Ziggy21 Slade

Ann Otoole wrote: try making any change to your listing and update. Do not use the SKU. If you need to make sure no numeric digits are in the SKU as this removes it from search. Better to have a blank SKU since it is clearly defective.. Whaaaaaa!? I know you know your stuff Ann, but I have 500 SKUs to remove, so you are sure - right?

Worryingly we are moving towards agreement! Toysoldier Thor wrote: I find LL is most often the biggest threat to the grid that I love so much. But it is also LL that has made all of the above things that you like here possible, thats why I believe they deserve a more balanced approach. Toysoldier Thor wrote: Unlike you and a few others here that truly believe the best apporach to make SL healthy is to hide LL's stupid mistakes, defend their actions at all costs, compliment LL staff for trying so hard, etc. I see these actions by Customers of a poorly run operation as harmful to the progress of the product/services this company offers and even a form of Customer irresponsibility. I think this is unfair, there are a number of times when I have been vehemently critical of LL, I posted extensively on changes surrounding the new marketplace, in particular with regard to image sizes, listing size, bbcode and animated GIFS, I wrote a damning post relating to the new advertsing site, it's probably just coincidence, but it has to be said the day I posted that the site was shut down. I have posted more recently criticising the lack of advertsing opportunities, and on the pathetic state of Marketplace search. SL is a complex animal and I am prepared to put up with some imperfections and teething problems, so when Marketplace search initially didn't work correctly I may well have spoken in support of LL, now they can no longer call this a teething problem and the Honeymoon Period is well and truly over I am frustrated and angry about it and would have no hesitation in saying so if the opportunity arose. Toysoldier Thor wrote: But until then, this is my strategy to protect SL from its owners actions. How does what you post achieve this? you claim they are spinning bad figures to look good, this would suggest they feel uncomfortable with the figures they have to announce, so if they already know they have such a big problem that it needs to be covered up, how does you pointing out this alleged cover up help things?. If you receive a complaint from a customer doubtless you will go and deal with it, if the same customer comes back the next day with a similar complaint, well maybe you will help him out again, but how about when he's back on day 3, and on day 4 he is here in forums calling you a liar, and on day 5 he is dreaming up conspiracy theories about you, day 6 complaining again, it isn't going to be very long before you think Looney Tune! and mute him, so are you sure your strategy is truly effective?. Anyway I really don't want this to go on forever, feel free to reply, I will definitely read it, but in the interests of others I won't respond. Whilst I cannot agree with your approach I support and admire you goals.

Toysoldier Thor wrote: Ziggy, what I want to understand - truly I want to understand - is why does my posts that critique and critisize LL activities, mistakes, weak quarterly results, spin doctoring interpretations, etc. bother you so personally? Why? My posts in no way were attacking you. My posts were not even addressed to you or directed at you in any way. But yet your posting - like so many others here that feel they need to be LL's white knight defenders - takes on a tone as if I have somehow personally attacked you. Quite simply because what you write is often hopelessly over dramatic and neurotic and is never likely to be good for MY business. Posting in a forum where new users may come for information, that everything is going down the pan is unlikely to make one of the situations you complain about so biitterly any better. As for being a white night defender of LL, well us White Knights are very much the minority both on the forums and in SL, the vast majority of posts are complaints or people agreeing with complaints. I think it's important to provide some balance so people get to hear both sides of a story and make their own minds up. Toysoldier Thor wrote: I am assessing and posting my opinions on the results of a corporation / business. Its fine if you have have cult-like undying love for all things LL, but why are your posts not focused on debating the topic as opposed to taking a fire and brimstone position on trying to shoot the messenger? Admittedly I did have a couple of digs at you personally, sorry if I offended you, but part of the point I am making is that you have a cult like undying disdain for all things LL and it would be difficult to put this across without mentioning you personally. It's unfair to suggest I didn't debate the topic, I think the arguments I made in this regard are quite clear. I am not 'shooting the messenger' because you aren't the messenger, you are a guy who is giving his opinion on the message and without fail this involves you doing precisely what you have accused me of doing, take a look at just a few quotes I have pulled from the blog you reference... Toysoldier Thor wrote: ...the creative license that the LL author used to sugar coat the bad news or squeeze the most excitement out of the little good news was to the level of embarrassing. ...its incomplete trivia. ...but the LL Report Author took creative license on interpreting the results to make a bad picture look good. ...It just make the Author look like a Propaganda Flinger. ...What you will notice in this section is how the Author saw an opportunity to brag about how the results are better than LL's longer term history, especially for a stat that LL can fully manipulate. The Propaganda Flinger in action. ...you see I don't think its me who can be accused of shooting the messenger!. Suppose that instead of laughing and saying God! not this nutter again, Rodvik had actually replied to your Tweet.. Damn it Toy you got me bang to rights, everything in your blog is correct, what use would that be? You give the poor bloke a Hobsons choice, either he replies to your tweet and agrees with you and loses business, replies to your tweet and disagrees and is then accused of lying or ignores your tweet and has his silence interpeted as agreement. It really shouldn't suprise you that he didn't reply and you certainly shouldn't be using this fact as evidence to back up your argument. LL are bound to put a positive spin of their financial results, as you have agreed, all companies do this, it is in the best interest of them and arguably their customers that they do, but what is your excuse for your constant negative spin? I look at LL graphs and I see them almost level with a very slight decline, I read your blog and I could be forgiven for thinking that SL is closing down next week and that all the staff will be arrested and charged with conspiracy and fraud. I am not afraid to admit that I love Second Life, I love the whole concept of a virtual world, I love the creative opportunities it presents, I love playing the game of business here, I love the fact that I have rubbed shoulders with clever and creative people from all over the planet, I especially love the cash I make. If you want to call this a cult like undying love, thats fine, I always have been at least a little weird, my reasons for being here and for speaking in defence of the place are quite clear, but what I don't understand is, why are you here? you have never got anything nice to say about the place, you constantly accuse the management of incompetence, dishonesty and greed and seem hell bent on proving once and for all that the entire population feels the same way you do and is about to quit, if things are really as bad as you say they are - then leave, if you accept that maybe things aren't quite as bad as you sometimes suggest, then post something positive every now and then.

Could you provide a link to anything you have written ever, where you interpreted an anouncement from LL in a positve way? You only ever see things negatively, and when you can't you claim LL are lying or have falsified the figures. Where is this leading?, what is it that you hope to achieve from this?, would it be good or bad for you if LL were to say 'actually Toy is right' everyone is leaving and SL is doomed?. I get the feeling you would be jumping for joy. Obviously LL paint the rosiest picture possible, just like any company does, its absolutley what we would expect and really isn't evidence of some great conspiracy theory. What is see from these figues, is what I would expect, a small, slow decline. No big drama, no conspriacy that needs to be covered up or falsified, just numbers which are very slightly lower than last years, with one exception - The Marketplace which has shown a pretty rapid increase in sales since its launch, whilst I would agree that this increase has come at the expense of inworld sales, again it is precisely what we would expect to see. Because Rodvik didn't bother to reply to your conspiracy theory tweet, really isn't evidence that there is a conspiracy, however the fact that you interpreted it that way is evidence that you are a conspiracy theorist.

I dont think there is, unless your IT guy owes you a big favour. One method I use sometimes is I log onto my home PC from work using LogMeIn and run SL on there, its not great but you can get by. Also I sometimes use the Metabolt Viewer which has no graphics, so you can't see anything in SL, but you can chat and tidy inventory and stuff, this probably won't beat your employers web blocker, but it's a bit less obvious when you work in a horrible glass office like I do.

I think you both have the right to sell even though the intellectual property really belongs to the creator. Presumably if we were to ask the ex partner he would say something like 'well he made the stuff, but I paid for the land and did all the marketing' or something similar, so unless you had something in writing or the items in question are particularly valuable I think I would give up on them. Innovate your way out of this situation, you are the creator, go forth and create, remake these things but make them better, and make some more stuff besides, if your ex partner doesn't make stuff he can get no bigger, a few weeks with your nose to the grindstone and you can leave him miles behind.

Qie Niangao wrote: Gambling was orders of magnitude more successful. So was banking. Where are they now? The point I am making is this product is very successful because it is a very good product, created by people who know what they are doing, they really don't have much to learn from the nutters screaming abuse in their forums. I am not really sure what point you are making. Gambling was not a business, it was a type of business with many operators and it was stopped because it contravened California Law, banking also was a type of business rather than a single one and it was stopped because one particular operator did a runnner with everyones cash, so what comparison are you drawing here? Qie Niangao wrote: In fact, of course, it's not for that purpose at all. It's merely a loophole that keeps them from getting ARd for fraud. Here you illustrate my point perfectly, are you really in a position to accuse a business of commiting fraud? this is a libelous statement unless you have clear evidence to support it. Before you post a response check that what you are saying actually constitutes fraud, so you may want to take legal advice, and also make sure you have sufficent cash to defend yourself in any possible law suits

There is a difference between a Meeroo and other items you may buy in SL. Meeroos is a game which you participate in, obviously the creator of that game has to reserve the right to remove people from playing it in order to keep it safe and fair for all the players. This right is detailed in their TOS here... Malevay Studios may review these instances at their discretion, and may revoke entirely, suspend or reinstate an offending player using assessors own judgement. Now although you havent tampered with anything or attempted to cheat, what exactly did you do?. Let's face it, you werent banned for being polite and reasonable. Having created a breedable myself, I can tell you, I banned people from my game for things they said in my group, it wasn't that I wasn't prepared to accept criticism, there was always plenty of that, but often people in SL forget they are dealing with Real People, they are so used to constantly bitching about LL they think it's ok to say anything they like, so whilst I was ok hearing criticism of my pet, the breeding game, prices etc, I absolutely was not prepared to be insulted nor was I prepared to provide a group for certain individuals to libel me. Did you accuse the creators of dishonestly, or ripping off customers or something of this nature? if you did you shouldn't be surprised that you got the boot. I don't have any Meeroos, but they are without a doubt, one of the most popular products SL has ever seen, having read their forums it's quite clear there are a number of players who need to calm down, remember there are human beings behind every avatar and stop trying to run one of SLs most successful businesses on behalf of it's creators. I am not really sure how you are going to take this to RL, Meeroos have a no warranty clause, and a limitation of liabiltiy clause, plus your losses can't amount to more than a few dollars, certainly too few for any kind of offical legal action. All that said I am genuinly sorry you lost your stuff.

Interesting article. I can't say I agree with very much of it, it appears to have been written by someone who has possibly never consumed alcohol and has certainly never been drunk. These experiments show that even when people are very drunk, if they are given an incentive (either financial reward or even just social approval) they are perfectly capable of remaining in complete control of their behaviour - of behaving as though they were totally sober. This seems very unlikely to me, if it was true, surely the incentive of not losing ones driving license would be sufficient to make every drunk driver drive perfectly and we know of course that is not true. I know from my own over indulgences in the past there is absolutley no way I was always in complete control nor could I have behaved as though I was totally sobre. Of course to be in this state you have to drink quite dangerous amounts, much more I think than a person taking part in an experiment would be allowed to consume. I do believe we have a cultural problem with alcohol here in the UK though, it is so interwoven with our culture it crops up everywhere, often you may hear a TV or Radio presenter refer over indulgences at a party they attended and this is always presented as big load of fun rather than as something with serious health consequences, our 3 most popular Soap operas, collectively watched by tens of millions all centre around Pubs, and the characters in these soaps constantly abuse alcohol, if something good happens they go to the pub to celebrate, something bad happens they go to the pub to comiserate, they USE alcohol rather than just enjoy a casual drink. If we really want to change things (not so sure that we really do) we have to eject alcohol abuse from our popular culture first.

I don't like to be too cruel, but surely you can see there is nothing in this for a potential partner. The deal you are offering is, I get to spend thousands of US dollars financing this business, while you spend nothing, you will then take half of the profits. All you have to offer is your track record in land management which by your own admission only delivered profits on some occassions and can at best be described as 'chequered'. It seems to me that you want to go on the Great Land Owner Ego Trip and are expecting someone else to pay the fare. Exactly what are you bringing to this party which makes it attractive to a potential partner?

I have to say, I dont really understand what your issue is, it isn't very clear, but perhaps this will help... Announced in Caspervend User Support Group earlier We're pleased to announce that a PREMIUM version of our Rez-Free product is now available. This premium version is API compatible with the Rez-Faux, and therefore is compatible many hundreds of third party systems, including HippoVend and the A.E. Worx rezzer. Your Rez-Free FREE packages can be easily upgraded to premium without setting up each part again, a guide is included with the product. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/ie-I-love-pie/2759507

Quite a few such things are already on the marketplace - might be a cheaper option than custom

Josh Susanto wrote: The prediction that I will be complaining about something would seem to me to be a logical subsidiary prediction of the larger prediction that I will be given ample matter about which to complain. In that sense, I'm glad to see that we're on the same page. :smileyvery-happy: LOL Good answer

A recent favourite method has been to pretend you have suddenly lost your wits and the ability to think up a price along with them, and make a post asking others for help pricing your new thingy. It is strange really that the much heralded New Marketplace was supposed to offer new marketing opportunities, this apparently meant... Getting rid of the new products forum Removing Banner Ads completely Reducing the exposure time of featured Ads Removing BB code so no links or linked images in listings Reducing the number and size of pictures for each product Removing animated Gifs from main Images Constantly fiddling with search C'mon LL we are just trying to make you more cash!!!!

It wouldn't make any difference if you were there or not Josh, like all OH the majority of people would have no idea how to behave in a meeting, there would be half a dozen prolific whiners who would waste everyones time, while they went on and on about some issue that was unique to them and of no interest to the group (failed deliveries from an overloaded Magic Box For Instance), another half dozen Conspiracy Theorists who would waste time with their outlandish theories and a number of 'merchants' who you have never heard of before who think its ok to just hurl abuse. You see in the greater scheme of things you just ain't that special

1. You will be here complaining about stuff. --||-

Just to add further clarity When you search using the 'All' tab, your parcel, providing it is set to show, will be returned with this object in the results. There is a good chance however that you will be so far down the list that your parcel won't show at all. The way around this is to have lots of items set to show all including the same search term in the item name and description, and include this search term in the parcel description. Something like this... Parcel Name: Widgets of Secondlife Parcel Description: Fabulous Widgets at great prices, Second Lifes leading widget supplier, Sex Widgets for all, French and German Widgets a speciality Note: do not use the search term more than 4 times in the parcel description the system will see it as Spam, 3 times only for safety Object Name: Wonderful Super Widget - Object description - The finest Widget in Second Life. a beautiful blue Widget Note: never have the search term follow itself so 'widget, widget' must never appear, watch for this as the last word of the object name and the first word of the description again the system will see this as spam. The greater the density (the number of times this word occurs in your descriptions compared with other words) of the search term on your parcel the more likely it is to appear high in search. Search is indexed twice a day, so don't expect instant results, make changes, leave for 24 hours, and then make changes again until you get it right. It will probably take several days. Keyword density is not the only factor affecting search results, there are a number of mysterious algorithms at play, plus the actions of other users, who may also be vying for position on the same keyword. If you really want to see what going on, SEO tools, available on the Marketplace, are essential. If you do all of the above, you can happily join the rest of us, in wondering why, after following all the available advice you are still at the bottom of page 3. : )

My first reaction to this was Nah don't talk rubbish!. But then I thought I should at least check and sure enough there they are - now 10th for 'animation' in 'All' - 200k classified and nothing set to show in search. How they have managed that I have no idea, the only explanations I can think of are, its either as you say and classified is now influencing search or for some reason the search page didn't build properly. I have a sim that is 3rd for one search term but doesnt have any classified at all, which doesnt seem to fit this pattern, so I am mystified, not sure if its totally a bad thing if it's true, I think I would rather just pay to be high in classifed and all search instead of all the messing around I have to do now fiddling with object names and descriptions etc. What this thread needs is Darrius Gothly!

I am surprised so many people don't use prices on pictures, i guess I need to do more shopping. I have always put prices, prims and perms on my pictures. The price is one of the selling points of the product, provided you have priced fairly, so I think it's as important to advertise it as it is to show an image of the product, which is why I am surprised that people do sales and don't then advertise the price. Although I guess if your image is very High End this may be appropriate. Most of my prices are preceeded by the word 'Only' and followed by 'Click here to buy', a reminder that it's a great deal and a call to action inviting the customer to part with his cash. Interestingly there is some controversial research which suggests that the price itself has an effect on the image you present, prices ending in 9 suggest a good deal at a knock down price but possibly not good quality, numbers ending in 0 and 7 or even numbers suggest quality but possibly not the cheapest available. Other research suggests consumers ignore the last 2 digits anyway. All of this theory is of course dependent on one overiding factor, the customer has to be relied upon to read whats in front of him/her and I have to admit that doesn't seem to happen too often!.

Cool Idea! I missed the group chat, I am gonna guess they paid the highest price available?.

Kylie Jaxxon wrote: Thanks for plugging...:matte-motes-silly: Thanks for presenting me with the opportunity :smileyhappy:

Yawn! Yet another silly conspiracy theory. Obviously errors of this nature are going to be much rarer. If someone purchases something, varoius things things can go wrong which could delay payment or stop it altogether, web communications being the most obvious, but also database errors etc, the transaction exists between the 2 parties but for whatever reason fails. For someone to be overpaid, money which doesn't exist in the system has to magically appear from somewhere and then for no reason at all be put in your account, it doesn't take a genius to see that an error like this is a lot less likely to occur than the former. Having said that, there was one week when every single premium customer got paid their weekly stipend twice, and we were allowed to keep it, so perhaps you would like to theorise as to what LL were trying achieve on that occasion. If you were to apply this amazing imagination of yours to creating some products to sell, instead of wasting your time dreaming up nutty conspiracies I think you would be a lot happier.

Shameless Plug Alert! I don't have a crashed Witch but I do have lots of other Halloween props and decorations, I have crammed over 130 of them into a huge Halloween Megapack, perfect for malevolent moneysavers.

I think it depends. Mostly on what business you are planning to run, if you are planning on renting land, getting a job helping someone with their rentals could provide invaluable experience, similarly if you want to run a club, a few weeks working in one should teach you there is no money to be made : ). If you plan to create and sell, I would suggest you just get on with it, you are going to need the practice if you are really new, go to some classes if you need to, they are free and enjoyable and are a great way into the creation game. heres a couple of useful links... http://xdfusion.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/how-to-start-a-business-in-second-life/ http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Selling-in-the-Marketplace/ta-p/700193 Aha! I see from your other post that Art is your thing, there are many types of business owners here, some just do it for the enjoyment of owning a business, some aim to make tier and maybe pay for some clothes, others want to make profit and cash out to RL, if you are the latter I would advise to forget about Art Galleries, the product itself will be too subjective to sell in large numbers, you wont be able to charge enough to make it worth your while adding to the collection and you are essentially competing against every other artist that ever lived, since many unscrupulous residents are quite prepared to upload and sell anything they find in google images. The good news is, if you have skills in this field there is plenty of money to be made here in SL, but you need to start thinking like a Lifer and that can take some time, get yourself to some classes first, it will start to open your eyes to the opportunities. If you want to go down the job route, check out the Inworld Employment section here, not all, but many advertisers will want you to be at least 3 months old though.

I think it's a bit unfair to suggest someone is shallow if they arent physically attracted to another. Physical attraction is an important part of the overall attraction and it can't just be ignored. I would also refute this idea that this is some male thing and women are deep emotional creatures who are only interested in personalities, if thats actually true why would women pay so much attention to their personal appearance. Take a look at any dating site and the women who have profiles there, you will find a large percentage who are looking for a 'tall' man, I have several female friends who will automatically reject any man who is under 6 feet tall and these are not tall women , and I have lost count of the women who have rejected me for this reason. I was once in a very similar situatiuon to this myself, long before SL i built an online relationship with an American Woman, eventually we exchanged photos, I have to say when I saw hers (she sent several) I was a little dissapointed with some but I was foolish enough to believe that I shouldnt be so shallow, eventually she came over to the UK to stay with me, we met in a London hotel, I can still remember the shock when I saw her for the first time, either cameras really do tell lies or she had aged 20 years during her Transatlantic Flight, after a day or two I came clean and told her I just wasn't attracted to her, it didn't make any difference, she dropped straight into desperate stalker mode just the same as the woman in the story, and I was subjected to weeks of drama and arguing and manipulation before I finally managed to shake her off. Honesty sounds like a good idea, but in my experience it often isn't