Sunweaver Estates to Lower Rent Thanks to "A Special Coyote"

About ten days after Linden Lab announced their limited time offer to reduce sim tiers for a fee, it seems the Sunweaver and Angel Estates have now been able to take advantage of it, thanks to the generosity of one of the residents.

RECoyote Mindes, whom owns a place in the estates along with his partner Perri Prinz, communicated with Rita Mariner and Nydia Tungsten, and offered to take care of the fees Linden Lab was asking for, Rita announcing the details.

I got confirmation that the tier on Sunweaver Bay and Sunweaver Isle has been successfully reduced.  Thanks to a gift from a special coyote.  As soon as Nydia and I can discuss the level of rent reduction, I will put that immediately into place on my sims. ...

I have discussed it with Nydia, and for the time being the rent reduction I have put in place will stay.  All of you will see a rent reduction of between a couple hundred to several thousand lindens in your rent, depending on the amount of your parcel.  I Hopefully have hit all the affected rent boxes,  If I missed any, please inform me, I'll take care of it.  Enjoy your savings, courtesy of RECoyote.

Chatting about the deal with others, all of the Sunweavers I talked to were very happy with RECoyote, or "Rec" as he's usually called here. The gratitude did not necessarily extend to Linden Lab, the overall  feeling was the Lab offered the deal not out of goodwill to their customers, but was simply a calculated business decision of theirs, a couple reminding me that past experience with the Lindens has cost them what good will they have toward those who run Second Life, saying what kept them here were the friends they made here. One had some doubts the larger land barons would pass their savings onto the customers. Someone else responded there could very well be some increased competition for renters if it was seen some estates weren't lowering their rates or not lowering them much.

This hasn't been the first example of Rec's generosity as he's recently helped a couple neighbors, both of whom have contributed to the community as well, one with a new computer and another a high-end tablet designed for doing artwork. A couple residents mentioned they were planning on giving Rec a small token of their appreciation. The details of which will be revealed once he sees it for himself.

A fine example of a neighbor helping out his virtual community.

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Offering Lower Tiers, For a Price

For years, residents have asked Linden Lab to lower what it charges for sim tier. Yesterday, in a "limited time offer," the Lab announced a chance for landowners to lower their monthly tiers to "Grandfathered maintenance rates." This means lowering the rate for regular sims from $295 USD a month to $195, and homesteads from $125 USD to $95.

But, there's a catch. First, the offer is only good until October 4. Second, to lower the tiers, one needs to pay a one-time fee, $600 USD for each regular sim, and $180 for each homestead. The deal does not apply to sims receiving the non-profit discount or those under it's "Skill Games" policy.

This move comes several months after the Lab's decision in November to reduce set-up fees for private sims.

Ciaran Laval, after a joke that the Lab was trying to make the "protest gnomes" (pictured above) redundant, called it "a good deal," at least for those who have the money up front. Jo Yardley commented, "This offer comes at an interesting time because by the time it ends, Sansar will have opened to a lot more beta testers and if all goes well, we’ll be months away from it opening to the main public. Who knows how things are going in SL by then?" She called it, "A good deal and another step in the right direction, but still, $600 is a lot of money," suggesting the Lab could have done a little better by allowing landowners the option to pay in installments. Hamlet Au was hopeful the move could help stop the long slow decline of Second Life's sim numbers, which have fallen below the 25,000 Level, less then 17500 of which are privately owned. In the thread on the topic in the official Second Life forums, reactions were somewhat mixed, one calling it a "cash infusion" strategy for the Lab, another commenting "if I were a non-grandfathered land baron right about now, I'd be doing one heck of a happy dance."

Time will tell how the move will affect Second Life.

For the blog post, Click Here. 

Sources: Ciaran Laval, Jo Yardley. Hamlet Au, SL Universe, gridsurvey.com.Second Life Forums,