Openspace conversion on Monday, Jan. 5th

o_O Linden Lab really starts the New Year right!

holy cow!  for all the badmouthing that so many do about Second Life, including some from us with the Openspace changes (and anytime that a significant monetary impact is made, criticism is bound to occur, and we defend those that do speak their mind), we must note that 2009 starts with a massively great impression of Linden Lab’s customer service! 

thanks TJ Linden - your attention, judgement, questions, and flexibility have helped this transition (TJ could have simply converted the sims today, but we know many have not had a chance to prepare their stuff yet)

what we fully expected would take weeks was responded to within 12 hours of creating a work ticket.

as we have previously discussed, we planned to submit these conversion tickets between Jan 2nd and 4th in order to avoid an unplanned expense of several hundred dollars (not Lindens, but USD) 

so . . . sim conversions (as listed in the previous post) will occur on Monday.

Openspace conversion order placed

the order for converting Ener Westar, Ener Skerry, Enercraig Vesper, Enercraig, Ener Hesperus, Ener Sound, and Enercay Midkey has been placed

everyone currently on those sims was given a notecard tonite.  Linden Lab is unable to provide an exact date and say they will do it within 10 business days (latest blog post).  If you leave your things on any of those sims they will be returned (in theory) to your lost and found folder, typically as coalesced objects.

LAST MINUTE EDIT:
Linden Labs is able to convert the sims today and many of you have not had time to move your items. I have asked for a delay till Sunday nite and await their response.

thank you for all of your support, it is humbling how sweet you have been in all of this turmoil.  it’s also exciting to set up the new sims as soon as they get here and the estate is actually growing by a quarter of a full sim (7 are getting converted into 2 full sims which is the same as 8 openspace, lol, but we still pay an additional $250 USD to make up for the “missing” sim)  edit to the edit: Monday Jan 5th is the date

the notecard goes over this same info plus has some specific info for those affected.

you are the reason sl is so wonderful and pics of all the sims are online at our flickr site, truly incredible builds and we know that even more fantastic ones will come soon  :)

and on another note, here is a comment that made our day, it’s awesome to have such great friendships and feedback:

Just wanted to say.. thanks for all your work on the iliveisl website, blogs, and Flick pics.
I do love keeping up with SL and your sims, and you make it easy… and beautiful.

Thanks DW  =D

Estate changes in January

it seems that i keep falling short on explaining the changes (see past posts) so here is goes . . .

1) Linden Labs openspace sim prices are going up by 70% (no extra prims, new scripting limits, and a 20 avatar limit)

2) Linden Labs is allowing us to convert openspace sims into full sims (like Enerville and Enercity sims) for free until January 5th (4 os sims make a full sim)

3) converted sims get wiped clean or disappear (four sims turn into one, meaning that three sims go away).  all items on those sims are auto-returned by Linden to your inventory as a coalesced object (unless you take them back first)

4) the conversion process takes up to 10+ business days and we have no way of knowing what day it will be

5) we will place conversion orders between Jan 2nd and 4th

6) it takes us a full day or two to prepare the new sim

what does that mean for you on some of the OS sims? we have spoken to everyone and many of you are open to the options

your sim is intact until sometime after January 5th (best guess is January 14th – 18th)

we are moving ahead with sim growth, in fact we added two new Enercity sims last month.  we will probably always have some OS sims because they are wonderful, it’s just that they will cost more and we must offer a great value to you

we set aside a sim as a model so that you can see what turns out to be a better value than we had thought possible

here is how we define value: price per prim followed by parcel layout (never have two parcels touching and always public space between lots).  take the monthly tier price and divide by the prims to get the price per prim.  you really buy prims and not square metres

we have the model slurl here and some pictures here (this sim is only up through the first week of January)

here is why it’s a good value compared to the new OS sim prices:  the lots are 4,096 sm to keep a wide public buffer between lots (use View > Property Lines to see that) and have 1,451 prims!  compare that to the 1,006 prims on current OS sims.  the tier is $10,500 (compare to $12,500 for OS) and if you pay 4 months you get 10% off so it’s $9,450 L per month

$6.51 per prim vs. $12.43 per prim (that’s a HUGE diff in value!!!)

here are the details:

Ener Caldera and Enercay Eastkey have already been converted into a city sim

Enercity Park was converted into a true OS sim (750 prims, 10 avatars)

Ener Westar, Ener Skerry, Enercraig Vesper, and Enercraig will be converted into a new full residential sim that will be where Ener Skerry is now (it will look almost identical to the sample sim in the slurl above)

Ener Hesperus, Ener Sound, and Enercay Midkey will be converted into a tropical sim in Midkey’s location (thank you brandi for your support!)  =)

if you live on any of those sims and stay, you will get a free month added to your tier.  if your tier comes due in January, or later, it will be at the new rate of $10.500 per month. we are softies and that loses money for us, but we would rather lose some money than lose you

the estate is actually growing with all of this (lol, trust us – our tier to LL is growing!)  :p

it’s up to all of us to decide what sl is individually to us.  we can look at this as an opportunity or as a big fat suckie thing.  we like to smile and look at this positively  =)

most affected tier boxes are locked and don’t worry about that for now, we want you to see the new layout before you pay.  if you are staying for sure, talk to us; 4 parcels are already reserved out of the nine coming and we will add another full one as needed

as always, have fun isl, even if you don’t stay with us, we wish you the very best in all your endeavors  :)

new land prices

yay, well partly yay . . . Linden announced a “softer” approach to the openspace land dealio. instead of raising prices 67% in january, they are going up 25%. but in july, they go up the full 67%

this only affects sims with three homes. so enerville and enercity are staying the same

so that is not as bad right away. in january, iliveisl openspace sim land will go up to $9500. we are keeping our increase below 25% and just want to help people make the transition without losing their homes. so instead of jumping up to $10,000+ L per month, we can do the $9500.

but in july (still 7 months away), they will go up to $12,500L (yikes!) :(

that sure seems like a lot for the land and prims, so we will be working in some alternatives for you to consider. now the three lots to a sim is still really nice, but definately more expensive than now

so maybe doing a full sim into 8 lots (most peeps do 16, but we never do more that 14, unless it’s those cute boutique lots for business start-ups)

so with 8 lots, it would cost a bit less than the $12,500 (maybe like $11,000) BUT instead of 1006 prims, you’d have like 1,600+ prims. it’s still early and we will also be looking at options that are close to $8,000 and 1,000 prims too.

you know that we want people to have a place to call home and be creative, so we always use that as our motivator isl. thanks for speaking up, it helped Linden give us all more time.

have fun! =D

hey Linden Labs is listening!!!

thank you all for speaking up about the OpenSpace changes.  Linden labs is listening and taking a second look.  that is really great and shows that LL has not lost touch of us as residents.

you know that we love Linden Labs and the opportunity they have created, but we have to admit that the announcement last week did bum us out.

but . . . we were wrong.  and we certainly understand that there are some real concerns for Linden.

what if you were checking out SL for the first time and ended up on some dumpy, overcrowded OS sim? you’d think “this sucks, we can’t use sl”

anyway read here: http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/10/29/update-regarding-the-openspaces-announcement/

OpenSpace prices are slated to increase, you may make a difference

our estate is comprised of many OpenSpace sims used in a responsible manner, only 3 lots on each and only for residential use.  they are beautiful places that you call home.  you know that we think it is expensive to own land isl, and if you read any of the blog, you know we don’t exactly make lots of money.  in fact, we have not made any money yet, but are here for the long run.

Linden Labs announced last night that the fees for these sims were going up.  and by a lot (67%)

that would mean new prices of like $12,500 per month! that is a lot and we should not be punished for responsible use of our homes.  if it was clubs and all that, okay, but there are never more than 5 or 6 people on any of our residential sims

maybe you can make a difference, i hope so

go to: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1776 and log in and vote please, it can make a diff

and go post here as well (have to be logged in): http://forums.secondlife.com/forumdisplay.php?f=354

when residents spoke up a few years ago on even bigger changes than this, Linden Labs listened.  So please speak up.  thanks

Ener Islands

EnerPassage_029, originally uploaded by iliveiSL.

We have 6 OpenSpace sims with very limited space on them.  Only three residential lots each of 4,096 square metres and a low limit on the number of avatars allowed on at any one time.  These are “low prim” sims and do not have the resources of full sims.  We want residents to have a positive experience and to understand what they are getting.  Our residents tend to be very creative and share our passion for sl, it makes a great combo and they understand sl and this land.

thank you to all that call these home, you are the inspiration that keep us going and the true joy of sl.  :)

Major Wootfest =)

Yay!  ^_^  Ener Strait is online and already has three small islands built.  This OpenSpace will only have 2 or 3 properties on it and the rest is open to residents of the iliveiSL estate.  Like the main sims, residents can rez objects for over an hour.  we are tinkering (who tinkers???) with the idea of a small harbor with low-priced slip rentals for boats.

So now you can travel over the initial 3 sims with no issues (i know some helicopter crazy person will be particularly happy with this).  =D

Sim Plans are up on Flickr! :)

Well from paper to images . . . finally. LOL, the intent was to get this done before the first sim went live. Now we are just awaiting the Concierge Team to deliver our next two sims! The advent of being able to buy OpenSpaces one at a time is a real help but slows down sim delivery because it is currently a manual process for LL. Live Chat last nite told us that the two new sims should be online within 10 days, which is fine by us. :)

So here is the slideshow link and if you follow this link you will see the set and lots of notes about Phase I. Thanks and have fun isl! ^_^

sim010, originally uploaded by iliveiSL.com.