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OzwellWayfarer

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Posts posted by OzwellWayfarer

    Reviews with STARS but no titles or text or reviewer name?

    in Merchants

    Posted

    This is the same phenomina that means that brand new content struggles to achieve a handful of reviews, but junk from 2008 which was great back then but is way outdated by now still has 300+ positive reviews ( most with no text).

    Xstreet was much more "proactive" about encouraging people to leave reviews. 

    Nowadays people only leave reviews if they are AMAZED by your work (5 stars). Or hate you and want to blackmail you (1 Star) :) Middle ground is rare. Most often I get reviews when I have done some customer service for someone.

    I do wish the system was used more generally (and responsibly). 

    So anyway, when you see those "no text reviews" what it DOES tell you is the last time this product got a possitive review was a loooong time ago. 

    Personally, I think reviews should expire after a given length of time. Maybe 3 years.

    Second life mechanics, will it change?

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    Obviously, this is going to sound slightly rich coming from a merchant, but if people want SL to endure, the very worst thing they can do is stop buying things and renting land to "wait and see" what comes in a few years. That will kill SL quicker than any new platform.

    SL will run until it becomes unprofitable to maintain. How long that will be is really anyones guess. I would not count on it being here forever, but I still think we have a good number of years ahead of us.

    Back after few years, is it still possible to make money on content?

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    I agree, dont listen to the naysayers. You wont make a fortune unless your lucky. But you can make money. I can also just about cover my rent with what I get in-world each month.

    I would say scout out the market first and see if you can concieve of something nobody has done yet. One of my top sellers has been my cave kit. I think it was the first mesh cave kit on the market at the time and even now with 1-2 other competitors, its still one of my best sellers. 

    Best of luck!!

    Notecards? WTF Rant!

    in Merchants

    Posted

    All I know is I logged out, did nothing, came back 3 weeks later and got that message. Normally I always get offline IM notifications in my email. This time it went up to somewhere early in week 2 then stopped. I assume that's when it happened.


    Normally I log in at least weekly, so this is the first and only time anything like that had a chance to happen. I don't see how it can be something I have inadvertently done either. I logged out, I logged in again.

    Is there much of a market for this sort of thing?

    in Merchants

    Posted

    You could market "custom avatar portraits" with a few portfolio pics as your listing images. There is a "Services" section to the marketplace, so I assume you are allowed to do this. though you might find it hard getting a price that makes the time and effort worthwhile.


    You would need to work out how to charge people and for what. Make sure you set limits to things like revisions and tweaks and describe very clearly what people will be getting for the money. That would be the tricky part. Certainly not easy.


    You could offer different packages. Like a single portrait, "Event Sets" like for weddings.


    Also, if you can make them, there is certainly a market for decent seamless textures.s.

    Notecards? WTF Rant!

    in Merchants

    Posted

    I didn't believe capped IMs was "a thing" either until I went away on holiday for 3 weeks last year, and returned to total devastation. Basically it said "your Ims were capped" or something to that effect in chat, and I couldn't see any of those IMs and there were no email notifications for those either. 

    I have no idea how or why it is triggered, but it IS real. My backup now is to provide my gmail email in my profile. There is no real ideal solution as you know :/ Plus each merchant seems to have a different preferred contact method.

    How can I get more people to review my items?

    in Merchants

    Posted

    I find talking to customers sometimes spurs people to write reviews. A little proactive customer service.


    I sell a cave kit which can be tricky to use for people not familiar with building in-world. So I usually drop a quick IM saying thanks for shopping at my store and if they need any help, just ask. Consequently that is by far my most reviewed product. People like a personal touch.

    Otherwise I am inclined to agree with Sassy. 1 review in 3-500 purchases seems to be average. People use the review system in a very strange way in SL. Usually to indicate delight or outrage. You dont see a lot of 2-3 star reviews. I have always taken a "zero star" product that has been on the market for a while to be "good but not amazing".

    Thoughts on SL2?

    in Merchants

    Posted

    I am excited at the prospect of a new grid, but cannot really picture how these two grids will co-exist. If the platform is significantly better, the action will move pretty quickly.

    My main concern is that they announced it far too early. So early they cant even answer many basic questions. I think it will have a negative impact on the economy for sure as people adopt a "wait and see" mentality. If inventory is non-transferable, who in their right mind is going to throw good money after bad? We all know many virtual projects are planned in terms of years.

    So in short I think a new grid is good. But the way it has been announced, with narry even a screenshot or titbit of info other than Ebbes repeated mantra of "it will be better"......that really sucks.

    Real World Credit Processing time

    in Merchants

    Posted

    I am quite puzzled that they want me to submit this stuff too, as I am nowhere even close to the thresholds I have heard mentioned regarding this issue. 

    As others have said, would it really be SO HARD for LL to be a bit more proactive in informing us? Just a popup when we login or something? I now basically have 5 days to save my account from suspension.

    Real World Credit Processing time

    in Merchants

    Posted

    Seems it was the case for me that LL indeed want to see my papers and for some reason those emails didnt go into my main Gmail folder. Thanks for bringing my attention to that!

     

    Now I only have a week to to it. Fiddlesticks.: smileymad:

    Real World Credit Processing time.

    in Merchants

    Posted

    It has been painfully slow lately. Even by LL standards. It improved for a blip earlier this year but quickly returned to normal. I have one Proccess Credit I placed on 30th April that I am still waiting for :(

    I think a few days is fair enough but weeks is beyond a joke.

    Alpha sorting problem.....but no alpha textures?

    in Building and Texturing Forum

    Posted

    I have just run into a strange issue that hopefully someone can assist with. I have been texturing some meshes this evening and for some reason, my perfectly normal texture is experiencing the "alpha sorting" issue, where the object is slightly transparent when viewed from ceritan angles.

     

    Now, I went over to Opensim to check this out and the exact same meshes and the exact same texture do not experience this issue there. I double and tripple checked the texture in GIMP and there is 1000% no alpha on the texture.

    The pieces do have normal maps applied but again, also in opensim. In OS my objects look solid, in SL they dont. I am also pretty sure it has nothing to do with the meshes, as this is a re-texture job and the meshes were fine up intil the point I applied the texturte.

    So, whats going on? Its not the mesh, and its not the texture.......Help please! Thank you. :)

    An open letter to animators

    in Inworld Employment

    Posted

    ...I was wondering why the views on my blog suddenly spiked.

     

    @Dres - I am amazed by your omnipresence. Do you comment on every single thread in the forum? :)

     

    It is a little bit cheeky. But I am glad someone found my posts useful enough to spread. I also agree with Spiral. We do need good scriptors and animators right now over in Kitely for a range of tasks and people are more than willing to pay.

    .......But any builders should stay the heck away! I'm making good money and I dont need you there competing with me. :P

     

    Blatant Game rips are blatant

    in General Discussion Forum

    Standardized Licensing

    in Merchants

    Posted

    Dres also makes a very good point. if you go look at other 3D marketplaces or texture merchats, most SL people would probably be shocked how "expensive" things are. Thats why its damn near impossible to get new merchants to move to SL. For most, they can make better money with less hastle elsewhere and its just not worth it.

    Prices in SL are already bargain basement. I think this has a lot to do with tier prices. It suffocates the economy and turns everyone into a bargain hunter.

     

     

     

    Standardized Licensing

    in Merchants

    Posted

    Hello Faye

    I recently started putting my items up on the Kitely marketplace. Which is the biggest Opensim Marketplace out there right now. I and many others sell our items so that you can take them to any hypergrid enabled world, or save them in an OAR and upload them to a closed grid that allows you to do so. I also offer cheaper versions for use within Kitely.

    http://www.kitely.com/market?store=2337532


    The general rule is to charge more for "DRM free" items I am affraid, because as Min and Mika point out, there is both less people in Opensim, and higher risk your work will become distributed illegaly. You asked whats the difference where you sell? Well, those two I mentioned are the two main driving factors. Less people, more risk.

    The good news is that as more creators come over, price will be driven down by competition. The reason you dont see e SL marketplace selling to OS is mostly because content creators dont want it, because opensim provides little in the way of DRM protection as mentioned above.

    Even IF creators were up for the risk, LL would never allow it because if you could have all that nice content out in Opensim, what would be the motivation to pay LL stupid money each month for a piece of non-existent land?

    Ziltch.

    Patriot Act Letter from LL?

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    The thing that bothers me most is the way this is phrased. The rest of the world is sick of Americas s**t as it is without them trying to become the global internet police too. Start doing a decent job on your own country, and then MAYBE you can try to tell us what to do. Maybe…….

     

    Uncle Sam wont be getting any of my details willingly. They will have to steal it from me, like the quasi-Stasi criminals they are.

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