Viewer 2/3 profiles and the value of classifieds

[Sassy Romano]

Dear Brooke

Please can you let the viewer development team understand that the profiles that are presented have no value.  Like many merchants, I use classifieds in my profile, not because I expect to be found in search, that is a long discussed topic in its own right but classifieds in profiles are there for when people see you out and about and profile perv.

Now that Viewer 2/3 is now a mongrel crossbreed, unsure of whether it's a software application or a browser and giving the worst of both, there are no classified ads viewable in a merchants profile.

On this basis, putting on your "lets pretend i'm a merchant" hat, what would you feel the value of paying for a classified advert that you only pay for on the basis that you expect it to be viewed when someone pervs your profile to be?

I think it's now worth zero and on that basis, i'm going to cancel my adverts and take my $1 and spend it on something else! :)

Ok, so I only now waste $1 but there are lots of merchants, a lot of whom spend far more than I do, the functional alteration of a viewer a component from which LL derives no revenue, has removed a feature that DOES derive revenue for LL.  As a representative for Commerce, you might want to go and flick someones ear and give them a clue?

 

[Ciaran Laval]

Even creating classifieds is a pain in the arse in viewer 2/3, let alone finding them.

[Medhue Simoni]

IMHO, the new profiles have quite a bit of value. Now, when a customer asks me how they can find out when I release new products, I tell them to view my profile. Instead of using those worthlessly limited spam groups, I just post things in my profile and any1 can view them whenever they want. There they will see all my past postings and never have to miss anything. Plus, I can post other things like videos and such while cross posting everything to twitter, which is 1 of the best ways to get eyes on what you are doing.

It would be nice to be able to subscribe to people's profiles tho, and I think adding classifieds are a good idea. Well, I don't quite understand why our classifieds were left out. It is pretty strange, because Picks are now completely useless and serve absolutely no purpose at all, but classifieds were left out.

1 other note, profiles also allow fellow merchants to help promote each other, by cross posting and commenting on each others feeds. If you don't like what some1 else posts to your profile, you can remove it. It might be nice to ban some1 from posting to your feed tho.

[Suella Ember]

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Medhue Simoni wrote:

IMHO, the new profiles have quite a bit of value. Now, when a customer asks me how they can find out when I release new products, I tell them to view my profile. Instead of using those worthlessly limited spam groups, I just post things in my profile and any1 can view them whenever they want. There they will see all my past postings and never have to miss anything. Plus, I can post other things like videos and such while cross posting everything to twitter, which is 1 of the best ways to get eyes on what you are doing.

It would be nice to be able to subscribe to people's profiles tho, and I think adding classifieds are a good idea. Well, I don't quite understand why our classifieds were left out. It is pretty strange, because Picks are now completely useless and serve absolutely no purpose at all, but classifieds were left out.

1 other note, profiles also allow fellow merchants to help promote each other, by cross posting and commenting on each others feeds. If you don't like what some1 else posts to your profile, you can remove it. It might be nice to ban some1 from posting to your feed tho.

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This ^

The new profiles and their feeds have great potenital for advertising new products / promotion etc if used wisely. Although we need to be careful they don't become a spammers playground. Not sure if muting someone stops them from spamming your profile or not, but I hope it does (and if it doesn't we definitely need a way to block people from profiles).

Incidentally Medhue, you can essentially 'subscribe' to someone's profile by following them (Green 'follow' button at the top of their profile) You'll then see everything they enter on their feed in your 'Home' timeline. I think this is a much better way of doing things than the cumbersome nature of groups for informing people of new releases etc. Get them to follow your profile where they can read your latest news from your feed at their leisure. Although it would be nice to have a way to make this neater.

I am going to play devil's advocate a little though and suggest that classifieds should remain out of profiles. Classifieds are paid for advertising that I believe should be the domain of search only. However, that's not to say it wouldn't be nice to have something akin to an area where we can provide specific details on products \ businesses within profiles. Essentially i think 'Picks' needs to be renamed and split into other distinct profile areas - such as 'Favourite locations', 'Personal Information', 'Contact Details', 'Store Details' etc (which are mainly the things people now use picks for).

[Ciaran Laval]

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Suella Ember wrote:

I am going to play devil's advocate a little though and suggest that classifieds should remain out of profiles. Classifieds are paid for advertising that I believe should be the domain of search only.

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I disagree a tad here, being as they are paid for they should get extra value, not less.

[Medhue Simoni]

Yeah, forgot about the follow thing. thanks!

Maybe, what could be something really good, is to be able to create a profile for whatever you want. So besides your normal profile, you can have 2 or more. This, I think, would be a good thing for those that do multiple things inside SL and still link that to 1 avatar, if you want. If not, you connect that thing to your ALT. Would be great for merchants. I mean, we already can have multiple names on 1 avatar, so would you not want to have a profile for each? If some1 plays in different RPGs, and they have a personality for each, they would probably want to have separate profiles, instead of all their conversations and friends mixed together. This would make the profile your 1 stop place for every1 to find out what every1else is doing in an origanized and personalized way. IDK, just thoughts.