Mr. Linden, the Privatization of SecondLife is Vital

Mr. Phillip Linden, CEO
Linden Labs
577 Second Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94107

February 15, 2005

Dear President Linden:

SecondLife is a wonderful blend of creativity, initiative, and capitalism. Let's move forward with an increasingly free market. I have a proposal to privatize three industries in SecondLife. I look forward to your responses and actions.

Roads: The state of roads in SL leaves something to be desired. Roads require large amounts of maintenance time, which means that your staff have to devote their time to simple, mundane maintenance activities. Why not sell the roads off to a(an) investor(s) who can then fix, maintain, and operate the SL national roadway system. Privatization would bring a cash injection into LL and also free your staff to do more important tasks.

Land: LL's staff devotes quite a bit of time in land maintenance. Why not simply sell off huge chunks of land (5, 6, 7 or more sims at a time) to land wholesalers who in turn parcell and sell the land. This way, LL spends far less time with land parcelling and buyers can negotiate with land wholesalers for the exact land size/shape they would like. Full privitization of land would certainly help stabalize the SL economy. (Not that the SL economy is wholly unstable at the present time)

Prims: Why not allocate X number of prims for all of SL? Sell those prims off to Prim wholesalers in huge chunks, and they can re-sell to prim consumers. This way, LL can guarantee the exact numbers of prims that exist at any given time, and consumers pay only for those prims they use. The market would also set the prim's price, bringing equalibrium to the prim process.

I look forward to your thoughtful consideration and action.

Most Sincerely,
Chicago Kent

Woohoo! And the Merry-Go-Round goes round and round



Here we go again ....

nothing is stoppping SLians from creating roads now. heck, there's even a train that runs through some sims..



This already happens in SL. Read all the 'land baron' threads. Quite a few SLians buy, resize, and resell parcels of virtual land every day.



There are X number of prims per sim. They are divided between the parcels of land in that said sim. Consumers pay a a specific amount for them already. You want 3 prims - buy 16m2 of land, etc.... If you want a large chunk of prims you buy a large chunk of land.


As for privatization of SL - what do you think it is now? It's owned by a private company and individuals buy, sell, create as they wish on it.

There are still socialist elements in SL, and it is our duty to track them down and eliminate them. I've highlighted the ones I feel pose the greatest risk to the blossoming SL free market.

Chicago - Is this a copy of a letter you are mailing via snailmail? If so, note that Philip's last name is not "Linden."

Philip Rosedale Founder and CEO, Linden Lab

Also, I think it is worth noting that LL does plan to eventually open up an API that would enable users to privately own their own SL server platforms. Although there would no doubt be licensing fees, this approach would eventually de-centralize the "metaverse" in a manner similar to what we now know as the WWW.

My $2L.

Define "socialist elements," "track down," and "eliminate them".

Damn. I just tripped over an asshole.

Did someone lose an asshole?

Socialist elements - elements not pertaining to a true free market
Track down - find
Eliminate them - change them to a free market

He's hoping everyone will bite. If you respond, you're only contributing to his ... arousal.

Assuming this wasnt a joke or troll thread, read on:

Lindens actually spend time on roads? I didnt think computer generated roads needed to be repaved. Seriously, I doubt they spend alot of time now on roads. What you are proposing is creating work that isnt there now and taking it over. If they dont plan a roadway on a sim BEFORE it goes public, then how are they going to put on in place after? They cant cause someone else owns the land where a road mite need to go. And if they are going to kick people off their land to build a road is that something they really want in private hands?

I doubt it takes the Lindens that long to carve up a new sim into plots. If some wholeseller wants an entire sim to resell later then they just need to win the half dozen to a dozen auctions when they come out, just like the rest of us do. As someone said before, this is ALREADY going on.

As someone stated, prims are a set number per sim/land size. This again is creating work when none is needed. Whats to stop me from buying a boat load of prims from your private Prims-R-Us dealer and another person on my sim doing the same, then we both load up on prims on our land (way above the normal allowance) and bring the sim to a halt?

I pray this was a joke/troll post (the original not mine ).

Yes, I agree.

And I'm sorry about the asshole thing. It's supposed to be in its cage. I assure you this won't happen again.

PS. I've heard that there are trolls about. You be careful, you hear?

Lo,

Wouldn't it be -wonderful- if the thread ended here?

If just for once, a troll didn't get responders?

<sigh>

It wont' happen though. In twenty minutes or so, somebody will try to rationalize with him.

Unlike other posters who merely spew garbage.. I have a track record of success. Literally within hours of posting this thread /120/bd/35519/1.html advocating the creation of a more free market, LL decided to take action and overhaul the ratings system.

I see myself as a consultant on economic policy. I do my part to help.

I did before I realized he was trolling.

so we could just sing (to the tune of Spam):


troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll
troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll
troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll
troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll troll

OK, Spanky. Hold on to that feelin'.

And the change was because of you huh? Smilies alone can't express the comedy value of that thought

I think Chicago should take his own advice:
/120/67/35298/1.html#post379917

But seriously, your ideas are full of holes. They create work to be privatized in areas where there currently is no or little work needed. I would go on more but Im still not convinced you are serious.

Pah, don't believe that, Pirate. Just call him a wiener, move on, and wait for him to log on as one of his alts to "second that notion" and give himself masturbatory creedence.

Chicigao, you've done it again. Yes! I think the Lindens spend far too much of their valuable time fabricating and distributing prims to their customers. Sometimes, they get overwhelmed with prim requests -- you can tell when this happens when you click to create a prim and there's a noticable delay before a prim appears!!! Privatization would not only improve the efficiency of prim distribution, but would probably increase the quality of the basic prim. Why plywood? Why not a default oak or rosewood prim? A private company could seek out the best deals on prim raw materials and help keep manufacturing prices down while improving quality.

Keep up the good work, Chicago.

Oh, shit! I never thought of that, Cubey! Well, color me bashful, wrap me up in ribbons and have me dance for Karl Rove; By golly you're right!

Imagine how much money LL could save on labor by downsizing their "Prim Linden" staff!

... Especially during "european hours."

Cubey, you're due a ROFL, and I hate that damn term.

Oh, mate, you better go add Skydiving to the games wiki before I come and get rules-breaking on yo ass

Applause for the topic hijacking; it is indeed what pirates do best, and this was a thread that surely needed it!

Welcome to my sigline

Oh? Which part of it?

Arrr, etc etc!

Actually, they need to outsouce prim creation to India, and then they could save even more money. I'm sure they could work out a tax write-off too. I'm not sure about the level of service though. I mean translation issues could be a problem. You might end up asking for a sphere and getting a cube, how annoying would that be?