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Homestead tier increase 7/09 to $125

Mitch Gottfried
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Join date: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1
05-08-2009 05:17
From: Anelise Demonge
Sadly it wasn't a few bad apples that ruined the barrel. The abuse of the LL proposed uses for OSS was widespread. The more truthful is that the majority of the apples in the barrel ruined it for the few who were in compliance.


The deal was the OSS came with stiff use restrictions. The prim allocations were increased from 1875 per OSS to 3750 per after a flurry of complaints that the current landscaping trends were impossible given the move toward higher prim botanicals. And granted the higher prim botanicals did look far better than the old 3 prim ones and Linden ones that were so common at one time. People were developing waterways that had islands on them which were beautiful. But most weren't using them for living purposes. Nor rental for living or commercial purposes. There was misuse going on then but its was true to the " few apples in the barrel" scenario.


But greed got involved and it wasn't on LL's side. OSS sims being used after LL's increased their prim allocations for residential and commercial purposes. Uses far exceeding what would be allowed its counterpart 1/4 sim became the mainstay rather than the exception.

Full region owners were being killed. We were offering 1/4 sims for the same cost as a OSS sim with the landmass of a full region and the prims of a 1/4 sim. Now tell me under those circumstances what was LL's to do? They backtracked and announced they would be imposing the use restrictions initially. That was met with a cheer from the full regions owners and a cry of foul , the loudest cries from the abusers of the OSS concept, resounded.

LL had a responsibility to its full region owners also and were getting called on the carpet heavily from that side to address the issue.

LL did and announced several options. Each met with dissent. Even the intial one which carried no tier increase and only addressed a coming crackdown on the OSS that were being used outside of the perimeters of their proposed use. This, would have been the most fair of all decisions for the owners of the OSS that were truly using them in accordance with the OSS TOU. Of course the loudest cry of foul, once again, came from the abusers.

The next proposal on LLs part was to roll back the OSS to their lower prim allocation state and keep the tiers the same. Again this was met with a loud cry of foul play , loudest of all by the very bad apples that had created this OSS mess.

Tenents on these sims were also crying foul and pointing a misdirected finger at LL. The culprits were the OSS owners, not LL.

During all this the full region owners are still getting slaughtered and stepping up the pressure on LL to bring this back into a reasonable state of affairs. When you consider the majority share of regions in SL are full regions, LL's couldn't ignore this growing dissent from full region owners. I see those now complaining about biting the bullet on 125 a month.. we were biting the bullet on 295 a month and sitting on what were quickly becoming white elephants. Not to mention we had heavy initial investments into these. Full region owners were abandoning their full sims at an alarming rate. The future picture being painted was one of SL being primarily the overused, high lagged as a result OSS. With a few scattered full regions.

.



When I was reading the above paragraphs ,I didn’t know whether to shake my head or maybe there was something I wasn’t understanding about your post. I had an a an openspace ,I paid $295 U.S for my white elephant, and LL was only too happy to take that money from THE FULL REGION OWNER I purchased it from. I think the point your missing here is the only people that had access to buy opensapce sims were the full region owners themselves. Who then sold it to residents telling them they can do as they please with them. So how does that make the resident of these sims bad apples or abusers?

The only abusers here where the region owners themselves that sold these on the premises of living on them, and that’s what everyone did or why buy them? The other abuser and bad apple was LL for letting it go on, making it justifiable for people to buy them and use them as residences or commercial property. Anyhow now that LL has filled their pockets worth of sims at $295 U.S and there are 1000’s of them, it’s become a problem. The region owners are as much to blame for this mess as anyone, and it’s the residents that bit the bullet.Why was it ok to take money from people when LL new clearly knew what they were being used for?Greed perhaps? LL and the region owners themselves lied to us about how we could use them,sorry but the residents didnt abuse them the estate owners did.
Argent Stonecutter
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Join date: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 20,263
05-08-2009 05:48
From: Mitch Gottfried
The only abusers here where the region owners themselves that sold these on the premises of living on them
They rented these regions in good faith, after asking Concierge if they could do it, and being told by Concierge that Linden Labs had no problem with it.

There were undoubtedly a few people massively overusing the OpenSpaces but almost all the people who are now being called abusers were acting in good faith, in consultation with Linden Labs, who told them that what you're calling abuse was perfectly acceptable.
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Viciously Llewellyn
Not Really Vicious ;-)
Join date: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 332
05-08-2009 09:01
While not making any commentary on what happened in the past, I think $125 for a Homestead sim is a fair price in comparison to half a mainland sim which would also be $125.

I the end, you are trading half the prims for twice the privacy (or more) ... nothing more.
Ciaran Laval
Mostly Harmless
Join date: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 7,951
05-08-2009 17:57
From: Mitch Gottfried
The only abusers here where the region owners themselves that sold these on the premises of living on them, and that’s what everyone did or why buy them? The other abuser and bad apple was LL for letting it go on, making it justifiable for people to buy them and use them as residences or commercial property. Anyhow now that LL has filled their pockets worth of sims at $295 U.S and there are 1000’s of them, it’s become a problem. The region owners are as much to blame for this mess as anyone, and it’s the residents that bit the bullet.Why was it ok to take money from people when LL new clearly knew what they were being used for?Greed perhaps? LL and the region owners themselves lied to us about how we could use them,sorry but the residents didnt abuse them the estate owners did.


The only abusers were Linden Lab, estate owners were as much taken in as people who rented from estate owners. There is documented evidence on these very forums of Lindens saying it was ok to rent them out, people contacted support and were told it was ok to rent them out.

Estate owners would not have rented them out in such large numbers had there been any indication from Linden Lab that it was not allowed.

Estate owners asked Linden Lab about this, do not blame estate owners for this fiasco.
Windy Lurra
Registered User
Join date: 8 Sep 2006
Posts: 39
05-17-2009 21:48
From: Stephen Venkman
I'd like to know where I can buy a house for 125.00 a month before escrow? What country do you live in Windy?

I for one, hope they decide to hold off on this increase. I see friends with whole sims closing shop due to the economy. They were strong, great content, had been here almost from the start of sl and the economy has just killed their Sims. An end of an Era for alot of folks in SL I believe.


I said "That's a fair chunk of what a person pays for a mortgage (before escrow.)" Pay attention before making snarky comments thinking it'll earn you points. Ignoring those subprimers whose part of the problem regarding the current economic downturn, you would have realized that $125 a month would be 10-20% (a fair chunk) of a fixed-rate mortgage for a decent house (a monthly mortgage payment between $1250 and $625) of the pre-escrow mortgage. A guestimate on the house value based on that mortgage payment ranges from $120,000 to $250,000 -- a decent place in most areas (I suppose the cost of a cardboard box in California.)

That said, the Lindens have said boo about the issue, so I expect prices to go up again come July. And then I'll be dumping my homestead simply because a video game is not worth that kind of repetitive cost.
Windy Lurra
Registered User
Join date: 8 Sep 2006
Posts: 39
05-17-2009 21:52
From: nikita2 Denimore
I really don't understand why LL continues to only allow estate owners only to purchase homesteads.


My hunch is grid fragmentation. Keeping the number of private island owners down to a minimum would help keep the grid map from turning into a checkerboard of sims.
Maya Remblai
The one with pink hair.
Join date: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 434
05-17-2009 23:05
From: Viciously Llewellyn
While not making any commentary on what happened in the past, I think $125 for a Homestead sim is a fair price in comparison to half a mainland sim which would also be $125.

I the end, you are trading half the prims for twice the privacy (or more) ... nothing more.


Half a mainland sim would be $97.50. Also, Homesteads don't have half the prims of a normal sim, they have 1/4.
Elanthius Flagstaff
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Join date: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 1,534
05-17-2009 23:52
From: Maya Remblai
Half a mainland sim would be $97.50. Also, Homesteads don't have half the prims of a normal sim, they have 1/4.


Half a mainland sim is $125. You get double the prims on mainland but half the space. I agree with the other guy, it's a fair comparison.
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Maya Remblai
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Join date: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 434
05-18-2009 00:08
From: Elanthius Flagstaff
Half a mainland sim is $125. You get double the prims on mainland but half the space. I agree with the other guy, it's a fair comparison.


abuh? Last I heard a mainland sim's tier was $195 per month. Or are you talking about an algorithm for price per prim or something?
Ciaran Laval
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Join date: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 7,951
05-18-2009 00:14
From: Maya Remblai
abuh? Last I heard a mainland sim's tier was $195 per month. Or are you talking about an algorithm for price per prim or something?


It gets complicated but I go with your price of USD$97.50.

If you own only half a mainland sim tier will be USD$125. However if you own a full sim, half of that works out at USD$97.50.

As you have to own a full island to own a homestead, it's a fair comparison to compare the price of USD$97.50 instead of USD$125.

There are other factors that make it a bit more awkward to compare the products directly, the most glaring being you'll struggle to get hold of half a mainland sim for USD$375.
Argent Stonecutter
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Join date: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 20,263
05-18-2009 05:55
From: Windy Lurra
My hunch is grid fragmentation. Keeping the number of private island owners down to a minimum would help keep the grid map from turning into a checkerboard of sims.
I think it's to reduce the number of people they have to provide concierge level service to.
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Darkness Anubis
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Join date: 14 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,628
05-18-2009 06:06
From: Argent Stonecutter
I think it's to reduce the number of people they have to provide concierge level service to.


WHich is completely hilarious since my partner and I have not owned concierge level m^2 in months but he is still a member of the concierge group and was never kicked from it.
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Domneth Dingson
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Join date: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 126
05-18-2009 06:27
From: Mitch Gottfried
When I was reading the above paragraphs ,I didn’t know whether to shake my head or maybe there was something I wasn’t understanding about your post. I had an a an openspace ,I paid $295 U.S for my white elephant, and LL was only too happy to take that money from THE FULL REGION OWNER I purchased it from. I think the point your missing here is the only people that had access to buy opensapce sims were the full region owners themselves. Who then sold it to residents telling them they can do as they please with them. So how does that make the resident of these sims bad apples or abusers?

The only abusers here where the region owners themselves that sold these on the premises of living on them, and that’s what everyone did or why buy them? The other abuser and bad apple was LL for letting it go on, making it justifiable for people to buy them and use them as residences or commercial property. Anyhow now that LL has filled their pockets worth of sims at $295 U.S and there are 1000’s of them, it’s become a problem. The region owners are as much to blame for this mess as anyone, and it’s the residents that bit the bullet.Why was it ok to take money from people when LL new clearly knew what they were being used for?Greed perhaps? LL and the region owners themselves lied to us about how we could use them,sorry but the residents didnt abuse them the estate owners did.



HELLLOOO I'm one of your "abusive region owners".

We CALLED LL before buying the opensim to see if running a freaking STORE on one would be ok (and feasible).

No objections.

If they had said we couldn't, we wouldn't have bought the opensims in the first place. After owning the sim and seeing how poor performance was from even just a single script, we rented the land out to some people that wanted the private resident. They were never abusive, as they could barely run anything anyways. If anyone got taken, it was us who then had to abandon our land before tier time, as no one was interested in buying open sims at that point.

LL basically stole our money, there's no other way of looking at it.
Daniel Regenbogen
Registered User
Join date: 9 Nov 2006
Posts: 684
05-18-2009 08:07
From: Darkness Anubis
WHich is completely hilarious since my partner and I have not owned concierge level m^2 in months but he is still a member of the concierge group and was never kicked from it.


Membership in CIG is not the same as concierge level support. Try if you can still get concierge live chat :-)
Maya Remblai
The one with pink hair.
Join date: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 434
05-18-2009 11:49
From: Ciaran Laval
It gets complicated but I go with your price of USD$97.50.

If you own only half a mainland sim tier will be USD$125. However if you own a full sim, half of that works out at USD$97.50.

As you have to own a full island to own a homestead, it's a fair comparison to compare the price of USD$97.50 instead of USD$125.

There are other factors that make it a bit more awkward to compare the products directly, the most glaring being you'll struggle to get hold of half a mainland sim for USD$375.


OH right, I was forgetting how the tiers work. You still get more prims with half a mainland sim though. I never will understand why LL thinks it's ok to charge so much for what amounts to a 1/4 sim.

On the topic of concierge, I actually am a concierge member, and I'm not in the concierge group. :p
Viciously Llewellyn
Not Really Vicious ;-)
Join date: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 332
05-20-2009 20:30
From: Maya Remblai
OH right, I was forgetting how the tiers work. You still get more prims with half a mainland sim though. I never will understand why LL thinks it's ok to charge so much for what amounts to a 1/4 sim.

On the topic of concierge, I actually am a concierge member, and I'm not in the concierge group. :p


The $97.50 number is just playing with numbers by bringing in factors that are not directly related with the comparison between a homestead sim and half mainland sim.

The homestead sim is trading half the prims and taking on the requirement to have a full private island ... for considerably more security and privacy, no possiblilty of a bad neighbor, and estate managers rights.
Lord Sullivan
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Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,870
05-21-2009 01:31
From: WirelessTrap Breen
Even at the current price, it's a constant internal debate whether or not to keep the homestead. There won't be any debate about it if the price increases.


Blondin said at his latest office hours meeting 05-20-2009

http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/Office_Hours_Transcript_-_Blondin_Linden:_05-20-2009

From: someone
Blondin Linden: [15:48] Elanthius Flagstaff: Oh end of june? So The Aporncalypse happens at the same time as the Homestead price increase? ANSWER: It's bad timing - I know. But the two have nothing to do with each other.


So I would imagine they will raise the price as stated
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Ciaran Laval
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Join date: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 7,951
05-21-2009 07:28
From: Viciously Llewellyn
The $97.50 number is just playing with numbers by bringing in factors that are not directly related with the comparison between a homestead sim and half mainland sim.

The homestead sim is trading half the prims and taking on the requirement to have a full private island ... for considerably more security and privacy, no possiblilty of a bad neighbor, and estate managers rights.


They're not really comparable at all. People are choosing to point to half a mainland sim because it costs USD$125, which is the supposed new tier price of homesteads but you could just as easily compare them to a quarter of a mainland sim, that gives you the same amount of prims, then you can start talking about neighbours and privacy but if the price rise goes ahead you're looking at a USD$50 difference every month compared to a quarter of a mainland sim.

Of course we could throw into the equation rentals, it's feasible to rent a quarter of a mainland sim for less than LL's tier and the same goes for half a mainland sim too.
Viciously Llewellyn
Not Really Vicious ;-)
Join date: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 332
05-21-2009 07:33
From: Ciaran Laval
They're not really comparable at all. People are choosing to point to half a mainland sim because it costs USD$125, which is the supposed new tier price of homesteads but you could just as easily compare them to a quarter of a mainland sim, that gives you the same amount of prims, then you can start talking about neighbours and privacy but if the price rise goes ahead you're looking at a USD$50 difference every month compared to a quarter of a mainland sim.

Of course we could throw into the equation rentals, it's feasible to rent a quarter of a mainland sim for less than LL's tier and the same goes for half a mainland sim too.


The only common benchmark between the two is the cost, $125.00 USD.
Ciaran Laval
Mostly Harmless
Join date: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 7,951
05-21-2009 07:37
From: Viciously Llewellyn
The only common benchmark between the two is the cost, $125.00 USD.


No that's the benchmark you choose to use. Prims are a common benchmark. An individual cannot purchase a homestead, they can purchase a quarter or half a mainland sim, the comparison is not straight forward by any stretch of the imagination.
Viciously Llewellyn
Not Really Vicious ;-)
Join date: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 332
05-21-2009 09:20
From: Ciaran Laval
No that's the benchmark you choose to use. Prims are a common benchmark. An individual cannot purchase a homestead, they can purchase a quarter or half a mainland sim, the comparison is not straight forward by any stretch of the imagination.


WOW ... its all I can say!
Ciaran Laval
Mostly Harmless
Join date: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 7,951
05-21-2009 10:08
From: Viciously Llewellyn
WOW ... its all I can say!


Ah I see the problem, you want this forum:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/index.html?sid=1

:p
Viciously Llewellyn
Not Really Vicious ;-)
Join date: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 332
05-21-2009 10:15
From: Ciaran Laval
Ah I see the problem, you want this forum:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/index.html?sid=1

:p


Do they know what common benchmarks are over there? :rolleyes:
Ciaran Laval
Mostly Harmless
Join date: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 7,951
05-21-2009 10:48
From: Viciously Llewellyn
Do they know what common benchmarks are over there? :rolleyes:


A number isn't a common benchmark?
Viciously Llewellyn
Not Really Vicious ;-)
Join date: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 332
05-21-2009 12:10
From: Ciaran Laval
A number isn't a common benchmark?


A number that is common to each subject of comparison, would be.

Numbers that are not common to each subject of comparison, because each subject has a different value, would not be. :D
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