CasperTech Acquisition Discussion

[Patch Linden]

Hi everyone!  

As linked from the blog post, please feel free to discuss and ask questions that you may have within this thread.

Thank you!

[faith Jolifaunt]

Is LL going to start taking a percentage of our in-world sales now?? I don't know if I'm down with this.

[Solar Legion]

Well that was only a matter of time.

We shall see if this is good news or not, though I expect there will be a fair few who will poo poo this and "protest" ... Pardon me while I roll my eyes preemptively at such.

[Patch Linden]

8 minutes ago, faith Jolifaunt said:

Is LL going to start taking a percentage of our in-world sales now?? I don't know if I'm down with this.

Not at the present, there are no plans to do anything like this for the foreseeable future.  

[Alessandra Dallas]

will this continue support for those who are using EasyVend?

[Modulated]

Totally support. Only downside, I am not the Caspertech person about to get a boatload of money.

[Patch Linden]

1 minute ago, Alessandra Dallas said:

will this continue support for those who are using EasyVend?

Yes, for now.  There are no plans to make changes to the way any of the products operate today.

[Arietu Kiyori]

Will be there new features such other vendor systems?

[animats]

Sad. As Bill Gates once said, it's only an ecosystem when your users are making more than you are.

[Teager]

Will the new vendor system continue to support webhook integration with external web services?

[Tapple Gao]

Just now, Lindal Kidd said:

There really needs to be more separation between what LL does, and profits from, and what residents do, and profit from.

LL has already made three giant steps into the creators' bailiwick: Linden Homes (competes with and takes business away from resident landlords); the Marketplace (takes away the service formerly provided by XStreet); and closing out all third party L$ exchanges. Now here comes LL again, buying up another hugely successful resident-built business.

LL's greed is going to be the death of Second Life.

 

4. Lindex was also started by residents as the GOM

[Patch Linden]

4 minutes ago, Arietu Kiyori said:

Will be there new features such other vendor systems?

Yes!  We talk about this a bit more in the LabGab video that will be premiering soon!

[Patch Linden]

2 minutes ago, Teager said:

Will the new vendor system continue to support webhook integration with external web services?

Yes!

[Charlotte Bartlett]

Interesting news.

The good news is if they misstep and try to overwrite the license those of us whom paid upfront and try to implement transaction fees in the future, we can easily migrate to a third party vendor system and there are wider options now including self hosting for those who want their own servers/hosting.  The bigger brands do this already.

Opportunity to integrate into architecture and remove elements like dropbox.   But what they MUST not do is try to make this like clunky Marketplace.  Caspervends interface is actually pretty decent.  Some gaps like product templates etc but generally not too painful to use.     Losing that functionality must not happen.

Finally, the revenue side, I could never understand how CasperVend kept profitable with their hosting needs with a one time up front payment for the core product.  So I have to extend that concern to how LL is actually going to profit off this and that tells me despite the "for now" statement (no offence Patch), there will be monetisation efforts underway and at some point these will occur and cost us.  Otherwise this acquisition makes little sense for LL.

 

 

[Tapple Gao]

Looking forward to easier listing across marketplace and caspervend

[Grumpity Linden]

10 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

There really needs to be more separation between what LL does, and profits from, and what residents do, and profit from.

LL has already made three giant steps into the creators' bailiwick: Linden Homes (competes with and takes business away from resident landlords); the Marketplace (takes away the service formerly provided by XStreet); and closing out all third party L$ exchanges. Now here comes LL again, buying up another hugely successful resident-built business.

LL's greed is going to be the death of Second Life.

 

Our main goal here is to ensure that the most popular vendor system in SL continues smooth and stable operations, and that we're able to better integrate with it with new product offerings once it's brought in-house. 

[Love Zhaoying]

I predict this will be a GOOD THING, like when LL bought the old company that required people to use "black boxes" for pre-Marketplace sales.

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Grumpity Linden said:

Our main goal here is to ensure that the most popular vendor system in SL continues smooth and stable operations, and that we're able to better integrate with it with new product offerings once it's brought in-house. 

Thank you!

[Jadziyah Nova]

6 minutes ago, Tapple Gao said:

Looking forward to easier listing across marketplace and caspervend

Easier - might I dare suggest seamless - integration of the two would be a very positive outcome of this acquisition 

[Casper Warden]

Just now, Jadziyah Nova said:

Easier - might I dare suggest seamless - integration of the two would be a very positive outcome of this acquisition 

Totally!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

OMG . . . SOCIALISM!!!!

Well, yeah, no. Not really.

CasparVend is part of the vital infrastructure of Second Life and its economy; its disappearance from SL would have enormous consequences. It makes some sense to me that LL would do this in that context, particularly if there is a view to integrating it to other elements of infrastructure, such as the MP.

I suppose, arguably, this represents a slight departure from SL's largely laissez-fairre free market ethos, but not a really important one. The expansion of Linden Homes was far more important and dramatic in that regard.

[Ceka Cianci]

I'm sure they made an offer for it and someone took the offer..It doesn't sound like they got squeezed out like with the Xstreet thing. This sounds more like a deal where both walked away smiling.. If both walk away smiling, then it's a good deal.

I don't think LL makes a profit off the redeliver from the market place.. This actually could be a good thing, where market place and in world purchases can be in one place for redeliver. Well, other than those not using Caspervend.

Caspervend could one day just not be there, then what? With the world economy heading where it's heading, that could be a real possibility..

Stores can still do their own redeliver, which some do and that's nice.. But if it ends up being where they don't have to, that could be nice as well. Or if they want to keep doing it they can.

Unless they come up with something one day saying, nobody else can do this, then I'm not seeing how it's going to hurt anything..

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

@Patch Linden, does closer integration mean that we can expect additional gift and redeliver buttons in the existing SL vending system so we don't have to rely on all those laggy scripts and tedious setups anymore?

(With all respect to Casper, but I have 500+ vendor machines in my store so I was never too keen on putting a script in each, or have customers browse through a multi vendor thing.)

Edited September 14, 2022 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Patch Linden]

1 minute ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

@Patch Linden, does closer integration mean that we can expect additional gift and redeliver buttons in the existing SL vending system so we don't have to rely on all those laggy scripts and tedious setups anymore?

I really hope so!  It is these sorts of integrations and advances that I had the realizations of when I thought of the many great things that could come from moving forward with Casper.

[Brian Lake]

I see this acquisition as more of a means to keep CasperTech products alive in Second Life. Many of SL's population heavily relies on these products. If CasperTech were to ever end up like Hippo, much of the SL population would be completely in the dark. Personally, I think this is the best (& smartest) acquisition that Linden Labs has ever made in Second Life.