower rate. But, Openspaces — in many cases — have been overloaded with content, scripts and avatars so our very substantial stability gains have come even with the unplanned load increase. We are deeply committed to making this the best virtual world platform in the world and we are making great strides. We’ve also demonstrated we can deliver on our promise of continual stability improvements – even in the face of unanticipated growth.

I look forward to hearing from you in the Forum. Thank you for your candor, patience, restraint and willingness to work with Linden Lab and the Second Life community at large. Second Life is the wonder that it is because Linden Lab has always worked together – albeit sometimes imperfectly – with Residents to build this magnificent, bigger than life world we all love so much.
Thank you.

Now that's perfectly reasonable, and i can live with that.

Good choice.


Ammendment: After being told it'll be only 750 prims for the $75.00 I change my opinion, this isn't fair, or business wise at least to me.

It is hardly reasonable. The Homestead sim is way over priced, as it will be 125 US$ in July. No one will pay to rent these for the rent they will have to pay. This is in essence what we now know as the Open Sim. It still isn't viable at it is STILL a 67% increase in tier.

As for what will happen to this new product line - what will now be called the Open Sim, will have 750 prims available. Yes, the prims dictate "light use" only. But at 75 US$ per month - no way. It should be around 35 US$ per month and no more. I would go with a product with limited prims but at a much lower price.

Linden Labs has screwed us again. But then, it matters very little to me at this point. I will simply get rid of my current Open Sim as I planned previously, once I get my residents completely off. They are my primary concern at the moment.

Just 750 prims? where does it says that. But yeah. I may have jumped the gun, gotta know how many prims, etc will be given to the open spaces, to determine cost vs value.

Hang on a minute......

So we are missing out a BIG chunk of "Private" openspace owners here are we not?

The low end openspaces stay as openspaces but with new limits and at their original price point.

The new product "Homesteads) will cost $125 (which is the price everyone was up in arms about and walking out over)
But these will be for people wishing to have low density rentals (multiple homes) on the Island.


And the middle person (like me) Invividual with 1 house and trying to make a quiet, peaceful (mostly empty) landscape with no rentals or anything else will get.................

what exactly?

Unless I speed read that too fast, what is on offer for the Invividual with his/her single house and a beautiful landcape?

Are we (who don't rent out) just going to have pay the same as those who do?


We have the low end (cheap) PROPER openspace

WE have the high end "Homespace" for people who want to subdivide and rent plots out.

But where's the Middle package?

Apart from some openspace areas being kept (that are really openspace) I can't see this pleasing many at all.

Just go to the links in the Knowledge Base from the Announcment. Then you will see. Yes, 75 US$ per month for 750 prims - outrageous!

Better read the knowledge base before you go touting how fair this is.

People who purchased these sims for ocean or parkland when they were 418 USD each got 1800+ prims with them and now they will have 750 and an avatar limit of 10!!!!!!!!!!

They are still saying that we are using them as they were not intended but yet the "homestead" will have 3750 prim! That is the prim limit they gave us when they sold them to us for the "not intended use"

There is no apology here for the mess they have created- businesses that they have uprooted; residents they have pitted against on another etc.

The product we bought 65536 sqm 3750 prims; 75.00usd per month is still being raised to 125 usd per month and the avatar limit is being reduced to 20 and the only thing they have done is given us longer before we have to pay it.

WORST of all they still maintain that those of us who used those 3750 prim were doing something wrong even though they gave them to us in the first place and the concierge told estate owners it was fine to use them for homes and businesses.

Please do not forget there are estate owners who asked about this use before buying and were given the ok and LL sold thousands of them knowing this was how they were being used. Jack Linden himself stated they were not against this use, yet the knowledge base calls this "Unintended use"

"If you are using your Openspace as a rental or other unapproved use, such as habitation, you are really using what we call a Homestead."

Too little too late LL
Very sad to feel this way after 2 years

All LL is doing is phasing in the price increase, by calling the Open Sim now Homestead. By July next year you will still pay a freaking 125 US$ for tier !

But at the same time, LL will put on restrictions to their new product lines. Why can't it simply do that now and keep the same pricing, and not bother to add another product line?

Answer: This is a money grab situation, and LL is as greedy as hell.

Come on people - you were not duped before. This is the exact same deal they are offering, but it is simply phasing in the ridiculous price hikes.

Wow. Yeah definetely a no go. How sad.

I would have been willing to pay 35 US$ per month, and build full sims around a recreation area for my residents as added value at 750 prims - a nice open water area with an island here and there with some light landscaping. But this? No way.

OK IVE HAD IT!!!!

I don't even own land yet and I'm mad at land owners.....

NOOOO not those that use it properly - to those I applaud you!!!! - I have however just been thrown off 1/2 sim mainland that someone sold due to this issue because they could no longer rent out the OS areas they owned!!!! short sited on thier part now wasnt it. OH WAIT!!!! its going to cost more!! - what you don't realize is that those that can not afford to do a real purchase will rent it if you don't put a HUGE upfront purchase on it first! OHHH wait...didn't I see that might be a restriction on these?? well I do hope Linden keeps that! because to make people believe they own it and really don't is just cheating them. Yes it is a great way to recover your initial upfront cost but...did you ever stop to think that your actually not giving them anything for thier money? they will pay the higher amount per wk if you do not have a huge cost upfront and you give them something for it. Maybe even try to be available to them. I'm not picking on the good guy here remember. If the cost to purchase is too high to put your costs into it in a way that the consumer will WANT your product then dont do it. That will bring the buy ins on land that people pay tier to you down drastically but people will want to rent more land. the more of your land you rent the more stable your income - is it not? Yes I understand the idea that your real life income may go down - the same thing happens in real life. Real estate goes up and down and business goes up and down. Its the good marketer or business person that can weather it even when the supplier increases prices. Some businesses simply choose to change suppliers.

written in a fit so I'm sure this will be ripped apart....

Dolome - anyone selling some decent Mainland?

The increase is just as it was originally stated for OS,they just delayed the start time of the $125 all they have done is offer a low prim OS for the $75 and re named the present OS
I think the $95 is at least better than the $125 and i could have swallowed that,but that is only temporary
With 750 prims many who use the OS for light use can't match that,it is way too low
This is just all so frustrating,i live on my boat on my OS,don't have any stores or sell anything,only 2 avatars use the island.
My lover who lives in the uk and me in canada only use the island to spend time together,period,thats the extent of our use of our OS
Granted our boat is big and very comfortable to live on and i have used about 2900 of the prim allotment
So i guess i fall into the abuser category as i have to pay the OS abuser new rate (eventually)
Of course in keeping with LL"s original statement that the increase is due to the amount of abuse of OS then abusers have to become owners of the new homestead island to retain the 3750 prim (the definition of abuser here is non abuser and abuser as there has been no way of separating the two except to offer a 750 prim OS)
As far as i'm concerned for $125 the prim allowance should be around 5000,after all $125 is more than 1/3 rd of the tier of a 15000 prim island so the prims should be increased accordingly
So in the end all that has been offered is a low prim island

There Are No Freaking Abusers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop Buying Into An Spreading This Lie Please!!!!!!!!!!

Here is what I'm understanding...we can chose a OS with 80% less prims for what we are paying now.... or we pay 67% more ...use less scripts and no performance upgrade or support.
Gee...I feel all warm and fuzzy.

You're a homesteader. If you're using the sim for habitation it's a homestead not an openspace.

Of course there are no abusers. And if there were any abusers, the restrictions that can will be imposed will eliminate any form of "abuse." But the fact is, LL simply wants to increase revenue by increasing the price of a very popular product. However, LL is too stupid to see that increasing the price will knock it out of any usefulness in SL as a viable product for the residents.

I think I am done here on the forums. I just can't bear to see us rehashing the same old shite, over and over again.

I agree with you,you did'nt get wet from all the dripping sarcasm
I have stated before its all about money,and as an owner/renter of an OS,my personal beef is also with estate owners who charge huge markups to renters,mine being $45 a month which will rise to $51 a month so LL is not the only bad guy here
I want to be able to buy my own OS,homestead or whatever as a non estate owner and pay only the tier LL charges
I know ,i know there are are cheaper ones where estate owners don't mark the tier up so much and i will be out there looking for one
This is all about the boom in OS being bought by estate owners and renting them for profit,now LL wants to get in on the act too and increase their profits and the one who gets it up the bum is the renter
Maybe that is a simple way of looking at it but i'm just giving a renters perspective.
With the estate owners markup my tier for my "homestead" will be $167 + 20% exchange to US currency

When I saw they were making an announcement I envisioned some thing like this happening. It is a rip of and a scam, plain and simple. Only now that rip off and scam has been lightly coated with powdered sugar to remove the bitter taste.

I certainly hope that residents see this for what it is and abandon their sims immediately. By waiting till the final increase in price to abandon LL gets a soft cushy pillow in which to rebuild the loss as people leave along the way. This is what they have intended so they can stick mainland or full regions on the server.

From a behavioral point of view LL will never back flip on this policy. To do so would open the flood gates for more protests in the future. Our only option to hurt them now is in the pocket and take away the money they extort from us.

NO OTHER virtual world charges fees in this magnitude... We are all being severely ripped off already and they want more. I SAY NO.

I will abandon my sim on the 13th of November. Prices already rose by 40% for me with the changes in currency rates.

Very disappointed.

KY

I am not personally an owner of an openspace sim, but I find LL's newly announced intentions still very unacceptable.

(1) They declare they will still fail to uphold the original contracts with their openspace sim purchasers, and rather penalize all of them for falling for their bait and switch tactic of pushing this product line to the community.

(2) They still decline any real objective or quantifiable definition of what they consider a "heavy load" open space sim to be, nor any solution for them. If they are going to charge people more for "heavy load" on a server, it would seem rational they would at least solve the issue of "heavy load" by assigning only 2 of them to a core (rather than 16 per quad core server), and likewise consider increasing prims to 7500. However the way it stands, I perceive they show intent to make more money by charging more with no real solution to the the underlying problem they convinced everyone to exist.


I would be curious to know the exact number of openspace sims occupying the grid, just so I can have idea how much increased revenue they are attempting to generate. I would bet its a tremendous figure. Maybe they will all also breakdown the number of current openspace sims meeting their definition of "heavy load". Would be nice to see LL be a little more transparent with regard to this matter.

That's what I've been labelled it seems

And as such I will have the "Official" right to subdivide and rent out places on my openspace now.

So, if you live on a private estate, rent an openspace to live and are not allowed to subdivide and rent, then you are screwed from both directions.

Linden has officially told you, the new rules allow it, but your estate owner will probably disallow it, whilst still asking you for the full new tier.

Be careful with definitions of habitation. Any resident porting to an openspace sim would imply its been inhabited, even if just there for seconds. I don't think we want to see openspace sims where no one can port in, including the owner.

A habitation can also be a "a natural environment or locality".

heh this is actually worse...

A week ago - we had a price hike only on the *whatever you want to call them lower prim sims*...

Now we have 20 avatars limited and script limited with the price hike still happening (albeit a bit later).

So technically we just got an even worse deal mid-term. They just really pulled a very craft execution there.

And wait - the reason for the price hike was for ABUSE / INFRASTRUCTURE issues....so with the limits in above.....hmmmm these will go away right? Meaning the price can be the original one..... if not remove the 20 avatar and script limit restriction as the resident is now paying for that added investment required into the infrastructure.

And why if I run 4 open sims together can it not therefore utilize the same as one sim if put on the same CPU.

Pure comedy. Zero credibility left in your ability to engage with your residents and ability to communicate.

Cash cow it up.....whilst you can.

You at Linden Labs may not think this is constructive, but what has changed except you've expanded your duplicity.

You'll never be able to convince me this whole thing wasn't planned ... you'll never be able to convince me that you didn't know what high-volume land barons were doing with their openspace sims from the start and let them rent out the land without giving warnings because you were caught off guard ... are we supposed to think you're that stupid?

You've lost a paying customer here. Unfortunately, unless my friends leave, you'll still see me spending time in your world. I feel lessened by my lack of conviction, but I stay only because of the friends I've made.

we are actually worse off than before .. they listened alright .. listened and made more restrictions to make more money.

well ...it's ok this time bc at the end of this period you could have an os for 125 $ ( half prims, double sqm ) or 1/2 sim in mainland (double prims, half sqm). I can live with this arrangement waiting better things from you. Anyway the way we arrived at this compromise was not fair.