Is OnRez still scheduled for demolition tomorrow?

I haven't seen anything official since the blog post about LL buying SLX and OnRez - are they still going to delete OnRez tomorrow?

I don't get a lot of business there but I've been logging in every few days to withdraw whatever few L$ are in my account, just wondering when the 'last chance' is going to be for final withdrawls and to download the last of the transaction reports...

Actually, if they are still going to pull the plug tomorrow, I'd have thought there would be a reminder, or notice, or countdown or something on the onrez page. Either when you log on, or just when you first go to the site. However, other than an entry in their onrez blog from Jan 20th, and some new logos, it looks like it's still business as usual there.

Hence my question -- are they still shutting down tomorrow, or is it business as usual?

-Atashi

don't be silly LL has had a change of heart and will be leaving OnRez alone… as if!

My suggestion is to just pull the plug yourself before they close it. LL has never been known for changing their minds, just "compromising," and making things worse.

Honestly, they should lock out the buying ability today and send an email to everyone who has an account with a balance to withdraw NOW.

Thanks - I didn't think they would change their minds... but I did sort of think they'd post a reminder, like maybe when logging into OnRez they'd put something up saying 'welcome, please remember we're closing Feb 11th'. I mean, especially since they said that the onus is on us to get our money out etc, and have said that if any money is left in the onrez accounts they might be able to send it back, maybe, but it could take a while and no promises.

Bah. I guess I'm just trying to say, it's very unprofessional and they should be a little more upfront about it on the OnRez site.

-Atashi

Strangely, my sales at OnRez have significantly increased since the announcement it was going.

The real question is: When all those great OnRez vendors go offline tomorrow, will LL have a adequate replacement system ready on Xstreet ? If not - and let's face it, they wont - it will be yet another blow to small businesses and the inworld economy.

well, i switched from onrez to hippovend by now, and even if xstreet would come up with their own vendor package in the next 24 hours, i would stick with hippo for quite some time.

...on the other hand there are still people actually _releasing_ new stuff on onrez.
Guess a lot of people do never read the blog or forums.
And I actually expect LL to close onrez tomorrow with no further notice whatsoever, or even automatically send people their money from their accounts.

They should have closed the sales and put a big red banner: we are closing this.. forwarding ppl on SLX.
Actually anything seems to work normally... i'm not sure if they will really close it by tomorrow.

SLX had been working on their own inworld vendor system, they had it in beta testing, there were people on the beta program who were using the vendors, then suddenly the project was cancelled...

I agree with you Vittorio, it does look like it's business as usual and nothing's going to happen. Yet if they do pull the plug tomorrow and people have 10's of thousands of L$ vanish because it's inaccessable in the Commerce Leader account, LL can just point to the fact that a) they warned us last month to clear our stuff out by Feb 11th, and b) it's just worthless play-money anyways....

You are right - there should be a big red banner warning, and they should suspend sales a week or two before shutting the site down, so folks can access their accounts to get their money out, so merchants can get their final sales reports... In lieu of any subsequent official word from LL or OnRez, who knows what will happen tomorrow. Like I said, very unprofessional...

Personally, I have pulled all my products except freebies, and modified my storefront with a SLURL to my inworld store and a link to my SLX offerings.

-Atashi

I never used OnRez. But curious to see the site, I just went there.

You know, the Terms of Service, listing Electric Sheep as the service provider, last updated July 21, 2007, are still there.

If Linden Lab's legal department were aware of that, they'd all be having heart attacks right now.

Same for me.


I am, yeah ... since I release on Xstreet anyway and copypasting the description to OnRez isn't really that much of work, and I actually still find buyers for the new products there, why shouldn't I? I do take the money out basically every time I make a sale, though ...

Curious to see if they really close on time, i.e. tomorrow. It really doesn't look like it right now, does it?

I have money in my OnRez account, and have been making a lot more purchases since the announcement. Prefer to drain my money that way than withdraw to myself. May or may not be a factor in increased sales.

Oh gad they closed it!



























....joking

Well here it is, Feb 11th, and shop.onrez.com is still working. I just visited it and logged on, still no message, banner, etc to remind people that it's supposed to get shut down today.

I wonder if they'll really do it. Or maybe they've forgotten?

-Atashi

Well, they have this in the Onrez Blog



So 5pm ET is the deadline. It'd be f'ing nice if they'd banner that at the top of the webpage!

Edit: I find it kinda annoying that they "welcome" the Onrez shoppers and merchants by closing the door on them, but hey, it's LL.

Oh ! Well, that's some positive behavior after all ! Congrats LL ! Now, what about vendors ?

That would require that the folks that now run LL to actually HAVE a heart. Not bloody likely that they do based on decisions since the Alphabet Lindens came to power.

Edit:



So, I guess that answers that then.. OnRez is now gone.

Amazing - that blog entry was just put up in the last few hours, it certainly wasn't there this morning. And the 'withdraw' link in it just points back to the blog. They didn't give much of a reminder, 30 minutes ago the shop page was still unchanged, still 'welcoming' merchants and shoppers.

-Atashi

It was there this morning, around I guess it'd be 5:29 SLTime, because I quoted it at 8:29am CT.

But yes, they should have given a far more direct reminder, such as emailing those accounts with balances and having it splashed across the top of the page. But this is LL we're talking about and PR messes are what they are good at.

Oh wierd - I was dropping in there a few times today and it wasn't there... unless my computer was showing me a cached version.

I guess clearing cache isn't just for SL any more.

-Atashi

*snickers* I have the problem with the Grid Status blog. I seem to almost always hit the old one!

I am just surprised that the anti-trust laws didn't prevent LL from buying both on-rez and xstreet, particularly even threatening to shut one down.

Anti-trust is not my specialty, and I know that it has been weakened in recent years. However, in my opinion it should not have been allowed.

Mary

I don't think anti-trust laws would come into play because there are other competitors out there.

For anti-trust purposes, one would have to define the market which Linden Lab is trying to dominate.

If you define the market narrowly enough, any company could be guilty of anti-trust violations. Is the market, "A Web-Based Marketplace for Products Usable Only in Second Life?" That's about how narrowly the market would need to be defined to even consider anti-trust.

Defining the market that narrowly would be the equivalent of defining a market of "Carbonated Beverages That Look and Taste Like Coca-Cola," then examining Coca-Cola for anti-trust violations since it dominates that narrow market.