Mickey Vandeverre

ok - I'll take a shot at this while we wait. Marketplace answers are more important anyway. But equally concerned about inworld traffic as today's traffic count is the probably the lowest it has been since I opened up shop 3 years ago. Perhaps a result of marketplace not working, as fair amount of traffic comes from marketplace listings to check out the room settings. Just tried out some consistently successful keyword terms, and it appears that not much weight it being given to product labeling. Some old standby terms that would score a product on it's parcel for first page, simply don't work at all. Meaning, not only does the product not score the parcel for first page....but can't find the parcel at all. This would be product that is packed very heavily into one parcel. My parcels are small, but with heavy product. Perhaps being penalized for too much product, as we experienced a while back. Perhaps being penalized with too many keywords. Perhaps being penalized for being on small parcels. That's all I can see for now. Not sure if it is worth adjusting or experimenting with...if they are still tweaking. Perhaps a word on how long the tweaking will go on, so that we might put efforts into other areas to compensate until the major tweaking (meaning the tweaking that flip-flops a parcel score from one end of spectrum to another)...is completed.

I see that Ralph is doing Math. I'm doing really fast math too, and willing to adjust and load 100 products in the 5 to 25L range to stay in biz. But there ain't enough Math to make that work! when you've lost all your best sellers in mid-range.

Suspect that our best sellers which sell daily consistently, sell mainly from being on page one or two of a keyword search. A gradual decline over a week would suggest that they are drifting from page one or two to pages three or four and downward. That's reasonable when people lose interest in a particular product, and you've got to go back to the drawing board and make something new. However...when that happens to 4 or 5 products all at once...it suggests that there is something else going on. If those products start slowing down in sales each day...they will eventually drift so far down that the momentum is lost, and perhaps they will not ever be a best seller again. This is alarming when it applies to your bread and butter products. Today's problem seems to be the search not working at all, and the log-ins not working. But the continual decline on very different products that were best sellers for months, over the course of the last week suggests that something was done to the sort system. As it was a broad range of items and not just one particular product that may have reached the end of it's life cycle. If in fact...it was an adjustment on Pricing sorting...that can't be good for the whole system. It just can't. Meanwhile, why waiting for explanation...those will drift and drift and drift downward.

I hate, hate, hate to discuss personal sales publicly, but not aware of any other options in order to get an explanation. I noticed a very dramatic change on the 1st day of the month. Chalked it up to people paying tier fees for a few days and not shopping...however never really had to use that explanation in the past. It carried on through today, and today was the first day ever that I recall since using marketplace, that there was not one single sale overnight...and that was alarming. I have certain items that are in a moderate price range that sell daily, same items over and over again, consistently since they were listed...DAILY. Alarm goes off when those stop selling overnight. eta: ok, well I see one problem right off the bat. when I typed in the search phrase for one particular item that has appeared on page one for months on end...the search phrase simply disappears. there is no search for it. Check your keyword searches and see if you are getting an actual search. I'm not. ok - typed in 4 other VERY OBSCURE keywords and the search is not working at all. Same page appears for each term, and it's a mix of shoes and clothes. That explains a LOT.

Good Morning Lindens :) May we please have an update on the inworld search tweaks? It seems as though there have been some daily jostling going on with the inworld search listings, as in a dramatic shuffling of the listing order. Perhaps some new algorithms or search weighting? Realize that you consider the inworld search similar to a google search in which those tweaks are not shared publicly, however many of us consider that inworld search as a yellow pages guide. Perhaps just a yes or no? or perhaps an idea on the level of tweaking? As in....yes, we applied an entirely different search approach which will benefit a larger store. or yes, we applied an entirely different approach which will benefit a store with a broad range of inventory. or yes, we applied an entirely different approach which will benefit a store that appears in our destination guide or yes, we applied an entirely different approach which will benefit a store that labels product in a specific way. or no....we haven't tweaked it at all. also: If the answer is yes, we are tweaking....will this be an ongoing thing as it was most of the year last year? or is your tweaking all finished, and we may proceed from there to figure it out ourselves? Thank you.

Good Morning Lindens :) May we please have an update on the status of the Marketplace? Have yesterday's glitches been resolved across the board? Was there a rotation of product? as in, was there a new algorithm applied or a new sort style applied or whatever you call that process, so that a different assortment of items now show up on the first pages? perhaps a new weight assigned that we are not familiar with yet? For instance...on our top sellers that have sold every single day several times a day for days on end for like a year...would there be an explanation as to why those stopped selling overnight? Do your marketplace hits/sales records show a huge slump across the board, so that we have something to go by? Thank you.

oh that. never really saw that play out in virtual world. doubt that some stock market dips would effect anything here. and it wouldn't happen overnight here, when you're talking about someone deciding whether or not to spend 5 bucks. some of this stuff happens overnight. just not sure what it is that is happening. if you have to guess for three weeks you lose a ton of adjustment time, and by then something else is on the plate to adjust for. it gets old. never had a biz in physical world that had to be adjusted dramatically every other week or month or so, with no indications of what the problem is. not sure if they adjusted the sorting or not. still see a broad assortment of price ranges. maybe I'm not searching the same way you are. but I do believe that something dramatic happened on inworld search,, as well as marketplace.

What squeeze?

You might take a glance at inworld search. Use both viewers. This would go back about a week...I could only glance briefly...wondering what the heck happened to all the inworld traffic...cringed, then turned it off. Not really in the mood for a drastic adjustment again.

I think that you've crossed the line into an abusive stage with the way you speak to Brooke, and surprised you get away with it. I would remove a customer like that from the environment, and have before. It's a shame that fair and balanced voices are not heard, and that some of those voices will choose to go to the ranting option as a last attempt. (raises hand). Not much faith in a company that lets their employees be abused like that in front of other customers. But they are the ones making the millions...not I.

I think that you can actually get him on the twitter phone if you attach every single stark raving lunatic tweet with his twitter handle. Next time....perhaps a re-organization of the building components category?

Well I removed that particular entry from the pics because it was snotty and unfair. Learned some stuff since then. I had the snotty message because I had chip on shoulder based on two particular merchants responses to a request for service. One merchant did not respond for a week, and on the other one...I sent an IM with every single tidbit of info in the IM. They sent IM back saying...You will have to put that info into a notecard. And I'm like HUH? they got the info in the IM, or they wouldn't be responding back! But that was just 2 merchants. Was unfair to make judgment call on entire population that asking for a notecard automatically means that you are a crappy merchant. Might mean that one is a very organized and efficient merchant. Now....most of the people that I respond to have that message that IMs get capped. When I posted that message...it's simply a memo for them to be aware that a notecard is preferred. That's all. Unfair to read much more into that.

I'm not really sure how to tell if a merchant or a customer has their IMs sent to email, so I will send a notecard just to be safe. I don't think there is a way to tell that from their profile...is there? One of the reasons that I moved to preferring a notecard is that when I read their profiles, the majority of my customers have the statement in their profiles that their messages get capped - send a notecard. I have no way of knowing if their IMs are sent to email or not, so sending a notecard as they requested should meet the needs. Since they are not necessarily business owners there might be a reason that they do not want IMs sent to email. As far as only being interested only when logging in....not exactly. I can log in when the notecard is received - usually. So the response time is the same, whether an IM is sent or a notecard. Same response time, so some of the comments on that are incorrect. "I log in once a month...." that is your interpretation or that is what is posted in their profile? There is no way they could see their little IM....? that is your interpretation? I can see IMs...probably. But it's not a guarantee. If they send an IM, fine...we can respond to it. A notecard request does not cancel out reading IMs. I see IMs...just not sure if they all got through. Here's an example of an IM. Bob: hi Merchant email response 1: hi Bob...can I help you with something? Bob: yes Merchant email response 2: what may I help you with Bob? Bob: I bought a sofa 2 years ago, and just lost it Merchant email response 3: ok Bob...can you tell me which set that sofa goes with so I know which one to send? Bob: it was a brown set. Merchant email response 4: ok Bob...I've got several brown sets, can you be more specific? Bob: well I can't right now, I'm at a club. it was a brown sofa. Merchant email response 5: ok Bob...when you get back home will you send me that info? Bob: ok The above did not accomplish much. Bob gets back home later that hour, later that day, the next day whatever and sends a notecard: Title on notecard says: missing sofa from tuscan set - Bob Smith Hi Mickey - I purchased the tuscan living room set a few years ago, and for some reason the sofa is missing - can you replace it? Thanks, Bob Go in....send sofa. Bob is not online. He logged off within 10 minutes of sending notecard. While Bob's profile is pulled up it says "my IMs get capped" So instead of sending an IM telling Bob that sofa has been sent - simply type into the notecard that he sent, that is already pulled up on screen, and tell him that sofa was sent, be sure to make sure he receives it...send notecard. That step takes same amount of time as sending back an IM....and probably takes one quarter of the time that responding back and forth to emails took. As far as IMs getting lost...not sure why that happens. Perhaps it is the same reason that items do not get delivered from marketplace. Perhaps it is the same reason that inventory suddenly disappears. Perhaps it is the same reason that inventory rarely loads to the max. Perhaps it is the same reason that we don't receive emails from LL anymore.

had heard that they outsourced all that to the Mafia using AI robots. You'll have to ask Jumpman Lane - he keeps track of all this stuff. What exactly did Scarface Castiglione say when he sent your ticket back?

not unhappy, just totally mystified but that happens often here.

And you're wrong.

there are several reasonable explanations over there why a merchant requests a notecard. I request that now...to give better service. relying on IMs only, proved to be unreliable and inefficient.

.ok, for the fourth time....I have IMs sent to email. When I log in...it almost always says that messages are capped. I miss IMs - missed 3 last week that I know of. That's why I specify notecard. I have a paid email account that I don't recall ever missing an email in 15 years. I use notecards for the same reasons that Lyra spelled out and a few more reasons. Mainly because the whole conversation is on one note, and there is plenty of room to write on it, and with a name in the title of the notecard, can pull up in a second. not really sure what the problem is here. just popped in to answer a question. eta: I just read Sassy's comment in another thread about notecards being a cop-out. I thought the same thing (as I have said several times) - - and that's not the case. It's a form of guarantee for some and it's a form of organization for some. To want to be assured and to want to be organized when responding back to a customer is not bad service. It's also more efficient for some. We all have different stuff going on during the day - different type jobs and lifestyles. Not every plan works for each person.

and I'm a bit freaked by mesh! that Blender program made me dizzy and nauseous. but I've got other plans lined up if I can't keep up with the mesh crowd

not sure if you're getting what I'm saying. I think that people know how to type in a phrase to search. SL isn't super easy to navigate from 1st day forward - you have to have a few skills. Even people without skills to navigate a virtual world still know how to type two words or a phrase into the google search to get to the web site they want. Wordpress gives me all the keywords that were typed in to get to my site - they are generally three word phrases and they are specific. I just typed in sofa and I get 9500 listings. a lot of them are sex beds on the first few pages. I don't make sex beds. I suppose I could write some blog posts that say sex in the virtual world must go! So that I can get my plain sofas up toward the top. But have a hunch that 75% of the people come to virtual world for virtual sex. I typed in kitten and got only 1200 listings. That's workable. I typed in dog - 4665 - decided that I should narrow that down, and typed in labrador, and you're number one for that. animals has 38,716 - - - building components, which is a bit of a mess, and doesn't make a ton of sense....where you would go to buy a house....has 139,446 listings. you've got it pretty good there in your own categories. My hunch on the 75% that come into virtual world for sex is probably a wee bit off....but if the figure were fairly high, and I knew that most of those logged in to purchase a sex bed...doesn't make sense to me to remove my sofas away from all those people buying sex beds. I want my stuff mixed in with the majority of people are buying. Selling decorative dog food in a bowl...I don't get what is not acceptable about that. I've got boxed living room sets. Not everyone wants the whole living room, so I sell the stuff separately. Selling the potted plant by itself is like a pet maker selling the food dishes by themselves. Really don't get what's wrong with that. And last night there was not even a page full of listings on those keywords. (for the free term - and that is what you seem to be promoting) And I definitely would not want to be removed from mixing in with the pets that breed and eat....that's for sure.

The market was there. Not sure if they created the market, or if it came from another venue...didn't study it too much...(probably should)....but people are buying the stuff. And having a ton of fun with it. If you're not comfortable offering similar products...no need to keep implying some kind of ethical judgment on it...and that's what I'm reading...but I'm weird. Lots of other things you could do to keep up. I really don't feel like giving marketing advice to someone who doesn't grasp that drawing people in to participate on a large scale that requires consistent log-ins and perhaps land and homes and furniture and clothes and shoes and jewelry and ao's and huds and this and that and meeting new friends that are into the same hobby...and going to concerts with them and events and ................. ...if you can't grasp that, then marketing advice is wasted. But I checked your marketing on those pages and it ain't all that great. Tons of room for improvement. That particular product and everything that goes along with it.......you're not grasping? eta: I went back to the general category and typed in: free cat food free dog food free monkey food and I don't see you there I don't see one featured listing under 100L - huge opportunity wasted there if you really want to be a philanthropist went back again and I don't see that you have anything listed with these keywords: free pet dish free food dish free food dispenser free animal food I don't see anything free on your marketplace page either. and if someone does not snag the above keywords and opportunities within the next 48 hours...I just might. wow - totally missed opportunities there!

Well, there's so much going on in that category that it would probably be constant effort to keep an even playing field there...but there are ways to get around that when you see yourself lost in all that. I don't see anything wrong with asking for other categories...probably should have done that months ago on this particular product line. I would lay some wagering money down that the "newcomers" that want a pet that breeds is rather large.

I can see what that Like Button does in another business on a very very small scale, and even on that small scale...it is huge. Can only imagine what it will do on this scale. I sure did have a ton of fun here, and a ton of control when we were in the Stone Age, and I'm not "liking" some stuff (one particular issue this week)...but it's out of my control, looks like. And it also looks like part of that issue is in the hands of the Internet. They are damned if they do, or damned if they don't. You've got two entirely different sets of needs of people using this venue, from one end of the spectrum to another...and probably a lot of styles in between. But deal is...what's happening on the web guides what one has to do with their business. And not sure if you understand how important that is to a merchant. I would seriously wonder about this venue if they stayed in the Stone Age. I'm bittersweet on those changes. As an adventurer, it appears that wonderful niche they had there with exploration is corroding a tad. But as a merchant...that one particular tool took on a life of it's own and is pretty much a requirement now. Blame Zuck for that.

You might be being a wee bit sarcastic...but clicks lead to sales, whether they buy anything or not, and they don't even have to be a second life person. get yourself some product posted on that blog and get yourself 150 clicks all at once, and you'll see that in action.

Not everyone has the same lifestyle as you do. People make choices on what the most preferred contact for communication style is, and they posted that on their profile. As I said earlier...I used to have the same concept about business owners who had the "My IMs get capped" phrase on the profile, and someone in forum with a ton of experience straightened me out on that real quick. Just trying to pass on that enlightenment. And yes, I do pay for email...so not a deadbeat merchant.