Classifieds Closing Clarified: Where We Are Now

Ok, so I posted about which parts of Classifieds will be closed and why in the Hotline and got this response from Robin:

"We'll leave the New Products forum open, including the itemized forums for posting available products, and the discussion forum for asking for things not currently available.

"The rest of the classified forums will be closed, for the reasons already given."

OK, so the reason already given for closing the New Products, which is apparently also the reason for closing the rest of the classifieds, is:

"Our reason for closing the classified forums is to migrate the commerce into Second Life, where far more people will see your product and can go immediately to purchase it."

Well, you know, that reason really doesn't apply to all the things now under Classified that are going to be closed.

So let's summarize what has been won and lost and discuss how to make up for what has been lost:

New Products - the same, along with the ability to discuss them in the section below the itemized listing.

Products Wanted - we will be able to ask for products wanted in the discussion section below the itemized listing of products available, so that's covered (though not nearly as well).

Special Attractions - we can start talking about these in the currently existing Events Discussion forum.

Land Rentals and sales - there is a place for these in the in-game classifieds, so those people will just have to pay the $250. (On the positive side, land rentals and sales generally go away at some point, whereas items generally continue to be for sale, and thus need to be listed longer.) People can also put their land rentals and sales in their signatures. Overall, however, this group of people has just lost out.

Fansites - am I wrong, or isn't there someplace else on the website where people can find a list of fansites? Do those have to be especially approved? If not, then this place could be made more obvious. If so, then anyone not approved are just borked and can't announce their fansite.

Job Opportunities and Help Wanted - lost, and I see no way of placing these queries anywhere else on the website, except in one's signature. Really lousy, so is there any other way?

Services - haven't looked at those much; I will have to look again to see where those could go. Any ideas?

Now I'll post this for discussion and ideas while I go back to see which parts of classified I have left out or mistitled.

coco

Services were defined as "List services available (event planning, scripting, architecture, clothing design, etc)"

So:

Services - put them under New Products, Miscellaneous.

They are products, miscellaneous. Because you SELL them. You sell your design service, or your house building service, or whatever.

The only other thing I left out was "Property Sales and Rentals," which I think I would just say the same thing about as I did already regarding "Land Sales and Rentals."

coco

The Job Opportunities one seems like it might be a bear to get around. Dunno why they're closing that one. I would think it would be really useful and if I was stuck for a project I would totally use it to find the person with the skills I needed.

SLUniverse's forums can probably pick up a lot of the slack for the ones with no workaround, but it still isn't as convenient to find as SL's own forums. If right now 10% of people use the SL forums, I imagine that drops to like 2% for SLU, although that will probably change in the near future.

As for fansite listings, I've found them both on the main SL website (like under blogs or something) and the more longstanding ones off of NWN. Honestly I don't check the forum listings for them too often so someone else should chime in on that one.

There is an area, but it is not user editable - you have to go through a Linden to get on there, and it's just a link. Also, the fan sites forum is used to not only announce fan sites, but also updates and new features on them. As there is nothing comparable in the classifieds options in world, I am not sure why this one is being scrapped.

Actually, in terms of jobs...a lot of places that hire hold events, and in the events posting, if you look, they will say they are hiring...soooo IF you are looking for a job and IF you read events postings, it's sorta in there.

This might be where a group forum can come in--someone forms a group for SL Help Wanted/Jobs Wanted, gets enough members, starts posting jobs available in the Group Forums.

Hate to say it, but it also could be an opportunity for someone enterprising to start an Employment Agency, matching employers with employees....dang I wish I had more time in world.

Yeah, that's true...I was thinking along the lines of if like I needed a scripter for hire for a project or something. Although I imagine the majority of people like that forum for general job "help wanted" kind of things, like what you're talking about.

I'd really like to see help wanted stay. When I get time to deal with it I was planning on posting a job there myself. I don't want to hold an event to find someone to hire. If I had that kind of time I wouldn't need to hire someone.

I could be wrong but I fee that these changes are a litle less mystifying if you look at it from the point of veiw of encouraging social interaction in the game. In the long term, LL probably sees these activities as being taken over by and handled by the citizens, which will strengthen the social fabric no end, but one of the short term fallouts also has to be more social interaction.

As there is only a single list of jobs that one has to check (on the forum), or even just a few, then much less social activity and networking is necessary. By making the process more decentralised and minimalising their role, they are allowing for new citizen created networks to arise and for more spontaneous social interaction between the citizens.

If you are looking for a builder and there are no ads, you have to reach out to your friend network perhaps.

If it's harder to find someone to do "X" for you, perhaps you do "X" yourself or maybe you form a relationship with another citizen who then becomes your ace-in-the-hole "X" person.

Just a (positive) thought

The employment agency sounds like a really good idea!

coco

Not sure how effective putting something in a sig is ... I dont suppose there is any way to tell how many people have them turned off because they got annoyed with seeing something everytime someone posted ... or to make the pages shorter!

Werd, I can see that. I'm one of those ijits that likes to keep friends and business seperate though, I'd rather pay someone I don't know to do a scripting job let's say rather than feel like I'm bugging a friend for a favor that they may not have time for, and then try to pay them when they don't want to take the money, and on and on.

Just my personal preference thingie, but you're probably right on the money with SL wanting to push more av-to-av interaction.

And the employment agency is a good idea, but seems like such a workaround and a lot of work for someone to pick up and run with.

I just had an idea - about the help wanted and job opportunities.

Let's say you are looking for a scripter (as I sometimes am). You can post that you are looking for a scripter for such and such a job in the scripting forum!

Or you are looking for an event host. You can post it in the events forum! Builder, building forum! Escort, not sure where. Reporter, I'm not sure where. But anyway, that is the idea.

Ditto if you want to offer your services. Post your scripter services in the scripting forum! etc.

coco

I was about to ask if LL would be cool with that, but since its the logical way to go about it, I suppose they'd have to be, as they can't say "well take this to the Help Wanted" forum.

You'd probably get a better response especially for specialties like scripting. Personally I'm scared to go in there. Scripters are like gods, wielding their unholy power....

I don't see why they would object.

After all, to object, they would have to make a rule: "This forum is for discussing scripting (or whatever), but do not approach other posters with an offer for a scripting job, and don't offer your own scripting abilities to other posters for pay."

That would be pretty silly.

coco

Yeah, that's what I thought about closing down the Classified forums too, but this is Silly Life™

I was more worried about pissing off the scripters or what not. They got their own thing going in there. The Building forum too, for that matter - but then again LL has hidden posts for announcing they're looking for builders for such and such a project in there, so now that I think about it a 5th time that's probably what they want us to do.

Well, then, too bad, cause that just won't fly. You can't take away the space for asking people for jobs or to do jobs and then expect people not to find the next most logical place to ask it in.

The censorship would just be ridiculous. I would think.

coco

Or as an alternative, you could just pull the plug on the whole cesspool?