do you consider basic accounts to be inferiors?

do you consider a basic user is inferior to a premium user?

Nope

- do you think LL should push the basic accounts to move to premium?

Nope

- do you think the basic accounts should get more restriction as an incentive to move to premium?

Nope

- do you think it would be a bad way to have a script function allowing to detect if someone is basic or premium by it's key? (it used to be written in the profile)

yep bad idea.

-what do you think of the charter accounts?

no opinion.

-whats stopping me going to basic?

I wish to own land.

-- next thread plzzzzzzz

Regarding premium accounts 'carrying' free accounts. I spent over 10,000L my first week as a free account before I went premium, and I'm sure others spend quite a bit too.

No, why would I when I know more people who are basic that contribute more to SL then most premium users?
No.
This would be a BAD business move IMO. Like I mentioned in my first answer, I know more basics that contributed quite a signifigant amount back to SL without owning land. Restricting what their creativity will allienate a good chunk of the user base and LL will suffer quite a few losses as people would be more willing to leave then be forced to have pay for access to LSL, media uploads, and/or an unlimited daily time frame to play (just to name a few examples).
Since your UUID is akin to virtual DNA I'd say it'd open the door to forming social classes wich imo is a really bad idea and will drive away new players if they can't fully explore SL. Sure we have that problem with security systems and homes, but imagine the uproar and drama from not being able to see a public build like a club, casino, movie theatre, or hell even a public park/forest just because they're basic and the owner's public opinion is all basics are freeloaders. It'll be bad PR for SL and we can't afford bad PR. Plus if we go this route I can only imagine how many people would demand special keys for furries to ban them from various sims. Trust me, virtual segrigation is a bad thing.
Depends what special privilages are offered. There are some basics that I know who spend X amount in the lindex every month (sometimes weekly). Having two forms of Premium users I think would be a good thing, one for people not interested in land but interested in more L$ and the other traditional premium we are accustomed to.
I don't feel I am paying for all of them as I know many who pay indirectly by renting land/apartments in private sims and/or buy from the lindex on a regular basis because its more affordable for them to go that route. I don't know many freeloading basic users as just about every one I've seen has been striving to succede in SL.
Right now my friend wanted to start a club and to help him out I donated my 512m2. Currently thats the only thing stopping me from dropping back to basic and buying my L$ through LindeX & renting land in one of my friends' private sims.
No, its best if we remain flexible because there are times when people run into money troubles and need to tier down to save on money and still enjoy SL. Restrict people from tiering down to basic will mean more cancelled accounts and decrease the user base in the long run.

- do you consider a basic user is inferior to a premium user?
No, if someone has a basic account they are not inferior in any way. Granted the basic account does not have the same perks as a premium account, but there are those who choose not to have a premium account, or have the ability to support a premium account.

- do you think LL should push the basic accounts to move to premium?
No, while the premium account incentives are nice forcing someone to upgrade their account would only create a rift between the basic account resident, Linden Labs, and premium account residents.

- do you think the basic accounts should get more restriction as an incentive to move to premium?
No, again doing so would create a rift between basic account residents, Linden Labs, and premium account residents.

- do you think it would be a bad way to have a script function allowing to detect if someone is basic or premium by it's key? (it used to be written in the profile)
Really bad idea. If an avatar's key can be detected and identified it could lead to account profiling and perhaps security related issues.

-what do you think of the charter accounts?
Those who hold charter accounts are no higher or lower than anyone else on the grid.

if you are a basic account: (Ignored since I have a premium account by choice)
- do you consider to go premium someday?
- what kind of incentive would make you choose to go premium?
- (warning biased question) do you think you are participating in any way in LL's costs?

if you are a premium:
- do you feel you are paying for the basic accounts?
No, I am paying for the privlage to own the amount of land I have and supporting Linden Labs for a product I enjoy.

- what is keeping you from going back to basic? (exepted the land)
Absolutely nothing. At any time I can abandon my land and go to a basic account if I was inclined to do so.

-i have been in planetside recently where there is free and paying accounts , you can go from free to paying but not the opposite. Do you think it should be the same in sl? once an account go premium it can't go back to basic?
There ARE times when someone may fall on hard times and be unable to support a premium account. Linden Labs perhaps understands this and most likely why they allow the ability to fall back to a basic account. No sense in burning bridges just because someone can't support a premium account and be forced to terminate their account losing all they have acquired in SL and all they have created.

Planetside is a great game destroyed by the inability of SOE to attract new players. It was really popular to start with but as the boxed copy began to vanish from shops the population counts started to drop quite quickly. SOE attempted to get players back with an a couple of ill thought out expansion packs, but have only caught on recently that if they don't make it easy to sign up online people wont play - its really not that long ago you had to mail order a boxed copy of the game to join!

Personally I am not going back no matter how tempting they make it, the population count is a shadow of its former self and the game has been suffering a lingering death for the last year. Really they need to kill it, wait a year and launch planetside 2.

That's why I am so pro basic accounts here, you put barriers up that restrict the basic accounts, you choke the whole verse, and once its starts to fade the damage is done.

I have a basic account because I can't afford the monthly payment to LL for a premium account (poor student, hehe). However I do inject money into my account every now and then to buy things in game, so I wouldn't say I am entirely 'leeching'.

The only leeches are alt accounts that camp chairs or farm money trees. Everyone else brings something vital to the verse - themselves.

This was a good question, and to spin it a bit, "are free accounts with no verification inferior to the free basic accounts with Verification? " hmmmmmmm

From: someone

do you consider basic accounts to be inferiors?

Absolutely not! Some of the most creative and nicest people I know are on basic accounts.

From: Moopf Murray

Cool, I guess you didn't bother to read the thread, or even just think about it for more than a few seconds, otherwise you'd realise just how wrong you are about them not contributing.

Thank you for your insightful comments, please come again soon!

Well what about a compromise? 7/30/90/whatever day Trial and bring back the option to pay $10 bucks to get to basic or to pay for premium? When I first came to SL, I was attracted to the fact that I only needed to pay $10 (Php 520 in my currency) to play a game forever (then switched to Premium when I realized just how much fun SL was and that I wanted to do more with it) That way, SL can easily identify the 'abandoned/nuisance' accounts (which are just more often than not used for griefing) and get rid of them.

I mean not only do you get a taste on Second Life using the 7/30/90 day trial, whats 10 USD to play it forever? That's probably just a McDonald meal for you guys.

Everyone seems to forget that basic accounts no longer receive stipends. Old accounts continue to, but newbies like myself do not.

I joined on 6/1. I recieve no money at all from LL. I do, however, buy lindens and spend them on rent and content. I can leave, however, and the other basics with me, then the 20% that pay premium will be all that is left to rent land or buy content.

LL knows that it's appeal as a "platform" and not a game that acutally has anyone at Linden Lab creating any content for it's users, and instead depends on it's users to create content, is limited, when they start asking for people to pay them money for access (access in order to... spend more money). That is why they allow people to come in as basics, create content (which SL needs) and buy and spend Lindens (which the economy and the content creators need).

They can always shut their doors to all but the few who are premium and stay a niche game with 20,000 users that no one notices. However, they really seem to like the press and attention that they are getting and don't see them doing that, quite the opposite.

I do, on the other hand, see a problem with letting people get a basic account without any verification/ID at all, and unlimitted alts, but that is another story.

First off I want to state I'm posting my responses to your questions WITHOUT reading anyone elses post. I want to give an unbiased opinion without being influenced.

Second off i want to state that I'm a BASIC account. Always been one and at least 'this av' will always remain one so as to never negate my stipend. I dont own any alts but am considering using the $65 usd i've earned since i joined in august in purchasing a premium if the land quality improves.

Now to questions:

- do you consider a basic user is inferior to a premium user?

No i do not. I may not 'yet' be contributing to Linden Labs pockets but I also have no intention of just cashing out. I'm waiting for the benifits of being a premium account to increase before I purchase an Alt.

As a basic member i've tutored and helped many individuals with building and scripting tips. I've taught an introductory scripting class at New Citizens Plaza for a couple months now. I've been blessed with being nominated as one of the two 'Noted Residents' in last months newsletter and got asked by a magazine for an interview because of it. I've been a consistant helper to new residents at NCI since i was only a few weeks old. I am a Mentor, a Live Helper and Instructor and enjoy those roles.

I inform new people about scams, show them how to shop, encourage them to freely buy things they cant make and to attend classes to learn how to design themselves.

Does anyone here consider that portfolio to be inferior to someone with a premium account just because I have no current need to own land?

- do you think LL should push the basic accounts to move to premium?

Definately!!! I think the best way to do this would be by supplying features so that the two accounts are truely differentiated. Basic accounts could be limited to 5-10 groups and Premiums should have unlimited group memberships. Of course 'volunteer' linden official groups should not count against this limit. If a premium membership included 1024m2 of initial owning rights, and all land limits were adjusted so that you were allowed 1 prim per m2 and 1 OBJECT per 16m2 we would have more incentive to own land. There are optimizations in place where whole objects are NOT as expensive to computations as the same number of individual prims. We should be able to take advantage of this in prim allotments. Id purchase a year subscription TOMORROW if that was done. Money is already in account.

- do you think the basic accounts should get more restriction as an incentive to move to premium?

I think 15 groups is too convienent for a basic (I am one remember i have the right to say this). I dont think basic accounts should be able to create groups at all. If we add in 'unverified' accounts as a new category below basic unverified accounts should not be able to join more than 1 group or to join any Volunteer groups. I think 'unverified' level accounts should not have forum write privledges except in the Linden Answers and Technical Issues forums.

- do you think it would be a bad way to have a script function allowing to detect if someone is basic or premium by it's key? (it used to be written in the profile)I think your account type whether 'unverified', 'basic', 'premium', 'tier owning' needs to be detectable via scripts so that the COMMUNITY can have the choice of what level of support they give. And yes i think account type should be placed back into peoples profiles. I think it should be a TOS violation to HERASS someone because of their account type with very SEVERE punishments (no warnings here) but it should be up to each individual land owner or store vender to decide how to treat them. I see no problem with descriminating and having vendors automatically require 10% processing fees for non premium members if that is their wish.

-what do you think of the charter accounts?

not sure what you mean by 'charter' account so i'll have to answer this later.

- do you consider to go premium someday?

definately. id love to given certain pre-requisites stated in next answer.

- what kind of incentive would make you choose to go premium?

Land management tools capable of fully preventing abuse. Every aspect of my 'PUSH Limitations' thread need implimented. Land for premium needs to increase to 1024m2 so that i have a full 32x32 meter area to play with. Enough for a real house or shop. Prims need to equal 1 prim per m2 owned or its not worth building anything. Total Objects allowed per parcel could be dropped down to 1 object per 16m2. All prim limits need to ONLY EFFECT THE LAND OWNER. Someone else rezzing stuff on my land should ONLY count against the SIMs limit of 'guest prims / guest objects' and not effect my land. All sims would need a 2hr autoreturn policy. I should have an option settable in 'About Land' where I can flag my land as a 'sandbox region' thus enabling any of my free prim quota to 'protect' prims/objects on my land so that those items use MY choice in autoreturn settings if my settings are less strict. Of course if my settings are less than 2hrs that will effect anything left on my land regardless if its a sandbox or not. Without this level of control its not worth it to me.

- (warning biased question) do you think you are participating in any way in LL's costs?

Yes. My participation reduces the financial responsibility LL incurs, but only because I am personally very active in teaching others how to use the systems that LL created. Not every BASIC member can say the same. Any basic account that consumes content (not freebies), PURCHASES $L off the LindeX (not sells), Teaches Residents or is highly active in groups that organize social aspects is a benifit to the community. About the only basics i think are a deficit are those that ONLY log in to build in public sandboxes without socializing and greifers. Those are the only 2 types of people i recognize as non contributing members who should not stay. Though greifers are the only ones who i think should be focibly removed. Some of those anti social builders will eventually do more, or at least _potentially_ do more and i have no quarrel with them.


- do you feel you are being supported by the premium accounts?

Ok i reworded that question but i still have an answer. NO. Not personally. I contribute to many premium members through my various activities. On the flip side i do believe that premium members are NOT getting their full dollar value out of the game. Land tools. Group limitations and other issues not already mentioned should be improved for premium members. They are getting ripped off. The reason i havent upgraded.


GENERAL ADDITIONS:

Basic accounts should not be allowed to recieve more than $50 a month from selling $L. Any sale that puts them over that limit should AUTOMATICALLY upgrade them to a premium account. The ONLY warning should be one that says:

"By placing this market trade on the LindeX you are at risk of earning over $50 this month in sales. If this occurs you will be AUTOMATICALLY upgraded to a premium account and billed immediately using your accounts earned balance from sales. Do you agree to this?"

And that should be a FLOATING 30 day window. So no cashing out on the 27th of the month and then immediately selling more on the 2nd. That is only an approx 5 day window and would be subject to automatic upgrade.

"Unverified" level accounts should not be allowed to buy or sell on the LindeX at all. Nor should they be able to recieve money from 'pay' or 'llGiveMoney' commands. This will kill all 'camping' bonuses for these people.

Basic accounts should not be able to place classifieds, post events or recieve referral bonuses. Referal bonuses SHOULD be acknowledged so that a future upgrade to premium will retroactively pay all referalls earned *IF* the upgrade is the quarterly or annual plan. This alone would encourage a lot of upgrades if in a persons 'account summary' page they are shown a list of all pending earned referals.

In the case of Instructors posting class events I've stated in THIS THREAD how Instructor class events should be a totally seperate feature and not be considered a 'regular' event. Check there for details.

If anyone has read my post on Increasing Upload fees as a way to offset stipends if those increased fees were introduced (or something comparable) then I'd like premium members to get a 50% discount on upload costs. Possibly get 5 free uploads a week.

Basic account holders could get an inventory cap at say 10,000 individual entries. Since sounds and textures when copied in inventory all refer back to the same 'asset' UUID multiples of the same texture/sound would not count against the limit (in fairness). Some may think that number ludicrously high. Some ludicrously low. Coming from someone who has an inventory that various between 2k and 3k items i think its just appropriate though id accept anything as low as 5,000 for a limit too. Just because *my* avg usage isnt large doesnt mean some other people dont possess more. This would offset LL's storage cost vs income.

Basic account holders could have bandwidth capped at 250 or 300 kbytes / sec. I normally keep mine at 400 but a lower limit would be quite fair. Honestly this is a really MINOR limit as avg transfer is 20-40kb/s except during transfer bursts.

Basic accounts could have a friend list limit of say 50 avatars. I remove people as soon as my list has a scroll bar but know some people keep 100's of names on theirs (shudders). To be honest a limit of 25 is still quite FARE as you can always use calling cards to easily send IMs or open someones profile. This type of limit would even encourage USING cc's more making features like Conference IMs via CC folders more widely known.

If LL activates all the current InfoHub and Welcome Area locations as telehubs point to point teleporting could be a premium only feature except on land that the landowner pays a 'Telehub Listing Fee' of 50$L / week to be a general telehub center, or a 'Group Telehub' fee of 25$L per week where it would only act as a telehub if the avatar belongs to the lands assigned group. Obviously teleporting to an Island would use the islands Landing Point setting. This change would create another $L sink, increase the value of land near telehubs once again and ALSO encourage upgrades. Either listing fee can be doubled and remain fair to me. You could allow a Basic member to do a P2P teleport for a 1$L fee too as an additional sink.

OK this post is HUGE so im taking a break for now. But i felt the original poster was wanting focused discussion (which i doubt happened, but will soon read) and I wanted to fully answer to the best of my ability.

Forgot to mention:

Although i siad i SUPPORT and ENDORCE people using scripts to discriminate, my personal use would be to be able to effectively give price discounts to basic accounts that are under 30 days old. Right now I have no means to do this.

Myself and many others have even thought of putting OUR weekly stipends into a donation box capable of giving out stipends via script to basic accounts that click on the system to get subscribed. Right now we have no means to do THIS either without also giving money to premium account newbies who dont need it.

There WOULD be some discrimination. That is that marchants RIGHT to chose who (s)he deals with as a customer. But it should be MY right to also be able to show leinency to people based on their account type and age. Please consider THAT little aspect.

Do you consider basic accounts inferior?

yeah low life sub human scum....the lot of em!

























teehee

I'm on a basic account and I'm under 90 days old. Am I leeching? No, I rent a vendor to sell my creations and I work for a person with a premium membership, I work for tips.

The money I get is what I have earned. I will upgrade if I can make SL pay for itself. By selling L so far I've only sold a dollars worth but I have also paid for some before.

I don't consider basics as inferior, as I was one till this month.

besides buying and making/selling your stuff in game and moving about freely there should be restrictions so you can't make real money by selling linden bucks unless you subscribe.

However I DID put money into my account for Linden dollars when I could so I was not truly mooching. i just couldnt afford more than 5$ worth of lindens per month, and my computer SUCKS so it is NOT worth a subscription fee for a game you can barely use it aint worth it now cause of my setup but I wanted land, dang it!

I've done the premium thing a few times. Owned nice big chunks of land and now I am a basic account leeching off all you uber 1337 premium folk. Thank you, all of you 1337 premium members, for carrying me. You will never know just how much I appreciate it, your kindness to this undesirable, second class citizen brings a tear to my eye.

i will take a premium account as soon i can,
but i think there is other way to show support,

simply rating isn't also a way ?

oh come on guys this is soooooo shallow its not worth a serious reply??!

The question is absolutly obsurd ANYONE who thinks a 'basic' acct makes the person who is registered as 'basic' inferior is as shallow as a puddle and anyone feeling they have to defend themselves are almost as bad.

its $80 a year either way it doesnt make or umake you a millionaire.

I can understand ppl judging ppl who have large corperations and stores in world...but to go off whether they have a basic or premium is so pathetic i can't believe ppl are dignifying the question with a serious reply!

jeez get a SL! LOL ( but has to be premium or your a none entity *rolls eyes*)

Oh and b4 I get the ' you obviously havent read the threads' remarks..No I havent I read the title and question...if the thread has took its own bitter & twisted turns since the 1st post then I am not replying to them but the question in hand

Wade past all posts not answering the OP (most) and the half dozen you take the time for are nicely written and worth reading. Might consider =-)

*chews on this topics dead bones*