Really a point to have premium?

As I recall, the Lindens never spoke of any preferential login for premiums at all.

They spoke of preferential logins for verifieds, as opposed to unverifieds.

So that's no benefit for being premium, either.

coco

But I like being premium. I still have my 512 plot that I bought at 512 lindens, pay no tier and get 500 lindens a week stipend. I mostly break even with my quarterly membership payments. I don't particualarly want to "make a living" in SL............I am requred to do that in RL and I'm here for the fun and not for another job. There are not a lot of benefits for being premium but if I were to sell my 512 lot for the going rate and downgrade to basic I would have to go out and find another place to "rent"..........with up front costs and tier payments to the landlord. I would lose on that deal. Sure I would save 22.50 USD each quarter but would spend near or more in that same three month period for lindens to pay my landllord the tier (rent), plus the additional upfront money to get into a decent lot.

There may not be many (or any) benefits to being premium but for me it's cheaper than downgrading and moving somewhere else without a change in my "lifestyle" in SL.

Besides, as someone else said early in the thread.............I get to bitch a little louder.

Call it what you will.. the point remains, it's not a privilege belonging to a class of residents, it's a contingency reserved by Linden Lab to preserve the stability of the grid, and it will be implemented when they see fit to do so, not because any particular class of resident feels they deserve it.

That was my point, coco.

zk

Apparently you can purchase a whole island sim off LL even if you are unverified, as long as you have the cash.

I guess the runnung costs on a Mainland sim are cheaper than an Island by $100 but you pay more too for and older server.

Nope. To buy an island, at the very minimum, you need to be verified. Since verified at this stage means payment detaisl on file, its pretty much impossible to buy that island without giving LL some payment details.

At this stage, someone is going to chime in and contradict me, I know it.

According to a rough back-of-an-envelope calculation the break even is after about 12 months. After that islands get more expensive due to higher maintenance costs, if you want to own a full region.

You are correct, Warda. While one need not be Premium to purchase an island sim, one must provide the credit information and become Verified. A credit card must be on file. (I am not sure, but I don't think they will accept PayPal as a means of purchasing an island or establishing ongoing maintainence tier fees for it.)

Maybe folks will call me silly or foolish, but I plan to continue with my premium membership because I find SL to be an enjoyable and rewarding experience and I feel it is fair that I pay for it. The $22.50 / quarter is a small amount to pay, and it isn't really about the L$300/week stipend or the 512m tier-free land or whatever.

It's not about the math on the token bonuses they give, it's about the intangible fact that I am using their service an I enjoy their service and want to keep using it. I feel I should pay for it (I use it a lot after all) and the price they have set seems fair to me.

For me, it is about paying what I think are fair fees to use a service which I enjoy. That's the point of having a premium membership.

-Atashi

p.s. You may go ahead and call me silly and foolish for having faith that someday, the Lindens might actually add some value to the premium membership.

This is the real reason why people should be switching to premium accounts. Let's assume you spend an hour a day on SL (less than most people spend watching TV). An annual subscription would work out at under 20 cents a day (not counting what you get back in stipend etc). Where else can you pay that little for this kind of entertainment?

That's why I put up my $10 a month as well. I figure if it happens tp be a month where I don't spend much in world, I've still paid my way.

I personally see no benefit to having a premium account, and as a result my RobbyRacoon account is a payment-verified basic. My other account is a premium paid on a quarterly basis, and I will probably leave it that way because 1) I keep forgetting and never notice the premium fees anyways, and 2) I keep hoping that LL will actually create some benefits for premium accounts one of these days.

As for financially supporting the game, I feel I do my part to pay equal to the level of service I receive by paying a significant monthly rent to three island owners who in turn pay Linden Labs, and massive numbers of uploads each month. I also put a rather large amount of my proceeds back into the SL economy.

I have in the past owned enough mainland (with my other account) for long enough to have paid at least 600USD in tier alone, so on balance with the quality of service I receive I think I am still just a little bit ahead.

Linden Lab earns plenty of money from me already, as fair and reasonable fees for services that I actually do use. The purchase price for the private island land that I own and the maintenance that I pay on that land goes directly to helping the sim owner pay his sim purchase price and tier to Linden Lab. I pay fees directly to LL for texture uploads, to the tune of hundreds of L$ per week. I pay fees directly to LL every time I take money out of the game, in the form of transaction fees that they charge on Lindex to convert my funds to US dollars, and again as a fee to cover their processing of my paylents to my PayPal account. Every L$ that I spend in-world, and I spend a lot of them, generates more income of that sort for LL, as those Players pay for their fees. On the very rare occasions when I need to purchase L$ on Lindex, I pay fees to LL there as well. I pay for what I use, every day.

Since they have made mainland so unattractive by their refusal to deal with many of the problems there, I have no interest at all in owning mainland property. So why should I pay for a service I won't use?

Now, if they would give some real and tangible benefits to being a Premium Member, like preferential log on access or free texture uploads or some other feature that I would benefit from, then I might consider it. But the way they are going, I really expect they will just eliminate the Premium Member program entirely for new sign ups at some point.

I definitely agree with you on all points. All of you that own islands and or conduct large scale business operations are definitely Paid in Full. It is time The Providers put the Premium back into Premium.

Also, for me, there is a different feeling about owning my own land, and having it on Azure Islands. On Azure, I really do "own" the land, in the sense that I bought it from Adam and Nexus, and I can sell it any time I like and keep the profits. And Adam and Nexus are not EVER going anywhere, or certainly wouldn't without making it right by the people who live on their land.

So on the surface, that's no different at all from having my own land on the mainland. But - it is different. Just as "owning" on Azure Island really does feel different from when I was first here and just rented an apartment in a building.

On my own land on the mainland, I am the queen of my realm, the boss, the top dog, etc., lol, and that just does feel different. That difference and feeling was there instantly, the minute I first got my own 512, by which time I was already a resident of Azure Islands (well, what it was called back then.)

It was MINE, all mine! That feeling is worth something, I think.

coco

Not only do I choose to be a premium member, so do my alts, save one I use solely to test whether any of the residents of my estate sims are discriminating against unverifieds with ban lines (against covenant to use ban lines save against individuals that have caused grief). I chose this because it seemed the right and proper way to support the game and at the time I needed the alts I have. I could do away with them now, but as they are grandfathered premium accounts, I find no reason to do so.

I guess it comes down to how much you love SL and whether you think premium membership helps support the platform or if that little bit a month over a large number of collected people amounts to much in the grand scheme of things or not.

Everyone has to decide these things for themselves, of course

Char

Benfits of Premium
weekly stipend I get 400L
group land I get 10 percent more without going up another tier level.
I rent from directly from Linden Lab, I have control over what, who I want to share my land with, access, banning.
I don't have to worry about landlord kicking me off the land because they don't like me or decide to sell because they want more money.
I can buy as much land as I can finicial afford and have 117 prims per 512m2 lot.
I only have to deal with mainland restrictions.
As long as I am paying my tier and abiding by the TOS, Linden lab is in business I have the land.
I can build and do whatever I want in the privacy of my land as long as its not going against TOS.
/Disadvantages of renting from another member.
They can take my lindens and kick me out any time they want.
I have to follow there rules and guidelines.
I can't create my own community or have group based rental.
I am paying them so they don't have to pay their own tier and they don't really have to do anything special.
Most of Large land owners (not all but majority I have met) aren't very friendly and only concerned about there own projects or next Linden they can get out of next person.
They don't have to give me use of full 117 prims over 512m2 area.
They can rent me a shoe box and say keep all your stuff inside and under such and such prims.

Ditto what FD said.

For me, the ability to own mainland makes it well worth the money.

Benefits of private island rental:

Know my landlord and get on well with him
If everything fails, have only lost 1 or 2 weeks worth of rent
Have some estate powers delegated to me, makes it easier to control grievers.
With ten estate managers, there is usually someone to deal with difficult situations.
Dont have to worry about breaking tier level, eg, jumping from $us 25 to $us 40 in one go.
Able to rent just the right amount of land on a linear scale (512 to 7 1/2 K in 12 months).
Adjacent to a big sandbox (Explorers Rangeland)
Knowing most folks who share this island - many friends.
No unsightly signage or casinos (We had one waaay up in the sky for a little while - np)
Very little lag.
Being able to terraform up to 100 m up (don't often go past 20 from normal).
No longer need to worry about CC credit availability month by month

Disadvantages of private island rental:
/me Scratches my head - are there any?

Well... seeing all these calculations may I ask one question, please:

You are Premiun, so that you get money out of Linden?

Oh boy... bah...

I am Premium... why? Because I love what Linden Labs did. I respect the idea and like to see it continued. With the payment of my 22.50 U$ for three months I do my little thingy for SL.

And... please do not think me rude or something... but... well... someone who pays regularly and not pushes some money in from time to time... well... is entitled to... well... 'bitch around'. Others are only... well... bah... paying residents for their work, not Linden for theirs... if you pay someone In-World 100,000L only he profits.

If you like SL... go Premium... if you only want money... work.

So sorry... bah

By setting up private islands LL has basically outsourced sim management, less for them to deal with = more core work on server software.

My fees go to the sim owner who passes them on to LL. My Landlord runs a large sandbox, at least a third of the sim, so he does not make much out of it. Its mainly for fun!

I'm premium and plan to stay that way unless finances get really, really bad and I have to cut corners.

Reasons:
1) I pay quarterly and get the old L$500/week so I just about break even there, but as I'm now earning more than I spend that isn't so much of an issue.

2) I don't mind paying a modest amount for a service I use and enjoy.

3) I can donate my tier-free 512m to a group, which helps to minimize their land costs.

Possible proposal:

Based on the arguments and discussions swirling around the new Grid Shepherd searchbot released by Electric Sheep Company, I observe that people are concerned about privacy, and whether or not a searchbot is "allowed" to enter a private parcel.

I'd like to propose that in lieu of the deceased First Land benefit for Premium Members, Linden Labs give Premium Members an option (maybe under edit/preferences?) to opt out of all such search utilities.

Comments?

Maybe some sort of Privacy setup, like a firewall or pop up blocker that has settings we can adjust ourselves. And I raelly wish the camera tricks could be done away with, along with the floating prim trick.

The math is interesting.

I am, I realise, very very very fortunate that I joined SL when I did (Nov 05). I am a premium member and and am grandfathered into the $500L a week; I bought my SIM second hand well before the island rush for, I think, $900US and I am also grandfathered in the $195 per month island fee. Oh, and I still have my original 512 lot

I have a very sweet deal, I know. I'm certainly not going to begrudge LL the $72 I pay to be a premium member. Like some other people in this thread, it's less about the math and more about being appreciative for and wishing to support a platform that brings me a very nice chunk of change each month.

Were I only breaking even on the membership costs and any in-game earnings, I might feel differently. But then SL would be a hobby and not a business, so I'm guessing I'd just call the $72 an entertainment expense and still feel I was getting a good deal for the money.