Ilyra Chardin

The SL metaverse is a microcosm of the real world (with a twist, of course *grins*) But still, it does mirror the economic conditions in the real world. When RL land was in a bubble, so was SL's and the land business buying was booming. It's not surprising that sim ownership counts are lower (statistics posted by someone else on another thread.) They're merely a reflection of the external real estate market. The world-wide economy a) fluctuates and b) is not doing well. So why would you expect it to be any different in world? When the external economy is doing better then people have more money for leisure and can invest more in things like SL. And even i good economic times, markets fluctuate. Sales will ebb and flow depending on the time of year, the type of products, etc. As for LL's push towards MP over in world stores, they're getting a cut of every sales transaction. MP is set up so that just about anyone can put products out as long as they have a spot to put their magic box (which could be a linden home, a rental plot or their friends' sim. And a lot more people have entered into that market than had ever set up in world stores because they can be a merchant on MP with little investment - more so because there is little to no governance of MP. There is a percentage of merchants who are not content creators at all and are merely selling those freebie full perm (or at least copy / trans) items that they've picked up along the way.

Tiffy Vella wrote: DON'T ever prevent MP shoppers from leaving irate 1-star reviews until after they have actually received the item Take a look at the new thread where someone wanted to give a bad review to an entire store because they didn't get their item and 24 hours had elapsed. There needs to be governance around the review process or it should not exist.

I've read through the thread and everyone's responses which, for the most part, were very reasonable. The thing that jumped out at me was that notion of writing a bad review to punish the store for what might have been delivery failures caused by a marketplace glitch. As for the item in transaction history, people have offered a number of plausible explanations above as well as explaining that 24 hours isn't a long time. I mean seriously, the person could have come down with the flu. The "I'm pissed and i want to write a scathing review to retaliate" is exactly why the marketplace product reviews should have a level of governance around them or be removed. My two cents (L$5)

When you turn off object entry scripts and object creation and, if your land is set to group, you need to be in group for your scripts to work. There may be an override for the sim / land owner, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Also, if you have object creation plus autoreturn, did those items get returned to you? If you're not a club or a rp sim that relies on others having the ability to run scripts, i would shut them off. I would also uncheck object entry or create objects. Some store owners allow object creation (coupled with autoreturn) to allow consumers to open boxes. That's your call. What i would do to fix this, If you saved a back-up of all your items and your magic boxes. i would do what i had to do the other day: 1. Take back all of your boxes. 2. Go to xStreet and delete all of them. 3. Set out the three boxes again. (make sure you're in the right group) 4. Check to make sure that they're showing up on xStreet 5. Resync MP AND force an update from xStreet (for each server) Yes, it was fun for me to do this :-P not. But in the end, it all worked fine. I think this is one of those undocumented features that we hear so much about.

I think it may also have to do with newer (or refurbished) in world stores versus the established ones. I put in an in world store simply because I wanted to have one. I haven't yet sold one thing from there - all my sales come from marketplace. Even when people come to see the products, they still complete the purchase through Marketplace. I know this because i have been IM'd and asked where they can go and actually see an item and then later on I get the transaction notification that it was purchased on MP. I think I can attribute this to a few things. One is LL's heavy promotion of MP and the second is that in world search seems to be an even bigger mess than MP search is (and it's a lot faster to click through the MP pages than it is to TP from place to place trying to find what you want to buy.) There have been a lot of complaints about LL's promotion of MP, but I suspect that will not stop. LL takes 5% on all linden dollar purchases and a higher percentage of paypal and credit card purchases. Yet for in-world locations, they receive tier payments regardless of whether the land is residential or commercial. Just my 2 cents (L$5)

I just ran the report of my top selling products and it looks fine to me.

In terms of legal recourse IF anyone wanted to sue, I believe that a case could be made that Linden dollars have a demonstrated US dollar value (as demonstrated on Marketplace, which facilitates purchases of items in both US dollars and the equivalent linden dollar amount.) That being said, I believe that most attorneys would advise you not to pursue any legal action as the amounts that we're discussing are negligible. 1000 linden dollars is roughly 4 US dollars. It makes pursuing cases cost MORE than the original value that you might want to sue for. It's possible that is what Adrian meant. I’m not sure. You’ll have to wait and see if he replies.

Marcus Hancroft wrote: Rya Nitely wrote: When I hit Update after editing an item DON'T take me to my new/revised listing, but let me search for it myself. Here, here! /me raises his hand on this one also! Don't do this, Linden Lab! We'd just absolutely HATE it if you did! LMAO! I'm in on this, too. It's a major pet peeve of mine as well.

Dartagan Shepherd wrote: I'm afraid you didn't prove anything. Legal tender is something you can take "out there" and spend. The worth of something because it was purchased as tokens and wins in court still doesn't make tokens currency. It has to do with them being purchased with real money, the same as you would purchase and have stake in any product that has monetary value in some way. L$ don't even have a redeemable value such as a store coupon where the fine print may read "can be redeemed for 1/1000 of a cent", where you could actually take 1,000 coupons and redeem them at a store for a penny. The grey area is whether these tokens should at all act as "currency", which I personally don't believe they should. They get around financial and consumer law, which is something that will eventually implode when people "do" start getting cases into court when they get "ripped off". On the whole discussion on what is or what is not legal tender, I wrote: 02-27-2012 08:45 AM when you purchase an item on Marketplace using paypal with US dollars (which IS the definition of legal tender) it negates any notion that currency and transactions are "game money." Further, even if you use linden dollars for that purchase, the item price is given in an equivalent legal tender currency, US Dollars (same as casino tokens would be,). The question of whether there is a legal precedence that US law overrides TOS implies that a purchase online with US dollars is unique, which it is not. Purchasing "cartoon" items on marketplace falls under the same existing laws as any web-based purchases of any software, electronic media, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not clear on your point.

That's what I meant. If they give you everything then you don''t have anything that you have to pay for. If you buy the materials, then they pay for the materials only. This way you can keep doing what you love and try to build up a reputation.

well...if you love doing it, then i would do it for the cost of the materials until you can get references. then maybe you can think about charging? just sometihng to think about.

Tht's what i had to do. well, i had to do that and more. Go to magicbox status fro merchant home. x out of the window that tries to put you right back on marketplace. scroll down. Your magic box servers will show on the bottom left. click UPDATE. then wait a few minutes and then resync on marketplace.

Anaiya Arnold wrote: I don't want LL to move rather than delist our items if we wrongly categorize a tiny percentage of items on an infrequent and obviously unintentional basis. I don't want LL to inform us automatically which category a delisted item should go in either. They should waste our time and their's making us send in a support ticket to get this information. It's more educational that way. ROFL! Great post

I think that the LL MP Team should definitely NOT have regular monthly focus group meetings with selected merchants drawn at random with the only requirement being that the merchant has been in world for a year. They should NOT vary the group each month and should either not have them at all or leverage only those people proven to be LL / MP supporters. Matter of fact, I’ll go so far as to say that i think LL should definitely NOT have any focus group to solicit resident feedback at all for any and all aspects of SL and should rely solely on the quagmire that is known as JIRA. That's my two cents. Or should i say my 5 linden dollars? *grins*

Pamela Galli wrote: If I get unsolicited spam, which is very rare, I mute and AR them and/or the sending object. It's pretty hard to tell if some marketing approach works or not in SL; but in RL, yes, spam works enough to make the negilible cost worthwhile; otherwise no one would do it. But in RL you can't just mute them. I mute them also, if they don't respond and don't take me off their lists. However, I don't AR as i don't view the meaning of AR to be Annoyance Report.

Zanara Zenovka wrote: Question should prolly be: Why are you getting all these notices you don't want? I don’t think that every merchant that does this has the "opt in" feature. I think they're just pulling the names of anyone who ever bought one item from them. I don't want to name names; some of them have been very nice about taking my name off of their list when i ask them to. But i wish I didn't have to deal with what i consider spam and having to notify them. I'd rather that they do what you have suggested - ask people if they want to subscribe. There are instances when I am repeat customer and others where I buy one thing, don't like it and don't buy there again. The funny thing is, the ones that have spammed me the most, in general, are the ones that I only bought one item from (and I didn't like it.)

As a consumer, recently, I’ve been flooded with notecards, pictures and "green chat," that tells me that thus and such merchant made something. I’ve been offered demos and free gifts that I haven’t' asked for and occasionally told how to opt out of their direct-to-consumer marketing blitz. I find the whole thing rather distasteful and annoying; much in the same way that I opt out of the annoying email updates from online stores in RL. In SL, I find it to be even more annoying and it makes me not want to buy another thing from that seller. Do those of you that use them find that they work? Do those of you that receive them like getting automated chat, notecards, pictures, demos, etc? Does it make you want to buy more from that merchant? I'm not entirely sure if the new policy changes that are being proposed will stop the ability for direct-to-consumer spam, but I can honestly say that if they do, it will be the one thing that I would find great about the new proposed changes. Thoughts?

Anaiya Arnold wrote: There's more than one. Also many kit sellers put an example in their kits and their buyer's can choose to copy this prim by prim manually, or they can use a handy dandy script of some kind to do the work for them. Yes, I agree. That's why i think that looking at prim creation time is not a reliable indicator. I'm not going to worry about it. I think I want to spend my time having fun building. Cheers

Rene Erlanger wrote: Ilyra Chardin wrote: Does this fit the exact definition of a ponzi or pyramid scheme - no. But it's close enough. And while not everyone is hyping this as a means of earning an SL living, enough are in various groups and circles all over SL to raise these concerns. Caveat Emptor It's the same as opening your own Shop or a Mall or buying sims and turning it into a rental business......there's no guarantees of profits for any of those. In some cases investing in breedables is less of a monetary risk than the examples i gave. That's akin to saying renting a store in a mall in real life is just like buying those proofs of coins that they try to sell you over the television. You know? The ones where they give you the value of true gold coin and then offer you the proof of the coin. Caveat Emptor - Let the Buyer Beware.

The item in here that caught my attention was, "if all the prims are made at the same time," as a means for detecting copybotted items. There is at least once full perm sculpt seller that sells to builders. Their items come complete with a script to build the 1-5or so prims at once. As merchants like this sell to builders, there is a high likelihood that at least two builders will come up with the same item to sell (under the licensing agreement.) I don't believe in stealing, but I’m not going to build my life around trying to figure out who is stealing. And I don't know that it is that easy to figure out anyway. Items with prims made at the same time may have legitimately been built using the above mentioned script. I don’t ban unless the person is a griefer and I have observed them griefing. My two cents.

Thank you Gadget. Ziggy, when you purchase an item on Marketplace using paypal with US dollars (which IS the definition of legal tender) it negates any notion that currency and transactions are "game money." Further, even if you use linden dollars for that purchase, the item price is given in an equivalent legal tender currency, US Dollars (same as casino tokens would be,). The question of whether there is a legal precedence that US law overrides TOS implies that a purchase online with US dollars is unique, which it is not. Purchasing "cartoon" items on marketplace falls under the same existing laws as any web-based purchases of any software, electronic media, etc.

As long as items on Marketplace are given in and sold with linden AND US dollar values that sale constitutes a real purchase with real money. US law would, in this case, override TOS. That being said, it would be unlikely that anyone would bring this or any other marketplace purchase to court as the costs of any of the items (in real US dollars) are nebulous. With respect to the scheme - people who entered the "breedables market" early were able to auction off / sell the offspring for what they considered large sums of linden dollars. Follow on enthusiasts, seeking to make money in this market, found the market saturated and did yield a return on investment. Yes, there are those that bought them for the sheer joy of owning and breeding pets. But a large number, caught up in the "hype" that was hitting groups where people advertised auctions, bought them thinking they could earn an SL living this way. As groups moved on to newer type breedables, those late entries into the market found they had costs for their purchases and for food and did not get the return on their investment that they had hoped for. Does this fit the exact definition of a ponzi or pyramid scheme - no. But it's close enough. And while not everyone is hyping this as a means of earning an SL living, enough are in various groups and circles all over SL to raise these concerns. Caveat Emptor

Anaiya Arnold wrote: Ilyra Chardin wrote: As Linden Dollars have an exchange rate and can be converted into US dollars, it is legal tender. No, it's not. On every marketplace item page, the item's given in Linden and US Dollars. US dollars are legal tender and LL facilitates the purchase and sale of linden dollars into that legal tender. Further, marketplace accepts direct payment of US dollars.

I’ve had that happen when a customer says that they bought something from me and can't find it in inventory. There are so many different failure points, including asset server issues, that I just gave another copy (after checking my orders log.) I work hard, too, but I take the approach that the customer is telling the truth about not receiving or not being able to find it. A customer may not remember when the service and products were good, but they will always remember bad service. It leaves an indelible bad taste in their mouth. Not only won't they forget, they're likely to tell everyone who will listen to them.

As Linden Dollars have an exchange rate and can be converted into US dollars, it is legal tender. Anyway, I think the whole breedable (have to buy food and feed them) thing is wrong.