Czari Zenovka

Flea Yatsenko wrote: Can you elaborate on that pattern? I'll look at the exact dates and post them here either later tonight or tomorrow. I haven't paid as much attention to the dates as the predictable cycle, but will go have a look. Now you have me curious...lol. Flea Yatsenko wrote: So, sales are about half, but people are buying less expensive goods. This is another pattern I've noticed when there's problems with marketplace. People stop buying expensive builder's kits and pre-fabs and opt for smaller items that sell for about L$200. Every item in my store is less than 200L, so, at least in my case, it's not a question of price - although, with word of the MP issues starting to spread amongst residents, people may not want to risk purchasing more expensive items via the MP - although that doesn't explain my fluctuations either. I was in my shop a few nights ago and was startled when a customer arrived...lol. Most of my items are sold via the MP; as I've mentioned on the forums previously I've had MP sales but note that the some of the same customers were in my shop but purchased online. Anyway, I began talking to the customer and told her that my entire line of products were not in my shop and directed her to the MP for the complete listing. She replied that she preferred shopping in world. I did not ask her if this was due to the MP issues or just her personal preference, but I found it interesting.

Spica Inventor wrote: My store is also much darker, but I feel it helps the magical partically glowing stuff look more magical and mysterious in a magically mysterious atmosphere where I would prefer to put the stuff I sell if I was purchasing it anyway. Exactly my point in my post that the look of a store has a lot to do with the merchandise. I purchased a small pre-fab 2-story Victorian house for my shop because it fits the overall "theme" of my products.

Belladona Viper wrote: It looks great.I would change the colors to white/ice/light gray(like Maytreia),it looks cleaner and better to stores,IMO.I'm not crazy about the wall texture,something simpler would look better. Still,it's very well done,it looks amazing . I agree it's very well done. As far as the colors, here is where you're not going to please everyone. I personally LOVE the colors you have chosen - they are warm, inviting; I like the wood floor and accents. The colors and "feel" of a store depends a lot on the type merchandise one is selling. I sell vintage/antique type product so would be looking for something to reflect that image. You might want to offer several stores in various basic colors - a more monochromatic one as mentioned above, etc. With mod perms, people can change the textures, although I have noticed with my own products that people tend to purchase different colors of the same item than changing them. Just my 2L on that. Well done!

It sounds like IMVU is more akin to an MMORPG than SL, which is a virtual world. I've never been to IMVU but having played MMORPGs the "level" nomenclature sounds a lot like MMORPGs. I would strongly urge you to take some basic building classes offered by many schools for free in SL. (Tipping the instructor is optional, but nice if you benefitted from the class.) There are many schools/classes but off the top of my head I would recommend Builders Brewery and NCI. (NCI is also great place overall for new residents to SL.) The best way to be notified of classes is to join the groups for the school you want - let's say the two I've mentioned. Then you will receive notices when a class is about to begin. Builder's Brewery also sends out a weekly notice so you can see what classes are offered when and plan accordingly. Alternately or also, you can check the SEARCH function both in world and on the front page of the SL website - also known as your "Dashboard." Search under "Education" and you will see a list of upcoming classes. I know both the schools I mentioned teach beginning building and then other classes to expand on your knowledge. To specifically answer your questions: 1. A prim is the basic building block in SL. Everything that you see begins with a prim. A prim count is how many prims make up a specific item. For example, let's say I build a sofa - I might use 10 prims to build it. Therefore, the prim count is 10. The reason prim counts are so important (and you will see many items advertised as "low prim") is because there is a limit to how many prims you can have on a given parcel of land, depending on its size. 2. As noted above, prims are the basic elements used to build items in SL. When you first rez one from the build menu - the default is a square box, but "prim torture" is the art of building. 3. You don't "get prims for a product" you create products *from* prims as noted above. There is so much more to this - what/where is the build menu, what are the features of the build menu, what are prim limits in size, what are sculpty prims, etc., etc. that, again, taking a class on basic building will be invaluable. I spent one entire year in SL pretty much just taking classes, sometimes 3 a day, but then I'm an education nut...lol. But taking classes is how I learned to build. A website I would recommend that many people have found useful is: http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2006/11/build.html Natalia Zelmanov began a blog when she first began SL and along the way passed along the tips she learned to build. This site has a TON of great info on it. Have fun!!

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: WADE1 Jya wrote: Much better policy (IMHO) would be to have just stopped the sentence short: "Reviews should not be written for pay, or for other rewards or compensation" PERIOD. FULL STOP. Can't say how much I absolutely, positively agree with this! Anything else is gaming the system. I would not buy from a merchant that has to pay for good reviews. It is not only a reflection on their integrity, but their products too, IMHO. Agree with both of you! This reminds me of years ago when merchants paid people to put their store in picks to help with search/relevancy. From a customer perspective, I did not like that practice and made note to not purchase from merchants who did this. As a merchant I sure as heck wasn't going to adopt something I found repugnant as a customer. In the past I would have been greatly surprised that LL actually stated what they did about reviews, now, however, I'm about to the point nothing they do would surprise me.

cenedraflame wrote: Good morning JL, In addition to the blog link given, I will contact you in world with the landmark of a fantastic sim. Only because I am not sure if I am able to post slur's here in the forum. This lady is amazing in the work she has done, literally every hunt under one roof. Good luck. ~Ceddy~ Oooo...I'd like that SLURL as well if you get a chance, please.

PeterCanessa Oh wrote: Learn about how SL works before you try to start selling things. I second this. There is so much to learn about SL (and some of its quirks, especially as a merchant) that I heartily recommend taking your time. This would be good advice anytime, but right now the online Marketplace is having its issues, so not sure this would be a great time to begin there without being familiar with the process.

Boudicca Littlebird wrote: I have not had a single sale in 3 days, this is very odd as I have not had 3 days without a sale before, I have averaged 5 a day so find this odd, have any of you experienced the same. For approximately the last 2 months my sales have been off its normal trend - a trend that has been steady for 4 years. All of a sudden my sales will stop completely, then begin again in about 3-5 days. I have a small shop so am very aware of all my sales and, until this started, I ALWAYS sold at least one thing every day (usually more) and never had more than one day with no sales. I am seeing a definite pattern in my shop with "sell items for 5 days; stop for 3-5 days; sell an item, etc." The pattern is becoming so regular now that I can basically "predict" the days I will/won't have sales.

This isn't an in-world group (that I know of) but it is a good site for SL hunts: what is currently running, what is coming up, divisions of types of hunts, etc. Hopefully it will help a bit. http://slhunts.wordpress.com/

I can understand where you're coming from, Wade and, trust me, my frustration with this MP issue is about at max level, but as far as unions are concerned Sassy's comment pretty much sums it up: I suspect that since none of us are labour in the normal sense that it would fall flat quite quickly. Unions were initially begun to be a voice and representation for workers (employees) to the owners of factories, etc. and now, in today's corporate climate, to management. Thus a union in this sense would not work in SL because we, as owners of our businesses, stores, etc. *are* management. The ones to whom a union would actually apply would be our "employees" (if we have any). As was posted above we are customers of LL, the end users of a virtual world called SL in which we can be or do most anything we can imagine, including starting and running a business. I have enjoyed SL for the last 5 years (rezday was May 1) and continue to do so in many aspects, not just in having an inworld shop. Unfortunately LL has a long history of not listening to their customers, or seeming to listen then doing the opposite of what was requested by their customers, etc. Since there is no such thing as a "customer union," as was also mentioned our only recourse as customers who also happen to have an inworld business is to close our businesses if we find the situation intolerable or leave. Many have done this; however thus far there are new people who arrive, many of whom start businesses. Reading your ideas did give me a momentary flash of Sally Field jumping onto a factory machine and holding up a handwritten sign that said UNION. (From the movie, "Norma Rae" - based on a true story - I recommend it as both a good movie and interesting retrospective of union organization in the US South in the 1970's. I came across this site that is an interesting read on the genesis of unions if you're interested: http://mises.org/daily/3553

Responding before reading the other comments. My experience has been that SL is a microcosm of RL - dishonest people exist everywhere. There is the added factor that with online anonymity (and this encompasses all online venues - I've personally witnessed this beginning in the 80's on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - people who may not be *as* dishonest or as big of a jerk RL due to the consequences *may* be online. However, I personally believe whether a person acts on it or not, if one is prone to dishonesty, that personality trait exists. As for SL specifically (and, again, this is just from my personal experience plus those of several close friends) I have found that people who are not out to play dishonest games, especially for sexual gain, are found in places other than the common meeting spots - nightclubs, dance venues, some types of rp environments, etc. Of course honest people *can* be found in those places, but the percentages are lower. Venues/sims/activities that involve some type of hobby, charity, education, etc. - places where the main goal is not to "hook up" are where I have found more "real" people. As a recent example - one of my SL friends met a man a few years ago at a sim dedicated to the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They had a mutual interest in this particular architect and his work. The sim hosted a "build off" contest which the man entered. This initial mutual interest led them to first become friends and later (I think at least a year) SL partners. Last year they met in person for the first time and last month were married. Other places I have met wonderful people have been via working with the annual Relay for Life activity, support groups for various illnesses, religious communities, SL classes, becoming involved in the merchant community of SL, meeting people at the "training classes" for my VKC dogs - you get the idea. I have friends who have met great people at live concerts. Don't get me wrong, I love going to especially vintage type, themed dance venues - I love the clothes and music. Invariably I am asked to dance and even men who initially seem to be charming and sincere have 100% of the time turned out to be players - most of whom have disappeared from the SL landscape, and likely have reappeared in another av...lol. I am sorry for your experience. My "radar" goes off when someone, especially someone I haven't known long, asks me for money. That happened to me last summer in an MMORPG. That person was promptly muted.

PeterCanessa Oh wrote: It's still gambling according to the policy Czari, the policy includes non-money prizes That's what I figured. Another part of this that was discussed quite a bit in the past is the use of sploders. I haven't ventured out as much recently but years after the SL gambling ban many clubs were still using sploders which, if I recall the specific wording of the SL ban, would fall under gambling. The general concensus of the discussions back then was that LL would probably remove a given sploder if it was reported. Since some of the clubs I used to patronize had sploders for years after the ban, I'm guessing it is just a "gamble" (no pun intended) if the club owners wish to keep them or not.

Kenbro Utu wrote: A lottery is just a form of gambling, and is prohibited by the TOS. There have been lotteries in the past, it is not a new idea. I'm not a gambler, but I did enjoy some of those gambling sims in the past that had slot machines on it. I recall some places tried to get around it by offering prizes instead of lindens as winnings, but they were either considered gambling as well or didn't garner much interest since they vanished soon after as well.

WADE1 Jya wrote: I just bit the bullet & chanced it to try to fix when I found today I could edit at least 5 of my corrupted listings. Perhaps all are editable now? After reading your other post this morning I went to my store to see if I could edit anything now. Nope. Same 3 listings with the name of my items but an image of something else. They go to the MP Home Page when clicked upon and do not show up in my edit/listings so I can still do nothing with them. The only "good" thing about these as opposed to the last group of borkage is that the correct listings, including correct image and ability to open it correctly, for the same items are *also* in my store, so these other 3 are copies, so to speak. WADE1 Jya wrote: This is a ridiculous situation that it is all running live with zero information on the state of affairs.... Agreed. :matte-motes-angry: I've recently begun promoting my in-world store - nothing huge, just running a promo which I posted on several designer groups. Thus far I've had 3 people visit the store and one purchase an item in the store. Granted I posted my notices yesterday so it was on a weekend and it runs for the month of May so hopefully I will get a bit more traffic from it.

Marcus Hancroft wrote: Kampu Oyen wrote: >DD does nothing with your inventory or your account. On this thread, anyway, who even said that it did? That was not the point being made. The point being: DD and boxes are each subject to different types of borking. Boxes are affected by borked regions and DD is affected by borked account and/or borked inventory. Where the bork originates or why is a totally separate matter, and whether DD borks anything at all shouldn't even matter in terms of understanding why the different types of susceptibility to borking might be important to the question of comparative utility between the 2 systems. BTW: I would better like it if you should call me "Kampu", or "Ralph" or "Brooke". Thanks. Miss Sassy is right, Josh, this thread is about the roadmap for the Marketplace. Where it's going, how it's going to get there, etc. We all know you think the magic boxes are perfect. Also...for the love of god let's STOP using the word "bork," OK? You used it 7 times in the above post! It's not even a REAL word! I don't know who started using that word to define the broken state of the marketplace, but it needs to be stopped. We have cross linked listings. NOT borked listings. We have scrambled listings. NOT borked listings. This word is driving me crazy! Let's use a REAL word now, okay people? <the above is for everybody...not just Josh/Kampu> I just realized something - the first time I ever heard the word "borked" was in the title to this thread: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/ATTENTION-Listings-on-the-Marketplace-are-borked-Everyone-check/td-p/1457545 So if you're going to yell at anyone, (not that I think you should - just pointing out where I first saw the word) how about "Miss Pearl" who I gather is a friend of yours.

Sassy Romano wrote: 1st June cutoff will be put back at least 2 more months is my guess so I don't see any cause for concern. From your mouth to LL's ears. I sure hope so.

Marcus Hancroft wrote: Yeah, but if we're gonna use a word made up by somebody...let's not let it be such an id10t as R.L. mmmmkay? Idiots are in the eyes of the beholder, MR. Hancroft.

Marcus Hancroft wrote: Kampu Oyen wrote: >DD does nothing with your inventory or your account. On this thread, anyway, who even said that it did? That was not the point being made. The point being: DD and boxes are each subject to different types of borking. Boxes are affected by borked regions and DD is affected by borked account and/or borked inventory. Where the bork originates or why is a totally separate matter, and whether DD borks anything at all shouldn't even matter in terms of understanding why the different types of susceptibility to borking might be important to the question of comparative utility between the 2 systems. BTW: I would better like it if you should call me "Kampu", or "Ralph" or "Brooke". Thanks. Miss Sassy is right, Josh, this thread is about the roadmap for the Marketplace. Where it's going, how it's going to get there, etc. We all know you think the magic boxes are perfect. Also...for the love of god let's STOP using the word "bork," OK? You used it 7 times in the above post! It's not even a REAL word! I don't know who started using that word to define the broken state of the marketplace, but it needs to be stopped. We have cross linked listings. NOT borked listings. We have scrambled listings. NOT borked listings. This word is driving me crazy! Let's use a REAL word now, okay people? <the above is for everybody...not just Josh/Kampu> I'll keep using borked if I wish, thank you.

Flea Yatsenko wrote: Please dont' tell me I'm the only one having problems with SLMP sales this week. It's been the slowest week I've seen since DD released. I posted in another thread that I had no sales (not slow - "no") for the past few days. I had one sale yesterday and one thus far today so hopefully that will continue...until the next weird cycle.

Qwalyphi Korpov wrote: Amethyst Jetaime wrote: Venus is right about them not showing on your web friends list at all on the dashboard. I tested it. In world though they just show as offline. I know one of the 'privacy' issues with TPV was providing correct online status contrary to a residents wishes. I thought an additional issue was revealing to users how their friends had set that option. So this is a surprising twist. LL is now signaling which friends have elected not to let you see their online status by dropping them from you dashboard friends list. This situation (someone on friends list not showing up on the dashboard if they have one's name unchecked for show online) has been in existence for at least a year. I discovered hiding "boyfriends" that way - who quickly became ex-boyfriends.

Arwen Serpente wrote: Hi Czari , "Partially Failed" means that something else in the cart failed (if yours was delivered and funds credited to you). As for April and early May being uneven in terms of sales trends, it could be that overall (in the US) retail sales were weak or below expections. What happens in RL often is reflected in SL. And then of course, we have the DD implemetation, grid outages, etc. Thanks Arwen. That's what I pretty much figured - the customer had other merchants' items in the cart, but never quite sure anymore...lol. True...sales could be weird for all kinds of reasons. I think with everything that has transpired I'm more vigilent than I used to be.

Flea Yatsenko wrote: I'm sorry, but the month when I finally figured out what was wrong with magic boxes, I saw my sales increase by a factor of two from the previous month. With DD, I'm making 2-3 times as much per month. All of this at a time when sales should be slowing down for summer. I have actual numbers to back up that things have been significantly better for me on DD than magic boxes. And I can produce sales figures that show the exact opposite for me, with years of data vs half a year's experience with Magic Boxes as you stated. There were always ups and downs in sales, but over the past 4 years I saw a general pattern develop for my MP sales. Since DD was introduced that pattern has been totally askew with periods of no sales that are highly unusual. So we each have quasi-empirical data for and against Magic Boxes causing issues. (And yes I have taken items out of MB for updates, put them back in, reset the boxes, etc., etc. over the years. I never noticed any particular sales fluctuations based on that.)

Spica Inventor wrote: "Magic boxes were far from perfect. I'm not the only one who has had problems with them not selling new products, and then switching to DD and having them sell within a few days. They did have flaws, but merchants didn't know about them, because the flaw in the Magic Boxes had to do with how the website where the customer made the purchase failed to communicate with the magic box, which in tern failed to communicate anything to the merchants.The customer saw a failed purchase while the merchant had absolutely no idea it happened." How common was that flaw? Was it rare, very rare or extremely rare? I can't back it up with data, but right now it seems that DD has 'that' problem to a much greater occurence as sales seem to be more 'erratic' on a daily basis suggesting that its failing on some days much more than others. ;-) This ^^ I was very active on the forums that pre-dated these current ones. (Another LL decision that was highly unpopular and sent many of the regular forumites to third party forums - but that's another discussion altogether.) At any rate, from reading the forums since 2007, including one thread that lasted for well over a year in the former Resident Answers forum ("Advice on Sales" - can be found in the archives) as well as reading many posts by/from merchants, I honestly don't remember this huge outcry about failed deliveries. *Now* I'm hearing about it on these forums from people who like DD. Does anyone else see this starting to turn into two camps - the Magic Box vs DD groups? Now I'm starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but kinda makes me wonder.

WADE1 Jya wrote: My prediction of the roadmap is they will do none of those great features Sassy suggests. They will launch direct delivery (which yes nobody asked for). It will turn out to be very broken & far less reliable than magic box ever was. I'm a bit confused on this point. When "a new delivery system that will not involve Magic Boxes" was first mentioned but now seems like eons ago, in fact I think that LL announcement (paraphrased) pre-dates the current forums, I don't recall it being something residents/merchants asked for - it was something LL came up with, iirc. Now, especially from merchants who like DD and haven't had their shops borked, the attitude seems like it *was* asked for. Did I miss something? WADE1 Jya wrote: That's my best guess at the roadmap, what do you think they will do next? Based on past experience, when residents ask for broken issues to be fixed, LL usually releases a new viewer. :matte-motes-angry:

Rival Destiny wrote: My biggest concern is any deadlines to move over to DD. I am still not comfortable in doing so as I know it will take much time to do. And if I'm one of the unlucky ones that ends up with a ton of issues, then even more of my time will have to be devoted to troubleshooting. I do enough of that now on a daily basis dealing with the issues on the grid. Ditto here. This mixed listing issue is affecting merchants with DD & Magic Boxes alike, so migrating the affected stores to DD will likely not resolve this issue; therefore, until at least this situation is resolved and some feedback occurs from LL, I think it is irresponsible of LL to expect merchants to go through the DD migration. In my opinion, the MP is burning while LL fiddles. (Or something like that.)