A true free accounts question...

Cindy Pretty much covered my response LOL

I was a premium account holder, for several months actually. I owned land had a shop etc, but because of what I was paying out each month it was very hard to make ends meet. See I don't charge astronomical prices for the things I sell and do in SL, that MY choice, nobody else, but for me a premium account was a waste of money. Now I am a free account holder, I rent my land and am having NO problems making SL ends meet.

I don't think ANYone should condemn free account holders especially based on Lewis rationale.....

I say live and let live man, don't like newbs with free acounts, don't talk to them. There are PLENTY of people who will befriend and love them

Excuse me? I have a free account, therefore I must not be contributing to the community because my contribution isn't financial? Wait, aren't you the same person who several times has complained that people in SL are too focused on money already?

Lets see, I work with my partner running two entire sims: one dedicated to providing people with beautiful scenery, romantic places to bring a loved one (no sex balls sorry, just cuddles) and chapels for weddings... The other sim dedicated to providing an entire community of people with a place to have discussions and classes and friendly get togethers with others who share their interests.
I design clothing most of which I give away as freebies so that new people will have nice things to wear that aren't the usual old freebies going the rounds over and over. Every time I give a box of very nice free clothing I make, it is all copy/mod/transfer because I want people to give it away to others. I actually only bother to put in my vendor and sell about 10% of what I create because I won't sell something I've already given away free.
I teach classes. I hold discussion groups. I build what I think are some fairly nice structures which I don't sell, I only build for others to enjoy.

I also chose to lower my premium account to basic because I don't need to own any land and I have no real need for the stipend. It was nice but it didn't change my standard of "living".

I do not "live off the system". I contribute to the community plenty.

I think we should all take Mr Nerds hint and go Premium.. its time we all stop Spunging off him.

welcome to SL Whimsycallie, as far as the discussion about free or premium accts it doesnt make any difference to me. We are all SLers and any divisivness is not what SL is about. We are simply all members of the community and anyone who looks down on free accts to me isnt really someone Id care to associate with....

Whimsycallie, just enjoy SL. thats what it is about

BTW Lewis... care to trade tier for a month? I could say your sponging off me cause I pay a much higher tier.... so dont make claims about people not contributing

To answer lewis's arguments ;

I am a free account



You yourself said it - 35cents a day is nothing - it is not going to pay for the bandwidth you use as a premium holder - Linden recoup their network costs quite nicely thru other areas ( if they didnt you would be paying a lot more )



I contribute financially probably a lot more than your premium account does - I pay rent over and above the value of 10US$ per month, I purchase a lot more than 10US$ per month in items and I contribute one hell-of-a-lot of contents towards SL - quite a lot of it free to all users - free or premium.



Of the people I have seen banned for abuse towards myself and others so far - every one of them has been a premium account holder - Yes some free accounts grief as well - go to a sandbox and count who's shooting who and check their status.



Why restrict free account holders - they are already restricted to not being able to own land or vote on the system - you start pulling functions away from us and free accounts would cease to exist - and so would SL.



As said above I pay rent for my house - and the land I use.
The only difference is as a free account I pay rent to a premium holder.
As a premium holder you pay rent to Linden - so indirectly I am paying to Linden via my landlord.

Who says only premium landowners provide places for people to visit ? I know a lot of places that are rented and still allow visitors - ney encourage them.



Again not true - go to a campsite and count how many are free and how many are premium - every body who wants a few extra spending Linden for nothing camps whether they be free or premium.
(Let's face it - with anti idle devices anyone can start camping - go to work - and come home to have some extra spending money )



Again see above - I spend a lot on SL - I decide not to spend 10$ for the privilage of owning my own land and being able to vote basically because I dont have the need for it.
I can rent and get larger land and more prims for the a smaller amount than paying for the land itself in most cases.
I have no desire to landscape the land - I have devices that allow me to set and change the URL's , ban eject etc - so I do not need the land ownership package.
I do not use the voting system as I think it is fundamentally flawed.



I am paying in excess of that and providing free content to you and others for being treated like a second rate citizen.




As mentioned above - restrict them and people will look and not bother to continue, and being a free account does not say "scrounger" - I do not scrounge I contribute to the community - yet I have a free account.

Generalizing and regarding free accounts as "leaches" is wrong.

What a person does in SL is up to the person in question whether they rent, own a 512, or have purchased 23 sims.
All can abuse, all can create, all can be hermits or all can be sociable.

It is the person behind the account you should be looking at - not the financial status of their account.

Thats my take anyhows.

The abuse with alts is really sad indeed.Example of just of of many examples here is one with on his 13 account? he been prem banned a many times. But he keep coming back with mama and papa credit cards....what puzzles me is why do the keep returning? He is one of those spoiled kids with 6000.00 computers with all the options. It their sole purpose is to look fro problems and insult and belittle people whats the sence of being here? They build such powerful computers to just troll and greift people? Then again we have a mentor inthe group that does this inthe same manner.........
Basically there is nothing wrong with freebie account..BUT since Aug of 2005 we have gone down hill so fast. there is no control anymore..........And freebie account have by those kids continues coming back again and again..........Oh well if this is what philip linden dreamed about then its his nightmare now and its ours as well.
WELOME TO THE NEW SECOND LIFE WHERE THE FREEDOM TO ABUSE IS ALLOWED AND THE MENTORS ARE NOW A LAUGHING STOCK OF THE GAME..........Good work Ms.Linden you created this mess now FIX IT!...........WAIT SHE DOES NOT EVEN CARE...........

I think this paragraph adequately describes my feelings towards free accounts also.
Don't get me wrong. I'm also a free loader. Though I did sign up originally when no account was free (I paid 10 bucks). I Have also gone up to premium and held maximum tier of 1024sqm. But I've been waay too busy in RL to be able to justify spending money on SL land when now I just login a couple of hours a month, and hadn't the time or stamina to build anything memorable. So I downgraded to basic. I don't even collect much L$ because I don't log on consistently every week.
But freeloaders (me included) should be limited. I hear many people say that they would leave if that happened. I think those are very unfair statements. If you look at the service provided by SL, with bugs and all, it's very amazing. The sheer technology implemented here is so astounding, very few of us really understand or even appreciate it's grandness.

It is obviously worth 10 a month. That's what, 120 a year? 1% of a 12K income.... 1/2% of a 24K income. I mean, if you got a computer and fast internet connection... my god that can't be so much of a burden.

Ahh... but the human being only thinks of 3 people: Me, myself and
I.

Some might say: "Yeah, then why aren't you paying?". Well if I don't have to, I obviously won't. Not stupid either. I used to do it for the land, but since I was hardly using it anyways, I stepped back. But if they install a 10 monthly minimum fee tomorrow morning, I'll be the first to accept the payment. Why? It's worth it, at least for me. If it's not for you, then I think you (anyone who thinks it's not worth it) should leave.

OR

Limit the free basics. Maybe we can't fly. Maybe we can't save TONS of items in our inventories. Maybe we can't sell things. I dunno. Something. Right now land is probably the only thing that moves someone into premium (that and the idea that premium is owed 500L$ a week). If you just aren't into land, what makes you want premium?