Inventory Management

[Prokofy Neva]

So there's this Linden blog about organizing inventory. I dismissed it at first because the Linden only has 5,000 items in her inventory -- I currently have 152,000 after 16 years.

I find it hard to learn from videos versus text, but I watched the video recommended and also read through a very well-written blog recommended in the article.

But here are the problems with following this advice.

1. It's written for Firestorm which has some features not on the SL blog -- sorry, I won't be using Firestorm and I'm not alone in that decision, and I need the SL standard viewer to work.

2. It proposes making more "flat" folders on the top view, at the same level as system folders, and distinguishing them by asterisks. But it is my understanding, based on various back and forth conversations with LL support that this is NOT the way to organize inventory and in fact leads to more inventory loss.

I reached the point where I literally could not log on my avatar; there were so many folders to load that on any sim that wasn't empty, it just couldn't manage and would jam. I finally had to have the Lindens perform serious surgery which was the equivalent of surgery for the obese in RL -- an extreme measure. They ran some kind of scripts that forced the objects into folders -- to be sure, by alphabet and date which isn't terribly helpful -- and removed a few corrupt files (that can be a reason for inventory not loading or for not being able to log on in my experience, but at this point it was the sheer number of uncatalogued items.

I actually spent a lot of time organizing things into folders, but I had made them at the top level -- and that's exactly what I was told not to do.

I was advised to put them UNDER Objects, Notecards, etc. as sub-files, and make sub-folders to those folders -- which I do now.

3. A big problem nowadays is that may givers and many merchants' products force a folder creation in your inventory which adds to the problem. The automatic unpackers are the worst -- it delivers before you can reach in and pull the contents into a folder to file them better. Gatcha automatic unpackers are the WORST as you might instinctively bat them away but since there is only one copy, it is lost permanently then, and not in trash. I get used to automatic unpacking and bat it away precisely because I want to pull the item out of the contents into an organized folder.

This automatic unpacking stuff complete with hover texts saying "all my contents are in your inventory" (when actually often they are not, the original is still in there, available to be filed properly) is adding to inventory clutter. It was done in the belief that pulling items from box contents is a skill too hard for newbies to learn, they end up with boxes on their heads, and this has to be done to coddle them along. I think the skill should rather be taught to avoid inventory clutter, but the Lindens haven't (yet) complained of inventory overload among its users.

I wish they would create an online storage facility -- I would even pay for it -- that would be like Manhattan Warehouse where you would have a "locker" (a page) in your account where you could see your items online -- but they wouldn't be larding your inworld inventory. This is feasable, because obviously objects are only bytes and pixels and are filed on the Marketplace in this way -- they exist there and aren't in your inventory until you buy them, and are copies of what is in the maker's inventory -- but I guess this sort of product isn't compelling. It may be argued that like all miracles expected on the "cloud", inventory lag will go away. (Yes, I got the little halo that tells you when a sim has been "uplifted" and I've been surprised to see some Mainland sims uploaded already that aren't Blake Sea and sailing -- although one was a pond).

The main problem I have with inventory is that a search no longer works a lot of the time. That is, the item will be found, but I can't click on it because the cursor then slips. I have to repeat the effort many times, trying to stick on a folder. As I see it go by and see a folder name, I try to search for the folder then, not the item. Then I have to scroll. There are 10,809 folders. To give you an idea.

I try to unbox everything after every visit to an event or a store or a gatcha play; I try to spend some time sorting every merchant's items; it's endless. But it pays to be ruthless especially with free gifts -- there is no reason to keep them just because they are free. I have gotten this way even with items paid for.

Yes, I try putting some things in boxes inworld like a squirrel, but I worry that they may be more vulnerable to loss that way. I lost 15,000 items in one inventory loss, many single copy gatchas. I've had other big inventory losses. This seems something that can't be prevented. No, clearing cache does not bring them back.

So basically, I don't see how making a bunch of folders at the top level view flat with the system folders, even with asterisks, are any help. I already HAVE thousands of folders like that which were created that way by merchants, hunt organizers, friends, etc. sending me things and those are the worst form of clutter now.

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

I have added additional folders to the main Inventory top level and have never had any inventory issues -- my inventory is just under 150,000.  I prefix my folders with "! " because that sorts all of them above the LL system folders.

My understanding is that the biggest inventory problem is when people have "flat" inventories -- as in 'too many items within any one folder".  I think someone once said to have no more than 10,000 items within any single folder (or maybe it was 5000 max).  If you get more than that, then sub-divide again into sub-folders.  

 

@Whirly Fizzle - What is the number of items we need to keep any single folder at?

Edited November 2, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell

[Maitimo]

I have only three top-level folders of my own creation. These are ~Backups, ~Demos and ~Unsorted. The tilde character keeps them at the bottom of my inventory.

Backups is for all those boxes as they are delivered from the store. I keep them so I can go ahead and delete all the fitmesh clothes for bodies I don't own, and because trying to get a redelivery, either from the MP or from Caspervend, is a proper pain in the nether region. So they are a kind of insurance. This folder has subfolders that roughly correspond with the main system folders; Body parts, Clothing, etc.

Demos is for demos that I am yet undecided on. I keep them there until I either buy the product or decide that I don't want it. Items rarely stay in there more than a week, and it's usually empty.

Unsorted is also usually empty, and is primarily to throw in all the gifts I get from events like SLB. I hate having stuff in there and move items to their proper place as soon as possible, but sometimes I can't do it all in one day, so they stay there for a while. Again, rarely more than a week.

Everything else is subfolders, subfolders, subfolders, all within the main system folders. When I open a box, either manually or with an auto-unpacker, I immediately move this new folder to an appropriate subfolder and delete any leading special characters so they are all displayed alphabetically. 

The outfits folder bugs me a little because it can't easily be subdivided, so I date all my outfits and delete them when they exceed a year old, so I rarely have more than 150 to 200 outfits at any one time.

My first rule of shopping is "Try a demo". My second rule is "Don't log off before it's all put away in its proper place."

If only my RL "inventory" was so tidy... 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

My notecards go into a folder 'etc', textures go into 'home/pictures', all the attached items go into 'mnt', my Firestorm bridge sits in 'sbin', the HUDs I keep 'usr/x11r6', scripts in 'dev', and for all the old stuff I'm pretty sure I won't use anymore, like old system's body clothes and texture clothes, already sit inside 'dev/null'.

[Maitimo]

Spotted the Linux nerd...

[AdminGirl]

I've had inventory loss and it was all in a folder I created at the top level. Support ran a script to try and recover it for me but couldn't. I don't remember if it was too flat a structure or not, but since then I have stuck to moving things straight into system folders.

I used to unpack everything. Now I keep things boxed and only unpack when I want to use it, unless it's something I use frequently.

I wish all sellers would include the ad texture with their items. It's too hard to remember what things are and what they look like.

[Marianne Little]

I don't manage often, but now and then I take a heroic effort to delete all notecards, unpacker scripts and textures that is not the item I bought. Some stores put their logo in the pack on a separate texture, so useless. Some promote other releases and pack the textures in there too. And I delete landmarks, because they get old. I think I must have had 50 LM's to Apple Fall, and half of them was outdated.

And I try to wear as many clothes and I can and delete the oldest.

I try to make folders. Last time I tried organizing, I came as far as testing all my boots, delete the obsolete ones and make a folder under "Clothes".

And then I get tired of it. I can have deleted 1000, 2000 and one time, even 10 000. But I was not done, and I go back to my sloppy way of not cleaning up when I log out. So it builds up again.

[Marianne Little]

Can you explain what a "flat" folder is? Some English terminology is not clear to me.

What does this mean: "I have added additional folders to the main Inventory top level" @LittleMe Jewell? I have never made any new folders over the "Trash" folder, no matter what prefix I use. I have the impression that the top level is not possible to change. Do you mean new folders inside the main system folders? I can do that, if I open a system folder.

[GypsiesSoul]

7 hours ago, AdminGirl said:

I've had inventory loss and it was all in a folder I created at the top level. Support ran a script to try and recover it for me but couldn't. I don't remember if it was too flat a structure or not, but since then I have stuck to moving things straight into system folders.

I used to unpack everything. Now I keep things boxed and only unpack when I want to use it, unless it's something I use frequently.

I wish all sellers would include the ad texture with their items. It's too hard to remember what things are and what they look like.

Sometimes im too busy to unpack an item
is it safe to leave it in the unpacked-form for a very very long time?

or do i really need to unpack it as soon as possible because it "expires" one day?

[Rowan Amore]

1 minute ago, GypsiesSoul said:

Sometimes im too busy to unpack an item
is it safe to leave it in the unpacked-form for a very very long time?

or do i really need to unpack it as soon as possible because it "expires" one day?

No, they don't expire but you might forget it's there.

[AdminGirl]

On 11/4/2020 at 9:54 AM, GypsiesSoul said:

Sometimes im too busy to unpack an item
is it safe to leave it in the unpacked-form for a very very long time?

or do i really need to unpack it as soon as possible because it "expires" one day?

There's no expiry as Rowan has pointed out.

I move my boxes to subfolders the same way I do to unpacked items. But if you intend to unpack them before categorizing, I suggest keeping them in a folder inside one of the system folders, eg. Create a sort folder inside Objects system folder.

[LittleMe Jewell]

7 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Can you explain what a "flat" folder is? Some English terminology is not clear to me.

What does this mean: "I have added additional folders to the main Inventory top level" @LittleMe Jewell? I have never made any new folders over the "Trash" folder, no matter what prefix I use. I have the impression that the top level is not possible to change. Do you mean new folders inside the main system folders? I can do that, if I open a system folder.

Here is the top of my Inventory -- folder names are prefixed with "!" and some number of spaces to force the sort order that I want.  It can be done without the '!' (see the NEW FOLDER entry), but that symbol helps me with the visual layout, especially when I'm trying to rename them for sorting/positioning.

 

Also, I'm not totally sure what Prok was meaning by the term 'flat folders', but LL uses the term "Flat Inventory" to mean not enough sub-folders so that you end up with too many items in a single folder.  You want sub-folders within sub-folders within sub-folders.  No more than 5000 items at a single level within a folder. 

For the below example, within Folder-1, count the total sub-folders and items directly under it, but not the items within the sub-folders.  That count should be no more than 5000.  Ditto for every other folder in your inventory --- a count of sub-folders within Subfolder-1a combined with the number of items directly in that folder, should not be more than 5000.

Folder-1
 Subfolder-1a
  Subsubfolder-1a1
   subsubdfolder-1a1-item
  Subsubfolder-1a2
   subfolder-1a-item-1
   subfolder-1a-item-2
 Subfolder-1b
  subfolder-1b-item-1
 Subfolder-1c
 folder-1-item-1
 folder-1-item-2
Folder-2 
 Subfolder-2a
  Subsubfolder-2a1
  Subsubfolder-2a2
 Subfolder-2b
 folder-2-item-1

 

ETA:  Similar to Maitimo, I also have a couple of personal folders prefixed with '~~~" to sort them to the bottom -- primary an "~~~Original Boxes & Backup HUDs" folder.

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell