The Velvet Thorn Femdom Community

We are a lighthearted femdom community where we just don't take ourselves too seriously. It's a safe place to explore virtual sexuality, BDSM, femdom / female dominance and all forms of submission. Be sure to read the rules and then come visit us in world!

03 June, 2012

Open Letter to the Velvet Thorn Femdom Community



Dear Thornies and Friends,

On 31 May 2012 I instituted a major change to the Velvet Thorn by creating a non-member area (the mall) and a members-only area (everywhere else).  The Velvet Thorn has been in operation for over four years now and supports over 5000 active members.**  It is a wonderful group and we have been growing hugely with new people coming in at an astounding rate.  Last weekend I counted about a dozen noobs per hour (real noobs under a week old) entering the sim during a peak time.  VT is a having some growing pains, a victim of its own success. Between March 3rd and June 3rd  of this year we have had   7870 UNIQUE AVATARS  land in the fountain at VT (that is different people/avatars, not number of visits).  Our staff and members simply cannot keep up with this many new people streaming into the chat circle.  We have had a serious upswing in nuisance behavior along with all this new traffic.   Everyone has been asking me to *do something* and I have looked at the issues every way I possibly could, trying to decide what is best for the members, the staff, myself and the new people coming in.

Many encouraged me to just eject all noobs less than X days old.  But I simply could not bring myself to do that, after all, *I* fell into a Femdom in my first day or two in SL.  Had I been ejected / banned / turned away the Velvet Thorn might not even exist right now.  Creating the non-member area seemed the only real choice, being new to SL or new to Femdom is not a crime and I do NOT want VT to become elitist, it was never what I wanted but there are no easy ways to deal with the issues we have been having.  Every option was carefully considered, and the tough choice to go with a zoning approach was made.

I am not happy about the way I had to do the division, but simple logistics and layout of the current build made the "in the mall" and "not in the mall" division the most logical for now.  I have added a very informal little seating arrangement in the mall next to the fountain so that non-members are able to hang out, and I encourage all members to take some time out there to meet the new people coming in and help orient them.  I realize that this is not an optimal arrangement but it is only temporary.   The dice games are down there, so I encourage everyone to use them a bit more!

I will be rebuilding the sim this summer as soon as I work out a better arrangement, so that the area open to all will include the mall, university, library, chat area, and an event area.  The members-only area will be about half the sim and will include all of the play areas, a chat lounge, and the wild side event area.

There is a membership fee now of 250 Lindens.   PLEASE NOTE - current members are not affected by this change as you are already a member and do not need to rejoin.    Some have asked about this, questioned the amount.  If we are creating a threshold then that seems a fair price to me, it’s roughly ONE US DOLLAR- less than a cup of coffee for most folks.  I have removed the donation thermometers in the common areas, as the membership fees will go toward sim costs now.  This move is not about making more money and all income in VT goes back to support the sim, the events and tier.

I am asking everyone to PLEASE bear with me as we transition.  I understand the concerns and fears about these changes, but please realize that they were necessary.  Change is never easy but I am confident that these new measures will help us preserve and continue to improve our wonderful community.   I promise you all that I will be doing my utmost to keep VT the lighthearted place that it always has been despite this change.  I welcome constructive suggestions and I am here if you would like to ask me anything directly about the changes.  We could also use some more volunteers to help me and the staff in the in the non-member area until I get things are a bit more streamlined and organized.

Thank you all for your ongoing support!

StarSong Bright
Owner Velvet Thorn Femdom



**Avatars who have not logged in to SL for a long time are removed regularly to keep our group lean and to help improve the group communications.  SL cannot handle groups much bigger than ours, and already we have many people who never get their notices or are unable to use the group chat.  When people cancel accounts LL does not remove them from groups either which causes bloat.  The group would probably be upwards of 8,000 members or more if I didn't do this, but the Velvet Thorn has always been about quality and not quantity.