Linden Lab have blogged about a new perk for Premium Members : Premium Membership in Second Life Just Got Better! The perk? Premium Members will be able to join 60 groups, instead of the meaning of life 42.
There’s an interesting part of the blog too, which shows that Linden Lab have thought the consequences of people downgrading through :
Premium members can immediately take advantage of the new limit. Downgrading from Premium membership will not remove you from any of your groups, but it will mean that you cannot join any new groups until you remove yourself from enough groups to get below the Basic account limit, which remains at 42.
Therefore if you’re a premium member today and you join more groups, if at some point in the future you downgrade, you won’t be forced to leave any of your groups. However it will mean that you can’t join any new groups unless you shuffle the group pack until you are below 42 groups again, which may involve some advanced and painful juggling. I also assume that this means if you’re a member of say, 53 groups, and then you downgrade, you won’t be able to join more groups, you’ll have to shuffle the pack until you are below 42 again.
When it comes to groups, there will never be enough. This is one of the reasons why I’ve been a fan in the past of web based groups, whereby you would read the information on a group page, rather than the current system where all the messages, notecards, landmarks and messages are sent to you. Another idea I’ve been a fan of in the past is the idea of different types of groups. Social groups don’t always need land, so why include them in the land system which creates overheads when checking things such as group access.
However both of my proposals would require a major overhaul of how things currently work, so I can understand why Linden Lab aren’t keen to tinker too much with the current system. Whereas the system has flaws, it does to a large degree work as intended. However concerns will remains regarding group chat.
When I was a lad in Second Life, the group limit was 25 groups. In the earlier years of Second Life, the group limit was 10 groups. I don’t know too many people who would cope well in Second Life these days with a 10 group limit.
The move to 60 groups for Premium Members is in the pilot stage, as the blog post explains :
We must make sure that the recent gains in group performance are not jeopardized, so for now the new limit is a pilot program. If there are no problems, we will look forward to raising the limit further (stay tuned!).
The debates about Premium Membership rage on. I think it’s a situational issue, there are benefits to being a Premium Member, such as the stipend, the choice of 512m free tier or a Linden Home, better support than normal basic members and now an increase in group limits. Linden Lab also state in their post :
There are many reasons to maintain a Premium membership in Second Life, and we hope this increased group membership limit makes Premium subscriptions even more attractive. We’ll be adding even more benefits and features for Premium members throughout the year.
Learn more about Premium membership and upgrade your account today at. You can pay for your subscription monthly, quarterly, or annually – and the annual plan in particular is a great value. In addition to a total savings of more than $47 compared to a monthly subscription, the value of the weekly L$ stipend means the membership nearly pays for itself!
I have stated before that I feel that Linden Lab may be missing a trick with a one size fits all Premium Membership plan. For example some people don’t want a Linden Home or 512m of mainland tier, they may prefer a higher stipend. Whereas others may not want the stipend at all, they would trade it in for a larger free tier amount. Then there are those who would prefer another perk, such as x amount of free uploads or advertising. However Linden Lab know all the metrics and how complicated different plans could prove to be.
An increase in the number of groups is a perk that I think is a fair one to Premium Members. This does not reduce the value of a basic account, it does however add an extra perk to being a Premium Member.
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