Ok well I like this part

A form of opt-in sales tax?

Big deal!

Some like to sell stuff that they make.
Xstreet gives people an easy way to get wider visibility for what they want to sell or give away.
Why on Earth not give a percentage of revenue to LL?
If someone is using SL to make money, then why should not contribute a percentage for maintenance and development of the world that enabled the income?

They "already" pay tier?
Well, so do the rest of us who simply enjoy building/playing on our lands. Merchants are nothing special in that regard.

The bit that I really like about the Xstreet thing is that it could spell grief and confusion for the parasitic muppets who screw up Search for their own private gain.
The Xstreet thing give creatives a better chance of having their efforts seen and rewarded by acclaim of their peers.

Sod the purely self-interested muppets.
I rezz a finger for them to sit on.

and me, being an xstreetsl seller I like that they are directing people there

I will be interested to see how this affects sales...so far my sales have been very low the yest day and today....unusually low. I am wondering if this is because people are sampling the new shopping method.

I disagree about the whole "gaming" argument....slstreet will end up working the same way all search does now. if you type in "brown couch" you will get returns for anything with the words "brown couch" in the key spots. i dont see that as being different and can certainly and SHOULD be optimized in the same way in world all search is now in my opinion.

what i DO object to is absolutely NO notice. as a creator who sells quite a bit each day...to suddenly have the rules changed with no way to prepare is upsetting to me. if i had some advance warning, i could have added more of my hundreds of items for sale in world to my little slex box and set them for sale on slstreet. but now, i am behind the 8 ball and at a disadvantage to those who already have large quantities for sale on slex. as it stands now, i not only pay tier for my land and prims for my store, but now i will also have to spend a great deal of time photographing every single item and setting it all up for sale on slex and THEN paying a portion of the income to LL. to get all the items in my store onto slex will take me days...as anyone who has done their uploads there you know the process is not exactly instantaneous lol. and since the photographs cost to export, LL will be getting 10L for each one i take as well. so now im doing 3 times the work, adding two types of expenses to my business model and have had no way to factor this in and prepare...not cool in my book.

Just do print screens of your items in SL and it will not cost you anything for photographs.

there is no cost to export pictures, or to take a pic to your harddrive...

the cost is to take pics to SL and to upload them

i stand corrected on that 10L point... and thanks for the print screen tip....however it still doesnt get my hundreds of items onto slex any faster.

I forgot about that I'm just used to doing print screens so I can size my item better once I paste it in my paint program. I guess the only thing I do save is the time it takes to export them.

I agree that it is not easy to list items on SLEX. Even the templates are a pain. This is one area I hope they can improve on.

actually I would think it is faster to just snap the pic then open them all in photoshop (or whatever program one uses) than it would be to print screen, then paste it (one at a time)

but that is just me

We already pay them for the service by which we make money. Now they are chasing a slice of the money we make, and the current situation might just be the thin end of the wedge. I wonder if it's crossed their minds to increase the percentage yet, using system resources as an reason, etc. etc.

This is something new, and it has a lot of potential for LL. The potential might even be the reason they bought XSSL.

Bradley:
I don't feel any pain over it. I have no intention of using XSSL, and it won't make any personal difference to me. I said a long time ago that I want a reason to knock SL on the head, and it's still true. The only reason I stay is because it would be stupid of me to close the store, but when a reason comes along I'll pack up and move on. If sales get low enough, I'll do just that.

my concern isn't about who gets commission, I'm paying it to someone anyway.

I'm not concerned for myself, I have an XStreetSL account (thanks Lexi for that correction), if it all plays out like it looks as if it might, I won't be one of the ones affected.

But I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about all the people in SL who do NOT use XStreetSL. My concern is that they will be bypassed because they will not show up when people search on the (possible) search tab.

And as I understand Phil's point (I think ), he is saying that any merchant who does not have an XStreetSL account will need to make one (and therefore pay a commission to SL on sales made there) if they want people to be able to find them on that (possible) search, and that by changing how people search for items, SL will be sort of 'forcing' them to sign up.

It's not about the people who USE XStreetSL, it's about the people who don't. They shouldn't be forced to use it if they want to sell their product.

Hey!
When you do, can I have your full-perm stuff?
You claim that it's really really good, so if sales have dropped only because you can't move from manipulating Search to using Xstreet in fair competition with your peers, maybe someone else can do better. Plus I'll donate the profit on them to SL.

Yes, that's it, Ralektra. And also that they guiding people there right now. I wouldn't even mind a link to XSSL on that page, but center top, and large? They are doing it right now. The search tab discussion is about what might happen, but the most prominent ad on the login page is right now.

Only if you promise to use all the bots as they are being used now.

Without an alternative to in-world Search, you'd be talking about people being 'forced' to use search-gaming to sell their product.

I think we may be talking about a situation in which the bots have failed to compete with the new order of things.
The demo bots who - quite accidentally, of course, increased the Traffic score - would be exterminated and replaced by video clips - in-store and web-store.

Have you no compassion for the poor out of work bots?

Then I'm sorry. You can't have my stuff.

Oh Frack! More additions to the Welfare Rolls

how is it any different than those of us competing with folks who use bots, or camping picks things to up their search results

chances of me being found in a reg search are pretty much nil...

chances of me being found in an XstreetSL search, pretty much nil

who is it really going to affect?


I think people are jumping the gun, so what if they have a link to it on the main website?

Do you really think it will affect in world sales to that degree?

Personally I think there are plenty more things affecting in world sales at the moment.

let me ask you this, if you did not use XStreetSL, what would your chances be of being found in an XStreetSL search? And how would you feel about it then, knowing that your chances of being found in a search have just gone from low to none?

Like I said, it doesn't affect me, but I feel bad for the people it WILL affect.

You are missing the entire point, Rha, which is that LL have entered the world of transactions by taking a cut for themselves - something they've never done before - it's new. They are already guiding people to where they will take a percentage by giving the ad for it absolute top billing on the login page. It's not that XSSL exists as a means of selling - it's that LL are now earning from transactions, and the chances are good that they will guide people to their transactions more as time goes by.

I absolutely don't believe in all the above paranoia indeed Rhaorth.
There are plenty other reasons why sales have dropped

This one:

The statistics of new signups are falling since Sept. 2007 already, bit by bit.
And there haven't been any peaks since.
Moreover, the concurrent users are faked... by the so many bots indeed, and those don't buy stuff.
The percentage of older users is becoming more and more, and it might be just that market saturation has an effect since the actual growth of SL is not what LL tries to promote.

Moreover (see VWR-8503). Many have experienced a huge performance drop of texture rending since 1.21 (Oct 2008 as far as i know XP system, but could also be effected Mac and Linux, i don't know).
Many whine that textures stay grey, or render rediciously late. That has effected shopping according to many.

As far as for XSSL is concerned.
It's a strategic acquisition they had to do, not loosing them into other upcoming virtual worlds as even more competition. Had SL had to make a link on their opening site? What's your best guess

Only an opion from a business consultant point of view of course

Nobody is talking about sales dropping. We are talking about LL now taking a cut from transactions - something they've never done before, and something that they are likely to try and increase over time.

There was talk here of falling sales yes (see my earlier quote; not for you maybe, but it was mentiond), however i did understand that it was not the main issue, however i wanted to analyse that one

However, your point: SLXchange did the same, what's the difference.
I wouldn't go paranoia already.

You don't have to use them at all, and it will have no effect to my opinion if you don't.
Personally i am also one of those buyers who buys directly in world not via via.
Now should XSSL gets a merchant higher in search then that it's a legitimate method to choose from, since classifieds is hardly used my masses. And you know my opinion about Bots/Alts.
On XSSL you can put a demo in, of what's in your shop and direct viewers to it.

There is a market for everything, however current economic sl statistics and the tech issues are of a bit lil higher concern, not XStreetSL, and your speculations.
And ofcourse they will build links.

Btw, a terminal helps to get more traffic, but ok you have another method for that