Ideas

Yes, I am a clubber. My third day I went out and bought 15,000 Linden dollars so I could buy some of the things I wanted. I bought my first land for 512, and turned around and sold it to a mall owner for 5,512.

I have bought your skins, I have bought your clothes, I have bought your animations, and I have bought your makeups, I have bought your scripted items and I have bought all kinds of other items.

I now regret it.

To you, I am part of the jobless, worthless, on welfare mass.
To you, I contribute nothing of value to SL or its economy.
To you, I am part of some evil that is taking over SL in your view... the clubs, where I go to meet friendly people, talk to interesting people, make new friends and socialize with the people I have met.

You're right, I should have learned photoshop, learned poser, learned to build and learned to script. Well, I did learn to script.

And once everyone does those things on their own so they don't need to buy? Where is your income then? When everyone makes their own things instead of buying them from you where is our economy then?

When everyone makes their own things and noone buys those things from others what kind of economy is that?

You're right, there is no *NEED* for L-Dollars to participate in SL.
We don't need skins, we don't need clothes, we don't need animations.
We don't need a visual interface. Hell, we don't even need avatars or a scripting language.
We don't even need a build interface or an inventory!
We could all use IRC.

If it weren't for all the sexy avatar contests, would your skins be as popular? your clothes? your makeup? the list goes on.

Our economy is INTERTWINED. The reason animations, skins and clothes are so popular is because of the clubs, because of the contests, because of these things not in spite of them.

You sit back and say, "I hate these things" and "I hate the unemployed masses of SL" while you log in every day and smile at the profits that they have brought you.

Please note... the "you" I am referring to are the people who are running rampant in the forums screaming things like, "Get a job, SL doesn't need people who aren't skilled" and "Clubs are ruining SL"

For them, they are wrong, and they will realize just how wrong when clubs start failing because of these economic changes. It will hurt their pocketbook, and only then will they realize the mistake they have made. I do not think they realize just how many people do participate in the PURE SOCIAL aspect of SL.

It's a simple formula... clubs (socialization) + competitive events at clubs (regardless of how stupid) means a lot of people who want to look good for those events. Those same people (who are usually employed by one club or another) spend their money on skins, and clothes, and makeup, and are a significant "buying" force.

You eliminate clubs, you will eliminate a lot of players (I did not say all) who really enjoy clubs as a social aspect of the game and you will eliminate a lot of players who depend on clubs as a source of income.

Now... with all of that being said.

I think some of the economic changes are good. The SL economy is creating inflation, and L-Dollars do need to come out of the SL economy. However, sweeping, instant economic changes are never a good idea. Smooth, consistant, small changes are good. I have always been told never just point out a problem, always offer a solution.

I can agree with the rating changes, although I think 25 / rate is slightly excessive, I think the rating system needs a complete overhaul. The rating system is designed to be able to get a community impression of that particular player.

PROPOSED CHANGE:
Have it cost nothing to positively rate or negatively rate a player and eliminate ANY AND ALL monetary gain from the rating system.

Calculate the current total bonus applied to all of your players as of a certain date.
Multiply that by 0.5 (cut it in half)
Divide that pool amongst all of the players that log in for that week.
In future economic changes, make slight adjustments to that POOL of money.

I understand that SL does not have the resources to monitor every event posted. However instead of making broad sweeping generalizations about which events will be supported and which will not say something to the effect of....

We will support one event ever hour on a first come first serve basis between the hours of 10am - 10pm.
We will pay the event host (1 event host / day is eligible): X number of Lindens to do with as he / she sees fit for that event.

I really miss SL, I hate that my RL stepped in the way. I care a lot about the community and the future of SL. To my friends, I really miss you all. It makes me really sad lately to read the boards and see such vicious negativity from a community that is supposed to be tightly knit.

Jess

*Edited for some typos*

Great post!

jess, this may not help, but i'd like to think that the people that have offended you are the minority. I've been reading (and writing) a lot of posts over the last two days and I really haven't seen a LOT of people making these "you are worthless" soundbites (some, sure, but not a lot). There's been lots of noise on these issues from all sides. I may LIKE the changes, but I certainly would not accuse you of being jobless and worthless!

You went out and bought L$ cause you wanted some stuff. That's cool -- you didn't expect it to be given to you. And I bet even if $15K Lindens **were** given to you, you would have said "thank you" rather than expecting it as an entitlement. I just find it odd that some people seem to think that, cause they paid $10 once, that Linden Lab owes them something just for playing the game. But perhaps we're both letting the minority squeaky wheels capture too much of our attention.

I hope people remember that this is not the end-all-be-all. On the event side, all LL did was end a subsidy for clubs to try to let them stand on their own two feet. Not unlike if the US government decided that semiconductor companies no longer need trade protection. If the whole club system indeed comes crashing down and it impacts the pleasure of the game, you can expect them to react and put a new policy in place.

First off- Very few are actually saying everyone should go get jobs. My personal beef is the people that expect to get paid for hanging out (rate whores). Fine, don't do anything for SL, doesn't bother me, but just don't act like you ARE doing something, and should be compensated.

No, we don't *need* any graphical interfaces, yes, we could use IRC. But they're nice. Just like having L$. However, certain people are representing L$ as a necessity to enjoy the nice things you inherintly have in SL.

Without the Sexy Av contests, YES, skins and clothes and makup would still be popular! Since when do people make themselves look good only for the sake of winning contests?

I have long held the vield that any singular, narrowminded approach, if it's allowed to dominate all others, is dangeous and downright stupid. It shuts down options and leaves little leeway for expansion.

Second Life, like offline life, needs diversity -- a healthy ecosystem of all sorts of humans, and non-humans like furries and robots. I myself am a catbot. ^_^

Do we need clubs? I think we need a few, or at least social venues that could start with a club as the base but be so hybridized as to constitute a "mixture between colors of the rainbow". We need fun in here, crazy loony stuff, as well as serious intellectual discussion. We need all of this, given that it of course is in line with the Community Standards.

Each of us is -- or is supposed to be -- a unique individual, and we each bring ourselves to the table, showing who we are and what we can do, not only for ourselves but for each other in this community.

I like to sit down and hear what's important to someone. Granted, I speak to a fair number of people, so I get such a wide plethora of responses as to what really appeals. And that's okay, because that's one big reason why I came to Second Life: the freedom of choice and diversity. To point towards the future with an intense degree of progressive change and focus, and yet to possess the flexibility of not overriding the tastes of the individual. Av customization is a fine example of this, as are the numerous other creative tools at our disposal.

Need? I'm not sure about that. But I know I do *want* more diversity in SL... and changes are going to shake the box up and introduce new elements to our melting pot.

It's an exciting time to be.