Charlotte Bartlett

Hi Vianme, Linden Lab already follow the DMCA process and it's pretty simple to do, with details via their main site. That already covers Marketplace items so copyright holders can initiate the process .

Hi @Dakota Linden A few merchants have been discussing, and have seen the fantastic news re SL turning 15 and marketplace changes will be afoot for long awaited features. Would you be open to consider before entering into development phase, a user requirement phase with a short survey that merchants can respond to define what are the top 3 things they would love to see from the marketplace. You could include a google survey or whatever format - but having this sort of intel would help us merchants have a "voice" that may be wider that forums which has a small posting group of merchants into the wider social media groups we use (e.g. Facebook). Examples I know we talk about a lot Ability to have more than one marketplace storefront per avatar Ability to have demo's listed with the main product etc Ability to have different colors in one listing with the main product etc Customer being able to get redeliveries for copy items (I am sure you have a long list but to give you an idea). If any other merchants read this - can you post below you would like a survey as Dakota might then be able to see this is a wide spread ask versus just random old me haha! I also understand some things just may not be possible (so my list above isn't a requirement just some ideas). I have linked to this post on FB so other merchants see too. Thank you for taking the time to read.

This is so helpful to see. I just finished a large house with two sides wings and a main wing. 38 wide by 20 meters It came to 86,000. I am not sure if that is acceptable for a large house (at least it's not a bad as the "bench mark" hah! I have already reduced down textures for the build but guess I need to go even further. I have been doing a little trick using the raw filter in photoshop to bring up some detail on lower sized textures and finding it comparable. But something I did notice, I reused the same textures multiple times as I had "thought" that would be more efficient as a graphics cards would recognise it and only "rez' once (you can tell I am totally NON technical). However in the count above each are counted on their own basis so that one texture applied to different parts of the mesh is using double or triple the vram (so to speak). Does anybody have any other idea how to further optimise in reuse of textures?

You could use caspervend as it would read via ANS your marketplace sales - it would give you nice graphs and top seller information all in the webpage (and you export yourself). I think you would have to then set up each product into caspervend to create the linkage, so depends if worth your effort ongoing versus a simple spreadsheet yourself.

That makes sense. I was thinking recently on clothing it would be nice to do uvmaps then people could create mods - in that case using my brand name in keywords, description etc would be totally expected, just like gacha resellers. In this case however the products and merchant concerned is selling an item unrelated to my brand and they are listing Brand A, Brand B, Brand C, as keywords and the items concerned are not related to those brands (nor compatible etc).

Hi I did, it was in the initial ticket I tried to make it paint by numbers but good suggestion It's a good nudge for me though, I see it as a learning opportunity as I was quite surprised by how frustrating the support process was. I am going to look into trademark. It's good timing for me to do so it's 400 USD for the US one so achieveable, and I will have more protection as unauthorized use by competitors (such in keywords) will be an infringement on my trademark. I then can file takedowns on the listing (to be confirmed). That may help me as I won't then have to flag items but go the takedown route same as DMCA and it will save LL having more flags on the long list I am sure they have. I am still looking into to ensure that's correct legally and is covered appropriately. It would be a bit extreme to do a trademark for that issue alone, but it's something I have been meaning to do for a while for my wider work under Scarlet.

Thanks Pamela that's the exact experience I am getting and it's so frustrating to have something pasted at you that clearly contradicts what the original ticket states (i.e. we already flagged months or weeks back etc). I can imagine the list of flags are huge to deal with, but it appears to be counter productive to respond in this manner, as surely support cost will be higher with merchants raising tickets instead. Hopefully Dakota will come along and give us some guidance on what is a reasonable turnaround time so we know going forward.

Hi all, I have having a bit of trouble with other avatars who put listings on Marketplace and then use my brand name (and other brands) in their keywords to skew results. I checked the TOS carefully and it reads: Per TOS: "Keyword spam is the use of words (such as brand names, item names, or other terms) that have nothing to do with the item listed so that the listing will appear in search results. Keyword spam is not allowed because it clutters the SL Marketplace and makes buying and selling more difficult. In addition" so I duly flagged the items some time back (months not weeks from memory) for keyword spam as the products were not mine, nor any relation to my work or authorised by me etc. Anyway nothing happened for a long time, so I thought to raise a support ticket to ask them to check. They response I got was to flag the listings. I explained they are already flagged (so I can't reflag). Support then pasted again to flag the item and that they can't comment on the issue due to privacy concerns. I have now as a last ditch attempt asked if support can escalate to Dakota as I don't really know what else to do and I don't believe they understand (or more fairly are equipped to deal with this sort of support request). Have I approached this the right way? Or should I be doing a DMCA as technically my brand name is a copyright work product. Now this is where I start to think I should pay the 400 USD for the US trademark on the brand (it's 12 years old) as perhaps that would help? Bit confused - welcome any suggestions or whether really if you flag and it doesn't resolve it's just a write off.

that's awesome thank you! I can't tell you when I am packing up 14 gacha items one set mod/trans and one mod/copy how easy it is to get it wrong - this will be super helpful as part of the workflow thank you so much for doing!

Dutchie just got their US trademark for their brand name. Not sure they do stuff outside of SL too.

Actually I would 100pct, as again it offers no value to other buyers it's the same "today I liked a yellow sundress". If, however, it said I liked this item because the mesh was well made, low complexity, matched the description, did not cause me lag and was functional - then that is linked to a root cause and would be fine. I rarely see 5 star reviews like that so my opinion is across all ratings that don't provide useful information to other buyers. I see Dakota liked your comment, but did not react to mine All joking aside, reviews I feel are a less useful aspect to marketplace for both buyers and sellers. It's a shame as with the items that creators have wanted to be developed with the marketplace are still sadly lacking. Whilst, the features we "do" have don't necessarily offer the value initially hoped for and likely still take time to administer that could be more effectively used for other things.

I really don't think reviews should come down to "I did not like it" 1 Star if there is an inworld demo or online demo available. These should be removed if void of a root cause of that dislike linked to faulty product/misinformation in description etc. If it's just on the day they woke up they no longer liked yellow sundresses, that is not the merchant's issue or fault. That's a subjective opinion not a fair review on the product and often is buyer's remorse. In some (many) cases it's also a bargaining chip to get the creator to refund etc to remove the review. It doesn't technically breach the guidelines, but it's disingenuous and not helpful to other buyers. Honestly, I would prefer reviews gone, instead add "questions" for buyers on there per product so they can ask questions prior to + after sale and have the creator respond (like Amazon answers). Buyers will soon see if there is a pattern of issues with a product, if a creator is responsive (+still active in SL) and get WAY more information that gamed reviews we have today.

That's kind of frustating as I hoped to have quicker physics checks, I have to be honest I always revert to the LL viewer for anything with physics to upload - have you seen if the behaviour is consistent on that viewer too in the develop menu?

So I have been dabbling in clothing for a change of scenery and am working on a floor length gown with a level of detail that works for Second Life. I don't want to start on the wrong foot by making a 500,000 K poly gown that crashes the grid, so as part of my learning experience I have been asking a lot of questions to find the right balance. I won't be perfect but I do want to aim to be a good citizen with my designs. I have read a lot of threads here, plus google searches and the wiki and Jelly Babies information etc. What I found interesting and compounded by a question I asked to designers on Facebook was I couldn't find a general guideline for "what is being a good citizen in SL versus not", in terms of polygon usage on clothing. I read the Mesh/Technical Overview on the SL wiki for example, and unless I missed the information, I couldn't see anything about what to aim for like other platforms/devs provide. I could be just looking in the wrong place, but it had me even as somebody experienced in SL scratching my head. Drongle wrote some interesting posts here that helped me on the way but I have more questions haha I know a few of you that post here are fantastic in this area of optimisation so what would you guide new clothing makers to aim for. I am talking quad polygons here before uploading. Floor length gown - some comments noted 40,000, 50,000, 75,000 polys. When I compared this to game dev assets it's shockingly high. I rezzed a few designer's gowns also in SL to look and suspect those numbers I quotes may have been LOW for those - the mesh was so dense I have no idea how it even renders without blowing up my laptop. However, we deal with the fact that SL doesn't support PBR materials at all, and the implemented normal map well I have had mixed results so will be interested to see how that operates on clothing... So what is a GOOD quad polygon count that (a) is efficient and (b) still allows the item to look decent enough to sell??? (c) any other optimisation practices we can apply (LODS obviously but can we take this even further?) using the example of this gown. Let's assume the gown as a few lovely folds in the skirt, some scalloped edge detail with pleats on the top and a belt. What range would you set as a guideline? Now textures. This gown as a corset underlying piece, a lace overlay, a belt then a long gown so 4 materials. so is 3 x 512 for the gown and 1 x 256 for the belt? Or if 1 x 1024 for the 3 materials combined (that's where my brain is going) and 1 x 512 for the belt (256 it starts to look a bit rough as the belt combines metals, silks and has a normal map for the detailing on the buckle so I may need to push it up a little). I am baking at 4096 x 4096 but then optimise down the final texture in photoshop using the sizes above. I used the above as an example as (a) that is my first piece of clothing so frankly I could make this thing 200,000 polys haha but luckily my experience in houses has taught me to optimise as much as possible, and (b) I can then use a % based on the body coverage from it. Really interested to get opinions and input on this as I learn my new craft! It may also then help other "new" clothing designers who find this post too. Thanks Charlotte

Scarlet Creative is branching out into clothing in 2018 with our first releases planned for Feb. Scarlet Creative has been active in Second Life since 2006. We are looking for an experienced, responsible and accurate rigger for our projects.Riggers will need to be experienced with rigging and weight painting for fitted mesh for Maitreya, Belleza and Slink. Also testing on the beta grid to ensure accurate outputs. We prefer Maya, but can be Blender/Avastar if required (our workflow is Maya currently). We expect releases once a month, which may increase to weekly over the next quarter. Note the remainder of the workflow creation of the clothing, unwrapping, baking, final uploading and set up will be done by myself. RL rates and contract, we can pay externally or within Second Life. Please send a notecard to Charlotte Bartlett in-world (ignore my profile which says not to!) with your details, outline of experience and hours available weekly/preferred rate and any references if you have rigged for other creators. We are keen to have somebody with us long term and pay a RL rate to be fair/competitive. This can include our profit share scheme after a base rate, qualifying period. Note we will do one test project to ensure all works fine (fully paid for). Thanks so much Charlotte

Thank you!!

Hi I would add a store name as a banner (make in GIMP or Photoshop) to give your store an identity. When I looked at your listings it didn't seem to tell me who your brand is so woud be easy to forget (repeat customers are what help sales). Perhaps consider having your product shots redone. A lot of creators hire a photographer who works well with lighting/styling etc to create appealing images. You can trawl through Flickr to find SL photographers who take commissions and then also look at their work before you hire them. Also consider having a brand/logo that shows in each image, coming back to point 1 above. I think having a successsful store MP is around only 25% of it. The rest comes from things like how you promote your brand. 1 - Do you have a Facebook Page for your brand that allows your customers to join up and read about new releases and interact with you. You can then do things like competitions, or ask your customers what they would like you to release next. It takes time, but over a year plus you will find your followers grow and keep up a daily or weekly post and interact with those customers. 2 - Do you have a Flickr account where you have a group for pictures of your products to be added to by customers. 3 - Do you have bloggers who will cover your new release (if not you may want to look at systems like Blogotex or use your Facebook Page to open blogger applications - start small at first). 4 - How do you interact with customers, so they know you have fantastic customer service - think about inworld tools including subscribers. 5 - Are you releasing on a regular schedule eg once a month or week so customers as they grow know what days to come look at your store for "new" things. I hope that helps. All the above are fairly low effort, just need a bit of time daily to maintain. I think the key is you have a build a commmunity around your customers and be part of it - using social media and art tools really help achieve that.

And this is why houses should be mod, it's lovely seeing somebody going through and improving, learning and finding good use from a mod object!

My ticket still has been open > 1 month with zero response since Dakota. I popped a chaser in to see if that gets any movement. @Dakota Linden - any progress/news you would like to share with people please?

Now perhaps I unlisted my item in my sleep (honestly I am not ruling it out - I do my best work asleep). I am not premium but am a concierge account (does that still exist? anyway). It's been 14 days since my ticket was opened and nothing has been updated... Is that a normal turnaround time - 14 days?? Dakota Linden said 14 days ago Hello Charlotte Bartlett, Thank you for letting us know that one or more of your Second Life Marketplace Product Listings was affected by the recent issue. I have forwarded the information regarding your Product Listings to the team so that they can work on restoring your listings as quickly as possible. Once they have let me know that your listings have been restored, I will update this support ticket. Kind Regards, Dakota Linden Customer Account Operations Specialist Linden Lab

Only the authorised copyright holder can initiate a takedown so doubt it was somebody being uneducated - if they filed a takedown it was very specific and requried them to use the correct format/file and fax it or post it and declare they were authorised to act as the copyright holder / perjury statement etc. From memory as non copyright related, I think LL do sometimes I think sweep listings e.g. vast abuses of Trademarked names (again the OP hasn't done this) so wonder if some other reason caused the issue that isn't evident yet.

If you got a DMCA takdown notification - you can't file a ticket for general support, you have to counterfile and the notice should have given you information on how to do that exactly. Full information is here - https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/intellectual-property-infringement-notification-policy plus your notice should have given you this information if your works were subject to a takedown. If not, can you paste what it said (taking any personal information out)?

I think her amazing tutorials are linked from Strawberry's blog ?

The SL marketplace I think will also let you search for a house by price low to high I think albeit there is a ton of outdated stuff that will come up.. so you may want to add some specific terms like mesh house and the style you like e.g. Rustic or Modern. You can try to visit some events in SL as they often have new discounted items. A good blog for events to check is Seraphim SL, a google search will bring it up. You can then check the actual events website and catelog to see if anything matches your preferences. Prices can start at 50l and above.

I think now we understand what your aim is there may be a better approach. I recommend Going to Strawberry Singh's blog and reading her how to become a content creator piece and use her links. Perhaps start with something with hard lines and not organic e.g. a basic pot or coffee table. That will allow you to start to get the basics in blender e.g. Low poly model, physics model, LODs, materials and baking textures, uploading then it will help you decide where to focus e.g. If you want to do clothing look for Avastar and their tutorials. You may also want to get the basics with gimp and photoshop for any textures and also things like signs for your item. There isn't a short cut e.g. Third party models, as if you want to really do this if you got a third party low poly model you would still need to do multiple steps after to make it SL viable and unless you already have blender skills that would be painful and probably take you longer. the best short cut if you don't want to learn to make your own meshes would be full perm kits from SL marketplace but you would still need to learn how to texture them etc. What sort of item did you want to make? As there may be more specific tutorials we can point you towards.