We were literally just talking about delays in L$ to US$ processing last week, and now Linden Lab is announcing cost increases to do that very thing:
- The fee for purchasing L$ on the LindeX will increase from $0.40 (USD) to $0.60 (USD) per transaction
- The fee structure for process credit transactions (i.e. paying real money into PayPal or Skrill accounts) will remain as a 1.5% fee with a $3 (USD) minimum, but the maximum fee per transaction will increase from $15 (USD) to $25 (USD).
The stated reason for doing this: "Investing in improvements to these processes and the ongoing compliance work required comes at a cost to Linden Lab, and we will be making some LindeX fee adjustments in order to share a portion of those costs with Residents active in the SL economy." I.E., They're increasing transaction costs to help cover Linden Dollar processing services.
The thing is, the SL userbase isn't growing, while private sims keep declining, so there's likely to be less users making credit processing transactions. So I deeply suspect "share a portion of those costs" basically means:
The Second Life economy is slowly but surely shrinking, so those who are still in the economy will have to pay more to keep participating in it. Related to that, this looks like a move to systematize the process limits that SL developers have been discussing. If that's right, we may see less delays, since developers will now need to pay $10 to process the virtual goods they own into US dollars.
Hat tip: Ciaran Laval.
LL is sucking that Cow's tit harder and harder
Posted by: Larry | Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 01:52 PM
They do relise by doing this they will lose more people which will only hurt them worse right?
Posted by: Amanda | Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 05:57 PM
are you FRIGGIN KIDDING ME!! WTF
Posted by: Vicki | Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 05:58 PM
people are going to go to inworldz because of LL doing this its cheeper there
Posted by: Vicki | Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 05:59 PM
@ Vicki
Linden Lab operates as a real business with real development costs/hosting expenses vs. what Inworldz? a company without the tech knowledge to fix/update a website after three years?...give us a break sister!
Posted by: Just Say'n | Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 07:12 PM
Render unto Linden Lab that which is needed to keep Second Life alive, or you may find yourself without a Second Life to log into sooner rather than later.
(Let's be brutally honest, SL's days are not going to be around forever, but paying for maintenance and occasional boosts will help it stay around longer)
Posted by: Patchouli Woollahra | Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 12:42 AM
These new fees will ONLY impact those cashing out over $1000 at a time -- below that the fee remains as it has been since introduced awhile back. That isn't really all that many people.
And it is pretty easy to get around the increase on buying Lindens, simply by buying twice as much as you normally would -- and less often. And even if you don't, it 20 cents!
So really much ado about something most folks can work around.
And I am not seeing how this sentence in the post makes any sense: " If that's right, we may see less delays, since developers will now need to pay $10 to process the virtual goods they own into US dollars. "
A VERY few folks will pay $10 more to cashout their US dollars to Paypal.
Posted by: Chic Aeon | Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 02:47 PM
I will pay the extra 20 cents per transaction to buy my Lindens to buy the plethora of content available in Second Life. I don't think it's too much to ask, and like Chic mentions above, a little pre-planning on my part would avoid the majority of fees I pay anyway. As far as cashing out... I don't do it and I don't know a lot of people who do on any significant scale. Most people who are gonna be outraged by this are really not even affected by it.
BTW.. I have been to InWorldz and cheap land doesn't mean anything to me when there are very few people there to interact with and little content to work with.
Posted by: Thea Dee | Friday, June 16, 2017 at 01:39 AM
Just Say'n - Why don´t you post as Just Linden ??? Or even better... Why don´t you post with your RL name and therefore hit us with a valid post ??? Do you want me to list what LL has not been able to fix on the past 14 years ??? - It would be a god damm long post
Posted by: Carlos Loff | Friday, June 16, 2017 at 02:21 AM