Another Black Tuesday (LindenX)

When do you work this job? Seems like you live in the forums - not in SL or in RL.

Not to stick up for RBD but if he does the work he says he does, he has plenty of time to post on the forums while at work

My god! All this bitching about the poor L$ diving and burning. OY VEY!

Not long ago I was walking along side the “anti stipend” bandwagon. I do honestly think there is a glut of $L, so much more sitting on the exchange than there is a demand for. I am now trailing behind the band wagon, I think there IS something to be fixed with the money glut...

But boy oh boy, I can’t even muster enough strength to sigh when I see yet another “OMG you slackers are ruining the SL economy” thread.

The same thread over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again is not convincing anyone – I wager that it is turning more people way from your cause than converting to it.

Of course it is always amusing to see the now familiar exchange of "Stipends are like welfare and are killing SL" vs. "No, I pay for my stipends and without them everyone would quit."

But - if I am allowed to go back to the original statement - according to my data it is not Tuesday but Monday, when the exchange rate begins its weekly fall. And it has been like that for a while now: rising on the weekend (growing demand), fall starting on monday, rising next weekend again.

Sorry, if that does not fit with any stipend related theories.

And the overall message to the masses is that
Linden Labs Economic Policy for Second Life is
a Failure.

Now, be gentle on my poor economically blind self, but..

Wouldn't killing off the weekly stipend for free accounts actually have a WORSE effect on the economy?

I'm sure a lot of people using the basic accounts don't WANT to pay into SL. So eliminating their stipend would mean a large portion of the playerbase would either STOP BUYING, or worse, stop PLAYING. I have a friend who counts the weeks until he can purchase the next outfit he wants. Without a card of his own, eliminating the stipend would crush him.

Eliminating the stipend for the basic accounts (who inherently have no land and no ties to SL beyond friendships) would shift the 'wealth' of SL into a smaller percentage of the populace. And I'm sure a number of those people in that percentage have either already purchased whatever they really want, or build what they need for themselves. Less buyers means the sellers will cinch their purse strings, and some will likely pack up shop, unable to pay for their retail space.

I dunno, sounds like a depression to me. I thought I heard once that money in an economy is like blood in the body, if it isn't moving, the body dies.

You're a general tech god, then. I bow down to your IT expertise.

Considering how intelligent his statements lead me to believe he is..I highly doubt hes doing anything but flipping burgers.

Router monkey is not the most demanding of professions.

Apologies to any out there, this is not to say that you are stupid if you do that job, but you know what it takes to hold said position down.

Yah - its just the same as yesterday

That one person dumping his 200,000 l$ stipend on the market... socialist bastard!

bwahahah I want to have your children

I flip the burgers while you put them on buns...
I know you Jonas, your that new guy... Get back to work...

Router Monkey.. hahahah Thats almost as good as Lawn Jockey.

Kneel, my BGP neighbor. Else I shall have my minions at
ARIN revoke your ASN and leave you stuck with static
routes in and default routes out.

Yield to the power of ASN 14743, Linden Lab's ISP...
aka: InterNap..



Master of Puppets I'm pulling your strings
twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can't see a thing
Just call my name, `cause I'll hear you scream
Master
Master

Isn't this the same thread as last Tuesday? Until any of us have some real data to prove that the stipends are actually outpacing the growth of the economy, there is no reason to believe that is causing any fall in the value of the Linden dollar. There are money sinks in place to offset the balance. Plus the number of Linden Dollars DOES need to grow with the size of the growing economy. If the size of the economy stayed even, then the amount of stipends would need to be lowered, but not stopped. The reason being is the money sinks. I don't know a thing about economics, nor any of us know the all of the numbers needed to prove anything here. So it is possible you could be right, but how do you know? The only equation being used is the amount of Lindens being paid out each Tuesday and nothing else after that. I would have to believe the whole picture is more complicated than just the stipends.
During the last week or so, the value has moved very little. Currently at the moment it is 280 with 1,000L available. Last week it was 278. So from your post earlier in the day, it has actually done well today.
I know some data the would be useful in determining where it may be headed. The amount of Lindens available over 260 would be useful. I know there used to be 11 Million available at 261L, but now its down to 2 Million. I'm sure this has had some effect on teh amount between this range.

And the decline in the Linden Dollar is being caused by????
Voodoo Economics?

rotfl!!!!!11111!!111one!!11

Could be anything and I'm perfectly fine with where its at. If it rises or falls within the 270 to 280 range, I believe thats good. Its been this way for a while now (past two months?)I'll give into the get ride of stipends (lower stipends) when the value starts falling 5L per week consistenly. Right now, I consider what its doing nothing compared to "The sky is falling" I wouldn't mind it going back down to 250 though. From what I remember though, it was around that range for only several weeks since I've started SL.

"Printing Lindens." Yes, that's what's happening. So what? At the same time, LL is also "printing" new land, *value* in SL being created at a cost of *zero* Lindens. Of course, once AC or whoever buys that new sim, the land gets sold for -- $US? Nope -- *Lindens*.

So -- one way that LL could drive the cost of the Linden back up, toward that theoretical 250 L for $1 US, would be to increase the rate at which it puts new land into SL. But of course, that would tend to lower the price of land, so the land barons would have smaller profit margins.

RBD, there's one question you never answer: aside from people who want to sell Lindens, who's hurt by a gradual decline in the price? And it *is* gradual, over time, once you leave out the occasional market twitches. Take the stipend away from the basic accounts, so a few fat cats can make more money out of SL? That will drive down the demand for *everything* except, maybe, camping chairs. Does that sound like a good outcome? Would you rather have 200,000 Lindens to sell at 280/$1US, or 100 L at 250/$1US? Even us non-techies can do that one in our heads....

Oh, and Mr. High Tech Expert -- how many economics courses were part of that IT curriculum you "Mastered?"

"Real badboys move in silence" - KRS One

And no, hiding behind an alt does not qualify.

Well his previous incarnation was some kind of wall street gecko type and a self proclaimed 'genius' - that took a right turn to preach jesus to us.

This one, though just as silly, is far less annoying.

And what will your position be when its L$300? The Same?
Or calling for action?

And people who change the world speak out.
Those who remain in silence, become followers.

I SPEAK OUT!!! LISTEN UP RESIDENTS!! I WILL NOT TOLERATE LOSING MY STIPEND SINCE IT WOULD COST ME $7.15 AMERICAN DOLLARS MORE A MONTH FOR WHAT I GET NOW.

I WILL NEVER BE SILENCED!

Personally I think the decline in the Linden Dollar is caused by the continued availability of quality _low cost_ or free products and services.

As long as the availability of free products and services grows, new players will spend less L$. If they spend less L$ they are less likely to purchase additional L$ via the exchange during their first few weeks of play.

Additionally, as people keep trying to undercut each other on price of quality products and services then long term players who are now looking for quality goods will spend less L$, and again purchase less L$ via the exchange.

If people are purchasing less L$ on the exchange, and stipends continue to put more L$ into the world, AND IF the money sinks are not exceeding the amount introduced by stipends, then yes the L$ will continue to fall against the USD. If however the money sinks exceed the stipends (which they may very well do) then stipends have no effect on the continued drop.

However I do not believe the right course of action would be to eliminate the stipends. Not only does that take money directly out of the pockets of the premium account holders, it makes it a lot harder for new players to get involved and _continue_ playing SL.

Rather, what I think SL needs is a good bit of inflation, where people that produce quality goods and services *increse* the costs of those products and services. By increasing those costs, people will spend more L$.

There will always be those that wish to cater to those living off the stipends, or who want to target new players and will sell "cheap" or underpriced goods. That's fine and those products will be bought by those people that weren't going to spend additional USD to buy L$ anyway. But those players that are ready/willing to spend USD, will not begrudge having to pay an extra $1 or $2USD for a product -- so content holders shouldn't worry about bouncing their pricing up an extra L$250 or L$500.

Am I suggesting that people should start selling their $L25 textures for $L500? No. But what I am suggesting is instead of selling the avatar you spent 40hrs working on for L$350 or L$500, go ahead and sell it for L$1,000. And if your not making money on your rental properties or from selling land, then either raise your rent & sales prices or drop out of that bussiness.

Campaigning to reduce/remove stipends will get you no where -- not enough people will side with you, and they have a direct incentive to stand against that proposal. However encouraging content creators to increase their prices -- now that's something you can get people to stand behind.