Macphisto Angelus

I apologize if this has been mentioned elsewhere but between what I gather from the chat logs with Jack Linden and this blog post I think the Lab are committed to this price hike. I wouldn't be looking for relief.. sorry.

Virtual Protest Threatens Linden Lab’s Profitability - GigaOM

The important part:

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Kit Lacy

Cheers for that. Looks like we'll be biting the loss and moving after all.

Something Linden Labs sould be aware of...as a customer I found myself late yesterday looking at the login screen of one of the open sims...

...if something similar happens to the next property we buy I'll either be biting the bullet and checking out the new digital frontier or end up playing WoW since my friends keep nagging me to.

Vengence Opus

I've been playing EVE.

Their servers crash, too.

As for the Labs...

They'll hike the price, somebody else will kiss their ass, love it for a while, get the price hiked themselves, go somewhere else, rinse, repeat, reuse, recycle.

I truly hope one of the other grids takes off. I wouldn't drop another penny in the Linden pool if it made all their dreams come true.

Not even the quiet dream of nothing more than a pony. Not a penny for a pony.

Way to keep pricing people out of your club, jackasses. You know, it'll be very expensive when you hire Lindens simply to populate the islands, run business meetings, etc. Like Skype with lag and blinginization.

oh, and you can fly.

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“If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.” ~ Charles Bukowski

Aminom Marvin

That blog post is blatantly biased. No talk about how massive the movement is. Even the title is ridiculously tilted: "
Virtual Protest Threatens Linden Lab’s Profitability ". How about "66% Price Hike Threatens Consumer Trust and Retention in Virtual World?" He/she goes on to show their bias near the end.

No wonder why they got a word with Mark.

BEARintheMorning

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During the winter, you roll the windows down just to smell the tire smoke from skidding tires.

MoxZ Mokeev

You know...here's what pisses me off. I LIVE on an OS. I didn't mean to live on an OS, it was my landlord who promoted the living on OS. She has no less than 8 renters living on OS. I had no clue about what an OS was or the limitations of them. So I guess according to LL she's one of the bad guys. Now because of the price hike, I'm going to have to pack up and find another place to live. Fuck if I'm paying more to live on a light version sim.

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Wipe your mouth, there's still a tiny bit of bullshit around your lips.

Cindy Claveau

I live on an OS by choice. I share it with 2 friends who never log in. I built nothing there but a house and a skybox so I had a place to hang out, change clothes, and maybe chat with a guest now and then. It's been a dream of mine for 3 years to have a quiet beachfront all my own where I could find peace and solitude from the ad farms, griefers, and chat spam of the mainland.

But now, because LL never enforced any scripting limits and act all shocked that someone would actually try to use these things like a real sim, I doubt I'll be able to afford it any more. This is the last thing that's kept me around SL (other than some friends). I don't need to pay tier to drop in and visit friends, but it breaks my heart to think I might have to give up my beach.

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Sometimes, "I hit it with my axe" is the best solution.

Ned Easterwood

I lived on an open sim when Bea was with Sarah.
We had two small houses, and my dungeon skybox. Oh, and my little meditation hut. Sarah had her sandbox. I had less than 600 prims. Sometimes when Sarah was working we were close to full, but we never went over.

Sad that some twatwaffles fuckit up for everyone - and that LL can't coem up with a better way to deal with their problem.

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Ned

Brenda Connolly

Look at it this way, the money you save can be put toward a trip to a REAL Beach.

Hugsy Penguin

When Openspaces came out, Linden Lab made it clear they were for light use only. Plus they gave examples of what *not* to do with them. Two examples are: not to be rented out and not to be lived in. Through-out the changes they made to Openspaces, they never changed this description. I agree that the changes they made and LL's own actual usage of OSs did make it seem like you were allowed to do more, but there was *no* official policy change.

I understand why people are pissed at LL. What I don't understand is why it seems noone is mad at the people abusing them.

MoxZ, I'm not saying your landlord was an abuser. Perhaps her OSs were very low lag and, as such, even though they go against the Linden's usage policy, I wouldn't call that abuse. Abuse starts when you use them in a laggy manner. But, she knowingly rented you OS land to live on and didn't make it clear it was OS land? And you're not upset, even to the slightest bit, with her, too? I don't know. If it were me, I'd feel duped by the landlord (and be upset with LL).

(to be clear, the thing to be upset about is not being informed that it was OS and what that meant)

--Hugsy

MoxZ Mokeev

I just hate it. I love my little 4096 island. It very rarely lagged and we just bought a beautiful new house to put on it! Ignorance was bliss.

Edited to add: Yes, I am upset with her just a lil bit. I knew that OS were minimalized, that's why I didnt' want to live on one. I was not aware that you shouldn't build houses on them though. I just knew that it wasn't somewhere you should build a script heavy club or the like. I was not made aware that it was an OS. She has a LOT of them I am just now aware of that fact. I rent two parcels from her. Currently my store is on the regular sim. Now those who have the OS will be piling on the regular sim and surrounding my business with houses.

Quiplash

Why not check it out now? I went back into OpenLifeGrid last week after a 5-month absence to find that it had developed a fair bit. It's not anywhere near SL in terms of features -- for one thing, there's no money system, no economy -- but I believe that by this time next year, OLG will be a serious competitor. These people are the true believers, mush as I suspect LL was way back when they started 5 years ago.

At least, keep an eye on it.

Quiplash

What are these real beaches of which you speak?

Malachi

Yesterday I found myself wondering how the pain will be multiplied by all the sub-lessors. Come January, I think there are going to be a huge number of people who find that their home sim has been abandoned.

Many of these people may have no idea that the "eviction" hammer even exists let alone is poised to fall.

Beebo Brink

My perspective on SL has been formed by my very active participation on the forums (SC, SLU, SS) for the majority of my residence on the grid. More recently, however, I've been making an enlarging circle of friends from my customer base at the store.

It's been an eye-opening experience in that the majority of them are usually completely oblivious to the issues that are burning the forums. Several of them turned out to be living on OSS and had no idea what it means, and didn't really seem to grasp the implications even after I tried to fill them in. It was simply too much technical information at one time for them to absorb. They want a place to live. Period. They are only vaguely aware of the difference between mainland, estates and OSS because visually there is so little distinction.

So yes, I think that as strong as the protest is now, there's going to be a major re-visit to the issue come January when the policy change hits them all, without warning in their eyes.

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Hugsy Penguin

Thanks for the reply. I see much backlash towards LL and agree they deserved it. While I haven't read every single post on the manner, I've read many and I'm seeing little to no backlash against those using them improperly. Everytime I read where someone was renting OS land, I always thought to myself "They shouldn't be doing that! "

--Hugsy

MoxZ Mokeev

Yes..no money system yet, but time, precious time to practice builds and to grow stock for when it does happen and it will!

Brenda Connolly

No way they would know, if they don't read a forum or other out of game site. And I'm sure most don't. I'd say at the least most people should look at the offical site if not the forum, but we all know what a font of useful and up to date information that is.

Beebo Brink

That misuse has been a topic of discussion on SLU, especially from landowners like Wilde who were losing estate occupancy due to demand for OSS.

I think there are some good reasons that LL has been a focus of the protest:

* Light use is a very vague term. Why would a building be any different than a landscape of trees? Why would one avatar hanging out for an hour in their home be any different than a person sailing around the OSS for an hour?

* The "solution" of simply raising prices on everyone does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to solve the problem.

If LL had reasonably defined what constituted obvious abuse, proposed a way to restrict or at least monitor performance, and then begun warning egregious abusers, you'd have far less backlash and quite a bit of support from those of us who winced at the misuse. Quite a few content creators have been very vocal about their dislike of OSS because it has increased their customer support issues.

Instead, LL have pointed out an obvious problem that even residents recognized, applied draconian penalties to everyone with an OSS regardless of their responsible usage, and done nothing to change the situation.

Brenda Connolly

They let it go on as long as they could so they could take in the cash. Once it became unmanageable, it was , "No, No, No. Naughty Pixel People."

They get no sympathy from me.

Jerboa Haystack

Even for informed users there could be a rude awakening. Like MoxZ, they might believe they aren't affected by it since they don't own a OS, never realizing that they were sold a bill of goods by some landlord.

I had just started looking around for a little land when the news hit. Now, I'm hesitant to even look at estate rentals, because the playing field is changing so much between now and January.

So chances are, I'll find what looks like the best bit of Mainland I can afford and call it a day. Which in a way is too bad, because I've seen some estates that I could easily live on.

Khamon

I'm damn sure going to demand on optimal experience from January forward. Every chance I get, everywhere I am, every Linden I see, every problem I encounter is going to have this quote stacked right on top of it.

Linden Lab damn well better be providing me an optimal experience if they ever want to see the light of day again.

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Hugsy Penguin

I understand the backlash against LL. However, the policy on OSs is:

"It is therefore important to understand what these regions are. They are provided for light use only, not for building, living in, renting as homes or use for events. As a stretch of open water for boating or a scenic wooded area they are fine, but we do not advise more serious use than this and will not respond to performance issues reported should you not use them in this way."

"Light use" may be somewhat vague, but the policy explicitly forbids renting and living in. LL may have changed some policies about OSs, used them themselves that go against this policy, and even let people go with them for too far, but they never changed this description. Some people were using them for obviously more than what was intended, yet very few seem upset about that.

--Hugsy

Brenda Connolly

You are all free to join me in the Happily Landless Club. We can revel in the freedom of not having to render to Lindnen each month. I don't know where we would meet though, since none of us own land.....

Beebo Brink

Sorry, but that's a big FAIL for you.

They do not advise different use and they do not support performance issues that arise from different use. That is a CYA statement and NOT a prohibition.