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Something should be done about 1L$ items on marketplace.


Sage Waverider
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It's really annoying that the marketplace is littered with top ranking 1L$ items. Something should finally be done about that, it's absolutely unfair how default item listing works. Been a merchant for a while and I've experiment with 1L$, so for example you'll be able to sell 20-50 copies of 1L$ and it gets a better ranking compared to an item that sells 4-5 copies at 200L$...

What I get from this whole situation it that LL favours poorly made models that was made in 10-30 minutes instead of the ones that took days or weeks to make. If you feel similar, please let yourself be heard. And let's get this mess  sorted finally.

I don't think I'll waste more of my time creating content for SL, because it's nearly impossible to get through the garbage on marketplace. And I feel it's really discouraging for the new artists that potentially would be willing to contribute their content to the marketplace.

If anyone is in favour of the way that marketplace currently operates it would be interesting to hear your opinion as well...

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1 hour ago, Sage Waverider said:

Something should finally be done about that, it's absolutely unfair how default item listing works. Been a merchant for a while and I've experiment with 1L$, so for example you'll be able to sell 20-50 copies of 1L$ and it gets a better ranking compared to an item that sells 4-5 copies at 200L$...

If that is the case, yes the price-volume weighing seems a bit off. I usggest you file a JIRA about it.

 

1 hour ago, Sage Waverider said:

What I get from this whole situation it that LL favours poorly made models that was made in 10-30 minutes instead of the ones that took days or weeks to make.

Cheap doesn't always mean poor quality and expensive certainly doesn't alway mean high quality on MP.

 

1 hour ago, Sage Waverider said:

And let's get this mess  sorted finally.

There is no final solution. A good ranking algrotihm has to be constantly refined.

 

1 hour ago, Sage Waverider said:

And I feel it's really discouraging for the new artists that potentially would be willing to contribute their content to the marketplace.

No matter how muc LL tries to plug MP, it's still not the place for merchants to get recognised and there are far bigger obstacles than search ranking that keep newcomers away from the market.

Think about this: How many well known, apparently successful merchants with a Resident account name can you find? How many of them are new alts for old users? There won't be many, I can promise you that.

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1 hour ago, ChinRey said:

 

Thanks for your reply. I know doesn't that doesn't mean bad.

I think the reason why we have  first 10 pages in almost any category filled with 1L$ is that the content creators are thinking that having some popular 1L$ items will drive more traffic to their stores, this works to some degree, but at the same time is driving all the prices down, customers are affected by this as well, because there there's so many 1L$ items, they think that more expensive content is not worth the price.

Many years ago, first pages in the marketplace were filled with 10L$, but now situation is even worse.

Ny mentioning new artist I just meant that the marketplace with most poplar items that are not even worth a cent is really unattractive, therefore I don't think that talented artist will be willing to start creating for SL.

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1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

This may seem dumb, but I often sort by “most expensive first”. That way, the items that merchants believe are worth something are shown first.

Well you have to go through a pile of overpriced items then. But that's a lesser problem IMHO. :D

Problem is the default "most relevant" item listing. A common customer might be just fine with the default display of search results.

For example Internet Explorer was so popular in back in the days, just because people didn't know or didn't bother to install Chrome or Firefox. Same applies to marketplace :D

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I hate to be the devil's advocate but I fear the whole trick is to build something people want to pay more for than 1L ;)

Your builds don't looks that bad, why do you even compare them to the 1L skyboxes? I however see no inworld demo, so I would never buy at your shop. Either give me cheap samples of your stuff or show it to me inworld. If I cannot judge your mesh's quality I will assume the worst and either go for the 1L item (not much lost there) or way more expensive builds of designers I already trust. 

And no you cannot stop folks from giving away stuff for free or 1L because they want to, for whatever reason they offer those.

 

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Yes that's annoying and I've done it too in my shop but I only made one of my items to be 1L$ and I believe that's fair. In my in-world shop I have more freebies but they are for people who are not lazy to teleport there ? 

I don't think it's okay to say "if you don't fix this I'm gone" and I am not with you on that one, also saying how all freebies are poorly made is not okay because there are many merchants who like to make nice freebies.

What I like to think is that these items have some benefits; for new people who just created their accounts and spent maybe few dollars to buy lindens or didn't buy them at all, I remember my first few days in SL when I was running around and just collecting freebies and later unpacking them in sandboxes with other newbies, it was fun! So I believe that offering some kind of cheap things will maybe help to make people stay here long enough to make them find some interests and make them willing to spend more money. 

It would be good if for example we could place only 1 freebie in our shop, that would help in cleaning out the MP. 

 

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6 minutes ago, Tamara Artis said:

I don't think it's okay to say "if you don't fix this I'm gone" and I am not with you on that one,

Agreed! Especially considering a lot of fixes and enhancements were released for the MP just this week.LL is obviously trying.

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6 hours ago, Tamara Artis said:

It would be good if for example we could place only 1 freebie in our shop, that would help in cleaning out the MP.  

It would be the end of many quality free items of creators who left SL for good and left their (not always so bad) stuff as 0L gifts on MP for the community to enjoy... or those who just love to create and always give away stuff for free... So nope - I do not support this idea. You might argue it takes away the incentive for others to buy suff - believe me it doesn't. SL items are status symbols. You can have freebies - no one will look down on you if you have one or two in your build, but if you only use freebies they still will.

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I don't have issues with anyone listing items for 1L. I see it as a gift. Why would you assume that something being sold for 1L is junk? Why not think of it as a gift?

I often buy items for my main using this account, since Blush has all the money, so finding things that are nice and more than zero is a good thing as I can't buy and send a gift to my alt if the item is 0L. And I'm loathed to log in on the web using Debi's account as I keep Blush logged in there at all times to provide customer support, while Debi tends to be logged in in-world far more than Blush does. There are actually times when I wish a demo was 1L rather than free in the MP just so I could have the convenience of getting it for Debi using Blush.

Also, I don't see those 1L items as devaluing anyone else's work. I don't think of them as competition. I am my own competition. If my work is good enough it will sell. It just takes time and fortitude to keep working until people start to recognize that your work is good and something they actually need. 

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I also do not have a problem with L$1 items as "freebies"/gifts.

What I *DO* have a problem with is events where vendors put out "gifts" for more than L$1 (e.g. L$10). That is NOT a gift. I was at an event where it was advertised that gifts were available at most booths (L$0-L$10), and EVERY SINGLE ONE was L$10.

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1 hour ago, Blush Bravin said:

And I'm loathed to log in on the web using Debi's account as I keep Blush logged in there at all times to provide customer support, while Debi tends to be logged in in-world far more than Blush does. There are actually times when I wish a demo was 1L rather than free in the MP just so I could have the convenience of getting it for Debi using Blush.

Use two browsers, one for each account and copy-paste for the item url. Works a treat.

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27 minutes ago, Bitsy Buccaneer said:

Use two browsers, one for each account and copy-paste for the item url. Works a treat.

I've done this though I am too lazy to do it on the fly just to pick up a demo or a free item. It's just not worth the effort. But I do appreciate the suggestion.

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Well, I don't really create much for SL nowadays. There's no point spending a week to create some quality asset, just to get wieghted down by 1L$ crap it's nearly impossible to get up above these items.  It's clear that other 3D and game related markets are more appealing for serious 3D artists...

Honestly 1-10L$ should be separeted to a different category, because these items oversaturates the market and makes it look amateur.

 

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I hadn't realized how many L$1 skyboxes there were because I don't normally sort by price.   I may filter by price, just showing items in a particular price range, or I may sort by LI or by newest first, or leave it at 'relevance'.   More and more, lately, I mainly use MP as a way to search for items I'm looking for, and then after finding a group, I narrow it down for final purchase by going and looking at the item at an in-world store, and then most often make the purchase in-world.

I don't think L$1 (or L$0) items should be eliminated from the MP, nor do I think that all of them are inferior products because of the price.  Sometimes they are items that had been group gifts previously, and it's always nice to find a hidden gem in the lowest price range.  

In my early days I did purchase items in the L$0 - L$10 range, because I had a limited amount of lindens to spend and I was still trying to figure out what SL was about and how things worked.  For others that aren't able to buy lindens but earn them from the fishing or gold coin games, or from LInden Realms, I'm sure that the bargain priced items are appreciated. 

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3 hours ago, Vanity Fair said:

What I *DO* have a problem with is events where vendors put out "gifts" for more than L$1 (e.g. L$10). That is NOT a gift. I was at an event where it was advertised that gifts were available at most booths (L$0-L$10), and EVERY SINGLE ONE was L$10.

This is becoming the norm, though I'm not sure why or what the heck started this trend.  I simply replace the word GIFT with CHEAPIE in my mind.

I've gotten to where I edit these items to see what is actually in it.  If I cannot determine what is in it or am not sure that I want to give it a try from the item name, then I don't buy said GIFT.  If the name suggests something that I think might be worth L$10 or is from a creator that I know makes nice stuff for these so-called gifts and does not duplicate them across multiple events, then I'll pay the L$10. 

I do keep a list of creators that duplicate these cheapies across events and don't name the items appropriately such that I can determine that I already have it - and I don't buy their cheapies ever again and sometimes will not buy anything from them again.  I also keep a list of creators that I have determined do constantly put out low quality items for these event cheapies - those creators usually end up on my 'never buy from' list.

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6 hours ago, Sage Waverider said:

Well, I don't really create much for SL nowadays. There's no point spending a week to create some quality asset, just to get wieghted down by 1L$ crap it's nearly impossible to get up above these items.  It's clear that other 3D and game related markets are more appealing for serious 3D artists...

There are two ways to make money as a content creator in Second Life.

One is to get a toehold at the fashionable blogs, events and such and then spend hours on marketing - be prepared to spend more time on that than you do on building.

The other method is to go back a decade to establish yourself at a time when the market was still dynamic and growing. Then, keep working hard to maintain and broaden your customer base and selection of merchandise.

If you can't do either, forget about the money. Build for your own pleasure and consider any Lindens you may make from it a nice bonus.

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On 10/12/2018 at 6:48 AM, Vanity Fair said:

What I *DO* have a problem with is events where vendors put out "gifts" for more than L$1 (e.g. L$10). That is NOT a gift. I was at an event where it was advertised that gifts were available at most booths (L$0-L$10), and EVERY SINGLE ONE was L$10.

The Seasons Story and Sanarae both actually have true FREE Gifts this time around.  Every merchant at Sanarae has one and just about every merchant at The Seasons Story has one.

Edited by LittleMe Jewell
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On 11 October 2018 at 9:10 PM, Sage Waverider said:

It's really annoying that the marketplace is littered with top ranking 1L$ items. Something should finally be done about that, it's absolutely unfair how default item listing works

So, basically, to sum up your post...

A) You are complaining that other MP vendors are allowed to sell things for less than you charge, and that some of those things are more popular than your products.

B) That LL have resolutely FAILED to appoint YOU as the Universal MP Price Minimum Setter.

C) That you are not making as much FREE money off the MP as you feel you are ENTITLED to.

Then, to address these complaints, you demand that LL should "do something", and if your demands are not met, you will stop making the products that people don't buy enough of to meet your Entitlement Issues...

...

*sighs and rolls eyes*



 

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