The Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fundraiser...

[Ishtara Rothschild]

...was a great and laudable idea, but -- as it so often happens -- the execution was lacking. It seems that the  Marketplace, as well as the inworld delivery system behind it, pretty much broke down due to the overwhelming response of the SL community.

I did not get my bear and assume that the transaction was rolled back. But instead of giving it another try (and another try, and then another one, like so many residents probably did), I will find a different channel to donate the money, because my own Marketplace sales are also suffering from the onslaught.

The deliveries of other merchants are failing as well. It seems almost as if the new Marketplace would scale as badly as the SL grid itself. So while I wholeheartedly support the sentiment behind this fundraiser and Linden Lab's fast response to this disastrous RL event, I really hope that LL will take a different approach for future fundraisers that does not involve the apparently very fragile Marketplace.

Alternatively, you could fix the Marketplace and the unreliable magic box delivery system. Which is not the only thing that needs fixing btw. While you're at it, it would be great if you could also give us the option to disable the sales confirmation spam (like we were able to do on XStreet), enable customer review notifications for merchants (which was another useful XStreet feature), and add a messaging system that allows customers to notify merchants in case of delivery failures (which is again something that XStreet already had).

Furthermore, it would be great if the login process was automated or made compulsory, and the maturity rating preference should probably be the same that customers already chose in their SL client. Right now, the sales of mature and adult products are tanking due to the recent changes that were made to accomodate legal minors on this very adult platform. You might also want to automate the redelivery process, so that customers have other choices than giving us a one-star rating and a bad review (which merchants are currently not even being notified of). Thanks in advance.

[Storm Clarence]

Ishtara, I have so much respect for you.  Period.  I do not wish to change these words in any way.  You may view me a sentimental fool, but I don't care any longer.  It is not about me; it is not about you, it is not about LL - we are all in this Japan thing together.

Please, I implore you, let's not mix issues.  Vent this elsewhere or under a different title.

If anyone is having issues with MP, I beg you to keep trying.  Just keep trying.  Keep buying bears. 

Ishtara, if need be, at a  future time, I will purchase everything in your store to make you whole, again. 

Please.

[Darren Oates]

Its actually gone past fundraising now the nuculer reactors are poping while i agree every penny counts whether its buy a bear on SL or wait to see which charity needs funds its far to early to be looking at fundraising japan will get all the support they need from the world and its japan who will decide what they need they will try to do as much as they can before they ask.  Actually at a time like this emergency cash should be PRINTED by some world group its only paper with a bit of ink.   Lets get them reactors buried deep or contained some how its not only japan that will have a problem if they all blow.  If you carnt buy a bear in lindens for any reason just use real cash banks post offices will setup a donation fundraiser when its clear who needs what and when.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

You misunderstood my concern, Storm. It is not about my sales; if I needed money that badly, I wouldn't be trying to donate it for an important cause.

My point is that I tried to donate money and it did not work. Lots of people have made the same experience and either had their transactions rolled back or did not get their delivery and wondered if their donation was lost in the void. That is a crying shame. LL tried to do something good and important here, and it failed because the infrastructure of their shopping portal wasn't up for the task.

This is why I think that it might make more sense to handle this kind of thing differently in the future and allow people to donate L$ or real world currency in a more direct and fail-safe way. Because I support this cause, not because I'm against it.

My secondary concern is that the fragile Marketplace was no longer able to reliably fulfil its original purpose during the last days. Which, alas, is nothing new. The existing problems and flaws were only made much worse by this fundraiser. This may sound heartless at a time like this, but it is nonetheless a valid concern. LL had a great idea with this fundraiser, and it failed because the Marketplace does not work as intended.

This needs to be addressed. It is long overdue. I'd like to see both the Marketplace as well as important fundraisers like this one work flawlessly. It doesn't help anybody if the SL economy grinds to a halt while people are trying to donate and fail to do so. I hope that clarifies where I was coming from here.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

PS: Just imagine how much more money LL could have raised if the Marketplace would work flawlessly.

[Storm Clarence]

Sighs.  You are probably right.  I may have taken your words to an extreme.  Give me a pass on this one Ishtara. Thank you.

[Dilbert Dilweg]

Eh It didnt work for me the first time

But it was important enough for me to try again and worked great.

Regardless of Sl borking up now and then still won't stop me from trying again

[Kaiser Bogomil]

According to NPR... the help the Japanese really need is search and rescue.  And they are actively asking for professional search & rescue PEOPLE - NOT MONEY!.  Japan is one of the richest nations on the planet.   Nevertheless .. there are cons who are exploiting this situation telling ppl Japan needs your money and collecting $$ on behalf of themselves.

Sadly because there is zero acountability  for this kind of con in SL the cons come here.  I have actually had one guy ask me to hack passwords for him.   Obviously if you can get into someone's account you can give his Lindens to yourself & cash in and its not a crime - especially not for the Linden "family".  Read the TOS.

 

[Ishtara Rothschild]

---

Kaiser Bogomil wrote:

According to NPR... the help the Japanese really need is search and rescue.  And they are actively asking for professional search & rescue PEOPLE - NOT MONEY!.  Japan is one of the richest nations on the planet.   Nevertheless .. there are cons who are exploiting this situation telling ppl Japan needs your money and collecting $$ on behalf of themselves.

Sadly because there is

zero acountability 

for this kind of con in SL the cons come here.

<snip> 

 

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I agree that the Japanese govrnment is prepared to handle the financial end of this situation. But as you said, they need help with search and rescue operations, which is provided by organizations like the Red Cross. And the Red Cross depends on donations to finance their work.

You are probably right about fundraisers that are organized by residents. I trust Linden Lab to send the money the right way, but I'd never pay a fellow resident who claims to raise money for charity.