Time to crack down on DEMO listings in SLM?

[Snickers Snook]

A LOT of merchants have started incorporating the word DEMO into the title of their items in a way so as to get around someone using the "NOT" operator in searches. For example: "Ankle Boots_DEMO" or "Ankle Boots:DEMO" causes search to not see DEMO as a separate word so the search phrase "ankle boots NOT demo" will still inlcude listings like the examples. Wheras a merchant who correctly labels their product "Ankle Boots - DEMO" has their product filtered out.

While not technically a listing violation, it sure ticks me off. Is this something that's worth a JIRA? Would Linden Lab even care? I should think merchants who correctly label their DEMO items would be ticked off too.

[Zoxin UwU]

I don't think it's an issue in how it's presented in the title (I was never aware there was a correct or incorrect way to tell your potential customer it's a demo) but rather the search functions inability to filter properly.

Personally, I still think demo items should be pulled from search entirely as it clutters my storefront, it just seems like the better solution than having to manually remove said demos from your query.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

You are preaching to the choir.  Merchants and customers have begged LL to change it so demos can be linked to the item listing and not have to have a separate listing so that they show up in search.  It's fallen on deaf ears.

As long as demos have to have a separate listing from the item it's demonstrating this is going to be an issue. By getting their demo's showing in search it is basically double advertising and a lot of the times the demo will show higher in the search listing than the actual item.  LL could make a rule about naming demos but it won't stop people from gaming the system as LL doesn't patrol the MP or even have the staff needed to do so.  They rely on people flagging items, which is ineffective. 

You'll probably find a number of JIRA filings already filed that have sat there for years or just been closed out.

[Callum Meriman]

---

Zoxin wrote:

Personally, I still think demo items should be pulled from search entirely as it clutters my storefront

---

I like demos. Why should I lose the ability to shop for them so you can have a clean shop?

As for your "not" word, doesn't work anyway. Try it with other things "bento not gatcha" or "bento not box" and you will get gatchas and bento boxes.

Gatchas are clearly a much larger issue. The amount of them wrongly returned in search is making the MP unusable.

[Codex Alpha]

---

Callum Meriman wrote:

---

Zoxin wrote:

Personally, I still think demo items should be pulled from search entirely as it clutters my storefront

---

I like demos. Why should I lose the ability to shop for them so you can have a clean shop?

As for your "not" word, doesn't work anyway. Try it with other things "bento not gatcha" or "bento not box" and you will get gatchas and bento boxes.

Gatchas are clearly a much larger issue. The amount of them wrongly returned in search is making the MP unusable

---

If he/she literally means 'the storefront' and not the search results page, it would be because when customers visit your store page, all your latest selling stuff gets listed first under 'Relevance".

Hence if you had a lot of demo, freebie or promo stuff, that stuff tends to go to the top of the list and therefore gets more visibility than the actual products. Putting the demo option on the actual product listing would not only clean up the Marketplace searches, but would also clean up storefronts as well.

I would also extend this to color options, perhaps with a new interface that had color option buttons as well.

Anything to cut down on duplicate images, listings, and titles would always be good. That would take some coding and database query prowess though.

[Snickers Snook]

---

Callum Meriman wrote:

As for your "not" word, doesn't work anyway. Try it with other things "bento not gatcha" or "bento not box" and you will get gatchas and bento boxes.

Gatchas are clearly a much larger issue. The amount of them wrongly returned in search is making the MP unusable.

---

The "not" term must be in all CAPS just like AND. It DOES work but not if the vendor is deliberately gaming search by concatenating DEMO with another word (DEMO_Red Top).

Gachas are indeed a problem too. They need their own category for filtering.

[Dakota Linden]

Greetings all!

Unless you are looking for free items, you can eliminate ALL demo's using the pricing option on the Marketplace.

After doing your search, scroll down the page and on the left side you will see 2 fields where you can enter a minimum and maxiumum amount to show.

Enter 5 in the first field and hit the Enter button on your keyboard.

Congratulations, you have just eliminated every listing from your search return that is 5 lindens or less, including demo's, regardless of how the seller has chosen to try to "munge" the word Demo on their listing.

You can choose to use any minimum price, including 1 Linden instead of 5, if you are concerned that too many other listings may be eliminated that may not be actual demo listings.

 

[Snickers Snook]

OMG Dakota! Do you seriously think that's useful? It not only elminates demos but it also eliminates legitimate promos, gift items and other things. There are LOTS of $0L - $5L items that are quite good and NOT demos. IOW, they are useable, wearable, won't poof after 10 minutes, don't have the word DEMO written all over them or have boxes with DEMO that float over your head. Using PRICE as a criteria for elminating demos simply doesn't work. I myself sell several $1L items that aren't demos. 

No, the answer is to either ENFORCE a demo listing policy or actually have a "tag" that vendors are required to use that flag an item as a DEMO. Numerous suggestions have been made to improve the marketplace. Thngs that are the backbone of e-commerce like color selection, size selection and having the DEMO item as part of the actual item listing vs. making it a completely separate item. 

The SL Marketplace is so polluted with bad listings that it's become a chore rather than a fun adventure to shop there.

[Sassy Romano]

Callum, there's a difference between liking the fact that a demo is available vs liking demos.

 

There should never be a reason to look for a demo first, a demo of what? Any sane search would be to look for an item of a specification which may include a search to return only those with demos available.

 

Demos being returned as stand alone listings as they currently exist is the result of a broken implementation in every sense.

[Snickers Snook]

Dittos to this Sassy!

[Snickers Snook]

I agree with this postie. If Linden Lab spent even a minor amount of time improving the usability of marketplace, the net results in terms of improved (increased) commerce ($L spent) would be huge. LL takes a percentage off sales from SLM but nothing from inworld. IMHO, the poorly organized SLM pushes people to inworld or simply not at all.