Direct Delivery questions

[Josh Susanto]

"(a) "DD shouldn't be happening!"

        >> Too late; it is."

 

It should be happening.

It should have been happening a year ago. 

What should not be happening is unannounced deployment of pieces of code from an incomplete system, which provide negative utility over whatever it is they are intended to replace pending the deployment of the rest of the system... assuming that is forthcoming at all. Or, at the very least, not without some kind of advanced notice, such as Brooke had clearly (and incorrectly) told us to expect.

"(b) "LL are going to stuff it up, like everything else!"

           >>  Always possible, but all we can to to prevent that is test it, communicate our concerns rationally, help each other understand it, and not create unnecessary drama that leaves the average merchant confused and apprehensive of it."

I don't actually much care if they 100% stuff-up the deployment, as long as they announce " at (advanced date and time) is a deployment which we may very well stuff-up; be ready for possible massive failures and, potentially, total roll-back". And as long as they DO roll back instead of telling the new problems both "have been fixed" and "are being tested".

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm not as fussy as I may seem. I understand there's a limit to how effectively technical failures can be avoided. The core essence of my gripes has never been that there is not a spotless record of success with technical efforts. My gripe is that LL demonstrates apparently no service methodolgy for managing technical risks

( ... to a point that at times seems almost certainly deliberate).

 

[Toysoldier Thor]

So I guess Brooke and the LL Commerce Team have successfully accomplished their goal with regard to their DD COMMUNICATIONS Strategy. 

What is her team's strategy:

"Maintain a Bare Minimum Communication Strategy on DD with the general Merchant community"

 

• Post a small blog that points to a couple other links with old general DD information and make promises to answer any Merchant's questions / concerns on DD in the Merchant Forum.
• Provide a FAQ that is confusing enough that it doesnt paint them in any corner regarding potential lame ideas to their solution which could cause merchant concerns, questions, debates, criticisms.
• In the Merchant Forums, let the Merchant start asking the countless questions that they have not got answered from the Commerce Team in the past several months when the team stayed in pure Black Ops with Gagged Beta Testers.
• Have some private talks with some of the Closed Beta Testers and proven "friends of LL" asking them to answer any of the questions that are being brought up.  This is to avoid LL directly having to answer questions themselves.
• Make one post that answers the easy questions and avoid answer questions that likely have answers that Merchant wont like hearing the answer to.   THEN... tell the forum you will not be answering anymore questions for another week.
• Lets the anger and frustration of the Merchant community escalate and fight itself out until the community comes to the realization that the LL Commerce Team refuses to take responsibilities on communicating with their customers and the thread participants give up on the thread knowing its futile to get straight direct answers from LL.

RESULTS:

This thread has died off and Merchants have actually done exactly what Brooke's plan intended.  They have given up on LL's team to be responsible and are now just waiting for the LL's Developed DD disaster to hit us when it does.

 

PS - before ANY of you think I am overly critical that DD will go into production with major disruptions - just look at yesterday's change by the LL Commerce / Development Team and their unrequested change of the Transaction History to use an avatar's DISPLAY NAME instead of the users permanent accurate name.

If they can screw something as silly as this up - extrapolate how bad they can screw up DD.

 

[Marcus Hancroft]

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

So I guess Brooke and the LL Commerce Team have successfully accomplished their goal with regard to their DD COMMUNICATIONS Strategy. 

What is her team's strategy:

"Maintain a Bare Minimum Communication Strategy on DD with the general Merchant community"

 

• Post a small blog that points to a couple other links with old general DD information and make promises to answer any Merchant's questions / concerns on DD in the Merchant Forum.
• Provide a FAQ that is confusing enough that it doesn't paint them in any corner regarding potential lame ideas to their solution which could cause merchant concerns, questions, debates, criticisms.
• In the Merchant Forums, let the Merchant start asking the countless questions that they have not got answered from the Commerce Team in the past several months when the team stayed in pure Black Ops with Gagged Beta Testers.
• Have some private talks with some of the Closed Beta Testers and proven "friends of LL" asking them to answer any of the questions that are being brought up.  This is to avoid LL directly having to answer questions themselves.
• Make one post that answers the easy questions and avoid answer questions that likely have answers that Merchant wont like hearing the answer to.   THEN... tell the forum you will not be answering anymore questions for another week.
• Lets the anger and frustration of the Merchant community escalate and fight itself out until the community comes to the realization that the LL Commerce Team refuses to take responsibilities on communicating with their customers and the thread participants give up on the thread knowing its futile to get straight direct answers from LL.

RESULTS:

This thread has died off and Merchants have actually done exactly what Brooke's plan intended.  They have given up on LL's team to be responsible and are now just waiting for the LL's Developed DD disaster to hit us when it does.

 

PS - before ANY of you think I am overly critical that DD will go into production with major disruptions - just look at yesterday's change by the LL Commerce / Development Team and their unrequested change of the Transaction History to use an avatar's DISPLAY NAME instead of the users permanent accurate name.

If they can screw something as silly as this up - extrapolate how bad they can screw up DD.

 

---

Howdy, Toy Dude! 

I have no doubts that when Direct Delivery gets rolled out it is going to be a phenomenal disaster.  I have kept a close eye on this thread in the hopes that somebody, ANYBODY from Linden Lab would respond and give us all some answers.  Of course that hasn't (and won't) happen.  I stopped posting here because every time I did, it seemed like the holier than thou scripting crowd jumped on my posts with all four feet. 

I still haven't decided what I'm going to do.  I can go to the beta grid and play around with Direct Delivery and try to learn as much for myself as I can, but, I don't think it will do much good.  When everything is deployed to the main grid, who is to say it will all be exactly the same as it was in the beta grid?  Furthermore, I have no faith in the Commerce Teams abilities to put out code that isn't absolutely riddled with glitches and problems! 

So in the end, I'm just waiting.  Waiting for the problems to begin and the failed deliveries to start piling up.  I even expect to log in one day and my store be completely gone! 

[CommerceTeam Linden]

The Direct Delivery FAQ has been updated with answers to some of the additional questions posted in this thread. Many are difficult to explain without an actual example of the system, including screen shots. We are working on preparing knowledge base articles for the open Direct Delivery Beta Testing in December. This, along with the actual Beta, should clear up most questions.

For reference, here are the additional questions added to the FAQ (over and above the ones from last week).

Q: Will buyers be notified of the delivery method?

A: Instructions will be provided after purchase to help customers locate and use their products, based upon the delivery method. Merchants may choose to tell consumers which delivery method will be used by adding that information to the item listing.

Q: Will folders in the Merchant Outbox need to be sent to the Marketplace or will Marketplace automatically detect new folders in the Outbox and grab them?

A: In the Second Life Viewer, the Merchant must click a button to move folders from the Merchant Outbox to the Merchant’s Marketplace inventory. Third-party viewers have access to the API call required to do this, so will those viewers be able to provide the same functionality as the Second Life Viewer.

Q: What exactly is the Marketplace inventory?  Are items in this inventory easy for others to access?

A: The Marketplace inventory is composed of all the folders and objects intended for sale through a merchant’s Marketplace account. The only ways that these inventory items may be accessed are:

• A customer may access item after a purchase has been completed and the item has been delivered to the customer’s inventory.
• Merchants may access inventory items through the Merchant Admin to view those items, return them to their inworld inventory, or try a test purchase.

[Marcus Hancroft]

---

CommerceTeam Linden wrote:

The

Direct Delivery FAQ

has been updated with answers to some of the additional questions posted in this thread. Many are difficult to explain without an actual example of the system, including screen shots. We are working on preparing knowledge base articles for the open Direct Delivery Beta Testing in December. This, along with the actual Beta, should clear up most questions.

For reference, here are the additional questions added to the FAQ (over and above the ones from last week).

Q: Will buyers be notified of the delivery method?

 

A: Instructions will be provided after purchase to help customers locate and use their products, based upon the delivery method. Merchants may choose to tell consumers which delivery method will be used by adding that information to the item listing.

 

Q: Will folders in the Merchant Outbox need to be sent to the Marketplace or will Marketplace automatically detect new folders in the Outbox and grab them?

 

A: In the Second Life Viewer, the Merchant must click a button to move folders from the Merchant Outbox to the Merchant’s Marketplace inventory. Third-party viewers have access to the API call required to do this, so will those viewers be able to provide the same functionality as the Second Life Viewer.

 

Q: What exactly is the Marketplace inventory?  Are items in this inventory easy for others to access?

 

A: The Marketplace inventory is composed of all the folders and objects intended for sale through a merchant’s Marketplace account. The only ways that these inventory items may be accessed are:

• A customer may access item after a purchase has been completed and the item has been delivered to the customer’s inventory.
• Merchants may access inventory items through the Merchant Admin to view those items, return them to their inworld inventory, or try a test purchase.

---

OK but...what's the migration process from Magic Boxes to Direct Delivery?  Last we heard from you that process hadn't been completed yet.  How do we edit listings once the inventory has been grabbed from our folders?  I use Phoenix so what you're saying here is that the Phoenix/Firestorm team will have to do a code change to make the "Upload Button" work?  Still lotsa questions, CommerceTeam!

[Paladin Pinion]

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CommerceTeam Linden wrote:

• Merchants may access inventory items through the Merchant Admin to view those items, return them to their inworld inventory, or try a test purchase.

---

I like that. When merchants are able to return store items to their personal inventory, then those who currently use magic boxes as as their master copies will have the same functionality. The store becomes their backup copy.

[Toysoldier Thor]

OK so this will likely take another week for LL to answer this question but regarding....

The Marketplace inventory is composed of all the folders and objects intended for sale through a merchant’s Marketplace account. The only ways that these inventory items may be accessed are:

• A customer may access item after a purchase has been completed and the item has been delivered to the customer’s inventory.
• Merchants may access inventory items through the Merchant Admin to view those items, return them to their inworld inventory, or try a test purchase.

You better explain this statement.

My customers that have already purchased my product on MP and completed their transaction "may have access" to my MP content??

Please dont tell me that LL thought it was a good idea that a customer that bought an MP product has the right to access my MP inventory related to this bought product for some logic of a "self-directed redelivery" or that they can convenient get the content in the future for what ever reason....

Under normal situations where we are dealing with a mature Systems Development company that knows how to do proper requirements analysis, I would believe that I must be misunderstanding what was said here.  BUT this is LL.  So LL - please explain this statement - and hopefully not in 7 days.

[Toysoldier Thor]

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Marcus Hancroft wrote:

---

...

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OK but...what's the migration process from Magic Boxes to Direct Delivery?  Last we heard from you that process hadn't been completed yet.  How do we edit listings once the inventory has been grabbed from our folders?  I use Phoenix so what you're saying here is that the Phoenix/Firestorm team will have to do a code change to make the "Upload Button" work?  Still lotsa questions, CommerceTeam!

---

Thats exactly my concerns too as this is 3 times LL has stated that there is extra functionality that only seems to work with the LL Viewer (which like you - I do not use - I am a Phoenix and Firestorm Beta user).

So is LL saying that until the 3PV's develop functionality around this recently deployed API to them that LL is holding Merchant's hostage and forcing us to use LL Viewer or not be able to use MP with DD?

Also, I want to get a clear answer on....  If I have 50 boxed items... can I drop the 50 boxed items directly on the OUTBOX (WITHOUT ANY USE OF FOLDERS)?  As Paladen stated a few times... we can consider the Outbox to be the magicbox.  Well the Magicbox doesnt use flolders NOR DO I WANT TO USE FOLDERS.

[Sassy Romano]

let me interpret.... they buy your item, it gets delivered, its in their inventory and that's where they access the item.

[Toysoldier Thor]

sure hope you are right.

[Sassy Romano]

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

sure hope you are right.

---

You know it, my little Toyboy love machine *winks*

[Toysoldier Thor]

you sure know how to diffuse a situation dont ya.... lol  Stroke the Toy's ego

[Paladin Pinion]

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

Also, I want to get a clear answer on....  If I have 50 boxed items... can I drop the 50 boxed items directly on the OUTBOX (WITHOUT ANY USE OF FOLDERS)?  As Paladen stated a few times... we can consider the Outbox to be the magicbox.  Well the Magicbox doesnt use flolders NOR DO I WANT TO USE FOLDERS.

---

They already answered that. You can drop your existing boxes directly into the outbox folder.

 

[Josh Susanto]

>This thread has died off and Merchants have actually done exactly what Brooke's plan intended. 

The thread didn't  die off.

We just got tired of wasting effort on posts that were going to be immediately deleted, such as the quote from Rod, which, as I am even mentioning it, will probably also result in the deletion of this message.

[Darrius Gothly]

@Toy and Sassy ...

SHEESH!! You two ... rez a room or something, k?

:matte-motes-evil:

[Rya Nitely]

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Sassy Romano wrote:

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

sure hope you are right.

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You know it, my little Toyboy love machine *winks*

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:matte-motes-sick: vomits

[Toysoldier Thor]

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Rya Nitely wrote:

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Sassy Romano wrote:

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

sure hope you are right.

---

You know it, my little Toyboy love machine *winks*

---

:matte-motes-sick: vomits

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Sassy... I am getting a strong indication our love triangle (or square) is one that is to be shunned, rejected and denied by the community.

[Sassy Romano]

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

Sassy... I am getting a strong indication our love triangle (or square) is one that is to be shunned, rejected and denied by the community.

---

Jealousy is all

[JoJo Aurelia]

In reading the release notes it says, " purchase and list items using Direct Delivery on Aditi" What are we purchasing? What am I not understanding. We have to pay for listing?

[Sassy Romano]

You create a listing on aditi and buy things on the test marketplace on aditi using play money

[Marc Adored]

You are one negative person. Because I as a not so negative person saw that as we would be purchasing our own items only on the beta grid so we can test the delivery system. Not oh screw the man they are trying to make money from us.

[TheMaxx Dragonash]

Hi, i have followed all the procedure to migrate my items from merchant outbox to marketplace.

So when i drag and drop in merchant outbox under "me" i can see my items in correct way but after when i click on "send to marketplace" the items remain there. I'm using agni grid. I don't know if this is only my problem or now is again early for this.

Can you help me please?

tyvm

TheMaxx Dragonash