Recent Comments:
Aussies Tax SL Transactions
Second Life Insider
Nov 2nd 2006 11:54PM Virtual currency has a value under Australian law, I believe, if it could be converted to a value equal or greater to one Australian Dollar. Same for any other virtual or non-virtual item.
I must admit, I've not been through the legislation on GST and barter systems lately.
Aussies Tax SL Transactions
Second Life Insider
Nov 2nd 2006 5:31PM Yes, this has been law in Australia for quite some years. In order to bypass the Goods and Services Tax some communities moved to alternative currencies and barter systems, so legislation was drafted that made ad-hoc currencies and barter taxable as well.
SL Economics
Second Life Insider
Nov 1st 2006 2:39AM The article makes a false assumption. That is that all of the currency bought on the lindex is a currency source, which is not the case. Only the control amounts sold by LL are actually created currency. (You try to control boom/bust fluctations by reducing the rate at which the value of the L$ rises - rise too sharply, and there will be a sharp drop to follow).
The stipend information on the second page suggests a little over 8000 new premium accounts in the last month.
They seem to imply that the only long-term way of controlling inflation is to eliminate stipends - which is largely the case, although if the percentage of users receiving a stipend is very small, it may not be a factor.
Resident Numbers Disparity
Second Life Insider
Oct 31st 2006 4:45AM Well, bluntly the initial resident experiences are a bit pants.
What we have right now is a fixed, forced-pace new user experience, where the unnecessary plethora of presented user-interface options serve to overwhelm rather than clarify - so as the next orientation step is achieved, the lessons just learned are forgotten (they should be being reinforced!)
Transitioning to the mainland or a help island right now is a lucky-dip (or an unlucky one, depending on your perspective) based on exactly who you encounter. Some people will treat you gently, superbly, and help you along. Others will insult you, laugh at you or cage you.
There's currently no means in place to prepare people for that. If nothing else, orientation should reinforce lessons learned, rather than just going from new item to new item.
As for the randomness of throwing people in at the deep end, we've always had that. It's just more of the people they meet now are confused.
Oh, it's all fixable, end-to-end, but it requires a fair bit of commitment.
No, the sky isn't falling
Second Life Insider
Oct 25th 2006 7:44PM Not as a threat, no. Quite the opposite. Just the small-town circumstances are gone - really they've been on the way out since late December.
More Virtual Charity
Second Life Insider
Oct 24th 2006 9:31PM The first piece of proactive damage control you generally need in SL for philanthropic endeavours is silence and secrecy.
Doing good works in secret evades a lot of wasteful drama. Alas, only a small subset of philanthropy can be done that way.
Eyewitness Account: Self-Replicating Objects
Second Life Insider
Sep 19th 2006 4:51AM I must confess I don't recall this particular one - I handled a lot of calls over the six hours that I was on Live Help.
It was a real team effort, though. The live helpers were great (I was only one of many), and it was an all-hands effort from Linden Lab, with off-duty Lindens coming in to help out.
What I'm sorry for is that many of us probably missed a lot of questions that weren't related to the crisis - there were just too many calls to keep up with.
Overpopulation?
Second Life Insider
Sep 13th 2006 9:14PM Meh. Scrub that. We had an update and new registrations are disabled. Today's not going to tell us anything useful.
Overpopulation?
Second Life Insider
Sep 13th 2006 5:39PM Well, the next 24 hours saw new signups up another 27% on the already record figure. It'll be another 10 hours before I have today's numbers.
