why do people still use unpackers?

[Tetragramme]

AFAIK marketplace allows you to deliver folders at a time and in-world delivery terminals can also create folders of their own contents

is there a concrete reason why people would use them other than to remind you of that one time you went to Russia and bought a matryoshka doll??

[Lewis Luminos]

For copyable items, especially clothing, I prefer them that way. I delete clothing for bodies I don't own, but I keep the original unpacked box in case I change to a different body in the future. (The way things are going I'll probably end up switching to Jake sooner or later).

Yes I know I can get a redelivery for most things but I forget where I purchased something and finding a box in my inventory is much easier than finding a redelivery terminal or finding a purchase I made 3 years ago (or even 3 months ago) on the MP..

[Tetragramme]

valid point, i forgot what a nightmare it is to redeliver stuff you got in world

[AdminGirl]

Yeah I don't trust redeliveries. Half the time my purchases dont even show up, at least not all of them. And there's always a chance stores pack up and leave so a good idea to keep back ups of stuff.

[missyrideout]

I  prefer unpackers, which I save and categorize as a matter of course . For decor it lets me easily preserve an original, unmodified copy of an item without resorting to redelivery or creating an even more byzantine system of backup folders of backup folders.. It's much simpler for me to organize when there is an obvious distinction between boxed and unboxed. If a store sends a bare item,  ie folder no nothing, I will pack it up myself. Recently many people were unable to get redelivery of their head because it  was temporarily removed from the grid. I was glad to have the unpacker.  Ditto when someone stopped supporting my body of choice and retroactively removed all support from their product. It happened  to be an item I often needed redelivered for convenience, and so I was once again glad  to have the unpacker.

[missyrideout]

Another con for marketplace redeliveries: the amount of time it takes to search my purchase history on the site. Multiple timeouts later... Good lord. I'm aware the functionality now exists to get a redelivery from an individual product page but that's not always what I need. Searching my own inventory is instantaneous.

[Bree Giffen]

There was a shopping event with gifts and every single gift was inside an unpacker/gift bag. I nearly lost my mind with all the unpacking. I mean one unpacker is fine but when you do over twenty it gets a little crazy. Never mind the fact that you get all the versions for other mesh bodies/mesh faces inside the pack. I’m getting repetitive strain injury, RSI, from all the clicks. 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

22 hours ago, Tetragramme said:

is there a concrete reason why people would use them other than to remind you of that one time you went to Russia and bought a matryoshka doll??

The absolute and concrete reason is this: In-world purchases using remote gift/redelivery servers.

Linden Scripting Language does allow you to receive multiple objects in a folder.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlGiveInventoryList

However, this does only works when the customer is in the same sim as the giver object:

This would be fine for people who buy things for themselves and who are not in a neighboring cam-shopping sim. Yet, people who want to gift to others too. Many of these recipients are not in the same sim or even offline.

I do find unpackers in unpackers (in unpackers, etc.) pretty lame, though. Although I do admit that there's one product that I have in my store that is indeed four unpackers in a folder. My excuse is that each pack contains dozens of items. You would not want the items of these four packs mixed into one folder.

So, there you have it, two practical reasons for unpackers to exist. I think especially for the gift/redeliver option they are essential.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Mollymews]

1 hour ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

Although I do admit that there's one product that I have in my store that is indeed four unpackers in a folder. My excuse is that each pack contains dozens of items. You would not want the items of these four packs mixed into one folder.

just a FYI

using llGiveInventoryList we can unpack a box into multiple folders in the customer's inventory. Basic example:

default
{
    touch_start(integer total_number)
    {
        // give setA into customer's inventory folder "Set A"
        list setA = ["Object A", "Object A 1", "Object A 2"];
        llGiveInventoryList(llGetOwner(), "Set A", setA);

        // give setB into customer's inventory folder "Set B"
        list setB = ["Object B", "Object B 1", "Object B 2", "Object B 3"];
        llGiveInventoryList(llGetOwner(), "Set B", setB); 
    }
}

when there are lots of sets then on touch (or attach) we can present a menu/dialog so our customer can pick a set to unpack

[Emma Krokus]

Thank you Molly!

And you could probably write a script to simplify the process of packing the box too - with items having names to identify which folder list to add to.

So simple and beautiful

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Emma Krokus
speed typing

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

6 hours ago, Mollymews said:

llGiveInventoryList we can unpack a box into multiple folders

For 4 folders, that's 4 x 3.0 = 12.0 seconds of script sleep. That's a little long if the sim's busy and already laggy.

[Mollymews]

11 hours ago, Emma Krokus said:

could probably write a script to simplify the process of packing the box too - with items having names to identify which folder list to add to.

yes. It can work quite well for clothing makers who make for a range of body types. The unpacker hud can have buttons to unpack for: All, Maitreya, Slink, Belleza, etc

and as you say, using the same identifier in the leading part of the name can make this a whole lot simpler to pack and unpack: Like.  "My Store Name - Body Type - Item Name"

where the items for say Maitreya are named:  "My Store Name - Maitreya : Top" "My Store Name - Maitreya : Skirt"

and say Slink are named: "My Store Name - Slink : Top" "My Store Name - Slink : Skirt"

where in this example the ":" char is the delimiter to parse the name for each set to unpack

[Seicher Rae]

1 hour ago, Mollymews said:

yes. It can work quite well for clothing makers who make for a range of body types. The unpacker hud can have buttons to unpack for: All, Maitreya, Slink, Belleza, etc

and as you say, using the same identifier in the leading part of the name can make this a whole lot simpler to pack and unpack: Like.  "My Store Name - Body Type - Item Name"

where the items for say Maitreya are named:  "My Store Name - Maitreya : Top" "My Store Name - Maitreya : Skirt"

and say Slink are named: "My Store Name - Slink : Top" "My Store Name - Slink : Skirt"

where in this example the ":" char is the delimiter to parse the name for each set to unpack

Well, geez, what's the fun in that? Better to look for all the weirdly named things that end up with all the other weirdly named things you forgot you bought in the all encompassing "objects" folder...

[Evah Baxton]

1 hour ago, Seicher Rae said:

Well, geez, what's the fun in that? Better to look for all the weirdly named things that end up with all the other weirdly named things you forgot you bought in the all encompassing "objects" folder...

Mmm... forgotten items. Love finding them later.