A New Low in Advertising?

You know something Gabrielle? I did not take your post in the tone apparently you meant it. If you feel any ire over this latest scam, definitely it should not be even mildly directed at me.

I did not protest bots and picks because I genuinely did not have a problem with it and have viewed picks as advertising- the bots i mind because of the resource hogging but for the traffic itself I never thought they counted much since most people seem to prefer not to choose the highest trafficked places first from all i have read here and in my own shopping habits i was not influenced by traffic.

Why do i post about this and not that? Because this to me DOES seem dishonest and gaming and the other things just did not strike me as worth the passion it raised in some. I said above directly to Eli that i did not agree with him about picks being lies.

As for expecting others to speak out over it- I made no plea for anyone to carry banners or mention to LL or any such thing- and I myself do not think I have been affected really - as my recent main product gets tons of hits regardles of the lack or presence or numbers of stars. I am just shocked, though apparently I shouldn't be- that some wd stoop to such measures.

I guess we do not share the same concerns or definitions - and that also doesn't bother me in the least- I don't expect my viewpoints to influnece anyone- the are mine and mine alone. This thread was opened for discussion- I do not expect any resolutions - it is interesting though to read the comments others make about this - I am surprised I had not considred the possibility before- people never cease to surprise me.

Be well, Gabrielle- I certainly bear you no ill will.

I think unfortunately you are completely missing my point, I am quite ambivalent over this latest scam, I am in fact all out of ire this time.
This is due mainly to the way previous dishonest and system gaming scams have been received and responded to on the forums.
I guess I have lost a certain amount of will to care about anymore of them. So your irk over this scam seems relatively "meh" to me comparatively. Once I would have cared at least as much as you over it though.
I get it, that you obviously see it differently from the other issues with regards dishonesty and gaming, that much is clear, and you are by no means alone on that I would expect, but then our own irks do seem different from the irks of others.

I am sorry if this seems harsh, I am not trying to be that nor am I trying to upset You Amara, and my first post was supposed to be more humour than serious, I am now just trying to be forthright and say how I now feel about threads complaining of scams and gaming in or around SL. Really it could have been a lot of people who might have posted this who showed ambivalence to the previous issues, not just you. I truly am sorry if it seems personal to you.

Your problem is that you don't understand the difference between cynicism and realism.

Pep (Cynicism is recognition of the reality before it is proven.)

Ambivalence is precisely the point- I did not post about those things because of the reasons stated- I don't see any harshness unless especially somehow ponted out- I totally get that u r 'meh' over this as i was over the other things- the only difference is you chose to tell me of your ambivalance or never would have known you didn't care. In any case, it hardly matters, as LL cannot or will not do anything aobut this either - so we can call it what it really is- just another venting thread.

Fair enough, look I didn't mean to be pissy with you earlier, you just happened to catch me in a bad mood with your thread. I am sorry Amara

*whips off her pants and waves them in salute.

You know, especially after reading that garbage about content protection, I can't blame any business here for "aggressive marketing" LL has stacked the deck so badly against you guys..especially the smaller operators, and they keep adding cards. They've rigged the game to the point of it is almost not worth even playing.

A cynic is merely a realist with a track record.

sighs. i dunno, in the opinion of others i've probably tried a thing or two to 'game' my business a bit, but i try to hold to a certain code-of-conduct, honesty and honor with my customers and friends... it's not necessarily what's best for 'business' though, for the very fact that doing so sometimes makes people seem to think, 'what's the catch??' ;0 -because- of the very cynicism that builds into the pop over the types of people that would (and do) use and advertise these kinds of unregulated tactics. :\

never seems fair; you can try to be a good person and do what's right by people, but still get stung by what others might have done to them. :\ but not wanting to end on a depressing note ;0 lol, so i wanted to say, it's funny the way you worded your op, it reminded me of how prevalent that same tactic can be in the rw (as noted by others downthathread)...

like the tv commercial, 'so-and-so wants a new laptop for under a thousand dollars. we say, you find it, you keep it!' (ohh, did your baby -really- pick out that laptop for you? ;0) in fact if i remember right, i think the commercial used to lead with, 'you find it, we'll buy it for you' or something like that - a bit bare-faced.

i wonder too how many calls they get from people wanting in on -that- deal... 'film me; i need a new laptop!' layered on top of irony that most folks wouldn't realize the shopping peeps in the commercials are most likely paid actors, and probably did -not- get to keep the pc they hug at the end. of course they must hug it so that it appears in a medium shot, but there's also the fact that they're -hugging- it... well, just too funny. ;0

Hugs you Dark One We're good.

*Takes pictures and sells them to the media.* Have to capitalize when you can, it ain't gonna happen in SL much longer.

An optimist is someone who doesn't yet have all the facts.

(Nothing to do with this thread - I just saw that quote on a button once and your quote reminded me of it. )

A cynic is what an optimist calls a realist.

Pep (Being pessimistic means that at worst you are pleasantly surprised.)

I started a thread maybe a week or week and a half ago over on xstreet asking about merchants who demand 5 star ratings and get mad at people who give less (even flaming 4s).
https://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=121609

I just assumed any rational mind would agree with me that a merchant is out of line demanding that, but was surprised to see it stirred up a lot of debate and hostility.

Many people in fact do believe:
1. They can only sell something if it is 5 star rated
2. Everything needs to be 5 star rated
3. Rating still has value even when there is nothing rated below 5 stars

...

I proposed my own personal guidelines (which I got for a job testing the results of an automated database...).

5: Perfect, no possible better match
4. Excellent
3. Good
2. Poor
1. Useless

And a number of people found that system to be hostile.

Ugh....this reminds me of Ebay a bit. There's a tendency there for the seller to harass you into leaving good feedback. They took away the control where the seller leaves feedback on the buyer. I think that was because the sellers' were holding the buyers' feedback hostage until the buyer left the seller feedback. Does that make sense?

Xstreet and SL has far less controls in place then something like Ebay, to make any kind of a system effective.....the anonymity factor is huge in not being able to enforce effective controls, but there are a dozen other factors that make control impossible.....just the nature of SL.

Xstreet needs to get rid of the feedback system. There are too many ways to manipulate it, for it to be a clear picture. Just let the Buyer Beware. People won't like that. But there is enough manipulation going on that it provides a false sense of security.....so that the Buyer already has to Beware.....they just don't know it....and that's more damaging than just telling them outright to Beware.

I'll just add all my simple cheap stuff as 4 or 5 stars, all what I consider good stuff as no stars

I search there by price or primcount and make up my own mind about quality by going to see the item inworld.

If I can't find it inworld, I can usually find a competitor's item inworld.

I don't pay the ratings or reviews much mind.

I think useless is definately useless- so zero- if one can give an actual zero- not just not report- I have never ever gotten anything that totally sucked- threes i wd say - yeah ok -but meh- four wd be what i expected and five blew me out of the water. I think logically, by my rating i mean- your mileage, etc- not so many fives. I am quite happy anyone even takes the time to rate stuff really.

But we all have a choice to play nasty or nice. I rather play nice, in real life I notice all the nasty players have a short shelf life, literally.

I don't usually read the XStreet forums, but I glanced at a thread there recently where a seller was really put out that people were rating the seller's freebie items less than perfect. I can understand a little bit where they were coming from, because reference was made to leaving a star rating without leaving any constructive criticism - but that seller would rather have had no ratings on the free items at all.

And yet other sellers specifically ask for ratings/feedback, and I've always thought of rating free items as a way of thanking the creator for their time by giving some of mine.

Am I wrong? What do you want as a seller - feedback, or no feedback, or feedback only if it's the feedback you want?

So confused...

I would personally rather have a comment telling me why a person found my product to be wanting in some way. The stars look nice but don't really tell you anything. I don't buy due to the star rating, I read the comments before buying.

Ditto. The only time I personally pay any attention to the ratings is on an expensive item. I still read all the info I can find on the product, check it out in world, and make my own decision anyway.

Only one of my products was ever reviewed or rated and it took me by surprise when I saw that because I just really don't even think about it.

@Nic - This. ^^ Or contacting me personally if they have an issue with any of my products so I can assist depending on the issue.

I didn't even know XStreet had a forum until very recently.

I read that indulging in blatant negative advertising about your competitors is counter-productive for companies.