Open Space Sims

It's been forever and a day since I've posted anything here so thought I'd share some thoughts on SL's Open Space Sims controversy.

Used to be, Open Sims were originally limited to light use to provide forestry or open waters between regular Full Sims, whether for sailing or just to add open space between areas to make estates more appealing and not having everyone's builds crammed together virtually on top of each other. Eventually people figured out that they could use them essentially as "poor man's sims", and to accomodate them SL doubled the number of prims on the Open Space Sims. Recently SL decided to raise the price and tier of Open Space Sims, which they hadn't done prior when they doubled the prim. This was a way to deal with the increasing resources they took up as a result of previous accomodations.

Learning of this increase, many SL users have gone into an uproar, staging protests in-world and the like. The most vocal of which seems to be those who were using them as Poor Man's Sims, many claiming that the increases amounted to "paying something for nothing" when in fact they've been getting something for nothing for weeks or months. Because of people not living within their means "needing" a full sim rather than living with a smaller peice of a Full Sim which they could afford, the ensuing price increase unfairly effected those who had used the Open Space Sims as they were intended all along - as open space. SL has since come to a compromise, going back to the original Open Space Sims for those who request to do so but with stricter enforced limitations, and naming the "poor man's sims" as Homesteads while keeping(though somewhat delaying) the price increases for those intact. This still hasn't stopped the "Save Our Sims" protests, as if they are entitled to a huge quantity of cheap land and the "right" to misuse it in any way they see fit.

For a short time I was concerned with whether it would affect my tier(as I recently moved to Azure Islands and they use many Open Space Sims as, get this - open space, including a full sim of forest behind the plot where I've put up my church/home but I'll save that for another rambling late-night post). SL's newly announced compromise actually seems fair though, and shouldn't effect me, not that I'd mind paying a bit more tier for what I own as I think that living in a quality community on an estate that enforces it's covenant is worth paying for.