LL to Dump Developers Incentives

Well, a couple things here.

The larger enterprises that receive Developer Incentive will likely only be marginally affected by this change. This is because the DI only made up a small percentage of their monthly budget.

It is the small-to-medium sized venues that will be hit hardest by this change - not those you see on the Popular Places list every day. The DI made up 90-100% of the budget of the smaller venues, and those are the ones we are in jeoprady of losing.

What's more - Dwell/Traffic itself is NOT going away by this change, at least at first.

Consider my hotline post:





I'm interpreting Robin's response to mean - Yes, we believe Dwell/Traffic is an ineffective metric, but we have no plans in place at this point to remove it.

What this means to you & I is: If you honestly believe that the removal of the Developer Incentive will rid us of camping chairs, you are mistaken.

Instead, the loss of the DI will only minimally impact the heaviest 'abusers', and cut out a lot of the smaller venues that depended upon it to get established.

Once LL gets rid of both DI and Traffic/Dwell, maybe we'll see some dramatic changes. But for right now, make no mistake - these changes will simply consolidate traffic to a fewer set of venues rather than eliminate them alltogether.

As Elex has mentioned elsewhere: LL's decision to eliminate the DI has little to do with addressing the gaming of the system, and a lot more to do with belt-tightening. Its just convienient timing that camping chairs are a hot issue right now.

A few months back a recipient of a Developer Incentive Award was given the option of taking it in the form of a check _or_ of having the amount applied as an account credit that could be used to pay account fees or tier fees.

This was later changed to account credit-only so LL staff no longer had to go through the tedious process of printing checks, having checks signed, stuffing checks into envelopes, affixing address labels and postage to the envelopes, and then trudging all the way to the mail room.

However, avoidance of papercuts from sharp envelope edges led to another problem: Any Developer Incentive Award-winning resident whose award was greater than both their account fee and tier fee now had money left over: a surplus to use for leverage. As a resident could no longer "cash out" their award and spend it as they saw fit (and the LindeX rules do not allow you to withdraw your awards) they had to use it to either:

A) increase their tier size (and make more money) or
B) use it to extend the lifetime of their account (and make more money) or
C) both (and make more money).

(Though between the two, and with the pending elimination of Developer Incentive Awards it makes more sense to reduce tier and maximize the amount of classic old school arcade-style "free play" and persist in-world as long as possible.)

But on the bright-side: Linden Lab saved US$43.66 in postage expenses alone for the November list by _not_ letting people "cash out." [In the business world this is known as "stepping over dollars to pick up nickels."]

You've come to rely on a _subsidy_ to fund and cover the expenses of your enterprise. As only 2-percent of tier fee-paying residents actually get the Developer Incentive Award even if the Developer Incentive Award wasn't being phased out you still might not make the list and thus not get the subsidy. Whether or not this award program exists your enterprise is still at risk.

As it is your enterprise it is your obligation to reduce your risks whether Linden Lab gives you advance notice or not.

If you wish to maintain the health of your enterprise and have it persist into the future then you need to get your expenses down dramtically. If you had been keeping your expenses down you could've been using your Developer Incentive Award to build a surplus instead of merely breaking even.

Contrary to a popular misconception, there is absolutely no reason why a gathering place can't cover its tier expenses through Dwell/Traffic payments alone. Take a moment to review your Dwell/Traffic payments for each of the three previous months and then target cutting your tier to a size that can be covered by 80-percent of an average month's Dwell/Traffic monies. Keep in mind daily Dwell/Traffic payments are also a form of subsidy and might also go the way of the dinosaur.

What makes DI a "subsidy?" A subsidy is generally a monetary grant given by government to lower the price faced by producers or consumers of a good, generally because it is considered to be in the public interest (that quoted from Wikipoedia). DI is a service discount provided by Linden Labs to those who choose to provide content for their online business.

If you think LL is a government providing funds to developers as a public interest matter, you need to taper off the role playing just a wee bit.

Every "enterprise" is always at risk, by definition! I'll let you look that one up yourself.

The following excerpt is from http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy.php

The Developer Incentives Program

Every month, Linden Lab reinvests some of its Second Life revenue into cash-based Developer Incentive awards. These go to the most successful Residents in Second Life, based on Dwell (the amount of time other Residents spend visiting their land). Creating a place where people like to enjoy themselves is not just fun for its own sake—it can also mean checks in the mail.

I'm sorry, but I've always been of the opinion that if you want to get rich off of hosting your club or whatever, you have to make it compelling enough so that people will actually pay for it. A $L40 entrance fee or whatever to enter your private sim club should be plenty to defray the costs you would be incurring, unless you're a horrible businessperson and hemorrage money out paying escorts and camping chairs.

You're going to see a huge shakeup of private sims as people freak out (as the mob tends to do in SL) and can't change their business plan quickly enough (even though they have 3 months to do so ) to move away from a government business-welfare system and towards something actually profitable.

The DI has been gamed as long as it's been around, ever since the heady days of Club Elite actually being a pervasive force in SL.

Maybe now we'll see a return to creativity winning out in the society rather than pod people.

LF

Looks like the DI isn't the only thing on the chopping block

What about the sims that DON'T have camping chairs? And just have high traffic because the sim is well ran and a very popular place? Without the developers incentive, the sim owners are going to have a hell of a time paying for their sim(s). Which would ultimately lead to less $L available from the sim owners to be able to put that money back into the Sim. Restricting the ability to make SL more interesting to it's players. Leading to.... lack of interest to play the game anymore, and probably some people cancelling their premium accounts to never play SL again.

Maybe their should be an audit system for the incentive program to judge whether or not a sim should recieve the bonus. Hell, it only takes a minute to go to a sim and scout for "Surf for money" or "Dance for Cash" It should have never been an automated system for the incentive program.

If LL payed me a couple thousand extra $L a month. I'd keep track of legit traffic vs bribery.

Although many may know me, let me introduce myself. I am the owner of T1Radio and manager of La Vie en Rose club in Rue dAlliez. For nearly a year my club has provide upscale entertainment to SL. We are not on the Popular Places List, althought we have in the past been as high as #7. We do not run myriad contests & gimmicks, nor do we pander the Prurient interests as some clubs do. Instead we provide nightly QUALITY entertainment.

What is Quality entertainment? Its a Friendly, Low Lag (as best as we can with the current state of FPS in SL), atmosphere with a Live stream of various "Mainstream" music genres. We offer regular events, Interesting Talk and FUN!

Having read about the demise of Developers Incentives and the railing of the end of telehubs made me laugh! Unless you an American tobacco farmer where else can you get paid to do NOTHING? Camp Chairs and the various cousins are exactly that!

SL is like any economic system! Offer a quality product and reap a return! Each night La Vie en Rose provides a 2-3 hour event. On average about 20 members (a growing number) come and enjoy the music the laughter and friendly people there! We generate about 4000 dwell in 2 hours. IF we were a 24 hour club that would equate to a dwell of about 48000. Does it compare to some clubs? No.. the #1 Popular Place club today had over 100000! But we would be on the list! This past Friday Night over 50 avies spent 3 hours enjoying themselves at our Christmas Ball, It generated over 9000 in dwell! And not 1 avie sat in a chair during that time!

Now lets look at #1... click the map and see 60-70 in sim! Now Click Teleport.. and walk the streets.. yes it will take while as the lag mires your efforts! Look around and pay attention to the Chat window.. For such a crowded sim how come no ones talking? YES Thats Right.. they can't talk because the avies need a LIVE Person at the keyboard.. I'm sure if you look hard enough you may find some, perhaps at Slingo or Pizza if they are running, or in a shop or 2 but from my own personal experience 70-80% of those avies in #1 are AFK... if not for the Camp Chair they'd have been logged for inactivity long ago!!

And so I offer a Virtual Kleenex for the phony dwell leaders to wipe their tears! And I applaud SL for saying enough is enough! Farewell Developers Incentives!
Perhaps NOW the Popular Places list will actually represent Activities, and #1.. I suggest SL begin a New Tab on Finder, perhaps it could be called Popular Parking Lots!

I'm a little offended that most people assume the people benefitting from Developers Incentive are all camping-chair farms or money-baiters. I am the master builder of FurNation Worlds, now expanded to four sims to serve a community that often has 60-70 agents in-world, almost all of whom are doing something. We have no money balls, no camping chairs, none of the usual attractions that you see in a typically uncreative dwell-farm. We actually only have Tringo, and then only because our residents loudly demanded it. We plow the dwell we get from our traffic into buying items for our residents, and into projects for our residents. We have a live radio stream, events, diverse locales, affordable housing (No, we actually rent land at a *loss*, just to provide a community service to the fandom), and we basically exist for the sole purpose of our community. As a result, we have a dedicated sandbox, an ocean arcology reconfigurable to any purpose, custom-built bumpercars, no-moneyball "club" for public gathering, creator's lab, and more.

No moneyballs, no camping chairs, no Pizza, etc. Ask yourself something about the people who really benefit from developer's incentive; I will note idly that we placed 2nd on the DI list last time around, and as a result, an entire community NOT based around cheap money tricks prospered. To those of you railing on against something which benefits thousands? Shame on you. Rally to fix the inherent problems with dwell and land use. Go after the people using money-based tricks to gather an AFK horde. Leave developer's incentive alone and kill dwell. We can exist without dwell, because we have a community, and don't have to hemmorhage L$ to survive. If LL does drop DI without a solution, then a vast community, and others with it, and the thousands of residents who actively visit will suffer for it. Shame on you, LL. This is an incredibly bad decision at best, and another deadly blow at diversity at worst. I will remind you, that the most diverse, unique communities in SL are *NOT* businesses, and as a result, have a chance to thrive as communities.

Yes, Selkit, I feel really sorry for you. What you built is clearly one very nice contribution to the community and also attracted many new people to SL

In the last few weeks Mart and i have played this "traffic" game..it has cost us a fortune..lol i for one am not sure that paying avs to be on your property is the way to go, and yes Trader you do some nice events, but 90% of the ppls there are for the costume award of the nite, most scatter like ants seeing the raid can as soon as the winner(s) are announced. Sad to say, but thats how it is in all clubs..ppls show for the money honey. We are in process of deciding wether we will even continue with events..we do love our Tringo, but thats because it attracts intellegent folks we enjoy conversing with. In fact, if we all look at it, this is really a huge chat, with some underlying ways to make L$. When i first came into SL it was called a "game" darned if anyone has said where the finish line is. Checking our margains recently i am spending $10L for every buck i get back in dwell $, lol id be down the road in real for that type of loss. Our condos do well, we offer quality for affordable $, and usually they stay pretty full. Actually i see the camping chairs as a way for newbs to earn a few bucks, thats who i am seeing in them for the most part. Since SL has really removed anyway for a newb to get stipend other than a premium account, it is an attraction for them. We have been in a little over a year, and the trend i most notice is that its harder for the individual to make real money here, and there are alot more ways for LL to get the money-kinda like big govt..they seem to have their hand in and out for everything we do here, but then they have to play the game just like we do, and greed is what takes down big daddy more often than not. Once the glitters gone, so will the customers..ahh well enough of my soap box for tonite..hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and best wishes for hmmm lets just say a "fun" new year and leave it at that

Just a quick response to what you mentioned Cinda "yes Trader you do some nice events, but 90% of the ppls there are for the costume award of the nite, most scatter like ants seeing the raid can as soon as the winner(s) are announced."

T1 Radio / La Vie En Rose does "costume/outfit" events on Friday and Saturdaynight...the other 5 nights of the week our patrons come for the enjoyment and social aspect of it. With an average of 3000 - 4000 traffic per night Sunday - Thursday, in a 2 - 3 hour period, with no contests....that says a lot of the QUALITY content we provide to our guests. No camp chairs needed....people come for the conversation, the freindly atmosphere, the music...they come because they WANT to be there...not because we pay them to go there.

Camp chairs and the abuse of them by certiain clubs/sims has brought about thier own demise as it seems they lack the ability to attract patrons without them. Maybe this will now allow the smaller and more creative clubs/builds to actually show off what they can do..what they knew they could always do...just never abused the system to do it.

I agree wholeheartedly! I think to quote an old tv ad "We Make (Traffic) the Old Fashioned Way.. We Earn It!" is most fitting!

A quick Look at todays Popular List reveals that all but THREE of the most Popular Places advertise Camp Chairs or other FRAUDLENT gimmicks!

I Rest My Case!

AT least OUR Guests Cinda are ACTUALLY there to scatter!

(BTW We do hold contests 2 or 3 nights a week. But we generate LIVE TRAFFIC EVERYNIGHT!)

It is sad, yes. Because of the exploiters, those of us who actually developed attractions or communities, such as you, Selkit or myself, who contributed real content and service, loose out now. I used have 3 to 4 of my locations in Popular Places before the camping chair madness. Last time I checked it was zero. 12000 dwell just can't compete with pAy l3wtZ moneyZ places.

The only good thing I have seen about Camp Chairs is that the Bombings of rival clubs seems to have stopped!

I can't wait to see what the dozens of club owners are going to do to differentiate themselves from each other now.

Fancy tringo parlors? Fancy slingo parlors? Fancy pizza parlors?

The mind reels!

Perhaps club members could experiment with ways to have residents interact with each other ... you know, conversations ... or role playing in a particular theme?

I suspect such will become more rewarded as the the artificial subsidies for artificial tools to draw dwell (such as camp chairs and loss-leader contests) are phased out or their promoters realize which are losers and which have some economic viability.

Well i think it aught to be interesting if dwell goes, to see how inventive we can be to get ppl in clubs, oh wait a minute..hell why would we need em, no incentive there, unless your trying to attract traffic for a mall etc. i forsee "pay for entertainment" as the last resort, so alls i can say is put your thinking caps on and figure out some good ways to actually entertain, other than money balls and costume contests. Good Luck everyone..may the best man (or woman) win ...smile

Cinda, I'm a regular at T1 Radio's events, and I don't go for the awards. I go because my friends hang out there, and because I like the music and at-the-keyboard chat. I go routinely, whether or not there's an "event" or award. I suspect that's true of many (perhaps most) of the patrons at the Vie en Rose.

Clubs are all about communities, social networks and entertainment. I am sure now that the pressure from the "money chair establishments" is going be removed, we will see many innovative club owners bringing us better and better entertainment

I believe clubs are very important and people running clubs deserve our respect. I love Tringo and SLingo, those were great and remarkable inventions.

It also impress me how the dozen or so club owners managed to create venues with very different themes and styles. Most places are very newbie friendly and down to earth. You won't find anything like the trashing of other professions, displays of pure arrogance or like the half assed comments there

From the feedback I have heard over the past few days, the decision to pull Developers Incentive Award was not just because of camping chairs & their derivatives. I hear it was mainly due to land barons sucking up the majority of the dwell and thus the lions share of the Developers Incentive Award from a little dwell multiplied by hundreds of sims.

Those SL entrepreneurs in the popular places were recieving only a tiny proportion of the Developers Incentive Award pot. I have heard that the top popular places only received like a couple of hundred USD out of a pot of $8,000+

Many clubs have camping chairs & dance mats, not only to generate that little extra dwell, but so the newbies have extra revenues to tip dancers, gamble & much more. So why not allow new avatars to benefit from the extra revenue which will be used either at that club or elsewhere to purchase products & services in the SL economy.

Just my two pennies

Always

Kim

RIPDIA