Metaverse SHOCKER!!! -- Free SL Accounts Locked Out?

Why are free accounts sometimes disabled to make room for paying customers?

by Avil Creeggan

---

Dear Linden Lab,

I am a free account. I have been a free account for the past two years. During that time, I've dealt with a lot of stuff that, frankly, shouldn't be happening; flagrant asset loss and dehabilitation, incompetent customer service representatives, seemingly-random suspensions and bans for which there is no notification, having to provide my identification on multiple occasions... But it's been pretty much okay.

You see this dialog box?

This changes everything. You know why?

Forget the fact that you didn't tell me this was coming, at all. Forget the fact that, not only can I not login, neither can my friends. Realize that you consider me to "just" be a free account, now, and nothing else. You are completely wrong.

Step back, and ask yourself:

*How many of your over one million residents don't pay for premium accounts?

*What happens to the economy when the currency these non-premium accounts hold is effectively frozen?

*How many corporations, content creators, and land barons are paying for simulators and asset hosting for the sole purpose of marketing to these residents?

*Where does your profit go when the grid is composed of premium accounts attempting to sell their content to uninterested premium accounts?

I'll answer the scenario for you:

Public opinion of Second Life falls from "target of mockery" to "a worthless pit". Corporations drop their (already worthless and ineffective) simulators due to the reduction of visibility, and reduction of effectiveness, caused by free accounts vacating the grid. New user registration drops to record lows. The emphasis on open source simulator development increases, and open source grids become viable. The Linden Lab grid is outmoded. Linden Labs, lacking additional offerings, fails.

My contribution to Second Life is greater than any hundred premium accounts. Not only do I directly create content (as many Herald readers can attest), I am the reason you can rent your simulators. I am the reason you have a public presence. I am the reason that Linden Labs is a publically traded company. If you're reading this as a member of Linden Labs, I'm the reason you have a job.

I'm not the reason the grid is less stable than Britney Spears. Your incompetence is.
Fix it, or face the consequences. I am not picking up your tab.

Sincerely,

The Free Account.

Comments

[anon]

Linden Labs: Innovating Suicide(tm)

[Lea]

It's about darn time they started doing this.

[Lem Skall]

I agree this is wrong (btw, I also have a free account). But you're hurting the exact cause you are fighting for by writing an article full of errors and exaggerations.

"My contribution to Second Life is greater than any hundred premium accounts". Really? ANY hundred premium accounts? You want to bet that I can find at least one hundred people with premium accounts that each alone contribute more than you do?

Then, just the top of my head, it is Linden Lab, not Labs, and they are NOT a "publicly" traded company.

I remember vividly having asked this question before. Doesn't the Herald have an editor?

[Witness X]

They've been announcing this for months. Try reading the blog before shouting into the wind stupid newbie

[Artemis Fate]

Oh no you were temporarily unable to log in? It surely must be the end of the world! People paying for a service getting preferred treatment? Why, that's without precedence in the entire world and history of business!

Are you really that naive, or do you just have such a huge ego that you think you should get preferred treatment for no other reason besides that you play military?

I've been an advocate of losing the free accounts since it started, all it's ever been is a source of server lag, a way for kids to get in the main grid with no problem, and a revolving door for banned griefers to continue their acts with ease. If you're going to enjoy Second Life, the least you could do is drop them a few bucks a month to make sure they have the funding necessary to hire enough staff to take care of the inflated population that free accounts are the cause of, so they wouldn't be so "incompetent". The correct term would more likely be "overworked", there's only so many lindens, and there's a fuck ton of Free accounts with the egos to think that their presence deserves extra-special treatment from the Lindens.

Face it, as a free account you're a second class citizen to Linden Labs, as you would be to any other game or product that offers a service for free in couple with a pay service. Actively paying customers for any business in a capitalist society will always get the special preferred treatment.

That's what we pay for. Good news is: you can too.

[MachineCode]

JUST AS PLANNED.

[Lord Kamina]

I really don't know what to say. Oh wait, yes I do: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I want to thank Linden Labs, you guys have done everything we ever could've dreamed of and more. You've harassed users, stolen their money from them, banned them for no reason at all, and we're over here just laughing as hard as we possibly can.

We, the glorious and world reknown Patriotic Nigras, have single-handedly destroyed Second Life.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Smells like....

Victory.

[Cherowolf Redgrave]

Linden Lab is a publicly traded company? When did that happen? I need to call my stock broker. The subject of limiting logins at peak times to paying customers has been talked about in various Office Hours for the past year. And there's an easy fix to the situation. Buy a membership. Then you can get the other "Logins Disabled" blue box that us paying residents get. As for Britney, there is no help with that one. That girl is whack! {:o)

[cubey]

So you're not paying a cent into SL, yet you feel that you're owed special service? I'm sorry, but if you don't pay for a service, why do you feel entitled to receive special treatment?

[Peter Stindberg]

I'm a free account as well since Ocotober 2006. I considered going premium a few times, but really never saw the point in it. The advantage premium has seems very little to me. But then again my 2 in-world businesses generate huge monthly turnovers, and since al the money stays in SL, they boost the SL economy.

I'm not saying I am a "better" free account that the other ones. I'm just saying that the fact you're free does not tell anyting how much or how little you do for SL as a whole.

It DOES however tell something whether you directly give money to LL. What they fail to see is that free accounts like I represent one, give probably more mones to the indirectly.

[Peter Stindberg]

Oh, and as an afterthought: after the VAT-penalty for non-US-users, a Premium account lost even more of it's already little appeal.

[Rock Ramona]

Amen!! ive spent gazillions in the past and have been a paid account,but due to lousy service and instability of the grid have stopped spending anyhting here,all i do is log in to say hi to old friends and have a few laughs,i just recently settled an 8 year lawsuit and was going to buy 10 or 15 sims,but now i cant even log in for more than 5 minutes at a atime without crashing,ill keep my money and buy something in rl for my kids that will work..ill bet if i buy a new 4 wheeler for my son it will run more than 5 minutes without crashing,can you imagine honda or ford motor company staying in bizness selling products that crashed or dint run after 5 minutes...no,not gonna happen,ll has put itself in the position they are currently in and its not gonna get any better,its time people here started to demand their product work or stop paying ll,maybe then something will get done,maybe then the sl i truly love will get fixed,cuz right now it just keeps getting worse,its time to send a message folks,stop spending yer money in sl ,take yer wife to dinner,spend a weekend with the family,you can do it,go to the library and read some good books,or do like im doing and build an ultralight airplane,get something for the money you are working hard for,i know for some it an addiction,but im sure you can find ways for a few months to improve your life or your famalies lives...go do it,send a message to ll..or..continue to log in and get screwed

[Deimos Yumako]

Pretty sure that's a fake, didn't have that problem and Linden Labs would never put it that way, they'd say something along the lines of: "Only Premium Accounts may Access the Central Grid at this time, we are sorry, please try again later."

[2 cents]

I agree this is an outrage... But nothing suprising or new.

"Forget the fact that you didn't tell me this was coming, at all."

it is old news tho. We knew (well, I did) this was coming and there's been blogs filled with both outrage from basic accounts to "what are you bitching about? you have no right to complain or play if you dont pay" from the paid accounts.

So prepare yourself for sum flaming, it will come.

I been a non paying resident since '05 and indeed have contributed a lot to SL and the SL economy as well. Indeed more then most premium accounts... We're being screwed by LL, nothing new there.

What still suprises me, is the people that actually pay for this well, crappy game. Other then having the possibility of owning land, I see no reason to send LL one single cent of real money. I rent land from a friend, so even land isnt a reason for me.

[avenger coocolcan]

suck it up leach! be happy free accounts aren't limited to 30 days like many mmo's. be happy free accounts are available at all.

As to open source...the lab created the server ThEn MADE it open source. They can close it any time they choose.

If you are really this dissatisfied, close your account and find something else to whine about. SL costs real $ to run...those of us who pay the bills deserve to have a chance to use the service when loads are high...at the expense of those who pay nothing that directly keeps the servers running.

[Ann Otoole]

Good grief this policy has been there for a year at least.
They were locking everyone out recently. Some premiums complained on the blog. They dusted the old policy off. Get over it or pay up.

[The Paying Account]

>> "incompetent customer service representatives"

But by your own admission, you're not a customer ...

[EdXell Edgeworth]

Didn't they mention this a while ago? Looks like linden lab is finally going to implement this. Its about time.

Before I get flamed, I have a free account. While this is a pain in the ass, it seems fair to me.

[Sayden]

Could not have been said better. You are so right, so dam right, all I have to say is AMEN!! Free accounts support the premium accounts, premium accounts are depended on free accounts. Linden Labs, please, if any critic has been better suggested, worded, or outright structured, it is this one, take heed, and once and for all, take notice.

I can read this post over and over it is so spitting right.

Finally someone worded it correctly, too bad LL cant themselves.

[P]

OK so lets all log on and do nothing.

[Georgette Whitfield]

Oh my word! That is like a cruel April Fool's joke or something! If they start doing that, they'll wreck SL for sure. Saying that, I have a basic account and can log in no problem. Did you check what the grid status reports blog said when this happened? Maybe logins were closed.

[MilosZ MilosZ]

Roflmao

cry more.

[Penny Patton]

I think "free accounts" should be defined a bit better. Both in LL's announcement, and in this article. Not all Basic accounts are free. Are they talking No Payment Info on File accounts?

Sometime last year, when SL was (remarkably) in a worse state than it has been the past several months, LL announced a plant to limit logins during peak hours only to Premium accounts, land owners, and anyone who'd used the Lindex within something like a month or three.

Did they ditch that plan and just lock out everyone except Premiums? That would certainly be worthy of some outrage.

[Corona Anatine]

Lord Kamina clearly has an overinflated ego

[TT]

If you aren't happy with the service, surely you are entitled to a refund.

Looks like the parasites are finally getting what they paid for.

[anon]

You didn't kill SL, you PN dumbasses. This is what happens when you have technical issues and only want a reduced number of users at any given time/want to avoid more premium accounts bitching "DERP I LOST 50K SPACEMONIES IN THE DOWNTIME RAAAAAAAGE"

Talk about unwarranted self-importance.

[Joshua Nightshade]

That is the fakest looking dialog I've ever seen.

LL has never referred to users as "people," they're "residents," and they aren't called free accounts, they're "basic."

I can't find that dialog referenced -anywhere- else, and if LL was crass enough to say "to make room for those who have paid for Second Life" it would be all over, not on just this one site.

Not even a good photoshop.

[Kytec]

Although I do not have a premium account (at one point i did and didn't see the point in paying for something i didn't use) I spend tremendous amounts of money on linden right through the game's built in Lindex. For those of you who might say Oh that money counts as currency and just goes to whoever you buy things from go type in $5, then type in $10, the cost isn't consistent and it's clear their is an initial fee. This minuscule amount, for me, has probably added up to nearly $1000 USD due to the sheer volume of careless linden buying in small amounts. I have been playing for a few months over 2 years, divide $1000 USD by 29 months and you get roughly $34.50 a month. Last time I checked premium was only $9.99 (if you want to go figure the ridiculous amount of linden it would take to accumulate $1000 USD in transaction fees please do so on your own time, I don't need to cry over this. Hah.)
We all contribute in one way or another, Deferring logins for paying users is a fine idea as long as it dosen't get ridiculous. If it gets to be more than an hour or two its going overboard, but limiting logins to paying customers for two hours should be more than enough for every paying client to log in and out several times.

Welcome to the farmlands, empty your wallets and get in line, once your broke please proceed to kill yourself, your services are no longer needed.

[kesseret]

Is this for real? Because they keep talking about this idea (and it's been OVER a year).

As someone said earlier the inaccuracies in this article are NUMEROUS and I'd like to reiterate doesn't someone look over this stuff before it is posted. I hope the Herald didn't pay for this article.

One would argue that premium accounts shouldn't pick up the tab for non paying accounts during times of high load.

Yes, I feel the free account pain if they couldn't log in (currently I've YET to see this implemented and that popup box looks fake... lol 'to make room'.) and it blows but such is life I suppose.

[Universal Infinity]

to those who WASTED their money on Premium Account and are now looking down their noses at those SMART ENOUGH to deny Linden Lab the ability to charge for an account type that is WORTHLESS ...

Concierge level Accounts need not reply to this, you're just another level of snob.

Sorry - at most you give the lab - what? - an extra seventy bucks a year or some such?

Nope - you do not deserve special access to the Grid when YOUR customers cannot get in. I may have a basic account but guess what? I still pay into Second Life! They get to keep each and every dollar that is spent in getting Linden Dollars.

That ALONE means that even a Basic Account is paying the bills. More so simply because we do not GET a Stipend each and every week.

Bad move on the part of Linden Lab - They listened to you ingrate snobs who seem to think keeping a worthless Premium Account should somehow entitle you to more perks than those of us who not only pay MORE into the Labs bills per month - combined it gets worse - but also help to pay YOUR bills.

Premium Account holding Shop Owners - either leave your name and shops here in this comment section or message me in world so I may mute you and remember never to go to your shops.

In fact - do the above for ALL of your customers - tell them that you support this policy - that way your shops will FAIL due to lack of customers.

[Kiddoh]

I can log in just fine it seems. WTF is this article going on about? D;

[Unpatriotic Honkey]

I am the reason that Linden Labs is a publically traded company.

that lie totaly blows the rest of your article out of the water.

are you really that stupid you think LL is a publicly traded company?

what a total fucking moron you proved yourself to be

[Rawst Berry]

I thought that LL makes its money not only from paying accounts, but from the free accounts when they pay to upload textures and animations, or from skimming the little bit off the top when you buy lindens. It's "micropayments" or whatever.

I have a free account and I guess I can understand limited access for free accounts if there is really a reason for it. However, I do agree with this statement:

"I'm not the reason the grid is less stable than Britney Spears. Your incompetence is.
Fix it, or face the consequences. I am not picking up your tab."

If LL decides that their game can not handle the number of people brought in by free accounts, they need to disable them, not be half-assed about it. That will never happen because they *know* that free accounts are keeping the world alive. Not many people want to pay for a sometimes-shitty experience in a laggy, buggy game.

[Veronique Saphir]

I have a premium account but it was only until I decided to stay in SL that I upgraded. If I had been a new user and experienced all the issues (not the least of which is this freeb user login restrictions) SL has had, especially in the last 2 weeks, I doubt I would ever have stayed here.

With that being said, LL should remember that freeb's become premiumies :) but only if they feel they can have an advantage. I'm all for paying for a service and would rather see the freeb as a 30 or 60 day trial period, after which, pay up or go but I do think the people who choose to leave are entitled to get back whatever L$ they have in their account. LL just taking it is stealing and opening themselves to a ton of RL lawsuits.

I'm all for reducing the lag caused by lots of these users (of course I live in Costa Rica and we have little lag there anyway, :) ) BUT do it gently LL, the SL economy has seen better days. The sims are awash with land for sale. SL needs and economic boost, not more restrictions. Hmm..how about lowering interest rates? (we see how well that worked, haha)

Have fun everyone n visit my blog. ;) (shameless plug)

Veronique!

[Witness X]

LOLOL!

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Smells like....

Victory."

Watch and learn, everyone, as the PN stick their own boots up their asses again, claiming responsibility for something they had nothing to do with.

AS USUAL.

Next they'll be claiming they're really George Bush, TRASHING UR GOVAMINT.

[Witness X]

Besides which, this image was forged. So if you really want a LAWL, look at all the PN who were taken in by it along with all the other idiots. I think two thirds of them have chimed in. Except N3X15, who can't be bothered to show up anymore.

[SoulsurvivorTOSP]

Agreed with what EdXell Edgeworth had said..

[Artemis Fate]

"Forget the fact that you didn't tell me this was coming, at all"

I've known about it, and apparently so have others, so apparently it's been around.

"My contribution to Second Life is greater than any hundred premium accounts."

Yeah, I think you'd have trouble proving that.

"Not only do I directly create content (as many Herald readers can attest)"

Of course, to other users, content is neat, but to Linden Labs, more content is just more load on the asset server, so thanks for admitting that your existence is not only a load on the main servers, but the asset server as well. I think at the very least, Free Accounts should have restricted inventories so they don't take up so much room that paying customers need.

"I am the reason you have a public presence. I am the reason that Linden Labs is a publically traded company."

LL isn't a publically traded company, so good job there.

"If you're reading this as a member of Linden Labs, I'm the reason you have a job."

Actually, if anyone is a reason that Linden Labs has a job now, it's the paying customers that supported LL financially during it's shaky infant years and on. If free accounts are giving any Lindens jobs, it's probably the extra customer support jobs fueled by the whiny egotistical free accounts who think that their presence in the grid deems special customer support treatment (despite not actually being a customer). The same jobs and the same reason LL has had to fuel assets too instead of production jobs to make the servers run more stable and to improve the grid.

Honestly Second Life needs to do MORE to limit free accounts to encourage people to go Premium, right now there's very little incentive to get a premium account, pretty much the only advantage we have is that we can own land (but we have to buy it still, and it's likely that renting land is cheaper, which free accounts can do), and we can send in support tickets, and we get a couple hundred L$ a week for free. That's it.

Really it's about time LL showed at least the littlest bit of preference to their long time loyal paying customers.

[samlowry]

Fewww! All people here seems to be angry! I am a french non premium resident in Second Life, and i must say that avil lift a problem it seems no?: The status in Second Life. Newbie or landbarons is there a frontier between them? I think it goes against the spirit of what Second Life was created for. To build communities you have to accept all people at start or it will soon become a sect. I am not agree when people here saing that you don't have to complain if you don't play. Remember we all started with no premium accounts... Well besides the fact that avil was surely angry and some of his worlds could have been too strong, let's not reproduce the same schemes of the real in the virtual worlds, or what for being here so...
Form calming all people here who seems very very angry i let you see a youtube video talking about love. Peace my brothers, peace :)))
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=aFyChPvzFPg&fmt=18
ps : sorry for my vocabulary i am french remember? :))

[Cai Pirinha]

wow, a No-Payment-Info-on-File account complaining that LL is not rolling out the red carpet when he wishes to log on ...

"I'm the reason you have a job."

See, that's unfortunately not true. The reason Lindens have a job is not you but those residents that exchange real money for ficticious play money and, most importantly, pay LL the monthly real money tier fee for their land/island.

Actually you are hardly worth anything to LL or any RL company coming into SL. Since you are NPIOF, there is no RL data about you that LL could use to advertize the attractivness of its user base for RL companies; and RL companies themselves can't even try to create targeted marketing for you.

Your major contibution is probably creating lag for the rest of us.

Be happy that LL is letting you log on for such a long time completely for free.

[Avil Creeggan]

Apologies for the long links, comment box apparently doesn't like hyperlinks.

First, that dialog is NOT fake. There was a good half-hour to an hour period, during a concurrency of roughly 57,000, in which this dialog was being raised to free accounts. There is no real proof aside from screenshots until Linden Labs acknowledges this is actively happening; when it happens again, perhaps, you'll believe.

The "I" in "I contribute more than any hundred premium accounts" refers to the collective, as does every "I" after the first paragraph. The first paragraph is anecdotal evidence -- depending on your interpretation, it could be a personal or collective reference. One might expect this from the contents of the closing, namely, "The Free Account." Regardless, I apologize.

My assertion that LL is traded publicly was in error. I apologize. Regardless, the point regarding investment stays. Please replace that sentence with the following: "I am the reason you won an Emmy." If you consider this article a pile of lies and slander for this error, I don't particularly care to debate with you anyway. Go shove it.

Next, some replies:

To you who say that this has been aired publicly over the blog multiple times, I present the following:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ablog.secondlife.com+free+account
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ablog.secondlife.com+login+limit
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ablog.secondlife.com+premium+account

If it was announced publicly, it was not nearly visible enough in comparison to the number of users it affects.

To those who would call the free account a "Second Class Citizen", consider the fact that the majority of LL's customers are not paying premium account owners. While Linden labs has not released key metrics to support this point in some time...
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php
...We can refer back to the...
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/04/19/march-2007-key-metrics-released/
March 2007 key metrics... As you can see from here,
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxbDc4B2FH95Hz4WR2H56aw&gid=6
In March 2007, there were 5,144,889 residents... and 75,714 premium accounts. That's a 67 to 1 ratio. I shouldn't need to elaborate on the scenarios comparing this data to your customers, with or without biasing this data to consider the fact that many premium account owners make few or none extraneous $L transactions in-world. As I've established above, and have just supported, this is NOT a pay-for-play service, this is a pay-to-get-paid service. The fee is for carriage.

To those who say that Linden Labs is overworked, not incompetent, consider that...
http://lindenlab.com/about
Linden Labs has over 200 employees world-wide... We don't know the exact number of those for whom their position involves the asset and login servers, but those employees are, in fact, incompetent, or their management is. If they are so overworked that they have let these issues stagnate and multiply, regardless of increased load, for the past two years... their management needs to cut into those profits and hire anew.

I think I've covered the major points.

[Witness X]

Headline should read, "PN Trolled Hard, Epic Win OVER 9000!!"

[Avil Creeggan]

The image was NOT forged, it was presented to a number of residents attempting to login during a concurrency of ~57k residents around midday CST yesterday. This and other assorted errors (esp. public trading) will be discussed in an addendum to the article which should be up in the next few hours, pending Pixeleen's logging on.

[N3X15pal]

"Welcome to the farmlands, empty your wallets and get in line, once your broke please proceed to kill yourself, your services are no longer needed."

You can always count on the SLH to provide some level of entertainment. It can vary from the amazingly creative spins that can be put on just about anything to down right LULZ comedic value.

This quote above qualifies as that.
Reading this line made my weekend!
Nicely dowe Kytec!
Anybody bawwwwing about restricted anything in SL is a chump.

"Linden Labs: Innovating Suicide(tm)"
This was pretty fricking too!

[Paying customer]

This is the stupidest thing I've ever read, it's right up there with complaining about a content creator's freebie. Linden Lab (note there's no S) doesn't care how much you "contribute" to their virtual "economy", and how would they ever measure that?? If you're a paying customer, you get support. Just like in the Real World (TM). If you're not, you're not owed ANYTHING.

So you think it's not "fair"? I think your entitlement attitude is UNFAIR, to those of us that pay money for a service and therefore EXPECT better service than whiny emo teens logging into their parents' basement who don't own a credit card without Daddy's name on it.

[Darkfoxx]

"We, the glorious and world renown Patriotic Nigras, have single-handedly destroyed Second Life."

LAWL

oh my this is comedy GOLD.

The only thing the PN could and still can accomplish, is spread lulzcubes in parcels that (stupidly enough) have building turned on. and when building isnt turned on they have to resort to attaching particle spammers to their own AV which of course only is effective until the moment they are banned from the parcel.

I'd say, epic fail in whatever they try.

Of course in their own little minds, just saying they are victorious means they are victorious. The rest of the planet however, realizes that things dont work that way in the real world.

Try harder lawd Kamia, you fail. epicly.

ORLY?

YARLY.

LAWL. Bawwwww moar.

Go back 2 Habbo, PNf@g.

[Carmen]

I was under the impression that a paid account was only worth while if you wanted to own linden land which i dont, im happy to rent from others. The way i see it is that both free and paid accounts have a role to play. Although as a parent i feel that all accounts ought to be verified as adult.

Other than that no comment as i have to make numerous attempts to log in anyway.

[Carmen]

I should add as uk based we dont seem to have as many problems as our US counterparts in logging on

[Darien Caldwell]

While LL didn't make a huge fuss over it (they never do), they did announce awhile back that they could and would limit free accounts when necessary if there were grid issues. They have only just now started using that ability.

[Witness X]

Considering Pixeleen's the favored pet of half the griefing population in SL anyway, why should we believe it? Tizzers Foxchase has openly said several times that he "owns" her, for example.

Naw, it's a Photoshop job.

[Kytec]

Linden Lab needs to realize that even though they are receiving a massive influx of money from the millions of customers using their service if they devote some of that income towards building their business they could increase that flow exponentially. Maybe they feel the amount they are making is good enough for their lifestyles or something. Maybe they are that naive to think that we are so dependent on their game to actually pay $9 a month to get preferred logins.

-Make the asset server flawless
-Bring back live help and outsource to India so ganesh can bring back my sex gen beds lost in a crash
-Create a business model and schedule projects and deadlines in your offices
-Develop new and innovative ideas
-Utilize the newest graphics and physics engines on optional clients and simulators

If you race with a Honda Civc enough times to afford a Ferarri Enzo get the damn Ferarri and go after bigger prizes, dont lose it all trying to move the same shitty vehicle up in class only to get left behind in some smart bastard's exhaust.

[Ghosty]

How many of those non-paying logins are bots?

uh-huh.

[U. N. Owen]

I have been a free account for a short while now, and I can't really say that I've contributed anything much to SL, but the animosity that I see towards free basic accounts, however, is just appalling. I have no payment information on file and have not upgraded simply to protect my personal information. Yes, I understand that Linden Labs has a high security server, but even those can be hacked into. With the massive amount of frauds and scams going around, I just don't feel safe openly giving ANY website my credit card information, and there is no way around it. Even Paypal has the potential to be hazardous to my credit. The strangest thing about all this is most definately the egos of the "premium members." Think about this for one moment, you are paying for A GAME!!!!!! With any online game, you may be forced to pay to continue or to better your account, but in SL, you don't really have to. With premium accounts you get a free 512m squared scrap of land, the ability to buy land from the mainland, and you get a small stipend per week worth about US$1.50. You also must pay about US$12 per month. With basic accounts (free firsts) you don't pay anything. However, you can buy privately owned land, whose weekly premiums are, in some cases, better than LL, and as for the stipend, well, find a job and you will make a lot more per week, possibly per hour. Now, I'm not saying that because we are free users, we deserve better treatment, but just because we have no payment information on file and do not directly pay LL, does not mean that we are all just griefers who deserve to be banned. We still are just as much people as the others that do pay. In reality, LL does not make the majority of their income on paid users, they make it on virtual land sales and other company sponsorships, therefore, you can think that you are the column of Second Life as much as you want, but you are only a single stone in the column.

[Dancien]

All that crying and you still can't get the name of the company right.

[DagnyT Dagger]

I have a premium account, and I got the top 1/2 of this message several days ago while attempting to login after there had been some problems. So I'm tending to believe this screen is from a similar box, but photoshopped to create controversy, and possibly just to see how many people will actually fall for it.

Unless/Until others come forward who claim (with screens) the same treatment, I don't see why anyone is getting up in arms.

But if it *is* true I tend to agree that paying customers should get preferential treatment. All those up there who say they contribute by building/selling/buying things but have never seen a benefit to going premium...well...that would be your benefit then wouldn't it?

[lolwat]

Basic summery of Darkfoxx's post: LOL I R A BTARD (EVEN THOUGH I'M INSULTING THE CULTURE I SO DESPERATELY TRY TO EMULATE RITE NOW SO RANDUM LOL) EPIC LONGCAT IS LONG ORLY LOL

PN ARE FAGGORTS

I AM NOT BUTTHURT, YOU ARE

SPRINKLE IN SOME CONDESCENDING ATTITUDE

DON'T FORGET THOSE TYPOS

AND SEND

TIME FOR SOME HORSECOCK ^_^;

[Sean Linden]

I pushed the button on this, and it was for about 15 minutes. I had no idea that that was the message it was giving people. The database was running hot because some connections had hung while holding a lock (this is getting fixed with very high priority) and I had to make a call whether to lock everyone out or just some people. I decided to just lock out some people.

Whether or not someone has paid us money on a given account turns out to be a crappy metric for whether or not to lock them out. This won't be happening again. I certainly had no intention of insulting people, and seeing what the message says I don't blame anyone for feeling insulted and like we don't love them.

[Solar Legion]

You know, I find all of this highly amusing. We have some rather smug people who seem to think that just because they have the capability to rent a piece of 'mainland' data from Linden Lab they somehow have the right to: Better Customer Service Access, greater transfer rates for cash ion and cash out, and now the ability to log in when the very people who buy their wars cannot get in (I am certain that I missed a few items in here.)

I do hate to be such a wet blanket for such people but I do pay Linden Lab quite a bit through the Linden Exchange. They do not see a cut in the money you pay to purchase in world currency. Now, I may simply be splitting hairs or simply being an asshole but many Basic Account holders spend more per month through the Lindex than most Premium Account holders, even the truly old ones who have established shops.

I agree that No Payment Information on File residents should be locked out during high load times. I do believe that anyone who has ever purchased lindens and has continued to do so should have access to Second Life during the high load times.

Yes, I realize that some people purchase their Lindens through a place that uses the Risk API ... They are an unfortunate casualty.

[Gareth Nelson]

Old news: http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/02/16/contingency-measures-to-ensure-service-as-second-life-grows/

If you're a free user, you have no right to be on SL at all, LL are essentially giving you a free gift with your free account and since announcing thse contingency measures last year they've only used them just now?

That's a good deal in my view

[Anon]

LOL. If the PN are claiming a victory, they'll find it'll be hard to digest. I hardly believe they contributed anything to what LL did do.

But where else are they going to get the lulz that they get in SL? You think any other game is going to let them do what they can do in SL? Good luck.

[Lord Kamina]

@Darkfoxx

lol butthurt much?

Hey, So i herd u liek THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD.

[Mathue]

All I can say it's about time that paying members get priority over non-paying.

[WAT]

@ Avenger Coocolcan (or whatever, too lazy to copypasta your name)
OpenSIM is a seperate project which was originally a reverse-engineering project by a third party, just like libsecondlife. LL has no control over it, whatsoever. Go cry in a corner.

[Aloe Stradling]

JUST piping up with my observation. To paraphrase, many of you are saying this will 'DESTROY SL'

Yeah well, when the free accounts were added, the public outcry was exactly the same. "This is stupid! You'll kill SL!"

I honestly can't pick a side. I have many dear friends who were and are free accounts. And I know some of the stuff I buy was made by no account info. As a player, I see no reason to differentiate.

As a casual player

As a manager (assistant) at one of SL's various clubs, while again having no personal bias, I find... Well... Don't make me say it. The revolving door for griefers has been stated time and again, so I won't go into it here, but that aside.... 9 times in 10, or even more, it's not the paying customers making trouble. Sorry to form an opinion based on past occurrence, but, yeah. It's usually not premium accunt people running around with wang out, soliciting everyone who walks by, or, god forbid begging for lindens.

Also note again I'm enough of a hypocrite that this causes me zero cognitave dissonance. I can curse anon-noobs till I'm blue in the face, then turn around and love my not-credit-info friends. I don't just automatically assume no pay = Bad. I don't blurr them all together. I can see all the upsides to what people say about cutting off the flow. I just can't be a part of denying the good people with the bastards. So... I guess I do pick a side.

[BilBroome]

better Idea- close out those without payment info on file. should be enough.

[Artemis Fate]

"The "I" in "I contribute more than any hundred premium accounts" refers to the collective, as does every "I" after the first paragraph."

Switching tenses mid-article is fairly confusing, especially when you continue to use "I" and not "we". Also, you don't particularly have the right to speak for all of the free accounts.

"To you who say that this has been aired publicly over the blog multiple times"

I've known of it before, though I honestly can't remember from where, there was talk but it seems it was largely unofficial. Which makes this whole thing fairly suspect, but really whether the thing is fake or not, the issue still stands: Do Free accounts deserve the same treatment and rights as premium accounts?

"To those who would call the free account a "Second Class Citizen", consider the fact that the majority of LL's customers are not paying premium account owners. While Linden labs has not released key metrics to support this point in some time..."

That doesn't really invalidate the point that free accounts are second class citizens, that just says that there's a LOT of second class citizens. Which is how it normally is, the upper class is the minority, the middle to lower is the majority. Of course, comparing class systems to this sort of customer/non-customer system isn't at all similar except for the whole "minority/majority" bit so don't take it any farther than that. But I guarantee you, go to any business that offers free service in combination with paid service, and the paid service will always be better treated.

As well, I shouldn't need to mention with those statistics, of the premium accounts, probably most are active and unique, but of the free accounts, likely most are inactive or alternative accounts. At a rate of about 1.1 million logged in over an expanse of 2 months, I highly doubt that SL has over 5.5 million unique active accounts, unfortunately it's hard to tell which is which, since that was part of the plan of free accounts, get people to sign up and you can say you have as many people as there are accounts, even though most of them are inactive or non-unique.

"Linden Labs has over 200 employees world-wide... "

Over 200 employees catering to over a million accounts? Sounds overworked to me.

Really the free accounts in SL have had it VERY nice, more so than most places like Active Worlds, Hellgate or Anarchy Online, where the difference between free and paid is worlds away, in Second Life, the difference is minor. This alleged, temporary and rare event (so rare that there is debate as to whether it actually exists, because apparently not many people noticed it), is about the worst treatment free accounts have gotten in all this time. But they're allowed to go to the same places, allowed to wear whatever they want, attach as much as they want, hold as much as they want in their inventory, they can have land by renting, and for the most part they're treated the same as premium accounts when it comes to preference and general resource use. Really this is where I see this indignation of "We deserve better treatment!" as coming from, because you've been spoiled by LL giving you wonderful treatment. In Active Worlds (an early precedent to Second Life), free account users could only wear one of two outfits (male and female tourist), were restricted to only certain worlds, and their builds were public mod so anyone could delete them or change them if they chose. So before you start complaining about being treated so poorly, recognize that you could have it MUCH worse, if it were up to me, free accounts would be much much more limited.

[Ann Otoole]

Whether the article is true or false it is still game for entertainment. If false then great job.

There is a very real LL policy to restrict access during periods of system stress. The grid status will say "RESTRICTED" when they flip this bit. And LL has flipped this bit before. And SL did not die a horrible death because of it.

But have no fear basic accounts! SL is still useless while the grid is restricted so your not missing out. If the grid is restricted it is unwise to initiate any transactions or build anything. much less try to tp with that expensive dance chim or those expensive toy bits that will go poof since it is no copy and does not exist in sl while you have it attached and obviously the system is in a state of malfunction.

No. best thing to do if you see grid status RESTRICTED is to not bother till an hour after the grid goes back to open status. This whether you are npiof, piof, piu, or premium.

[Prokofy Neva]

Photoshopped.

[who? me?]

5 million+ accounts.... shortlived PN created griefing accounts = 2.5million... guess the PN have really been helping LL... the dialogs a fake

[Darkfoxx]

Oh I'm sorry Kamia if I gave you the impression I was butthurt.

I was erely commenting on the cfact that well, with this the PN has nothing to do, and that, afaik, SL is still around.

In short, the PN didnt destroy anything, and certainly is not SL.

If you call disagreeing with your statements and calling you and your buddies failures for living in a fantasy world where you're the scourge of the internets, and laughing about your delusions (cause frankly, clowns would be a better way to describe you) being butthurt, well, then I guess I'm butthurt yes.

I do find it an amazingly odd term for it, I would use 'amused' myself.

And yes, the taking the hobbits to Isenguard, I liked. Fun little song, with a nice vid to go wiht it. Very creative.

[Marc Woebegone]

And once the paid accounts become too many to handle, then what? They'll only allow those that pay the most? Now that's supporting the creative, and makes Rosedale's representations even more what ....

http://secondlife.typepad.com

MW

[Vince]

OMG. Premium accounts pay! OMG! They deserve everything! Go to hell, you pompous bastards. You're saying fuck you to 3/4ths of the fucking population of SL. This was photoshopped, this never happened. They have never implemented their "contingency" measures. People who don't pay have no right to be on SL, right? Basic accounts will become premiums, but only if LL doesn't scare them away. Don't look down on us. We're the same as you, richfags.

[Artemis Fate]

I wonder if all these people bitching about how unfairly they're treated as free accounts, and how they should get the same treatment as premium accounts (and as I stated before, they pretty much do), get airplane tickets for Coach (or economy or whatever they're calling it these days), then walk up to first class and start ordering drinks and fancy stuff, then get pissed off when the stewards tell them that they don't belong here and to go back to Economy.

Do you have these little civil-rights struggles every-time you go on a plane? I would hope not, like first class, people who pay more get better treatment, and frankly if you look at your treatment in Second Life compared to Premium accounts, you're getting FANTASTIC treatment right now. As many have said, they can find little reason to turn to premium, because there's so little difference besides having to drop a bit of money on it a month. The worst thing that you got was a short, extremely rare, and extremely temporary block out from a glitchy grid that even the allowed premium accounts were having trouble operating in? Happening only once in about however many years of free accounts? Boo-fucking-HOO.

[J]

BRAVO to Linden Lab for FINALLY locking out the shiftless parasites as they promised to do last year. They announced that all non-paying parasites would be locked out during heavy load, and we rejoiced! But they were not doing it until now it seems?

About time Lindens!

[Stephie]

Personally I find it hilarious that people would actually PAY for Second Life in the first place.

[Shut up]

Why do you have any right to bitch? You pay nothing, so you are guaranteed nothing! Go somewhere else if you don't like it.

[Tiffany Wilder]

That is not a valid dialog box- totally photoshopped SL never uses that style of language, should do more investigation before you make up stuff.

[Bennie]

Personally I find it hilarious that people would actually PAY for Second Life in the first place.

QFT.

[Marc Woebegone]

Yep, the elitists are prevailing. All the premium members are "happy" that captialism is prevailing the little oligarchy known as Second Life. Once you spend a Linden (.001?) of a dollar? ... you adopt the "not in my backyard" attitude... what's next, no more furries? LMAO!

http://secondlife.typepad.com

MW

[X]

The problem, for me, with shutting out basic account holders is that I am mostly in SL to see friends who live in other countries, and I can't persuade them to pay for a premium account just so they can go in SL to see me and play with me once a week. Premmium/basic? I agree with the idea that some of the niftier bits should be limited; e.g. basic account doesn't allow any bling, any weapons or other scriptystuff, and maybe a max size of inventory too. How to stop griefer revolving-door is a toughie; I can't see any way without compromising anonymity in some way.

[parrhesian]

fake

just when you think Herald can't get any lamer, they push the envelope hundreds of light years further.

[Geoners]

I like how those PN guys haven't actually done anything to force SL into the ground. It's like how american military works: come in stomp all over everything, then walk out waving flags and claiming victory.

Oh wait they're mostly american anyway, they succeeded at their own country's failure of policy management. GOOD JOB!

[RR]

Well as long as they're not blocking those that *paid* for "Basic" accounts back when those cost money, I don't really care. As far as I'm concerned they can permanently block every single free account since accounts were free, the corporate interests can close up shop and ship out, and everything could go back to peace and quiet.

By doing this, LL *might* lose some money from potential paying customers, but they'll also weed out a lot of the griefers who'll probably get bored once they find they can't just pop in and screw around like they used to.

[Professor Bebb]

OMG GUYS! THEY WON'T LET ME ON SL ANYMORES BECAUSE I AM A FREE ACCOUNT. Wahhh.
Lighten up. Get a job, pay for a Premium Account. Situation resolved.

Also for the PNers/griffers. Aren't you kind of stabbing yourself in your own foot by applauding this? If Linden Labs does this regularly, doesn't that mean, you won't be able to log on SL anymore to "close the pools down because of AIDS"?
No more LULZ will be had for you. You'll have to go back to HARBALL HOTEL, or something I guess.

In any event, I for one, welcome this new strategy, since I've come out of the closet, and no longer grief on Second Life. I've changed my ways for the better guys. Seriously.

[Dr. Internet]

...

you people are all morons.

Get away from the computer. now.

[Who Cares]

Heh... well let me toss my 1/50 $ here as well...
Sure, premium account pays... but
I for example dont pay... Why, well im not too much into SL, I dont want to have land bought there, I dont need tech support, since for most of the time its about asset server down and stuff like that, and most importantly i dont want any of privileges of premium account holders. BUT...
Despite that, i do buy LL from time to time. Not too much, but enough... Why do i say enough, well since premium account holders gets 300L per week for price of 10 bucks monthly, thats about 1200L monthly... just about how much premium account is. So, if you pay for 4 months you get 4800L from LL for "free" so you dont buy them additionaly. If i buy 10K lindens for 4 months period, why should i be "lower" citizen than premium account holder? But, lets go bit further... I also build in SL. And sell my products. So, i buy for example 5000L for four months AND sell items valued about 7000L. So thats about 13000L for 4 months, which is pretty more than premium users are giving for membership to LL. And i bet that even if i convert that 13k to real money, which i cant do actually since my country doesnt support PayPal, i bet tax for converting will still be more than 4 month premium membership leaves to LL. So, where it leaves US lower level citizens? So, if they want to restrict comunity to clesed one, then should we all ask for money back (since after all i did bought lindens even im free account)? Shall they restrict buying lindens for free accounts? Shall they increase membership? Will bigger companies still pay their tier even only premium citizens will be able to see their commercials? List goes on and on. Point is if you wanted OPEN community, then leave it like that. Otherwise, shut up, and fix stuff with hardware that causing more havok than PN can ever do.

[Neogrinch]

You forget the part about it being FREE. FREE FREE FREE FREE.

It is about time SL started putting their paying members first. LL does not make money from the massive amounts of money you spend shopping for clothes. They DO make their money from premium memberships and tier. Quite frankly, given that SL in a completely new concept and they are learning as they go, I think they are doing a really great job, and even tho there are screwups, they are fairly quick fix them.

[Like, Duh..]

Has anyone else noticed that THIS IS NOT WHAT THE FU*KING MESSAGE ACTUALLY SAID WHEN FREE ACCOUNTS COULDNT LOG IN!!

Yet another example 'the sky is falling' as the SL herald seeks to destroy itself in a fit of swooning 'oh my goodness' idiocy.

So they restricted logins for the first time ever to stop the grid crashing

BIG FUCKING DEAL YOU BABIES!!

It was only for liek 2 mins anyway

[Lykurgus]

(Carmen):I should add as uk based we dont seem to have as many problems as our US counterparts in logging on
(Kiddoh):I can log in just fine it seems. WTF is this article going on about? D;

I know what you mean. In Australia, our broadband capability is just this side of third-world (most inland regions don't even have a phone service), and with LL being in the US, we cop the brunt of every downtime maintenance or other issue thereof. But I've never had anything REMOTELY like the problems most of these freebie-holders are railing about. Not even when I held a "No Payment Info On File" account, so I wasn't doing too badly out of it.
Especially given that SL would be funded largely by the fact that most of the stipends are getting spent back into it (along with the tiers).

I suppose you could try playing World of Warcraft, or Anarchy Online, or Matrix Online - oh, sorry, forgot; all subscribed.
I know, how about playing Sword of the New World - no, wait, won't run on Vista.
Or ummm... Cabal - oops, hang on, just remembered; even Premium (subscribed) servers kick you within minutes.

But if staying in SL is such unrelieved torture by comparison, how about... p***ing off?

The Addendum he promised (ie. public-trading flub, etc.) would appear to be absent. But, "I don't particularly care to debate with you anyway. Go shove it."

Could've just stuck with that, you know.

[Vince]

Go away you fuckwits. Just because you dish out $10 a month on a GAME, doesn't mean I have to. Without basics, the SL economy will be ruined. We're what, 3/4ths of the population? The only reason people play SL is because you have the option to play it for free, legally. If they start restricting access or restricting anything more than they do now, I expect to see a huge drop in population. Go die, everybody who supports this bullshit.

[Who Cares]

@Neogrinch

You have no idea what are you talking about... because you paid and you think you are God.
First let me explain Linden Dollar. Its virtual money that you use to spend it on second life. LL doesnt have stash of them in their banks, as they are ... guess what... virtual! They dont exists.
Of course, they do have fluctuations as every other money in the world, but its not related to fact that US has been bombed or went to war. So lets stick with fact it is VIRTUAL money.
So you cant go to bank and say "please give me 5000 Linden dollars" because:
1. They dont exists in real life
2. If you do that in bank, they will think you are playing arround with them and will kick you out for being tard...
Now, lets sum it up. How can you buy Linden Dollars?
By paying REAL LIFE MONEY to Linden Labs or some of their resellers. Period. You cant have them otherwise. So, if i dont pay premium membership, and i buy monthly 4000 lindens how much LL will profit from me? Full 4000 lindens. And how much they will profit from you? 10$ or about 2400 lindens. And thats without giveaway since you have 1200 lindens monthly...
So before you write something next time, try to think of it first.
And finally, it was designed in the first place as open online community. Sure, its much better than Yahoo messanger or similar stuff, but, if everyone were thinking like you, there would be no Open Source community at all.

[Ronald]

I have my both accounts disabled without any explanation. My girlfriend account is disabled too. I was googling for something like "SL account problem" and found this discussion.
Maybe I did something wrong which I don't know. I know I was enjoying my time in SL and never wanted to do something ilegal or to hurt anyone. I have opened a school and I have created original and attractive content. I don't deserve such a treatment. I would have prefered to receive a message like "we don't want to see your face again" instead of this silence to my 100 attempts to contact them in-world our out-world. That's really stupid. If this doesn't happen to you, you might think that I am exaggerating.
LL have to understand that free accounts are bringing an enourmous value to SL and they would be swallowed by the competition if they wouldn't have these accounts.

I am still trying to solve this problem while I am looking for other metaverses. If you know good alternatives to SL, please recommend.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

[Also for the PNers/griffers. Aren't you kind of stabbing yourself in your own foot by applauding this? If Linden Labs does this regularly, doesn't that mean, you won't be able to log on SL anymore to "close the pools down because of AIDS"?]

Think about it. SL closes its doors to freebies = ultimate pool closure. We're really just watching the ship sink, anyway. You fags troll yourselves.

[Artemis Fate]

@Who Cares

"By paying REAL LIFE MONEY to Linden Labs or some of their resellers. Period. You cant have them otherwise. So, if i dont pay premium membership, and i buy monthly 4000 lindens how much LL will profit from me? Full 4000 lindens. And how much they will profit from you? 10$ or about 2400 lindens. And thats without giveaway since you have 1200 lindens monthly...
So before you write something next time, try to think of it first."

Well first off, LL doesn't just make new money to sell, because that would ruin the economy, all of that money you buy is from other people who are selling, LL simply adds a bit of a fee to it every time you buy something. If you check sell price for 4000L$ at 258.73L$ per dollar, and compare it to buy price at 4000L$ at 258.73L$ per dollar, you'll notice that it costs about 50 cents more to buy 4000L$. So the money they get out of your 4000L$ buy order is about half a dollar, not 15 dollars. To equate how much a premium player pays a month by buying L$, you would have to buy roughly 200,000L$ a month. That would net LL about 10 dollars in buy fees.

Second, how much they profit off of your premium depends on your land ownership, 10 dollars a month (about) is the basic with bottom tier land ownership, but someone like Anshe probably pays thousands a month.

Third, if you'll notice the announcement about this from a while back:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/02/16/contingency-measures-to-ensure-service-as-second-life-grows/

"When you open your log-in screen and see in the upper right hand corner Grid Status: Restricted, you’ll know that only those Second Life Residents who have transacted with Linden Lab either by being a premium account holder, owning land, _____OR PURCHASING CURRENCY ON THE LINDEX_____, will be able to log-in."

So basically anyone who pays LL any bit of money is allowed in, only the people who've payed LL absolutely nothing are restricted, and that's only for the short amount of time when they keep that up.

"And finally, it was designed in the first place as open online community. Sure, its much better than Yahoo messanger or similar stuff, but, if everyone were thinking like you, there would be no Open Source community at all.""

Actually, it wasn't. It started off first as a flat fee 15 or so dollars a month for everyone game like WoW, land was bought completely through L$ and there was no tiers (You couldn't officially buy or sell L$ either). Then they switched to a premium account ONLY system, where you had to pick a tier of land you wanted for a certain payment scale, were able to buy and sell lindens (though LindeX wasn't created yet), and pay for land with real money. Then they made no land accounts similar to the free accounts, but they were a one time fee of 10 dollars, it wasn't till only recently that they took those accounts and made them free.

"So before you write something next time, try to think of it first."

Same to you. Get your facts straight.

[XTreme Sands]

Seems to be another wonderful day in paradise. I am a basic account holder(after switching back to it). I couldn't see myself paying 10 $ a month for nothing. What? I might get my freebie 512 meters of LL mainland with no monthly tier fees after paying some ass 80k in lindens for it. Ohhh... I know, I may get my weekly stipend(which was a whole 300L$ last year)If they get it out on time, or not. Who really cares. I pay my 17k monthly in tier fees to my estate owners and have been doing so for a year now. I won't pay LL for a premium account. It's has no advantages that I can see. Better support? Uh huh, go figure. That's why I "VOLUNTEER" my time as a Mentor and help "EVERYONE" basic and premium daily with issues. It makes the residents of our grid feel like someone does give a damn. If everyone paying the monthly account fee feels that I don't need to be in SL then please feel free to IM me and let me know how little of a difference I make, and that my parasitic little self should find a world where I can actually stay logged in for more then half an hour. The V-Team has been discussing limitations on Basic accounts for months in an effort to cut down on certain activities by people who create ten alts a day so they can throw out the next Mario Mosh. By the way, even us basic account holders agree that it may help. If the grid continues to run the same way it has since April and the implementation of Havoc. No one will care that much in another six months anyways. So :) In the meantime "Can't we all just get along?" It's still our grid,we are the contributors.

[Witness X]

A pro-tip for the PN: an ePenis is not a real penis.

[Mystra Jewell]

Most of the sl content was created by free users. So if you ban the free users, or make them become premium members, then you are limiting the creativity you will find in sl. I thought the glory of building and creating was the foundation for sl. If they were to limit the free users, they shouldnt have started allowing ppl to sign in as a free acct to begin with. I believe that they should limit the number of acct alts they make for free w/ the same ISP or email addy to try and reduce the griefers. but to stop or limit the free accts in general just doesnt sound like what SL started out to be.

[Geoners]

Anonymous: Sorry but shit don't work like that. neglecting to do anything and having your cause met means nothing. it only means you were too lazy of fucks to do the job right yourself.

[Artemis Fate]

Would like to point out that no one has suggested banning all free accounts, what this is, is a very temporary grid restriction for free accounts who have not bought any L$ only during extremely laggy peak times where the grid wouldn't be able to run otherwise. In this case, it'd be either no one gets access or just premium accounts get access.

[Ronald]

Have you tried other metaverses? Are there any good alternatives to SL?

[archie von lukas]

/me creeps up and sets fire to the Linden Trousers...........
.
.
"No charge matey"

[Cee Ell]

As others mentioned, this is an explicitly stated Linden Lab policy to handle grid overloading, although it's rarely (never before?) been invoked. I'm not sure why the author had such a hard time finding it on the SL(tm) blog, as it took me about 2 minutes to do so:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/02/16/contingency-measures-to-ensure-service-as-second-life-grows/#more-777

Anyway, why get your panties in a knot over a temporary restriction? If Linden has to find a cut point, a tiny perquisite for paid-subscription Premium accounts, lasting just a few minutes or hours, hardly seems extreme. We ALL get locked out far more often, and for far longer, every month, in less controlled ways.

The author is right, in the main, about the essential contributions of Basic accounts -- many, certainly not all! -- to the Second Life world. But save this kind of fulmination for something that matters, not a few minutes of downtime. Enough hyperbolic foghorning and you'll start sounding like PN -- and I don't mean Patriotic Nigras.

[shockwave yareach]

Well, I'm a free account now myself. I just rent instead of own. I dropped down because SL didn't function at all for 2 solid months. I won't pay if I get no services rendered. If SL wants more premium accounts then this is only part of a way to get it - if it's always busted and that damned Asset server never works right, I'll live with having to go get some Fritoes and try to login again. Right now, paid or unpaid, it doesn't matter - none of us can login.

[RYker]

SO, I visited Sword of the New World.

How come all the MMO's look identical?
I m-e-a-n they might as well be triplets
or quadraplets or are they just clones?

Is there an MMO template everyone uses?

There is such little creativity taht
even lil ole me can think of a
new game in five minutes.

oh...second life? who cares. good riddance.

[Rip]

You account freeloaders better be glad im not in charge of policy matters at Linden Lab!

Freeloaders account would have far fewer privileges and a much larger incentive to be paid members.

See some examples below:

1) No use of scripts.
2) No joining Groups
3) A L$1000 transaction limit monthly
4) All paid accounts would have the ability to send you home (log in point) at anytime
5) The ability for paid mambers to map you grid wide all the times.

A policy like this would give some real incentive for people to become a real part of the community and not just a parasite on paid members backsides.

"If you're a free user, you have no right to be on SL at all, LL are essentially giving you a free gift with your free account..."

There is an essential error to claiming that a free account is somehow a "gift." They don't provide a "gift" anymor