Tier Fees on Islands

If a current island owner is paying $195 per month in maintenance on a Class 4 island and they sell it to a new owner, then does the new owner continue to pay at the same rate? or do they pay the $295 per month fee?

I know it's not an answer, but it is a question.

I've heard about something called "Grandfathering" that suggests they would pay the old rate but you'll have to wait for someone with more experience for a definitive answer.

Thanks, I've heard the term as well, but I'm not sure what it means

As of right now, subject to change at the whim of LL, if you sell a $195 tier island, the same tier rate will be passed to the new owner as well.

"Grandfathering" in general means that when a new measure is implemented, it only applies to things that begin after it is enacted. It usually refers to laws.

For example, when I was 19, the legal drinking age in my state was set at 19, and I was legally able to buy alcohol. A year later, the legislature raised the drinking age to 21. People like me who were 20 at the time stayed legal even though we were not yet old enough under the new law. We were "grandfathered" in.

I don't have an answer for your SL question, but that's the meaning of the term, for what it's worth.

Thanks.

You mean 18 year olds can't buy alcohol!!!! Our pubs would go out of business. lol

The old rate of 195US$ is grandfathered in now, but LL only promised that those old tier rates would apply for one year. So it is possible (perhaps likely) that they will raise rates starting November 20th.

but they can gamble.....

I think in November of this year though the rates go up to $295 for everyone. Not sure though. The "grandfathered" price is not carved in stone for life... it is going to expire and go up.

It looks like LL might have changed tactics and decided to revamp the island tier hike into an "optional" feature price hike.

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Voice_FAQ#Does_it_cost_anything_to_use_voice.3FI won't be terribly surprised if they ask for a premium to enable WindLight on old tier sims as well in the future (pure unsubstantiated guess on that one ).

I thought Windlight was client side?

The effect is client-side, but on private islands the actual settings would come from whatever is set in the estate tools in the same way an estate owner can currently override the current time of day.

My guess is just that LL doesn't want to outright raise prices on old-tier sims, but is/will use new features as a roundabout way of getting people to pay more anyway. Voice is one and defendable because LL has to pay a third party for hosting the voice servers; WindLight could be since they had to acquire an entire company to get it.

Anyway, pure guess . I do think they want to get rid of old tier sims though.

Yeah an excuse to raise 30% more money from existing customers rather than double their customer base by lowering tier sounds good to them.

The problem if they lowered tier is that many of the newly attracted customers would be less ingrained to SL and would be more likely to quit when it hits a bad patch. I know people here complain about them but honestly I don't think LL are happy about the technical problems with SL either, but it would only make it worse if as soon as there's a hitch, a lot of land goes up for sale and islands are abandoned, thus hurting their income.

I think therefore the truth is that they want islands to be owned by people who won't quit over US$100, ie, highly successful content creators and corporations - because their income will be steadier. (They also want the availability of cheap land on grandfathered islands to stop limiting the rental/auction market of course.)