EOTB: Linden Lab Lowering Price of Event Regions, Offering Two Levels, Sim Rollbacks Now Cost $25 USD

 

On May 2, Linden Lab announced they were making special Event Regions available for residents. While they boasted higher performance, such as a capacity of up to 175 avatars and up to 30,000 land impact, they were expensive. Following the introductory period, they would require "a set-up fee of US$999 (includes first month), and a rate of $899/month after the first 30 days." Compared to private sims having a monthly charge of $229 USD and a setup fee of $349 USD, expensive.

Last Thursday, Linden Lab announced they were lowering the price, and offering two levels of Event Regions. The lower priced one was called "Event Region Pro." It cost $449 USD a month "with no additional setup fee." They have the 175 avatar limit, more than 20% improvement in script performance, and upon request extended chat range. Three more options were available for fees. An increase to 30,000 Land Impact would cost an extra $30 USD a month. An Instancing Service, or cloning of an Event Region, was $50 USD per request. And rollback services, done within 48 hours, were $25 USD each.

The more expensive level is "Event Regions Elite." Besides having the features of Pro, the Land Impact is raised to 30,000 with no fee. Niether are there fees for rollbacks or cloning of event regions, and "White-glove concierge service." The price is "$599 per month with no setup fee."

It would then have this to say about region rollbacks:

In addition to these new product offerings, we are pleased to announce region rollbacks as a service. This service is now available to all private region owners. If you make a mistake with region content, or want to restore a previous build, you can now request to roll the region back to a specific time. Please note that rollbacks will still be at Linden Lab’s discretion and are not guaranteed. Rollback services are available at $25 per request.

A rollback of a sim was once done without a fee, but at the discretion of Linden Lab, which cautioned to treat them as "a safety mechanism to be used only when something goes very badly wrong," and one could only roll back a few days.

For more information, check the page on the Linden blog.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Flickr Users Cannot Use Free Accounts to Promote Second Life Business

According to an article in New World Notes, those whom use screenshots stored on Flickr to promote their Second Life business will have to upgrade their accounts to "Pro" if they haven't already. When Hayden Pierce asked if using pictures from the virtual world applied to it's rules concerning commercial activity and free accounts, he got the following answer.

For free accounts, linking to a store in Second Life is considered commercial activity. Linking to a blog that links to a store is also considered commercial activity.

If you were to link to a separate place in the blog, it would need to be clear it has nothing to do with purchasing poses, accessories, clothes, etc.

Why is Flickr forcing free users whom use their service to help advertise their wares to get Pro accounts? It seems they've been having some financial difficulties. In December, they were pleading for more users to upgrade their accounts. "We cannot continue to operate it at a loss as we’ve been doing." So it appears the move is to get more cash from it's Second Life users.

The responses to Hamlet Au's article were mostly accepting or supportive of Flickr's move. One commented, "it is only a clarification to all the folks who ignored Flickr's rules on commercial activity. It has been forbidden a while by now and many SL users ignored it. Can't say I am surprised they decided to take action." Another thought clever Second Life business owners might write it off on their taxes as an "advertising expense."

So it seems for Second Life business owners who use Flickr, it's go Pro or go home.

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan