Change to Stipend Policy

Hooray!!! The Anti-Stipend Forces are making head way
with the Linden Lab Leadership...

Next Mission, end the L$50/stipends to every non-premium user.
Then finally, end all L$500 stipends....




Anti-Stipend Forces: 1
Pro-Stipend Forces: 0

I'm sorry I just don't think this is going to do any good, nor will any other cuts. LL cut dwell 50% they're going to completely cut it soon, and with each new cut announcement the $L drops further. Why oh why do they think cutting even more is going to make one bit of difference. the less $L people get from LL, the less they are willing to pay for $L's.

Seriously, if I get some, and can save some and need a little extra I'd be happy to buy it. But if I'm getting nothing and have to buy for EVERYTHING I want then I want to pay as little as possible for those $L's.

The more they cut, the more the $L is going to drop, especially with limit buy's available.

Bad Idea!

Chris:


Jonas is a Socialist. He can't understand anything other
then Controlling Free Markets... You are talking to a
brick wall.

Well I don't think the $L is falling because of this - and if it is I am sure it will just be a quick faze. I think the reason the $L is falling is because the buyers are controlling the market now - not the sellers. Dunno who thought that would be a good idea!

Buyers controlling the market? Yeah, they have all chosen
not to buy... Allowing the sellers to push down the value until
the buyers start jumping in.

In the last week money supply is up about 1.5% but the Linden went down 8%. There is more to this than increased supply. Do the math!

RBD, the thing wrong with this is that the basic view for selling Lindens doesn't show the best rate for sellers only the Limit buy rates. That IS a problem.

Economics has a lot of lag time. You can't draw a conclusion with two numbers from a snapshot a week long.

The percentage the Linden went down compared to the
number of percentage the L$ was added are like apples and
oranges.. Do the math...

Lets talk numbers, not percents.

Both fruits ?

Next on the list...... Camping Chairs!!!

Camping Chairs payout money acquired from the existing
money supply. All they do is redistribute wealth. Stipends on
the other hand get printed new every tuesday.'

Camping chair don't have any influence on L$ value.

Camping chair are good, they give a few L$ to newbie in exchange of a very very very little service : "just stay here and be wise".

But, sadly, it generate lag :-/

I think the ending of free account stipends coupled with the end of dwell will help, although it's not enough. The reason that I believe it will help is due a rather silly way for people to make L$. Its been said before, but never taken to its conclusion.

In a game like this, there will always be those who look for any way to make a few extra dollars. Its just someting about human nature. An easy way to do that is to set up as many free accounts as possible, and if a spare computer is available, just have those alternate accounts dance or sit in zombie chairs. Since all income from this account is essentially found money, there is a great incentive to convert it as quickly as possible to USD, especially in a falling market. While I doubt if playing this way is the cause of the drop in value, it certainly would be a push in the wrong direction.

Maybe its because Im still new and have not invested time and money into one economic model, but I see the removal of dwell and now the free account stipends as being good for the long term health of SL, but I also see how it could really mess up people's SL businesses too.

Suggestion: with new basic account stipends being done away with it would be a nice idea to allocate a parcel of land within sightlines of the WA for a freebie collective (combine Yadni, GNU and anybody else) so that new players who won't have an income will have all they need to enjoy SL while they decide if they want to upgrade to a premium account. Too many newbies don't bother with HI and never realize that there are thousands of free items until after they've spent what little L they started out with.

This freebie area would also make an excellent place for Mentors, Greeters and other helpers to hang out and assist.

Very nice suggestion. I LOVE Yadni and his stuff. He's a great guy. But I don't think freebies need to upgrade to a premium account. If they don't want to own land and just want to buy more content, they get a better deal from the exchange than from what they pay to get a $500L stippend. I haven't owned any land for the last 3 years, and that's pretty much what I've been doing.

Ok, what I should have written there was "while they decide if SL is worth any further economic investment, be that a LindenX purchase or account upgrade."

Truly, with the sheer amount of free goodies there is everything one needs to enjoy SL. No, you aren't going to get top designer clothing, skins and hair - but there are enough free items to have a good time without ever spending a dime. An awful lot of new residents enter SL without any interaction with other avatars, I know I did, and retention is always a challenge for SL. Most residents find out about places like Yadni's via word of mouth and usually after they've already spent all their starting cash. If you are going to take away their stipends, it would be a gracious gesture to make freebies so easy to find that even the most clueless noob can't miss it.

Or how about this:

Newbies only get their starting L$250 after they've been playing for a week.

This will stop them spending it away while they don't know what they're doing, and also encourage them to stick around in SL for at least a short time.

I totally and utterly second this motion with every fiber of my SL avatar.

And so do I I've had all kind of trouble with this. Someone wants to buy some land of mine, but I can't sell because it's not enough to lower my tier. I want a bit more space but I can't get it because I don't want double what I have now. Why not get rid of tiers entirely and just make it a sliding scale?

I make it a point to give a Yadni landmark to every newbie I come across
Here's a slightly different topic: I wonder if Occlusion Culling in 1.10 has helped delag Yadni's junk yard any? My frame rates would just DIE last time I was there.

With the way they replaced $250l blocks of $L trading with $1L differences (You can buy any amount, not just blocks of $250), I'm surprised they can't do the same for land, where your price is per square meter. Maybe it's in the perpetual "Next Version."

I think if they did that, they would sell a LOT more land, as people would just kind of slowly inch up.

I know that the jump between $40 and $75 has totally stopped me from getting more, or from selling out in my sim to buy somewhere where there is more contiguous land available.

If they had had this sort of sliding system in place, I would probably be up to $75 by now, or MORE, and not even noticing it! lol

coco

Exactly. A growing business needs an average monthly income L$12,800 to cover $40 tier (using L$320 as the exchange rate) L$24,000 to cover $75 tier and L$40,000 to cover $125 tier. Not every business grows that fast and not everyone can find enough land in their sim to justify all the extra tier.

You know... that's not at all a bad idea.

Or, to let them get their feet wet, let them have L50 up front and the extra 200 in a week. That at least can get them used to how the L$1 perchases are made. : )

But all in all, a sensible suggestion.