Dartagan Shepherd

Tend to agree that it wouldn't be all that much of a boost to sales for the shopper, having a broad mix of products. Not that showcasing new products is a bad idea, but in forum format it would be messy and subject to gaming. (release 7 new colors, and get 7 forum posts for basically the same product, thereby increasing reports and moderation for instance). It would be nice to get some more appeal to new products (a link to a new products RSS feed didn't quite manage that, previously, I know I never clicked on that link myself). Perhaps if classifieds and/or Marketplace new listings were capable of thumbnails and web based and integrated with the forums it would have broad appeal to customers in a big mixed bag like that. It could certainly be nice if the interface was lighthearted and fun. It would also be interesting to have a tab for New Products alongside the rest of them (Answers, Forums, Blogs, Knowledge Base, New Products). Agree with the OP, the origin of the land forums because of some rather embarassing foot stomping wasn't one of our best moments in history, but these land ads could also be combined into a slicker presentation as well as products, thereby solving both issues. Noticed the occassional comments that sometimes people aren't pleased with land ad "spam", so with products you'd multiply that reaction. Surely there are some creative ways to display these in a web based non Marketplace setting, although I don't know what that would be offhand. What might also be nice is a WIP forum (work in progress) for community critique on products new or not yet released. That way people could have fun browsing the WIPs and it's a more interactive kind of atmosphere than just an ad and lets you actually engage with customers. Interest in the WIP could also be an indicator of interest in the product.

The most mundane is generally the most common occurance. More likely that Direct Delivery is taking time, not something that's done overnight, obviously. Given that, there's probabably not anything announcement worthy, just plodding away at the task at hand. Has nothing to do with Mesh. Different teams, different goals, except any special handling Mesh may need to be listed in the Marketplace, if anything. As you probably know, mesh is also coming along steadily and should be released soon on the main grid. Without a hard release date given on Direct Delivery I would say no news is good news if you subscribe to the disaster theories. Either way, the project has not been abandoned.

Chelsea Malibu wrote: So far, good to hear. I really wish we could get more granular figures from the SL financial however, if we did, I'm sure we would all find out the truth about the SL economy and that it is mostly transfers of funds and not really any sales. Even if they just told us the totals sales volume for the Marketplace, this would give us a better indicator on retail without the addition of money transferred, stipends paid, real estate tiers, etc. You know, agree with this. I think the old statistics were mostly irrelevent to a merchant. For instance user to user transactions, while we could pick that apart all day long, the churn factor of L$ made it kind of fictional from a merchant standpoint. Every transfer of funds to alts, every affiliate and split vendor would be in that mix. Giving us a bit more of the financial picture would be nice in very broad strokes. I remember hearing at one point a ways back that the total amount of L$ in play at any one time was $125M USD for the taking. Well! That I can live with, it tells me there's plenty of movement to the economy and I'm willing to accept that there's a lot of churn going on. But absolutely, sales volume and the like would be most welcome. Mentioned in an offhand way at one point that it'd be worth paying for detailed stats such as current best selling items, most used search terms, etc. Those are stats you can sink your teeth into. @Suella: Bring some of that summer boredom to this side of the pond, our 4th of July is nice, but people insist on setting off explosives that pass as fireworks at 3am for two weeks after the holiday until their supply finally runs out. Thinking of guided rockets with a melted cheese payload as a counter measure. @Ziggy: Some good points in there, glad to hear you're doing great, you deserve it. Time to author a new book entitled So You Want to be an SL Merchant? Must wear many hats, be stubborn as a mule, be willing to accept time warp when you realize the sun is coming up, have the SL viewer GUI permanently burned into your retinas, etc.

Good question. We're seeing a bit of a slump but it's nothing that I can't attribute to a series of events that prohibited us from "taking care of business" like we should have over the last couple of months, but it does seem like SL is more stable this summer. We did used to notice a much more clearly defined drop in sales during the summer months ourselves. Hard one to track down. I remember Pink saying that summer sales were booming a couple summers ago, but many people were still saying there was one for them. I've heard some people saying they're never affected by it. Would be nice to hear from the commerce team how summer sales play during the year. From an organic standpoint it seems like we're seeing more new faces, so if it's not due to less spending outside of SL, it could be due to some new moves like Basic Mode in the new viewer retaining more of those 16k per day signups. I would look to customers to see how many of them are new to SL if possible, as one indicator. Too lazy to go look up recreational spending for this season at the moment, because the lawn needs mowing ... again. +1 for SL grass.

The word list is probably a moving target, and they're under no obligation to share it. At worst, it's an inconvenience. This could be solved by building in some pre-screening of the listing with a simple message "your listing contains unacceptable text, please modify your listing before you continue". Maybe pop that in a Jira rather than turn it into a debate, and be patient for about 3 months, while other items on a long TODO list gets knocked out.

To err on the side of caution isn't an evil, when it comes to minors. Many adults while perhaps a bit resentful of minors into what they'd prefer as an adult space can grok that. Also reduces liability which reduces cost. Stuff like that.

As to your innuendo that I know something you don't, this is not true and I said as much here in what you've quoted. As for your challenge, no thank you ... treating this as a discussion and not something that needs challenging. You said: "Since there is no further details from LL on how DD actually works, the assumption is that Folders will not be allowed in this new SLM System Folder and is just a flat folder." I don't see why any assumption is valid over another. My assumption is that it will be something like library folders, with each product being a sub-folder. Since we're assuming, one is as good as any other. Benefit to Merchants: Don't have to pack a box inside another box, everything is packed in a sub-folder. Saves time on packing if you decide not to use a product box. Saves time on updating products, simply go to product folder and update landmarks, version of product, etc. Would be nice to just rename that product folder from Widget Version 1, to Widget Version 2, swap out product and documentation notecard and off you go. Benefit to Customers: No need to unpack a box, simply rez or right click and wear/attach and the customer instantly gets to play with their new purchase. Drag and drop folder to another location for organization. That may have inadvertently fulfilled your "5 points" challenge, regardless. I'm sure there are other benefits, but I haven't given that much thought because of lack of information so far.

Didn't see this one covered in Magic Boxes vs Direct Delivery and convenience. I believe most merchants pack their products into boxes and put those boxes in their Magic Box. This box-in-box packing may be entirely eliminated for Merchants that decide to simply put those items in a product sub-folder. Some Merchants may want to continue boxing their products within a Direct Delivery folder, even though they "may" not have to, but for those that want to eliminate that extra boxing step would save an enormous amount of packing time. They could still find ways to include their branding in product names and extra materials that go inside their product folder. This also makes boxes a less attractive solution than inventory folders. Not having that information makes this conjecuture as well, but it seems to be a reasonable assumption. As for not having information yet, that's something that one just has to be patient for. It isn't a requirement that this information must be shared for conjecture to stop based on percieved past performance. Stomping your feet for more information doesn't mean FUD will stop. In fact, it may provide more ammunition for FUD. The information will be shared in due time, I'm sure.

They are all working properly now, including the original gesture. @WhiteBoi, just purchased the gesture again, check your transactions.

Just ordered one of your non gesture products and received it just fine, so I see you got it working. Purchased your gesture roughly 12 hours ago and it did acknowledge a non delivery with the message: "1 item failed with the error: Second Life communications timeout". Going to guess that it was pointing to a Magic Box that you deleted that was no longer active, possibly one that you originally had on the sandbox. Either way, whatever you're doing now with the new products is working, congrats

At this point, you may want to contact support.

Darrius Gothly wrote: Rya Nitely wrote: 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. Exactly. The time for those forms of input is during the design and initial implementation stage. But as we've been completely kept in the dark, our suggestions, desires and ideas ignored or not even discussed .. and the entire program designed and developed absent any visible Merchant involvement .. it leads me to wonder if the design will actually have any features that pertain to the intended user. The entire program is a response to Merchant involvement pointing out the flaws of Magic Box delivery, and helping to identify that a scripted object is not the best solution. By its nature, this solutions rather singular goal pertains to the intended user. Better delivery.

Re-log into Second Life. At the login screen under Mode, choose Advanced. This will bring you into SL with all features active including inventory.

Only just noticed this. Very interesting blog post, espcially in terms of new SL Residents. Hesitant to use that to self-diagnose though, unless I can ask for a second opinion

Not sure what you're implying, but if you're reading any more into what I said than what I posted, you're off course. It was said at face value and nothing more. If you want further explanation about that opinion, then ask a specific question and I'll be glad to answer that clearly and honestly.

@Rya Much thanks, added. Tuff stuff @Anna Not quite sure what you mean, although I have some good guesses I think. That aside, thanks for the "magic 2" elements that work for you. @Paladin: I hate you! Not really, but if it helps and anyone asks ... well. @Anna again: That little trail of blood running down the corner of your mouth after biting your tongue may be marketable you know! @Darrius: Mud wrestling products have been around for quite a while, and I have to admit they are great fun. On a creative marketing note, discounts to the winners of mud wrestling matches might even work as a marketing schtick. @Madeline: Absolutely, 3rd party marketing hadn't even occurred to me and I've never tried it personally, thanks! And of course backing your marketing up with a blog, going to toss social networking in there too just because. @Sassy Agree, picks are still very useful, added! Thank you very much guys, I know at least for me this list is pretty powerful for a nice, terse checklist to put together a good marketing campaign. Hope it helps others.

Test to Find a True Second Life Resident: They are logged in. That's it. Whether it's grandma that logged in, accidently stumbled to some obscure sim to find a memory game that she likes to log in once a week to play, or a Facebook denizen that found a non Facebook user and made a friend, or a builder or highly creative artist or someone that likes dancing ... you get the idea. There are today reasons why Second Life may not draw or appeal to everyone. If there's a flaw then perhaps it's equally true that creators don't understand non-creators enough to create things/games/experiences that would get non creators to become more engaged and provide them with things that do appeal to them. Then again, the internet isn't for everyone. Or iPads. Or console games. Or strawberry shortcake. Defining who Second Life is for is a bit more difficult than cue ball necklaces, and putting people into neat little boxes. Especially when the box can be adapted, resized, reshaped and made of different materials.

It will be called Direct Delivery. I did however grab my Magic 8-Ball for this one (yes, I really do use one), and asked it if Direct Delivery would do well. It said "Yes".

@Couldbe: Thanks for clarifying, added. @Darrius Thanks, added that under networking and friends, mustn't underestimate that. @George & @Darrius. Notoriety works, but let's leave that to Sheen and the CEO of Go Daddy for now, eh?

Ok then, starting to feel like a noob about now @George I'm reduced to doh! @Couldbe Adding those of course, thanks.

Thanks much, I'm weak on search issues and tend to stay out of those discussions. Added two search related things to the list, let me know if there's anything else search-specific that should belong there?

Debated about asking this in the sticky about best marketing practices but I think it's a bit more specific. Would like help on compiling a decent list of marketing tools and methods inworld? I think I'm a bit out of touch with what's available. Assuming that it would be useful to have this handy to pick and choose what to use for an inworld campaign. If anyone has suggestions perhaps I'll add them to this list. Details about specifics (such as one type of hunt over the other) would be appreciated as well. ClassifiedsHuntsAd boardsLucky ChairsFreebiesOptimizing for searchListing your parcel in searchEventsMidnight Mania type boardsCross promotionDemosDemonstrationsYour own group for marketingParticipating in related advertising groupsExpo's, Fairs, Sponsored EventsNetworking, making friends, minglingAdd store info, SLurl, and basic info to your profile.Add link to your Marketplace store to your profile.Advertise on 3rd party websites (blogs, SL magazines, etc.).Start and maintain a blog.Make use of social networking.Add your store(s) and information to Picks.Thanks to those who made the majority of the items listed, please do read their posts for more details.

Not nearly as much as I should I think. I've gotten a lot from SL, met some amazing people, learned a ton of things. Like someone else said, I admire those that do help and give their time and effort.. I think I'm a silent groupie of some of them. I do feel that sense of obligation to give something back, from what I've gotten out of SL, so thanks for that karmic nudge.

Finally got around to checking this out. Agree well done, good advise and a great looking blog.

You can give a folder the same way you give inventory items. The main difference being that you can't give a folder with more than 42 items in it. You can drag it onto the avatar you want to give the folder to, or open an IM window for instance if you're using Viewer 2, or right click on the folder and click Share. For more info and some videos on sharing items, take a look here for great explanations including videos: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Sharing-inventory-items/ta-p/700147