1200+ Second Life Users Petition Linden Lab to Keep 3rd Party L$ Exchanges Open

Assuming little overlap, over 1200 Second Life users have signed two petitions calling for Linden Lab to keep third party Linden Dollar exchanges open, HyperGrid Business reports, and to reverse the company's stated plans to discontinue them this month -- about 300 signees on this petition (now closed), and over 900 on this German-language based petition (still open). The total was just over 1000 when HGB reported this a couple weeks ago, and it's since gone up to 1200+. The former petition is supported by DX Exchange, a proud sponsoring partner to this blog, which means I have a biased interest in this topic, so I'll refrain from editorializing any further. Instead, I'll just quote HyperGrid Business, which asked some SLers why they signed the petition:

“I have no other option than to buy Linden dollars on the Eldex and was shocked about what Linden Labs has done,” wrote Pfister Hammer Matthias from Vilshofen. “My preferred payment option is the Paysave card.”

“When Linden decided to cancel the Linden dollar reseller program the first time in 2013, I switched to another 3D world,” wrote Michael Körschgen from Mosbach. “After Linden restarted the reseller program, I went back to Second Life. Now, if they cancel again, I want to really quit and move from Second Life to this world.”

Some Second Life customers prefer to pay by direct bank transfer. “I pay through my bank,” wrote Günther Kaffrell from Fürth. “Not with plastic.”

“Unfortunately, the majority of the world’s Internet-enabled population still has neither PayPal nor credit cards nor MoneyBookers,” wrote Beate König from Heiligenhaus. “This poses a huge hurdle for new and current Second Life users.” “When Virwox no longer works, I rent no more sims,” wrote Ralf Attermeyet from Bielefeld.

Much more here.

Please share this post:

Tweet

 

Comments

[Krinkles Q. Klown]

Good luck getting your money out of SL and the new soon-to-be-a-failure grid. Already long-term content creators have been getting mysterious denied credit processing requests by LL. When asked why, they remain silent (which is far more honest than the usual blow-sunshine-up-their-trousers-happy-spin crap they do usually).

So now that LL fully controls the "in-game-token" market in this move (read drive to maximize profit and customers be da*ned which has always been the Linden litany), they effectively have your money and so what if you don't get your tokens exchanged for cash and put hundreds of hours into building a successful content business. LL owns your content anyway (read the Terms of Disservice).

This company has never listened to customers and never will--unless you represent major money on their platform. I'm a long-time user and I won't invest a single iota of time, energy, or money into creating content for SL. I make stuff for my own use and entertainment. LL's less-than-stellar-in-the-honesty-department track record is the sole reason for it.

Imagine a casino not exchanging your "in-game tokens for cash" when you hit the cashier's window. The broo-haha would be monumental. No casino would do it.

But I suspect LL would. They have all that venture capital they've burned and will burn through to pay back! How dare customers expect other businesses to exchange those tokens, stealing money out of LL's coffers! The nerve!

These petitions will do nothing.

[Amanda Dallin]

@Klown
"Imagine a casino not exchanging your "in-game tokens for cash" when you hit the cashier's window. The broo-haha would be monumental. No casino would do it."

That's a bad analogy. No casino would allow a 3rd party to setup shop at their front door cashing people's chips for profit.

It surprises me that LL ever allowed 3rd party exchanges. Now that they have for all this time, it's a bad idea to shut them down without an explanation such as new government regulations.

[Frank Leon Rost]

As I have mentioned many times before, this step shows a lack of interest and knowledge on the LL side when it comes to anything other than american customers of their platform. The casino comparison isn't that bad at all. Casino's that want your money make sure that you're able to pay them. Linden Lab hasn't done that for most of the time. Germans and many other Europeans don't use credit cards, especially not in the way they are used in the USA. Therefor it was always complicated or even impossible to use the LindeX. This hasn't changed much and therefor most complaints are coming from those countries as basically it will be to some extent impossible for those users to get Linden Dollars.