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Pamela Galli
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Now this is good communication!  I just got this email (I have most things migrated, just a few Magic Box stragglers left).  One quibble:  2.5% faster success rate is not much to brag about.

 

 



Dear Marketplace Merchant,

You are receiving this email because you have at least one listing on the Second Life Marketplace that still uses an outdated delivery process, known as Magic Boxes.

 

Why should you update to Direct Delivery?

Linden Lab has already started to phase out support for Magic Boxes. In order to ensure uninterrupted service to you and your customers in the future, we strongly encourage you to migrate as soon as possible. It's easy to do - and worth it for both you and your customers.

 

Uploading to Direct Delivery is easy

We've made it easy for you to update your older listings to Direct Delivery. Many of our top merchants have already migrated and found the process relatively painless. For more information, please check out this Knowledge Base Article or watch these tutorial videos covering the Direct Delivery Basics, andMigration to Direct Delivery.

 

What are the benefits of Direct Delivery?

    • Deliveries are TWICE AS FAST compared to Magic Boxes

 

 

    • Direct Delivery purchases are successfully delivered more often (2.5% greater success rate than Magic Boxes)

 

 

    • Direct Delivery supports "test delivery" for safe and commission-free "test run" distribution of your products

 

    • You can now see everything that is included, at a glance, on the Contents Tab

 

 

    • Support for a dedicated "Received Items" folder where your customers can quickly and easily find all of their Marketplace purchases.

 

 

    • and much more!

 


NOTE: Limited quantity items (items that a Merchant cannot copy) are not yet supported by Direct Delivery. If you have problems migrating, please contact customer support with questions or issues.

 


Thanks,

The Second Life Marketplace Team

 
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This is all well and good - I rec'd the same email as I've not yet migrated.

I have no problems doing so - once the all bug clear announcement is made.

I have to agree re the 2.5% success rate means little to me also, as I've never had to redeliver an item using MB's.  As far as fast?  My experience as a customer, DD is much slower in delivery to  me than magic boxes. 

Free test delivery?  This should have always been free - i've had to test via buying from my own store on a few occasions  & LL of course, rec'd their percentage.  If anything, these moneys should be returned to us as we should not have to pay to test LL's system and have LL get paid in the process.

I have a few limited edition items that I sell in world that I've been wanting to add to my MP store.  When will this feature be ready to use?

Finally, there is something important missing from that email.  What is the deadline???

I think it's awesome that LL is reaching out about this issue since it's been a long while since DD was launched.  I love the idea & look forward to moving over from Magic Boxes.  But, what about the bugs that others have mentioned - in particular the ones where merchants don't get paid but the customer's get the products?


I look forward to a speedy change over & hope that the o/s issues have been resolved.

 

Edited to add:  Pamela, I missed where LL said there are only a few stragglers left using MB's ... can you link me up with that please?  To date, I am still buying from merchants that use MB's and I don't believe that statistic.  I've not once puchased the items in my cart to have them all be DD merchants.  tia.

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Still no set date for the termination of MB's so I shall continue to ignore the whole DD migration nightmare that awaits me. It's good that CTL are communicating with the merchant community as a whole rather than just the few of us that use this forum.

When I read the title of this thread I automatically assumed Pam was being sarcastic. My bad :matte-motes-sunglasses-1:

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I got the email too. But, I don't want to migrate to Direct Delivery. I use a modified Magic Box that communicates with an external licensing server when an item is delivered. It works fine, 99% of the time, and I can deal with the odd 1% that fails. I know it's technically possible to convert to use the ANS technology, but this requires a lot of effort which I neither have the time nor inclination to do.

Linden Lab, breaking something that currently works is not good customer service. By all means encourage people to migrate to DD where they can, but don't break Magic Boxes.

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ITA re breaking the MB's.

My time is also sparse these days & although I would luv to get it over with, jump on the DD wagon & migrate, I am still very very hesitant about unresolved issues. 

For me, no matter what I'm doing in sl, it's always 1 step forward 3 steps back.  I look at sl as a huge WIP (work in progress) with a never never ending date.  Always something new introduced, something else breaks, and on and on.

I am one of those people that would make Murphy roll over in his grave.  If there is a shopping cart amongst 500 carts with a bum wheel, THAT's the one I'll unsuspectingly choose.  I think I'm the only person who as a child, while attending ice hockey games with my father, has been hit twice with the puck while sitting in the audience.  We weren't in the nosebleed section but certainly far enough up that the odds were in anyone's favor to avoid such a thing.

Anyway, I would like to know that the major bugs are fixed before I move forward & hope that LL will leave the MB's alone until such a time as to offer their customers a system that works.  I still don't understand the concept of releasing systems that are not yet fully functional. 

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The reason I was glad to see it was that when the marketplace started sending out expensive things to people and then refunding their money -- a certain support person said it was because I was using Magic Boxes and I should have known better and they do not support MBs any more. We had quite a long discussion about that because I do make every effort to keep informed and yet was not aware that MBs were not supported at all and certainly did not know that the marketplace would one day start handing my stuff out for free, because I used them.

So here is an attempt to share info in the way it needs to be shared.

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I found the email frustrating and very vague.  They still havent fixed the permissions issues.  Along with my creations, I also sell amaretto bundles, which I dont have full perm to.  I cannot move those over to DD until that issue is fixed, so yeah I still have some items in MB.  There are also items that I migrated over that the permissions got screwed up on, and have not been able to fix (thanks lindens!).  so what the heck???  This email felt almost out of context for me.  If things aren't fixed and ready to go, then why send it???

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I understand & it's a shame they didn't include that little tidbit - that they don't support MB's - in their communications to merchants.  If they did & I've missed it, then of course my impression will be much different than it is at this moment.

The last official notice on MB's & the intro of DD was that they no longer had a deadline & that they would notify us when they did.

You would think that LL would support MB's until a certain date.  At least let merchants know that their stuff may be given away for free.  How did that happen anyway? 

Clearly this is closing the barn door after the horse has left the stable. 

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Hello all,thank you for your posts,as I received the same email today Nov 6th.

I usually come to the forum first to read if I can not get things resolved.

 

The second to the last issue I read about stated that the Direct Delivery was postponed indefinitely.

I am using Magic Boxes 4 years now.I have never had to redeliver an item.

So I suppose LL will punish me now for using the MB by selling my items for free :)

 

:cattongue: to LL

 

:)

 

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Porky Gorky wrote:

 

....I shall continue to ignore the whole DD migration nightmare that awaits me....

 

My reaction was the same. My reading of this (behind the flowery language) was "hurry up and do our work for us. we are too lazy to design a proper user-friendly migration process. clocks ticking & we are going to needlessly break your shop if you don't comply". Why no batching? This could be a one-click process & should be. Any other tech company would set it up this way. Really its inane. Processing 600+ items is not a fast easy process when you have to attend to each item individually. Bah I hate LL's make work free labor solutions. They are so lazy & love to get out of doing work themselves by designing things to take advantage of forced free labor of crowds.

 

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I have to say, migrating to DD was for the most part very simple. I copied a MB to inventory, selected the contents in inventory, chose Copy to Merchant Outbox from the inventory dropdown, and they transferred to the outbox. Then I clicked the Send to Marketplace button and that was IT. The Magic Box versions were replaced by the DD items. Nothing else required.

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Rival Destiny wrote:

 

Edited to add:  Pamela, I missed where LL said there are only a few stragglers left using MB's ... can you link me up with that please?  To date, I am still buying from merchants that use MB's and I don't believe that statistic.  I've not once puchased the items in my cart to have them all be DD merchants.  tia.

Sorry by stragglers I mean I still have some stuff in a Magic Box.

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I got that email as well, and while i was also hoping the DD success rate should have been much higher compared to Magic Box, after all the hard work and implemented features, i am glad we are kept informed about the progress by email in addition to the forum postings.

Just two issues with the email itself.

1. It was sorted into my spam folder because of the headline with "important account information" which is currently a very wide spread scam mail header.

2. The text was html which is why I could not even check it properly without opening. And, I usually do check emails before opening if they look any suspicious to me. So plain text for business emails would be alot better.


Just wanted to get my feedback out there, because the ticket I sent in about the email issues directed me here.

On a side note, I believe there was no migration date included because not all problems that were promised to be solved are solved yet.
 It seems it was only meant to encourage more people to do the migration of items that already can be migrated.

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Well, it makes no sense to me that LL would encourage the remaining  Merchants to migrate when the existing issues have not yet been repaired.  I think there are many more like myself and I know of quite a few that have migrated part but not all of their inventory.  This last batch putting on the brakes til these same issues are resolved.

Also, if this is now a mandatory migration, then I think LL should give us a date.  And in addition to that date, should outline the remaining issues that have NOT been repaired so we can at least make an informed decision. 

If necessary, I have no problems with taking my stuff off the MP until it's fixed.  I prefer this method over having some of the problems that other Merchants are experiencing, should I be forced to migrate immediately.

 

 

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Rival Destiny wrote:

Thanks Pamela.  It certainly sounds like an easy enough process.

I suppose I'll get my rear in gear & migrate.

Two things stand out as being done right in my mind. One is that when someone posts an off topic review, they get rid of it in a reasonable amount of time. Second is the MB to DD migration process. 

There are probably more, but I do marvel that these two are handled so well. (So much else, the process has not been well thought out, there are error messages, etc.) 

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I have to say, migrating to DD was for the most part very simple. I copied a MB to inventory, selected the contents in inventory, chose Copy to Merchant Outbox from the inventory dropdown, and they transferred to the outbox. Then I clicked the Send to Marketplace button and that was IT. The Magic Box versions were replaced by the DD items. Nothing else required.

For me the problem is not so much about the process itself, I tested the migration process and as you say, it's easy and straight forward. My problem is just volume. I have over 2500 products sold across 4 avatars still using MB's. Even though the process is simple, the thought of having to repeat it 2500 times just makes me want to cry. Time is money for me when I get to log onto SL and every hour I waste on this pointless migration is an hour of lost earning potential. 

Taking all the backups into account I have over 100 MB's in operation and luckily I have never needed to rely on the former SLX owner or LL to support the boxes in the 7+ years I've been using them. So their withdraw of support is a non issue as far as I'm concerned. 

As long as CTL stick to their pledge to give us 28 days notice (or whatever it was) then I will continue to use MB's for everything that has come before and just use DD for new stuff. 

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This makes total sense.  I don't have a large inventory like you but regardless, having to make such changes can be tedious at the best of times.  Having to make them & not know if your in for a borked MP store only adds to the pressure.

IMO, the main reason for merchants who have not yet migrated is the bugs n issues that need to be fixed.

As for those that have partly migrated but still use MB's for some of their inventory, fall under the same umbrella.  But for these folks, some stopped because they are waiting for their particular issue to be resolved.

Right now, at this time, I don't understand why LL has not responded with a deadline date.  And until that date, LL should continue to support MB's.  Not break them as I've heard some say they have or are, going to do.

I agree with Pamela - awesome that LL is communicating with us.  However, for me, the email means nothing without a deadline and perhaps a list of any and all bugs/problems that haven't been fixed yet.

 

 

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Arielle Simondsen wrote:

I found the email frustrating and very vague.  They still havent fixed the permissions issues.  Along with my creations, I also sell amaretto bundles, which I dont have full perm to.  I cannot move those over to DD until that issue is fixed, so yeah I still have some items in MB.  There are also items that I migrated over that the permissions got screwed up on, and have not been able to fix (thanks lindens!).  so what the heck???  This email felt almost out of context for me.  If things aren't fixed and ready to go, then why send it???

I agree.  I almost read the email as a veiled "threat" of sorts.  IF and when LL finally gets all the contininug MP issues that have been going on for 9+ months sorted out and does get rid of the Magic Boxes - I will most likely hang up SL at that time, at least my participation as a merchant, based on ever-mounting frustrations in several areas.

 

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Porky Gorky wrote:


Pamela Galli wrote:

I have to say, migrating to DD was for the most part very simple. I copied a MB to inventory, selected the contents in inventory, chose Copy to Merchant Outbox from the inventory dropdown, and they transferred to the outbox. Then I clicked the Send to Marketplace button and that was IT. The Magic Box versions were replaced by the DD items. Nothing else required.

For me the problem is not so much about the process itself, I tested the migration process and as you say, it's easy and straight forward. My problem is just volume. I have over 2500 products sold across 4 avatars still using MB's.
Even though the process is simple, the thought of having to repeat it 2500 times just makes me want to cry.
Time is money for me when I get to log onto SL and every hour I waste on this pointless migration is an hour of lost earning potential. 

Taking all the backups into account I have over 100 MB's in operation and luckily I have never needed to rely on the former SLX owner or LL to support the boxes in the 7+ years I've been using them. So their withdraw of support is a non issue as far as I'm concerned. 

As long as CTL stick to their pledge to give us 28 days notice (or whatever it was) then I will continue to use MB's for everything that has come before and just use DD for new stuff. 

Repeat what 2500 times now? 

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We are too close to the Holiday shopping season for a "forced migration" to happen now.

Getting ready for this should be what the Merchants are focused on.  Not issues with DD.  Not how and when or if you should Migrate.

Listing problems (wrong images, etc) and stuck features (enhancements) should be the priority for LL right now.

A forced migration absolutely should not occur until after New Years.


Just my two cents worth.  The Merchants shouldn't have to be thinking about DD right now.

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Repeat what 2500 times now? 

Moving a product from MB delivery to DD. I have to do each product  individually don't I? As far as I know I will need to manually created a new folder for every item and drag and drop that item into the folder. This will need to be done 2500 times, once for each listing on the MP. 

If there is an easier way then I am all ears :matte-motes-big-grin-evil:

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