Open Space or Homstead

Hello all
I have read through a few of these posts and i am still a little confused..of whether i have an openspace or Homestead.
I purchased half of a private island from my brother...he owned the entire island i bought half of it..so i have about 34,000 sq meters and he owns he other half..We split the 3750 prims between us..so i have 1875 prims. I have my home there and a club and mall on my side...and he has hs club on the other half..
My question. Is this an openspace or homestead...If we need to upgrade to a homestead does this mean we can have no more than 20 people on the entire island between us..or 20 on his side and 20 on my side.? We are discussing if we should upgrade to a full sim..and as i read it seems this will give us more prims and more av allowance...
My concern is with the 20 av limit...because between the both of us..even though the island is split in half, we usually have more than 20 people combined on our land when our clubs and malls are open...And will this av allowance definitely change in January?...I am trying to make a decison of the best route to take..
i appreciate your help...ty....

It's a homestead because you are using it for residential/commercial things.

It's a homestead and you will only be able to have 20 people on the whole island at any given time.



Two clubs and a mall are likely lead to all sorts of performance issues on a homestead, you really should consider upgrading to a full sim. A mainland sim will have a cheaper monthly fee but it will cost more upfront. You get 15,000 prims on a full sim and you will have less performance issues.

All current Open Space SIMs will be defined as Homesteads as of Jan 2009 i think its the 5th. However you can apply to have yours classed as an Open Space under the new terms but youll get 750 prims and i think the avatar limit is 10.. so its up to you to decide wether you can make use of that or not or pay the extra to keep your prim limits as they are but still have your max avatar limit down to 20 and also some kind of vague script limit which LL have yet to see fit to define ..

And people wonder why they raised the price.

I bet for every one of these posts admitting to trying to use an OS as if it were a full sim, there are 10 others that haven't posted doing the same thing.

The OP most certainly needs to get a full sim for what they want to do with it.

Too bloody right people wonder why they raised the price. If it was a resource issue Linden Lab should bloody well have addressed that without raising the prices. They have told people who overuse them to stop doing so, a French Orientation island for example so you're miles wide of the mark and falling for the Linden Lab spin.

I am following the discussion here now for a while, and I still dont see the point ot the people (including LL) accusing residents for the 'wrong' use of the OS.
What ever went wrong in the calculations of LL, you have to be aware how happy they were with the rush into the OS. Just have a look at a blog post from Zee Linden from July of this year (QUOTE):

Second Life Virtual World Expands 44% in Q2
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 by: Zee Linden

Linden Lab is pleased to announce results for Second Life the second Quarter.

Land mass grew over 44%. The total number of regions owned by residents increased 44.2% over Q1 to just over 1.5 billion square meters. Our growth was due to the popularity of our newly launched “Openspace” land product along with a change in pricing to make the purchase of land more accessible to first time buyers. “Openspace” regions are full 65,000 square meter regions with an upfront fee of $250 and a recurring monthly fee of $75.

(END OF QUOTE)

Seriously. What is the point here? Linden Lab was happy because the residents added 44% more WATER and FOREST to SL? Ah, come on ...

Thanks for everyone that has responded..I have no problem converting to a full sim especialy since i have a club and mall and my home my half of the island..i guess i was just a little confused as to how much extra it will cost me a month..My brother owns the other half of the island(estate owner) and he does not want to convert to a full sim. Can i do this without him...?This was his private island that he ordered and had built and he sold me the other half. So i am assuming i will need to pay another upfront fee and my tiers will increase...
Right now i pay 28,000 per month in tiers.

What spin? People were told what OSs were for and just ignored it. Are you seriously suggesting that using an OS in the way the OP described is not "abuse" of a product specifically designed for countryside and open water?

And don't bother with that drivel about "what did they expect if they gave us 3750 prims and allowed them to stand alone"? Maybe they assumed that people would understand the words "countryside or open water"? And no, I don't see the point of owning a standalone area of water either, but no one made any of you buy a product that was clearly not intended for many of the uses to which it was put.

Why should LL bear the cost of resource issues caused by people misusing sims?

Many of the complaints about the price rise are like people saying it's Ferrari's fault they got done for speeding since obviously if you buy a 150mph sports car you can't be expected to stick to the speed limit.

Are you seriously suggesting that more or less from the word go that Linden Lab didn't approve other use? Are you honestly and truthfully telling me you fall for that? Seriously? Linden Lab have acted on overuse Wulfric, get real here. People were told it was ok to use OS's for anything they liked but they couldn't expect support, that is a FACT!



Absolute balderdash. A product that was already being used for uses other than open water and countryside was made more attractive for using more than open water and countryside and you call that drivel? Bullshit.



There was no speed limit. You really should do some homework on this issue, but I'll give you a nudge here and quote you Jack Linden:

"Just to clarify a little, we're not saying that folk can't rent out these areas or live in them - we just don't recommend it because of the relative performance compared to normal regions.


Jack"

/130/cb/107206/1.html

Still wanna tell me that's like a Ferrari that can do 150? I don't think the guys at Ferrari have ever said it's ok to break the speed limit.

Stuffing 2 clubs and a home on an OS with more than 20 people most of the time is a far cry from scenic use or just a private home. I really wonder how many were actually used like that. Getting out of paying full price for a sim by stuffing these businesses onto the cheaper OS.

As I said earlier, people who misued them were told they couldn't use them for that purpose. The vast majority were not used in this fashion, you can fool some of the people some of the time and Linden Lab's spin doctors have clearly managed that but they encouraged overuse and ignored those who pointed it out to them as they counted the dollars.

You people really think the OP is for real? I call BS on the OP and both posts he/she/it has made. Nothing more than a poor attempt at trolling using an alt.

You could be right, paying the brother 28,000 for half an openspace which more than pays for a full openspace is suspicious to say the least.

And this is the reason that Linden Labs raised their prices ... <sighs>

I don't know I got tired with these increased prices so meh I decided to run my own OpenSim and opening to the public though there is some more work we need to do.

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ok thanks for all of the post..negative and positive..i have been naive about the land and was just trying to get some information without being criticized..yes..i own land..and it ws my negligence for not finding out all of the rules...now as far as how much i pay my brother in tiers for half an island..well i need to check on that because i am not sure ifthat is overpriced or not..and i honestly did not know i could not have a club and mall onmy side of the sim..i have even had some linden workers that helped me with my land and did not tellme i was doing anything wrong...i have no problem paying for what i need..and have no problem upgrading..but i did not know if i can upgrade on my own..or if my brother has to upgrade since he is the estate owner...
for the people with the critcal remarks..you dont know me and my intentions..but thanks for your input anyway...
take care!!

oh and for the comment of trolling and using an alt..what???? is this forum for bashing people or answering questions.? I have had linden workers on my island more than once and was never told i was doing anything wrong...if i had know this i would not have opened a club and mall..i did not know the private island was suppose to be used for residential..or commericial only or parks...i see now that i have to get more accurate facts directly from sl..
but thanks to you that have answered my questions and offered suggestions without the negativity and accusatory remarks..

Heres what 3750 trees looks like on an OS. Im sure I could have put a club and mall there and it wouldnt have been as laggy it was all I could do to keep from crashing.
http://www.tbdub.com/images/sl/3750%20trees_001.JPG

Hmmm 28KL$ for an half OS ? I paid that at our estate owner for a full OS. But well now it's closed. And if I seen well average price of OS it was around 30/40KL$/month.
We used our with my lover for terraforming and why not a small RP with small mall like in all good RP. We will wait to see what will happen for Homestead. I can't offer a full sim. Fee still expensive.

Question for ya, did you think that paying tier to a non-Linden Lab was actual ownership of the island?

I don't think Aja is an Alt and her question is valid. And re the age old argument now of valid use of OS - bottom line is it's not just residents who have used them *that* way. So let's not get blind sided by the resource issue.

Anyway, Aja - you don't own your island (Sim) it's your brothers. Even the fact he sold you land on it, doesn't actually *mean* anything - he still owns the sim. So you cannot upgrade your half as you can only upgrade a whole Sim. He has been massively overcharging you (basically you have been paying for the whole island. So I would follow up on that).

To get a full sim yourself - which would give you more options, prims (15,000) you can look at the Landstore or look into Mainland. The landstore is easy to find - the big Get Land button I think on the www.secondlife.com takes you there.

Things to remember - there is an unfront service charge USD 1000 (plus VAT if in Europe) for the non mainland sim then monthly tier (which is subject to increases so don't be surprised if that changes) of USD 295 (plus VAT). You can never get a refund on that USD 1000, but you can transfer to another owner at any point. But expect resale value in world of between 400 - 600 USD (I might be a bit off there but roughly) plus 100 USD transfer fee to Linden Lab. However, again caution, if they change tier rates or service charge this can dramatically decrease that value (or increase if in residents favour).

Linden don't follow inflation or regular pricing strategy - for example they reduced that service charge from 1600 to 1000 USD with minimal notice which reduced the resale value in world hugely of those who already had paid out the higher price.

If you don't need the whole sim space, you can research into selling some plots on - though with a club and mall you are likely to want to look at commercial businesses e.g. shops renting over residents. I am no expert as I don't sell land, but I would trawl through some of the forums official and non official plus the Second Life site to get more information. There are a lot of experts out there like Sarah Nerd who post on forums.

It's very expensive and you have to make that monthly payment, so the other option is looking for half a sim for rent inworld from another land owner and get more experienced then dip your toe.

You still have the option of a Homstead sim - cheaper but restricted to 20 avatars and script limitations (yet announced) and with only 3750 prims.

It's a huge sum of money, so please go in armed with the facts and risks.

Maybe Charlotte but would you charge your brother and sister more for half an openspace than it costs to pay tier for a full openspace? I wouldn't, that's for sure.

Spoken like a guy who owns no Open Space sims, eh? That sims doesn't now the difference between a prim that looks like a tree or a prim that looks like a house's wall. Not a bit of difference. We were clearly allowed to build ANYTHING we wanted on the OS sims, but IF we went outside of the original intent, we could not get technical support. That was the deal. Clear and simple, it was the deal. LL's went back on their part of the deal. Your argument just doesn't hold virtual water. If LL's had said NO residences, NO builds other than forests and water ways, ONLY plants and trees, etc. that would be one thing, but they did not. They encouraged the sale of these OS's knowing full well how people were using them, took in all that money, then yanked the rug out from under us while claiming we were abusing it, and you swallowed the hook, line and sinker.

well actually..he overpaid for the sim...he ordered the island from a third party and he pays just as much as me for the other hallf...so basically he did get ripped off for the price....we discussed this last night and he showed me his statements...it was a learning experience..but he was a newbie when he orderd the island..so now we are discussing what to do with the island....i am sure we both will take abig loss as it was overpriced to begin with...
and i honestly did not know i was not suppose to have a skybox club and a small mall on it..but i was naive in not doing enough research...he has a club on his half of the island and that is all that is on the entire sim...nothing more...when he purchased the island he was told it was for residential and commericial use..but anyway...i need to decide what i am going to do now.
thanks for all of your suggestions..