Commerce

Can we please get a cookie on the shopper's maturity setting?  It's bloody annoying to re-enable that thing every frigg'n time. DX

Why wasn't this started when the commitment to the teen grid merge was announced? We told you that this would be an issue. Why wait until AFTER you let the minors in the door, before allowing us to lock the door to the mature/adult content and keep them out?

Brooke Linden wrote:

Phase 1: 1/27 Release

On  Thursday, the Marketplace will move to the General, Moderate, and Adult  content levels already in use in the Viewer. Just prior to this release  (starting on Wednesday), we will be running a process that will add a  content level to existing items. Once the release has been completed,  you will be able to review the ratings set on your Marketplace listings  by viewing your inventory: there will be a new column “Maturity” showing  what level the item falls into. Search will now support viewing general  or moderate/adult content. Please view the updated listing guidelines (link points to the current guidelines) on Thursday for more details.

Hi Brooke, can you tell us exactly what factors are taken into account when you assign a rating to our listings during this initial phase? It would be useful to have this information in advance of your changes.

Thanks.

Thanks for the update. Makes sense to have the maturity levels matching those inworld and surprised it wasn't done long ago actually

Just out of interest, how does this actually work for teens using the marketplace? Is there some logic behind the scenes that recognises they have a teen account and will therefore only let them view 'general' content and not mature or adult?

Sweet. I'm pretty sure I had an ancient jira feature request for something like this. Better late than never.

Now post explicit guidelines as to exactly what is G, M, and Adult. Or face an endless migraine of screaming, bitching, and exceedingly negative press.

LL has never issued exact explicit guidelines on content ratings (leaving it to the discretion of low level LL staff opinions potentially influenced by personal friendships and political ideologies). It is time for your General Counsel to step up and post the exact and explicit common english guidelines for content rating. Including the "word list".

Thanks.

Will these guidelines be detailed enough to also apply to goods sold in-world? I mean there is no point i locking them out of the marketplace if they can purchase the "forbidden fruits" in-world.

 

Edit: It will seriously disadvantage marketplace merchants if the same goods can be traded on G parcels, yeah?

Great! More non creation work and redoing what we already did with no guidelines. Oh boy, I can't wait.

A couple more questions:

1. Does this mean that only the G section of the marketplace can be browsed by a non logged-in person over whom you have no control of age or maturity preferences?
2. What about gift items? Will it only be possible to gift items to an account that has the same maturity level as the product in question?

Besides the teen merger being a lawsuit waiting to happen, its MATURE not moderate, enough with the freaking word games and trying to hide the true nature of SL under PC garbage attempts to hide it. I mean who was the bonehead that though moderate replacing mature would seriously fool anyone?

You need to put a stop to user flagging until there is a penalty for the abusive way it is being used as a tool to hurt competing merchants on the new feature lacking market(junk)place.

 

Flagging is useful for truly misplaced items but it is being abused with impunity by unscrupulous merchants and self appointed marketplace cops.

Gavin.Hird wrote:

Will these guidelines be detailed enough to also apply to goods sold in-world? I mean there is no point i locking them out of the marketplace if they can purchase the "forbidden fruits" in-world.

Edit: It will seriously disadvantage marketplace merchants if the same goods can be traded on G parcels, yeah?

This is a good point, not so much that it's "not" covered in world by the maturity ratings here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Maturity

But that is a bit location/activity centric and doesn't so much cover "things" as content as much as imply it. This is a good chance to tie that in together to give the maturity ratings some cohesion across the board and tying it in with products both in-world and on the Marketplace.

I'd go so far as to say maturity ratings wouldn't be a "bad" thing to be settable on in-world objects, but that's a lot of complexity to add to the system.

Could you please announce drastic changes like this one via email? I haven't checked this forum in ages, and it was a mere coincidence that I happened to see this thread. The vast majority of residents never read the forums, or the blog for that matter. Soon merchants will have their listings flagged without knowing what's going on. You really need to communicate important things more efficiently.

PS: Please make sure that the future adult checkbox will be visible to both account- and age-verified residents. Better yet, to all adult residents. After all, minors will now sign up with a teen account, so we can safely assume that all non-teenagers are adults.

PPS: While you're changing the Marketplace, could you do something about the missing review notification? I noticed today that I have tons of new reviews, most of which are saying "I didn't receive the item!". Those customers never contacted me. Nor did they open a ticket, apparently. They just left a one-star review, and I had no idea what happened because I no longer receive an email if a new review is posted. I'd also like to be able to turn off email notification for purchases. Thanks in advance.

Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

PPS: While you're changing the Marketplace, could you do something about the missing review notification? I noticed today that I have tons of new reviews, most of which are saying "I didn't receive the item!". Those customers never contacted me. Nor did they open a ticket, apparently. They just left a one-star review, and I had no idea what happened because I no longer receive an email if a new review is posted. I'd also like to be able to turn off email notification for purchases. Thanks in advance.

Ditto! I have the same thing going on. LL needs to add a messaging system so that the costomers can actually leave us a message, like we had on Xstreet. LL, you know we did used to have a messaging system on these forums. What happen to that?

This is a good idea, as I often see "non-mature" stuff on the SLM that's a little iffy. I mean, I don't personally think that stuff's going to warp a 17-year-old's mind one whit, but I know there's concern all the same.

Will everything that's not currently "mature" be classified as "general" unless we change it? Because all my stuff would qualify as general, and I'll be a happy camper if I don't have to actually do anything. Alternatively, I'd hope it could be done via a mass change (which is one thing I like over XS).

I hope this doesn't lead to more flagging "abuse." People are already kind of uncertain about the fine lines between mature and adult.

(I apologize in advance for the use of all-caps here. If your Blog's text formatting wasn't so screwed up I would have used italics.)

So fine... If we sell via the Marketplace, we will, with some effort, be able to flag our products so they can be access controlled by the purchaser's maturity rating, and the 16 and 17 year olds will only be able to buy goods tagged as G-rated. Eventually, other content can be flagged so only those with payment info on file or Aristotle age verification can see and buy Adult items. And Linden Lab insists this is necessary, and a good idea. Right?

Then WHY will in-world merchants not have the same protection from their goods being sellable to the minors that you have insisted on allowing into our virtual world full of non-G-Rated content?

If this is necessary for the Marketplace, then it's necessary in-world, too. Give us the ability, by script, to allow or prohibit sales or scripted activity based on the maturity rating cap allowed by the purchasing account. GIVE THAT TO US NOW!

If the Marketplace needs to be able to check a buyer's ID, and prohibit transactions for those whose maturity rating isn't adult enough, then the rest of the transactions in-world deserve the same protection. Period. You say we need to restrict access to Mature and Adult content, so the minors can't buy it? I agree. But that must apply equally to ALL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS in SL, and not just to the marketplace. Why is an on-line purchase of a XXX pose ball set any different than buying that same pose ball set from a scripted vendor in-world? Why is it different for buying a Mature-rated, detailed Human skin? We have told you and proven to you that the teens will easily be able to cam from G-rated into Mature regions and make purchases that are in no way suitable for use in G-rated sims. We merchants have BEGGED you for the ability to detect the minors by script, and ban them from making purchases. LL refused. No more. You admit now that it is necessary. Well, it is necessary IN-WORLD, even more than on-line.

@Brooke Linden - Why didn't you post this thread to the Second Life Blogs section, where all the official Linden anouncements go?  Threads can get lost too easily in the Commerce Forums.

Edit add: The teens can easily look in through the "candy store window" of borders now to buy Mature items. As others here have stated already, if they can buy it in-world, but not on the Marketplace, that's neither a fari nor a sensible policy.

Yep needs to be news this is a big change for merchants...

Will items already marked as adult be switched to adult automatically with this new change or will we have to mark all of them again?

Thanks for posting the office hours

More work more grief less  advanced communication as usual. The Adult content train wreck continues a pace *sigh* Will the brainiac who replaced 'Mature' with the 'Moderate' label please own up and step forward for his/her just rewards.

^L^

Ceera.Murakami wrote:

 

(I apologize in advance for the use of all-caps here. If your Blog's text formatting wasn't so screwed up I would have used italics.)

So fine... If we sell via the Marketplace, we will, with some effort, be able to flag our products so they can be access controlled by the purchaser's maturity rating, and the 16 and 17 year olds will only be able to buy goods tagged as G-rated. Eventually, other content can be flagged so only those with payment info on file or Aristotle age verification can see and buy Adult items. And Linden Lab insists this is necessary, and a good idea. Right?

Then WHY will in-world merchants not have the same protection from their goods being sellable to the minors that you have insisted on allowing into our virtual world full of non-G-Rated content?

If this is necessary for the Marketplace, then it's necessary in-world, too. Give us the ability, by script, to allow or prohibit sales or scripted activity based on the maturity rating cap allowed by the purchasing account. GIVE THAT TO US NOW!

If the Marketplace needs to be able to check a buyer's ID, and prohibit transactions for those whose maturity rating isn't adult enough, then the rest of the transactions in-world deserve the same protection. Period. You say we need to restrict access to Mature and Adult content, so the minors can't buy it? I agree. But that must apply equally to ALL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS in SL, and not just to the marketplace. Why is an on-line purchase of a XXX pose ball set any different than buying that same pose ball set from a scripted vendor in-world? Why is it different for buying a Mature-rated, detailed Human skin? We have told you and proven to you that the teens will easily be able to cam from G-rated into Mature regions and make purchases that are in no way suitable for use in G-rated sims. We merchants have BEGGED you for the ability to detect the minors by script, and ban them from making purchases. LL refused. No more. You admit now that it is necessary. Well, it is necessary IN-WORLD, even more than on-line.

This exactly this

"What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach, so you get what we had here last week which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don't like it any more than you men."

Where did you read the new guidelines Vick? In her post Brooke said they would not be released until Thursday. Are you sure you haven't been reading the old ones?

Brooke Linden wrote:

Please view the updated listing guidelines (link points to the current guidelines) on Thursday for more details.

I have over 1000 items listed on the marketplace - is there a way to bulk change everything from General to Mature?  Or do I have to go through every single listing and do it by hand?

All but one of my items are being forced into mature listings.  When I try to correct them I get "the text in the name field forced a change in the maturity level."  How is "Bandeau by Etchi" adult?  I know it's not because of "Etchi" because "Side Laced Pants by Etchi" gets by the filters.  As a matter of fact, my "Mesh Set by Etchi" had been flagged by me to Adult yet your system changed it to General.

I already had my items appropriately flagged.  I'm very annoyed at having the settings needlessly overridden and not being able to correct them.

wow, news from Brooke Linden about maturity changes, you can read it now here: Listing Guidelines.
thanx for all the info ^^

Guess I still have some questions...so sex beds are now in mature, but not adult. And alcohol is also mature??? really? so all champagne valentine things must be mature??? don't get it ^^'

Thanks for the email Brooke. Now, if you can get your guys to allow merchants to sort, filter and bulk update by maturity ratings eventually, that may be helpful.

The change itself is long overdue really, it makes perfect sense for the marketplace to mirror inworld ratings.

Hi all,

We finally got the email sent out (apologies for those who were expecting it yesterday). I'm including the copy here so that it is easy to find for future reference.

You'll note that there is a self referential link to this forum post in the email. Keeping it for accuracy.

Here's the text of the email. We sent it to all merchants who currently have an active listing.

---

 

Important Maturity Changes in SL Marketplace

As you know, the Teen Grid officially closed last Friday, January 21st and teens are now allowed to join the main Second Life Grid. To ensure that the Marketplace is safe for all Residents, we've rolled out some changes to the Marketplace to better align the maturity settings in Marketplace with the rest of Second Life.

Recommended Actions to Listings from 1/27 - 2/1 Today, Thursday, January 27th, the Marketplace has begun to use the same maturity ratings that are used in Viewer and inworld -- General, Moderate, and Adult. Your listings have been automatically updated with new maturity ratings, based on keywords and other algorithms. Note that this automated update is currently a work in progress. If you're unable to find one or more of your listings in search or have additional questions, read the Marketplace/ Sellers FAQ.

Please follow these steps to ensure that your listings have been accurately rated:

• Review New Listing Guidelines: Use these guidelines to update the maturity level on listings that may be incorrectly ranked.
• Adjust Maturity Ranking of Items by 2/1: Use the new maturity level selector, on your Manage Inventory page, to adjust the maturity rating of each item. Please complete any necessary ranking adjustments, by Tuesday, February 1st.
• Refrain from Flagging Items Until 2/1: As a courtesy to your fellow Merchants, please do not flag other Merchants' items until February 1st, giving them a chance to update their own listings.

Before the end of February, the Marketplace will be updated to allow setting maturity level preferences at a more granular level than is currently supported, such as allowing Residents to view moderate content without adult content included.

Thank you for helping us support the migration of teens into Second Life and if you should have any additional questions, please see this forum post.

Regards,
Brooke Linden
Sr. Product Manager, Marketplace