Don't cut our stippends!

The L$ became a real currency as soon as it became possible to exchange $L for $US. It's essentially a third world country currency that's still trying to stabilize itself in relation to the rest of the world. And yes, it's easier to get people to pay $L because they think of it as game currency, but also because they already own it, either not considering that they have paid real US$ to get it, or figuring that it is a sunk cost that they can't get any value back out of. I believe with time this, too, will change. It's already much easier to sell things for thousands of $L, where as it used to be that an average good price for something you would pay about $15US for in real life (such as a comission project) would be considered just on the border of being too expencive at $900L, which is only about $2.50US to $3US at most. PEople are slowly waking up to the real world costs of L$. Just not fast enough, since content providers are still lagging quite far behind with inflating their prices to match the devaluation of L$.

And no, I don't advocate breach of contracts. Changes, yes. Not breaches.

Actually, Rasah is somewhat correct. And so is April. It depends on choice of words, I suppose.

Up until January, 2005, here's how stipends worked:

-Premium accounts got L$500/week stipend
-Basic accounts got L$50/week stipend

Additionally, all accounts got up to L$1500/week as a bonus stipend regardless of account type. Your bonus was based upon a complex formula involving your ratings.

The net result was this:

For most of 2004 I was on a Basic account. I hung out almost exclusively in clubs, which made me a 'ratewhore'. This meant:

My Basic Account weekly 'stipend' (Base stipend + Bonus) was L$1550/week. No joke.

Premium accounts received L$2000/week if they were at max rating level.

Now, here's where words come in. Did they cut the stipend? Well, no. They cut the 'Bonus'. But the effect was the same. The amount we received from Linden every Tuesday was cut drastically.

Here's Robin's post from the original announcement that cold January afternoon

Actually a lot of folks I knew did leave, or tiered down to basic. Linden already lost money they already had coming in. OF course they're making it up from new folks but had they not screwed up and listenned to the money mongers before a lot of those folks who left would ahve stayed or kept thier tier and Linden would be making more money

Frankly, for content creators, stipends balance out the fact that merchants carry no inventory like in RL. Why do you think that in January prices are slashed on all Xmas items that are not perishable? Why don't they just keep them for next year? Simple, it costs to store inventory that doesn't sell for the rest of the year. This is the reason why you can find end of season sales as well.

But we SL merchants don't have that problem. We can leave unpopular colors and styles "on the shelf" indefinitely. Costs me no more in rent to leave that color that doesn't sell in the vendor. Plus, we don't have to make an item over and over using raw materials. We only need to pay one upload fee. And if we make untextured scripted items, we don't pay anything in "raw materials". Writing scripts and rezzing are free.

Yeah, it seems that people are getting content for free. But we are getting infinite inventory with no storage cost. One time payment for "raw materials" i.e. uploads or even no cost. And if you are clever, promotion costs very little. Hell, posting new items on the forums is free!

Plus, stipends help merchants. You want people to start spending. If they have to buy every last L$, rest assured that all they will do is just stare at your mechandise and think about buying it. Free L$ encourages people to start blowing their money.

Don't think of SL as your local mall, think of it as a Vegas casino. Sit and play the games and a nice lady will bring you free drinks, granted they are weak, but free liquor is free liquor. Go to another room and they are serving filet mingon and jumbo shrimp on a buffet line that is as cheap (or cheaper) as a buffet line anywhere else that serves meatloaf and whitefish. Maybe you'd like to take in a cheap or free show? Oh it's in another room, not far from the slots, blackjack, roulette wheel, et. And they just handed you some free chips (that can only be used in that casino), how nice! Maybe you will put one into this blackjack game and end up paying the casino far more than they lost in free liquor, entertainer fees, and food.

SL doesn't provide food, shelter, or medical care. It provides entertainment. And we've got a lot of competition for the entertainment dollar, folks. It wouldn't hurt us to adopt the casino model of marketing.

Considering they make the equivalent of about 4000 annual accounts just on Lidex exchanges alone, I seriously doubt the changes they have made previously made them worse off. Even without those people paying monthly premiums.

I fully agree that stippends are good for the economy, but they are not free. They're essentially forced buys of $L, where the people are forced to pay for them by their monthly fee. I just wish that there was either less of them being aded, or that the lindens being added already had some sort of value tied to them (like the value someone adds to a $L when theyput work into creating something and sell it)