First Land program is no more.

The First Land program is not just stunned, it's no more. Gone to meet its maker. Extinguished. Expired.

How does this strike you?

If you bought premium partially for the first land discount, and were never able to find any, how do you feel about having the program closed?

I got First Land long ago, so this closure doesn't affect me directly.

It's obvious it was being gamed, especially with the introduction of unverified avatars. It needed to go.

Hopefully, they'll recant on the "cold turkey" approach, and give current qualifying residents the opportunity to buy (or be assigned) a First Land plot. Once those residents have all been given their opportunity, we can consider it rightfully gone.

my mother talked me into coming to the game and i had high hopes of getting that first land for my first business...........but now i cant? It bothers me. i cant afford to pay 5000 plus for a 512. BUt wt when i signed up it still said that feature was part of a account, i feel that lindens should address this problem seeing how i already brought my cousin and his friend in based on the first land deals. First impressions MR Linden, first impressions.

I'm a little annoyed because the only reason I upgraded to Premium was for the opportunity to get First Land.

The stipend is worthless to me, because I never planned to purchase L$ with USD -- and now I feel that I have been tricked into purchasing L$ that I didn't want. The free 512 m^2 tier is also worthless, because I was going to use that tier with First Land, which no longer exists.

I assume that the Terms of Service probably has a clause that they can change anything they want, with no recourse to the user for a refund of premium fees, for cancellation?

would the older avatars please pull some strings and make this right, not everyone has alot of money. whats that saying "a bundle of arrows is stronger that any steel" cheesy i know but this reeally sucks for all us new people that thought we could establish a place here for free or next to it just to be told "sorry".

its seems we can see the future.

The got rid of telehub dependency abruptly, but gave in to residents and compensated land owners near them.

They upped private island prices abruptly, but gave in to residents and established a duel-tier system.

They got rid of First Land abruptly, ...


I still support getting rid of First Land, but this does seem a bit unfair to new residents.

I tried calling SL to no ends, cant even get thru to them, is this common?

"I assume that the Terms of Service probably has a clause that they can change anything they want, with no recourse to the user for a refund of premium fees, for cancellation?"

-----

Well, you know, there's a limit to that stuff about, "You agreed to the fact that we can do anything we want."

That point is somewhere around where they sell you several things, then tell you you're not going to get one of them.

Like if they were in the wedding arrangement business (I have a daughter who's getting married, lol), and you bought their package which included food, flowers, a reception hall and a cake, but then it turns out you won't get the flowers after all, although you've paid the fees.

But hey - you agreed to a thing saying they could do anything they wanted, whenever, for any reason or for no reason, right?

Well, no. At some point a rl court will take a look at something like this and tell the wedding arrangement company that they either need to come forward with the flowers or refund the proper percentage of the money.

Of course, I'm not a lawyer. But the reason for law is justice, or at least that's the goal. I think with this First Land business, LL may have gone past the limits of what can be reasonably expected by the "you agree that we can do whatever we want" thing.

coco

Blog Link. It really is goiong away.

To quote:


We are actively looking for additional ways to increase premium value, and we would love to hear any ideas the community has on this.

Shall I redirect them to the various threads we have going?
Ah, the heck with it, I'll do it anyway if it doesn't get done before me first.

Edit:
Ah, this comment at the end ammused me (#119)


I also was the first one to post the links.

At the risk of quoting myself, I'd be surprised if they don't acquiesce to some degree to existing residents.

I command you to do the right thing. Compensate the newbs that you burnt with 1024sqm for life no charge. Only then will god love you.

Anyone who has gone premium for the sake of First Land, particularly the ones who went annual... talk to the folks running any groups you're in that own land. You may find that some of them will be happy to pay you a few extra Lindens a month in exchange for donating your excess tier to the group, or give you extra rights on their land in exchange for it. I've also seen signs of folks setting up landholding groups just on excess tier they "rent" from residents like this.

And if you're in the Coonspiracy and you're in this position, let me know.

I never managed to get any First Land, having gone Premium a few weeks ago.

Disappointing, if this news is true. Perhaps they can at least increase the stipend to compensate for it.

I've suggested one possible compensation in a feature suggestion.