So many people are multi-millionaires because of 'developer' stock options

I'm sorry when people have no faith in SecondLife and its community, but that is their mistake and not ours.

For every person that made millions in developer stock options, there are hundreds who made nothing. Given the lessons of the dot-com bubble, I think it was wise for them to reject developer stock options and demand cash instead.

While SL is great, I think it is healthy to acknowledge that there is some risk that it will either tank or remain a niche platform. If LL cannot offer the cash and stock that GOM believes it is worth, maybe it *is* a sign that LL is not as financially sound as they are trying to project.

Yup, it's a risk. You think all those developers putting in tonnes of hours for low pay aren't risking something as well? We're all risking something.

Why does GOM get off free? Why do they get paid out and the rest of us don't? Why do we have to risk everything and they get to risk nothing?

Perhaps it was right for them. However, they shouldn't expect that the community should be on their side when many of us would give their eye teeth for options.

We still need you to start about 5 more threads and two polls on the same subject Blaze.

Quit bitching and contribute something of value to the community. You still haven't figured it out, have you? No one cares about the troll. The troll does not get paid for running around and being contrary. The troll does not get heaped with praise every time it changes its mind, which occurs at a frequency of two or three hundred GHz, nor does it receive a bonus for every ridiculous poll it posts.

If you want options, shut up and earn them. If others view more than a year of hard work as being worth more than what was offered, they have every right to be upset. Getting sandbagged by the Lindens is not something which you should be celebrating, no matter how petty and jealous you may be.

Many of you speak as though GOM has made not one cent from its operations in the form of income to balance against its labor. Even if this were the case, do you have any concept of how many people in the real world (and in SL) put in much more than "a year of hard work" to see no return whatever, let alone having someone offer to buy them out with cash and stock? Every market is risky, competition can wipe you out anytime. Losing development costs at a stroke is probably the norm. Far more people fail than succeed.

The developers of GOM clearly had belief in the future of SL - if it fails (currently) they have nothing.

If it succeeds (climbs on to 500,000 participants ?) then would they definitely have made money ? No. During the climb they would face many serious competitive challenges, if only from other residents. They would have needed to put in solid and continuous effort on innovative extensions to their services and to their website.

It is well known that inexperienced entrepreneurs are obsessed with what they have already invested/spent, and tend to grossly overvalue its worth. Whereas in fact each days decisions have to be made with that days situation as the starting point, and something's value today lies only in what it can contribute to the future.

This means it is particularly important to be realistic when faced with an offer to buy you out. The stock options they were apparently offered would have pinned their return to the success of SL - just as the success of their continuing business would have been pinned to exactly that. If the stock is worthless, so (at present) is their existing business in the longer term.

And look what you get with such a buy-out. No more risk from your own personal decisions. No more exposure to competition. No more slog expanding and altering the website to try to keep ahead. Your time is freed up for you to use your experience in a new venture.

We cannot know exactly how much they were offered, but if it was indeed commensurate with what other developers have been happy to receive, then maybe they were too blinded by inexperience to realise the value of the offer.

Any way, it seems they have chosen to fight on against this new competition, and good luck to them. What I think they need to do now is to stop complaining about "unfair" competition and instead to use their energies to compete themselves. I am looking for exciting and innovative new developments and extentions to GOM services, to keep them alive and ahead of the government competition.

As I said in another thread - if free products are OK to undercut those who have put in weeks or even months of work, then so are free services.

As everyone says to those who lose out to freebies - don't whine - get on and compete if you can !

Hard to have faith in a community where the owners see fit to steal their inhabitants creations.

Point blank everything cool you've seen in the world....every great script....every fun game....has all been developed by the people who pay to be in this world......The Lindens mainly just make land now and the metaverse is a farce to divide you from your money.

How many millions have you made ?

TSO is still bigger than Second Life and their options I bet were wildely successful.....oh yeah they lost money.

That is an urban legend if there ever was one.

I would put the number at 1 in 1,500,000. One out of every 1 1/2 million developers with stock options becomes a "multi-millionaire". If that.

Maybe something like 1 in 1,000 actually got enough out of it that it makes any difference.

Buster

Are SL forcing GOM to close down? So many of you speak as if this is the case.

The idea of running a currency exchange in which you act as intermediary between people buying and selling with each other is not a wonderful, original idea. It is widely used elsewhere. Indeed, logic would force LL inevitably in that direction. Unless they are willing to risk possibly substantial sums of their own US$ in resisting "runs" on a fixed currency rate which they commit to supporting, it is just about the only straightforward method available.

All this talk about copying and stealing "someone elses idea" is in my opinion not at all appropriate. This is not a normal product. It is a central and essential service which SL should probably have taken charge of from the beginning, due to the unavoidable technical advantages they possess in its operation. And the method GOM chose to use was in no way innovative in principle, being widely used, well understood, and indeed economically almost inevitable.

I ask again - are GOM being forced to close ? Prevented from innovating ? Inevitably finished ?

I think the answer to all three is NO. And you all have very obvious ways of continuing to support them.

I LOVE it !

We seem to forget that SL is in a state of constant change.
I'm fairly new, but I hear the system SL was working with
a year ago was QUITE different! Paying money to rez prims,
super high return on Resident Ratings and practically no cost
to rate someone? .. The list goes on.

As I said in the previous thread... I'm happy to see LL integrating
a feature like this in to the GUI. It will give MANY people a much
easier and automated way to get $L. Right now people complain
there's no way to "make money" in SL.. but so many overlook
the obvious choice of buying on GOM because they might not know
it exists, or worried about 3rd party dealings... or just think it's
too much extra hassle.

So... we're getting a more userfriendly way to increase our $L.
GREAT!
So... it hurts a resident created buisness market.
BUMMER!

We now have another "new" system to work under.... some of us
may need to change our jobs... The Horse-and-Buggy market has
collapsed as new automobiles are now being produced. Let's
work on the NEXT way to build a viable business.

Gabrielle

I agree. Provided it is done well (and it could be, though we can't yet know) this could be a very positive move.
GOM is not a perfect, or even a good solution. Even given the disadvantages they suffer relative to an integrated LL system, they have not done the best they could for the bulk of ordinary residents.
Despite having turned over US$2.4M, they have never incorporated direct credit card payment, forcing most of us to go via the much criticised paypal system, with a US$50 limit unless we create an actual Paypal account.

Their two stage process is clumsy, and difficult for a noob to set up and understand. At least for premium members. LL already have our credit card details, and they have the option of creating a very simple system requiring no set-up at all, and no need to trust two other residents with our cash. Two residents who, incidentally, confess in their own FAQ that they trade in their own market, for their own "fun" (read benefit ?).

The truth is, GOM have not done everything they could have done to make things as easy and convenient as possible for their customers, particularly the newcomers. LL should be able to do much better.

The GOM website is beautifully professional, and their customer service is second to none. But don't let that blind you to the fact that it is unnecessarily complex and not as easy to use as it could, or should, be.

I predict that, if GOM have any fight in them, their service will now rapidly improve in this respect (and hopefully in others too).

if in fact the lindens are cutting them out of the business then there wont be anything to improve...and any newcomer that cant figure out GOM probably cant rez a prim and has an iq less than 70.

GOM has done a a great deal for the Linden market....they have consistantly been the best place to buy and sell....

They have always faced very strong competition from IGE - and IGE has always remained the best place to sell - they have consistently paid a higher price. GOM is a buyer's market, IGE benefits the seller.

That's a piece of fiction.

A couple of days ago, before it became known that Philip Linden intended on destroying that market, I was able to sell on GOM at US$3.78, while IGE has been buying L$ for US$3.50 per block.

Except for occasional ,very brief times on some days, IGE always defines the least profitable place to sell L$.

I am a bit tired of all these assumptions and misdescriptions.. Can you please define "cutting them out of the business". If by "cutting them out" you mean competing with them - well, it happens all the time. If by "the business" you mean just exchanging US and L$, I suggest you ponder how every entrepreneur has to be ready to redefine and diversify his business when competition strikes.

"If in fact ?" indeed........Big If......

If in fact the Lindens have banned GOM from any further trading, then you would have cause to complain. Are you seriously suggesting this mght be so, Talen ?

Buster, try to find me one company that has the same kind of press and accolades that SL has (Wall Streat Journal, New York Times, CNN, etc etc ad nauseum) where the developers who got stock options did not come out with a million..

It is hardly fiction. I have been selling to IGE for over a year, nearly weekly. Over that time I have always compared THE END amount of money that ends up in my account (which is what matters to most people). My most recent IGE transcation was for $3.70 ,a little over a week ago. I know many large retailers in SL who have quietly always used IGE over GOM. If I wanted to buy L$, I would certainly go there, but I have consistently gotten a better end price selling via IGE.

For a detailed look at the difference, i refer to you here:

/130/7e/53057/1.html

I'm actually with Cristiano on this one.

Until IGE's recent $3.50/L$1k price, I've compared the _bottom line_ profit (with GOM fees calculated in) every time I've been looking to sell L$. IGE has always had the best offer.

However, in purchasing L$, GOM always comes out with the best price -- hands down.

You know, for as often as people mistake me for Chip, I really wish I could get in on some of those skin trade profits

Heh, I did mistake you for Chip.

IMHO, "Snapshot Baron" is a better business card title than "Skin Baron"

I guess it all depends on how you cash out. Bottom line for me it has almost always been cheaper for me to cashout via GOM then via IGE. I am sure that other have had different results. I think the biggest different is what kind of account it is going into right now. I can see that that 2.9% fee the PP charges could make GOM less profitable until they get that mass pay system in place.

What's going on here??? Stuff about GOM getting shares in SL? So confused. Will someone please send me a forum private message and tell me what's been going on around here, so confused

If you can't understand how the game works and how LL's plans will effect these companies then I can't explain it to you....there will be no competition.

I didn't suggest anything of the sort...What I have suggested is LL wanted to get GOM on their side cheaply and decided since they couldn't they would take their ball and go home. It's hard to redifine your business when you cant trust those you do business with.