Ela Talaj wrote:Some concerns listed are certainly valid though I could've argued about others but I don't remember voting for you as Merchants representative to issue demands in anyone's name except for in your own. Did I miss the election day?
Well if you are a Merchant that does not wish to have Rodvik step and listen to Merchant's concerns (what ever list the merchants wish to bring up) and have him explain why or explain how he will start addressing them... then I guess you are right - one cant assume ALL merchants would want this.
I did believe I stated that I was just providing a small list and that if any other merchants wanted to throw up their own concerns they could.
The idea of the request was to ask Rodvik to sit with us. But sorry if that is not something you wanted Merchants to do.
Notice to Rodvik..... Not every Merchant wishes to sit with you and have you explain the conduct of your commerce team or the list of concerns.
Toysoldier Thor wrote:
... ... ... ALL MERCHANTS need to use every social media they have access to... s.
Not only merchants, also consumers 
As a merchant I have only some silly freebies in the Marketplace. But as a consumer and SL's Resident I am keenly interested in the good development of the MP. I'm notstrictly a merchant . But a good market is in the interest of all SL (and vice versa).
Congratulations for the request
Dartagan Shepherd wrote:
Toysoldier Thor wrote:PS - to the Merchants of SL, if you are going to post to this thread, please provide the concerns you would like to see Rodvik address.
Only just noticed your PS. Some of it has already been said, and some of it shouldn't have to be said, however ...
1) Whether Magic Boxes or Direct Delivery, there are multiple notifications that should go out at the users choice. Some of these can be consolidated.
Notification of reviews.
Notification of shopping cart additions, and/or shopping cart items that update to the current price of the item, not the price it was when put into the cart.
Sales notifications, especially for Direct Delivery (embarassing to mention to any commerce provider).
And one often neglected, a delivery confirmation notification. This one is important because notification of sale is NOT notification that the customer actually got the product so far as the system knows. Surely under the hood Direct Delivery already indicates a success/fail event when it attempts a hit on the customers inventory.
Purchasing a real world item for instance, even though the delivery is handled by a third party to get the product to your doorstep, the buyer and seller can almost always check where that item is, what state it's in (whether pre or post delivery) and exactly where it's at and why.
This should be the case across the board. Any merchant should know the EXACT state of the item at all times. Is it pending, locked, is it in an error state (if so what kind). Aside from notification this data should be available on the buyer/seller account pages. The seller should know mostly the same information from the moment they put it in their cart or click "buy".
2) Finance and reporting.
You guys need to consolidate all of this into a more centralized system. General transactions and Marketplace transactions are decoupled. This is one root of a problem providing separate sets of records that will not reconcile.
Which brings me to another point. Everything should reconcile. If it doesn't you're not doing it right, period.
The end result of reporting is that it should be able to be imported into accounting software and be at least sophisticated enough to set up multiple general ledger accounts with the data. You provided transactions, splits, SKUs, etc. and yet do not provide the kind of simple accounting data that would satisfy any bookkeeper.
3) Overall business.
The disconnect here is that Merchants are not treated as business partners, they're treated as game/virtual world users..
Regardless of how virtual or "real" the money and the goods are, the reality is that it is copyrightable material bought and sold.
You need more than lip service here, with a commerce team that has substantial prior experience in commerce, accounting and general business practices, or more preferable ONE manager of the product that can help filter product requirements to the developers.
I don't need to tell you guys about the amounts of money translated to USD that you're moving in sinks and advertising, etc. If you didn't know this, you wouldn't have wanted to acquire it in the first place. You need to buck up here and stop treating this like toy items from "residents". Except when it comes to your internal discussions, then you're the masters of the universe.
The conversations you have internally about goods and monetization are not always the same conversations we have, thus the disconnect. You know what I mean.
It is not your responsiblity to influence sales, or optimize sales, it is your responsibility to provide the technical framework to enable your business partners to sell effectively.
Simply put, it is your world, but these are not your items. And that needs to be understood, "really" understood. Being an enabler means being proficient enough to provide the stable technology. We don't need "business development" from LL, we need technicians that understand the challenges and know how to implement them, nothing more.
There's more, and this input has been with you for years, but you need to quit with the clever bits and prove that your loyalty lies with your partners, not your teams dreams of how to manipulate monetization of virtual goods and the people that create them for the company. The rest will take care of itself. If you make a little less because you're letting the market run organically then so be it.
A clear example of misguided wisdom shows when people try to tell you relevance means relevance, not sales history.
I've read and re-read this post several times now Dart .. and I have to hand you a hearty compliment. Your points are right-on and very well spoken. Thank you for taking the time to construct these most crucial issues in such a clear and concise manner.
'Nuff said.
Ela, I notice you have been posting a number of "push back" comments on various threads in the past day. As a serious question, may I ask why you are so anxious to downplay the many concerns of others? I can certainly understand that you may not share the same concerns, but why are you so worried about others raising their voices in protest?
Please understand, I am not asking in a snide or snarky manner, I am genuinely curious. It strikes me that if you wish others to stop discussing their problems then you must be concerned that their actions will have some larger more damaging side-effect. If I am correct, please help me understand what concerns you have and how you feel the complaints and issues voiced by others may be a problem?
Actually Darrius, Ela's response to this thread was not a surprise to me at all. And as you have already noticed about her attitude on the other threads, she has taken more of a "Sympathetic to the Commerce Team" position. This has been Ela for as long as I have watched her postings here on the forum as well as inworld Merchant User Group chats.
I do not know exactly why she has such a strong almost unwavering loyalty to the Commerce Team even during events where clearly the Commerce Team has royally screwed up. Its extremely rare if she is openly critical of them. I was told quietly the reason but I wont say.
Anyway, because of her deep consistent position of defending Commerce Team at almost all cost and of course as you know I am the strongest YING to her YANG as an open critical of the team's many failings.... she dont like me too much and this thread was her opportunity to throw a dart at my initiative as well as defend the commerce team where possible.
I dont mind... if Ela has her private reasons to make sure the right people see shes defending LL that is fine by me. And she is correct in that although it was pretty much a safe assumption that the vast majority of Merchants (and yes even Customers) of Marketplace would fully endorse the need for Rodvik to step forward and listen to our concerns about MP and the Commerce Team, I do not "officially" speak on behalf of all Merchant.
So technically she is correct. Just thought it was a no-brainer assumption that all Merchants would like answers from Rodvik.
