03-14-2003 15:08
Hi All,

As of yesterday, we implemented a new stipend system.

The old system would decrease everyone's stipends as the total amount of money in the economy increased. This was to restrict the total amount of stuff people could build (because we only have room for so much stuff), which it did. But in some ways it worked too well - as people hoarded money, the money supply got tighter, causing people to want to hoard more money, and so on.

The old system worked somewhat like this:
-We have a large "global pool" from which all stipends/bonuses come from.
-As the pool decreased in size, so did everyones maximum stipend/bonus.
The result of this was:
-people saw their stipends decrease, so they held onto their money.
-as people held onto their money, the size of the the pool decreased.
-As the size of the pool decreased, people say their stipend decrease.
and so on and so forth.


The new system now works this way:
-Everyone gets a base stipend of $L1K per week.
-In order to avoid a negative balance that cannot be recovered from, balances are not allowed to go less than -$L1K.
-Stipend maximum is limited to $L3500, if you have more than this, your stipend will only be as large as is necessary to pay your taxes.

Additionally, we're going to scale back the voting station payouts quite a bit. The payouts will be drawn from a fixed nightly pool - so it's worth your while to have a big event on a night when there's nothing else going on.

Finally, we're not done yet. We're planning changes which will reduce the cost of land in general, but at the same time will greatly increase the cost of living in certain, more exclusive, areas.

Have Fun,

-Linden Lab