OnRez + Linden Labs + Xstreetsl = Unholy Merger

I am very upset with this. Linden Labs screws up everything they touch! If you think the residents are upset when they cannot log in for 2 days, imagine how many of them will beat down your doors when they are also unable to sell anything...

Myself, I think that XStreet has a clunky interface and that OnRez has a much simpler, better integrated selling platform. I can see the writing on the wall as Linden Labs picked the one selling platform with a commission. They saw a potential to put a tax on purchases. Let's not beat around the bush here. The commission on XStreet is nothing more on a tax on the merchants selling items, which is another reason why I prefer OnRez. This is a very horrible decision that I do not feel will last very long. It is also anathema to everything that Second Life is supposed to stand for -- a world where anything is possible, just as long as you aren't in direct competition with Linden Labs. This is the only reason that OnRez was bought -- so it could be shut down!

For once Linden Labs, I think you should own up and give us the full list of changes. Myself, I think I will be pulling out my old hippovends and wash my hands of this abortion.

I also love the fact that Linden Labs locked the original talkback post on the forums -- probably because too many people were complaining...

This move sucks.

I can only imagine what that "Fee's" are going to be.

OK, once again, I shall post this question here, but with a sense of ever decreasing optimism that a Linden will even acknowledge it, let alone even answer it. Despite the fact that I asked the same question at least 3 times (in addition to some others asking it) in the previous forum post, it obviously wasn't enough to qualify as a Frequently Asked Question in Catherine or Grant's summing up.

Can LL please tell us what kind of compensation package they will be offering OnRez merchants who have spent considerable amounts of L$ customising their vendors in-world, only for these vendors to now be consigned to the scrap heap, as there has been no guarantee thus far that the vendors will be compatible after OnRez shuts down?

Thanks a lot LL. Once again you have royally screwed me over. I just found out about the take overs and the upshot is my IP was banned from XStreet permanently FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AT ALL!! So now I will have no choice but to do all my shopping inworld which is a MAJOR waste of my VALUABLE time.


Even after having messaged Apophis or whatever his name is and a couple of other people to try to straighten out the problem and NEVER getting any reponse, my IP is still banned. And I didn't do anything!!!!

So add THIS to the long list of things I keep putting in the comments on the surveys you keep asking me to answer (but never bother to read) as to whether or not my SL experience is getting better or worse.



Unknown attack?!?!?!?! All I did was try to go to the site and log in to search and possibly make a purchase!! And THAT is what I see each time I try!!! BANNED WITHOUT CAUSE!!

So screw X Street!! I wouldn't buy anything off that site if it was the only place to buy anything created in SL. Screw me?? SCREW YOU!! Go ahead, report me to the Feds... they won't find a damn thing illegal coming from my IP.

Wouldn't be surprised if I got banned from the forums for posting this by the very same people who now work for LL that ran X Street....

Maybe the answer to this is in another post and I missed it. Onrez was free for sellers (no commission). So now there won't be a free alternative?

Correct, in that OnRez was free. There are a few other off-world retail sites, but they don't appear to be of the same scope or scale as OnRez or SLX...

Yet.

I think one of the first "improvements" that is required is all the damn bogus Teleports. i don't know how many times I've teleported from Xstreet to a store and ended up in someones private home with a stupid orb threatening my existance there to end in 10 seconds. Call it "inventory" sorting, call it "consolidating" call it out with the old, whatever. When I hit the teleport to go to a Fetish art store I don't want to end up in the middle of a SL tea party.... xD

What I want to know is, will Linden Labs ban resident run online shopping outlets in favor of their own? Since LL has decided to move into the virtual retail realm, will that mean they will view privately owned and operated malls like SLX as a threat to their business model?

I don't like the smell of this...

Woah! You guys are crazy go nuts! This is going to be teh Roxxors! LL is going to take XSL and fix everything that's wrong with it...then they're gonna make it like...a bejillion times better!!!!

Sure there may/probably will be new listing fees, higher commission fees, and higher ad feature fees but just think, that's all gonna go to making XSL even better! I for one, am glad LL went ahead and bought Onrez, shut it down and gave everyone an overly-generous 2 weeks notice to take their cash out before it disappears into the aether, and are now promoting XSL! This has WIN written all over it.

Anyone who disagrees is a communist.

Actually, that is not the case. If you really want to split grapes, Linden Labs' acquisition of SLX/Xstreet could be viewed as Socialist. What I would rather see is a resident run free market.

My biggest concern is whether or not LL will ban 3rd party marketplaces altogether. And my second biggest concern is whether or not LL will start releasing their own scripted vendor system. That would open Pandora's Box for sure.

I question this use of the phrase "split grapes".

I've heard the saying "split hairs" many times, but never "split grapes". Grapes are large enough that splitting them is no challenge. Is this one of those US versus UK English things or something like that?

At first I agreed with the "hairs" and "grapes" comment. But let's not split anything over this. It will weaken our position against abuse of fee-paying clients by a company that appears not to care one jot about those clients.

SLX was never a free service. But they have posted to expect hikes in the service charges. So cross your fingers on that one. They estimate about March 2009 they will start to impliment changes, according to their site anyway. They don't specify how much it is going up.

As for 3rd party sites, I would say yes, that is gone. One would assume that they need to put a stop for pirated copyrights of large companies, just a guess. But they seem to be buying out any 3rd party direct sales platforms. At least the ones dealing with merchendise, the land sales and rentals seem to be unaffected.

I have no idea why I wrote grapes, it just sort of happened.

Definitely going to be interesting, one way or another.



Shutting down / banning 3rd party shopping outlets won't do anything to stop piracy or IP rights violations. They will still take place, as they always have, right under LL's nose. If they are able to prevent it on the website, we will simply see it emerge more prominently in-world.

We are eventually going to see SL content being ripped off and reproduced in OpenSimulator grids anyway. There is nothing LL can do to prevent that.

Preventing residents from owning and operating their own online marketplaces such as OnRez and SLX will only hurt residents, in my opinion. The more community resources which come under direct control of Linden Labs, the less of a community it becomes.

And if LL decides to publish their own scripts in direct competition with SL scripters, such as vendor systems for example, I think it will be time for me to cut ties with Second Life once and for all. OpenSimulator is coming closer to offering the same level of functionality every day.