Socially|Mundane

You know that every time Linden Lab sneezes, the naysayers and crybaby whiners come out of the woodwork, especially the begrudged who like to proclaim they pay Linden Lab umpteen hundreds or thousands of "real life" dollars each month (they don't). The sad thing is they all are clowns, but aren't pretending to be.

Anshe Chung, the Azure Islands, name your big-business-money-maker-here people and anyone who sends Linden Lab hundreds or thousands of so-called "real life" dollars in tier and other fees each month are all full of crock.

(Note: I have never seen any complaint from Anshe Chung company or the Azure Islands people, they are just well-known "big business" names I am throwing out as examples of "big money-makers". This post is about the vocal whiners who comment on blogs and the rest.)

In fact, they (the so-called "money-makers") pay nothing of their own money to Linden Lab. And here's why...

They are getting such a free ride. Their complaints of "losing money" every time the grid hiccups or Linden Lab conjures a new policy or idea might be true - sales could be down - but proclamations that they are "owed" anything for spending so much "real life money" is outright laughable.

I hold my nose and point.

Especially to the loudest idiots like Stroker Serpentine and all those so-called "land barons" who can only bitch and whine about the good things like the move of "adult" content to the walled garden of Zindra or the new Linden Home project and the rest.

I send Linden Lab hundreds of dollars every month, too.

However, unlike all those other "big players" who bitch and whine about it, I am a realist because I clearly recognize that all the real life money I send to Linden Lab every month isn't and never was my money. It's Linden Lab's money to begin with and any money (real life or pretend token) they don't take which sits in my account as a "credit" is money they allow me to keep.

And in it all, none of it ever was my money and never will be - unless I do a full cash-out and Linden Lab chooses - at their discretion and kindness - to deposit to my PayPal account or send me a check.

That's because all the money I play with in Second Life is someone else's money. None of it whatsoever is my money to begin with, meaning all those bitchers who whine to Linden Lab all the time also proclaim to be spending so much of their own money...aren't really spending a dime of their own money.

None of it. Not a real life single penny and not a pretend life single Linden Dollar. It all belongs to someone else. There are a lot of people who use LindeX - the Linden Lab exchange - to spend real money in buying Linden Dollars. Then they spend those Linden Dollars in-world. I, like all other merchants, hope to win their business so they spend it with me and my in-world "company".

I turn around and convert those Linden Dollars those other people gave me, which they purchased with their own money, into a real U.S. Dollar credit. I never owned any of that money up to now and technically, I still don't.

I leave my real dollar credit sitting their because when my tier and other fees are due to Linden Lab they will take what I owe from that credit first - before taking from my real life bank account. Anything left-over is what we all know as profit.

If I request Linden Lab reimburse me that left-over credit then, and only then does any of this become "my" money - which I will most unlikely send back to Linden Lab to pay any of my tier and fee obligations.

Hence: I am not spending a single dime of real life legal tender currency, a.k.a. "money" with or on Linden Lab.

Ever.

So the next time you see some whiner on the official blogs lambasting Linden Lab for whatever reason and they proclaim they "spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars of "real life" money on Linden Lab" - debunk them. Call them out for the charlatan they are and tell them to first get a clue and second, learn real world business paradigms with regard to accounts payable versus accounts receivable and stop dishing bullshit.

I wasn't in-world yesterday, but I saw through the RSS feeds from the Grid Status page that the Asset Servers where having real issues all day:

[Resolved] Asset Server Error Messages Posted by Status Desk on March 18th, 2010 at 02:20 pm PDT

[Resolved 2:20pm PDT] We have resolved the issues with the asset server. Residents should feel free to resume in-world purchases.

[UPDATE 1:30pm PDT] We continue to work on the asset server issues.

[UPDATE 11:43am PDT] We continue to work on the asset server issues.

[UPDATE 9:42am PDT] Work on the asset server issue is still in progress.

[8:42am PDT] We are aware of a problem affecting some residents when rezzing or deleting items and getting asset server error messages. We also suggest temporarily refraining from inworld purchases until we give the all-clear. We are currently investigating the problem and will post updates here.

Ouch!

For approximately 6.5 hours the Asset Servers were more or less dysfunctional. This means you cannot rez objects from your inventory, pick-up rezzed items from the world, change your clothes and most important: spend any money.

I can only imagine the vitriolic shrill screaming that would be in the comments on those blog entries had Linden Lab allowed comments on that blog!

Then there was some issue with the support portal. Then, after that was this:

[RESOLVED] Logins currently unavailable Posted by Status Desk on March 18th, 2010 at 05:10 pm PDT

[RESOLVED March 18th 5:50pm] Login problems have now returned to normal.

[UPDATE March 18th 5:10pm] There are still some residual problems with logins, we are investigating the issue and are working to resolve it. Please watch here for any new updates.

[POSTED March 18th 3:45pm] Some residents may be experiencing issues attempting to login. We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it. Please watch here for any new updates.

I do some International business in the middle of the night (Pacific time) but a large part of my business transactions occur during the SL day. So, imagine my surprise when I logged-into my Second Life account page to download daily transactions and the default list (from mid'night last to current time) was blank. The old "No transaction for this period" message.

Wow.

I would have expected something to be "down" as business for the entire grid was dead from 8;30-ish through 2:30-ish, but should have started picking-up around 3:00 P.M. or so (they did) - but then there was the double-whammy of login issues from about 4:00 P.M.-ish to 6:00 P.M.-ish; two hours for a total of eight hours of SNAFU. That really can put a damper in sales.

Though there is no report of any SNAFUs over night on the status page, what's to say there weren't any? The status page is often 15 to 30-minutes behind "real time" on the grid. Is it possible something exploded overnight and it just wasn't posted?

I don't know.

However, in the end it is wise that Linden Lab does not allow comments on the Grid Status pages because the whiners, crybabies and outright idiotic "hate-the-world-just-to-hate-it" knuckleheads would have a field day.

Which is really shameful because Linden Lab owes all of us nothing. And all those big-wig top "money-makers" on the grid who like to bitch about how they "spend thousands of real life dollars" with Linden Lab so therefor Linden Lab owes them something are a complete joke and a farce. Laughable clowns from my perspective.

None of that money was or is theirs to begin with. They are simply passing other people's money up the food chain.

They are conceited, stuck-up, self-centered, entitlement, whiney-assed buffoons.

And I know damned well there are a lot of surname Lindens thinking what I just said, but can't say it because their words would be bastardized into being some kind of an "official" statement or something or other.

As for all the money "lost" yesterday? /me shrugs. It wasn't and still isn't my money to begin with. As long as I am able to earn enough business from other people to use their money to pay my obligations to Linden Lab each month, I'm content.

Simply put: I'm not stupid and foolish enough to consider Second Life as any kind of "income".

link: Second Life Grid Status Reports

art:Joe-Nathan

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