Grandfathering $75 tier is a win-win

Grandfathering the $75 tier for open spaces will...

1) ...Be fair to current owners & their tenants by not having to incur a dramatic cost increase. We're talking upwards of 70% increase, which will need to be passed down to tenants - many of whom have no membership/commitment to SL and can leave at a moment's notice... As an owner, I do have a commitment, so I would be the one hit hardest on this.


2) ...Retain goodwill among a core group of members who pay thousands of dollars a month to be here. If we are not the backbone in SL, then we are certainly a good-sized rib.

By charging $125 tier for a just the newly purchased open spaces, members will then have the luxury of time to plan & budget appropriately.

Lack of planning = drastic choices = failures


Gina

Grandfathering $75 tier does not address the server over-usage problem.

They're not doing this to address the server over-usage problem. That's a technical problem that has technical solutions.

There is another reason for doing this.

Exactly. Charging 66% more does nothing to address the server over-usage problem. They're not planning to introduce class 6 servers, they aren't planning to reduce the number of OS sims per server, all they plan to do is to raise the price, most likely in order to prevent residents from chosing OS sims over mainland parcels.

Besides, the supposed over-usage is only a problem for the owners and / or renters of OS sims. We have been fully aware that we were buying laggy low-prim sims with lots of space. And we never complained. We accept a little lag for the low costs. Given the choice, we would rather live with the lag than pay more. We already made that choice when we bought an OS in the first place, the choice of lag vs. higher tier. Now we will have both lag AND higher tier because LL will do jack squat about the performance issues. Issues that were no issues for us at the old pricing.

I would agree to live by a very stringent set of rules in order to avoid having to incur this cost. I own an OS. Traffic is almost nil, there are only 4 of us who live there, and maybe another 10 who may pop over now and then on a rare occaision, and not all at the same time- it's a purposely private home. And now we have to pay more, even though we are in no way abusing the set parameters...an we now have to pay for the sins of others.

I completely understand the need for the price increase, for the new regulations. But for those of us that are needlessly getting caught up in this, it's frustrating.

3) will allow existing owners to have a monopoly on renting out cheap property and kill off any new competition starting.

Fact: I can afford to pay 50$ a month rent for half a void, which my neighbor and I take care of and maintain for the group to ensure it's not overused - it is our home, after all. I can not afford the 66% increase though, especially for the reasons given.

Fact: I like many others face an uncertain financial future. This is a videogame to me and a place I can hang out with my friends. It is not a business, does not make me money, and is ultimately very expendable when the price/gain ratio gets too high. Jacking up my costs 66% makes it unaffordable and that money can buy a great deal of other forms of entertainment.

Fact: I am paying almost as much for SL as I pay for cable TV. Difference is, cable works.

This could easily put every one of our group out of the game, losing all our islands and all the money that we brought into LL. WE are the core customers of SL, not IBM or Dell. WE pay tons of money a month just to have fun. WE are the ones willing to invest in private islands, simply so we can shape them as we like. WE are the ones hurting in the current economic crisis and have limits on our funds. WE are the ones who have stuck with LL through thick and thin thus far. And WE are the ones who expect LL to run things responsibly and fairly - if certain people use too many scripts, warn or raise rates on THEM!! Whatever aspirations LL may have for the future, the truth of the present is that today, SL is a very optional expense for everyone who uses it.

Yes, but the same goes for grandfathered class 4 sims at $195. They too can offer cheaper land than a more recent sim owner who pays $295.

And it isn't really a problem. Once their land is rented out, they can't rent any more land at the same low price, so how would they endanger new competitors?

Fact: Bears beats Battlestar Galactica.

I think a fair way to do this is grandfather the existing sim but the grandfathering does not survive transfer. To me the whole grandfathering of class 4 sims (and some class 5s) and allowing the fees to remain on transfer only lined the pockets of those who had them as they could command a higher resale. If the grandfathering would sunset on transfer it would eliminate this issue and would theoretically move these sims into the new schedule slowly through attrition.

I could agree with grandfathering but I *definitely* agree it should not be transferrable to new owners. The ability to trade grandfathered full sims has just been a big unpeasant mess they should have avoided from the start.

grandfather and apply limits to preserve performance. 10-15 agent limit per openspace

if you want to increase performance, raising prices will not help (except by abandonment)

if it truly is performance, you already limit prims, so limit agents too

Gina is 100% on target - Grandfathering of current land owners is the only fair and equitable way of maintaining public relations with LL's current land owners. I venture to say many land owners will abandon their void spaces if not their full sims as well - void spaces compliment and support many owners commercial and/or recreational full sims. Understandably LL is struggling with todays economic conditions, but when it all shakes out $75 is better than $0 to the bottom line if void spaces are abandoned by their current owners.

Agreed - and deal with the abusers on a case by case basis...they know who the abusers are!

off topic, but according to Massively.com Class 6 servers are in the works which include a 64 bit version of the SL server software.

http://www.massively.com/2008/10/07/linden-lab-begins-testing-class-6-servers/

I have resd many of the responces and especially agree with Gina. There are a few other issues I wish to address:

1- Bottom line if you have more and more people using SL and SL servers can't handle the load then it is a problem with the servers. With the current economic situation more and more people are turning to alternate means of intertainment. Therefore you have more people joining SL. You need better servers. Thats a Technical issue. What I have noticed is the Ultimate word "CHANGE" Ok here is how it works. Paid members, people who have decided to go ahead and invest and purchase land, some for private some for rent. (CORP) We are getting hit with higher fees
oh yes lets go ahead and penalize us, raise our tiers our cost (taxes) after all it will benifit all even the ones who do not pay a dime for thier memberships. Trickle down effect. We the Corp will have to therefore raise our rents and in this case raising it at a 70% increase is just not reasonable when it is a Tech issue more than anything else. Our clients can't afford to pay, a higher burden on us. We will be forced to cut back take a loss. ( people lose out jobs housing etc) More and more people will become the ones to turn into non payers after all they benifit anyway to the so called improvements. ( which any one with any extent of time in sl will know is not likely anyway) Who loses over all Linden.
2- Do the Math...I currently have 5 open space sims. They are all developed less then 50% the rest is open water space. Luxury living on Islands. No business is allowed on any of those sims. You are now increasing my tiers to 70% . A cost I can't possibly pass down. My expence will certainly increase. It will no longer be wise of me to hold on to something that will cost me more than a trip out of state. What incentive will I have to even hold on to them. NONE who loses??? YOU Linden ... Possible solution.. Lock down the sales of the open sim with the current tier cost. Don't sell more with the current rates. Raise tiers by 20 % instead of the 70% more flexibility and justifiable. Grandfather in! Yes again a plus plus situation for you.
3- Bait and switch..Ity would speak better of lindens if it did not seam that you use the old bait and switch tactic. You made a wonderful offer..people jumped on it...now all of a sudden switch you hit us with this. Not very good business sence. Why would anyone trust anything xoming out of Linden when you pull things like this. What incentive will they have for any future investment here? Hmm lets see I buy this today tomarow they will charge me more..ah I don't think so let me stay as I am.
3-Now vs Future.. I am at a point where I am just frustrated with all of linden.. you jusy do not give what you offer I have a paid account I get no credit for all the time you have issues and I am not getting what I paid for. I get no breaks ..just the opposit i get hit with more and more cost. I have no issues with letting everything go and staying on as a free member after all they enjoy everything I do and do not have to worry about getting hit with additional cost. I have real Life expences I do not need to burden myself with yours.

But Gina advertises rental of openspace sims for commercial or residential purposes. You can even rent a 1/2 or 1/4 of an openspace and have neighbors.

It seems to me that Gina is doing exactly what LL said not to do with these sims..

Not that it will matter - so many of us are fed up with LL's incompetence that we are just chalking up the losses, saying F it, and going away. If even half the population remains at the end of January, I'll be most surprised. LL can try to suck money out of the empty servers; my cash will find something else to do.

Andrew mentioned class 6 hosts at his office hour a while ago.. It was just in passing but I remember seeing it in the transcript. I'd guess maybe 6-7 weeks ago, if you want to dig thru the transcripts at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Andrew_Linden .

He's also the one doing the 64-bit port of the sim code. All the host hardware is already 64-bit and they've been running 64-bit Debian for ages but the sim code still executes in 32-bit mode. I think he's said that this is due in the 1.25 sim release and that we shouldn't really expect many performance gains from just the 64-bit port. IIRC, it was mostly done so that Lindens that develop on Macs can more easily run a sim...