Linden Lab is looking for SLers who want to blog for their community site , evidently on an unpaid basis, which is an opportunity that makes SL blogger Chestnut Rau only huff : "Linden Lab is making millions of dollars from us so I wonder why we should donate our content, and give editorial and exclusivity rights to them for free." She is right to be non-plussed: When Chestnut covered Second Life events for this blog for a couple years, I paid her in Linden Dollars.

In fact, I've paid every New World Notes contributor (maybe ten in all) in Linden Dollars (and some in real cash), at rates generally ranging from the Linden Dollar equivalent of USD$5-30 per post, depending on post size and the blog's current revenue stream. Wish I could pay more (and do, during plush months), but then, there are some top blogs which pay about the same rates.

Mainly this is out of self-interest: If you expect high quality content, you should offer at least some relatively decent compensation in return. But it's also the right thing to do: I make money from this blog, so people who help me out should get a cut. I'd expect the same principle to apply to the owner of a for-profit online world. Especially when they're making money on the very people they are now asking to give them free labor.

All that said, it's quite possible the Lindens who initiated this project aren't aware how large the SL/virtual world blogosphere is, or just how much revenue it's making from SL and RL ads. So hopefully they come around to see the wisdom of dipping into their massive Linden Dollar bank. If they pay enough, they might even get more traffic than New World Notes.

Update, 2/10: Linden Lab replied to this controversy here.

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