Why is the Linden Dollar Tanking?

[Alyona Su]

6 hours ago, rasterscan said:

Once a pristine 5 star is lost it can never be recovered beyond 4.5 stars.

I'm not sure how cash-out fees have anything to do with Market Place Star Ratings, but since you brought it up: (The following is addressed to all readers of this comment) You don't want me buying your stuffs unless you are *that* good because I actually leave very detailed, accurate reviews. I view star ratings and also leave star ratings based on this scale:

• * = Horrible, likely will never buy from this brand again.
• ** = Okay, but less than expected, little things, not sure I'll keep using this.
• *** = Pretty much as advertised, got what I expected, neither exceptional nor less than satisfactory.
• **** = Better than advertised, pleasantly surprise and will likely purchase this brand again.
• ***** = ZOMG! If you are interested you MUST get this! I will definitely buy this brand in the future, Far better than expected.

Yes, the five-star is a coveted thing, but should be hard to earn. The real problem is that people throw them around like weeds, thereby, actually lessening their value exponentially. Especially when they leave comments like "Thanks, I like this." or "You do good, keep it up" as though the review is actually creator-feedback. Pffft.

I leave highly detailed reviews intended for the next shopper and in that, I will give an accurate star rating. As for those bad reviews, you can flag many, especially if their complaint is already handled in the description (too many descriptions are amazingly lacking, themselves.) Use the comments of a review to rebut any bad bad review, just remember there is a difference between a "bad" review and a "negative" review. For the latter: deal with it.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Selene Gregoire]

On 10/7/2019 at 8:45 PM, ChinRey said:

Like this you mean? https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/68424

I was fully expecting to see lots of... items with prices, not a handful of freebies. I should have known better. lol 

[Selene Gregoire]

16 hours ago, rasterscan said:

Cashout fees have become eye watering. The MP star system is used as a griefing tool at worst and a griping fest at best. ( I cannot figure out your product so here's one star and I'll call it rubbish rather than contact you for help ). Once a pristine 5 star is lost it can never be recovered beyond 4.5 stars. That sux badly. Lastly, imho, unless a seller is one of the 'big 6' you'll sell hardly anything which kills all motivation. 

 

 

I tend to agree. And why I am still debating even having a store on MP. I'm thinking maybe I should but only have a few items with the rest available inworld. Of course, I would put in the description something to that effect so people will know there is more to be found inworld than on the MP. I'm not out to make a profit or cash out, anyway. For me, that's pretty much a pipe dream.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Selene Gregoire
most uncooperative space bar

[Prokofy Neva]

On 10/4/2019 at 11:30 PM, Tari Landar said:

Might I make a suggestion? (I'm going to anyway, I don't know why I ask, lol)

If you're really interested in seeing how merchants can, and do, also affect these changes on lindex (and this isn't directed at just you, I'm using your post as a jumping off point), I suggest paying really close attention both to the merchant forum and other places where *merchants themselves talk about the issues.  For example, the whole advertising/enhancement crap we can buy for our listings on MP has been a crap shoot since day one. Yes, some merchants have noticed impressions and click-throughs, they are there, but the effect they gave/give has been negligible, at best fr MOST. I don't personally know a single merchant on MP for whom they've *actually been all that helpful(and worth the cost, however one might wanna word that) after using them for a while. I have seen people say they have had some benefit, but, I'm not always as keen to believe they all have, as some are, well, questionable (for me, just imo). Other merchants will tell you "yes I pay for this advertising, just as I do other methods, but I'm not so sure how effective it is, I just consider it a cost of doing business". Even just two years ago, you wouldn't be too hard pressed to find those folks-there was tons of them.

As of late, however, LL has been royally screwing things up left and right for merchants on the MP-even in just small ways that add up-to the point that now, you might actually be hard pressed to find folks who think those advertising methods are a "worthy cost of business, albeit it perhaps less effective than desired". Now you'll find more who say "I stopped paying for that advertising...." because of the nonchalant way LL tends to treat MP merchants, or has been as of late (last couple years), coupled with how ineffective they really are. We're a bit low on the totem pole I suspect, and I've not much reason to think otherwise. I'd imagine the MP sales commissions and listing enhancements are rather measly compared to other revenue sources for LL so..eh...they'll get to us when they do. I am including myself here, only because I am a merchant. I'm not even really a blip on the radar-and I'm cool with that, it's a position I chose when I became a hobbyist  

So I imagine that LL/the lindex has taken *somewhat of a hit on the MP revenue on and off for a while, both in commission and advertising-but they dug that hole for themselves, and sometimes those effects take time to show. That's not really individuals doing anything, but rather LL's lack of doing anything substantial-ok, most things. This isn't just a knock on LL before anyone thinks it is, but, really...there's a bunch of different threads over the last few years on the merchant forum that cover this kind of topic-or rather cover it from a merchants point of view (and customer as in "do you use the landing page enhancements to shop" kind of way, if that makes sense, apologies if it doesn't). Some of them are primarily about the enhancements-and you'll see if you read far back enough into them all how things have changed as of late. Most merchants that I know who used to HEAVILY add those enhancements on their listings now don't, or only do for very few select items, primarily in the hopes that "someone will see it, though odds are good they won't buy it, they might still visit/remember my store". MOST shoppers ignore those enhanced listings, however, so..I think LL missed the mark entirely on that one (but I've always thought that, and I've always thought the cost is ridiculously high for ineffective marketing tool, or not very well thought out tool anyway)

 

How much this actually affects the lindex, I dunno, I could be way off base, I come at this from a different point of view I think. There are all kinds of variables that could be at play here and I don't think even the seemingly insignificant ones are really all that insignificant. But, I've also seen the lindex do way worse, as far as changes, and have read through most of the threads regarding it-I just don't usually post to them. I did on this one because listing enhancements/advertising was mentioned and that much I actually can comment on. 

 

I occasionally look in on the Merchants' forum but usually it doesn't have anything of interest, I am not much of a merchant. But I'll keep it in mind to look more often. It's odd that the ads there for real estate, which you can do by providing essentially $0 landmarks, lead to lots of purchases but never any sales, unlike search/places and classifieds which do. So I guess that's why I don't bother much. Somehow, I don't think the lack of effectiveness of ads on the MP is the main cause of the Linden dollar drop, which began somewhat suddenly, not even right after the announcement of the increase in fees for cash-outs. 

If anything, it's the Linden  homes, which seems to correlate with that time (the announcement of the trailers in particular) which is the infusion into the economy of printed dollars from premium accounts.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

12 hours ago, Alyona Su said:

I'm not sure how cash-out fees have anything to do with Market Place Star Ratings, but since you brought it up: (The following is addressed to all readers of this comment) You don't want me buying your stuffs unless you are *that* good because I actually leave very detailed, accurate reviews. I view star ratings and also leave star ratings based on this scale:

• * = Horrible, likely will never buy from this brand again.
• ** = Okay, but less than expected, little things, not sure I'll keep using this.
• *** = Pretty much as advertised, got what I expected, neither exceptional nor less than satisfactory.
• **** = Better than advertised, pleasantly surprise and will likely purchase this brand again.
• ***** = ZOMG! If you are interested you MUST get this! I will definitely buy this brand in the future, Far better than expected.

Yes, the five-star is a coveted thing, but should be hard to earn. The real problem is that people throw them around like weeds, thereby, actually lessening their value exponentially. Especially when they leave comments like "Thanks, I like this." or "You do good, keep it up" as though the review is actually creator-feedback. Pffft.

I leave highly detailed reviews intended for the next shopper and in that, I will give an accurate star rating. As for those bad reviews, you can flag many, especially if their complaint is already handled in the description (too many descriptions are amazingly lacking, themselves.) Use the comments of a review to rebut any bad bad review, just remember there is a difference between a "bad" review and a "negative" review. For the latter: deal with it.

I use five-star reviews to help counter the ridiculously-detailed and persnickety complaints of a highly subjective nature that lead to two-star reviews such as you describe making.

[Prokofy Neva]

On 10/5/2019 at 3:24 AM, ChinRey said:

Tanking may be too strong a word but when you know how narrow the margins are in the SL rental business, it's easy to see why Prokofy and other medium and large sized estate owners are worried. From another thread here I understand that some of them have lsot quite a lot of tenants recently too and of course, the increased transaction fees don't help either.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if some estates went belly up in the near future. Not the big ones since LL can't afford to loose those customers and have to offer them some sort of relief and not the small ones since we never made any money from it anyway. But the medium sized ones with a few dozens or a few hundred sims may be heading for rough waters and the exchange rate change may well be the last straw. (Woops! Mixed metaphors - sorry!)

As for the reason, it may be that buyers are ore reluctant to sign up to the new Tilia terms than sellers.

Yes, that's a good insight, it's not the small ones or very huge ones but those in the middle who will be most rocked.

I am still trying to understand if I lost that many tenants to the Linden Homes. I have had some go to Linden Homes and come back in two weeks because they weren't able to change the house or get more prims. Today somebody said LL wouldn't accept their form of payment which seemed odd, and they said they didn't trust PayPal (which I myself do trust). As always, we don't have enough information to understand what is going on, but then the effects show up in the drop in the Linden.

[Alyona Su]

10 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I use five-star reviews to help counter the ridiculously-detailed and persnickety complaints of a highly subjective nature that lead to two-star reviews such as you describe making.

Good thing we never shop for the same things or it would be a tit-for-tat between us on product review pages. You're just part of the problem, not part of the solution, but SL is been way past the point of no return for longer than most of the SL population were "born."