Why Free Accounts Must Go-Part II

Rant mode ON:

As a long time user, I have tried to welcome new people to SL; make them feel welcome, recognize that not everyone is going to have the level of commitment that a Premium Account entails.

I have also tried to be understanding about outages, upgrade snafus, and other technical gotchas, and been cognizant of the level of effort and complexity involved.

BUT THIS IS ENOUGH!

After selling my beloved first parcel and upgrading to a new 1024 patch on a new "faster class 5 sim", I again am unable to go to my own property, because the sim is full, because some dim bulb wannabe has opened a "club".

Lindens: Either (heaven forbid) implement some kind of residential/commercial zoning (gritting my teeth as I say it), give residents first right to enter their OWN FREAKING LAND, up the number of inhabitants of a sim, or (hating to say it) get RID OF THESE BLOODY FREE ACCOUNTS!

Rant mode OFF:

Do I feel better? No, not really.

we all started out as free at one point except maybe the beta users

Im thinking that even though there is a load on the grid and stuff free people (a lot of the ones I meet anyhow) eventualy turn into happy paid people who do stuff and make friends and buy stuff and whatnot

Its just like those guys with the money trees that have them set up so that you have to be a premium member to use them. Now I used money trees to move from basic to premium so that one kind of puzzles me in fact at the time I was using money trees for that so were others

so meh sure but not all free accounts are "evil" linden lab needs to figure out its hardware issues then you wont be so upset about those people me thinks

Nah....we didn't all start as free, we started with a free TRIAL! a free 7 day trial then pay for basic, pay for premium, or goodbye.

While I don't have an opinion about free accounts I don't think they are the problem for this. If someone opened a club they are clearly not a free account.

I do agree though that residents in a sim should ALWAYS have access to the land that they are paying for so if a resident wants to get to their land, someone at the club should get booted! It's only fair since they are paying for the land.

I have a free account, I really want a premium account but there has been a problem with upgrading, so I am one of the great unwashed, what makes me laugh is people who are seeking sanctuary within SL from other residents, a bit too much like RL, you could say the ultimate synthesis is the escape from the escape, lmao.

I can't see why free accounts should be stopped, I am not a premium member but it still costs me in buying L$. I rent land and buy things, probably spending just as much, if not more, than some premium members.

How many people would join SL if you had to pay a monthly premium first? It's only going in and being hooked that will make you part with your money. A newbie signing up today on a fee account could in a year be someone investing in private islands.

I've given to understand that clubs lagging down the local sim was problematic long before there were free accounts.

well lorna the lot of us that did the 7 day free then paid membership helped create the growth that allows the lindens to offer free accounts to the "unwashed masses" as you put it ... you open your statement with an obvious set agenda about "class warfare" Dusty's problem is he cant get on the land he PAYS for ... so I can see how it would be an irritating issue that those that dont pay land tier fees camping out there when he cant access his own parcel ... he prefaced his statement as a rant you want to beat your socialist tin pan about god knows what .... get a life wear a helmet

Absolutely, visitors to a sim shouldn't get preference over landowners.

Kathy

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WTF does your gripe have to do with Free Accounts???

Respectfully suggest you (OP) change the title of this thread.


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Dusty-

It sounds like your problem is not with free accounts.. but with the land owner that is causing too many people to fill the sim you live in.

Resident Answers is meant to be a friendly place where residents can ask for help...

Assuming you're asking for help with this problem...

May I suggest you offer to sell your parcel to said club owner, charge him a little more than fair rate "Because his club will need the prims" some day... and buy yourself a nicer spot somewhere else?

hmmm I too was going to ask what that had to do with your issue? Target the free account holders. Maybe some of us, choose not to get a Premium account because of the lack of stability that SL Has.

Just an FYI

Tarna...I don't claim that having a Premium Account makes me "better" than anyone...

and Hok, what does Free Accounts have to do with it? Because I can sit across the sim border (still can't CROSS it, thank you very little), and do profiles on the folks at the "club" that are keeping me out of my home....and guess what? All "No Payment Info"...

Now...maybe a little harsh on my part...I have several close friends with free acounts...

But I spend Saturdays at the Welcome Areas helping the new freebie newbies with questions and problems...and I refrain from closing my parcel off to Non-Payment users, because I like to meet new folks, show off my house, and be sociable.

But the sad fact is, this never happened before Free Accounts. If Linden Labs could fix the problem with one of my other suggestions, that would be ducky...but I'm not holding my breath on that.

So sign me as hacked-off homeless property owner....

D.J.

And Jopsy...

I did what you suggested about three weeks ago, because a casino in Narngrim kept it full and kept me out...took the proceeds and bought the nice place I can't get into now.

Sorry to rant, folks, not normally a crank or hothead...just want to relax in my place, and can't.

-D.J.

Wait a minute. This rant implies that you can actually get into SL. It also implies that there seem to be enough people online who are able to just sit and camp at a casino! Hmmm. Very disturbing.

I don't agree with your suggestion in getting rid of the free accounts (I happen to be one of them). The real solution to the problem is instituting some kind of residential/commercial zones for a SIM. There has to be some kind of baseline sizing for a single area/SIM or problems will continue to crop up. Otherwise paying customers like you (Dusty) will continue to be frustrated and eventually leave.

Do you honestly think things would be better if free accounts disappeared? The same thing can happen just as easily if the club was filled with only Premium Members. This problem is something the Linden Labs will need to address. They just can't continue to take our money and ignore us. Otherwise their paying member base will erode. Free accounts like me also contribute. Granted I only pay for the exchange of Lindens, because I don't buy as much so a subscription doesn't make sense for me.

You're right, Stacy, zoning would be an optimal solution....

But given the torrent of new users, I don't think it's reasonable to think LL could dedicate the people needed to adjudicate the disputes that would arise from zoning laws in SL. Just look at the backlog on Abuse Reports, and LL's admission that the vast number of them will come to nothing...

What's the answer? Love to know....


D.J.

and P.S.....a big shout out to all my free account brothers and sisters...still love ya, even though there's so FREAKING MANY of you!

I also agree with the idea of "zoning". I bought some property for Residential use and it started off pretty good, nice view, friendly neighbors...... till 4 days later. Then the "mall" moved in. THEN some BIG building smack dab in the middle of the whole sim. Kinda ruins the view which was part of the reason I chose the location. The only thing I wouldnt want is for a difference in price depending on which one you chose.

Sure, I could put up walls with pretty landscape pictures & pretend nothings behind them, but it just isnt the same.

So far I've been lucky that no one has put in a shouting Raffle ball like the place near my shop.

I guess the media attention is partly to blame, as every article seems to emphasize "Make Money In Second Life".

As far as Free Accounts- I really don't mind them as thats how I got hooked and went Premium. DAMN YOU LL & Your Digital Crack!!!!!!!!

Dang. I'm not a SL lifer or any of that. Just bored and thought I'd read some of these posts. The dude that wrote the first one on this subject has some severe issues I think. Hey man it's a game not 'your home' LOL. Come on man chill. I think you should go walk around your neighborhood and say hello to some like uh you know real breathing people Oh and I'll never make a premium account. Why on earth would I. Hell all day today the server is so screwed up ya can't even log on. And heck it's constantly screwed up. Who in their right mind would pay for a service that don't work probably 40% of the time when they can use it for free?

hehe dont worry about it i got called a welfare bum when i said that the cutting of stipends was a bad idea

I thought one of the few benefits to being premium was the 500L weekly stipend. I live on estate land so right now since the stipend is much lower once my year membership expires I wont be going premium again as i am just flushing about 200 bucks down the toilet ...

My suggestion would be to downgrade to a basic account. Find a nice zoned sim to rent/buy/pay land tier with L$, from a reputable provider.

If you don't earn enough L$ in SL to be fully self supportive, the Lindex works great.

On a side note, usually when I hear people complaining about free accounts, they actually mean those with no payment info on file. Not much difference between a free account & a one time fee for the basic.

I maintained premium & paid land tier to LL for a very long time. But, due to the OP's problem, I've found it far & away best to pay my land tier with L$ to Azure Islands. Or, pay rent in L$ to Isla Martovia for a lovely suite in a magnificent castle in a themed sim.

Best of luck
~ Pal

That is exactly what's happening right now. Us Preimiums are dropping like flies. I pay quarterly and just had the hit to my credit card a few days ago.......I seriously thought of downgrading at that time (when I got the notice a couple days before the hit). For some really idiotic reason I decided to wait it out another 3 months thinking that LL was working to resolve these problems they chronically have...........but I was dreaming.

It's not the free account holders fault that LL gave them unlimited access for an unlimited amount to time. But it is LL's fault that there is no incentive for the free accounts to move to premium. For some really stupid reason (yeah I said stupid because it is stupid) Linden Labs provided incentives for the free accounts to remain free and for the paying accounts to downgrade and stop paying..........what type of enterprise would ever do that? I'm afraid that San Francisco atmosphere with all that crack and dope in the air has gotten to them.

I see no way to change course..........zoning? Crap, they can't keep the servers running and that is their "expertise"..............no way do I believe they have a clue of how to do that. Stop the free accounts? Oh boy............what a mass exit that would be. Limit free accounts? Ha ha..........see the sentence above LOL. They really screwed themselves with their pie in the sky "love the one you're with" attitude. I see changes.............but not what we might expect. SL is going to go commercial and be bought up by some conglomerate and everyone will find their virtual lives turned upside down.

Either that or they will simply fail and go bankrupt............either way SL is not long this virtual world as we know it.

Dusty,
Consider a private island such as Dreamland or the like. Get in a zoned area where no clubs or casinos are permitted and you will have much less headache. Since I did this I have never had an issue going to my prop.

Well, one answer, without trying to sound haughty, is to do your homework before deciding where to settle. I'm a "free" account, because I chose to settle on an island, like you did, and am paying the island owner rather than Linden Labs. I've got a nice 8192 parcel with a nice house on it. The difference is, in the covenants on my island, the owner CLEARLY states that its residential, and even specifically says "NO CLUBS" amongst other restrictions. Island owners are free to set up their own "zoning" to benefit those who rent and reside on their land, and that's exactly what's been done here. There's land available here, by the way - although 4096 is the smallest size he normally offers.

getting rid of camping chairs (etc) would reduce the number of clubs that cuase sims to "fill up" to be reduced by about 90%.

getting rid of the DWELL number - would remove the need for camping chairs

actualy zoning works and private island people who sell/rent whatever land have proven it. but as we know people hate rules so if Linden Lab attempted to implement a mainland zoning type thing there would likely be a rebellion cause we all know that everyone likes to do whatever they wants hehe

It would solve a ton of problems (might not be easy to enforce though because linden labs would have to be inworld but they do have concierges so .. not sure hehe would kinda be like a concierge but witha focus on zoning on mainland sims they could even limit lag causing issues and types of business per sim if they rreally tried but they are attempting the wild west rule your own thing which is clearly not working )