Imagine the Power of...

Looking at how much money is spent daily on SL, I wonder...
What if LL sponsored an event every so often, "Don't spend money today! Donate!"
Have donation slots all around SL for residents to make their contribution. We buy virtual items day in and day out, 3/4 of which we probly don't even touch beyond the week that it was bought. Imagine the kind of success a program like this could have in SL?

Taking it a little further, while also having LL sponsored events, it would be nice for the donation bins to always be available. Also suggest that they only be located in Welcome Areas or other Linden owned areas, for security in fraud.

Things to this effect have been suggested before. Between the cacophony of "omg noes, antibusiness," the general concensus was usually that this was difficult to implement.

I can agree with that sentiment, largely because L$ to the Lindens are really monopoly money, and all you'd be doing is enforcing a form of "money sink." I think it might be better to do this on the side of residents (with credibility), because to us, L$ are an actual currency.

Two threads on the matter:
/13/13/48479/1.html
/120/bd/36722/2.html

The reason I suggested LL, was because of the possibilities of people getting ripped off.
Also, LL could program it to charge your account or offer you a link on their website to make other payment arrangement. These would be for RL, I imagine it would have had great effect during the tsunami reflief efforts.

Actually... I've seen nothing but extreme liberalness when donation plates are proffered. VERTU raised (raises? Where the hell did they go?) thousands of dollars for various organizations. There was that TSunami Relief that gave out the equivilent of 1000-some dollars.

SL folks are extremely giving when it comes to Lindens because, as you say, it's just play money.

LF

I totally agree, LF. This is in part two separate issues, though - a "charity" fund and a suggested "pause business day." The former I agree with wholeheartedly, whereas the latter has historically been met with dissent in my opinion.

I just tracked down a few older threads on the first issue. Shall I do so for the second? I'm honestly asking, because it's what I believe I've seen.




Jury's out on this one. While I'll agree that many SL folks can be pretty darned generous, I sadly don't think this speaks for the whole.

As much as I'd like to agree, I seriously think we should start pursuing lines of credibility amongst ourselves.

One major tenant of Second Life, likely bred from other MMO environments, is that "the admins should do everything." I feel this should be dispelled.

But, because this is an entirely separate issue that's been discussed before along several trains of thought, please continue.

This is a great idea.. I love the energy around here. I'm really glad I joined SecondLife!

I would -love- to see it be achievable by the community, LL's entire theme is for the world to be whatever the residents would make of it. That's why we got the nice little Video Linden package, with no instructions, and it's wonderful. Unfortunately, internet laws I fear are a little too slippery still for this to be easily achieved.

Thinking of maybe setting up a little place somewhere with nicely designed objects that offer links to websites that accept donations for various causes. Also on site would be a plethora of information about charities and researching their credability, etc.. Just think, when considering the money spend daily, turning a small protion of that to something more tangable like helping real people would be an easy thing to accomplish.

I'm not sure that pausing business for a day is the most effective means of collecting donations. I see the following possible outcomes:

- People offer a small donation for that day, but save their money to buy a skin for the next day
- People offer a small donation for that day, and buy their expensive skin anyway
- People buy their expensive skin without making a small donation


Sure, by and large, many people will be very generous, but I think that spreading donation collection over weeks and months is a more effective means of making collections, since some days some people don't log into SL, for example. Also, some days some people just don't spend any money anyway.

Hense my suggestion of leaving the donation objects out and available always. I do very pointedly see the negative views of "Stop business for a day!" sort of theme, but it was just an initial idea for an event to create public awareness of its existance and availability.

True to an extent, but: The Lindens have the codes, they can make the software changes and policy changes. We don't have the power to do that. That's what admins are for.

Some things we can do on our own, but most we can't.

I'm going to bite my tongue on this point by saying admins are there to provide the baseline system a customer expects.

The reason certain things are a logistical nightmare in SL is the fact many come in expecting LL to "just be the world" and to play a part in a mindless* game similar to TSO or any given MMORPG. Counterpoint, LL expects residents to be able to provide a lot of the service and content.

Hence, I feel the disparity between the two should be dispelled. And I would go with piercing the myth instead of forcing LL to provide a lot of tertiary services.

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I actually did not respond earlier because Little Hailey is on point with the fact internet law is still grossly behind the curve. In cases like these, the system does need to provide for protection of some form, similar to what services like Paypal (try to) allow.

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At any rate, I feel that for these things to appropriately work, residents should get involved. My only point of concern is the cognitive dissonance on what LL is there to provide.



* Not to offend those that play these games. Just a point that these are not exactly thought-provoking titles by comparison.

Slightly tangential to Jeffrey's and Hailey's comments, my view is you can't NOT have political parties and yet expect the people to run the show. All you have in that case is a one-party system: Join that one or be quiet.

coco

Cartel de Juarez, and The Cannibus Cathedral, once held a 24 hour party for charity. At the time, it broke dwell records, and the amount of contributions were amazing. I was quite moved by the generotisity we witnessed there, from people staying up for 24 hours for the cause, to people hundreds to thousands of Lindens each.

SL, as a whole community, has a very generous spirt. Perhaps a lot of us realize that while we worry if our video cards can handle SL, many people in the world worry about whether they will have enough nourishment to survive, or whether a disease is going to eat away at them. It has a way of bringing our concerns into focus.

I don't think halting business for a day is the way to go, because we don't really know the needs of everyone who conducts business in SL. (The loss of a day's sales could mean missing the rent by $50 for some people.) Rather, I think a call to SL merchants to voluntarily offer specific items, or a portion of their day's profits, to go charity, is a wiser choice.