Official New Tier Proposal

[Rosie Gray]

I used the Hippo system for rentals on a sim I administered before, so according to my experience (which wasn't huge), here's my feedback:

Is there not just a way to change the purchase price to the cost of one month's tier (heck, if I could, I would go to each property and re-write the info on it) And set the meter to not accept tier for one month after payment? I've used rental boxes that allow me to pay more than a month at a time, as well as many other options. Lionheart for example (sorry to keep bringing them up, but ive been a long time resident, lol) you pay your 'set up' fee and then when next tier is due, you get a reminder message saying to pay, and you go to your box and pay.

I am NOT an expert by any means on the Hippo system. I'm using it in New England for rentals, and here we are using it for tier. If any of my understandings of how it works are wrong, I will be HAPPY to be set straight.

The Hippo system has no direct connection with the land, except to count prims on the parcel it sits on (a feature we can't use). It simply accepts payments, counts how long since its been that you've paid, and reminds you to pay again. So.... There is no way to have the Hippo box sell you the parcel, or even know that the parcel has been bought.

OK, so we've set all the parcels for one month's tier purchase price. That would be fine. A new owner buys the parcel. The Hippo box on the parcel (actually, next to the parcel) still says "For Sale". It doesn't know that the parcel was sold. The only way for the "free month tier" to happen next would be for a Hippo administrator to log into the Hippo site and set the tenancy paid for a month... something I think they can do (not totally sure). Once that is done, then, yes, the Hippo box will no longer say "For Sale", and the new owner will be OK for a month. Mind you, the new owner will never have used the Hippo box there, so they may have no awareness of all this, and they'll have to be contacted and educated.

Since the 'sale' is not linked to the 'rental', someone would have to see when the land was sold, then go and set the rental box to the purchaser's name and set the rental fee to start the next month. This seems reasonable and doable, if you know when the land is sold, and as long as everything is explained to the purchaser so they understand the setup. I don't think that is too different from the situation now. I recall that the administrator of the Hippo system can set dates and amounts, and have the box give out notecards* as well, but it has been awhile since I've used the system from that end and it is a bit of a learning curve. Once it's set up and you understand how it works though, it saves a lot of time.

The other advantage is that most people in SL know how they work and expect to see them.

I believe the owner can grant administrative rights on the system at a couple of different levels as well.

*The notecards could make sure that the payer understands what they are paying for, to allay any misunderstanding that they might have about what it is they are paying for.

Rosie

[Moonrise Azalee]

Alright, so let's say we stick with the current system, which is that there are payment boxes set up by Sudane. This really isn't that big of a deal. It's nice. I've had similar, except that they were hippo boxes set up along a wall (Sudane's layout looks nicer)
What the important thing is, would be that there be something on the property, hippo or not, a for sale sign, that has a notecard which says :
Land size .......
Prims Available.......
Monthly Tier........
Purchase Price (includes first month's tier)

And then have it say 'to purchase, chose the About Land and Buy'
The only thing I can see with that is that the About Land's will have to have their prices changed.

And of course, if this is going to happen, then agreeing on the tier price, so that it can be added into the description, is rather important, especially if we want to try to promote the area for purchases. At this time of transition, it's a delicate time to bring people in, right in the middle of tier changes. I suggest that we really get this moving so that we can continue forward.

[Sudane Erato]

The tier rates passed recently by the RA have now been applied to all the tier payment collection boxes throughout the CDS. These are the old payment boxes for land on NFS, CN, AM and Monastery, and the experimental Hippo boxes on LA.

If you are wondering about how the tier is now calculated for your parcel, here's an explanation:

The RA law imposed the following rates:

NFS and CN: US$3.25 / 512 square meter parcel / month
AM and LA: US$6.50 / 512 square meter parcel / month
MON: US$10.12 / 512 square meter parcel / month

These rates DO NOT include the Linden imposed 3.5% fee for exchanging money, which we will continue to impose. Assuming that the L$ exchange rate is 250, this means that the owner of a 512 sqm parcel on either NFS or CN would pay monthly the following tier:

$3.25 x 1.035 (this adds the exchange fee) x 250 = 841 L$s

So... for anyone with any size parcel....

NFS and CN: number of square meters x 1.6426
AM and LA: number of square meters x 3.2852
MON: number of square meters x 5.1144

These numbers will constantly change slightly as the L$ exchange rate changes. Both the Hippo boxes and the old tier payment system read the exchange rate each time that someone requests their amount or goes to pay.

The RATES listed when you touch the old payment system box will NOT be correct for this new system, but the final amount will be correct. This is because the old system incorporates adjustments which I cannot easily control, so instead I adjusted the rates to result in the correct tier amount for your parcel. In LA, the rates, as well as the final amounts, show correctly.

If a tier rate is way off, please let me know. But... PLEASE... before you call me, please check the square meters of your parcel and check your math!

Sudane..................................................

[Rosie Gray]

Thank you very much Sudane, for the explanation and for doing the work of converting the tier's over.