Linden Lab have announced a new perk for premium members : Access to more missed instant messages! The blog post informs us :
Previously, if IMs were sent to your account while you were offline, you could access up to 25 messages when you next log in. That remains the case for free account holders, but starting today, Premium Members can access up to 50 missed IMs. That means fewer notecards filling up your inventory and fewer missed messages from friends, colleagues, and customers.
Speculation about improvements for premium users was raised recently after Release Notes for the Magnum channel revealed :
Internal improvements for premium users
The nature of those improvements had not been confirmed but this looks like it will be part of those improvements. The news has so far received a rather flat response, but obviously this is an improvement that will not really be applicable to many users as they don’t regularly receive more than 25 offline IM’s. However for those who do, this should prove to be a useful perk.
Whereas this might not grab people’s attention as a perk in its own right, it is encouraging to see Linden Lab engaging in ideas to add value and perks to Premium Membership. The blog post suggests that more improvements and perks for premium members are in the pipeline :
There are many reasons to upgrade to Premium, and we’ll be adding even more benefits and features for subscribers throughout the year.
Premium Membership currently offers people the chance to own a Linden Home or use 512m of mainland in one shape or form for no extra cost above Premium Membership. Premium Members also receive a weekly stipend of 300 Linden Dollars, which offsets the cost somewhat. Please also note that you can save money on the cost of a Premium Membership if you sign up for longer periods, as the blog post explains :
You can pick the subscription plan that best fits your budget – pay monthly, quarterly, or annually. Pro tip: do the math on the annual plan – in addition to a total savings of more than $47 compared to a monthly subscription, the value of the weekly L$ stipend alone means it nearly pays for itself!
However please note that if you’re in Europe you may have to pay VAT, which will bump the cost up. Thanks European Union, we love you too! Personally I’ve always felt that Linden Lab are missing a trick by offering a one size fits all Premium Membership package. There are those for whom the option of land is not attractive because they already have a presence on a private estate, for those users it may be beneficial if they received a different perk, such as x amount of free advertising or a higher stipend.
Another option I’ve seen people discuss is adding SL Go to the Premium package but that has a few problems, one being it would require Linden Lab and OnLive to reach an agreement and this would undoubtedly incur an extra cost. Then there’s the issue that this certainly wouldn’t be suitable for all Premium Members as many would never want to use SL Go. However as an option, it may have some merit.
Premium Membership has long been an issue whereby people question its value. Linden Lab exploring ways to bring more value to Premium Membership without nerfing existing non-premium users in the process is something that should be encouraged, even if this new messaging perk doesn’t appeal to you directly.
To find out more about Premium Membership go here : https://secondlife.com/premium/
Hey it just happens that tomorrow is april fools day.
There you might have a point.
This feature would be entirely useless for all those, regardless if premium or basic resident, who have instant messages go to email. Besides, as a paying member, one should safely have the right to except 100% of functionality. Not 25, nor 50.
As we know, notecards don’t arrive always either. So ..I am with you, ahum, tending to lean towards believing this to be an April prank . A good one though. But we shall see 🙂
Some people aren’t fans of im to email. However, logging in to 50 messages is problematic too.
I can understand why people aren’t running through the streets over this, but I also think it’s good to see LL exploring avenues to add value to Premium.
Oh you cynic! 🙂
I must agree, being premium i should expect to see all my offline im’s being delivered to my mail, not only a few and also i should expect to see all the im’s sent to me when i was logged off, when i do login in.
And for me Sl Go is not a option.
I must rather prefer to have a rize on m2 per tier level when acquiring mainland regions, that for sure would justify much more being premium and would put a lot more looking for mainland and perhaps even increase premium memberships.
Sure, I think options would be good, for some the extra im’s are useless, for others, the free land is useless.