Charlotte Bartlett

Some may not be legitimate items - and may be copybotted etc if you are unsure of where you got them from. You can then be open for a takedown via DMCA and any potential legal action. This is at the extreme end of the scale. I agree with the comments above particularly about reselling freebies, it will hurt your reputation. If unsure ask the legitimate creator. The license may not be in a notecard it may have been up on the listing for example when originally distributed - or the notecard has been lost in your inventory. One approach is to ask the creator if they are happy for you to resell their item.

I am not sure if allowed to post outside links but remember SL Name Watch (google will bring it up) - you can look on there for all the historical names just for interest purposes and scroll though. There were only 996 Bartlett names in there, I rarely come across an active one in world these days (one or two of them).... GossipGirl as a surname (due to the commercial project) is the second popular last name after Resident of course... 163,000 odd. Less popular was Lupus - 4 surnames (seems like a vanity name you used to be able to buy for 150 USD).... Gingrich was one person (Newt I believe the RL person?) and 4 Duran Durans (Oh memories) And 4th in the list for popular take up on surnames was Aeon For @Chic Aeon

Callie doesn't keep her profile up to date but she does respond to offline and is around - she donated to the Maxwell Graf funderaiser a few months back (I do remember it takes her a few days to respond though) .

Can you reset scripts yourself (or does that fubar the kitty?) Isn't Kittycat's Callie Cline - I know she isn't online a lot but she is normally very responsive if you have to escalate non support I would think.

Thank you for posting that link, super helpful to read

Luna This is meant with the best intent as I don't see things the way you do so I hope you can see whilst I respect your viewpoint, I don't agree with it. I don't believe anybody is posting here in a leadership position, bar anybody with Linden in their name. I see everybody here exactly equal, a merchant within Second Life with the same access to the same functionality the platform offers and tools available to us - the only differentials outside that is talent, business sense, networking/communication and experience. Nobody has also said it's negative to point out reality, the posts here I have read have shown a considerable balanced level of viewpoints on the survey content from negative to positive. I also don't understand using terms like pollyanna attitudes (which you didn't introduce to this thread). The perception it creates for me is that it is trying to label other merchants who remain polite and want to work with the platform provider in a positive manner to get a survey. It's basically lining up a pathway where requirements have been requested, and if not met, we have very specific areas to highlight as failures. If they are met we then have the opportunity to get better solutions to support merchants. This forum is open to every merchant, whether we act as a community or just as individuals it's up to the person posting. I view the merchant forum differently to others and want merchant level professional dialogue, agreements (so I can then demand accountability from LL) and great interaction, and that's fine - I respect the right to treat it differently to me doesn't mean I can't shine a spotlight on off topic posting regarding US Presidents and FX risk, fees etc etc but it will be with integrity and professinally. Anyway, I hope all turns out as well as it can with your trip, and I genuinely hope your daughter and family situation is the best it can be in the circumstances - hopefully things here will have progressed when you return.

It’s is ok we simply agree to disagree. We have our own viewpoints based on our own successes/businesses/strengths/experiences. I have a completely different viewpoint of LL interactions and it is positive in my direct engagement. That doesn’t negate your own experiences. Support I have struggled with recently but in a one off situation. Thank you for your explanation. If nothing else, it has been nice to meet some merchants I had not come across before and have dialogue ☺️

You do make some good points Tara, the above was not a flounce if that was directed at me. Simply objective achieved by a few pages in. I did want to give you one response, as you kindly took the time to type all that above. You note above it's the one of the few times a Linden chimed in. Perhaps a good time to ask yourself why do you think that was? What was different in the first few pages of this thread? How were people posting, interacting etc? Was it just luck? I was also pleased they did, so will continue my interactions professionally and with ethics and due consideration as if that helps get results and a voice for the wider merchant group that's a great step in the right direction. Whilst you may state no one gets to pick and choose who has merit, I suspect what is being posted and their words being used are sufficient to see whom is acting with said merit. On the thread topic, I understand what you mean however, you have to ask what is the purpose of each post. Either merchants wanted a survey and had input in what it should contain, or they had an opinion that differed to that and did not want a survey. Using the thread for other agendas is their own decision, but as I said do they want to be taken seriously or just have people roll their eyes and scroll quickly down. If the forum is an emotional support one or a venting forum that's great but honestly as you will know this as a successful RL business owner - you have to negotiate and communicate to further your own agenda. In this case the agenda of the OP was to get a survey for merchants so at least we could have our say on our priorities. Imposing other agendas and taking it OT, is really not community minded - debate the agenda, disagree with it and put alternatives forward - but if not why not be polite and open a brand new thread on FX risk, or the US president, or fees etc. There have been people throughout this thread with different opinions and who posted their survey ideas, or things they would not find useful in said survey, or concerns who are graceful and able to communicate across differing opinions that was never in question, but there have been genuine posts here with an objective to just "whinge" and subtract value from constructive communication. Again perhaps they just needed emotional support, and I know SL has users who find it wonderful for that and it's more about role playing as a business etc. On a side note, one of the persons posting here enacted an extraordinary act of kindness today to another poster here based on their RL situation that this thread brought to public attention. Totally unrelated to this thread OT and not me. So one thing I will say is I see this from both sides, if people want to bring their personal situations into professional ones, each to their own - it goes back as I mentioned to what their own objectives are, and how successful they find that approach. I am happy ours did what we wanted. Have a great evening.

Well I think as alas I can't close the thread I started, I hope you can likely draw this to a close as I can't see the value the above comments are now adding to the OT. The reality is we are all each our own minority, with our own needs, requirements, drivers, hopes and fears even through to how we each individually interact with the marketplace and what we use it for as merchants and what is important to each of us. The first few pages of this thread was merchants posting their ideas, then well this thread lost it's way and went OT. I implore anybody with other issues outside of the survey request and ideas for what to include in the survey to start their own thread, it's the polite thing to do and keeps us within the community rules here. I have apologized to Grumpity who took the time and effort to post here with a genuine level of support to undertake a marketplace survey so we collectively as a "majority" could have a say in what was developed as a priority. We never have had this before, so I only posted with good intentions to hopefully bring wider engagement from the majority of merchants who don't use this forum. I want to thank everybody who upvoted/liked the OP, who took the time to give constructive ideas etc in the hope that LL would add a section for that within the survey. A final very sincere thank you for those who made every effort to post constructively, my only goal was to get a survey so we merchants could be heard appropriately (and effectively whilst being taken seriously). I won't be posting again here as my objective was achieved by obtaining the post from LL and the ideas which people posted for inclusion. Thanks again, Charlotte.

On assumption they cash out once, I wonder how often merchant do cash out - I do mine monthly so the fee applies each time...

Firstly Luna I am really sorry about your RL circumstances I truly am, and reading about it makes me understand why you are reacting emotionally to this and it gives me insight as to why you are upset. I can't begin to understand the pressure of that situation and the impact. What I will say is I hope you can find a way to still visit. One of the key things SL is known for is helping our fellow creators. I did a fund raiser for Maxwell Graf after some RL devastating situation impacted him and his family and we lent a hand to him. If there is anything we can do to HELP you I will be first in the queue. On the selective posting I just want to point this out to anybody reading the thread: they will see the posts about Indie level merchants I posted versus just what you selectively posted above on professional merchants. They will also note what I stated about believing the current marketplace will not be adaptable enough to be fit for purpose (hence why turboblahblah comes up - in context what was meant by that is - if LL are going to charge us huge fees I EXPECT a web service comparable to a professional service like Turboblahblah - nothing else and certainly nothing then posted in relation to it afterwards by other parties. Also just for clarity, I work 2 jobs average 60 plus hours a week to support my family. I am a mid level creator using your "terminology" not a top level one and have just over 60 Items on Marketplace versus the 700 odd you larger creators have. So I have every bit the same buy in as other creators do to this platform and fees. I honestly have felt through this thread so deflated and kind of picked on a little bit. That's on me, debate should be professional and open. But what I will say I won't give up trying to engage positively, professionally and stay creating on SL for years to come.

Also as your store is new now is the right time to set up social media. Set up a Facebook page so you can post releases and also Flickr (just be a little careful on the later they don’t like ads but nothing wrong with sharing nice images of your products). Start to follow others on both so you can start to interact and gradually your store will get follows. Chat to other creators and customers. Have a look at how the larger stores interact they get some ideas. There is a huge community of creators on Facebook who share SL advice and support one another (feel free to look me up for friendship and you can use my friends list to expand your connections). Many customers buy in to you as well as your products so this helps bring active. Perhaps also consider seeing about joining an event or hunt when you feel the time is right. It will help your products get exposure. Some can be painful to get into but there are a huge wealth of great events who suppport new stores as well as established ones. Finally always trust your own instincts and go your own way. It is such fun starting a store so enjoy the journey!

I have not been duped. All I simply asked was for a survey to allow merchants to answer what top items they would want so we had a transparent list of user requirements and to push our agenda. It is in my interest to see LL succeed. I prefer to do that with making positive suggestions and look to professionally engage over it. I can’t speak for Blueberry but I will say she is an intelligent, highly successful merchant and a very decent kind person, so read into that what you will. The rest of your post directed at me, is pure projection, inappropriate and wholly uncalled for. I ask you be more thoughtful going forward with your words. Thank you.

Because this thread got so off topic on what it was intended for and I think there have been some great constructive suggestions for the survey content. I am requoting this here. Point 2 - has answered the original post, so personally I am hopeful and waiting to see what @Grumpity Linden comes back with on this. Also Point 4- they are actively recruiting including for Second Life - which is great to see and gives credibility to investment to improve the platform. I think that's a really positive post and I honestly think we all want to see this succeed hence why we are all so passionate and vocal. This forum is a tiny audience, so I am really hopeful we can get a link soon to the survey to share with wider merchant community (weirdly most of them are on Facebook, so go figure!). ps please don't harm any frogs, they are super cute and sometimes they turn into princes

Technically this topic was just to ask for a survey - unfortunately the worms are all over the place and I can't get them back in the can, they are very wiggly!

I agree with you. I am not talking about an update, I don't believe the current MP has the capability to be updated sufficiently to be fit for purpose.

You have lost me there - that sounds bizarre! Anyway, cost/benefit yes the database elements are complex and expensive. However with a good architect they should be able to make some sensible decisions around front end functionality whilst navigating any migration at the back end. Honestly in these scenarios sometimes the best route is to demise the legacy technology and invest into a new solution for the gateways, database and front end aspects (there connectivity into asset server for delivery). Migration is always the challenge but as mentioned above if they include that in the survey I am pretty sure professional merchants here will pick a manual migration of the listings to a platform with rich features versus automated one with lack of features (also will clean out all those legacy listings no longer valid).

If they are too shy to post as merchants on this thread to confirm they would like the survey too (the thread has gone off topic a few times but that's the actual topic). They can simply click a like on the OP to lend support without having to comment, perhaps help guide them towards that.

You make some great points. I think if we are going to be charged in the ballpark of 30% commission (let's face it, that's where they are heading plus a major increase in cash out fees) we need a professional platform to operate within for MP. Legacy technology creates a huge headache when migration is involved, but sometimes perhaps users would rather re-list everything from scratch with 80% of the functionality/new databases versus a complicated migration with 2% of the functionality (and still massive fee increases). Amazon, I find quite easy generally especially the one click to buy, the fact products support Q&A, fantastic customer service etc. Whereas we merchants (who Pam put better than I can, who front a ton of customer support for LL) get next to zero ourselves. This I experienced recently, with a total lack of help on a ticket, despite expecting to pay to LL over 4,000 USD a year in fees/sim costs. I average one ticket request per year with them over the past 12 years. There are a wealth of e-commerce solutions out there including open source which do answer a significant portion our user requirements if implemented with grace, foresight and intelligence. Whether LL believe the cost is worth the benefits we are asking for (which will peg to their reliance on us merchants for those fees), time will tell as I have no clue and am waiting here patiently to see whether a survey gets announced (or not).

This was really just a thread asking Linden Lab to have the survey with some suggestion of things they could include I think any discussion on the fees as mentioned above will really warrant it's own thread as that is going to be I am sure a hot topic I tried to summarize the things people put above into 5 buckets - anybody have any refinements/thoughts on these (I kept it a bit generic and probably missed some things?).... 1 - Improve efficiency for merchants: e.g. including multiple storefront, manager access accounts, bulk uploads, bulk changes, store organization of listings etc 2 - Improve usability for purchasers: e.g. remove dormant listings, remove non-active merchant stores, group demo colors collection listings, have wish list and store favorites (borrowing from Etsy and Amazon vibes there), better intuitive filtering for search, gacha bloat reduction, question and answers on products etc 3 - Improve trust and quality by reducing fraud/mis-selling: e.g merchant accounts with licenses for Indie through to Professional accounts for selling , ability to block access to purchasers etc 4 - Improve the MP Front End design: e.g. opening up API to allow custom front end design from TPVs , reverse linkage from in-world vendors etc 5 - Create and improve ability to drive sales to purchasers: e.g. loyalty cards, discount capabilities, cross store promotions, cross store events on MP etc Again, we really want a wide spread survey we can promote to all creators as this forum is a tiny subset of creators. One person's idea of what is a priority will not match another, so a survey would allow Linden Lab to get a specific majority viewpoint on priorities versus who shouts loudest on a forum or a Jira listing.

Thanks Whirly - I find the meetings quite difficult to navigate generally (lots of voices) I really hope that LL will hear us and do a controlled survey. I am normally at RL work when they occur, but I'll try but now I know they have seen this thread, I think it would hopefully be polite to keep us updated on timing for it I really don't think that's true, @Grumpity Linden did post here and they are (I think) considering the survey - and those go up on the usual links so anybody can take part. It also opens that survey to a wider market because honestly the meetings mentioned are difficult times for many with the international crowd we are, plus JIRA tends to be also not well navigated for the mainstream creators. Forums here too tend to be a small subset of that wider market (creators and purchasers). We then as creators can push the survey link out like we did to this thread to increase visibility. I guess I am just optimistic (even after 12 years of content creation haha) that we do have a voice and a say. Now if after the survey we see major professional fees coming in, and none of the really useful sales increasing/revenue driving improvements coming - then I"ll reserve the right to be critical. But for now, if they want more of my income, I have a feeling they will focus on the right things (for the main part) for us.

I think the point with paying more would be having merchants on marketplace who pay for that privilege with a pro-merchant account - most high volume merchants I know are down with that approach. I also would not have an issue with a manual migration if a new marketplace met the majority of our requirements, for the effort it would take the benefit would soon pay off. Honestly the amount of dormant merchants with unsupported items, amount of crap uploaded from external sources outside of their TOS by fly by night individuals etc creates a burden on the search results, the database, support, shoppers being ripped off you name it. If we are going to start paying closer to professional fees like we do on sites like Turboblahblah, I am expecting a professional model to operate within - as with most things now and which I am sure @Ebbe Linden is aware of from his past employment, we can also tier that for Indie level (e.g. new merchant starting out) to Professional level for that merchant license. Most of those sites I have subscriptions to, or create for, have dialogue with their pro customers for input/vote into what comes next. It doesn't always work (those using substance painter will know this) but at least it gives us a dialogue with an opportunity to influence, not just a message from "down upon high". As they move closer to professional fee levels, they are going to have to increase that merchant dialogue to keep on the right path. Essentially they are increasing the dependency for their income to us merchants. That gives us a louder voice. The challenge in all that, the spirit of Second Life has always been your world, your imagination - these costs/fees being moved over into the Merchant stream from the land stream moves us further away from that spirit for Merchants. However, if this truly does make land cheaper (and isn't just a increase income grab) that will allow consumers, and casual players to really make better use of Second Life with more accessible options for land IMHO.

I think that would be worthy of a new thread topic in itself....... We know increased fees are coming, @Ebbe Linden has been quite transparent about rebalancing income streams. I don't mind them, if LL really do provide me with tangible benefit that makes it worth while to keep creating on here. Hence this survey if we can get buy in for them to put it out, would at minimum, give them a bucket list of potential idea on what they could charge us more for,. However, win -win - we pay more, but get so much more in terms of capabilities to sell our products / and customers to find our products and increase our sales. It really is in their best interest to not have a long thread here, but have a controlled survey so they can really start to prioritize cost/benefit of the ones with the strong business case above. That way they can ensure the maximum return on investment of those developer hours it will take to do work on the Marketplace etc.

I had one other random thought, the main issue I find with MP is having to use their interface. If they opened up the API for Marketplace, TPV Developers could create custom front ends and management tools to sit over it (stuff still would be uploaded from SL/Avatar obviously due to database bit). Imagine the metrics etc we could have etc. They could slice views based on shoppers own unique customs profiles too. That was my crazy idea Can I tag @Whirly Fizzle who is very good with technical things hah.

omg this x 1000000. Would create a secondary employment market in SL as well as trust me I would pay somebody to do that for me RL rates.