Rya Nitely

Darrius Gothly wrote: You're right .. I did misread you. I saw the bit about tping across 3 sims and leapt to the conclusion you had boxes spread out like that. I totally missed the "only one box" that came shortly thereafter. My apologies. May I ask why you have your Magic Box located somewhere other than where you make your items? Apology accepted. I normally work right next to my magic box, but we make very large items that are displayed over 3 sims. When I put a new item out on display that's when I notice improvements or fixes that are needed, and I do it right there on the display item and then take a copy to put in the magic box. These improvements are not only on new items, it might be on an older item in a different sim, and the work to fix or improve it is done on the spot and a copy taken. The type of items we create are best inspected this way - out on display the way it's meant to be seen and not in our workshop. So flying or tping from a displayed item to the magic box is a regular thing.

Darrius Gothly wrote: The beauty of moving the DD system's "source" to the inventory inside our Magic Boxes is that you will no longer "need" to maintain multiple boxes on multiple Sims. The whole purpose of those multiple boxes is to eliminate delivery lag when items need to be sent out. After the switch to DD begins, the items will not be sent by commanding a remote script to deliver the item, but by simply copying the item's data record to the recipient's inventory "file". Basically the logic to figure out which item to send remains in place .. the only change is that instead of calling a routine that ultimately sends a command to the magic box, DD calls a replacement routine that copies the data record. Net result .. very small code changes .. further resulting in faster implementation with higher success rate. Next comes the UI design. There is none to be done. The Marketplace already has in place everything needed to accept "Contents Updates" from the Magic Boxes. In fact, all of our listings already have Magic Box content items associated properly. In order to add an item, you simply drop it into one of your Magic Boxes and .. in short order it is available. You won't need boxes on multiple Sims anymore because the contents list of the Magic Boxes will never be "offline" the way Sims go offline now. So after the switch to DD begins, you can immediately go pick up all your duplicated boxes .. they aren't needed any more. But you will leave the set you have on your "home" Sim and continue updating them in exactly the same way you do now. If you want, you can even eliminate the extra boxes in your home Sim too. The only reason to restrict the number of items in a Magic Box now is to speed the delivery process .. specifically reduce the amount of inventory lookup the Magic Box must do when told to deliver an item. But since that will happen on the Asset Server, it happens at DBMS key lookup speed (which is VERY fast) and not at the molasses-like speed of the scripted lookup that happens now. However it ALSO allows you to keep multiple Magic Boxes so you can organize your deliverables into categories, product lines, or whatever classification you might wish, without adding extra folders or other confusing hierarchical nonsense. Starting a new Product Line? Drop out a new Magic Box, put your items in it .. and presto the entire process of making those items ready for delivery is done. And ALL that code works now! There is nothing new to write or test! As for disabling (or weeding out) items from inactive Merchants .. LL missed that boat already when they ported everything over to the Marketplace. They could have easily said "Mark the items you want ported over and we will copy them for you." Or they could have said "All items will be migrated in the inactive state and you must mark them active to make them deliverable." They had several ways to weed out those inactive merchants then .. and they completely avoided those options. I think they WANT to keep those items listed, just as they do not want to remove old and clearly abandoned user accounts. It must be painfully obvious to them, just by looking at accounts that have a "last login date" prior to the migration, which ones are truly unserviced and unattended. It would take a simple SQL Select query to wipe out every single "dead" account .. in a matter of minutes. They do not need to put all 50,000 of us through another marathon drill to figure out which accounts are no longer attended. (In fact, their move to connect the In-World account balance with the XStreet account balance made it even more possible for people to become absentee merchants ... as there was no longer a need for anyone to log in to Second Life at all in order to cash out their proceeds from sales.) The benefits to this plan are many. The development time is greatly reduced .. the introduction of new and untested code minimized .. the need for complicated UI interfaces eliminated .. the need for multiple Magic Boxes spread over the grid eliminated .. and the overall disruption to the Merchant community reduced to almost zero. What's NOT to like about this idea? I try to read everything you write in your repiies, which are often long but I take the time because that is courtesy. My replies are not long, so if you respond please take the time to read them properly. You keep talking about my multiple magic boxes, where I specifically said I only have one. Nevertheless, it is a huge inconvenience to work on an item in one sim and have to TP back to my home sim to put it in the magic box. Just because you and Toy don't experience it you need to allow that others do. (I remember a recent post of Toy's where he said the last item he created was August. ) What you said about LL missing the boat in weeding out inactive merchants, you're probably right, and they might find a way to keep them all on board this time round too. @ Toy Unsupported items are a problem when inactive merchants collect the money but no longer log in to provide customer service. In my opinion that's almost like stealing, but that's a different subject.

Darrius Gothly wrote: The effort required to set up DD using a new delivery folder for the merchants is ... everyone must create the new folder (unless LL creates it for them), then build the appropriate product folders inside the special folder, then copy or move the delivery versions into the new product folders, then verify on Marketplace that everything matches up by editing each and every listing. The effort required to set up DD with existing Magic Boxes being the source of objects is .. nothing. The Marketplace already knows all of our Magic Boxes, it already has the association of the Product Listings to the objects inside those Magic Boxes, and all the necessary relationships are already in place. I'm reasonably sure that given a choice between editing every single listing AGAIN or simply having things automatically switch over to DD .. most merchants will choose the automatic option. Over time, if you want to go through the process, you can move everything into one overstuffed Magic Box and remove all the others. But even if you don't, it won't matter because everything will work using Asset Server database copies and totally eliminate the need for scripted delivery. The reward for the effort of setting up DD using a new delivery folder is long term convenience. Darrius, If you had a larger inventory, and you were actively updating and adding new items, making small changes and having to TP over 3 sims to replace the item in your magic box then you would know how inconvenient they are. I have to update mine everyday, usually several times a day, and I only have one magic box - I can only imagine how much harder it would be if you had multiple.The best thing about this system is that your marketplace inventory will be with you all the time, no matter where you are you will be able to update or add to your inventory or do fast manual deliveries to customers directly from your marketplace inventory. I often grab an item from my magic box to manually deliver to customers (this insures they get the latest version), and to do this I have to TP over to the magic box, rez the item and then take it into my inventory and then send it. It's a big headache. And as for merchants taking the time to move items to the new DD folder - this is good because all those merchants who are no longer actively maintaining their products will be left behind when Magic boxes become obsolete.

Toysoldier Thor wrote: The Beta Testers are simply guinea pigs of the functions developed - they will not have any real say on changing/adding festures that the merchants feel need to be part of the deploy. Yes, this is generally the role of beta testers - testing systems for errors, not redesigning, demanding and derailing. A beta tester will normally get attention if they raise a genuine problem with the system that will hinder/prevent functionality. A beta tester will probably not get attention if they come up with new ideas and demand implementation.

And personally, I can't wait to see my avatar go green when I make a sale :smileyvery-happy:

Hintswen Guardian wrote: Magic boxes require the region to be online for them to deliver the items. Sim lag can affect the performance of your magic box. That being said, I am still all for Magic Boxes but it's a bias opinion as I offer magic box hosting in no less than 6 different regions. This is about the only real negative impact that can be foreseen. I will take this opportunity to give another 'what if the situation was vice versa' scenario. If direct delivery had always been the way we sold our items in the marketplace, and all our marketplace items were conveniently held in a special folder in our avatar's inventory, and now we were being asked to upload each marketplace item into a special box, called a 'Magic Box':smileysurprised:, and we'd have to find a place to put our Magic Box, or pay someone like Hintswen to host it for us, people would be in an uproar. There would be alot more nervousness about security and reliability. We would be telling them, in no uncertain terms, where to take their 'Magic Boxes' and where to shove it. The change to Direct Delivery is so obviously an advancement. The reason for complaints is simple - people hate change. They are comfortable doing what they do.

Darrius Gothly wrote: Are you content with how things are now .. and completely unconcerned that even though there is ample evidence, history and knowledge available everywhere, those resources were ignored before and seem to be getting ignored now? If so, if you think everything is just fine .. why are you here? Why are you even bothering to interject? People with different views need to interject. It's necessary to maintain a balanced outlook. I'm generally content with the marketplace. Of course, like everyone else I get disappointed with the occasional failed delivery, the loss of reporting tools that we had in Xstreet, the inability to give links to my partner's items in my descriptions, etc. So, it isn't perfect but I've adapted. Sales/profit are not negatively affected and that is the main thing. Now, imagine if the change had been vice versa - from this new marketplace to Xstreet. People would be shouting about the loss of the store front and the loss of related items - both great ways to advertise your other products; many would hate the plain, messy appearance of listings in Xstreet; and they would miss many other features the marketplace provides that Xstreet didn't. With time the marketplace will only get better. Now back to DD. We've been told that people will still be allowed to use magic boxes instead of DD. But eventually magic boxes will become obsolete. The good news here is that all those old items that belong to merchants who have left SL will be eliminated from the marketplace, thus giving it that long overdue clean up. It will reduce the risk of buying an item with no customer support. It will reduce the clutter. And that is good.

Darrius Gothly wrote: We absolutely CAN NOT repeat the debacle that was Marketplace. Debacle? A temporary inconvenience is all it was for me. My sales continued to reach records as usual. I am betting Linden Labs also experienced little impact on sales volume and profit. If your sales were affected so badly as to call it a debacle then maybe it was your own handling of the change, but hopefully all is good now and you've settled in. With the coming changes I am sure you will settle in eventually as well. Ask others for advice if you have such major diffficulties again. Darrius Gothly wrote: Contrary to how some may characterize me, I WANT Second Life to thrive and grow! I think this would be obvious to everyone. If Second Life didn't thrive and grow then neither would these forums. It's obvious how dependent you are on them.... how vital they are in the way you spend your time.

Darrius Gothly wrote: My personal opinion is that they not only rushed it out (for no obvious or stated reasons) but the extremely restrictive conditions in the NDA excluded all of those with skills, experience or insight that could have (and otherwise would have) participated. You may recall that the marketplace was opened to all merchants after a week or two of closed beta testing. So in effect beta testing was opened to everyone through jira reports, which I believe you were a part of. So the lack of your 'skills, experience or insight' in the closed beta test group made no difference at all.

Toysoldier Thor wrote: Also, they have already spilled many of the key beans of how this DD will work (and Brooke promised a blog posting to tell the rest of the community a lot more details of DD). SO... the need for an NDA here is not to protect a good idea. I believe Brooke would still keep people informed through blog posts, but she wants to be the only person doing this. An NDA would serve to stop beta testers from informing people of progress/problems, thus preventing the spread of inaccurate or misleading information.

Arwen Serpente wrote: Just curious, aren't there any LL staff who have alts that are Merchants who build and sell inworld and on the Marketplace? In my real life I come from a Marketing background - we were required to spend 6 months in the field actually doing the Sales job, and then after we were back in the home office, we had to spend 2 days per month "behind the counter" so we knew exactly how our programs were affecting the people who lived with them on a day to day basis. Maybe it is a naive question...If not, maybe it is something for some of the LL staff to consider when they aren't "on the clock". Would certainly provide a little bit of a different perspective for you that might be helpful. I'm imagining Brooke or any other commerce team member spending time inworld creating items that will actually sell successfully enough to get the whole merchant experience. This isn't easy. It takes merchants several months and even years to get to the stage where they are fully active. With luck and some talent most people would start off with one or two sales a week. This isn't going to give them enough exposure to marketplace issues. They do have those teddy bears so maybe they are getting some experience. On further thought, I don't think LL staffers are allowed to sell items, even as alts, unless it's freebies or for charity as with those teddy bears.

It means whatever is discussed in the group you don't discuss with anyone else and especially not in these forums, which might be hard for some.

Tari, you are right! Many customers just shut up because they fear confronting a merchant in case their complaints are taken defensively. If customers felt that their concerns would always be met with helpful support then they would be less likely to look for other ways to get even - like giving 1 star ratings etc. Therefore we should encourage them to contact us with complaints, and treat every complaint with respect. The way I see it is like this - the customer is paying me money therefore the customer has a right to complain. When I get an unreasonable customer, which is very rare, I suck it up because this comes with the job. If you don't accept unpleasant customer complaints then you should find another pastime, job, hobby that doesn't involve customer service. I really don't know why it is an issue at all when I can count on one hand the number of unreasonable customers I've had. I get feedback (I don't call it complaints), and whenever I get feedback on a genuine problem or error I give the item free to show my appreciation. If you are a successful merchant then you should be grateful for every single customer you get - polite or otherwise. I often wonder how many merchants actually spent a year or two in SL before they started making money, just enjoying SL and using RL money to fund it, because some merchants just seem to have no insight into a customer's perspective. Many merchants probably came to SL with the sole purpose of making money - and so they lack the understanding.

Pamela, it probably is the multiple adjoining sim problem affecting magic box deliveries. It's affecting us and we need to make sure we stay in the same sim as our magic box when we are online. Not very convenient when I have to work in the other sims. Also, we found that the sim doesn't have to be right next to the one containing the magic box or vendors, it can be attched at a corner and it will still have the same effect. For instance we have 3 sims and all show the same behaviour.

Such a relief to have people who listen. And also to find others with the same problem. We were scratching our heads about why this was happening, and the failures seemed to be random, and not consistent. It worked for me because I owned the box but not for Jarnz when I was in the adjacent sim where we work, and then when I tped in to see the problem it started working again for both of us. We were so confused and had to shut that part of the shop. I am impressed that Maestro found the problem so quickly. I'd have a crush too, but I have Jarnz who is enough geek for me :smileytongue:

OK, this is becoming a serious issue. I am now getting IMs from customers saying that our items with llGiveInventory scripts are not working either. We have rowboats that give oars and fishing scripts that give a fishing rod. I am getting IMs from customers saying it's no longer working. We were worried about this and now it's happening. We are also worried about Magic Boxes because these most likely also use llGiveInventory. If items are not being delivered because of this we wouldn't know and we would just think it's the usual failed delivery.

Inworld deliveries failing here too using the llGiveInventory. We had to close our skybox shop until we can rely on it again.

Job satisfaction - the rewards, the appreciation, doing something that makes hours feel like minutes, working with my partner on something we both love, making the decisions that lead to a successful business and knowing you did it. All the things I don't get in my RL job. And the money? Well, my RL job pays me more in an hour than I make in a week in SL - but give me the week anytime.

Advertise your store in your profile with links to your marketplace store in the Web tab and an LM to inworld store in picks. Making friends and networking is very useful, not only for publicity but for getting those valuable building tips and advice.

'I'm in ur viewer, fixing ur bugs' Very disappointed that this was a joke :smileysad:. I started clapping when I saw it. I wanted her to get rid of those stars in the sky, and the way my whole system freezes whenever I try to trash mutiple items, forcing me to reboot. I love phoenix but.....if only that cute little girl would fix my bugs.:smileytongue:

I'm starting to get the feeling it isn't so much a case of what they won't do, it's more a case of not having the ability or capacity to do it. I donwnload to a spreadsheet every couple of days and do my own sorting. In many ways SLM is not as good as SLX (Xstreet) was,and I think the main reasons are this - SLX had more technical brains developing it, and these people were users of SL. That makes a huge difference. They didn't need to be told what we needed, they knew. SLX started in 2004, or at least that's when the magic box was created. So they had many years to get it right. It is also the constant LL staff changes that have held things up.

Luna, I found myself in at least 2 or 3 of the factors you listed. I am happy with the success of my brand, and I attribute it to this - I see things from a customer's perspective - I was a resident and customer in SL for a long time before I started creating. The money I spent in SL quickly excalated to over $US300 a month. It was when Homestead tier skyrocketed and the Australian dollar was falling rapidly that I started worrying about how I was going to survive. I remember how this felt, and so I have often put the customer before profit. Many times I've sold something to a newbie for what he could afford to spend. I have a genuine compassion for the customer, because I vividly remember being one. My items are unique - My partner and I started out building old weathered sailable boats with peeling paint and with the most realistic look possible. This idea came because it was something I wanted and couldn't find anywhere in SL. I was fortunate to have a partner with great scripting skills and who also loved creating as much as I did. From weathered boats it led to offsims - again I recognised what people might like. My offsims took off very quickly because they were more than just the usual reefs. I recently started creating sculpted plants - here I use real life photos as a starting texture because I aim for the most realistic look possible. Before I put a plant out for sale I must like it more than the ones I've bought, because the only way to compete is if others also like it more. To attain uniqueness we make our own textures, sculpts and scripts, and for me this often means spending several days in blender or photoshop to create one sculpty or texture. Sell low prim items by using sculpted parts - I recently went through all my items and, where possible, I replaced standard prims with sculpted parts, hence reducing prim count by more than half. This immediately gave a significant boost to sales, especially with my old rustic furniture. Every builder should have at least basic sculpting skills and work at becoming proficient. When an opportunity to promote my brand is offered, I take it I love creating I have a partner whose creative skills perfectly compliment mine Customer Service - I won't talk about customer service as this really should be obvious, and anyone who needs to be told about customer service shouldn't be trying to run a business.

In the days when I was a more active customer than merchant I never looked at advertising. I found high quality things through word of mouth. I asked my friends and they passed me LMs. It was a regular part of discussions with friends to ask 'Where did you buy that...?' or 'Where can I find good...?'. Or otherwise I saw something I liked and clicked on it to find the creator. So my view is and always has been that high quality stuff will sell with or without advertising. And how does it get a kick start? It just does, because customers have a way of sniffing out good stuff. And when enough of the item has sold then the self advertising and word of mouth takes off. Oh, and yes I agree with the article. Note to self: Must reluctantly reconsider that group thingy (still don't have one).

Clearing Cache solved this for me too. It's a very annoying problem when building. Took me ages before I realised it was the viewer. I kept asking my partner if he was sure he liked the texture and he kept saying yes it's great, and I started thinking maybe that smudgy smeary look does add something.

Marcus, as creator your name is on every item you sell. Once you get enough of your items out there and displayed in SL they will advertise themselves. If the item is good and eye catching people will find you - make sure all necesssary info such as inworld store and marketplace link is in your profile . This is the only marketing I do and my sales reach new records every month. The more I sell the more exposure my creations get, which leads to more sales. Most customers have told me they found my brand this way, and I get IMs all the time asking where this or that item can be bought. This wouldn't work for everyone but it would for you. I've never paid for advertising, except a couple of enhancements, which didn't really pay off. I am also not a believer that twitter or posting etc. generates a significant amount of customers - but just my opinion. Or maybe in my case it doesn't. I post because it's fun, not to get customers. One more thing, sculpted plants are not my main market, but because people know and trust my brand they sell very well - they come for boats they take home plants. Your 1 prim plants look good and if they sell everyday then you are heading the right way, the rest is just time and work to Increase your inventory and gain more experience in building and texturing, which only comes with time and effort - I think this is wiser than spending time posting and tweeting.