the premium subscription has just gone up

The argument is not a mistaken one when you take into account what Linden Lab has stated as their goal for the platform since as long as I can remember. The, in a shortened and abreviated form, is that SL is a 3D virtural platform to enhance (eventually replace) the internet as it is right now. I happen to think that will never take place as long as LL is tasked to make it happen..........but I do think LL will go down in history as the pioneers of a 3D internet which inevitibaly will happen. That answers most of the questions about their apparent disregard for the residents...........it's not that they hate us but that we are not their target base.

I do believe there will always be a place for us...........just not the center of attention. For at least 4 years we have not be that focal point. I think it's about time we realize we will never be that point either. I also don't think premium rates are likely to go up until the US economy recovers to the point of making such an increase economically feasible. Contrary to a lot of thinking in this forum I don't think LL is as stupid as some of the folks with power in this country's government are..........dispite LL being located in the same city (perhaps even the same district) as one of such leaders of our country, they won't "raise taxes in the middle of an economic down turn".

That's right.

The question is not 'are we their target base?' (Of course we are not.) The question is, 'how much profit is LL foregoing because they are dreaming of target customers [corporations and users of social media] they won't get, and are ignoring the target customers they have and could easily get more of?'

The point is: though it's wise for LL to be devoting some resources to the Future 3D Web possibilities, they are foolish to devote as much as they are, currently.

The "ick, Immersionist, pew!" philosophy that M brought to LL (or that he brought to the forefront) is wrongheaded.

He is a CEO. People who are CEOs or who aspire to be CEOs do not have leisure time. Basically they will not spend, say, a three-hour block of time in a leisure pursuit of any kind except maybe once a year, on a vacation they are forced to take (to show they Love Their Family or what have you.)

I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much.

Such people have difficulty respecting those who take leisure time every week, let alone every day. Thus the leap of imagination to "of all those who spend 6 hours watching television each day, some percentage would prefer to spend part of those hours inside SL if only they knew SL existed" is beyond their capacity.

As a consequence, such a CEO is likely to devote too many resources to "people will access their Twitter inside SL!"-type projects, because that type of project assumes 'use SL for five minutes to check my Twitter account', which seems like a natural and normal activity to the CEO.

But the CEO is leaving on the table HUGE potential revenues from those who would gladly take some of those 6-hours-a-day of television viewing and use them instead for SL (if they knew SL existed)...and spend money to do so.

Let alone those who ideally would COMBINE the two.

Entertainment market is largely untapped in SL and it's an even easier tie-in than RL internet shopping. (Much more intuitive, IMO.)

Yes.

But that sort of thinking would be foreign to most CEOs (not just to M). It's not the way they think. They think "how can this be used to help that guy tend his stock portfolio or that gal network with other banking professionals"...that sort of thing.

I truly think that M's skin probably crawls at the thought of role-players in SL. And probably even at the thought of people who have no interest in role playing or SL-sex, but who can find two hours have gone by in a flash while they align textures in the Roman Villa they're building.

His own predispositions and habits of mind lead him to think 'we've GOT to find another market for SL! These people are FLAKES!'

And he probably thinks the same of those tens of thousands of people who DO watch at least a couple of hours of TV each day after work and who would gladly substitute SL (again, that is, if they knew it existed) and would go Premium and buy Lindens and the whole nine yards.

So he doesn't care to devote resources to marketing to find them. And he doesn't care to devote resources to making the viewer better or to basic stability/functionality issues in general.

His blinkered gaze is on those who might be able to go into SL for five minutes to accomplish some task that they currently do on their Blackberries and iPhones. His gaze is focused on taking that business---even though SL is totally unsuitable for those purposes.

Since no one knows what LL's profits are regarding premium memberships I cannot believe talk about "how much LL is loosing out by not focusing on premiums". Evidently what evryone assumes is fact is not fact...........LL is a for profit corporation. They are in this business to make money.........and they are making money or they would long ago gone bust. I will concede that it appears that LL puts just enough effort in the direction of it's current base to keep us more or less at bay.........and place most of their energy and focus on what they believe to be the future or direction most profitable in the long run. I already said I don't think that's necessarily the correct direction but I don't have a say........it's an opinion that obviously LL or it's CEO do not agree with. But, by the same token, since I don't have access to any financial data to say their profits from memberships vs profits from other sources (which we are not entirely privy to either) that their efforts are wasted.......or wrong. They may be geniuses for all I know and be the most successful enterprise on earth in 10 years.

I don't think so but that does not make me right.

We know the number of premium members, and know what the maximum amount of fees can generate. Tyche Shepherd has done a census of mainland, and so we also know how much non-Linden land is held, and can approximate how much tier is being collected.

I have no problem with LL making money as it ensure's SL's survival. No one here does except the fruitiest of hippie fruit loops.

Of course we may not agree with LL, and we don't agree on most counts. But certain things hold true: piss off your customer base enough, and your problems will go away, eventually.

True. However, judging by your forum join date you've been around almost as long as I have (pershaps longer since I have not gone in world and looked at your born date) and that's been said for as long as either of us has been around. SL is still alive and kicking. So, at what point to we decide to realize that something's working.........something that we are not fully aware of. That's my point in a nutshell.