Marketplace Changes Upate - Jiras, Last Names and You

[Chic Aeon]

Recently there was a long and heated thread that started out as a query on what folks would like for Marketplace changes and turned fairly nasty with most folks including the OP giving up on the thread. There was some good info in there amidst all the bickering. Alas.

My issue was that there were too many suppositions. 

Well thanks to Inara Pey and THIS ARTICLE there are some actual updates including what folks can do to be heard by The Lab should that be the intent. 

There is also information on last names. 

Note these are CONSIDERATIONS by The Lab and are not etched in stone. Still, in my mind, much better info than ideas from residents with no official documentation behind them. 

 

 

[Lillith Hapmouche]

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• The fee for name changes has not been announced, however, at this point the indication is that the fee will be in fiat currency (i.e. US dollars) not Linden Dollars.

Meh. I'm not against a fee and would seriously consider paying a certain sum to change the name of two of my alts. But paying in US$ probably means that an extra of 19% dreaded VAT will get applied for non-US residents on top of the name change service fee. Bit of a bummer. 

[Callum Meriman]

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“certified” Merchants priority in flagging... this “certification” might be through the payment of a fee.

Interesting they will allow a pay-to-win on the flagging.

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the Lab is aware that there are issues with the MP search function, and hope to be able to improve it. However, reporting that search “is broken” is sufficiently helpful.

proofreading  

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“Original / legacy” last names will not be re-opened for use.

Well, that's a pity. But I am looking forward to seeing what punny combinations we can leverage from the new choices.

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There are discussions at the Lab about holding a Support / Governance user group in the future. 

That would be nice. I hope their ban hammers are stripped for the meeting if it ever happens so people can speak freely.

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Further development of Place Pages is planned

Honestly, why waste the time? It's a dead duck.

[Fionalein]

LOL, good way to invest into an infrastructure that almost no one will ever use if it costs. Please please tell me at least someone with some business sense (no not someone with a business degree) calculated that one through.

PS: it might be a neat premium perk though, 1 free namechange on signup

Edited March 31, 2018 by Fionalein

[Phil Deakins]

From the article:-

Last Names – Further Information

• New users joining Second Life will still be given the automatic “last name” of “Resident”, but have the option of changing if they wish.
• The fee for name changes has not been announced, however, at this point the indication is that the fee will be in fiat currency (i.e. US dollars) not Linden Dollars.

I'm assuming that the new resident's option of changing the last name will be part of the sign-up process and won't be charged for. That's fine, but not if it's charged for, imo.

So a name-change is to be paid for in US$. That puts a different light on it. It looks more like LL doing something to take in more real money. I'm not against that if all the measures add up to the aimed-for lower land prices. Depending on the charge for a change, it could certainly do away with much or most of the flippant name-changing that I'd envisaged. It's looking a bit better to me now, although I still prefer it to not happen at all, except to allow <name> Resident users to get a proper name.

 

[Anna Nova]

us Residents have to stick together.  After all we are younger and have more insert attribute of choice.

[MegaRose]

My willingness to pay for a last name is going to be entirely dependent on what our choices are. You have my money if I can name a bunch of alts "(name) the Hedgehog" or something equally funny. 

[Theresa Tennyson]

5 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

From the article:-

Last Names – Further Information

• New users joining Second Life will still be given the automatic “last name” of “Resident”, but have the option of changing if they wish.
• The fee for name changes has not been announced, however, at this point the indication is that the fee will be in fiat currency (i.e. US dollars) not Linden Dollars.

I'm assuming that the new resident's option of changing the last name will be part of the sign-up process and won't be charged for. That's fine, but not if it's charged for, imo.

So a name-change is to be paid for in US$. That puts a different light on it. It looks more like LL doing something to take in more real money. I'm not against that if all the measures add up to the aimed-for lower land prices. Depending on the charge for a change, it could certainly do away with much or most of the flippant name-changing that I'd envisaged. It's looking a bit better to me now, although I still prefer it to not happen at all, except to allow <name> Resident users to get a proper name.

 

It will be interesting to see what new accounts decide to do after this. As of this summer's anniversary the period of time avatars were given no/"resident" last names will be just about as long as the time when they were given traditional last names. Historical Second Life is the only environment I can think of where people choose part of their name from a limited list - I imagine most people outside of Second Life would think it was just plain weird, especially when many of the choices are stupid um... creative*. I certainly don't see anyone who doesn't have long experience with Second Life wanting to do things like rustle up abandoned gateways to get lovely last names like "Hurricane" or "Deluxe" as was happening shortly after last names were phased out for the standard signup system. Perhaps the majority of new accounts will decide that Second Life style last names aren't "proper" at all.

-----------------------------

* Many years ago, in my first go-around in college, the job-placement office gave us a test so we could learn how creative we were. It was multiple choice...

...yeah...

[Anna Nova]

Perhaps we should have a thread dedicated to wonderful SL legacy names that we've seen.

I particularly liked 'Generally Offcourse'.

I could be tempted to spend $10 on Offcourse - especially since I bought the helicopter.

[Phil Deakins]

I like that name. I'm sure that someone will have got 'Usually Offcourse' too.

It wasn't all that easy to come up with good names like that. The best that I got were 3toed Frog and 4times Nitely, to which one girl commented, "In your dreams"

A thought occured to me this morning. It is to be hoped that those with a 'Resident' name will be given the opportunity to change it once to a proper last name - absolutely free of charge. To my mind, allowing them to freely shake off that stupid last name, which was all down to LL's stupidty, is very important . If that doesn't happen, then there will be a load of new users with proper last names, a load of old users with proper last names, and a load of users in the middle, who just happened to arrive at the wrong time and so are stuck with that stupid 'Resident' name, unless they buy their way out of it. That would be grossly unfair, imo. I'm still assuming that changing from 'Resident' to another last name will be a part of the new account sign-up process and not charged for, but that assumption may be way off.

Edited April 1, 2018 by Phil Deakins

[Phil Deakins]

I had another thought this morning. What's the betting that, after LL has put all these extra charges in place, and is taking in significantly more money, they'll turn around and say that costs have gone up so reducing land prices isn't possble after all?

[Chase01]

This was good news that I was not aware of.

"Currently, the Lab’s Infringement Notification Policy requires that DCMA notices are filed with Linden Lab via mail or fax.In December 2017, it was indicated that this would be revised so that DMCA’s can be filed via an on-line form. The provisional date for implementing this change had been around January / February 2018, however, it has been subject to delay."

I understand there might be some kind of technical limitation (or complication) with allowing more then one user to have the same last name, but I am not a fan of that AT ALL. Outside of any limitations, I'd rather see people have the name THEY want to choose and not miss out because someone beat them to the punch.

[Phil Deakins]

I very much doubt that the way that the last names work will be different to how they used to work; i.e. people will be able to have the same last name. Letting people choose their own last name, which I am not against the idea of,  won't eliminate multiple users having the same last name.

[LittleMe Jewell]

4 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

I very much doubt that the way that the last names work will be different to how they used to work; i.e. people will be able to have the same last name. Letting people choose their own last name, which I am not against the idea of,  won't eliminate multiple users having the same last name.

They've said that it will be just like before -- users will get a drop-down list of available last names to pick from (or they can keep Resident).  They'll then need to come up with a first name that will produce a unique full name.

From the way they worded their info on new users, I can't quite figure out if they'll charge new users for a last name or not (and totally would not be surprised if they do charge for that).  If they don't charge the newbies, then I agree with you that they definitely should let anyone with Resident as their last name get one free name change in order to get a real last name.

[Anna Nova]

2 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

...  If they don't charge the newbies, then I agree with you that they definitely should let anyone with Resident as their last name get one free name change in order to get a real last name.

I honestly don't care if I have to pay or not.  I already pay a lot just to be here.  What I would like to do is trade the 2358 for a nice surname.  I hate the number.

Edited April 1, 2018 by anna2358

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, anna2358 said:

I honestly don't care if I have to pay or not.  I already pay a lot just to be here.  What I would like to do is trade the 2358 for a nice surname.  I hate the number.

When the name change option comes about, the process of picking a new name will include picking any first name you want to go with their selection of last names.  You don't have to keep your current first name, as long as the full name is unique.   So you will be able to get rid of the number.

[Coby Foden]

16 hours ago, anna2358 said:

Perhaps we should have a thread dedicated to wonderful SL legacy names that we've seen.

I particularly liked 'Generally Offcourse'.

Yeah, there are some clever old name choices out there. Like: "Imnotgoing Sideways"

Edited April 1, 2018 by Coby Foden

[Klytyna]

8 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

If they don't charge the newbies, then I agree with you that they definitely should let anyone with Resident as their last name get one free name change in order to get a real last name.

This is LL we're talking about... If anyone can be relied on to make a technical change in such a way as to encourage thew creation of 'class divisions' it's them.

They created the 1st class people with proper last names vs 3rd class people called resident excuse for clueless snobbery in the first place.

It wouldn't surprise me if new accounts got a lastname for free, and existing accounts didn't, leaving a great many people stuck in 3rd class victims of snobbery limbo,, deliberately, as a way to encourage them to pay way too much for permission to escape...

Another fine example of the "piss down peoples backs and tell them it's raining" customer retention strategy that seems to be SOP at LL.

Me... I've managed 6 years without a damn lastname, and never had to add numbers, and have always been more than happy to tell the name snobs to fornicate themselves sideways with a rusty chainsaw, so to hell with new lastnames.
 

[ChinRey]

18 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

To my mind, allowing them to freely shake off that stupid last name, which was all down to LL's stupidty, is very important . If that doesn't happen, then there will be a load of new users with proper last names, a load of old users with proper last names, and a load of users in the middle, who just happened to arrive at the wrong time and so are stuck with that stupid 'Resident' name, unless they buy their way out of it. That would be grossly unfair, imo. I'm still assuming that changing from 'Resident' to another last name will be a part of the new account sign-up process and not charged for, but that assumption may be way off.

But how many of those legacy name families have had a road named after them?

[Charlotte Bartlett]

On 3/30/2018 at 3:54 PM, Chic Aeon said:

Recently there was a long and heated thread that started out as a query on what folks would like for Marketplace changes and turned fairly nasty with most folks including the OP giving up on the thread. There was some good info in there amidst all the bickering. Alas.

My issue was that there were too many suppositions. 

Well thanks to Inara Pey and THIS ARTICLE there are some actual updates including what folks can do to be heard by The Lab should that be the intent. 

There is also information on last names. 

Note these are CONSIDERATIONS by The Lab and are not etched in stone. Still, in my mind, much better info than ideas from residents with no official documentation behind them. 

 

 

Thank you for posting that link, super helpful to read

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 hours ago, Coby Foden said:

Yeah, there are some clever old name choices out there. Like: "Imnotgoing Sideways"

She used to hang out out The Forum Cartel hangout way back when.

 

I've got a friend named Drivin Sideways.

Edited April 2, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Anna Nova]

13 hours ago, anna2358 said:

I honestly don't care if I have to pay or not.  I already pay a lot just to be here.  What I would like to do is trade the 2358 for a nice surname.  I hate the number.

I just had an idea, I could go for Anna Twentythreefiftyeight.

[Phil Deakins]

You can't do that. You will only be able to pick a last name from a list, and the chances of Twentythreefiftyeight being in the list are not very high

[ChinRey]

1 hour ago, Phil Deakins said:

and the chances of Twentythreefiftyeight being in the list are not very high

Less than a 2358 to one chance even?

But they aren't going back to the system with a list of limited options, are they?

 

8 hours ago, ChinRey said:

But how many of those legacy name families have had a road named after them?

11 hours ago, Coby Foden said:

Yeah, there are some clever old name choices out there. Like: "Imnotgoing Sideways"

Turns out she has a road named after her too. So some legacy families do have that honour then but not many!

 

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

10 hours ago, Klytyna said:

fornicate themselves sideways

Since “Sideways” is a last name, I’d probably choose “ILikeToTakeIt Sideways”.