Open Space owners who opted out must pay to convert

I'm sure all of you have read the latest blog, and understandably, many of your are happy about it:
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/land/blog/2009/05/26/good-news-homestead-pricing-to-be-grandfathered-if-purchased-before-july-1st-2009

As an Open Space owner, I opted out of converting to a Homestead with the expectation that tier on Homesteads would be increasing to $125usd a month in July. I made a good faith decision to "Opt Out" based on information that Linden Labs repeatedly iterated-- that is, that prices would be increasing for Homestead owners. I mainly used my Open Spaces as extra area for flying (I operate an aviation simulator).

With Open Spaces being [750prims/10avs/75usd] vs Homesteads remaining at [3750prims/20avs/95usd], Open Spaces could never be perceived as a viable product. Were I to have known that LL would not be raising prices, I would have of course converted, and taken advantage of the increased usage and allowances of Homestead.

During the period when Open Space owners were given the opportunity to convert, there was no conversion fee. According to a LL support contact, LL will not honor the original terms since the opt out conversion period has expired, regardless of how their terms changed, terms that would have greatly influenced the decisions of many Open Space owners.

I know LL reserves the right to change pricing in the TOS, but I can't help but feel that this stinks.

LL is allowing sim owners who abandoned their sims to start them back up with no setup fee and grandfathered pricing, but the same courtesy does not apply to sim owners who stuck by LL but simply chose to opt out. At the very least they should offer the same thing to Open Space owners-- how is it any different? Open Space owners who abandoned their land can throw it away and get it back with no setup fee, yet those who opt out based on the information LL provided at the time, must pay to convert?? Not cool, Linden Labs. At least be fair.

Bottom line: If you are an Open Space owner who opted out, you must pay a $125usd fee to convert, even though LL's pricing policies have been redacted/delayed.

I endorse this message.

I wrote that elsewhere earlier:
"That whole thing is nothing but a desperate attempt of damage control. And some buy in. Well. I'm not surprised.

LL behaves plan- and clueless and unpredictable as always. Rather causing more damage than control in my opinion. But it's up to you to take the bait (which in fact is not even this as it cost LL nothing but saves them from the next looming disaster) and hold on a bit longer. LL will find more ways to screw you soon as they have done so many times in the past. Be ensured."

Both you and Argent have made a lot of really great contributions to SL, particularly in the areas of coding improvements and error reporting, so it's really sad to see such a huge collective "W T F" from SL's more positive contributors, signs their capricious policies are disenchanting more and more of its creative core userbase that want to do more than just make strip malls and track housing lots in SL. I'm usually very objective and overall supportive of most of LL's decisions and did feel Open Spaces were abused quite a bit...but damn.

These kinds of things should have been thoroughly evaluated before they do huge changes in policy, particularly when money is involved. Investors and anyone with a financial interest in Second Life can't possibly see all this flip flopping in a very positive light. Regardless of TOS caveats, i hate to say such a thing, but it's become closer and closer to "false advertising"

The legal definition of false advertising constitutes "in commercial advertising or promotion, misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin of his or her or another person’s goods"

Basically, any kind of advertising that has the potential to persuade someone into commercial transactions that they might otherwise avoid.

I would have avoided buying Open Spaces had I known that the prices of Homesteads were not going to be increased for a whole year. I really hope a Linden can chime in on this because it's not cool at all.

As many stated before in this topic, LL is in a damned if you do or damned if you don't situation: raise the Homestead tier to $125.00 on July 1/09 - damned for following through on that outrageous 67% tier increase; keep the tier at $95.00 for Homesteads - damned for not following through and thus umpteen sim owners are screwed for decisions they had made based upon LL stating that the tier increase will go up on July 1/09, but it doesn't.

Now we have to admit that this was one creative little shift by LL - grandfather the $95.00, plus allow all those who abandoned their OS/Homesteads to reinstate them at no set up charge so they can take advantage of the grandfathered tier cost.

However, because LL keeps on flip-flopping here and there and all over the freaking place, no matter how many concessions it may make to try and alleviate past decisions, with each flip-flop, me as a sim owner, how the heck can I make any kind of business plans when I can not rely on any kind of economic stability at the base of this whole virtual world - the base being LL itself?

If we run through, in the last 14 months, all the decisions and pricing changes that have gone on with the OS/Homestead product through LL, it is an exercise of twists and turns and changes of minds and policy that would boggle the mind of any rational person. Linden Lab a is company worth several hundreds of millions of dollars for pete's sake!

If someone would care to do this exercise, listing all of the changes that have occurred in the last 14 months re OS/Homestead sims, it would be interesting to see. Quite frankly, I could do it, but I am too angry right now to get my head and facts together to accomplish such and onerous task. LOL!

It stinks. For a moment I thought, well maybe I'll reactivate one of the four OS sims I turned in over these policy changes, then I saw that because they were OS I would have to pay $125. So once again, LL has figured out a way to keep me from spending money with them. They want $125, which will cost them $1140.00 US in annual revenues I won't spend because of this "reactivation fee." Smart move, M!

I'm constantly amazed at the cut of their nose to spite their face moves over there. Try offering this same deal to convert an OS turned in last October, to allow folks to reactivate those making them into Homesteads and this might work and the result would be , but $125? Not on a bet. That $125 you want? Its going to cost you $1140.00. So just as your OS announcement lost $3600.00 US in revenue for your company from lil'ol me alone, your "generous offer" here is going to cost you $1140.00 in revenue they could have but can't with this ridiculous $125 fee.

Ya almost have me on at least one reactivation until I saw the fee. Poop on you for wanting $125 to push a button on your screen.

When did you turn them in?

i had considered reactivating an OS i returned 31.oct.
until i saw they want $125 to 'convert' it and would possibly charge me a location fee and a rename fee.
dream on

Hmm, did you want to reactivate it as an OS rather than a Homestead? If you reactivate it as a homestead there's no fee.

support werent very helpful:



are you certain? the faq implied i will have to pay a $125 fee, plus $200 in ancillary fees... thats $325 to reactivate in a useful condition.
from the faq: "I abandoned an OpenSpace. Can I have it reactivated as a Homestead, and does it qualify for grandfathering?
-Yes, for a one-time $125 fee charged on the day it's reactivated and converted."

There are many FAQ pages that are simply never updated when policies change.

For example:

The FAQ claims that there's a limit of 5 accounts per household, and that you have to pay a US$10.00 fee for each account after the first, despite the fact that many businesses have hundreds of traffic bots and there's no way to pay that fee except through something like making the account premium for a month.

i believe jack himself posted the homestead reactivation faq less than 2 weeks ago.
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/land/blog/2009/05/29/homestead-faq

he posted this homestead update faq in the knowledge base at the same time.
https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6338
because i know the kb link doesnt work, i will point out that the knowledge base page is nearly a copy and paste of the one i linked previously, the homestead faq. but the kb version has a few significant changes closer resembling what jack was saying in the blog comments:
"Can I rename or move the Homesteads that I have reactivated?
If we had to rename or move them after you abandoned them, then we'll waive the fee to rename and move when reactivating them."

if i were immediately charged $325 in fees would it really matter what jack implied in the blogs regarding relocation fees, what was said in support or the knowledge base when they can just point to the faq?

i tried just now to followup with this on the support ticket, but it is marked 'solution provided' and i cannot reopen it.
so i cant ask this:
-------------------
thanks keira. this knowledge base article suggests that i may not have to pay for renaming or relocating under certain circumstances. my sim was pulled offline immediately after the announcement so i feel there is a good chance i may qualify.
can you look up the sim 'xxx' and tell me if has been relocated or renamed already?

knowledge base topic#: 4051-6338: "Can I rename or move the Homesteads that I have reactivated?
If we had to rename or move them after you abandoned them, then we'll waive the fee to rename and move when reactivating them."

I reactivated mine for no fee, but I didn't rename it or move it so I don't know how that works out.

when did you give it back? and was it still an openspace? or had it been 'converted'?

'converted' is an interesting word to use hey..

December 23rd, it was still an Openspace, indeed I could have paid another month's worth of tier at the USD$75 rate to take me up to January 23rd.

A left over from the days of $10.oo life time accounts.

How many years ago was that?

The fallowing is just a rant, in everyone's best interest for you not to read it

I was considering buying OS for a personal sand box. I'm not going to do it because all of the policy changes and their effects. I lost a a lot of money when LL made everyone reconfirm their accounts a couple of years ago because of their server being hacked. (For what ever reason .) A very close friend was signing into the account for me and managing my land and other account issues. She was unable to answer all of the security questions or confirm through my original e-mail sign up address. OK I lost my land, no biggy there, I could have and WOULD have bought a region when I got back. I know it was my fault for not having given her all of the information in case something when wrong. I knew that she would have a very hard time contacting me in a timely manner. What fries my bacon is the lifetime account I paid for is lost forever. Rafe Phoenix shows up in a search ~sometimes~ but I can no longer get access to it. That account has a lot of tattoo textures and builds that I could be selling, and a ton of other designers content that I will have to repay for, if I can ever find it again. Many of the designers are gone now.

That FAQ was just reposted on the Blog as *current*.

LOL I got that, but I was not here when LL made the change, I was just wondering how old their most up to date information really is.
I did mention its a left over. errr I thought I did anyway.