Sugsestion of a possible alternative to eliminating bonuses

I had a very long reply to some of the threads dealing with the facts that make controlling inflation in Second Life by reducing the incomes of the average casual players impractical and in general a bad idea, filled with facts, web links, and of course my whole spin on things. I think that if necessary I can pull those out, but I want to pose a question to the Lindens, first (lost the first post on another thread, that will teach me not to do it in Word first ).

Why not allow residents to pay their land tiers in Lindens? I think it was done at one time. The only reson I sell what little money I make is to cover my tier for the 4096M I own. It takes Lindens out of circulation without adversely impacting the buyer's market.

I can imagine the responses to this, and I am braced for it, but I think there is some flawed reasoning going on behind this new change, in addition to the Lindens facilitating money sales in game.

Anyway, your response?

warm regards,

Samantha Samiam

I can answer that, Samantha. It's easy. Because L$ are useless to the Lindens. Since they are pledged not to sell them for US$, they cannot use them to pay their simulator hosting bills.

If you want to suggest that the Lindens should trade on the exchanges for their own account, allowing them to create real money at will, that's another whole ball park. While not out of the question, it would be pretty fraught, and would have wide-reaching implications.

well, a primary reason would be because they want revenues in US$ cash without being subject to the fluctuations of the currency market.

Content/service creators of course DO have to deal with currency fluctuations, but it's a upfront risk that anyone who decides to participate in this way has built into their decision (or should have). LL knows that they need a reasonably stable exchange rate if they are to attract the best talent.

I wish there were more evidence this statement is correct, Forseti. I consider their stabilisation effort weak and largely ineffectual, and also devoid of the widely published determination required to give it the necessary backup from the "confidence" factor.

With the tier, a landowner pays for a RL commodity: server ressources to host content, which are provided by LL, just like a web hosting company sells webspace. Were LL to accept tier payment in L$, there's not much they could do with that. Converting it to US$ via GOM or whatever goes against the often stated company policy of not trading in L$ and furthermore would not make L$ tier payement a money sink, as the L$ get recycled.

OTH, destroying the L$ (removing them from the economy) has the problem that it does not pay for things like hardware, electricity, rent, admin staff and other things that accumulate when running a data center So if I understand the situation correctly, while it would be very convenient for landowners, your proposition is not really economically viable in the real world.

Samantha, the title of your thread mentions "bonuses", though your post does not.

Can I make an appeal, before all the muddle starts again, that we distinguish between money supply issues (ie what funds should go direct to residents in general), and the fairness of how that total amount is shared between residents (eg are ratings-related payments equitable).

Maybe you saw my "transforming boar" metaphor in the other thread. I'd be really grateful if it didn't happen here again, as it cripples the rationality of the discussion.

Just tossing an idea I had a few seconds ago... Haven't thought it through yet.

1. Set up a new leaderboard category called "Philanthropists".
   
2. Add a menu command whereby someone can donate money into the system.
   
3. New players can choose to start accepting "charity" money. (Default is to not.)
   
4. Donated funds are distributed, L$50 a week, to the newest players only.
   1. less than X months old, rolling excess funds into next month
      
   2. or to as many people as possible before funds run out, newest players first
      
   
   

I know that many players are quite happy to donate their money to other players.

Of course, now I've had more time to think about it as I wrote it all down, and I don't think it would be that effective. With the upcoming easy sale of excess cash, more people might be willing to go that route, leaving fewer people that would donate money. Also, with more ready access to purchasing any amount of L$ needed, new players may not wait for even the charity money to accrue, instead just buying what they need for speed.

I suppose someone can whip up a player-run version of this in the meantime...

No problem that it it hasn't been thought through, Tiger, we all do that.

But what problem is it meant to address? Surely that thought must have come first ?

If we know this, we can consider with you whether your suggestion might achieve it.

For the basic players relied on the rating bonus stipend (or even the regular stipend should that go away next year or the one after that, etc) then this would be an alternate source of simple spending money. One that doesn't require Linden Lab to alter the economy by printing buttloads of L$ each week. (Which is why ratings bonuses are going away now, and why the base stipend might go away in the future.)

But on further thought, I think this idea would work best as a player-run feature. Something like Goodwill that gathers donations and distributes them to the new (not the "needy", the new).

Thats a nice idea, Tiger. I always remember, about my third day, when I was windowshopping penniless, had no idea GOM existed, and probably couldn't have handled it anyway, someone I was talking to asked if I had any money. He gave me $1000, just like that. I can't remember who he was, or I'd track him down.

Now and again I dish out the odd $500 to a new arrival at the WA, but I think it's too early in their life. The last guy didn't even notice what he had just gained, and I wasn't going to spell it out in big letters.

That "Goodwill" idea is something you could publicise and set up if you felt strongly enough about it. If you solve all the little problems, like fairly deciding who the recipients will be, let me know, and I'll certainly make a L$2000 donation once its up and ready to go.