BLOG: Openspaces Transition for January 2009

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/12/19/openspaces-transition-for-january-2009/

Following our previous announcement on Openspaces, and many thoughtful conversations with the community, I wanted to thank you, and let those of you who own Openspaces know what will happen in the New Year.

The transition from Openspaces to Homesteads is on course for 5th January, 2009.

Unless you have already filed a support ticket declaring that your Openspace is suitable to remain an Openspace, it will automatically be converted to a Homestead on the 5th. As a reminder, the definition of an Openspace is a low impact region used for scenery, whereas Homesteads are for light residential and commercial use. The new agent limits and prim limits will also take effect from January 5th and you should expect your region to go down briefly as the change is made.

For Openspaces that bill from the 1st to the 4th January, you will be charged as usual at the current level. From the 5th January onwards, Homesteads will bill at the new rate of $95 per month. We will be sending an email explaining the process to all current Openspace owners. Mainland fees are unaffected by these changes.

We’re pushing hard at the moment to complete the conversion request tickets that we have received ahead of January 5th. Please be advised that any conversion requests filed after 22nd December may not be completed ahead of January 5th, though we’ll be doing our best to get as many through as we can. Regardless, the conversion fees will continue to be waived through January.

Finally, you should expect to see some changes to the Land Store as the new Homestead product is added. If you are interested in purchasing a new Homestead, they will be available on the Land Store starting January 5, 2009. Homesteads are only available to owners of full islands.

Please could you post the new agent and prim limits? Thank you.

This is pure comedy gold. I'd be thanking people who abandoned their sims giving the company server space to sell as new sims again or who agreed to pay more for less too.

There was a conversation? When did that happen?

Well i see no mention of the fore coming rip off,and no plans to let non estate owners buy a homestead,so we peasants are to be at the mercy of land barons forever and subject to their profits forever.
Well here's another one who is looking else where,land is cheaper on other virtual worlds and hopefully soon LL will have some serious competition.
I'm sick and tired of paying more than i should have to

I would love to know the new agent and prim limits - nice to see they are going to be implementing the Jan 5th.

Actually, this is disturbing that prim limits are to be announced, because, supposedly, that was already done:

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=5650

However, the script limits were never posted.

/me hopes the xmas spirit pounces M, Zee & Jack and they get a bit more reasonable about the (new) openspace prim limits.

How much should you be paying Nikita? We're all at the mercy of the biggest land baron of them all, and look how they've acted over this issue. Do you think they do it for fun? They're making a healthy markup.

True,but we who rent pay a further markup,i would like to pay what the tier is that LL charges without estate profits on top of that,that's all i want,the ridiculous increase LL is going to charge is further compounded with profits on top of that.
All things being equal,the $125 is affordable to many homestead renters if profits were not piled on top.

Whats an OpenSpace?

Figured they would be on the endangered species list by now...

Come July they definately will be

The post doesn't say that new limits will be announced, it says that they will take effect. They can be found here:

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=4374

You are dead on with the script limits never being posted! And that shouldn't come as any surprise at this point.

Peace, Keo

Why should a landowner operate at break even? Do you think LL doesn't make any profit on mainland? They certainly aren't operating at break even.

Furthermore, a lot of time and effort goes into terraforming, texturing and preparing land for rental. And those of us that are charging a reasonable rate at a reasonable GPM (Gross Profit Margin) operate for quite some time before any net profits are realized.

Keep pushing for LL to make Homesteads available to residents without having to purchase a Private Island (full SIM) first. And good luck with that!

In the meantime, I guess you have to pay the price or stop renting.

Peace,
Keo

Yes you pay a further markup but you have a much wider choice of suppliers than estate owners do. There's a massive amount of choice available to renters. It's going to be quite viable to rent a homestead for 12 months and still not have paid as much as the estate owner did for that homestead.

The use of the word "new" tripped me up there and I panicked at the thought they made another revision! LL would not do that, now would they?

and what would the estate owner have paid that 12 months rent would would still not cover

The setup fee and 12 months tier. Plenty of estate owners look to recover their costs over 1 or 2 years, not all of them are in for the quick profit. However with what Linden Lab have done here we may see less estate owners having enough faith to look to see a return of investments over such timescales.

I made around 15 bucks a month on my openspace, it was a straight rental with no upfront fee.

Well Ciaran,i wish i had come across you when i was looking for an OS (homestead) to rent,i pay more than double that and also paid $500 upfront to "purchase" it.and another $150 to have it moved to open water

Well to be fair Nikita the choices increased vastly when the product was made more attractive. I watched the prices drop as more people got onboard and you were unfortunately an early investor when the product wasn't so popular and was more expensive to setup.

Well, of course they wouldn't *wink* *nod* *LMAO while my wallet hemorrhages*

Peace, Keo

True Ciaran,it was $500 with 1875 prims,that prim limit did concern me,but my desire for an island of my own after my previous experience of renting a small lot caused me to accept the prim limit and pay the $500,that's how badly i wanted my own private space.
I still do, but this stunt by LL just makes it so much more difficult.
Btw are you still renting OS's,if so and the $125 goes through i might look you up, i know LL will not let non estate owners purchase them,i know i vent that here but i also know i might as well talk to the wall.
I adore my OS and anyone who has lived on one loves the privacy and for me completely lag free operation

You'll need at least eight months worth of popcorn Gordon. This one isn't going to go away.

Nope I'm not going to rent them anymore. I didn't really want one in the first place but after months of complaining to Lindens at office hours that they were damaging mainland and estate rentals and weren't being used for the purpose as outlined in the knowledgebase I caved in and got one.

Plenty of people pointed me to places where Linden's had said they were ok to use as rentals, having finally got one and then been shafted like this, I really am not interested in the product and wish i'd stuck to my guns of not being interested in them.

I'd still like to see a CLEAR definition of "light commercial" With vague statements like this, it is easy to see how people can easily get it wrong. And I am still confused about the original discount for education. For land intended for water and trees? Hmm, didn't quite get that one.