"Exciting" Registration Changes

Why are they changing the registration system for free accounts?

Not only will people start off their Second Life with no L$, but they also won't necessarily have any means of purchasing any?

How does that serve the needs of a growing economy?

I don't understand where we're going with this? Are these changes being made to allow more people to create countless alts to grief the paying populace with a non-paying account?

Can someone PLEASE explain to us Premium players how this is 'exciting'???

Duke! The reasons why were explained in Chris Linden's announcement.

Key thing here: simplicity. It's exciting for the fact that it makes signup for Second Life easier, something which has been inquired about multiple times before--if you've read the SL Answers Archives. ^^

Also, there certainly are ways to purchase L$! If someone chooses to add billing info accordingly to their account, they can go ahead and participate in LindeX and all that. So this gives them the means, and certainly, the choice to do so.

As for griefing concerns, we're going to be watching what happens. All of this is subject to change and we'll adjust accordingly--just as we have historically. Our account limit policy has not changed, and some identifying info is still needed for account security--as Chris mentioned as well.

On that note, the changed registration flow has been disabled for the moment due to this, but we'll post when there's further news.