What about your business?

What do you think of them closing the classified section of the forums?

It sucks. Flat out. No way to sugar-coat it. It will have a serious impact on commerce in SL. Those forums are VERY watched.

As a consumer, I have to agree. I've found more interesting stores that way than I would have thought possible. I'm way out of groups ISL too, so I rely on them for seeing when my favorite stores have new products.

Same here

This is the only topic of yours Jellin that I voted for the first option. I never look at the new products section because it lacks categorization. I am hoping to offer what you want through my website, all free, with browse by category and sub-category trunk filters, with links to in-world stores.

Right now we've been building a large parcel and region directory and will be adding the products section over the weekend to get feedback on requirements. The ultimate goal is for an amazon.com style experience with searchable and browsable content that can be drilled-down with as many images and as much text as wanted, along with Second Life specific tags such as permissions.

This will impact my business tremendously

Most of my customers IM me or come into my store and say they have seen my designs posted on in the New Products section and want to find those particular design to purchase.

We as designers also get inspired be each other and also do our own shopping from there.

it is also my understanding that many people shop there from work, and make lists of what they wish to purchase when they are able to next log into second life.

this is very upsetting news to me, and I do wish that they will change this decision. The classifieds section is a vital part of doing business, and it is also a great help to new and newer designers.

But don't forget, says LL, there's still the classified section of the main site to go to.

Of course there's the little matter of having to PAY for it, and it's not broken down into sections, so all you have to do to be seen is pay TENS OF THOUSANDS of $L to be sure it's gets seen at the top of the list! YAHHHH!!!

Fortunately, we here at LL are now selling $L directly to our customers to you'll have lenty of $L to keep your ads at the top!!
YAH!

I've been *slowly* building business for SkyBeam Architecture using the forums. As a consumer I do 98% of my shopping off the forums. Chances are, if you don't pot to the new products section, I don't have a clue your store or products exist! I spend far too much time doing my own creating to go out and hunt new products.

We need an alternative and quick!

Char

I'm dissapointed to see them talking about closing the Classifieds forums again.
When asked by people looking to set up shop if there is anything they should do to raise awareness of thier efforts, the first thing I advise them to do is to post in the appropriate Classified forum.

It's free, and central, and official. Can't get any better than that.
And since the comments were removed, the amount of page-1 play that designers get has been greatly equalized.
Removing comments also made it nearly impossible to stir up drama in those forums- a rarity in these parts.

I haven't read anything about the educational forums closing (re: building, texturing, scripting ect), but I hope those aren't on the block as well.
I know MANY designers that started out learning thier craft in those educational forums, and took the fruits of thier efforts over to the Classified forums- and became some of the better-known names in SL.
Sure, people check the third-party sites, but among everyone I know that shops for anything in world, the new products forums are the place they start when they need to look for something.
Even the better known blogs that report on in-world products use the classifieds.

I can understand the desire to cut some of the discussion forums, as there is more and more noise and less and less constructive discussion. Efforts to improve and police the quality of the discource in the discussion forums has failed miserably each time it is tried.

but to get rid of a proven-effective and *free* way for new people to make thier creations known to the community? why?

leaving the exposure of new product to the blogs and other third-party sites is ok, but it leaves one problem: you dont get talked about unless THEY want to talk about you.
Unconventional items that don't fit into the types of products any various blog covers are going to get left in the dust.

At least with the classified forums, we didn't have to impress anybody to get some eyes on an item- it just had to be posted there. Those that want to see it closer go check it out, those that dont...dont.

I don't like the idea of asking new (and established) creators to rely on the whims of a third party opinion to get some coverage for thier product. It always seemed to me quite consistent with the spirit of SL that you didnt have to wait for permission or approval from anyone to post your item...

How sad to see the classifieds on thier way out. I think they've caught a stray bullet in the strafing of the other forums.
It's a huge loss for anyone who creates a product for the world, and an even bigger loss for those who are just starting out creating.
Huge.

Bad idea.

yes. It is.

Nephilaine: They are closing the design forums as well.

I'm just glad I'm learning now, instead of after this goes, because I don't know what I would do without them. I haven't even posted a question yet because they have been answered so far, but I have a few I intended to ask and I know there will be more.

I have discovered stores through the Classifieds and it is a shame that new businesses won't have this free resource.

Meh. That's just F'ed up. That's actually a TRULY useful forum.
Witness: I've been in sl for 3 years now. I've been a photoshop user for 8 years. Been using 3d applications for 5 years. and STILL...when I have a question as to how these things relate to SL, guess where I go to look for an answer?

All of which is to say, the helpfullness of the design forums crosses ALL boundaries of experience and knowledge. Why take it down?
It doesn't make any sense.

Bad decisions. BAD BAD BAD decisions.

I posted on Robin's blog about this, I just hope they reconsider.

Those forums don't need any real moderating, they have very little in the way of drama.

I am also a hardcore photoshop user, but designing for SL is something else entirely, and SL itself is always changing. I need all the help I can get. Now people will have to scour the web or just give up. The official forums are were they should be able to go, right off. Wiki's and the like can't answer questions.