New charges for basic accounts

With the new voice chat coming to SL soon, I suspect there will be changes in the pricing structure to pay for this new feature. While I do not have any proof or information as to what LL plans to do in the future, I do suspect that land owners will be the ones who will have to pay for the increased cost of offering voice.

Instead of passing on the cost to landowners, perhaps basics should have to pay inflated upload fees or have to use an advertisment driven viewer that makes them watch ads for 30 seconds when they TP. Of course Island owners who are basic would not have to be subject to these new costs.

Just my 2 cents.

I think I cannot agree with this.

I have a premium account and own land (I pay 40 us$ per month for that). My RL partner has a basic account (verified). We both buy Linden$ directly from LL. I think we spend enough money to not be bothered with advertisements.

Morwen.

If you have NO proof WHY are you posting this ?

Just my 2 cents.

LL will never hit basic accounts with any sort of recurring fee.

They have a minority of premium accounts and some island owners, both of which are (heavily) invested in SL and aren't terribly likely to just pack up and run, no matter what happens.

Then there's the overwhelming majority of basic accounts who refuse outright to pay for anything at all, and those who feel that buying L$ somehow means they're paying for SL already so they refuse to pay for anything else.

It's obvious that trying to charge basics would just be messy and could cause quite a lof of walk-outs, while the premiums might shout and protest, but in the end they'll still pay up because the barrier to dropping all holdings over a fee increase is too high.

Other than trying to lure $195/month sim owners over to the $295/month (the more who do that now, the less of a mess LL will have in December when grandfathered tier expires anyway) I doubt we'll see any direct cost of this. I'm sure there's a few more support options they can kill off to fund the monthly cost of voice.

A significant portion of basic accounts are land owners (private estate land rental). I fit into this category. I would much prefer if this were applied to unverified accounts instead. Also I have heard no mention from LL that including this is costing them any money (beside development).

LL did mention that the voice servers are hosted by a third party so there would be a real, recurring cost for bringing voice to SL; unless LL managed to acquire the hosting for free (seems unlikely give the amount of voice servers and bandwidth SL would need ).

The costs are the land-owners who can choose whether to enable voice or not. Island owners paying $295 a month get it for 'free' while those on $195 will have to pay extra.

I don't think that necessarily has anything to do with voice though.

At the time of the private sim tier increase Zee Linden did point out that $195/month is just at cost, while $295/month gives them leeway. Grandfathered tier was also only extented till the end of this year, so I think we'll see LL try and provide advance incentive in the months to come to get people to switch early to lessen the blow/outrage at the end of the year.

LL might use the extra income to fund voice, but those islands will end up at $295/month sooner or later anyway, whether they want voice or not.

I am sorry, but a trial account of one month is more than enough to choose if you like or don't like to be a resident. Want Alts? Very valid but… Pay for them. As many as ur willing to pay even.
LL has costs having SL running and we all benefit from it. Call us …mmm … Pioneers on a 3D web based society… future. We all have to contribute, as it is paying Land fees, or accounts. Thats more than natural in our current society. More free accounts=More Griefers spreading Mayhem among the residents and getting away with it, having 'condom accounts' they discard the next minute. I'm sorry thats what I think.

There used to be a trial account, I guess they didn't like it.

Inflated numbers = good
Asking people to pay = bad
Charging paying residents more to accomodate the freebies = good

From what I've gathered from talking with people that are a part of implementing voice what they are ACTUALLY going to be doing is they are looking at leaving voice free for a year and then eventually adding a fee to the servers not already equipped for voice (non-class 5 I think?).

Basically anyone not already paying the 295/mo for their sim will have to pay 295/mo to get voice there. Otherwise the main grid will be free.

This isn't written in stone yet (which is why everyone including me is simply speculating in this thread) but it would be stupid to assume that LL was going to let the grandfathering go on forever. This makes sense overall.

If you think SL residents are pissy now, try giving them a commercial-filled viewer! This ain't AOL!!

Anyone who thinks that basic account holders that just buy L$ and not any land aren't contributing then you're an idiot. Money is going to LL regardless of what you own.

Besides, those people often times end up spending MORE than some of the more moderate premium accounts! My SL bill went down almost 1/3 when I went premium!

As for the campers buying things without spending ANY real US$...someone who DOES pay for things gives them money for sitting at their shop for hours on end. That money is still real...it's just gained in an annoying way.

Pay $50 in tier: LL gets $50
Buy $50 worth of L$: LL gets nothing
(yes yes, they get a whole 30 cents for the buy order )

Want to try again?

(Hint for the rebuttal: what you pay in rent isn't what LL actually gets, even indirectly, nor does it even compare as net profit. The indirect profit margin for LL on a rental is almost nothing)

Residents Logged-In During Last 30 Days 1,051,288
Residents who spent at least L$1 in June: 305,551

That's 750,000 account who don't contribute a thing to the economy at all, be it L$ and US$ and not surprisingly they're the large majority of accounts.

It'll be interesting to see how you validate their merit vs the cost of having them roam around and contributing absolutely nothing.

I sell L$!

Well, I would if I had enough in Ginko. Ask me again in three years.
Then I'll be dumping about $1000 a month to real cash.

Why should I pay so ppl can grief me at will? All I do here is community work and build free spaces in mainland so people can enjoy them, so… I am already paying for your enjoyment… no need to be over billed so people can have 3897463986298592 free accounts to grief me pushing me 16 sqm for 10k each from their ONE premium account. I am sorry thats my experience and it en globes us all. They Grief u too if they must… it takes ONE with greed in his heart to bring to SL a distrust spirit. So let's make it harder for those, ok? If they don't pay, they are not serious about SL and are making whoever does life a lot harder and less enjoyable. I think that who can should lend an hand to who can't and has the skills and will to be a part of the SL experience… but make life easier on who isn't is NOT the way I am sure.

May Love be with you,

Connor

The point is… LL has real bills to pay. Every time someone open a free account, they need to improve all system, buy new servers, invest on new development tools… Thats costs a lot of money. It's a service… We all pay the electric bill and don't bitch about or the electric co will cut it if u don't pay, right? It's the same. If people want to develop a true community. do understand this fact and accept it. I think LL is being very reasonable on all their billing. In any business you can't win some without investing some, unless you are an extortionists, just a smart ass with no sense of community at all… Those people as I see it are sociopaths and are not welcome, UNLESS they learn and change their way… we all need a second chance at some point in life and I do believe people CAN change and improve themselves. Like I said in a previous post: TURN instead of EARN… Might not get rich at one stroke, but you will find yourself and that a far more precious treasure.

May Love be with you,

Connor Whitman