My Response to the Falling $L Value and If I Lose My Stipend

I have read an awful lot of stuff about the falling $L and removal of the premium stipends on this forum, and don't identify with most of it. Here is my game plan:

I don't plan to raise my prices, unless things get really, really bad, and I certainly have no intention of parting with the stipend I already paid for.

In my particular case, I have always made enough money to be able to afford things which are "luxuries." If I lose my stipend, I will cut these out before I make my customers pay.

I would cut out these luxuries in this order:

1. Owning my personal land on the beautiful Azure Islands in addition to my shop. I'm very, VERY loathe to ever part with this, which I have had for I guess a year now, so I don't imagine it will be any day soon. But I could always build in sandboxes, and I don't really need to "live," or "have a home," anywhere.

2. Buying textures and texture packages. This is one of my most pleasurable activities, but something of a luxury, in that I could just make it a point to use up the textures I've already bought, rather than buying bundles of them in order to get just the right one, or buying singles that look good and might be used one day and might not. In other words, I could certainly do with the stock I already have, if I had to.

3. Tiering down. My shop is a luxury and I love it. But I really don't have to have it. I am very, VERY loathe to part with this, but the truth is my sales and my current savings would more than pay for just putting everything in vendors (perhaps with a holographic temporary rez of the house or something) for a long time to come, and in more than one rental place.

4. Donating money. I don't do this often, but I sometimes donate to causes or individuals.

I could actually make a lot more money if I cut out these luxuries, and I will, if LL makes my luxuries look less like reasonable luxuries and more like being a total fool, by removing the premium stipend.

As you can see, the steps I will take will have an adverse effect on people in the following order:

1. Other content creators. Azure Islands, texture makers, and the occasional other content creator. They will be the first to suffer.

2. Linden Labs. The land I own from them would go second.

3. Myself - in that I would hate to lose (1) and (2).

4. Last, and VERY last, would be my customers. They would lose somewhat if they could no longer see my shop, but I will not go to some sort of aggravating constantly fluctuating price in order to secure myself a stable Linden value, and I will not raise my prices at the drop of every $L-dropping hat.

I have posted all of this because I think this might be the sort of thing all those other non-economic minds like me might do.

So whatever your personal theories and possible remedies might be, factor in all the above.

coco

You forgot to factor in your friends who'd lose out by you not being around, plus all the opportunities to see one of your cottages dotted around the countryside and the quality living space at no cost available to new players.

Unfortunately the anti-stipend brigade don't HAVE solutions to your problem - because they are only concentrating on the solution to their problem - which is that they can't make as much profit as they like.

I'm sure they'll just say "if you can't be competitive, give up" ... but fail to see the consequences. As long as they are making their easy money, screw anyone else.

You'll also notice that despite many opportunities and reminders, the two biggest anti-stipend posters have failed to register their willingness to give up that stipend in the volunteer thread. That shows just how important the issue *really* is to them.

Lewis

Well, I would still be around, Lewis, and still selling my cottages, but in vendors on rented land.

Which brings up a point I forgot to include in my post above, and it is an important point:

These changes are effectively removing the middle class.

As you can see, I would drop down to the non-land owning class, and I would not only still make a profit, I would make more of one (in terms of real dollars and my cash input to LL via premium stipends and tier.)

The land will thus be owned by fewer and fewer people, and more people will simply rent from them.

That's how I see it, anyway. If you make premium accounts less and less attractive, as has been happening already with the removal of dwell and D.I., and threatens to occur with the removal of premium stipends, you will end up with only the big land-owning players, and more and more basics.

It's just an inevitably there in the numbers, for me at least, and probably for entertainers as well.

coco

With my Tier, I am at the limit of what I'm prepared to put in on a regular basis.

If stipends are going to be removed I will simply stop using the L$ and opt to make everything myself. I will trade items for items and barter with friends for the things that are beyond my skill set.

Remember: We dont need more then a campfire, some chairs and a mug of coffee

*nods* good point... maybe we will see this turn into a barter based system. I know Im certainly buying less as prices get raised. If I want something that badly I'll try to build it or do without.

Cocoanut Cookie, I could not have said it better. I totally agree with your point of view and I am in the same shoes Re the land I own and my shop. I consider them to be luxuries but I love the land I own and unless something horrific happens to SL I am not planning on parting with it.

Troy

First of all I agree with Coco completely.

As for the above quote, the only problem I can see is as people start bartering more instead of purchasing you will find content creators making more and more things no transfer thereby eliminating the ability to barter an trade goods. (it's already difficult with most clothing) However I can see bartering services for goods. I'll build you a great looking shop if you give me some clothes, or, I'll write you a great script for your furniture if you give me copies of them. etc.

seriously though...sellers, if you are bothered by how low the market is, bump up your sell prices. Don't settle for some quick sale. I don't understand if the bottom line is so important why everyone is selling for less.

And now, that campfire can be lit. I made mine work with local lighting, the flat animated texture prims giving off a slight yellow light to simulate a real fire.

My night brightness is turned to zero by the way..and I made a lantern to go above my head when exploring. Good stuff!

For those who *pay for SL*, I don't see why the stipend should be cut. Perhaps other optional (yet popular?) sinks need to be implemented, but I think it would be rather odd for Linden to offer no L$ incentive for people who decide to pay monthly.

There are other solutions to this, but I just don't think Linden Lab is currently in the position (in-house expertise wise) to move on them.

Here's the thing... people are assuming, that *if* premium stipend goes, you'll still be paying $9.95 premium fee, for the privilege of owning land. What I think more likely, given the direction LL has been moving in over time... is that the notion of premium account may go altogether... that is, it would just be tier, and the Lindex. Without stipends, LL would still be able to get revenue from L$ sales, but directly, via the Lindex, when new money was needed in the economy. Any user could be free to buy land at whim, they just have to pay tier.

This scenario actually offers you more choice as a consumer. You're not out of pocket, paying for a stipend you're no longer getting, and you are free to purchase L$ if and when you need them. For some, this could actually lower their fixed costs. You wouldn't be commited to paying that portion for the stipend, you could concentrate on tier, and if you wanted money, you could use the money you've saved on not paying a premium fee. But you would have more choices.

For LL's part, they may well get more people owning land this way... because people don't have to pay a premium fee before they can own land. They are more likely to commit to paying tier, if they also don't have to commit to paying for premium as well. It's one less barrier to land ownership, and lowers the price of entry into land ownership.

Historically, LL has been moving towards this kind of open membership, for want of a better term... they moved from basic to free basic... I think they're opening it up, to them, they're building a platform, and this would be in line with that thinking.

In this scenario, you're not out of pocket, you have more choices and in fact the option for SL to be more affordable... would this be so bad, if this is how it was?

I'm not pushing this as the way it should be, or saying whether or not the stipend should stay or go... I'm just asking how you feel about this particular scenario, not if it's viable for LL so much as whether as a consumer, this would work for you...

I've got to think about all you said a while, Fade.

coco

Cool Coco, I'll be interested to hear what you think... while you think, I'm going to sleep

Without taking the time (like Coco) to think about it... off the cuff this sounds absolutely brilliant Fade.

About a month ago I went to premium, mostly for teh land so I'd have a shop to base my sales from. The stipend was almost incidental, but I saw it as sort of paying for my usd costs, and a lazy way to get the lindens for my (small) spending habit.

Thanks to a bad neighbour, my shop is pretty much a waste of land, and only teh fact that the tier is essentially packaged into teh standard premium account stops me from selling it at knockdown prices (still trying to sell, but at market values).

If the premium stipend was dropped, I'd see absolutely zero reason to renew my premium account, and my spending habit is small enough that their gains in purchased lindens on the exchange would be far smaller than what they gained from me paying for premium. At least from me, their income would drop.

I don't have a solution, but I sure admire the problem.

You forgot some of us don't own land to put one on and that costs..in the long run removal of even the stipend on free accounts is going to hurt content creators badly. I don't ahve one of Coco's cotages, and nice as they may be why would I buy one when I can build it myself? Besides with fewer ppl being able to own or rent land, fewer will have any use for those cotages.

Sounds good to me.

Wonder how the content creators would like it if everyone suddenly decided not to buy anything for an entire month, and instead made it themselves eh?

I suspect the Content Creators would try to get LL to make a rule saying you cannot boycott anyting eh?

Or maybe the Content Creators would try to get LL to make a rule saying no one but Content Creators could create anything, Eh??? (Sounds strange but when big power suddenly sees they are about to loose their power, I have found people in power will do anything even the most stupid thing to keep it)???

Sounds about right.

I do create in world content and personally I strongly support ppl boycotting buying anything ESPECIALLY L's for about two months jsut to let these money mongers see what it will be like when thier customer base leaves.

I like your Ideal

Amen

Fine

Let them make it non-transferable. Those who are good builders and want to Barter can make their content Transferable. Then the Content Creators will be left with warehouses full of unsold goods.

Bump,

There are basically two problem I can see with this model.

a) The Premium membership is "good value" for LL. That is, they make more money for less, than they do by just selling tier.

b) If the Premium stipend is removed, the motivation to buy land from LL will drop, and people will favour buying from land barons who can pass on part of their tier discount. Did you know that, if everyone got the tier discount that sim owners do, a 512 lot would cost only $1.50 a month? At the moment most land barons don't offer 512s because they can't compete with the Premium deal of 512 and 2000 Linden for that monthly fee, but that could change very quickly if the Premium offer is altered.

That was for Coco, and she knows exact what I meant with this..

Just visit a beautifull sim, place you campfire, rezz some chairs and have fun. If you behave then I bet that the owner will come sit next to you and will throw in the mugs of coffee.

Anyway, this entertainment show is about money and how you can spend it. If the Lindens would think different then they would close down the Lindex and forbid all the other 3d party things. They wont so content providers make some money and shopper loose some money. We all have fun either way.

very well said coco..... i know im just a basic account and prolly will be bashed for this but it bothers me to see people give up stipends and put money back in lindens pockets no matter the amount.
maybe they need to look back to when they first came to second life and how important those stipends were to them...sooner or later the dominoes will fall... there are some great minds in sl...anyway thank you coco for a great post....

summer

be gentle on the bashing please im still recovering from the torleypop post..lol