Rewarding long-term SL users

Tags

anniversary, gifts, linden lab, longtermers, second life

I’ve made this suggestion in previous posts before, come to think of it, I’ve subtly mentioned wanting a gift from Linden Lab every time my 1920s Berlin Project sim celebrated an anniversary.
But during SL’s 17th anniversary celebrations Ebbe and some of the other Lindens showed interest in this idea and hinted at that is is being discussed at Linden Lab, so I thought I’d write a blog about it, just to, subtly, try and steer Linden Lab in the right direction.
Because you know me, Fraulein Subtle.

In 1920s Berlin people who have been a tenant get rewarded every year on the birthday of their tenancy.
They get a note of thanks from me, their picture in the Long Term Tenant’s gallery at our inworld city hall, they get congratulated in our Facebook group and… they get a month of rent, for free.

The Long term tenants gallery in 1920s Berlin

Second Life has now been around for 17 years and of course much of the success of our virtual world is because of the people who have been living, working and creating parts of this world.
I think it would be nice if those of us who have been here for a while could be rewarded.
Here are a few suggestions on how Linden Lab could celebrate our rez days;

Ideas for regular SL residents rez anniversaries;

• Congratulatory message;
  It should be relatively easy for LL to program an automated IM message that gets send to a SL resident on their rezday.
  Although not very personal or original, it would be nice to once a year get a little message from Linden Lab, thanking us for being in SL.
  It could also be a nice reminder for those of us who haven’t been online for a while to check in.
• Profile badge;
  It might be fun, especially for bragging purposes, to have a badge displayed in your profile showing everyone how long you’ve been active in SL.
  Imagine one day checking your profile and seeing a little cocarde or medal there with a 5 or 10, depending on how long you’ve been inworld.
• Inworld gift;
  Always nice to receive a little gift, nothing fancy but exclusive!
  A nice cake, a picture frame with a photo of all the Lindens, a golden trophy, etc.
  Just something fun you can rez in your home.
• Real world gift;
  Yes, why not!
  Linden Lab/Second life has/had merchandise, or merch as the kids call it these days.
  Unfortunately we can’t buy it from the SL website (why not?!) but it would be really great to receive a present from your virtual world on your real world doormat.
  A t-shirt, a plastic plywood prim, a poster or even just a postcard.
  It should be only for very special anniversaries, for instance for when someone has been an active member of SL for a decade.
• Attention;
  Getting attention is always nice, well for most people anyway.
  On special anniversaries, like 5th, 10th, etc. it would be fun to be mentioned on SL’s Social media.
  What about “Congratulations Jo Yardley on her 20th anniversary as a resident of Second Life!” on Facebook/Twitter perhaps?
  Not just would this be fun for the residents, it’s also a bit of publicity for SL, I mean how many virtual online worlds can brag that people have been living there for years?
• Discount;
  Although SL is of course free to use, many of us, especially longtermers, are premium members.
  This costs you USD 11.99 a month.
  Even a small discount would be a nice gesture that would eventually add up.
  Imagine if your premium account only costs you USD 10.- a month after your 10th anniversary?
  I bet a lot of people would appreciate that.

Besides residents there are also communities, exhibits, clubs, shops, etc. that manage to survive in Second Life for several years.
This is perhaps even more remarkable as it involves keeping people happy, making publicity, managing events, paying lots of tier, creating new things, etc.
If you can keep a place going that not only keeps people from leaving SL but also lures new users in or simply creates another place of interest that makes SL worth everybody’s while, you deserve gifts!
Here’s my list of suggestions of how managers/owners/founders of these places can be rewarded;

• Congratulatory message;
  As above, let these people know you appreciate the work they put into creating a place, community, venue in SL.
• Profile badge;
  As above, but the badge/sticker is seen on the group’s page.
  This can be quite nice to have as it would show people who are interested in perhaps visiting your Sim that they’re going to a well established place.
  If you’re going to a roleplaying community that has a 10 year anniversary badge on their profile, you know the odds of it vanishing within a few weeks like those other places you’ve visited are slim.
• Inworld gift;
  As above.
  But a nice trophy is perhaps even nicer to give an honorary spot in your club than it is to place it on your mantelpiece at home.
  “Oh honey this club has received a reward, let’s see what it says, oh my they’ve been around for a decade! This must be a swell joint!”.
• Attention;
  As above.
  Of course getting attention is extra nice for a venue as it can bring you extra traffic!
  Being mentioned on official SL social media or the website can give your place a huge boost in traffic which in turn can result in new tenants, regulars, sales, etc.
• Destination guide;
  Perhaps there could be a special category in the destination guide of all the places in SL that have been there for an X amount of years; the oldtimers.
• Discount;
  Although SL has gotten cheaper the last few years, renting a piece of land or even regions, homesteads etc. is still not cheap.
  Making sure you can pay your tier every month is a big task and for many sims tier has been the reason of their demise.
  It would be great if the communities/shops/venues/clubs/etc that do manage to keep going for several years get rewarded with a tier discount.
  Perhaps lower their tier permanently or allow them to to not pay any tier at all during the month of their anniversary.
  Having to spend a little less every month can make a real difference, having a bonus once every few years because you don’t have to pay any tier can be very welcome.

So, in short; reward those of us who stick around and those of us who (also) create and keep places & experiences going.
Have you got any ideas & suggestions on what kind of gift you’d like to receive for your rezday?

My 10th rezzday

Tags

anniversary, birthday, rezzday

On this day exactly 10 years ago I joined Second Life.

Well technically, I re-joined Second Life.
I tried it out in 2007, walked around a bit, saw lots of weird people doing weird things, didn’t get it, ran off, planning never to return.

Then in 2009 I got a new computer, wanted to push it to its limits and remembered this virtual world that truly was quite a computer testing experience.
After I tried SL for a few minutes and was about to log off, again for ever, I decided to use the search option and look for something vintage, something historical.
I found a 1930s themed club, realised anyone could build stuff in SL, realised I could build stuff in SL, realised I could use SL to do the one thing I couldn’t do in RL; travel back in time.
The rest is, in more ways than one; history.

In this decade SL has changed a lot, it improved beyond recognition.
My avatar hasn’t.
Nor did my interests.
I started the 1920s Berlin Project a few weeks after joining and in 2 months it will be celebrating its 10th anniversary.

SL has given me some unique experiences, it also provided me (eventually) with a modest income that even allowed me to stay home and look after my dog in the last months of her life in stead of having to go to work.
I’ll always be grateful for that.

But SL also introduced me to some amazing people, I’ve made friends all over the world, I’ve been able to share my passion for history with them, I’ve taught people a lot of stuff and they taught me even more.

The future is bright, I’m not looking forward to having to learn Blender, am yet to fall in love with Sansar, but still have tons of ideas for Second Life… that I’ll get started on as soon as tier gets a little lower…

Talking of tier.
When a tenant in Berlin celebrates their anniversary as a Berliner, I give them one month free rent.
Yes, that is a very subtle hint of mine towards Linden Lab… go on… give me a month of tier for my 10th anniversary 😉

Here’s to the next 10 years!

Me in 2009, just before the opening of 1920s Berlin.

Second Life’s new 15th birthday video

Tags

anniversary, birthday, sl15b

Linden Lab has just released a special 15th birthday video that, very cleverly, isn’t just meant for us long term users and residents, but also a great little advertisement and sort of teaser to everyone who hasn’t been in SL yet.

Besides Ebbe looking very relaxed with an unbuttoned shirt somewhere in Amsterdam (not my house, I swear, stop looking at me like that, I deny everything!) we see some avatars holding up signs with a few very interesting facts & figures that should impress the outsiders.

In the video Ebbe talks about and shows a few users, what they do in SL, we get to see a bunch of nice places and even Philip pops in to say hello.

Enjoy;

Second Life’s new infographic & the old one

Tags

"second life", anniversary, birthday, infographic, linden lab

I love these, the media loves these, everybody loves these.
The infographic quickly gives you some interesting information packaged with pretty pictures.

Linden Lab just published this fresh new one as part of the 15th anniversary of the biggest user build virtual online world Second Life.

I’ve decided to dig up the infographic Linden Lab made for the 10th anniversary and compare the two.

Up to today 57 million accounts were created, that is impressive but doesn’t say very much about how well SL is doing or how many people actually use it because we all know that many of these people who sign up don’t use SL anymore ands some are alt accounts, I for instance have roughly 2 hundred thousand alts myself 😉
5 years ago there were 36 million accounts created, so that is another 21 million in 5 years!

Today the total time spend in SL is 482.000, now that is a lot.
It would be nice to know how many people actually are responsible for these hours though.
On the other hand, I really do not want to know how many hours I’ve spend in SL!
Five years ago this number was 217.000 years, so in the last 5 years we’ve spend more time in SL than people have in the first 10 years!
Now that is interesting.
SL may have stopped growing and is in slow decline but it is being used more intensely than ever before.

On average 350.000 people register for SL every month, even if many of these are alts and even if lots of new users only stay for a short time and don’t become “lifers”, it is still quite a high number of people who are still interested in checking out and trying a 15 year old product.
However, 5 years ago this number was 400.000, so this number has gone down.

$68 million has been paid to creators in 2017, I wish I was paid a million.
This number was not mentioned 5 years ago but in 2015 Ebbe said that users cashed out $60 million, so it looks like SL’s economy has gotten better the last 2 years.

 

5 million virtual goods created for the marketplace, back in 2013 this was 2.1 million, so this too seems to have grown rather a lot.
In the last 5 years we’ve been creating and/or selling more items on marketplace than in the 10 years before!
Mind you, with this number you have to ask yourself if everything that is being sold is actually created by users for sale or sold one, the cacha market is huge and consists of people selling stuff they did not create.

The top 3 categories most popular in the destination guide are games, editors picks and photogenic spots.
I had not spotted the photogenic spots category yet, all my sims should be in there of course!
It is interesting to see that 5 years ago the most popular categories were games, events and adventure & fantasy.

50 million chat messages sent daily, that doesn’t surprise me, I reckon I get at least half of all those messages!
Or at least it feels like it sometimes.
Unfortunately this number was not shared 5 years ago, but I think it has gone up because those who chat the most are the people who spend a lot of time in SL and it looks like we’ve been spending more and more time in this virtual world of ours.
I wonder if the real world becoming less and less pleasant might have had something to do with that…

Most popular shopping categories; avatar apparel, avatar accessories, home & garden.
In 2013 this was not shared but we did learn that women’s hairstyles were the most purchased items.

I’d like to have seen how many users visit monthly these days and how large SL’s landmass is.

I wonder if my analysis of these two infographics makes sense.
The most important things I notices are that although SL is in decline, those of us who do make it our home spend more time and money.
Which I reckon is pretty good news.
Of course we have to keep fighting to make sure more people join and stay once they’ve joined, but the locals, the regulars, the oldtimers, are doing a great job of keeping the world alive, active, fresh and interesting.
I reckon we deserve some nice gifts during the anniversary… subtle hint….

Last names return to SL and more, as part of 15th anniversary celebrations

Tags

anniversary, last names

Yes you’ve read that correctly, last names are returning!

They of course never should have been removed, they were missed by most almost from day one.
Sure, we love that this allowed us to change our display names but somehow those called ‘resident’ were missing out.
Last names are fun, especially when you bump into a ‘relative’ of yours with the same last name.

Anyway, I get ahead of myself.
As you may know, SL will be celebrating its 15th anniversary soon and have started handing out gifts early.

I will share a link to the original announcement at the bottom here but first discuss a few specifically for the simple reason that I find them interesting and this is my blog and I do what I want you’re not my mum.

1&2. Lower tier on the mainland, we were given this a week or so ago and its great but of course those of us who are no longer on mainland felt a bit left behind.

3. More value for premium members, including new advantages that will add more value for merchants, creators and landowners.
Now this sounds very interesting as I am one of all of those, but generally premium membership hasn’t given me any bonuses that I got very excited about and this promise is rather vague so all we can do is wait.

4. Environment enhancements, FINALLY I WILL GET MY 24 HOUR DAY CYCLES!!
This is brilliant, we’ve known about this for ages and I can’t wait.

7. Last names to return!
This is wonderful, I’m glad they found a way to do this.
They write; “we will provide a way to customize your last name in Second Life” and that sounds even more exciting than new residents getting last names, because this seems to suggest that… everyone will be able to customise their last name!
Wait, what?
I have no idea what they’ve got planned but does this mean old avatars can also change their last names?

Finally Ebbe writes about more pricing changes to come.

Currently, Land costs can be quite high, and make up a lopsided portion of our Second Life revenues. To improve this imbalance, we plan to increase revenues in other ways so that we can lower land costs further. In order to avoid shocks to the in-world economy and to take care that we keep the business healthy, we plan to make these changes in a measured way, taking time to assess the impacts of each change as we go.

And;

In the coming months some other fees may increase, including Marketplace commissions, Linden Dollar exchange fees, and cashout fees.

This sounds both promising and worrisome.
The idea that tier could be lowered by raising other costs is not new and has come up many times before, but mostly in relation to Sansar.
It is nice to now see it brought up in relationship to SL and I do think this is the way to go.
This system will tax those of us who make money, it will tax commerce in stead of creativity.
Tier could lower, sims could get cheaper, the threshold people need to cross to start a new community or project in SL will be lowered.
We’ve already seen the exchange fees go up and this brings extra income to LL but doesn’t effect the majority of people in SL.
But all of this has to be done very carefully and in small steps because if SL becomes more expensive or less profitable for those of us who try to make a living with it, it could cause some serious damage.

For instance, if my exchange & cashout fees go up before my tier goes down, I’ll be losing money.
However I am assuming LL will plan these changes at the same time or at least make sure tier goes down first.
Either way, I expect that these changes will, no matter how, make SL generally cheaper for all of us, regardless of how much money you make.

Anyway, what do you think about these changes?

You can read the entire announcement by clicking here.

Three years of Ebbe Linden

Tags

anniversary, ebbe altberg, ebbe linden, linden lab, rezday

Three days ago Ebbe Linden was ‘born’, his avatar was activated shortly after his RL counterpart Ebbe Altberg was appointed the new CEO of Linden Lab after the unexpected news of former CEO Rod Humble leaving just a few weeks earlier after having been the CEO for 3 years.

And not much later he stumbled into my bar in 1920s Berlin to be entertained with 1920s Swedish music, the best Schnaps in VR and pretty frauleins (und herren) making eyes at him.
He looked much younger then.

A lot has happened in the last 3 years, Second Life has improved significantly, tier (per prim) has gone down, the tech has improved, we’ve experimented with headsets with mixed results, the hamsters in the wheels that keep the LL servers running have been given fresh straw, Lindens have been released back into the wild and we learned about the brand new world they have been building.

Of course some of these things were set in motion before Ebbe joined the club but a lot changed under his watch and an interesting and exciting future awaits us.

Generally it seems that most people in SL are quite happy with our current captain on the bridge and personally I must admit I think he is doing a cracking job and I’m happy it is him in charge at this, I think, very important time for VR.

One thing Ebbe completely messed up… is his profile.
Really Mr. Linden, after 3 years your profile is still empty, you should fill it up with nonsense quotes, ridiculous disclaimers, an up to date profile picture and your favourite picks, you know, like that 1920s Berlin sim….

Seriously though, what do you think, has Ebbe done a good job?
Are you happy or unhappy with him as CEO?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

What Second Life means to me

Tags

anniversary, sl12b

Linden Lab is asking people to share with the world what Second Life means to them.

This virtual world allows me what I love to do most but can’t in reality; Time travel.

I’ve been given the tools to rebuild Berlin in the 1920s and wander its streets and taste the atmosphere of this vibrant city during these exciting years.

I always created worlds, especially historical ones, but before SL I used to make drawings, film and tv shows about the past but it just wasn’t the same.

I can now rebuild the past in virtual reality and share it with people from all over the world, doing the second thing I like very much; educating.

These are things I also do in RL, history, education and even time travel are part of my life, honest!
I have a 1930s lifestyle, only wear clothes from that era, own no tv, no mobile phone, no washing machine, etc.
You can perhaps imagine that although there are some, there are not that many vintage themed 1920s, 1930s or 1940s parties in RL that I can visit whenever I want.
Second Life has given me the chance to have one at any moment!

In short, Second Life is enabling my History addiction…

And this is only the beginning!
I hope to add more time travel experiences to this virtual world and the next!

To celebrate the 12th anniversary of Second Life Linden Lab made a couple of wonderful videos showing a few people telling us what Second Life means to them.

Enjoy!

Torley Linden; virtual celebrity, known by all, obsessed with a certain fruit’s related colours I don’t even dare mention out of fear of Torley trying to eat the blog;

Xiola Linden; a superstar, Second Life Lead Community manager who does a LOT of work organizing great events, the superb meet & greets and many things we don’t even know about;

Famous fashion blogger and photographer Strawberry Singh;

And of course our very own Second Life reporter Draxtor Despres made a video too;

Unfortunately my current computer isn’t good enough to make a video, so I won’t be adding mine, but if you can make a video, you should.

If you can’t, share your story in the comment section below.

What does Second Life mean to you?