Volunteer to End Your Premium Acct. Stipends

I don't have hard facts and figures, but it is pretty obvious that the larger successful business owners are panicking, and dumping their Lindens on Lindex.

1) The simple solution? all business owners rental agents, land traders, content providers cut their prices by 50% This would reduce excessive profits, so less Lindens heading out to Lindex, stimulate demand, more people trying to buy Lindens, and thus strengthen the economy, driving up the value of the Linden.

2) Linden Labs have stated that when conditions are right, they will start selling Lindens. Conditions are right now, for them to start buying Lindens, Pulling surplus currency out of circulation to stabilize the value. OK, it would cost a few thousand US, (9,227.63 at the time of writing to bring the exchange rate back to 300) but surely a worthwhile investment to preserve confidence.

3) The noble people offering to forgo their stipends. You know that only a tiny percentage of the population will join you, but if you need to make a gesture, just pay Philip Linden 500 (or 50) per week. I'm sure he can delete them without letting them back into circulation.

So, what are the chances of option 1 happening? - effectively zero, too many people making real $s, and they are not playing a game, but earning rl money. Option 2? I'm sure it has been considered, but the fact that nothing has happened yet means it probably wont. Option 3) there are some people that might do it, but no where near enough to make a difference.

There is another possibility of course, increase the tier charges. I'm sure this has also been considered, but I think it would cause many people to quit the game, or downsize their land holdings thus depressing land prices, which would cause a whole new set of problems.

There is only one sure solution. dump the Linden and run the economy on US$. Nothing (apart from notionally free goodies) costs 1 Linden dollar. Trebling the price to 1 cent is not going to deter even the poorest of newbies. 1 cent can equal 1 NewLinden if we wish to preserve the illusion. Linden Labs can still take a percentage commission for transferring money into and out of SL.
It will cause work for the people engaged in commerce, Linden Labs may view it as a failure, but the SL currency will be stabilized, and confidence restored. If a whole bunch of European countries can drop their own currency and convert to the Euro, I'm sure we can manage it.

Stipend will have to decrease, that has always been obvious, or account charges will have to increase. Paying premium account holders L$26,000 per year for an annual account that costs US$72 is not sustainable, do the math. We are getting 361 L$ for every US$. Buy a premium account, buy, then sell at a profit, your first land, then at the end of the year, cash in your Lindens. At L$300 to US$1, you will see a 20% return on your investment - excluding the land sale profit. Wanna bet there are not a few alts whose sole purpose this is? maybe not to make rl money, more likely to provide a cheaper source of L$.

That's it, comments welcome

Neb

That's not a bad idea. What would you suggest we call our group?

Yeah and everytime we pay the flames 500L, a smoke cloud in form of a skull will appear, accompanied by the sound of a dying squirrel.

I totally agree that all stipends should be ended.

I'll happily volunteer to give up my 500L$ stipend, but until enough people agree to make it worth the effort, or Linden Labs enforce it, I'll stick it into Money Trees to help the newbies who are coming up without stipends to get a start in a new Second Life with, hopefully, a stable economy.

until enough people agree to make it worth the effort, or Linden Labs enforce it, I'll stick it into Money Trees to help the newbies who are coming up without stipends to get a start in a new Second Life with, hopefully, a stable economy.

"Doesn't change the fact that this stipend removal hhas just blown at least 80% of the market for content creators"

Bollocks. Going here:

https://secondlife.com/currency/market.php

I see that in five days, there are as many Lindens purchased on Lindex than LindenLabs hand out in stipends for a MONTH.

And I want VALUE of money, not QUANTITY. L$1,000,000 is useless to me if I can only sell it for $10.

The sky is not falling.

Musuko.

Whereas 1 million lindens are EQUALLY the same value to me regardless of weather you can sell it for 10 USD or 10000 USD. The sky is not falling..nor am I ending my boycott of the lindex.

Have you figured out yet that nobody cares? Just curious.

Just because few on this forum care doesn't mean noone cares.

If an idea can't take an opposing viewpoint in stride, then what is it worth, really?

And at least I'm not calling everyone names like some on other threads.

"Doesn't change the fact that this stipend removal hhas just blown at least 80% of the market for content creators"

Bollocks. Going here:

https://secondlife.com/currency/market.php

I see that in five days, there are as many Lindens purchased on Lindex than LindenLabs hand out in stipends for a MONTH.

I'm not calling you any names. I'm just pointing out that LindeX volume seems to be good, even with all the weight of your boycott bearing down on the exchange.

Two questions to ponder:

If it is true that it is mainly due to stipend that the value of the L$ is falling, then...

* Why has the value of WoW Gold, which is constantly created, remained relatively static? (It's a very low value but it hasn't devalued.)

* Why has the value of credits on IMVU, which has a content creation system like SL but has never had any form of regular stipend, nonetheless devalued?

didnt read any of these post just going to say that I have a money tree taking my stipend to give to the newbies. So technically I havent been getting stipend every week anyways for my own personal use.

I dont think ending our stipend is the magic solution. I pay far more then 500 a week in advertising and uploads. LL gets its back.

How about "Dying Squirrel"?

I totally agree that all stipends should be ended.

I'll happily volunteer to give up my 500L$ stipend, but until enough people agree to make it worth the effort, or Linden Labs enforce it, I'll stick it into Money Trees to help the newbies who are coming up without stipends to get a start in a new Second Life with, hopefully, a stable economy.

Getting rid of Stipend jsut isnt the magic solution. economy was fine until a few months after GOM shut down. SL has been around alot longer then Lindex.

Well, I do approve and support this idea of opting out of stipends. As a premium member, I did "opt out" myself for a long time by feeding my L$500 a week into my money tree (usually a lot more actually). Unfortunately, it like everything else was gamed, and I removed it.

These days, I don't have any income in SL, and very little left in the way of L$. So I am afraid I can't volunteer. I NEED my L$500 a week, or I might as well just leave.

I refer to thsoe who call pro-stipend users 'socialists' and such. On a side note.. isn't amazing how the two shouting to end stipends have yet to offer to give theirs up?

Who is hurt more by a declining L$? Content providers? or people that play the 'money' game for personal profit? (whether they provide content with merit or not).