For once it looks like Linden Lab have listened to the residents!

Good News: Homestead Pricing to be Grandfathered if purchased before July 1st, 2009
Update to July 1st Homestead Pricing Plan

So, given that things seem to have stabilized in the Second Life economy and that Linden Lab's business remains strong and our revenues are healthy, we are able to forego the planned Homestead price increase in July for one year, but only for Homesteads purchased (or reactivated, see below) before July 1, 2009. In other words, any Homesteads purchased before July 1, 2009 will have their monthly fees Grandfathered at USD$95 per month until July 1, 2010. This includes any Homesteads that you currently own at the time of this post.

In addition, if you reactivate a Homestead that you abandoned (not converted) after January 1, 2009, we'll waive the setup fee to re-instate it. All Homesteads purchased on or after July 1, 2009 will be at the USD$125 monthly rate as originally planned. This offer is only open to Homesteads bought before the July 1st 2009 date so if you want to take advantage of the lower USD$95 per month rate, you will need to have purchased or re-enabled your Homestead before the end of June.

Victory for those that fought for the grandfathered system! at least for the first year.

Read the full post HERE

Eye on the Blog - About the Homestead Launch and Script Limits

As we have previously blogged, Homesteads will be launched as a new product on Monday 5th January. Those of you that own an Openspace should already have received emails from us explaining the changes taking place; this post is to ensure that you have as much information as possible ahead of the change.

In launching a new product, there are many areas that will change, including additions to the website, new knowledgebase articles, and of course, changes to the Land Store itself.

Timing:

• January 5th: From 8am until 12 noon SLT, Land Store closed for maintenance. Upon opening, both Homesteads and Openspaces will be available as options for island owners.
• January 5th: All Openspace regions to undergo rolling restart. Most will happen before Noon SLT.

Billing

• If your normal monthly bill date is before the 5th you will be billed your new rate in February 09
• If your normal monthly bill date is on or after the 5th, you will be billed the new rate in January 09
• Educators that have paid for a half or full year in advance will be unaffected by rate increase until their renewal date. For more information and to confirm renewal dates contact the Concierge team.

Script Limits

• We will need to implement script limits to prevent a heavily overloaded region from negatively affecting the performance of another region.

Timing for Script Limits:

• In Q1, we will be gathering data on script load, and sharing this usage data with the community before deciding what the most appropriate limits are.
• In Q2, we expect there to be Viewer changes to allow you to monitor your script usage against those limits.
• In Q3 we will begin enforcing script limits.

Read the full post HERE
Source: The official SecondLife Blog

Dear M(ark)

Regarding the openspaces mess you have got yourself into.
James and I were discussing this issue and disagreeing since James looks at things purely from a business owners perspective whereas I tend to look at how your decisions have affected the people. There was no argument purely a theoretical discussion and to be honest he had certain points but none which excuse the way you have treated your customers.
So you underestimated the demand for openspaces, you underestimated the usage and you continued to sell the product even after problems started to materialise and after the realisation that something had to be done.
The problem then was how to deal with it and no matter what solution you manage to come up with the Residents would be the ones to pay for it.
The point is not that you had to fix the problem but the way you, as a company, think you can treat your loyal customers. If, after the realisation that there was a huge problem that would have to fixed, you had come to us 1, you would have had all the feedback you got after your terrible announcement and 2, you would have kept the faith and trust that you have now lost to a huge degree, instead of which you have ended up making most people think of 'bait and switch'
If you had admitted you had messed up and apologised many would not have dumped their islands and Secondlife, the way you have condescended and patronised your customers is the reason Secondlife is dying and people are looking for alternatives.
Most can swallow price rises, and to a degree expect it from any service, but because of the appalling way this has been handled you have lost something very precious - TRUST.
Losing trust may not mean a lot to a company in the short term but in the long time you have damaged your reputation which was already in decline, as far as Residents were concerned, due to lack of communication and the impression that Residents do not matter to Linden Lab.
You have said you want discussion and are working on better communication yet even on this you do not take it seriously, I have been following the FORUM discussion - 4 replies in 88 pages is not a discussion and none from you yourself. Yet you expect people to take the forum seriously as a way to communicate - is this yet another smokescreen? Just a way to allow us to let off steam? It certainly isn't for discussion because that implies two way communication.
Please stop insulting your customers we are not 'passionate' but smart enough to see through your pretty words we do not need to be talked to like children we need honesty and transparency.
Making people feel like they are second rate is not a smart move - you should take your 'cap in hand' and apologise although its probably too late for many.
You have messed up and if I were in your position I would fire my PR advisers and start working very hard on trying to earn the trust back you have lost, if that is even possible now.
Many may have been smoke screened by the apparent changes and on the whole the end package you have decided on is not much different from the original except maybe slightly fairer to educators and sailing communities (if the script allowance doesn't kill those off too) but in time most will see through the smokescreen and feel even more duped.
I urge you to act now before any more damage is done to Linden Labs reputation.
You owe your residents an apology and in your last letter that is what most people were looking for once they realised not a lot had changed.
Dana Vanmoer

M(ark) Lindens letter to residents:

In A Letter to Second Life Residents M Linden outlines the new plans for Openspaces and some at least can breath a little easier.
Places like the sailing communities that use the openspaces the way they were originally intended.
But on the whole adding the new homesteads is not much of a change you will still have to pay more for your home but this charge will be stepped - going to $95 in January and then to $125 by July and scripts and avatars will also be limited on these sims - so although you will be paying more for your current openspace you will be getting less for your money.

I zipped around the grid to get immediate reactions:
IntLibber BnT: "I am deeply offended to see M Linden speaking at a breast cancer convention on the same day he released this rapacious policy, when so many residents of SL started their businesses in SL because they or a family member was homebound due to having to cope with cancer striking their lives. Linden Lab policy has steadily been destroying the businesses that these people depend upon for their livings. This is the worst sort of predation upon the most fragile members of our society.I launched my own business in SL to help pay for my fathers cancer treatments, as I was homebound to care for him and my disabled mother. His cancer may be returning to strike his colon. If LL continues these policies, his blood is on their hands.
While the real world has elected new leadership with Hope For Change, the best we can do in SL is hope for spare change after LL robs us of everything we earn and drives our residents away from our businesses."

Other residents on the D'Alliez estate are confused and looking for answers which of course will take some explaining - renters are, of course, harder to sort out especially on an estate as large as Alliez Mysterios'
Alliez Mysterio: I still have to go over it again but it seem like LL is trying. They have given options but overall not much has changed for renters the price will still go up and they will be more limited in what they can do on the openspaces they have and if you rent them out you will be homesteaded.

I also Spoke to Charlene Trudeau of Skybeam Estates and asked for her reaction:
Charlene Trudeau: The slower increase is good for people needing to adjust to the new pricing. It will still force some large scale changes in structure on the new Homestead product, however, especially for those who rented them out to more than one tenant per region. For my own estates, I am glad that my moves to adjust to the initial changes have not be negated, they are still prudent decisions for a long term outlook. Short term, more of my OS regions might have been retained for a time by their occupants, but this gets the painful adjustments over with sooner
dana Vanmoer: so it is still going to be a painful experience, what could LL have done to negate this and is there anything you would have liked to have seen?
Charlene Trudeau: I would have liked the plan that is in place now to have been thought out thoroughly from the beginning. And the only thing I would have liked to see in addition to the current is a willingness to also waive *move* fees in situations where a region is left floating remote from areas that were part of the contiguous estate before. Other than that, the new changes solve most of my major concerns. The pain comes far more from watching residents who have built so much have to tear down because they can't afford the increases.
I was heartsick as I helped everyone tear apart their lives. I've moved on into a 'looking towards tomorrow' mindset now. In fact, I've named my two newest regions based on that theme :)

At first glance the post looks positive and in the short term it is a change for the better BUT overall nothing has changed except the timescale for most openspace owners.

The best place to find out whether you are affected and what you will have to pay is in the SUPPORT PORTAL where a detailed explanation and table are shown BUT again although it say scripts will be limited on homesteads it does not say how much.
Hopefully we can expect more technical details in the near future.
More responses can be seen in the FORUM created for this purpose.
Dana Vanmoer

Sadness and realisation

You know tonight I was taking pictures for Mami Jewels' new releases coming out this week and it suddenly struck me; we could very soon lose our little piece of paradise.
I love Caprona and its just so unfair!
We rarely use all the prims we are allowed here, maybe the exception to that is when James and I got married and at that time I can understand we may have put a strain on the server for an hour or so but is that unusual? Aren't all servers going to be strained occasionally? Anyway only 4 avatars are usually on our island and then rarely for any length of time or all at the same time, so why should we be punished for the 'light' use of our retreat?

I truly feel saddened at the way Linden Lab are treating their residents, the people who have found happiness in their secondlives and are now having it ripped from them in such an unjust way.

For my part I am losing faith in LL and to show my disappointment I will no longer be doing business with the Lindex - why should I give them a penny after the way they have treated every one of us. Most of the decisions LL has made of late I may not have liked but I have always been able to keep my distance and sometimes even see both points of view but, in this, LL has pushed me too far.

I recommend if you are not going to use the Lindex, like myself, then you make sure you use a reputable exchange instead like the ones on either ACE-Exchange or Xstreet(formally sl-exchange). I know there are others but I personally do not know of them please feel free to add a link (in the comments) to any reputable exchanges you have used in the past.

As a reporter and editor of this newspaper I have always tried to remain impartial while still being true to myself, but, in this issue I have failed and am not afraid to say so. Many of my friends are talking of leaving SL and many others are selling their land and downgrading their accounts. While nothing is set in stone yet, according to Jack Linden, and there is a spark of hope left that LL may reconsider or find a compromise I will wait as many others will do - just don't wait to long Linden Lab to make some sort of decision or you may find yourself with a world empty of content creators and supporters.

Dana Vanmoer

(dress 'nicole' by Styles of Edo - to be released this week)