[9:59] Sasha Fabre: you know you would make a good gay best friend
[10:00] Peter Stindberg: Oh? Why? Because I am interested in fashion?
[10:00] Sasha Fabre: yes
[10:00] Sasha Fabre: good taste, likes shopping and fashion
[10:01] Sasha Fabre: not trying to get into my pants which is a nice break in sl
March 25, 2008
March 24, 2008
No access to email
As of today, I can't access my Googlemail account anymore. I get a "temporary error 502", claiming that there is an error in my googlemail account, and promising that engineers are working on it and that no mail is lost. Google Talk also seems to be affected, other Googleservices work. My RL account still functions with Googlemail, so I am a bit concerned...
That means that I can only be contacted in-world now, or as comment to this blog post. I hope it's nothing serious - I lost an RL Googlemail account once and it was pretty annoying...
Update 4:50pm - I'm back
That means that I can only be contacted in-world now, or as comment to this blog post. I hope it's nothing serious - I lost an RL Googlemail account once and it was pretty annoying...
Update 4:50pm - I'm back
March 23, 2008
Giant sneakers
Astonishing sim, astonishing building, astonishing furniture - and uber-mega-cool sneakers. I want those!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AKEYO/127/104/64
Money for nothing?
My friend Apitou IMed me last night, asking whether I had taken any surveys in SL already. I told her that as a newbie I tried to participate in some of those survey-terminals offering easy L$, but that they all were for US residents only and looked rather fishy too.
She then teleported me to Market Truths (SLURL, Website), a whole sim where in fact a huge kiosk invited users to join a research panel and promised 250 L$ for just doing so. It all looked pretty straightforward, still I was reluctant to join. This morning I had a closer look at the website, and since it all seemed pretty much non-scammy, I gave it a try. When I clicked "Join" I got a personalized weblink, which loaded a short questionnaire. The questionnaire asked me to what topics I want to get asked. Topics ranged from "clothing" to "eplyoyment in SL" to "scripting". The questions to RL age and RL gender at the end were voluntarily. As soon as I have submitted the survey, I received 250 L$ in my account.
Well... so far that has been interesting. Let's see what happens next :-)
March 14, 2008
Too cheap?
My lovely sister Chey is about to relocate her island, and is extensively using a tool called Rez-Faux by creator Lex Neva. I decided to cold-call Lex and offer her translation services. To my huge surprise - and Lex' as well - she was already considering to get some texts translated, and she was even considering to specifically use my services for this. "Good timing", as she mentioned - indeed.
However, what made her not contact me so far was the fact that my service offerings were too cheap! Cheap prices, so her line of thought, equal cheap quality. And since she has a serious business, she wants and needs quality of course.
On the other hand, I often have clients who gasp in disbelief if I give them a quote, who think that 900 L$ for a 300 word notecard is outrageously expensive.
The problem is of course the different perception. People like Lex, who get a substantial amount of US$ or EUR from their SL work, tend to think in RL categories. Lex knows what services cost in RL, and she thinks in RL categories. The job I got from her would have been something along the lines of 40 EUR / 50 US$ in RL. To see the same work offered in SL for 1500 L$ made her suspicious regarding the quality.
On the other hand you have SL residents, who are struggling with their first business attempts. Who probably camped for weeks or poledanced or DJed their virtual bums off, in order to afford a stall in the cheapest mall. Translation costs of 1500 L$ seems unbelievably expensive to them - something they might - MIGHT - afford in the distant future when their business generates a little revenue.
So why are we so cheap? Or why are we so expensive? We are so cheap because my company - Babel Translations - is a purely SL company. Of course the amount of work in a translation is the same as for a RL translation. But neither myself nor my translators expect to get rich by this - in RL terms. Almost all of them are RL translators too - they know excatly what their work is worth. But by immersing completely into the SL economy, 1500 L$ is not "peanuts" anymore. This translation job in RL - with its 50 US$ revenue - allows them to have a nice dinner in town. They need 4-5 of those jobs per day, to pay their bills. But in the SL economy, 1500 L$ is not peanuts. It pays the rent for two weeks. It buys a new dress AND new hair. In fact 1500 L$ get your farther than 50 US$ do.
And why are we perceived expensive by others? SL has a tendency to skew perceived pricing. Last Call is giving out high quality clothing in their "eternal sale" for 100 L$. In many resident's perception, this lowers the price for quality. What they forget is that LC sells probably thousands of outfits each day, generating hundreds of US$ each day. What Babel Translation offers is an individual service. It is real work involved, and we can only ever sell one copy of each. So asking 3-4 L$ per word is a fair price, and for those thinking in two economies, it's a real bargain.
Looking forward to get some comments on this :-)
However, what made her not contact me so far was the fact that my service offerings were too cheap! Cheap prices, so her line of thought, equal cheap quality. And since she has a serious business, she wants and needs quality of course.
On the other hand, I often have clients who gasp in disbelief if I give them a quote, who think that 900 L$ for a 300 word notecard is outrageously expensive.
The problem is of course the different perception. People like Lex, who get a substantial amount of US$ or EUR from their SL work, tend to think in RL categories. Lex knows what services cost in RL, and she thinks in RL categories. The job I got from her would have been something along the lines of 40 EUR / 50 US$ in RL. To see the same work offered in SL for 1500 L$ made her suspicious regarding the quality.
On the other hand you have SL residents, who are struggling with their first business attempts. Who probably camped for weeks or poledanced or DJed their virtual bums off, in order to afford a stall in the cheapest mall. Translation costs of 1500 L$ seems unbelievably expensive to them - something they might - MIGHT - afford in the distant future when their business generates a little revenue.
So why are we so cheap? Or why are we so expensive? We are so cheap because my company - Babel Translations - is a purely SL company. Of course the amount of work in a translation is the same as for a RL translation. But neither myself nor my translators expect to get rich by this - in RL terms. Almost all of them are RL translators too - they know excatly what their work is worth. But by immersing completely into the SL economy, 1500 L$ is not "peanuts" anymore. This translation job in RL - with its 50 US$ revenue - allows them to have a nice dinner in town. They need 4-5 of those jobs per day, to pay their bills. But in the SL economy, 1500 L$ is not peanuts. It pays the rent for two weeks. It buys a new dress AND new hair. In fact 1500 L$ get your farther than 50 US$ do.
And why are we perceived expensive by others? SL has a tendency to skew perceived pricing. Last Call is giving out high quality clothing in their "eternal sale" for 100 L$. In many resident's perception, this lowers the price for quality. What they forget is that LC sells probably thousands of outfits each day, generating hundreds of US$ each day. What Babel Translation offers is an individual service. It is real work involved, and we can only ever sell one copy of each. So asking 3-4 L$ per word is a fair price, and for those thinking in two economies, it's a real bargain.
Looking forward to get some comments on this :-)
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