The signatures to this online petition protesting Linden Lab's plan to increase the cost of processing Linden Dollars in Second Life recently passed over 2500 total total, but the numbers of new signees is noticeably slowing (most signed signed within the first couple days). Given that there's roughly 100,000 highly active Second Life users, it's likely that the vast majority don't have much incentive to sign on.
Also, since the petition went up, I've seen quite a number of skeptical comments from other SLers who have misgivings with the petition itself. For instance, it mentions (in a message to Linden Lab) "[S]hould you agree to have a direct conversation with representatives for those who have signed this petition, we will work with you to choose those delegates." But that brings up a potential problem:
I'm fine with the increase... the fact it has not gone up in my 12+ years of SL is remarkable... plus they are finally giving us new content that is good. Here is for hoping for more focus on SL and less focus on the shambling corpse known as Sansar.
— Evangeline Ling (@EvangelineLing) June 12, 2019
"The idea of delegates concerns me," as NWN reader "vwfan" puts it. "We have no idea of what is being discussed. If there's one thing I would suggest, it's that if this is done behind closed doors, it should be made public before coming to an agreement. The community should be involved - not just creators or service providers. Consumers matter, too. Everyone matters."
Another valid point -- the petition seems to preference developers over their consumers:
"As a creator, i would like to see our fees increased and lands fees decreased because currently SL is too creator friendly and kicks the user to the curb," as Heidi puts it. "We need the users to make our money so we need to focus on them and keep them happy enough to stay. Land fees are a high as they are because SL needs that revenue. If they took a bit more from creators (this is still such a fair amount) then land fees could be reduced to a reasonable price. Also, most people who signed were asked to sign by their favorite creators. They actually had no idea what the numbers mean. They just do what they are asked in hopes of free products."
That last point is particularly interesting, and could account for the slow-down in sign-ups!
I read the petition and I won't sign it because there are a few things that the creators seem to bypass. I understand that they do not like the 5% increase and I do sympathize but, what they don't seem to want to understand is that the fees from Paypal went up. The percentage that LL has to pay when they do the conversion with Paypal is higher than it was, which is why it's now being passed to the creators who are cashing out. That petition is primarily regarding the cash-out percentage. You cannot expect a LL to cover the extra amount that Paypal is charging them and continue to remain a viable business. Right now, they are losing money every time the creators decide to convert their lindens into real-world currency. Linden Lab can only do that for so long. This petition is not about the rise in premium membership costs but about that 5% percentage and the fact that they will have to pay more of a cost, to do that conversion.
Posted by: Aislinn | Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 05:14 AM
I really wish you'd stop coming to these highly speculative proclamations about the numbers without acknowledging any limitations.
Posted by: So Many Prims | Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 06:59 AM
Most petitions start big and then slow down. It's a natural progressions like movies have their biggest audience on opening weekends then tail off over time.
As far as the merits of this petition go, LL has needed to change their revenue model for some time. What they've done so far is a good start, so no I won't be signing the petition.
Posted by: Amanda Dallin | Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 11:02 AM
I get just 35% from my Kindle book sales at Amazon. SL content creators have it pretty good. I agree that Linden should take more from content sales and decrease the cost of land to encourage more people to buy (and buy for) it.
Posted by: Huckleberry Hax | Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 02:00 PM
petitions for sure do provide a way for people to express disapproval on the one hand, while also hoping to bring about changes that can benefit a community as a whole
its the "we don't say specifically in the petition what it is that we the petition organisers could offer to LL as alternative ways for LL to generate revenue" that kinda dooms petitions worded this way
to get a lot of people on board with a petition then is best to be succinct, clear and specific about what exactly are the changes being petitioned for
like the petition does actually say what the petitioners are asking for in concrete terms. Paraphrasing: "We the petitioners, would like LL to give more notice for changes of this kind, so that we as a community have more time to digest the proposed changes and provide feedback."
it just gets lost in all the other stuff about we got ideas we can't say about. And we got delegates, yet we don't know who they are, etc. All vague wordy stuff that is unnecessary in a petition
Posted by: irihapeti | Friday, June 14, 2019 at 06:54 AM
Someone mentioned how people might start looking at using Paypal inworld, as an alternative to Linden dollars, in the face of all these fee increases. Well, it's already happening on OpenSim, in this story: https://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2019/06/you-can-use-paypal-for-in-world-payments-on-your-grid-heres-how/
Posted by: Jane | Monday, June 24, 2019 at 06:30 AM