Pamela Galli Posted November 27, 2015 Share Posted November 27, 2015 I am finding it hard to believe, but LL just sent me an email promoting sales at "select" stores in SL -- some of which are my direct competitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaze Nielsen Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 This is the most outrageous example of Linden Lab helping "select" merchants game the system that I can imagine. Clearly a violation of TOS for marketplace! Gaming the search results to an extent we've never seen before, Shame on you Linden Lab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamela Galli Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 Yes this must be part of their initiative to improve search by gaming it in this blatant way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIN Rain Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I'm not impressed either, especially considering that I'm not the only idiot who pays over $L 250k per month (on my alt) to advertise on the front page slideshow and categories... ...then along comes LL and slaps us in the face with FREE advertising of "select" competitors - who you gotta blow to get a gig like that lol Poor form LL - Makes me want to rethink where to reinvest LL earnings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sassy Romano Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 SIN Rain wrote: who you gotta blow? DICK LINDEN!! (You have to add the theme from Ghostbusters in your head too for best effect) At least you lot got the email, i'm not even worthy of an email promoting select merchants these days although I did see the advert for Blueberry in the other thread, that's nice, since they're one of the select 24 with the Maitreya Lara body creators kits. A different competitive advantage but nice to be super pimped too by LL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monti Messmer Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Whats about the picture before you login - the jeep with names of the creators for car and clothes. Does LL check if the creator has the official right to create a copy of the RL jeep for SL ? Or do they promote copyright infringement ... Just a few thoughts. Fairness is dead. It´s all about help the bigger to get bigger. Monti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Nova Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake1 Nightfire Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 anniepany wrote: I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. Wow.. Just.. Really? When merchants pay LL tens if not hundreds of thousands of $L for advertising and only to have LL turn around and send an advertising email out for free for some merchants, that is a huge slap in the face. Perhaps you shouldn't comment if you dont' understand simple economics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Goldlust Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 I also pour thousands of linden into marketplace advertising each month and was floored when I saw these banner ad's. At first I thought wow LL's are offering this space to everyone to advertise now, but soon found out this was not the case. I am not bitter towards the merchants that got "so called picked" to run these ad's, healthy competition keeps us on our toes and creating to the best of our abilities in Second Life. What I am bitter about is that we all should be given the chance to all play on a even platform against each other, not offer something to one merchant and not all is so not fair. I think LL's like to think they can play god in this virtual world, if you are going to offer ad space to one offer it too all and see who would be happy to pay for this space. Just makes me upset as you try to do the right thing pay for ad space every month and you get treated like you are nothing, way to go LL you never cease to amaze me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamela Galli Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 anniepany wrote: I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. LL is not my boyfriend. So no I am not "jealous". As others have pointed out, this is about whether the playing field is level or not. It is like Olympics organizers decided to move the goal closer for certain competitors, or allowed them to take a shortcut. Would you call those not selected for special treatment "just jealous"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGator Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Yes, I'm furious as well. I don't know about anyone else but my MP sales have been completely wiped out since these Linden Lab discounts went live. I'm a very small seller but I have a couple of L$10 items that sell consistently. One of them is a Xmas tree so obviously that has been selling well in the past month. Then on 26 Nov my sales stopped dead. You have to go back to Nov 2 to find a day before then when I sold nothing so as I said I've been selling consistently at a low level. I made two sales on Nov 25 but since then nothing at all. My sales have fallen off a cliff. At first I didn't realize why. I thought it must have something to do with Thanksgiving (I'm British, I don't understand these things, lol) but I'm on my third day now with zero sales. And yesterday I noticed my alt had received an email promoting "sales" on the marketplace from select sellers. Am I angry with Linden Labs? You bet. I had considered going premium. I won't now as this just isn't fair. I've never been here on SL to make money but I love to create things and it's so much more fun if I can sell a little of what I make. I even received my first MP review a few weeks ago. It was in German, so I couldn't understand it, lol, but it was four stars so I was chuffed. There are lots and lots of people on SL like me who are just here to have fun creating. Surely we are what SL is all about, not those big sellers. So wake up LL and get your priorities right please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa Tennyson Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Monti Messmer wrote: Whats about the picture before you login - the jeep with names of the creators for car and clothes. Does LL check if the creator has the official right to create a copy of the RL jeep for SL ? Or do they promote copyright infringement ... Just a few thoughts. Fairness is dead. It´s all about help the bigger to get bigger. Monti You can't copyright the shape of a useful object in the United States, only a name or a non-useful decorative element. That vehicle is sold as a WB Rockhamer and has a six-slot grille instead of the seven-slot grille that the Jeep division has a copyright on. (Incidentally, most WW2 Jeeps had a nine-slot grille that was originally designed by Ford.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DartAgain Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Yes, I'm going to breathe the incompetence word again. And mention that anyone dumb enough to do this to merchants should be fired. There is no reason to have a marketeer on staff pulling the sales strings. Just build a decent shopping cart and leave the marketeering to the merchants. Another boneheaded move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa Tennyson Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Drake1 Nightfire wrote: anniepany wrote: I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. Wow.. Just.. Really? When merchants pay LL tens if not hundreds of thousands of $L for advertising and only to have LL turn around and send an advertising email out for free for some merchants, that is a huge slap in the face. Perhaps you shouldn't comment if you dont' understand simple economics. How is this different from Wal-Mart or Best Buy offering (and advertising) Samsung televisions in a Black Friday flyer as opposed to Sony or Lucky-Goldstar? Retailers pick who to feature based on the foot traffic they think it will generate. In bricks-and-mortar grocery stores suppliers often have to pay "slotting fees" for their things to be in prime locations or to be carried at all. Speaking of simple economics, the "merchant" of the Marketplace is Linden Lab itself, because the technical definition of "merchant" is a reseller. Most of the "merchants" of Second Life... aren't. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/merchant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamela Galli Posted November 28, 2015 Author Share Posted November 28, 2015 Theresa Tennyson wrote: Drake1 Nightfire wrote: anniepany wrote: I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. Wow.. Just.. Really? When merchants pay LL tens if not hundreds of thousands of $L for advertising and only to have LL turn around and send an advertising email out for free for some merchants, that is a huge slap in the face. Perhaps you shouldn't comment if you dont' understand simple economics. How is this different from Wal-Mart or Best Buy offering (and advertising) Samsung televisions in a Black Friday flyer as opposed to Sony or Lucky-Goldstar? Retailers pick who to feature based on the foot traffic they think it will generate. In bricks-and-mortar grocery stores suppliers often have to pay "slotting fees" for their things to be in prime locations or to be carried at all. Speaking of simple economics, the "merchant" of the Marketplace is Linden Lab itself, because the technical definition of "merchant" is a reseller. Most of the "merchants" of Second Life... aren't. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/merchant If LL wants to buy my stock wholesale and market and sell it, that is fine with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DartAgain Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 It isn't Walmart. It isn't Walmart competing with Target for sales. SL has no outside competition. It is LL talking some merchants into selling for less, while causing other merchants to make less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaze Nielsen Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Giving "select" merchants this kind of overwhelming advantage in the marketplace is clearly anti competitive behavior and prohibited by the TOS. I guess Linden Lab doesnt have to follow their own marketplace regulations. I think whoever came up with this idea deserves to be abuse reported and should be reprimanded sternly. Linden Lab has put themselves in a position to be marketing/promotion agents for the "select" group of merchants while hurting sales of competing merchants. Its no wonder merchants are furious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoebe Avro Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 So now maybe we can start to connect the dots with the MP search Beta! to this and some other future things yet to become apparent, whats the Betting its all to give certain merchants increased coverage? Its also been posted on the LL Blog btw, https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/12-Days-of-Savings-Marketplace-Sale-Starts-Today/ba-p/2981655 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Jetaime Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 anniepany wrote: I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. Linden Lab decides to give 'select' (ie favorite) avatars $10,000L a month, financed by fees paid by you and all the other avatars in SL. You not only don't get picked this round, you will NEVER be picked because you aren't one of their favorites. That's fair isn't it? That is essentially what LL has done here. ....just sayin'.....have a great day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa Tennyson Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 DartAgain wrote: It isn't Walmart. It isn't Walmart competing with Target for sales. SL has no outside competition. It is LL talking some merchants into selling for less, while causing other merchants to make less. The Marketplace does have competition, with in-world sales. Right now there's a long list of in-world "Black Friday" sales that are undercutting the Marketplace. I'm not saying that's good or bad, just as I'm not saying whether this Marketplace promotion is good or bad. It's business. We also don't know anything about the specific deals that were cut to give these stores the exposure. They may have had to pay through the nose to get these slots, or they may be paying an increased commission on these items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa Tennyson Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Amethyst Jetaime wrote: anniepany wrote: I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. Linden Lab decides to give 'select' (ie favorite) avatars $10,000L a month, financed by fees paid by you and all the other avatars in SL. You not only don't get picked this round, you will NEVER be picked because you aren't one of their favorites. That's fair isn't it? That is essentially what LL has done here. ....just sayin'.....have a great day. They already do and have been doing so for years. Early accounts have higher stipends, pay lower tier and some have lifetime free land. Large landowners get land at a discount. "Moles" are residents that are paid by the Lab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Jetaime Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Theresa Tennyson wrote: ... We also don't know anything about the specific deals that were cut to give these stores the exposure. They may have had to pay through the nose to get these slots, or they may be paying an increased commission on these items. That's true, however, the added exposure of the ad and emails will probably increase their sales over and above whatever they may or may not have paid. So they end up making more money than their competitors. The beef here is that they didn't publish this so that ALL merchants had an equal opportunity to participate if they wished to. They still could have limited the number of merchants that participated by taking them on a first come first served basis. Probably LL would have still made the same amount they are making on this promotion, but the process would have been fairer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake1 Nightfire Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Theresa Tennyson wrote: Amethyst Jetaime wrote: anniepany wrote: I'm not a merchant, just a simple avie and I received the email and I don't know you, but I read your other response and now this, perhaps someone is just a bit jealous because they didn't get picked....just sayin'.....have a great day. Linden Lab decides to give 'select' (ie favorite) avatars $10,000L a month, financed by fees paid by you and all the other avatars in SL. You not only don't get picked this round, you will NEVER be picked because you aren't one of their favorites. That's fair isn't it? That is essentially what LL has done here. ....just sayin'.....have a great day. They already do and have been doing so for years. Early accounts have higher stipends, pay lower tier and some have lifetime free land. Large landowners get land at a discount. "Moles" are residents that are paid by the Lab. Your examples are entirely different from hand picking merchants to get free advertising and promotion. ALL early accounts have higher stipends. The ones that paid to be lifetime members have free land. How do you know large landowners get a discount, and how large do you have to be to get one? If it is offered to all large landowners then it doesn't apply to this discussion. And how do you know who is or isn't a mole and how much they get paid by LL? Perhaps they are actual employees. Either way, not discrimination nor pertenaint to this discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theresa Tennyson Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Drake1 Nightfire wrote: And how do you know who is or isn't a mole and how much they get paid by LL? Perhaps they are actual employees. Either way, not discrimination nor pertenaint to this discussion. Guide to Moles. Note that it states they're paid hourly and "In order to hit the ground running, the LDPW has approached a number of content creators whose credentials are well-established..." http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Department_of_Public_Works Another good one: The 2008 and 2010 vintage starter avatars were not only made by residents chosen by the Lab, in the some of them there were/are notecards in the folders promoting their stores, with landmarks. The Lab also selects various regions from the Destination Guide and features them on the splash page of the standard viewer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake1 Nightfire Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Theresa Tennyson wrote: Drake1 Nightfire wrote: And how do you know who is or isn't a mole and how much they get paid by LL? Perhaps they are actual employees. Either way, not discrimination nor pertenaint to this discussion. Guide to Moles. Note that it states they're paid hourly and "In order to hit the ground running, the LDPW has approached a number of content creators whose credentials are well-established..." http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Department_of_Public_Works Another good one: The 2008 and 2010 vintage starter avatars were not only made by residents chosen by the Lab, in the some of them there were/are notecards in the folders promoting their stores, with landmarks. The Lab also selects various regions from the Destination Guide and features them on the splash page of the standard viewer. That is actually interesting reading.. Nice to skip the rest of my post BTW. Just an FYI, the Destination Guide is made up of places that are suggested by residents. The ones on the front page and the viewer rotate through the top suggested places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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