Kitely welcome area: What information? How to provide it?

[Sherrie Melody]

So, if you only pay $40/month for a 1-region unlimited free world, you only get 2 hours of free time per month (with the free time-based plan). To get more minutes, you either have to buy KCs or also sign up for Bronze, Silver, or Gold plan. So, you are always going to be on some sort of time-based plan, free or paid, that determines how many minutes you have to go exploring, regardless of whether you elect to pay for one of the unlimited free world options.

Thanks for the clarification Ilan.

[Allen Partridge]

I have been thinking about the 'free to visit' worlds component since we first discussed it Ilan. I agree, it's important both to let users know that there are 'free to visit worlds' and that there is a way to host traditional 'free to visit' worlds.

At one time i thought that 'free to play' worlds were listed first in search, but now i see that while it appears to be true for the first several pages, it eventually does not apply. I suspect that there is some data entry required to make them come up with the Free to Play worlds first.

There are in fact a pretty big group of those 'Free' worlds. So it would be pretty plausible to make hang out on free worlds for most of your time. The trick is - how do we keep the messages simple and clean. /me keeps thinking about it.

Working backward from the 'call to action'

Create regions with free un-timed use for unlimited visitors. 1 region 40$ 4 regions 60$, 9 regions 90$, or 16 regions for just 100$.

(Starting as low as $6.25 / region / month) -- call to action is to purchase 1, 4, 9, or 16 unlimited regions.

user questions that might trigger this approach: I need to let my guests/students/family/colleagues into my world for free. How can i sponsor/host a world? How come some places are free?

Also thinking that there might be something to the notion of sharing - cost sharing - sharing time -

[Danko Whitfield]

I am glad to see discussion of this inworld Kitely group. This is exactly what I was suggesting in these forums two months ago and even though some other members posted supporting comments, it didn't seem to register with Kitely management.

Please don't name this group something that will sound like it is only for newcomers to Kitely. This group can be an important community building block for all Kitely users, regardless of how long they've been here. A central place for information from fellow users inworld is essential to growing a community. Other grids have such groups and I find them very helpful.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Allen,

Visitors cost of visiting a world is given a lot of weight in the ranking algorithm but it doesn't trump everything else. The existence of a world page image also has a lot of weight. Worlds with an image are shown before worlds without one unless the worlds without an image have more avatars inside them at the moment. The ranking algorithm is automatic, including for those two parameter. The only manual moderation we do regarding world page ranking is placing worlds that have a world page image that isn't actually that world's inworld image in a middle ranking tier between worlds that have images and worlds that don't (ranking in each tier is automatic).

A point regarding Danko's comment. I agree that the inworld group we invite people to join should be something that has long-term lasting appeal to all Kitely users, maybe "Kitely Community Group" or some other name that sounds official (or endorsed) and reflects the community building aspects of the group.

[Allen Partridge]

Aha. That begs the question 'How do we notify you that we've updated our place photo to be an image of the referenced world?' I suspect that because my initial image was placeholder, and then i updated with a photo from my region, that the manual assignment never got reset. Is it something you only do when the first world photo is uploaded?

--Allen

[Dot Matrix]

Working backward from the 'call to action'

Create regions with free un-timed use for unlimited visitors. 1 region 40$ 4 regions 60$, 9 regions 90$, or 16 regions for just 100$.

(Starting as low as $6.25 / region / month) -- call to action is to purchase 1, 4, 9, or 16 unlimited regions.

I suggest tweaking this so that it reads:

Create worlds with free use for unlimited visitors: 1-region world $40, 4-region world $60, 9-region world $90, 16-region world $100

Reason: Readers might otherwise assume the regions can be separate from each other, as in the Silver and Gold plans.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Allen,

We manually go over the worlds that have images once every few days. If your world page includes an inworld image and is showing between worlds that don't look like they are using an inworld image then please let us know and we'll review your world for placement promotion.

If you see a world that has no people inside it and is showing between worlds that are using an inworld image despite it not using an inworld image (e.g. an empty world that has a nice inworld image of some build) then please let us know and we'll review it for placement demotion.

(following your question, I've reviewed and queued Virtually Human for placement promotion Allen)

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

You could go with something similar to:

Business packages:
which basically means that you are paying a fixed cost per month to host the world so everyone can enter that world for free. This is equivalent to how SL, other OpenSim-based grids, and OpenSim hosting companies work. You pay to have a world hosted.

Personal Packages:
Host worlds for free with the personal plan.
Travel anywhere throughout the grid with your monthly free allowance of minutes.
Monthly add on packs are available with additional minutes and additional worlds.

[Dot Matrix]

I like Dundridge's suggestion -- it helps to simplify the choices depending on what kind of user you are.

I'd use "hours" rather than "minutes" when describing the time-based options.

[Allen Partridge]

I like Dundridge's suggestion as well but possibly with the following changes (which could be improved further):

Business Plans:
Pay a fixed cost per month to host a world so everyone can enter that world for free. This option is comparable to how you would pay to have land in Second Life or other OpenSim-based grids - you pay a fixed cost regardless of how many people use your virtual land.

Personal Plans:
Host a world for free with the personal plan. Travel anywhere throughout Kitely with your monthly free time allowance.
Monthly upgrades that provide you with more time inworld or more hosted worlds are available from just $5/month.