It’s fun to see how a simple marketing trick can cause a whole lot of drama. Unless we have in mind that anything can cause drama in second life. Freebies are a nice idea in theory. They were supposed to make noobs look less bad, to give promotion to the creators, bring extra traffic to the shops, get new customers and make the old ones happy. In short, everybody was supposed to benefit from them.
But in the aftermath, it seems that everybody is pissed about them.
Well, not everybody. Noobs are getting their free stuff and look less bad. And that’s it. The other two groups, customers and creators, are fighting the war over the freebies.
I must admit I’m having hard time writing this. I’m trying to put down what’s happening and it simply makes no sense. Designers are giving some of their stuff for free. You enter the shop and there’s a pile of boxes that you simply can take. Usually, there’s a huge sign over the pile saying they are for free. And even more often, the freebies are advertised in the shop’s description. But, creators themselves are saying they are ruining their business:
It’s unsustainable for business owners if there are thousands of high quality freebies on the grid, as it leads to a culture where a large number of users refuse to buy anything and live off freebies.
If you read comments on that post and many other blogs that deal with the freebies, you’ll see that many creators passionately hate freebies, even if they have them in their own stores. They expect increased sales if they put freebies in the store, but they don’t get as rich as expected. It probably works for some and not for the other, but that’s the trick of marketing in the meatspace too. Some things work for some and fail for the others. But if it doesn’t work for you, just delete those boxes and go with something else. Don’t whine around about customers that picked your promo stuff and haven’t bought anything else. Sure, some creators expect that nobody else give freebies around because that lowers everybody’s sales, especially those whose priced products are inferior to somebody’s freebies. But that’s too childish to discuss about, right?
There is also the other side, the customers, and when you see the logic of some of them, you start understanding some of the designers’ protests like the most recent call for ban of the freebies. While most of us see a freebie as a gift and promo stuff, others see it as something that is mandatory for every creator and expect it when they come to the store. Which is also childish. If somebody spends their time using skills and talent to make something, they have the right to give it or to sell it as they see fit…. and I feel extremely silly having to write obvious things like this. But apparently, it’s not that obvious as it seems. And it doesn’t end in being childish. It goes further to being rude and sending IM’s with insults to the creator because they are not giving anything for free. It’s amazing what some people allow to themselves.
So, it’s not about freebies, it’s about people. While on both sides there are some who are enjoying the free stuff around and benefit from it, there are some whose ideas and manners are more suitable for a cave than for a virtual world. On both sides as well. And there’s not much we can do about it.
But still, there is an appeal that creators, at least temporarily, stop giving free things around. Will that help? No, not at all. First, not everybody will join the action. No matter how hard you try you can’t reach the entire creating community, let alone persuade it to join the action. Second, rude consumers won’t get the message. They are the last to get any message. What to do instead?
Well… maybe spreading the word will have some effect. Remember the panels explaining about stolen skins? Those never solved the problem, but they did a huge job nevertheless. Also, you might want to have a handy notecard as a response to those that send you rude IM’s and request your stuff for free. This won’t solve much as well, but this is not a short-term thing. Culture is never built in a day.
I am so sick of freebies. it is even worse when designers give their better stuff out as a freebie. I buy Lindens and I do not wear freebies. I don’t wear freebies because I don’t want people to think I am poor and I also don’t want to be wearing the same thing that everyone else has. Listen up designers – some of us want to BUY your things and you have a right to charge for them! You put effort into making them and you should be compensated. Freebies just teach people that they should never have to spend money in SL – you’re shooting yourselves in the foot.
I like freebies. I like giving stuff away, I like when designers give away little gifts. What I don’t like is the demand for freebies, and the mindset that if you’re in a Store group you’re entitled to X freebies a month.
When people take out their childish greed on designers, and abuse them for not having enough freebies for the group/in store, that’s taking it too far and that’s when I say enough is enough. No one should have to put up with abuse in what should be an enjoyable creative environment.
Which is why I’ll take lucky chairs/midnight mania over group freebies any day. My two cents.
Here we go,… two opposite views, both right on their sides.
There are dozens of views about this, for example designers annoyed about users joining their update groups only to get the freebies *shrugs*.
I understand why people may be annoyed about pennyless users living through freebies, but the truth is they probably wouldn’t spend money anyway, so they don’t mean a lose. And I know some freebie addict users that also expend all their money, often at the same shops where the freebies comed by.
As a programmer I hate the idea of somebody taking my ideas and making a freebie with them, since they destroy the value of my products in a way I can’t compete with. But while I never "thieve" ideas from other commertial products, I tend to use freebie scripts for my own benefit, so it has its good sides too *shrugs again*.
Personally I don’t like lucky chairs and hunts; I admit they are great ways to trade freebies for traffic, and that they may be fun for freebie hunters, but they make sims laggy and when I see something posted I wold like to get, I want to be able to take it without losing my time, even paying for it. So hunts and chairs annoy paying customers, but it is also true I discovered some places through them.
Freebie culture is a wide world that probably would need many posts to describe, but at least one thing is clear; people who is rude about "wanting" their freebies and what they "deserve". mmmm… in fact, general rudeness is an interesting thing for a post :-p
[...] dande’s post [...]
Personally I love freebie-hunting culture, and have belonged to at least one active bargain hunting or chairing group for a long time now. Not so much for the free stuff (my inventory is already bursting at the seams!) but just for the fun and sociableness.
I can understand how some designers might feel that there’s a sort of Prisoner’s Dilemma situation with freebies: if they idea had never started, and everyone just sold stuff and had the occasional 25% off sale, things would be good. But then a few designers start giving out freebies, and they attract traffic and make more sales, so other designers follow suit, and eventually customers both expect freebies, and can get so many that overall sales go down for everyone.
In that sort of a situation, it’s to no one’s advantage to unilaterally stop giving out freebies, but if *all* designers could agree to stop on a certain day (or to slowly stop on a certain schedule), the end-result would be good for everyone. (Well, at least all the designers that is!)
I don’t really have an opinion (let alone knowledge) on how accurately this reflects the actual situation in SL, but it’s at least a plausible story that could justify a designer feeling that freebies are bad, at the same time that that designer has some in their own store.
It’s a complex world… :)
I like freebies, though I don’t spend all my SL time on an endless freebie quest. If I like a particular freebie, I make a point of patronizing the maker–not doing so is shooting myself in the foot.
And those who get freebies and then kvetch to the maker that they aren’t good enough or they should have done X, Y, and Z… if I’m around when the storekeeper bans them, I’ll cheer and applaud.
That says it as well as anything I have seen. (As do the first 2 comments)
Let me repeat that first bit.
“So, it’s not about freebies, it’s about people. “ Yes.
London, that whining about people joining groups just to get freebies is a perfect case of somebody who is a victim of counter-cheating. those same shop-owners wanted to cheat the system and get the traffic by offering freebies. Now they are complaining that somebody else cheated on them. No comment on that.
Freebie scripts, actually open-source scripts are case for themselves. That one is hard enough in the meatspace with lots of software, from operating systems to simple scripts and patches for private use…. I’m doing my best to escape that question here. :)
Dale, as you said, it is a complex world. But, maybe it’s that way because we try to set things instead of letting them go. It’s been said that free market is not fair but it’s the best we could think of.
Melissa, many of us tend to buy things after they picked up the freebie. Now, when I’m thinking of it, why designers that complain are not give freebies to their customers. It’s not that hard to connect vendor script with freebie giver.
Isle, glad we agree :) (I tamed that blockquote thing)
A creator (c’est moi) may do as he or she likes with their creations. Me, I give stuff out personally when I see someone in need. I don’t automatically dole out my stuff – newcomers or hard luck cases I assist, but I’m not obligated to. At the same time, I’ll have numerous angry words with anyone telling me what I may or may not do with my own inventions.
I’m wondering have any of you managed to find out what reasoning is behind those requests? It doesn’t sound logical to whine about designers who are not willing to give their stuff around. Where they got that idea?
My 2 cents. Appreciate gifts, but never expect them. Thank the giver of the gift and tell your friends to patronize those builders/creators who inspire you. I am a generous patron of builders & designers and am always looking to encourage new builders when and where I can. I have a very small number of retail groups that I belong to (and some I’ve paid to join) mostly because I admire the workmanship and I want to hear about new items.
Sending thank you notes was always a puzzle for me. I know that some of the creators get too many of those and actually get irritated by the amount that is littering their loggins. On the other side, we all like to know that somebody enjoyed what we made.