GOM saying goodbye-anyone else got the e-mail?

Yeah the LL exchange... Right after they finish implementing Havoc 2

Man.. I'm getting beer and some popcorn.. sucks though may - I got this facination with train wrecks..


18 pack of beer - 12 bucks
Popcorn and pretzels and smokes - 10 bucks
The opportunity to sit with the tourists to see if the 'stakeholders' fall on their arses.....

...PRICELESS!

I said it on the other forum and I'll say it here too...

You hear that flapping sound in the distance? thats the sound of about 500 sphincters puckering in unison!

Excellent!

Thank you you Jamie and Ricky!

And best wishes in your future ventures!

Well, yes I know Anshe does trading, but doesn't she only buy L$100k or more at a time? I've been hearing people say that IGE will drop their buying price drastically and raise their selling price. Who knows what will happen, I know people are obviously freaking out and selling like mad lol. I guess we'll see what happens when LL does their thing.

LMFAO! I'm pullin' up a lawn chair next to ya. Gonna be some show!

You know, I've probably have been one of the BIGGEST LL supporters since I began living in this virtual world.

I've seen some things that I counted as strange, some things I've counted as innovative, and some things I just have no words to describe.

This is one of those times. GOM provides (provided) a much needed service to the residents of LL, when LL itself chose to assign real world value to it's virtual world economy. LL was in NO position at that time to help with the buying and selling of $L, and so, someone in our world stepped up and developed a damn good system to do just that.

LL in my opinion made a feeble attempt to "buy out" GOM. Philip's idea of trading stocks and a small amount of cash for GOM, doesn't strike me as a good deal, considering LL isn't a publicly traded company, and to own stock in a private corporation is like owning war bonds in the US. You have no real voice in how things are to run in the country, and you have no real voice on how things go in LL. Philip should have seen the bigger picture when the folks at GOM balked at his offer. The residents of LL (or can we lovingly call it Philip Land), don't necessarily want LL to run out and buy up competitive products to what LL is trying to do. Let's face it, innovation, whether that be in-world or outside of it, is what Philip has always wanted from us. It seems, at least in this instance to me, that instead of rewarding GOM for their innovation, Philip offered up a mere pitance of what he should have. In doing so, he can now claim that he "tried" (although can we really say it's trying when you make an offer you know to be unfair), and in so doing, can merely copy GOM's model and bring that function in-house.

I certainbly understand LL's wanting to bring the currency exchange idea in-house, but, I think LL should see that they were the one's to fumble the ball by first announcing real world values on $L and NOT having a system in place to do what GOM then went out and did. Shame on LL this time, for not seeing that instead of encouraging your residents to be innovative to the fullest, instead you have sent up a balloon announcing that anytime you see a resident building a system that should be a function of the in-game client, that you will offer them a piss-poor buyout option and knowing full well they won't accept, then excuse yourself by saying you "tried" and then implement a system of your own based strongly on what you were going to buyout. This is NOT a way to build up public confidence in LL and therefore in SL.

My greater concern is that LL has proved to be a greedy monster we all hoped it wasn't. I think we all had this wish that LL would be unlike the other Gaming Companies and would actually have the customers interest at hand, not before their own, but on an equal footing. I think now though, that we all can see that LL might be just as shady in their attempts to "grow" as were OSI/EA, MAXIM/EA, everything else/EA, Microsoft, Sony, etc etc.

My hope is that LL and Philip will wake up and see this as being a very bad deal all around, and will no longer operate in such a manner. In doing so, it would go a long way in building back the confidence they lost. I believe it's time for us residents to make our voices heard as well, and let LL know that we didnt' like this situation, the way it was handled, or how it brought out the worst in those that keep our world spinning. We, the residents, are in a unique situation here. Without happy residents, there will be less innovation and less content creation. We therefore have a small amount of control over situations like this. Because if we stop creating content, then SL becomes nothing more then just a big ole 3D chat room. Let's all give LL a small reminder then that to treat our brothers of innovation in this manner is wrong, and we won't tolerate it.



Thanks!

It's sad that I had to see this comming.

To the folks at GOM:

I'm very proud to be involved in what you did. Sorry it had to work out this way. You cats were an invaluable service to SL, and I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be here without you.

Pete.

Thank you for the post. I've been out of the loop on a lot of these discussions and was quietly afraid that LL was doing something it shouldn't. After all, I pride myself on supporting (and demanding) ethical real- and virtual-world business practices.

So, what should be done? What can I do to help make this right? A forum protest? An in-world protest? A boycott? How can concerned citizens make their voice heard?

~Ulrika~

Hahahha! Finally. No more GOM trading fees.

I suppose only you and your close friends will know for sure what went on behind closed doors with LL's execs.

In any event, I loved using GOM, you folks have a great product. I think you could even beat LL to the punch if you joined forces with SLB / SS / SLEX and created micro-payment charge accounts ... but ... I suppose a decision is made.

Regardless, that's one hell of a gold star on your professional portfolios.

...

I wish you folks the best, I look forward to your future products. If I ever had the pleasure of dealing with you again, I look forward to that as well.

I still remember that rush of excitement I had when we wanted to buy our first big piece of land. The guy wanted his money NOW and we were frantically logging into GOM to get the $L13,000 we needed. This process was repeated pretty much every time we have bought more land. Finding the "amazing bargain" and then the quick trip to GOM to hopefully get the $L before someone snapped up the land.

Thanks, guys. You gave us the ability to fulfill several of our SL dreams.

[removed smack talk towards Philip]

Its a shame to see you guys go It was a great idea and it was GOM that introduced me to SL and the wonders it contains. All the best for the future and what ever you decide to do

Seems that now IGE will hold most of the cards and will thus be able to take control off the market, I wouldn't be surprised if they drop the price that they buy at, or raise their sell prices. LL really needs to get its exchange up and running as soon as possible now!

This much I understand. I am still not clear though if there is going to be a way for a person to sell L$ and recieve US$ for them? I guess I will have to wait and see how the system fully works. I've only cashed in Lindens once (for my NY trip), so this will not affect me on that level, but there are many projects (including Neualt) that allow residents to pay in L$ for fees because of the ability for the treasurer to convert the L$ to US$. And I know there are a million other reasons people utilize this service. So that is really my only question. *How* are they going to handle the payments to residents in US$?

From I guess, one of the masses, the people who for various reasons create nothing but bought Lindens, I want to thank GOM, and I will miss using them. Having gotten their email just this morning I went and bought my last 5000 Lindens which I will use to buy clothes, shoes and other goods all made by most of you I see posting from time to time.
GOM never let me down, it was easy to use and since I am US and had a PayPal account due to my infrequent buying and selling on Ebay already was fairly easy to just go and buy lindens. I have bought Lindens since day one, even with a premium account. I know I do not have to, but I do. And when I see dresses selling for 1k, and shoes for 400-500L, thats why I buy them, never mind the houses I paid residents to built which I could not because of my rl and sl lack of vision.
I love sl, but I am a bit weary of the mindset that if you do not create your a slacker and a wanna be. I know I am not the only one out there that due to disability does not sell anything and yes I have danced, never escorted and never will, hosted and even tried store greeting to get in game funds rather then rely on buying them. And of course my premium account for which I am paying every quarter. I never cared about ratings to be honest, and I never relied on them for game currency.
I suck at math and economics, so really all I want to say is I will miss GOM. I see linden selling on Ebay, but I have personally never bought any and usually the price has been higher than on GOM.
So being I have no clue how I am going to buy lindens for a time, look for me to spend less. I wish I did not have to say this but I am totally clueless as to where I will get them and a bit frustrated.
Again, thank you GOM for being a service I could count on.

Philip Linden: Account credit or we pay you - up to you flying.

"or we pay you"

that was a concern of mine as well.

Thanks GOM for making it possible for me to buy my first large plot and for allowing me to both sell and buy as needed to make Second Life a fun place. Kudos guys! You did a great job.

Philip had mentioned something about credit going to the CC we have our SL accounts linked to. I recall that much because I don't want my money going to that card, so I wasn't planning to use SL's exchange.

Moved to the Land and the Economy Forum.

so ... when does the exodus to third life begin? ...........
A lot of people I have spoken to extoll GOM because it has the most competitive prices for lindens.

Wonder what the new rates will be?

There.com sold currency directly, and just added new currency to the economy to do so. Linden Lab is operating a buyer/seller market. When you buy 10,000L, that is coming from the account of a user, not from LL. New money is not being created for this. Additionally, the price is set by the seller, not LL.

I already have my lawn chair out, and I'm about to make a run to the kitchen...anybody want anything?

Any more lawn chair space???