Marketplace listing process/editing appears to be broken

[Kyrie Deka]

My ads are in some cases still broke, but I think I am unclear on what the fix will be fixing. 

I twill be watching for clarity on whether a fix will take care of the non-English ad pages issue, and if also fixing the reported unclear images issue.  On the images, I cannot really tell on mine perhaps due to a legacy graphics card.  Also unclear if the title/body text is broken if it isn't also "translated" with the perimeter text on the page, after one selects a non-English language using the SL drop-down menu at the top of the page.  That may be as-expected/not broken.  I never checked those pages prior to this so wouldn't know.  But I still have some seemingly perpetually broken non-English page ads, of various ages, with no titles/non-English pages, and on those broken I still get the Internal Server Error Please try again in a few minutes message after clicking [Buy Now]. 

**What I don't want to do, is do anything now, where after a fix I then have to re-edit or correct any images or text or resave old ads. Having to do that would be anti-entertaining, and make me wanna log out. So I am in a holding pattern.  

[Flea Yatsenko]

As someone who does web dev as well as SL, it sounds like when you save the images to the servers, they are compressing them too much. Unless they are saving a higher resolution image somewhere, LL won't be able to improve the image quality until you provide them with a better image. I highly doubt they are saving higher resolution versions of the images you upload if they're not using them.

They are trying to get the SLMP to load faster with all this caching they added, and they're being over-zealous with their image "optimization" to improve page loading time and reduce operating costs. It's a very good thing they are doing this, e-commerce sites need to be extremely fast: https://www.gigaspaces.com/blog/amazon-found-every-100ms-of-latency-cost-them-1-in-sales/

Most importantly, look what Google found. Half a second of delay drops search traffic by 20%. SLMP website can take a second or two to load the first page. Meanwhile Google's first page loads nearly instantly. Amazon is the same.

Caching is one of those things that can massively speed up your website and people make it sound like it's extremely easy to do. The reality is that adding caching usually breaks things in ways you never expected or shows you bugs you didn't know you had in your software. I'm glad they are finally working on increasing the speed of SLMP. The execution could be a lot better, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. The initial page load should have the openID server check for login information with an ajax request instead of an HTTP redirect, for example. But they are moving in the right direction. It has potential to really improve sales and search traffic. And when the search results are so bad due to things like keyword abuse, better performing search and SLMP website will make a very big difference.

I'm holding out on making a few new listings because I don't want to deal with going back and re-uploading the images again.

[Grumpity Linden]

Hi All! There are several issues being reported here and we have fixes in QA for 2 of them: the caching problem with updates not refreshing (we're addressing those manually until the fix goes out) and the problem with listings having blank fields in some languages.  

We don't have a repro for the third issue some of you have reported here, and we haven't seen a bug report in Jira yet either.  If someone who can reproduce the issue could create a jira with a description of the problem + attach original image + screenshot of what it looks like uploaded in the listing - we should be able to track it down.  Many thanks! 

p.s. how to report a bug article in case you need it: 

 

[Arwen Serpente]

Grumpity, what caused this?

[Gallatis]

3 hours ago, Grumpity Linden said:

Hi All! There are several issues being reported here and we have fixes in QA for 2 of them: the caching problem with updates not refreshing (we're addressing those manually until the fix goes out) and the problem with listings having blank fields in some languages.  

We don't have a repro for the third issue some of you have reported here, and we haven't seen a bug report in Jira yet either.  If someone who can reproduce the issue could create a jira with a description of the problem + attach original image + screenshot of what it looks like uploaded in the listing - we should be able to track it down.  Many thanks! 

p.s. how to report a bug article in case you need it: 

 

Hello, it isn't fix for me: titles and description are still invisible

[Flea Yatsenko]

QA means they are testing them before they roll them out.

[Elvina Ewing]

14 hours ago, Grumpity Linden said:

 

We don't have a repro for the third issue some of you have reported here, and we haven't seen a bug report in Jira yet either.  If someone who can reproduce the issue could create a jira with a description of the problem + attach original image + screenshot of what it looks like uploaded in the listing - we should be able to track it down.  Many thanks! 

p.s. how to report a bug article in case you need it: 

 

so, basically if nobody bothers to create a JIRA for the image problem, LL is not going to do anything to fix it? Even now that you do know it exists?

[Whirly Fizzle]

On 3/9/2020 at 4:51 PM, Elvina Ewing said:

if you don't mind your pictures looking like gifs from the 90s, go ahead. Tried to upload a new picture a couple of hours ago >> same crappy deteriorated result. So, no new listings from me then.

On 3/6/2020 at 5:50 PM, Elvina Ewing said:

i confirm that the new listing feature is broken. Just added a new item and this is what went wrong:

1) The pictures got uploaded in extremely poor quality!! I don't know what to do about that: i am alarmed to think that the shoppers will think that my pictures are of such poor quality, while it is not my pictures fault, but the uploading process somehow degrades the quality to the extreme!! I don't know what is worse: such poor pictures, or maybe no pictures at all instead?!

 

I can't reproduce this. 
Can you upload an image to an image sharing site that looks fine (and share the image link)  but gets degraded when you upload it to the Marketplace?

[Whirly Fizzle]

8 hours ago, Elvina Ewing said:

So, basically if nobody bothers to create a JIRA for the image problem, LL is not going to do anything to fix it? Even now that you do know it exists?

Without steps to reproduce the problem, it can't be fixed.
Providing an image attached to your JIRA issue (when you file it) that shows degradation when uploaded to the marketplace is the best thing to do.

Is anyone else seeing image quality problems when adding images to their listings?

[Flea Yatsenko]

I made a few listings today and they looked fine. Probably depends on what kind of image you're uploading, if it's more like a photo or more like vector artwork.

[Elvina Ewing]

so i am the only one seeing degraded images everywhere?? ok, that's entirely possible, maybe only people who work a lot with image editing/texturing etc notice that... Just go to Marketplace, sort by Newest Items and you will see it. Every single new item has degraded graphics (ok, i haven't checked today, but yesterday they were). Some more than others, that's true. The more shadows and gradients there are in the image, the more apparent it is. Where the soft shadows and gradients are it looks grainy like it is heavily compressed.

Fine, i shall waste some of my precious time filing the JIRA tomorrow, it's too late here now. Apparently this is what i am paying my MP commissions for...

[Leonorah Beverly]

@Elvina Ewing: I can see it, too.

Looks like they changed the pictures' pixel resolution for a faster download. It looks terrible.

[Elvina Ewing]

there you go:

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-228302

i'm not holding my breath though...

[Tari Landar]

LL, nor anyone else, really, wants to hear my tree fiddy on any mp issues anymore...lmao. 

But...I appreciate the JIRAs, and will be watching them as well, so thank you to the merchants who make them, and I mean that sincerely.  I haven't the inclination (desire?) anymore to even bother creating my own,  having heard..."tools in the works", "fix in the works", "we're looking into it", "soon"...for, literally, years upon years. But I am still thoroughly invested in those others create, and seeing how (if) things progress on them. 

So, whether or not anyone else (coughs, LL)  ever shows appreciation for the time and effort you all put into JIRAs, reproducing errors, trying to find fixes, trying to find causes, and doing work that folks at LL should be responsible for doing........know that there are LOADS of residents that actually do appreciate and care about them. A heartfelt thanks is warranted, imo. 

 

Edited March 12, 2020 by Tari Landar

[Reed Linden]

Hello!  

A couple of updates, and all good news.

 

Thank you very much for the JIRA! With your help, we believe we have identified the third issue and have a fix on the way. We could not have done that without you, and we absolutely appreciate it. Thank you again, and please keep them coming. I'll let you all know here when we have the fix in place.

 

Second, the fixes for the caching problem with updates not refreshing and the problem with listings having blank fields in some languages have both been deployed (just now!). I know I had promised earlier in the week, but we ran into a few snags during the QA process that needed to be ironed out. They have been ironed!       

[Arwen Serpente]

Good news! Titles and descriptions have been restored and manage listings search is recognizing new products.

The graphics JIRA filed by Elvina has been accepted, so they are working on a fix for that too.

 

edited to add: Reed was writing his update when I was writing this, lol. He's a faster typist. 🙂

Edited March 12, 2020 by Arwen Serpente

[Brooke Fairplay]

Yes. yes yes Looking good  

[Jellyroll]

Will this be fixed back to normal or is the reduced marketplace image quality here to stay? Now marketplace images I try to upload look blurry & low quality. I've tried uploading different sizes of images and it still looks blurry & compressed each time. 

[Brooke Fairplay]

I do not see any blurriness. unless my eyes are failing me 

[Jellyroll]

After checking the image sizes for my store and other stores that have recently uploaded images, it looks that they have suddenly started compressing marketplace images even more than before. Now they are compressing full size images down to 20 - 40 kb and it's creating blurryness/grain/artifacts. Previously most images were compressed down to about 200 - 250 kb, which looked much more acceptable and didn't cause such a big loss in details that we are seeing now. I'm afraid they are probaby not going to fix this now since it seems they probably did it to save data. If they are trying to make pages load faster, I think they should have just compressed the small thumbnail images, and leave the enlarged product images alone. Because when people click on a product image to enlarge it they want to see the details.

[Grumpity Linden]

Hi All, 

We rolled out an update to the marketplace which includes a change to image processing.  We believe this should address the issues with image  quality discussed in this thread.  Thanks!

[Gallatis]

On 3/18/2020 at 1:52 AM, Grumpity Linden said:

Hi All, 

We rolled out an update to the marketplace which includes a change to image processing.  We believe this should address the issues with image  quality discussed in this thread.  Thanks!

Hello,

 

Sorry for the bad new, but it appears to still be broken: when I update a description field, my new description doesn't appear, although pictures and other things do.

Moreover, when I duplicate a product ("fast filling"), the description field of new product doesn't appear: it is the description of duplicated product which does.

Could you please fix this issue?

Thanks

[Dakota Linden]

18 minutes ago, Gallatis said:

Hello,

 

Sorry for the bad new, but it appears to still be broken: when I update a description field, my new description doesn't appear, although pictures and other things do.

Moreover, when I duplicate a product ("fast filling"), the description field of new product doesn't appear: it is the description of duplicated product which does.

Could you please fix this issue?

Thanks

Hi Gallatis!

When you update an existing Product Listing, it can take a few minutes for the system to re-index the listing.  This means the original information will still be visible for a few minutes, but should correct itself within about 5 minutes or so. 

If the incorrect/outdated information is still showing after 15 minutes though, please create a Support Ticket using Marketplace - Marketplace Listing Issues and provide the link to the listing in your ticket and a Customer Support agent will be able to investigate your report and assist as quickly as possible. 

When creating listings with the Quick Fill / Fast Filling Template, information from the chosen product listing is imported into the new listing and then the new listing needs to be updated so that the correct information is showing. 

If you are using a template that does not have all of the Language Options filled in, then the new listing will be missing that information. 

Please check the product listing that you used for the Fast Filling and ensure that each language (English, Japanese, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish) have all of the required fields filled out.  

After ensuring that all of the information is there for the existing listing, please try creating a new listing using that one as the Fast Filling template.  If information on the new listing is still missing, please create a Support Ticket and provide us with the existing listing you used as the Fast Filling template and the new listing that was created that is missing the information and an agent will be able to assist you as quickly as possible. 

[Gallatis]

31 minutes ago, Dakota Linden said:

Hi Gallatis!

When you update an existing Product Listing, it can take a few minutes for the system to re-index the listing.  This means the original information will still be visible for a few minutes, but should correct itself within about 5 minutes or so. 

If the incorrect/outdated information is still showing after 15 minutes though, please create a Support Ticket using Marketplace - Marketplace Listing Issues and provide the link to the listing in your ticket and a Customer Support agent will be able to investigate your report and assist as quickly as possible. 

When creating listings with the Quick Fill / Fast Filling Template, information from the chosen product listing is imported into the new listing and then the new listing needs to be updated so that the correct information is showing. 

If you are using a template that does not have all of the Language Options filled in, then the new listing will be missing that information. 

Please check the product listing that you used for the Fast Filling and ensure that each language (English, Japanese, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish) have all of the required fields filled out.  

After ensuring that all of the information is there for the existing listing, please try creating a new listing using that one as the Fast Filling template.  If information on the new listing is still missing, please create a Support Ticket and provide us with the existing listing you used as the Fast Filling template and the new listing that was created that is missing the information and an agent will be able to assist you as quickly as possible. 

Hi Dakota,

 

thank you for your fats reply!

Yes, I have waited 1 hour: no change

My only language is English, so no issue about languages, isn't it? Please could you confirm I am not required to fill each language (just like we used to doing before the bug)

I am going to create a Support ticket: but, where am I supposed to do it, please? On Marketplace? In this forum?

 

Thanks in advance for your help

Best regards

[Dakota Linden]

Greetings!

Support Tickets are filed through the Second Life Support Portal:

https://support.secondlife.com