Phillip's Announcement

So why are LL siphoning at least $10,000 each month directly from them?

The proposed $L sale by LL? Profit taking or rather increase revenue/ reduce loss

Without access to the financial statement of LL, it is difficult to tell if they are making a profit or not. Chances are, they are at a loss.

From an managerial accounting/ aligning business performance measurement POV. This move align LL's revenue with the economic growth of SL. It give the company direct link between the economy in SL and LL's own revenue, an incentive to make sound monetary policies while promoting growth of the SL economy.

LL cannot rely on VC to keep the company afloat, it must earn its own money to ensure long term survival of the company and SL.

Because its part of a step to regain the ability to control the amount of new lindens being pumped in the economy. This is truly a tax, and for all those who are pro stipend, this should be the source of the stipend funds as well.

Taxes suck, but they are less damaging in the long term than mantatory printing of money.

You've been here far longer than I have, so maybe I'm missing something, but I really don't see this as being an evil plot by LL to screw us for the sake of profit.

Very good points raised here, although based on my rough numbers, I don't think the premium accounts are a big source of revenue for LL. My assumption on all my prior posts have been that the main source of revenue has been land and tier, which is why a stable linden is so important. If not, then it really doesnt matter how many quatloos you can get for your lindens. If your figures suggest otherwise, I'd like to see them.

Stipends were never free. They were paid for at a rate of 360L per USD. Players still have the option to buy lindens at a lower rate, except that the influx of newly printed money will hopefully be reduced and returned to the control of LL.

But without replacing the stipends with something of equal value, there is little reason to go premium unless you want to own land.

I might have missed it, but I'd like to hear your suggestion as to what to replace the $500 stipend with so as to preseve the value of those revenue generating premium accounts.

The replacement is selling $L on the Lindex. There is nothing new here. Stipends are sold $L in the first place. If they skip the stipend for a simpler more immediate payout on the Lindex, then they are still generating revenue, and the residents don't have to wait up to a year for their money.

Now that is more like it... The more LL's pocket book relies on the SL pocket book, the more likely they are to have very conservative economic policy... Which will be great for everybody. No more currency devaluation.. w00t w00t...


Now if only LL will begin with the introduction of a new currency to suck up the excess L$ in float from L$738/million to around L$200/million of the new currency. Lets call them Reserve Bank Notes. The RBN$ will be the new currency in SL...



RBN$1 Reserve Bank Note = L$4 Linden Dollars



PS: Lets create fractions in the money supply this time around. RBN$0.00

I see it more as a decision by LL to do something for the sake of profit without caring whether they're screwing us or not.

$35,000-$45,000 US is bought each day on the Lindex, $10,000 monthly is pitance (roughly $300/day). Call it a tax if you will, but if it means a better value for their Lindens and a healthier operating cost for the people who run SL I'm sure most content creators would accept the tradeoff.

Right now we are just seeing the effects of all the new people entering SL. A year from now the number of people who receive a stipened will be the minority. At that point demand for Lindens could be far greater than the supply. This gives LL a much better way to get new Lindens into the system than constantly changing the stipend policy and it still doesn't preclude them from developing other kinds of creator incentive bonuses to replace what dwell was intended to accomplish.

/me hands LL a printing press and some green ink.

Somehow this move does not fill me with confidence.

Too bad you can't sell now... The closed the trading floor...
Maybe eBay is your last chance to unload...

Making a profit is not immoral. Misleading people is.

If all they wanted to do was just inject L$ into the economy then they just have to reduce sinks.

But, boy, I bet that wasn't discussed now was it!

Why not just reduce sinks as they reduce stipends?

It is harder to manage a service provided to an unknown amount of users. You can change the cost of sinks, but then the amount of users of this sink may change. It is very easy to manage the flow of money into the economy when you are changing the value directly on the Lindex. The stipend is already a tax on the economy. All direct selling does is replace one tax with another. Luckily, direct selling allows them to regulate the in flow of currency more directly than guessing how many users will sign up for premium accounts.

Since you've asked for a reply to this in a number of threads Khamon to no response, I'll give you the link that reveals where that impression comes from:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

Make sure to follow the links or jump directly to this page:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/fun.php

The up-front marketing of Second Life by Linden Lab in no way implies this is a world solely driven by money and the needs of the content creators. It says the users create the content but that there is plenty to do if that's not what you're into. If you love exploration of the magical creations and imagination of others (like I do) you will find plenty to do. But for most people, with the type of high-end hardware required to successfully run the SL client at the kinds of framerates one comes to expect, looking for more than a fancy, expensive 3D version of IRC, will leave them wanting.

Thank You Clubside

The main problem is that like the actual dollar $L are not backed by anything, not bandwidth or quality of service or taxed land usage or the amount of people in the game registered or not. What needs to happen is for the currency to be tied to something real, since there is no gold it should be linked to something that touches everyone in the game like grid downtimes or something like that, i dunno.

Having an astronomical number of players that are never on and a minority of player that make loads of content is sorta lopsided.

At this point there is no system where people can loan money to newbies to finance their land needs as far as i have found

I'm all for that... A Fiat Currency in SL isn't worth the byte its printed on. The economy isn't strong enough in SL to backup the linden dollar. What is needed is to back up the currency with something of value. Gold or eGold would be perfect.

Yes, RBD, shiny things denote value.

Yup. Gold forms the basis for a monetary standard used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And its value isn't subject to currency swings. It makes for the perfect reserve currency.

Yeah, and that would be awesome IF LL would actually fix the game into a stable, usable platform for said content.

I'm sick as hell of the game getting WORSE every time they upgrade, and randomly crashing.

Lag isn't a result of too many prims or this and that. This game is programmed really, really inefficently, and instead of actually improving performance, what do we get? A damn "burst effect" when you pull up the edit menu. W.TF.

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This is an outdated an idea. People used to think you needed something to base value off of, but you dont, because the entire economy gives value to a currency. A currency is worth what you can buy with it. Do you real need the option of purchasing gold with your $L to put a value to it. What are you really going to do with a lump of gold sitting on your kitchen table. On the other hand, if there is a new avatar skin you want that only accepts payment in $L, then you might put a value to a $L. It is common knowledge in the modern world that you don't need a single magic substance like gold to give value to everything else in the world.

Sold my land...down to basic on the 27th.


1. Food comes before games
2. Premium isn't worth it as is

I won't be buying any lindens off of players, because of the profiteers ruining it for those just wanting to make teir. My money goes only to LL.

Good luck Jonas, I hope things get much better for you very soon, keep the faith man.

Will do. Just because I'm basic doesnt change the pain in the ass I am.