Flagging on Marketplace

[Charlotte Bartlett]

Hi all,

 

I have having a bit of trouble with other avatars who put listings on Marketplace and then use my brand name (and other brands) in their keywords to skew results.

I checked the TOS carefully and it reads:

Per TOS:

"Keyword spam is the use of words (such as brand names, item names, or other terms) that have nothing to do with the item listed so that the listing will appear in search results. Keyword spam is not allowed because it clutters the SL Marketplace and makes buying and selling more difficult. In addition"

 

so I duly flagged the items some time back (months not weeks from memory) for keyword spam as the products were not mine, nor any relation to my work or authorised by me etc.

Anyway nothing happened for a long time, so I thought to raise a support ticket to ask them to check.  They response I got was to flag the listings.  I explained they are already flagged (so I can't reflag). Support then pasted again to flag the item and that they can't comment on the issue due to privacy concerns.

 

I have now as a last ditch attempt asked if support can escalate to Dakota as I don't really know what else to do and I don't believe they understand (or more fairly are equipped to deal with this sort of support request).

 

 Have I approached this the right way?  Or should I be doing a DMCA as technically my brand name is a copyright work product.    Now this is where I start to think I should pay the 400 USD for the US trademark on the brand (it's 12 years old) as perhaps that would help?    Bit confused - welcome any suggestions or whether really if you flag and it doesn't resolve it's just a write off.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Charlotte Bartlett
typo

[Pamela Galli]

 I have had the same problem with flags that don’t get action, in my case, flags of reviews*, over the last few months. I write support tickets asking why, and without reading the ticket, they say I should flag. Then they close the ticket. Rinse repeat. Unless the Dakota personally handles it, flags get ignored.  This never used to be the case. 

* These are legit flags for inappropriate reviews, which have all in the end been correctly handled by Dakota.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Pamela Galli

[Charlotte Bartlett]

Thanks Pamela that's the exact experience I am getting and it's so frustrating to have something pasted at you that clearly contradicts what the original ticket states (i.e. we already flagged months or weeks back etc).  I can imagine the list of flags are huge to deal with, but it appears to be counter productive to respond in this manner, as surely support cost will be higher with merchants raising tickets instead.  

Hopefully Dakota will come along and give us some guidance on what is a reasonable turnaround time so we know going forward.

 

[Pamela Galli]

 TrY pasting that quote from the TOS into a ticket. Maybe someone will read it, you never know. 

[Charlotte Bartlett]

Hi I did, it was in the initial ticket I tried to make it paint by numbers but good suggestion

It's a good nudge for me though, I see it as a learning opportunity as I was quite surprised by how frustrating the support process was.  

I am going to look into trademark.  It's good timing for me to do so it's 400 USD for the US one so achieveable, and I will have more protection as unauthorized use by competitors (such in keywords) will be an infringement on my trademark.     I then can file takedowns on the listing (to be confirmed).

That may help me as I won't then have to flag items but go the takedown route same as DMCA and it will save LL having more flags on the long list I am sure they have.

I am still looking into to ensure that's correct legally and is covered appropriately.  It would be a bit extreme to do a trademark for that issue alone, but it's something I have been meaning to do for a while for my wider work under Scarlet.  

Edited February 24, 2018 by Charlotte Bartlett

[Sassy Romano]

It's a shame that the "works with" thing on the listing is just so inadequate and that there's no sensible way to specify "accessory for" and a pick list (plus freeform field" method of stating all the other products that the item works with.

I'll get back under my rock (or bridge, depending on your point of view!)

[Charlotte Bartlett]

That makes sense.  I was thinking recently on clothing it would be nice to do uvmaps then people could create mods - in that case using my brand name in keywords, description etc would be totally expected, just like gacha resellers.

 In this case however the products and merchant concerned is selling an item unrelated to my brand and they are listing Brand A, Brand B, Brand C,  as keywords and the items concerned are not related to those brands (nor compatible etc). 

 

[Codex Alpha]

I'm sorry Charlotte, but the keyworld listings are abused so much, that if you were to even try to combat and report each listing that does so, your finger will break off.

I doubt SL could improve their search engine, but needs to work more like Google does currently, where the content of the product has to actually match the keywords used, or to abandon keywords altogether - as even Google realizes that are an abused method and therefore an invalid search mechanic.