Open Spaces Announcement & Talk with M and Jack Linden

M, and any other Lindens commenting:

There should be some kind of refund for those of us who were forced to give up our OS sims because of the price change announcement.

I know quite a few OS sims were abandonded shortly after the pricing change was announced, because the residents who wanted them were scared off.

At todays market prices, the loss of the owners who purchased the OS sims in good faith, represents a huge hit to their personal savings.

I know in my case, already I have had to drop 4 OS sims, with another 2 likely to go before the end of the month as the residents there attempt to try to find ways to make the committments for tier coverage.

In my personal case, right now, with the loss of the 6 OS sims, that is representing to me a hit of $1500. TO me, that equates to 2 months rent. To me, if LL really wanted to make a positive image of itself, they would offer the residents the setup cost back for any abandonded OS sim, reguardless of how long it was on the grid.

I know in my case, 4 of my OS sims were forced on me, because downgrading a full sim to an OS required I take 4 OS sims, or else I would loose the setup fee associated with the unclaimed OS sims.

So instead of trying to offer a $10,000 USD prize to someone, why not first take care of the ones who have helped build up SL and are now being unfairly penalized?

that's what i said...but this might be more clear *wink*

Islands Added
Month Islands Owned Islands Added
______________________________
October 2008 26539 1045
November 2008 - MTD 26172 -367

I would LOVE to know how many of those are actual forfeitures and how many are conversions.

I repeat, why is this not part of the sim closing process?

If you sell a sim to someone else, you go in and return everything, or they do, and everyone gets their stuff back. Why doesn't Linden Labs do the same thing?

maybe they are after more than just money? LOL they want your stuff too?????

"Effective Immediately: We will no longer allow the Owner of an Openspace to be changed to a different resident than the Payor. Initially we will not enforce this change on Openspaces where the Payor and Owner are already different but in those cases the only change allowed will be to set the Owner back to the Payor. This doesn’t affect the parcel level rentals, this is just focussed on the whole region rental of Openspaces."
--from the 10/27 blog entry
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/10/27/openspace-pricing-and-policy-changes/#more-2721


That's still the case right?

Get in touch with support again, preferably with any other tenants who were on the sim. In the past, SL has been willing to temporarily put deleted sims back up for a short while so that people can retrieve their stuff.

I have to be honest.. I am not even sure what exactly they mean by that.whats the difference between renting a parsal or renting the whole sim as a parsal or am i missing something completely

I think since I rent an island in an openspace that would be considered a parcel since I don't own the entire sim. Just the island is parcelled out. I think that's the difference.

To me it says......"get your stuff off the property before the landlord takes their land back from you"

man things are just getting worse around here by the day.

No, but an unscrupulous landlord who finds a buyer for a full sim and quickly enters a support ticket to LL to convert 4 OS to a full sim, and not want to have to pay out what is owing to renters... yes, this will happen. And this has nothing to do with LL but everything to do with the landlord. He or she will cash out and be gone.

I fear this is the first of many.

lets hope not.

silence by LL, lag in SL, excellent performance of the company (LL) since the latest announcement in terms of communication and other things. or did I miss something?

They're too busy deleting posts in the Linden prize thread to look at this one.

Okay, So I read 6 pages and I honestly feel like I'm good to post without being an ignorant jerk because I don't have the time to read the full 150+ pages in order to voice my opinion.


So first thing Linden Labs: WHY on earth was I not emailed about this change?! I don't have the time to stay current with the blog and as a concierge customer that is absolutely atrocious! If January was to come and I had not been informed by friends about this change I would really be pushed past the point of accepting any change and immediately terminate any business with Linden Labs.

As a fact presented by M himself and many other residents, LL you were aware of the misuse! With having this information you know that people need an in between. That between is an in between of an openspace and full class 5 sim, NOT an in between of Nothing and a Current 3,750 openspace. Water is great, but our islands are surrounded by it.

Placing such intense limits on the new Homesteads is okay IF you were to keep the price as it is. In my opinion I'd rather pay a higher rate and keep openspaces as they are and LL offer an even more lightweight sim for what the original intention of openspaces was. (The even more lightweight being the 750 prim 10 avatar with more restrictions). So let me state that again, I would be OKAY with LL jacking up the price on current Openspaces if no restrictions were to be put into place. Charge us the price you need to maintain those types of Openspaces LL, that's what we want.

LL, why are you forcing the customer base to adapt to the business rather than adapting the business to customers? No matter what change you implement you will have residents come, go, and also be open for change. For goodness sake Openspaces were and would sell like hotcakes, instead of ruining your potential in sales offer the residents something we can actually be happy with. The resident's have already paid for the current Openspaces and now your jacking up the price and placing restrictions on them... If the "comprimise" offered remains the same I think I will be selling my openspace/homesteads in December. I am not giving any thought or trials to the limitations I know, but I don't want to have to waste more time, money, energy, and effort to adapt to a problem created by Linden Labs.

I canceled my open space sim immediately after the first announcement. And now I am ready to cancel my full island.

I could not believe that they had the audacity to sprinkle some tobasco on the turd they tried feed us last week and are now trying to call it a spicy sandwich.

I guess the amazing thing is that I have any hope at all that they will come to their senses and fix this.

I am off to explore the alternatives.

It truly is sad...

My hope is that their silence is because they are gathering as much community input as they can to make a new policy that truly reflects the needs and desires of its customers.

If we see a further announcement, my guess is that it will be Wednesday. Tuesday (tomorrow) they are having a closed discussion with members of the SLDEV group about openspace policy, which I see as a final rough discussion to see if a new policy would be acceptable to customers. That would make Wednesday a prime opportunity for announcement, as then on Thursday Jack could get input on the revised policy.

I'm a hopeless optimist. It is my hope that Thursday will be a time for grid-wide celebration, and the beginning of a restoration of trust as LL, from this fiasco, sees the _prime_ importance of customer needs and takes action to change its fundamental culture and workings to make sure that not only will we not see a repeat of this sort of fiasco, but end up with a better working company than before.

One can dream.

However, the process of building, and understanding necessary towards making a sound policy and better culture requires that both sides try to understand the other. The Cuban missile crisis was resolved because Kennedy understood Khrushchev, and was able to frame a solution that would 1) prevent war, possibly massive war and 2) make Khrushchev look like a hero to his supporters and hard-liners in Russia by being able to say that he saved Cuba. Linden Lab- in addition to its stated corporate mission- has a commitment to its investors to try to maximize profits. If they appear to cave too much to customer demands, it could make investors weary. At the same time, they cannot appear as if they have backtracked too much, or they blundered into proposing a plan that they admit was flawed, as it would make investors weary of doing business with a company that doesn't fully understand how its own process works.

My proposed solution is this:

Linden Lab made a good policy _at the right time._ However, after analyzing in detail its costs and profits, and potentials for further cutting costs, it was evident that this policy was unneeded entirely. Cost-cutting strategies (LLNET, HTTP assets, etc) had been developed long before the new Openspace policy, so this is not an entirely new approach from the investor's eye. In addition, thanks to internal developers and the JIRA tool, additional cost-cutting measures were realized quickly that have significance. By not changing prices, Linden Lab shows to investors its commitment to long-term profit growth and short-term survival, something invaluable in the current economic climate.

So, a backtrack on policy, to investors, can be framed as not having been overly influenced by customers, but based on strong profit/cost fundamentals. The change is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of Linden Lab being able to adapt and change to new information very quickly to keep investor's best interests at heart.

In a separate post perhaps, Linden Lab could say that the sheer size of the Openspace movement (and the output of brainpower by everyone from casual users, professional programmers, and bug-testers) has shown the fundamental value of SL's community. They announce new initiatives to expand the capacity for customer dialogue, input, and brainpower, stating that it is evident that Linden Lab's interests and customer interests are not in conflict, but fundamentally the same. What is good for customers is good for SL.

Framed correctly, they could see a substantial portion of the Openspace movement work to better SL. Everyone wins; customers get lower prices and more performance, new users are retained because of a superior product, and investors get more return for their money. LL has a staff of around 300 people; possibly thousands more "free" staff (who are active because they too benefit from SL's bettering) would be an incredible windfall. In proceeding issues, it would be not framed as the current "here's what we have to do" policy posts followed by massive struggle, but as, "Here's our current concerns and issues. We could use your help in solving these problems. Here's ways to help..." By just doing that, they would achieve transparency and dialogue _before_ any policy changes, and would turn from a company infamous for its closed decision-making doors to one that uses the power of its own community to further itself.

umm, sounds to me way too optimistic recalling what I and many so called 'residents' have experienced since they joyned that game. you say, they (LL) are sitting and discussing gathering as much community input as possible. ok, fine, excellent, thats much of what we want, but why don't they tell us that they are doing so? I am not personally concerned by that OS policy, but I feel very much with these 'residents' who have 'bought' or 'leased' that OS product and use it without violiting the TaC at the time of their 'purchase'. abuse is always wrong, but LL should have had to clearly point out what OS are good for (or not intenden for), what is allowed and what not. and now they figure out that this concept does not work out due to hardware issues, market issues, money issues, whatever issues, and simply change their pricing model by incredible XX%.
we (the community) do not hear anything from M, J, K(att - the popcorn eater) since days although this OS issue should indicate to LL that it is pretty critical to their complete busines model atm. LL should disclose what their real problems are or theis visions or their mid term to long term business plans to allow the 'numb' regular 'resident' to be able to make a clear decision to stay or to leave. I don't want to make 'money' here, just enjoy the game and love the efforts of some 'residents' to make me enjoy that game. unfortunately, I watch a decline of the events/actions etc etc in SL that attract me personally. Once there is only left a big HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! and some noobs flying over 'my' 'land', it is not attractive for me anymore. Once, more and more artists, creators, critical minds leave this game, I need to comitt SL suicide. don't be afraid, I won't in RL as I look at my RL quite realistic and frankly, for me, atm there is more thrill and mental and intellectual exchange in RL than in SL
best regards,
pantaiputih!

originally posted by a Linden ))))

'I am very excited to announce the inaugural Linden Prize.

The Linden Prize will award one Second Life Resident or team with $10,000 USD, paid in Linden dollars, for an innovative inworld project that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world. The award is intended to align with Linden Lab’s company mission–to connect all people to an online world that advances the human condition.

Since the very beginning, Residents have recognized the potential for their work in the virtual world to have significant value that extends into the real world. Second Life Residents have developed virtual philanthropy and medical research, innovated and explored new business opportunities, and educated others using the virtual world to create experiences that teach complex topics with revolutionary simulations.

We know so many projects inside of Second Life have already enhanced and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and we want to recognize those accomplishments.


We invite all Residents to consider applying for the award. A panel of judges will choose finalists, and ultimately a winner, based on the following criteria:

Work in Second Life that also achieves tangible, compelling results outside of Second Life.
Distinctive, original work using Second Life that clearly demonstrates high quality, execution, function, aesthetics and technical sophistication.
Work that has the capacity for inspiring and influencing future development, knowledge, creativity, and collaboration both inside and outside of Second Life.
Key Dates

Applications open today.

Applications close January 15, 2009

Finalists and the Winner announced no later than April 30, 2009

The Linden Prize site contains details on eligibility, requirements, the application form, and an FAQ, so please use that site as a reference. Everett Linden will be available to answer questions in the forum. We’re extremely excited about this award and the opportunity to support your tremendous accomplishments.'

[...] an interesting announcement on the blog of Second Life, probably still the best-known and the most popular virtual reality [...]

I am an optimist because I love SL, and believe in Phillip Linden's core vision, if not the application of that vision as currently seen by the company.

I also believe that individuals are fundamentally rational. Until now, LL's way of working with customers _worked_, if not the best method. Currently though, SL has grown to such a size that this model must change to prevent a massive loss of it's most innovative and valuable customers, and to grow beyond the current size. The openspace movement has proven it for the first time. Individuals, organizations, and companies, are also stubborn to fundamental change in how things work, and so the push for that chance builds until it reaches a breaking point- something we are seeing. The openspace movement is not led or organized by anyone, nor is the outcry of a vocal few; it is nothing less than a mass revolution.

If LL drops the ball on this one, however, it could signal the beginning of the end. Many talented content creators I've talked to are planning on flocking to Openlife, and some already have. Once those content creators are lost, it will be nearly impossible to get them back; once installed in another virtual world platform that works _with_ them and its customers, and grows because of them, they won't have any incentive to look back.

[...] This is something that will take some serious brain-power in creativity and the logistical / intellectual sense, and I truly wish “may the best team win.” courtesy of [...]

[...] We can argue about whether virtual worlds are a waste of time or great entertainment. But the folks at Linden Lab, which runs Second Life, clearly believe that virtual worlds can improve our lives in the real world. The company announced today that it is holding contest where it will pay $10,000 to the winner who c…. [...]