Quoting another post in here recently which I'm fairly certain was referring to a post I made about "Infrastructure before Expansion":
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....But consider for a moment if you're in education - you can't ask all your students to come up with a credit card number before they get to use SL as part of their studies (and it does have some fantastic potential in education) - and there are plenty of other cases where people just don't have credit cards, but have a lot to bring to SL. Surely it's not just about money - I disagree entirely with the person who suggested that if people don't bring money into SL then they have no right being there. What kind of society is that?
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Um, to this person, I say take a close look around you at your society and every other society in the world. You pay for *everything*, even education. Maybe not you personally, but somebody does. In many places, education budgets are funded by property taxes on the landowners, for example.
Entertainment is not free (sure, some forms can be pirated, lol, but that's another issue entirely). Musicians work hard and invest a lot of money and time to create and produce their music. They need to eat. Filmakers and their crews work hard and invest a *ton* of money and time to produce their films. They need to eat.
Is anyone, in any society *entitled* to free entertainment? Nope. You can argue successfully that basic human needs such as food, housing, health care, education, etc. can and should be available to every citizen and the cost spread to those citizens who can help to pay the expenses for these necessary social services. I'm in the camp that would wholeheartedly agree with that.
But *entertainment* does not fall into that category of NEEDED social services. Entertainment is a luxury item, so nobody is automatically entitled to get Entertainment for free. Sure, some artists might do the occasional performance for free but it's rare and they still do far more paid shows to cover their own expenses and to take care of putting food in their mouths.
Second Life is ENTERTAINMENT. Nobody is ENTITLED to play Second Life for free indefinitely. ALL OF THE CONTENT is produced by residents who pay significant money every month in the form of teir or island fees or premium account fees. Are you ENTITLED to leech off of these people INDEFINITELY for free?
SL takes money and manpower to maintain, not just on the resident side. All those LL servers and employees require money to stay in buisness and stay employed to bring you SL. Are you ENTITLED to leech off of those people INDEFINITELY for free?
Look, the practice of allowing trial access to services or entertainment is a common one. Try before you buy. This is a valid and viable practice. But eventually, you are expected to put up some money or leave. This is only fair. Nobody in this business model is allowed to stay indefinitely for free. Why should SL be any different?
As for your students and your education program, does it not occur to you that LL (and the SL content-producing residents) could be compensated for their time, investment, and effort by YOU, as a proxy for your students? YOU are the ultimate customer in this case. It is YOU who are in effect adding load to the system by bringing your students here for whatever length of time. If you want your students to attend your educational program simply and easily, knowing that many of them do not have access to credit cards, etc., then would it be unreasonable to expect YOU to pay the cost? Perhaps LL could set up a method for existing account holders to *purchase* additional temporary accounts. Then you give that account info to your students as needed. This way, not only are LL and the SL residents being compensated in one form or another for their effort, but also these temporary accounts are tied to a verified name and therefore somebody can be held accountable if any one of those temporary accounts were to grief.