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Charlotte Bartlett

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Posts posted by Charlotte Bartlett

  1. 2 hours ago, Jubilynn Lane said:

    Well, 
    It looks like Linden Labs finally made good on the 2009 traffic policy.   If you look at the traffic numbers in search today, its seems like they finally stopped counting idle dwell time from traffic "bots" or afk accounts that are clearly logged in just to count on the traffic numbers. 

    Bunch of discussion today in world in various groups, but overall I think this is a good move Despite what 'you' might do , the traffic number is clearly a useful thing for a new user to find sims with active traffic, and this was also, clearly being 'gamed'  by using afk accounts.  Lets see if they stick to this or if its just a fluke. 

     

     

    I know looking at my vendor metrics - I had over 1400 unique visitors to my region in the last 24 hours and my land number says 528 (Saturday Sale is busy this week).   I am wondering if they have changed it (on purpose or by error) to just count unique numbers and not inclusive of taking into account of "how long" somebody is on the region - which would make sense to me.   I just also searched on another merchant who I know gets high unique visitor traffic and their number is 207.

    I don't advertise inworld or worry about search so it doesn't affect me either way - but interesting to see whether this was planned/or something went wonky from yesterday.

  2. 5 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

    So my land count from yesterday says 158.   It HAS been saying around 3000 or so all month (Advent Calendars :D)  so there appears to be an issue. No bots.  

     

     

    No bots here either.   Also did you notice the acquired date - is that new/or have I missed it for years and years.  Apparently I acquired my land back in 2004!

  3. Hi has anybody noticed anything weird on their Traffic numbers (under land).

    My region (one parcel)  normally sits around 4-5K but for the last 24 hours has been "582" - which is weird as the Sim is busy (Saturday Sale started yesterday too).

    I also (and perhaps never noticed this before) note in land it says the land was claimed in 2004...  

    • Like 1
  4. On 12/15/2014 at 9:47 PM, rabbierabbit said:

    Hi,

    got an account that has been flagged for the US tax declaration stuff. I can't comply with the photo id requests, not in the US so no SSN, (LL can't validate a UK NI number anyway). Not using the account to transfer l$ to real money so hoping that might be a route. Support are, lets be kind and say, repetitive in following their script to ask for photo id.

    .. any suggestions on how to stop the account being put on hold?

    thanks.


    Edit to add - I am sorry I totally missed the date on the post - please just ignore me.  I'll keep my post below just in case anybody else ever has UK ID issues!

    Do you use "that" (or any) account for commerce in anyway?  Cashed out ever?

    Regardless of your ID challenge, you do need to fill in the W8-BEN or they will have to freeze your accounts so I would make it a priority.  It's simply to ensure they are withholding (or not withholding) tax properly.  You will give your NI number for your Foreign Tax ID.  The UK and USA have a tax treaty. In addition, if you did have a US address (now or in the past) or are an American Citizen (sounds like you are a Brit and are domiciled in the UK so unlikely to apply to you) under FATCA, tax information is shared to the US from the UK to combat tax underreporting or fraud.  However the W8-BEN is still required and you need to get is sent back asap.

    On the ID front, from memory one option you may want to open a support ticket and ask if you can submit non photo ID by using a combination of birth certificate, plus bank card, plus bank statement plus utility bill, HMRC Tax notification) a package of official information.   Technically the law doesn't state it has to be photo ID.  It simply has to be sufficient to ID you... so they may be able to accept the other forms when used in combo. It's worth a try whilst you sort out some Photo ID in the meantime.  The objective for is for them to confirm your legal name. date of birth and address so if you can supply other official documents to achieve that it's sufficient for Know Your Customer CIP programs for Money Service Businesses.   
     

    • Confused 1
  5. Marketplace right now has some significant bugs that make it potentially an issue for merchants.  I have been holding back on mass listing updates as a result (and also am turning off redelivery due to a major issue there).

    LL did in fairness tell us no major work on Marketplace until the uplift project was complete.  But we do need to move towards a more scalable, suitable and efficient Marketplace model within 2021.  Let's hope it's on the roadmap - fingers crossed!

     

  6. 5 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

    Ok, just popped in here to rant for a moment.

    BoM is great. I really like it, mostly, albeit with some reservations regarding the inability to change transparency.

    BUT

    Some kind of standardized approach to designating system layers is in order. I'm currently wearing a pair of BoM socks (sock layer) and panties (undies layer), with BoM leggings. The problem is, that the leggings are set to the tattoo layer, which means that they sit UNDER the socks and panties. And, while you can shuffle layers around within layer categories, you can't change a category itself. So, my socks (and theoretically panties, but I've just removed those) have to go OVER my leggings.

    It seems to me that, at this point, getting rid of the layer categories entirely would be a good thing, and having all system layers as, in effect, tattoo layers. As we can shuffle order around within single categories, it's silly and unnecessary to designate things as tattoo / underwear / clothing.

     

    Sorry, you may now carry on.

    What you are saying is your panties are making a Superman style outfit?

    • Haha 3
  7. I really like BOM and I think back to the OP - the way I think about this is to not hold back new features due to old features being sub standard.   What I mean by this is, BOM does make inventory management a PITA.   However, the solution is not to keep Appliers (for me) the solution is to keep pushing LL to bring inventory management and visualization into this century.   Once the Cloud is done the two things I would love to see LL focus on (outside of sorting out the poor new user experience) is a Marketplace 2.0 to ratchet up the capabilities and functionality for merchants and visual inventory/tools. 

    • Like 3
  8. I have the same issue and can replicate on both Firestorm + SL Official Viewer.  
    Seems like the Beta Grid may be unstable atm (always happens to me at end of month when I have an event release due for the 1st!).

    Which sim was you on?  I was on Mesh Sandbox 2.
    I then re-tried on the Pristina Sandbox, and then the Cloud Sandbox all the same - Mesh Uploading is down.
    Did with the usual cube test item to upload same results...

    Hopefully it will be back working soon....

    • Thanks 1
  9. 43 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

    I'm curious now...have you asked them in the form of a formal suggestion to Linden Lab if they could do this?  It would be great, of course!  

     

    It was a blanket statement, not meant for comments.  However, you have to know consumer confidence is going to go down because of the U.S. situation.  Consumer confidence could go down for a few years.  It's just not known yet the full impact on the U.S. economy, let alone the global economy in the forth coming year.  So, no comment is necessary.  But, it is what it is, whether it is politic or simply what the situation is and/or is going to be.  I'd say a second lockdown could bring more people here to SL, and we are so close to lockdown but have no money to live on should a lockdown occur.  What we do have in California right now without a lockdown is restaurants are take-out only and a stay at home curfew in the night time from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. in L.A. County, even as headlines read the virus is on the verge of catastrophe here and other places in America as well.  Consumer confidence is low for all spending because of it.  I saved for some sales thanks to a few people on the forum telling me about the black friday sales here and I prepared myself by joining the groups of items I wanted, demoing stuff before-hand as well as rezzing in the sims pre-sale to help reduce the lag.  

     

    The first part of your quote - There are 10+ Jira's for Marketplace improvements (I have a very long thread on here too where we asked LL for a survey of Merchants / plus what Marketplace features etc people are looking for).

    The second part of your quote - I just don't really have any comment on apologies as I am not getting involved in off topic elements.

    • Like 1
  10. 2 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

    Yeah, I know you have to set all items for sale on MP...I've done it myself.  But, I don't have any kind of a big big store.   But, still, it's money and still even further, sales are a part of business and people may NOT buy otherwise or buy sparingly.  I am hoping Blueberry will have one on Marketplace too but that may be wishful thinking because they don't do as many sales as Addam's.  Addam's has had at least four sales this year and one was on Marketplace.  Blueberry hasn't even had one sale this year that I know of.   It's work to do a sale, but the people would really make a lot of money and probably way more money on Marketplace because of difficulty getting into a full sim and especially when you have those kinds of sizes in your groups - tons and tons o' money to be made in sales on Marketplace!   

     

    I joined the group weeks ago so I could get a notice if they would be having a Black Friday sale.  I joined the groups inworld I wanted to get notices from for the sales, so that's how I heard about LAQ's sale - I got the notice.  I love Seraphim outlet 50% off shopping since I found it a few months ago which is a monthly thing I'd guess, all these sales really helps us in the U.S. since our government has abandoned us in the U.S. and will not help us.  

    Other stores may have a lot of listings which differs to you.  Hence why you may profit, but for me it wouldn't add up cost/benefit.     Generic "make a lot of money" statements doesn't really apply in all cases.     I would love a full sales mechanism to be built into a proper Marketplace 2.0 from LL that allows proper promotions, discounts, flash sales etc.

    Re the US Government - no comment, not bringing politics into a generic topic on American driven sales events within Second Life.

     

    • Like 1
  11. 9 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

    Yeah, but why cannot they put some of these sales on Marketplace?  Why does it all have to be inworld which causes all this mayhem?  I think I got Freya head free on Marketplace if memory serves me correctly.  So, I'm speaking of just in general terms...why all inworld only?  It's nuts!  As you know.  I doubt asking for others to please not use teleport hammers is going to work.  I just looked one up myself but now that I've read this post it doesn't seem the right thing to do because in another post you said it's like launching a DDOS attack on someone and I don't want to do that...but, again, why not just put some sales on MP...it's money coming in from MP too and people need money for their business.  

    One reasons I suspect, there is no “sale” override function you can apply to a marketplace store at whole, or by grouping products etc.  I think you have to go into each price and manually amend (which again I may be not up to date, then impacts the search placement).  You can try to group listings but it’s seriously painful if you have more than. A hundred items or so. Then once the sale is done, go back in again and put back to full price.   LL have stated marketplace dev is not a priority until uplift is finished.  But this is one feature that would be hugely welcomed I am sure...

    If it just one item for sale it’s a non issue.  If your whole store, ouch.  Whereas Inworld, if using things like Caspervend, you can set a sale blanket level and be done in a few clicks....

  12. On 11/20/2020 at 12:11 PM, Trinity1776 said:

     Know exactly which designer you are referring to, Kylie...and I've been wondering why they. have done this as well.

    One reason could be is LL now do houses with their premium accounts / the neighborhoods etc.   I wonder if some creators focus on different areas due to that?   

  13. On 11/20/2020 at 7:14 AM, Kylie Jaxxon said:

    It has gotten beyond ridiculous, IMO....another pet peeve, there is a designer who used to do such cute things, now, every event are signs.  Signs, signs, signs and nothing else :( There are also a few great designers who used to do houses, or wonderful home interiors, and they have fallen back on food :( I get that the food stuff is the fad now, and I'm sure it's much easier to make, and they probably make a ton of L's from it, but there are those of us who don't do the "food" thing, and miss all the other things.  I've stopped supporting those creators.  It's sad to see, but hoping one day, the cycle will come around to the way it was before.

    ETA:  Not you, Charlotte...still love your builds :)

    Thank you, that's really kind to say!  

    • Like 1
  14. 1 hour ago, Trinity1776 said:

    I don't know if there are more events now because "sales are down" - I had suspected that there is an increase in the number of events due to 1) people being stuck at home due to COVID-19 and 2) the increased ability to showcase these events on social media, and with sites like Seraphim, and vloggers on youTube. Like a bunch of people have had the idea this year of starting shopping events, or creating additional shopping events.

    I was on SL for several years, then off for a few years, and then back on in the last two or three years. Some events that were there in the past still existed when I came back - like Collabor88, Fameshed, Cosmopolitan, and the Arcade. Others, even some that were really popular at the time, were long gone. There's a life cycle to these things - people have real-life issues and have to drop an event they are responsible for, some have participating merchants drop out and are unable to replace them with merchants of equal or better quality. You can tell that a reoccurring event is on shaky ground when 1) they have lots of empty booths and/or 2) have a high percentage of poor-quality or low-skill-level vendors where even their item images are awful. There are some events - that I won't name because I don't want to insult people - that I'm pretty sure are on shaky ground at this point.

    As to Seraphim opening up its own region with vendor stores and their own ongoing event, I'm not surprised that the folks behind Seraphim are taking advantage of their current popularity by doing this.  It's a business opportunity for them. There are other shopping regions that are aligned with big events, like the one Cosmopolitan is on.Seraphim's region might have even been somewhat modeled on that idea, since they have both the big event and a weekly event that includes an item at participating stores in the region.

    Sales have generally been up since February 2020 based on merchant surveys.   Albeit it does depend on the merchant of course.   

    I do wonder what is the alternative to events.  There have been so many things.  Hud based grid hops, sales at mainstore events, grouped events (like Fameshed etc), Gacha etc and variations on the themes through to doing main store releases solo - I did one a while back for a certain house and we had people camping out to buy it - it reminded me of SL 2006 all over again - it showed me it is possible.   However I am a hobbyist these days so tinker for fun only.   The main store success does take a lot of time to achieve but as people like AF, Blueberry show - it can be done with hard work and talent and you have to combine that with good marketing skills.

    It takes a lot of work for a creator to grow a following - we outpace some of the big names on things like social media some times (purely as I have a person who does that who is an ace at all things with marketing) but for the new creator it is beyond overwhelming to scale towards that.   I wish Linden Lab would do more things like the Shop N Hop but when they can bring focus on New Talent Showcase - e.g. creators less than 24 months old in world (not alts).  Strawberry Linden has always done an amazing job at showcasing content, let's hope we see more from her in those areas in the future.  

  15. On 11/16/2020 at 6:13 PM, Nalates Urriah said:

    I am pretty sure the word 'eradicated' doesn't mean what you think...

    No... sorry you missed the point. Other pandemics of smaller and larger sizes did not create the economic chaos affecting SL. It isn't the virus but the panic and lock downs that have both helped and hurt SL. The OP asked about the pandemic as the cause.

     

     

    Purely interested,  how do you perceive the economic chaos as affecting SL - do you have a citation in how it relates to SL?

    From a SL standpoint - my own viewpoint based on the metrics we capture (including the LINDEX ones).
    The growth since January has been on a stable curve using LINDEX metrics and has dipped gradually since August but has maintained a stable level.  
    LL's income  has also remained stable based on ratio of income from tier and fees.  The cloud project is costing them with the limitation on sims, but cost/benefit looks healthy once complete.
    Numbers are reducing down again on log ins but still are vastly higher than January 2020.
    Merchant cash out amounts have settled down (from the merchants who take part in the economy survey - private group) but growth still has allowed increased profits combined with the Lindex supply/demand rates moving toward sellers favor.

    Now before I get a thread reported again on me for being Off Topic - coming back to the OP's post.
    Many people (nothing to do with COVID) enjoy buying land, decorating it, then trying somewhere new, creating new things, ideas so I often view nice places I find at like a limited time "installation" and enjoy it during the time it is there.  The fact it isn't there tomorrow, is generally quite normal in SL.   There are some fantastic blogs and groups in SL that explore many places, so hopefully you will find something just as lovely soon.   (In summary, the sky isn't falling) ;)

     

    • Like 2
  16. I really. like how Apple does things.

    I can understand how things get overwhelming.   I am a hobbyist, and do one event a month now and also left the gacha events as it was brutal to make so many things (and the day after they would be replicated anyway, so cost/effort was a major consideration). Recently I have struggled myself to come up with "new" things.  So can understand how shoppers may also get jaded with similar products/outputs by a creator.    Weirdly this week I got inspired so made a new thing for the Saturday Sale which was fun to do.  It is nice sometimes as they have a flexible rule you don't have to do each week - I love shopping myself too on the new items that come up.

    I have found people who do this professionally do really well with focusing on their own products at their own sims. 

     

    • Like 3
  17. I see it’s your own artwork.  Personally I think you are making it a little complicated but each to their own!

    I would recommend making it mod though.  People have different sized houses etc so non mod mesh is a big headache for buyers and likely will stop somebody buying.  

    also the LI for a canvas could be 1 versus 3 did you make the mesh yourself as you can optimIze the LODs to make it efficient :)

     

     

     

  18. 6 hours ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

    Thank you so much for your help!

    I may also simply have the items in my store not "buyable" but dispense a note card with information, a link, and instructions about how to purchase it in the Marketplace store. Now I have to figure out the click and "offer a note" scripting thing. :)

    Can I ask why you want to do it this way out of interest?  Just in case there is a better way?

  19. 12 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

    Quick "how would you do this" type question from a newbie. I want to preferably be able to show an item in my Marketplace store, but direct the user the my in-world store to buy the item. These are limited edition (one only) items so I can't have it for sale in both locations unless I can somehow tie a purchase in one place to the other. In other words, if a buyer buys item A at my in world store, the items would have to become "0" quantity in the Marketplace so It could not be bought a second time. And vice versa. Thoughts?

    1. You can sell limited copies on Marketplace as you mention - just select that option when you set up the listing and upload each item.  Quantity will then go to zero once all are sold.
    2. You cannot have an "empty" listing that directs users to buy inworld (see marketplace TOS below) as that is deemed a catalog item (I believe).
    3. You can have a limited quantity item on Marketplace with a "see item in Second Life" SLURL.   So if you have at least two of the limited quantity items - you can upload one to Marketplace, put one for sale on your land and hope the user clicks the "see item in Second Life" link and purchases it there.
    4. If these are NOT third party items (e.g. gacha) and your own work (e.g. you are making it limited edition yourself) say a run of 10 items, you could use 2. above and just reconcile daily to ensure you don't ever sell more than the 10 you wish across both marketplace/inworld.  

    "The SL Marketplace is also not to be used for:

    • Advertising events, places, or groups.
    • Creating Listings for land sales/rentals except as for free in the Marketplace Land Categories,
    • Dispensing catalogs or information regarding a service without actually charging at least 50% of the value of that service.
    • Creating Demo Product Listings without linking the Demo to the Full Version of the product."

    If you have only one of the limited quantity items (e.g. if you are a gacha reseller) The only way I can think of is, is in world have a picture of it and a script that directs the user to purchase directly on Marketplace.  

    Albeit, I would have to ask why you would want to do that with a limited quantity item .  You'll then pay the Marketplace commission for the sale.

    Somebody more versed in this may post on this - I may have missed a workaround you can use as I don't sell limited quantity items myself.  I do know however it can't be an empty listing directing the person to go and buy inworld.    
     

    • Like 2
  20. 40 minutes ago, Norsk Himmel said:

    We had no ticket from you on the 3rd October

    Kind Regards,
    Norsk
    (CasperTech Support)

    Hi - I can't post chat logs here obviously - but I can confirm on 3 October 2020, at 13.48 your CasperHelp account reacted to my account and generated the direct link for the ticket to be raised and responded to me and I submitted it.  If that ticket has gone by they wayside not a problem, you'll see me raising the request again yesterday (I also screenshot the ticket for safety).  Hope that helps you take a look at it. :)

    Perhaps easier for you to respond to me via the ticket system as it would great to get an ETA when you will have had a chance to investigate the outstanding support questions.

    Thanks so much!

    • Like 1
  21. 15 minutes ago, Casper Warden said:

    We receive perhaps one report of a missing transaction every six months or so, and it's usually related to a heavily busy event region which is lagged to hell.

    Even during an outage, our vendors always provide transaction links which we can use to trace a transaction from end to end. No other system has this kind of tracking or accountability.

    The outage was horrible, and we do sincerely apologise to everybody affected. But this isn't a regular occurrence.

    Hi Casper

    Yes I know the outage was a rare one, glad to see it got resolved.
    Just as merchants we do see missing transactions, so we implemented on our side a reconciliation to L$ so if there are missed ones we simply manually can upload directly.   Not always events (as we use the special event script) but can be for any reason including direct SL issues.  

    Without the reconciliation we implemented we were reliant on customers to flag it.  Normally they only realized when they tried to redeliver something and it didn't show.  Best practice for merchants is always to reconcile to any third party application as whilst issues may be rare, they do occur (as many merchants have discussed directly) and we always want to ensure our customers are fully supported/protected at our end and don't miss out on upgrades/redelivery capabilities.

    Looking forward to a response to my tickets from 3rd Oct etc on that missing transaction to see if you can trace it as that is one we could not locate anywhere and it occurred before the reconciliations were implemented.  The user did state they were mass banned by Caspervend (obviously we can't substantiate that and we don't get involved in third party disputes).

    I have popped in the new ticket also the group request plus will pop in the missing transactions from the outage (if not yet resolved).  Either way we can manually upload them if required.

    Thanks again and hope your week goes more smoothly herein.

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