Void Spaces vs Open Spaces

I am shocked after the latest announcement on raising the pricing of Open Spaces. I read through the feedbacks, and I agree, that abuse of regulations should be punished or better instructions should have been given for use of Open Spaces. Myself I am a private owner which for the last 2 years have paid a tremendous amount of money to make and create a world for others to enjoy for free. I own 2 full SIMs and 8 Void Spaces or Open Spaces as they are called now. For this I payed mostly out of my own pocket, and only recently opened a shop on one of my full SIMs to get some funding for my projects. Our open spaces are used as they are intended to be, adding space and landscape.

In the current economic crisis, which we haven't seen the worst yet, I am surprised how a business like LL are handling their customers (old and new). People and also businesses will have to look at their expenses, and will have to cut severally to get through these difficult times.

In real life, governments are doing whatever necessary to keep business going, keeping people from getting homeless… This SL government is just doing the opposite. Does this means the end of SL? It wouldn't surprise me. This will be one of the ignitions in a negative spiral, people abandon or trying to sell land, or leaving SL, which again leads to less sales for the existing businesses, which then again will being forced to minimize or leave SL.

And I am not even talking about those values which are priceless… the creativity, the souls and spirit which people have used so much time on to create and which have made Second Life to what it has become…

This is really sad, and it makes me mad…

Seven months ago I bought 9 open space sims. Four of these I sold to friends for family residences, not group rentals .. single family residences. At the time the limitations were clearly spelled out .. 3750 prims and limited cpu resources. Five of my open space sims have been built into a wonderful world that people love to visit. NOW .. LL has posted a 66% tier increase. There is no mention of added benefits to the residence. There is a vague reference to better performance, but when have we ever gotten that in SL. We keep getting more and more people into SL and we live daily with lag and system crashes. If there are people out there using open space sims for clubs and multi residence rentals .. get them to comply without punishing the rest of us. If this increase goes through I will probably be forced to abandon most of of the sims I've put my heart into creating. I may just abandon SL all together. I pay over $1000 USD a month for what amounts to a service from LL. What I want to know is when I am actually going to get what I pay for.

I began using Excite's chat Virtual Places in 1998. Huge User numbers, no membership fees for the web based browser. 15 to 18k users on any given night was common.
Six years later, although all other Excite venues were flourishing, 'VP' went Chapter 11, and closed leaving 18,000 residents not only homeless, but without a chat program. They said it was because users ignored pop up ads to keep the program solvent.

About the same time I registered in ActiveWorlds, then the largest 3d game online. Thousands of virtual 'worlds' and users, with yearly membership at $20. Nonpaying 'tourists' could use the complete program with the downside being all virtual builds by them could be wiped by paying members. Virtual space was literally unlimited, and like many others, this is where the 3d modeling hobby became my addiction. One year later, tourists were banned from building on all public 'worlds', and membership fees began their virtual climb, ending at $76/yearly for basic membership in 2006. 'World' space ended up with prices comparable to current SL sim pricing, and User numbers dipped below 200 on a regular basis. Why? They all left for SecondLife where membership was free.

If Linden Labs current dilema with the OS sims was about overload they could easily control that with new guidelines. Seems to me they are just another group of programmers flying by the seat of their pants, and making decisions based on crunched numbers - not user satisfaction. Sorry to say but wake up Users, there has never been a chat program 'for and by the Users'. It's business, and nothing is guaranteed for you. This is just another reason to not put all your eggs in one proverbial basket. Check out your first life more seriously for ways to use your entreprenureal skills. This program could come to a screeching halt when you least expect it, or at best be geared to large corporations.

It's always fun while it lasts ...

If you read Philip Rosedale's foreword in the book Second Life..The Official Guide...he says that he set up Second Life with the intention of making it a place for anyone to be creative.
Since then SL has grown so much that it definitely needs some form of government. All societies are like that.

It would be a terrible shame to let such an amazing world just die because some people abuse the privilege to be in it or just refuse to follow the rules.
Surely there are enough of us who are willing to work to stop that happening?


Where there's a will there's a way.

With respect, not all are. But those that aren't, we deem ourselves politically and morally entitled to invade, devastate and pillage in the name of democracy.

If we're doing a sociological approach to this, we are citizens and LL are the dictatorship. We are at their mercy for everything from our activities to our economy.

If we approach this as it really is - a business - then we are consumers. And where consumers feel like they're being taken for fools, they withdraw patronage. The only way we can influence LL's decision making is either by becoming shareholders and exercising a right to vote (but I'm not sure LL is a plc) or leaving.

I think the idea to attrack creative people is false otherwise they would take imediate action with copyright violations but hey if they cant keep up with the demands then they are obviously not equipt for the job.