"insider trading" in SL, what's next Robin?

"It’s not uncommon to let large customers know in advance of significant changes to policies and features. In this case developers, including agencies, long time SL residents, and community builders were given notice so they could work the price increase into proposals they were making.

It’s important to note that this knowledge did not allow them to purchase any regions to the disadvantage of other Residents.” - Robin Linden"

This, i'm afraid, is untrue. Residents knowing that kind of information beforehand were able (and in some cases did) to purchase islands from other residents that weren't aware of the situation, taking advantage of the confidentail information they were entrusted.

This, even if not fitting to the letter, is quite easily comparable to a case of insider trading: a term belonging to the stock market referring to a situation in wich a trader uses his confidential information to gain an unfair advantage over other traders, creating an unbalanced business situation.
Other than being against the law, this kind of behavioir is EXTREMELY unethical.

I'm sorry to say, but the situation i see now is quite grim. Linden Labs has lined up the most appalling series of slips that i've ever seen in the online market and the situation NEEDS a serious analysis.

Unfortunately it's time for Linden labs to abandon their hyppy/tekki-wikki rollercoaster approach to business and get an hang of a simple concept: professionality.

Professionality means being able to act in one's own interest keeping as a very important priority the best interest of one's customers as well.

Who are Linden Labs customers and primary source of income?
The few corporations that are shyly probing SL as a marketing tool and that can afford price increases without a wince? Bless their heart for being here, but sorry, no.
The thousands of free account users that mostly come on SL, find it boring, and leave?
Sorry but no.
The primary customers whose best interest LL should keep as their highest priority are premium account users, and in particular landowners.

Now, honestly, the trend given out by the line "Due to ongoing investments in developing and maintaining the underlying technology of SecondLife", that can be read as "due to the exceptional increase in bandwidth expense given by the unexpected influx of unregistered accounts, and due to the necessity of offering a seamless and perfect service to incoming corportations, and the subsequential costs in improving our technology..." is exactly the opposite.

I'm sorry, Robin, Philip and team, but as much as i love Second Life with all my heart (and i approached quite a few Lindens lately to look for ways to contribute to the community with the creation of public utility content), the idea you're giving out with this action is the following:
"we're sorry, our beloved SL estate owners, but you'll be the ones paying for the entertainment of our beloved freeloaders and for us to shine more in the eyes of corporations and investors"
Well, again, i'm sorry, but this is not a professional behavioir. Estate owners and land owners in general (because i can easily see a subsequential main grid tier increase, when LL will need even more money) are the ones that provide SL with 99% of it's contents already. They ALREADY are the ones that offer entertainment to your beloved freeloaders and allows SL to shine in the eyes of corporations and investors.
They are the ones that allow YOU (Linden Labs) to survive without having to hire a serious and COSTLY content creation team.
But yet you want to weight EVEN MORE on their already quite burdened shoulders?
WE are your content team, Linden Labs, without us, SL would be nothing else than a barren desert. And the desert is still a desert if someone builds a few corporate cathedrals in the middle of nothingness, as beautiful, breathaking and an absolutely nice and commendable contribute to the community as they can be, they're still cathedrals in the middle of the desert.
So you better get your act together and rethink about the meaning of professionality and business ethics. What you did by raising the private estate prices and by providing insider info to just a selected few customers that DID take advantage of it, is a slap in the face to the main bulk of your customers and community-builders and calls for a total and imnmediate self-analysis.
If i were in your shoes i'd hit the brakes hard before it's too late, i'd freeze the price changes and the fraudolent transactions that have been caused by the insider traders YOU instigated and i'd retink it all VERY carefully before making my next move.

Just my usual two cents, please consider them.

PS: honestly blocking the ability to comment on the blog announcement about this was an act that i wouldn't hesitate to define shameful, iu would also, if possible, rethink your ways on how you deal with this kind of community relations.

The statement I made is correct and accurate. Some large customers (all of whom are long-time landowners or creators in Second Life, not "corporations shyly probing Second Life" were given the courtesy of information for planning purposes only. In no case will we fill any order that was made, or categorically complete any transfer that was requested during the time between the email and the general announcement.

You should also remember that many of the basic account holders whom you refer to as freeloaders are international Residents who do not have access to payment systems that will allow them to purchase land in Second Life. Prior to open registration only 25% of Second Life Residents came from outside of North America. Today that number is 51%, and I think we are all richer for it.

In addition, we have repeatedly encouraged content and experience creators in Second Life to take advantage of their ability to charge people for access to their content. The culture of SL has worked against cover charges, but perhaps it's time to reassess that decision and welcome new Residents as customers.

Finally, comments were blocked for a short time in error. There has been no attempt to keep Residents from responding in the blog.