I’d all but forgotten I was a premium member so it surprised me greatly to get an email telling my annual subscription is due for renwal. The Lab are about to automatically take $74 from my account so I can be premium for another 12 months.
Unless I cancel it, of course.
I only became premium to help a friend out with tier and I’m not doing that anymore, so apart from getting a few L$ a month I don’t need, a Linden slum-home I never use and access to live help that’s never actually been of any help when used, what the hell am I paying my $74 for?
Sadly, as much as I love SL I can’t see any point in being a premium account anymore, can you?
Unless… unless maybe if I could trade my crappy Linden Home for a nice 512 of mainland I’d be interested…
AlexHayden Junibalya
26 March, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Hmmm…sadly me thinks that your idea of a trade for land lies comfortably between the regions of some hope and absolutely no bloody hope….
HeadBurro Antfarm
26 March, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Heh, I think you’re right but a boy can dream
Rhianon Jameson
26 March, 2011 at 5:44 pm
It *is* hard to see the benefit of a premium account.
I feel that I support the SL economy through tier payments and shopping. All part of the great Circle of Life, er, Money.
HeadBurro Antfarm
26 March, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Very true – I’ll put the same or more money in being a freeb so I rather think I’ll cancel.
Fogwoman Gray
26 March, 2011 at 8:12 pm
I went through this question back during the OS debacle and discontinued my premium membership. In the time since I decided that I would resume paying the premium for one reason only…the right to bitch
If I am paying a premium membership, I figure that buys me the right to give LL a piece of my mind when they do something stupid (I am obviously overdrawn at the brain bank by now). I frankly give a rats arse about their dumb Linden Homes. And honestly, the support ticket option is not much of a draw either considering the response times.
So yeah, six bucks a month so I can tell off LL with a clear conscience.
HeadBurro Antfarm
27 March, 2011 at 9:14 pm
You know, I hadn’t thought of it like that… although I’m still not they would care all that much – what’s $74 to the Lab? We are but a collection of gnat’s nudgers to them I fear
Salazar Jack
27 March, 2011 at 4:25 am
If you do cancel, be sure to save and/or export anything you wish to preserve from your inventory before you do as I think it goes poof once you cancel a premium account. Alternatively, if you wish to continue being premium another year, you are welcome to apply your free 512 to your spot in the Cowell Village. We can figure out the appropriate exchange rate in due time.
HeadBurro Antfarm
27 March, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Hi Sal,
1) What do you mean “export anything you wish to preserve from your inventory”? Is there a special procedure for this? Do you mean everyone of the 7,000 objects in there?
2) Is it possible to ditch the Linden slum and put my 512 into Cowell?
Salazar Jack
28 March, 2011 at 1:05 am
(This may be long-winded.) Sorry. I think I may have jumped the gun. I think you are only in danger of losing your inventory if you cancel your account altogether. If you simply downgrade your account from Premium to Basic, theoretically you should still have access to your current inventory (although I seem to remember a few horror stories where that was not the case). But from what few articles I’ve read today, it seems that your inventory should remain intact. You can export objects from your inventory of which you are the sole creator using the Impudence Viewer. So no objects or textures that you did not create. If you are the sole creator of your shape and hair you can export those as well from the Appearance Editor. And scripts cannot be exported, although if you can edit them, you can copy and paste into a text editor and save that way. No easy way to export objects you own, but did not create.
HBA
28 March, 2011 at 9:49 am
Ahhh, cheers for this warning Sal… I will consider this when I make my final decision.
Salazar Jack
28 March, 2011 at 7:49 am
2) Is it possible to ditch the Linden slum and put my 512 into Cowell?
Yes. If you wanted to keep your Premium account, you could abandon your Linden Home parcel and then donate your free 512 to the Phyneas Jack Memorial Trust group and apply that toward your Cowell rental. Or you could continue to pay in full with Lindens for your monthly rental as you have been doing, and you don’t need to be Premium to do that.
HBA
28 March, 2011 at 9:50 am
My choice would be to donate it to Cowell and continue with my rent for my house there.
Salazar Jack
28 March, 2011 at 7:55 am
I’m afraid I can’t guarantee at this point how much longer the Trust will continue to maintain it’s current two region tier level on the Mainland and, as a result, how much longer the Cowell Village will continue its current presence there. Please keep that in mind as you weigh your decision.
HBA
28 March, 2011 at 9:51 am
…worrying. When we last spoke you had indicated that the village might be opening up to renters – has this changed?
Salazar Jack
28 March, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Any large scale official rental of space in the Cowell Village, complete with full service on-site rental assistance and land management, is not likely to happen right away. For now it will remain a smallish hands-off affair with trusted renters having to fend for themselves. The Trust just isn’t in a position to commit very much time to properly develop and maintain the village for general residential/business use for the foreseeable future. It remains to be seen if the Trust is going to continue at their 2 region mainland tier level or downgrade even further, esp. with the continuing OpenSim developments. Still, I don’t see the current situation changing for at least 3 months or so, so Cowell and the rest of Kahruvel will continue for now as is.
HeadBurro Antfarm
28 March, 2011 at 7:22 pm
It’s sad news that the lands maybe shrinking again, but I live in hope that all the research into OpenSim will pay off hugely!
HeadBurro Antfarm
28 March, 2011 at 7:23 pm
In the meantime, Cowell can rely on my small rent for as long as it wants/needs/desires it
Salazar Jack
28 March, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Thank you very much!
HeadBurro Antfarm
28 March, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Hell, thank *you* for Cowell!
Salazar Jack
28 March, 2011 at 9:08 pm
As do I.
Yordie Sands
28 March, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Hi HB…. if you do the math, I think a premium membership only costs about $1 a month when you figure in the stipend paying off part of the annual cost. Also, it gives you access to more SL Help. Yes, i know that’s a whole subject but it’s something. plus you can contribute you 512sqms to worthy groups and all that. Otoh, i’ll be making the same decision in about two months. hehe not sure what i’ll do.
HeadBurro Antfarm
28 March, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Hi Yordie – I think you’re right. I think I’ll stay a Prem and donate the tier
Martien Pontecorvo
30 March, 2011 at 9:49 pm
I downgraded to a free account years ago for economic reasons, and haven’t looked back since.
For one thing, that’s a lot less money for tier – I used to own land, and would be spending about NZD$100 per month on that alone. That’s a lot of money that can now be used for drinking – er, more useful purposes.
So now I rent on estates. The neighbours are nicer, the views are better, and the prim counts are higher too.
HeadBurro Antfarm
30 March, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Aye, I’ve always had good experiences renting private too, but I’m going to stay Prem and ditch the Linden Home. Instead I’ll donate my 512 tier to a mate