When did residents get permission to advertise on MOTD?

Except that your VIP's didn't get something that took away the level playing field from others.

There is a big difference in your comparison here. Your customers at DirecTV were not using the service to compete with each other in business.
In SL however everyone in the land business is having to compete with these feted businesses at what will probably be a severe disadvantage.

Like I responded over there, we have concierge level support and then there's the super high gold support that costs around 25 grand a year. That's VIP status.

Companies generally don't promote one reseller over another, in the background they may give different price breaks but it is not sensible for a company to promote one of their customers at the expense of others, this is not normal business policy at all.

Well course I'm comparing as a service provider, which Linden Lab is. And service providers do offer preferential treatment to their VIP's

Of course when compared to the aspect that lindens = real life money that RMT aspect of the game creates an unfair advantage. And from that perspective I'd agree. Although Lindens nicely cover their arse by saying that Lindens are not real life money in their EULA. And they are providing a "service" much like any mmorpg company.

Of course for players or those that are familiar with Eve Online we already seen the fall out of gaming the system with developers via the 'band of brothers scandal'. So it's what I'd call a knife's edge situation.

On one side of this slippery slope VIP treatment will always put the "haves" above the "have nots" and will cater to them with preferential treatment. Which is a standard business practice of most every business in existance. The other side being the VIP treatment will give unfair advantages to the "haves".

Such as the town I am in the city owns the property that a "mini mall" is on. The mini mall owners wanted to rent the land next door them to add on to their store. But the "VIP's" in town did not want that to happen so instead the city bypassed their request to rent the next door area and gave it to local library system who built a park with picnic tables on the area. The local libary system brings in government grant money to the city therefore those entities get first dibs and get promoted more by the city than normal business owners.

So unfair? sure, but money talks... thats the way of the capatilists. Grease the right palms and you will be shown the same.

Why have two Lindens replied to that thread, and none here? That's one more Linden than I've seen in this whole forum in the last month.

Ugh. "The Norm" does not make it right.

You sound rather star struck to be honest. What the hell is 'cool' about talking to a person that is on t.v. or make movies? Just yet another person. I've never understood star worship.

Bullshit. Socialist countries work in the exact same fashion. Wherever money or a medium of exchange can be used, greasing the right palms works. In ANY country. Under ANY political system.

it was neat speaking to a celeb, but there was nothing star struck about it, it was my job. We had rules on how to treat VIP's and since we were monitored we would be fired if we treated them like normal people. There was always the VIP standard operating procedures and Normal customer standard operating procedures in our folders we had to follow.

So please stop with "putting words in people's mouths" type stuff.

And yes it is the norm, if you are in the united states. And this company is the in US. And this is how things work. You dont have to play second life if it pisses you off that bad. For the rest of us it's standard stuff that happens with all companies, real estate corporations, city and county commisioners, and zoning laws. All have VIP procedures.

That's fine when your customers are consumers. If you do that when your customers are competing with each other and you're giving one or another a direct competitive advantage... you find you have to be more subtle. What LL is doing is like running free ads for Mel Gibson, and if DirectTV did that the manure would hit the windmill.

but that is also how it works with real estate companies, city and county commissions, zoning boards, etc. happens every day. So if people want second life to be more like RL then this is how it works, big business gets preferential treatment, big spenders get it also.

it's nothing bad, it's just how capitalism works

And when they cross the kind of line LL is crossing here, and it hits the news... commissioners lose elections, clerks lose their jobs, and the midden hits the windmill.

wow, this is soooo wrong on all accounts... what were they thinking?

Geee so I have to own a shitload of estates to get an ad right where everyone logging in will see it???

What about those of us who don't own an estate... why can't we get some kind of exposure... ohhh because we are not paying enough money to LL?

I guess money does talk...

You're wrong, Hewlett Packard do not operate their reseller system like this. They give better prices to those who sell more but they do not advertise one above the rest.

In most normal corporations that deal with advertising for the customers, the advertising is SOLD to the customers, to whomever is willing to pay the going rate for (insert whatever type) of exposure.

Not GIVEN to whomever they feel like giving it to.

LL is not operating their business like a business, and is ticking off the customer base yet again.

Imagine what would happen if NBC just started giving out free advertising to Procter & Gamble or Pepsico, while all others had to pay. NBC would go under.

Did DirectTV then give Mel Gibson, Christina Ricci, and Helen Hunt free advertisements for all their multi-million-dollar movies?

Preferential treatment is one thing. LL does have that to an extent with concierge level support, etc.

This is way beyond preferential treatment. In the real world it would be an unfair business practice. But since we are not in the real world LL has the right to tell us to take our toys and go home. They are pushing the envelope with these sorts of actions, though IMO.

Well the basis of what I'm saying is right and confirmed, go to xstreet to see lindens response. new service in testing but conducted blind so as to not stir up a hornets nest and seems this is for high level enterprise customers to start off. in other words V I P

lol

In other words F I C

Yes DirecTV did exclusive in network (meaning direcTV only) advertising of movies with ads on their propietary tv guide channel given to certain VIP's and certain vips that did commercials for DTV got free service. Such as Drew Carrey did DTV commercials as well as get his 'whose line' show advertised free in return as well as free service.

but it really doesnt matter it's just how things are done. Course that violates my NDA agreement I had to sign but since I no longer work there I don't really much care.

But Lindens are responding on xstreet forums to get the lowdown.
they respond there more than here

I would say that they failed, it shows they knew the user base would not like it but it also shows they are out of touch enough to realise that the problems would not be lessened by trying to sneak it in.
I am very sure that a shit-storm of epic proportions is about to break over them in the near future.

You're mixing up barter (which happens at all levels of society) with giving big customers a unique deal. There's a reason they put people who know about such deals under NDA... because it's *not* how things are supposed to be done and companies like DirecTV can get in trouble if they do it openly.

Someone in the XSL forums suggested a boycott of Azure Islands to make sure that LL sees this kind of thing is a bad idea.

Boycotts, by the way, are also "how things are done", before you get all cryptocapitalist on my ass.

And could customers use the DirectTV service and not see those ads? Did those ads come on when a customer first turned on their TV but before any programming? Could customers interrupt these advertisements and choose to see something else?

There's a world of difference between what LL is doing with MOTD and a extra courtesies for VIP customers.

Fur Institute of Canada?

Fetid Inner Cheese

ahh... now i understand why the cheese stands alone...

You have no history in SL so i do not expect you to now know that obviously this is not blind.