Second Life Linden Lab Screws their Customers

Sorry I don't know any nice way of putting what Linden Lab has done this week. Half of me wants to cry the other half wants to vomit out of pure disgust. When you are in business with ppl there is a certain amount of respect you should show and never give them a reason to mistrust you. This week Linden Lab not only angered the community but they became a direct competitor with their paying community.

Spotlight which is to replace the in world "Popular Places" is nothing more than a hand picked popularity contest meant to pit one paying customers against the other. They can add lovely graphics and make it sound good but real life companies will be on the Spotlight list along with residents Linden Lab itself hand picks. That does not wash with me simply because anyone who says anything negative about Linden Lab or Second Life will never be on that list. Anyone who has sucked up to Linden Lab in the past, gotten special contracts with Linden Lab or has been a ra ra fan boy/girl surely and most certainly will. That is a little childish and grade school popularity contest bullshit I want no part of. That kind of shit makes my stomach turn. I thought we were all adults and treated each other with some kind of respect; I was so wrong.

Bay City or as I like to call it "Bay Shitty" is a stab in the heart of every residential community on the grid. There have been smaller projects by Linden Lab before but nothing on the scale of 20 servers. Previous projects were geared towards helping new people get land. This latest move will put larger parcels in a city setting up for sale on their Auction page. Which is in direct competition with residents who try and run communities. Keep in mind a few things. Linden Lab under the guise of helping the community hired a few select ppl to build it at way below a fair wage to create this city. Those of course were several chosen buddies of theirs. I would like to also say those chosen where very vocal in the forums of past days and were very insulting to other paying customers. Which Linden Lab allowed. Disgusting behavior for a company that is suppose to be professional. Communities are still struggling to try and recover from the server price gouge then sudden drop making their land worth 40% less then what they paid for it. These ppl usually sit with half of their lots empty struggling every month to make tier. These ppl cannot put their lots for sale on the Linden Lab Auction site. There is no way for them to compete against Linden Lab. They will most surely lose revenue as a result of this move.

Fashion and Other Content;

I have no doubt what so ever that at some point in the future LL will take over these markets as well. Leaving Second Life to be nothing more than There.com. I have no doubt because it already started with Spotlight. What's next? Those who are on Spotlight will be asked to sell their goods in one of Linden Lab's cities where they have renters paying Linden Lab their tier.

Let's also not forget that recently Linden Lab told it's fan sites that they could not use the works "Second Life" or "SL" in reference to their product. Fine by me no one say Second Life again; let's see how long it takes before no one mentions their bullshit company at all.

I guess when Philip said he could really make some money if he started making content; he wasn't kidding. He was just waiting to step down as CEO.

I do run residential communities and I feel like I just got screwed. I no longer trust Linden Lab. I am angry because my monthly tier wasn't enough for them they needed what little I made in rentals as well. I can't even ask for a refund. The money I invested is gone. All I can do now is sell what I have and cut my losses. Or stay and pray everday I make my tier. In my heart I know it's just a matter of time and I am being replaced by the corporate machine. It doesn't matter that I spent the last 5 years developing content and helping new people with every question they asked. It doesn't matter that I was kind or helpful. In the end...all I see is the end.