WADE1 Jya

I've noticed this pattern on occasion too. It usually lines up with Linden Lab's "Grid Status Updates". Lindens break stuff or get busy "fixing" stuff, sales suck. Lindens don't touch anything, sales rock! That's my explanation for such high velocity change. I make & sell product in real world too & have seen nothing comparable to this kind of change, except for when a retail store has road in front under construction, sales go in the toilet similar to what you can see sometimes in SL, followed by a hyperbolic recovery once the road reopens! So I think explanation here is the same - the "road" which brings customers to your door is under construction sometimes. For other companies you might see a "BETA" beside the product name until they complete this construction phase, but Lindens prefer to always run things live - no betas.

I checked out my listings which Lindens broke, and the strange thing is this instability shifts from listing to listing. I hate it, everything looks so unprofessional. The scambling is not persistent, which makes me think this is not as simple as a mismatched data set. Plus that would have been correctable overnight. I am thinking more like a bad code injection with viral-like effects which Lindens are not knowledgeable how to remove, or perhaps some data corruption issue is causing irreparable damage. Anyways, it seems best for us to just not touch it or it gets worse. Only Lindens (maybe) can fix this now... or maybe they should just close down marketplace forever as a safety precaution before it infects other Second Life products.

For anyone concerned about this situation: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Marketplace-and-Direct-Delivery-Update/td-p/1462915 /me thanks Lindens for addressing the issue.

"will paint hearts on your boxer shorts for $2" this made me lol so much hehehe...sums it all up to me! they should all really give up on this failed California business model of ----- hey man i bet i can whip up some glossy presentation to trick people into working for free or outbidding each other to see who can work hardest for the least money. worse yet is expecting to pull anything high quality or technically complex from this type of insanely insulting working environment that attempts to throw away decades of labor protections, unions & worker's rights. those with best skills will obviously go to where working conditions are best. its simple. if they cannot efficiently connect skilled people with real money, a stable working environment & some modicum of respect, only the lowest common denominator accumulates, gathering up all the dumb & clueless to sink on a ship together.

Oh good to hear, Andrea, maybe they've got things on the mend then, not an advancing problem. Let's hope for the best :catsurprised: I just had chance to look through all my items finally. I do have a largish number.... I found 4 hits out of ~300 items, so (assuming this is a standardized sampling) one could gauge that probably ~1.3% of total marketplace is currently infected. Have Lindens made statement anywhere as to why this is happening or what's going on?

Thanks for sharing your findings, its a big help. I'm still trying to piece together what's happening... Is it only these ranges (140-141) which are affected? Earlier people said just 140 range so is this issue of data corruption compounding? Since marketplace is running in essentially an alpha-test state not appropriate for public use, it would be nice for us merchants if Lindens did something to (at least temporarily) redirect people to do their shopping inworld again and just avoid marketplace. This situation really sucks big time, I'd prefer just to see them shutter marketplace at this point. Just end this horrorshow please.

working fine here too! :catembarrassed: if its not displaying correctly update your browser, or try using a different browser. i've not had this trouble with the SL site, but seen similar issue on other sites were suddenly something is missing. definitely worth a try, typically fixes any problem for me.

unfortunately my bets would be on "lost the data" :catsad: I expect otherwise they would probably have fixed it by now, as it would be simple matter to rollback & reinsert old code? I dunno, I am not quite expert on these things.... i know some merchants have more knowledge & have the time to analyze this matter quite minutely. does anyone know if this scramble effect is spreading, or was it one time incident where there is just one bad batch of stuff? i hope for the latter, for if some bad code is actively running in our marketplace i expect further deterioration! yikes :catindifferent: just wondering if it is gonna get worse....

just discovered my store has one of these borked item listing: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/The-Avatar-Eating-Crocodile/1414070 grrr :catmad: what to do? do we just wait for Lindens to fix it.... someday?.... or are they counting on us to do all the work of fixing up their mistakes for them? scared to touch it in case everything scrambles up worse :catsurprised: do we have to find each incident, collate a list of whatever data lindens need to fix it & then report each one with a jira or something? unfortunately i don't have time for this right now*sigh* /me runs back to designing stuff

If Apple were to manage something like this DD deployment we'd barely notice the system change. If we did notice anything happened... we'd still be delighted. Please Linden Lab take a page from how companies like Apple do things & don't dump needless work on all of us resulting from an awkward implementation. It's not about keeping psychotherapists employed really :catlol: Since there is many options for any designer, we enjoy freedom from restriction. So it becomes all about keeping the designer engaged. It's possible to do things always in a smoothly operating fashion, letting designers just do their work & respect their time. Partners which do provide such gain the majority of our design cycles as contributions to their platforms.

I too will wait at least until this DD system has been active for months before I think of switching over to it. Magic Box has been super-reliable, so until it is unavailable (or force throttled/screwed up to make it become unreliable) I will probably continue using it. Why fix what isn't broken? :catsurprised: I value my own time & my customer's time & don't want to frustrate them by recklessly experimenting with an essentially untested alpha-grade implementation that will surely have all kinds of problems for months, because Lindens always "test" stuff this way.... by running it live in our economy before it is truly ready for prime time. Thanks Lindens for your hard work, but as a delivery system is the backbone of my business, sorry I'll be sitting this one out for as long as possible.

lol gotta say that his latest website effort there it just looks sad ..... i think rodvik has better ideas everyday of the week, so let's hope for the best that he takes SL somewhere where the past CEOs could not.

Heh, what I think of their "pathfinding" is I can write my own paths. I know I am a strange one, but I prefer to create the algorithms myself, not using someone else's blackbox system. That is why I have my creations running around right now on screen of my mobile device :catvery-happy: Yes I have eyes on this same info Rene, which is one reason I'm quite insistent now for Lindens to continue releasing their quarterly figures, with usual profitability statement. I know they mean well, but not nice to keep people in a darkness. My little pet shop survives inworld but I must consider how Second Life is doing overall & where Linden future might be 6 months from now, such going-on has ambiguous appearance. For these people, if sales are down perhaps diversify as Linden CEO does. Mesh is an open door and a way to let no walls stand in your way as creator. Thank you Lindens, Second Life has been like a school to me. I came here knowing nothing & now I feel I have graduated. What to do around the old schoolyard now? :catembarrassed: Best of luck to everyone in these times of bad realworld economy. We are all under attack from plutocrats. Be agile and smart. Let's hope Lindens survive (I think they will) & that WWIII does not begin also with all our "world leaders" engaged in the crazy war talk.

The Vital Nature of Transparency: To me, transparency is paramount. It is a pillar that can not be removed. Once again, I'll reiterate my request to Lindens. Please rescind this poor decision & agree that you will release your usual company data. You have misunderstood in thinking this information was superfluous to us. In any business relationship, a continuum of transparency is vital to trust. I know some of you guys are through this forum so please someone pass the message up the chain that people still wanna see those quarterlies :catfrustrated:

I hope Rodvik addresses this promptly and they rescind this poor decision. He does tend to be very forthright & observant, so I am half expecting this to happen. I think he would agree that the data should continue to be released. I would praise them for their transparency to release a Q4 of poor results & always appreciate very much their honesty to present the info - whether it be good or bad. I am always thinking long-term, so seeing a bad quarterly result would not be alarming. However, a sudden lack of transparency is, quite so. I treat my investments in SL like holding stock in any company. If i can't read the ticker to see if movement is up or down, but instead it somehow becomes a blank, what exactly are my choices? Lindens, please take note & address this issue, many people of your community are very concerned.

oh lol... thats kinda lame really. its obvious lots & lots of us liked seeing that report :catsad: all i can think from this is it must have been a really bad Q4 for them. sorry to be negative, but thats really all i can assume when i read this. it reads as a poor excuse? anyone who works with retailers/sales partners in the real world knows many businesses everywhere saw an exceptionally poor quarter. its nothing to be ashamed of or shy about to try & hide it. actually, whatever possible motivations the lab may have, i can't help but see this behavior as a likely bad omen for SL's future. i'll formulate my strategy appropriately.

Ho hum I don't see what all the fuss is about on this one. Seems to me like a tiny organizational change, barely worth mentioning. I sure won't lose any sleep over it *Yawns* :matte-motes-sing:

hehehe funny stuff well this thread was at least good for a laugh :catlol:

Yeah I don't like that this happens lots cause I know it gives all SL merchants a bad rep where people can start to wonder why bother shopping. It's the kind of thing that can even make new people stop engaging in SL... before they get chance to discover all the good stuff! I think Second Life needs some basic regulations for consumer protection. Its just asking for sad times when there is zero accountability, nor consequence built into the system, and absolutely zero barriers from being a 'merchant'. Easy is good, but it has been made too easy. I know that's an unpopular opinion but :matte-motes-whistle: Compare the way Linden Lab doesn't manage the merchants in SL to the way Apple tightly manages vendors on the App Store... and then compare the popularity of these two places as a shopping destination. The difference in success is quality control. I see these things in SL as proof (contrary to popular theory) that a deregulated market does not sort itself out. Things tend to sink to the lowest common demoninator. For business to really thrive it needs good rules & enforcements to protect both buyer & seller.

high enough velocity force applied will push an avatar through any surface. i imagine you want a smooth drift-through effect though, not a ramming speed ghost. with a bit of math & a raycast you might be able to subtly push the avatar through any wall by using a tightly controlled function to apply this large force, yet have normal speed appearance. i would try applying force to push the avatar along its approach vector and almost immediately stop (apply the reverse of your force vector or whatnot to kill velocity) the avatar before a raycast does checks to see if more pushes are required to complete pass through the wall. perhaps this would all be enclosed in a collision function. initial results will tend to be unpredictable as this is a ballistic approach of brute force, the trick here would be tweaking your levels & timing to quickly & repeatedly balance large opposing forces creating a smooth movement. just a guess, i've never tried to build such effect with an avatar before. i welcome others to submit other options, there's likely a much superior method :catlol:

This is a very friendly gesture from Lindens! Nice to see them admit this issue & offer olive branch. Thank you Linden Commerce Team! I also voice agreement with Ann Otoole. The throttling and bottleneck SLM brings to the Second Life economy should obviously be reworked & replaced by a robust professional-grade system. If SLM must remain a two-dimensional (web 1.0) design, at minimum the listing/delivery/transaction systems must be professionally implemented and managed, something akin to Apple's App Store :catvery-happy: Yes, SLM seeks to replace inworld business entirely (to increase LL commission revenues), but it is by design nature not deep enough to replace inworld, nor is it a sustainable model attractive for long term real business (ROI-seeking) approach. I get it that Linden Lab is targeting hobbyists, not professionals. However, a more professional approach would help stem the complete brain drain of SL's best creative resources :catembarrassed: Happy to see they added these little cat icons too, very cute touch, thank you whichever Linden did that!

SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS: I'm also seeing an improved daily consistency of prompt deliveries, in other words: no problem seen here? Performance sure seems to be improving in these parts. The few transaction troubles I experience now are vanishingly rare & easily resolved with customer. I'd estimate that deliveries are getting faster due to Linden's hard work but to be honest I don't pay too much attention to delivery times these days. As long as the system is reasonably prompt, then everyone becomes very laissez faire about the whole situation. This is good developments, since a properly organized system is essential to keep inventory flowing smoothly during peak demand times.

Interesting viewpoint Medhue, although we are in agreement on these points.... I take kind of the complete opposite stance on my overall conclusions in the end... I am very aware of how corrupt & corporate-serving all world governments are.... lobbbyists & plutocracy controls all... it is really bad... but corporations want zero regulation when it limits their business. I want solid strict regulation of most things, not just internet. If not regulated, corporations tend to do very very nasty things. They are often driven by profit and that is the only motivation, it is really that simple... and it leads to them being quite evil if left unsupervised. Regulation is all that guards against our food being poison, helps keep our medicines real, safe vehicles, provides us truth in advertising & more. Poorly regulated industries like Big Oil and Big Pharma show the problems with a deregulated system lacking effective enforcement, and they are always lobbying for more lax regulations to save themselves money or increase profit at all costs. They do not care if their business literally kills people, as long as money keeps growing. Sometimes laws are actually good and there to protect people. When people speak up in unison intelligently we can bend laws to favor the people, not to serve corporations. I still think google & facebook pulled the wool over everyones eyes with this one to protect their own business models. These big web corporations could take some responsibility. How hard would it be for Google to include a "Report Copyright Infringement" in google search.... the same way there is a "Report Spam" option in gmail. Instead they insist to do nothing to help honest people. Often piracy sites are so blatently obvious it just takes one human to look at it and it could just be blocked so simple because it is purely an infested rats nest of open theivery, not a matter of fixing a few links. I would provide a link to a real big obvious one based in Russia here that I have been fighting with as example of why in my opinion some sort of revised improved SOPA/PIPA/ACTA is needed, but for obvious reasons I won't link to this offensive material Google will never block these type of bad sites unless forced to, and Google themselves must also protected 100% against liabilities or they would never take action to block pirated materials. Assuming Google wished to help us (I think they do not want to help the creative person), they too need a nice set of robust governement regulations to begin to take action against pirates.... regulations thus far lacking & nonexistent. Well that's my opinion anyways.... what do you think?

I'm not even trying to argue with anybody or anything, and thanks for lots of assumptions and insults, but I just think original content by artist or musicians should be protected against some non-creative theves. I am an artist. I paint, I draw, I create lots and lots of things, I'm not lazy, nor greedy. FYI. Apply this logic to any other industry that it is okay to theive them and you will see the argument doesn't make any sense. Being your own boss in the creative industry is a little more hardscrabble than you are imagining, at least it is at the bottom rungs of the ladder. Creative people most aren't making gobs of cash, more like waiting for one gob of cash & have no idea when you might get it next. It can get scary... you might do odd jobs to bridge gaps (or simply fill the fridge for your family). I just do it for the adventure & I want to do the kind of work I am passionate for, taking a wage job could perhaps make more sometimes but its just not exciting nor fulfilling for me. I like full creative control. Piracy probably only take 5-10 percent profit usually but its the people at the bottom this really hurts. These are likely the ones who notice shortfalls first, track it to a bad site & tell richer friends who help the situation correct (if it is possible to stop it under current weak laws!). Piracy affects many different types of people of widely varying income levels. You never know when that small difference of another 5-10% loss slides someone under the line that they can no longer pay their bills. One is not greedy if your motivation to succeed is to uplift a large group. I want to help a lot of friends & family because basically things suck out there economically & life is short so I want to do a lot of amazing things. Anyways, big or small, it is just not right we need better laws. Take away from a big studio making millions & next operation they must hire less people or downsize the team... also the project budgets get smaller so less cool stuff is possible with tighter & tighter resources, less chance of a successful venture. Just because big numbers are involved does not mean greed is present.

Well I do not think it is prudent to reveal too much about my inner business workings at this time, it is diverse anyway so the explanation would be rather long & involved... although I may connect my works more to SL some time in future, not at this time. However since you asked, I will try to be most forthright... I am a very minor player outside of SL creating original content which can be digitally transferred. Basically everytime a pirate site is wiped out, my business improves. I have helped take down pirate sites in the past, with help of much bigger friends It really doesn't matter who exactly takes out pirates, be they big or small, as long as somebody does this! I am all for more power given to take down sites of pirated materials and charges laid against copyright violators. I feel for the small creators like myself, and I also feel for large talented teams much much larger than myself. For example I just enjoyed watching "Puss in Boots" by Dreamworks Studios. It was amazing fun and it did cross my mind that it is a shame that those creators will see some degree of reduced profits due to rampant piracy. I think creators deserve to have all money possible go to them for their hard work. Why call great creative people like this greedy and lazy and wish to take away some of their success? If a creative person works hard (like the creator of "Avatar" worked very hard) and they attain a rich standard of living... I say they deserve every penny earned! I think that is very cool such success is actually possible for creative people!