Thank you, LL...

Yes, you see it as supply of money, and I see it as a lack of supply of users buying. We need more consumers. The current instability is not inducing users to stay, and unfortunately, I think the removal of the basic stipend is not an enticement to get users to stay, experiment with the program (which is really freaking cool) and go premium. It's more likely to make users unable to play with all the features of SL, get frustrated in their first 15 minutes inworld, and never log in again.

My personal preference is to do the hard fix, get more users to buy, get more users to go premium. The simple fix, reducing the money supply by taxing users harder and making it harder for them to play the game, will merely drive even MORE users away, causing the Linden demand to decline even further.

Remember also with all the world instability in the last weeks (denial of service attacks), hasn't helped with making users want to stay in game much. Merely reducing the money supply is not the answer - getting more users to spend in play IS the answer.

As for merchants upset about the exchange, their obvious route is to charge in USD and deliver content through different methods. Just wait till there's HTML on a prim, and everyone starts putting direct Paypal links inworld.

Oh and folks like me who already pay $100+ USD a month through a partner cause I can't pay for my half of our island directly... and whose groups are all full of merchant orgs I have to join to be in a shop... yup.

You could suggest a nice money sink.. a weekly $L fee to stay in a group.. that might get interesting.

if the quality of your content is good people will gladly pay for it.

if a merchants content is crap, it's not LL's fault it doesn't sustain their second life.

I have no particular problem with that as a suggestion.

Lewis

If you are a content creator who wishes to sell your creations, you will benefit from an economic system that is healthy. You are in business whether you like that word or not and must learn how economies work--in the RW and in virtual worlds.

LL is intent on building RW economic value for residents in SL. Therefore, the SL virtual economy has RW ties. It does not operate in a vacuum. Read this post on a recent LL blog to see LL's intentions for SL: http://secondlife.blogs.com/change/2006/05/announcing_seco.html



There is no single answer. Reducing the money supply is one of several measures that should be currently considered. You are of course correct in stating that their also needs to be an increase in consumers.

It's two sides of the same coin. You either fix that by making users want to buy content by having more and better content, which means users have to go to Lindex to buy (and them not wanting to buy suggests Philip's GDP and econimics estimates are way off), OR you make it more difficult for the few buyers we actually have to aquire money (stippends), which would also in turn force more people to go buy on Lindex. First way is a difficult fix since you have to somehow force content creators to make stuff people would be willing to buy. Second is a double-edged sword since while increasing numbers of people having to go buy at Lindex, you'll be decreasing the nmber of people actually being here in total.However, the second option also decreases the total supply of money in general, which means that it'll be everyone who will be feeling a shortage of $L, making it's value go up.

Its going to increase the size of the already booming free economy - 'make it share it' has never been more popular and making the poor poorer will only help, wont be long before you simply wont need to buy anything, ever.

Um, no, because more premiums = more $500l stippends = even higher supply of money = even worse inflation.

Some people don't care what the USD value of their $L's are because they don't cash out, they don't put money in, they make do with what they are given because it is entertainment to them and not an investment. Some don't want to mess with getting the best buy deal, transaction fees, etc. when they want money, they just want automatic. It may take a few weeks to save enough to go shopping with, but that's less of a hassle to them than dealing with buying $L's. Why begrudge it to them?? And yes it is peanuts so why bother removing it at all??

Just wait till they get around to their next fixes!

coco

Well, the free money that comes with a premium account is going to go next.

Anyway, I disagree with your idea that $50 is nothing, and that you couldn't even get anywhere with winning things on top of that.

I was a basic member for three months, and by saving my stipend, entering contests, and running around to money trees and whatnot, I made enough to actually "own" my own land in Meins from Nexus Nash and Adam and pay tier to them each week.

Some people can scrimp and save their stipends, you know, and build up from there, and in that case, $50 is a whole lot more than $0. You can't save much with $0.

coco

Well, I own land, AND I sell content, and if I lose my stipend, I will probably take one of the steps I outlined in the thread I started in this forum.

So I don't see them as two distinct groups, as you do.

coco

Jamie, you fail to consider psychology in all of this. (And so do the Lindens, and every practically every other economic genius on these forums.)

It's a whole different thing to get your stipend, save it up, win contests, etc., and make your way that way, than it is just to sit down and buy Lindens. I did it the first way; I wouldn't DREAM of doing it the second way.

It's one reason I left There (and you see how successful There was, huh), and I know I'm not the only person who goes at these things this way.

coco

You know, as a newish user when I first logged in I had $250L. I did not know that I was going to be given an additional $50 per week in stipend, I don't really remember seeing that anywhere and is not why I created my basic account.

I created my account because I had heard about the place and wanted to check it out. I enjoyed it and decided to stay. I then found out I was awarded an additional $50L and can't say I ever really cared about it much, nor did I spend it. Within a week I had become a premium account in order to own some land and start to contribute to the environment. I learned quickly how to build and script and do my own thing so I don't really buy much and don't need much money.

I stumbled onto a good land deal for me first land, made about 40,000 off of it and pulled that money out and have not purchased or spent much money since. I usually wear freebie clothes or make my own, built my own house, etc.

I don't think that I care really one way or another about the stipend, I just don't understand the fuss and how it has spawn so much in the way of animosity between everyone. I thought this was a community myself, not a 'It has to be perfect for my needs' type of place. LL can't and shouldn't try to meet everyone's specific needs because at times they are going to be at odd with each other and that's not going to work. Instead they should have a focus for what THEY want SL to be and move towards it. Sure, listen to suggestions and if it matches what they are wanting then take them up, but to change anything because a VERY vocal minority demands it seems silly to me and anyone thinking that boycotts and contants threads about it is going to persuade them is fooling themselves.

Look, if you can make RL money here and that's what you want to do, then fine, enjoy yourself. But let's not demand that LL create an environment where you can do so easily if that is not what they are running and building this place for. Instead, use your brainpower and figure out how to capitalize from the environment as it is if that is your thing.

But what you are going to have to realize is that's not EVERYONE'S thing. I have no need of making a profit from SL. If I do, then fine. I am creating clothing and art, building houses that I may sell or give away depending and if I make enough LL to allow me to buy things in game, fine. If it works out that I can make some RL money from it too? Great. But if not I'm not going to lose any sleep over it or whine and cry because LL 'screwed me'.

And I think that you are going to find that MOST SL players are here for that reason. To make in game money to advance their in game characters and could give a whit about making RL money from the game. A lot of people pay $25 to $50 US a month on a game that gives them $0 in return because they enjoy the entertainment that that money gives them. And as more people find that they enjoy SL they will continue to come here, even without the $50 a month or they will go premium and collect a bit for their money (a fair-ish trade off for the monthly fee they pay) and it's really a small number of people whining and complaining on these boards causing themselves greif because 'the linden is devaluing against the US dollar'. It's NOT why MOST people are here.

*shrug* Ofcourse, I'm a newbie and will be flamed as not knowing what I'm talking about, but after reading thread upon thread of this nonsense I just wanted to get that off of my chest. As it were.

I appreciate your input, Pricilla.

Personally, I applaud LL for their ingenious approach...

Halved dwell income...
New players no longer get their L$50 stipends...
limit and market buy/sell changes...

There's so much being changed in rapid succession without letting things shake out that no one will be able to prove any one factor is responsible for making things worse... or that the changing of any one factor made things better (if, if beyond all expectation the value of the L$ does happen to recover).

And it certainly does add a bit of flare to the L&E forum, which is nice... it had been stuck in quite a rut.

The vast majority of purchasers in SL are basics as usually after a short time in SL most ppl can create content. With the basic stipend removed there went about 80% of sales. Personally I am thinking of pulling up stakes adn getting the he** out of SL and removing all my content. Maybe I can get some ppl to help me come up with a newer better platform which controls it own economy rather than letty a greedy fgew run it into the toilet like LL is doing.

You're over-reacting.
Remember that old basic account keep their stipend.

But... well... if you want to remove your content... just do it... bye !
Please send me your inventory with full perm before leaving

Well Lewis, you shouldn't throw us all in your "quick buck" stereotype then.

While advertising the ability to make money may have attracted some of those, it attracted me too, in part.

And I do create quality products that do sell, well in fact. I have a full sim and I don't have to put very much of my own money in every month anymore. I'm almost to the break even point, cash flow wise.

Linden Lab needs more people that do create quality products, it's the only long term hope for success. Advertising the ability to make money is a way to show people that it's more than a game, it's a platform to build on.

It's not just me either. I'm seeing lots of new and original products coming in to the world every day.

I paid a $10 "lifetime membership" when I joined. Now it's free and that $10 will buy you 3200 Lindens at the moment or 62 weeks worth of stipends. It's hardly the end of the world for newbies.

Your post doesn't really make much sense. If you're not one of the "greedy few" who is only in it for the money, then why does the stipend or the economy matter to you at all? Aren't you just creating for the fun of it then?

Same here

And additionally :



I paid $10 to be a basic too.
now i'm premium with more than 400000sqm (400k sqm) of land

Let's pretend the $L gaining in value on the market today is due to the recent changes

Let me explain something to you.

People can only use the content that is created for SL in SL. If people are not logging into SL, then they will not buy any content no matter how good it is.

A merchant can make a whiz bang product in SL and price it to move, but the people who do not log in will not buy that product. They will not buy it in game, they will not buy it in SLexchange, they will not buy it on Ebay, they will not buy it in SLBoutique. And the reason why has nothing to do with the quality of the product but because people are not going to buy anything for a game/platform/world that they do not log into.

And they are not going to buy the L$ either.

It is when actually buying currency for the first time is big hurdle, some people don't think twice about it, for others its a show stopper. Having a little money helps the nervous get used to the idea (and addicted) for a couple of weeks before taking the plunge.