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Thursday, November 21, 2019
Breaking News: Linden Lab Says Last Names Available Again By Jan 31, For Premium Residents
Earlier today, Linden Lab posted on the official blog a date on one of the more persistent questions of residents, the return of last names. The Lab stated it is "working furiously" to have the option to get or change a last name. However, the option will only be available for Premium Residents, and there would be a fee for it.
Soon it will be possible to change the name of a Second Life account. This is one of our Residents’ most requested features and we’re working furiously to make it available by the end of January. Name Changes will be exclusively for Premium members at an additional fee. Changing one or both of your First and Last Name will be available as a single transaction. Last Names will be picked from a list, which you can help us curate.
It was also announced the Lab would soon hold a contest for suggestions on new last names. Five of the people who submit suggestions will get a free name change, regardless of their being Premium accounts or not. The contest will run for a month from December 16 to January 15.
At the SL16B this year, Oz Linden stated that the reason it was taking so long for last names was, "every part of Second Life, absolutely everything, was built with the assumption that your name can never change. ... we have to go back and find that assumption everywhere in Second Life. And that's a *lot* of code."
The Lab would also announce a new level of Premium membership, Premium Plus, "an additional choice for Residents who want to get even more value from their Second Life."
Also announced were changes in Marketplace, including the fee to list an item as Featured reduced ten percent and "commission rates on Marketplace sales will become 10% of the item price." There was also a reminder about the Linden Home at the Christmas Expo.
To read the blogpost in full, Click Here.
Changing Names: Okay, so we all knew changing names would cost something - but having to be a Premium member as well? Oy. That will drastically reduce the number of people taking advantage of the offer. Seems to me that if LL wants to make more money on this they should open it to everyone.
ReplyDeleteLast Names: So new Residents - the people for whom the ability to have a Last name is most needed - are not able to choose a name like we all used to? That is a horribly broken way to implement this! When we've been saying we want Last Names back, we've meant that we want them back as a default choice for New Residents. Sticking with forcing all new members to take the last name of Resident totally misses the entire point.