Xstreet SL and OnRez to Join Linden Lab!

At this point I am very skeptical this acquisition is in any way good thing for the actual customers. Anything that takes one Linden Minute away from FIXING SL is a mistake.

What will happen to the far superior OnRez Vendor Pac management system?

What will happen to the MUCH better sales metrics and reports we get from Xstreet and OnRez? Will we revert to the near useless SL stats?

If someone needs to keep Business and SL expenses separate will this merged accounting allow for that?

Will the XtreeetSL financial pool will be separate from LL/SL? Many persons want a separate pool.

Will the wallets form OnRez will be ported?

What will happen to XstreetSL customer support. It is currently good to great. Will it now be concierge level only?

What will happen to folks Banned from XstreetSL who used OnRez?

Will the un-broken XstreetSL will be "fixed" by LL?

Will a move to take the shopping inworld will place yet additional demands on the oh so steady LL servers?

That LL is doing this WITHOUT a replacement for the OnRez vendor system STINKS.
Not happy here. I am very pessimistic this will be a good thing. Congratulations LL, you just broke something that didn't need fixing

If that happens, there will be atleast 1 bright point to all of this. Other then that..a big BOOOHOOO from me.

I have seen the comings and goings of a lot of things LL has done, some for the good, some for the worse.
Most things LL has done I have agreed with, but at this point there is still a lot of questions people have asked with good reason that have been left unanswered.
I don't feel they should have a monoply over all aspects in regards to SL whether it be an outside source or not, this is called free enterprise and should be respected.
Supposedly the creativity here was suppose to be a World to which we create ourselves. It is now getting to be a World that LL creates and if we don't like it, live with it or leave, we can get 20 more free replacements.
It's just a little disappointing that there was such big dreams for eveyone when they bought into SL and is now being crushed due to some choices that are being made whether they are for the good or bad. Only time will tell...Thinks it's going to end up hurting all of us who spend hours here creating and then be either told to stop making it as LL will now be selling or giving the product away for free.

Does this mean that OnRez is sharing personal information with Linden Lab without getting permission from us? (I somehow have the feeling that this is might even be legal in the US)

Or is OnRez simply closed down? Well I guess, they get the personal data and then close it down.

I've enjoyed using XStreetSL on the web, but OnRez vendors have been my primary sales method inworld. I know I'm far from the only one and this is going to be quite a pain in the nether regions to redo. I cannot imagine what it will be like for large businesses who use that as their primary sales method.

I would have hoped that keeping the vendors running would have been a top priority, given the sheer number of them throughout the grid that are operating smoothly.

As someone else said, there is always Apez. I guess it's time for me to check them out as an option... or are there plans to acquire them in the not-too-distant future, too?

This is yet another example of proof that Linden Lab is interested only in acquiring as much cash as possible without expending any effort. I guess here is where I stop creating content for sale.

My prediction for 2009:
1) Acquisition and closure without advance notice of Apez.biz thus obtaining a 100% monopoly on web and vendor sales.

2) LL introducing commission on in-world sales and skimming a commission off EVERY L$ transfer in-world.

3) Standards of customer support on XS/SLX fall to the same poor standards as SL support.

Yes that is what it means...and also the information on SLX....else LL would not be able to send out emails to the users of those sites.

I loved XstreetSL, it was problem-free, great customer service, and the only time I had a problem, they resolved it easily and quickly.

Oh well. Off to take my items off XStreet.

Although purchasing L and selling L on slx was a little better then buying it from LL i guess its going to skyrocket up now huh. So much for secondlife its starting to feel like real life in sl.

If this means that the whole complex Xstreet sell system becomes easier to use, I'm all for it.

It seems that anyone is taking out L$ from their XS/OnRez accounts... and the system.. well failed. (having thousands L$ withdrawal pending on both right now).

(to not talk about the fact that i can't login at all into SL...)

This is really a good start.

Ok so now, all our money that was taken from us in set up fees and teirs (read tears) from OS sims and the ludicris rent increases has now been put into buying the peoples beloved SL Exchange/Xstreet...
way to go, ignore the residents that have payed your way, use your dirty money to buy more and leave the grid in the constant state of failures.....
Thanks again for ignoring residents.

If they ever introduce commissions in world, I'm leaving, and if they introduce fees to SLX, I'm leaving.... The amount of lindens one makes off of hours of work is already low enough....and while we do use their program, I don't feel they have the right to be making money off of items that we spend 10-15 hours making.

In any case:

* Add the multiple edit feature that onrez has to SLX
* Don't add the Linden Dollar amount from SLX into In-World, It would be annoying and not beneficial.

I did enjoy the use of SLX - XStreet. I loathe the idea of Linden Lab taking it over. Now we'll see the same daily moronic problems on XStreet as we do on the grid.

It seems the first 2 major failures have already started>

1. Failure to log in
2. Failure to transfer funds.

Way to go Linden Lab!!!

I agree with this. If they do start charging commissions in-world i give up.

If we sell in-world it means we are paying for either land (be it renting or owned) or mall space etc, if LL were to then take a cut too it could (for some sellers) push having a shop into costing money instead of making any.
I love creating things and do it mostly for enjoyment, but if creating and selling actually ends up costing me money then that will be it, no more selling.

The only other option would be that people put all their prices up to cover the increase - which means people would be able to buy less items overall, not much fun for them and less creators selling ultimately.

I hope this is just not going to happen, but I wouldn't be exactly shocked if it did.

I would like to further the calls that OnRez NOT be shut down until there is a good, easy to use, reliable vendor pack system like that available from OnRez in the new combined system. Having switched to using the OnRez vendors across all my outlets recently, I'm going to have to switch back - and even though I liked my old system, the OnRez one worked faster and better.

I would go so far as to say I think you should shut down XStreetSL and keep OnRez because as both a shopper and a vendor with a presence on both, I vastly prefer the OnRez experience, but I appreciate it's probably less disruptive the other way around.

In the SLB days there was commission, so I'm sure that reintroducing that code is possible, so apart from keeping two systems up and running for a while, you'd not be losing out on your transaction fees either. That said, I'm not so sure I like the idea of Linden Lab keeping a commission - OnRez managed without one after all, quite happily. It offered, in my limited experience of using both CS systems, better customer support without any fee, and in my wider experience of shopping and vending a much nicer experience. Keeping a commission to Linden Lab doesn't necessarily smack of "paying to obtain good customer support" as "paying to increase our profitability" and appearances do matter. Go read the current trendwatching.com report on Generation G and see if you can revisit this idea - you could seriously do with some good will from your customer base after all.

I'm sure it's much too late to change the whole she-bang, what I'm asking for is a much more limited thing: keep both running (maybe even remove the online shopping interface from OnRez and redirect shoppers to SLEx after D-Day) until there is a smooth way to transition the in-world vendor system. You've got all the code. You've got a customer base that uses this service and would like it to continue. Don't throw that away for an undefined number of months, keep it running so you're not reducing the level of service available until you decide either to leave it indefinitely or you have developers with enough time to do the migration job properly.

This is better than the most dramatic soap opera on tv *sits back eating popcorn enjoying the show*

+1

"1: The ability to sell L$ for USD and transfer rapidly over to PayPal. I have used XStreet to handle these transactions because the services offered by LL are too slow. XStreet has in the past been able to move USD to PayPal within moments of submitting the transfer request. Will this remain the same once the transfer is complete or will we be forced to use the slow system we did our best to avoid? I ask this because I use PayPal to cover tier and expenses associated with SL and if it will take a week or more to see a single 20$ transaction go through then I do not see how this will benefit the merchants who rely upon the services of XStreet. Does LL plan on jacking up the wonderful system that is behind XStreet's SL/USD conversion system or does LL intend on putting their hands into a system that works very well?"


Aside from the occasional bit of shopping this has been my prime reason for using XStreet even though i run a store i never used Xstreet to sell items.

The fact the questions has been raised several times by others and has been left unanswered has me slightly worried.

If you claim to make this move for the benefit of merchants then i feel this feature has to be kept or it should replace your current slow clunky system which i have avoided up til now. I never did understand the huge delay with LL's system?

With Xstreet i could pay money into one of thier vendors in world, sell those L$ for USD , transfer that to my Paypal account then send them onto my RL bank account all within minutes. It would then arrive in my RL bank within 5 working days.

Please dont fail to see the massive importance of having SL currency maintain such fluidity into RL currency for any merchant or user.

I mean if i can give an example of how wonderfull this is i could literally be paying for REAL things on Ebay using paypal minutes after withdrawing L$ this sort of immediacy with a virtual currency is quite astounding and LL i hope can see the benefits this has for making SL all the more appealing.

So aye please maintain the efficiency of this sytem and even work with the new Xstreet team to integrate it further into all L$ transactions.

*steals Harmony's popcorn*

seriously?
i don't watch soaps but man it sounds like they need better script-writers.....

.... are you sure you aren't confusing watching the television with say an aquarium or um... your washing machine?

Well what can I say, you are mixing my favorite shops hehe. I am a customer of both, as what one not has I can find on the other one.
But one thing is I like in the onrez shop very much. The Wallet. That let me shop at my homeplace and when I have not enough money then I can use it and add more. For XL I have to jump to a terminal and add my money there. It is ok but the version of onrez is the one I prefer, so maybe there is a way to add that when both are together.

XStreet takes a percentage of each merchant's sale. Will LL do this, and if so, what percentage will be deducted from each sale? Thanks.

This is the question I too would like answered. Xstreet charge a commission on sales and Onrez does not - hence many content creators have different pricing structures because of this.

First, let me note that I am really concerned about this. Competition is good... centralizing sales into a single entity makes very little sense to me. However...

XStreetSL already does this. You pay for a thicker line around your posting, and you pay more to move it to the top of the page, and still more to move it to the beginning of the section. Oh, and you probably get more sales for posting a higher price because it by default sorts from high prices to lower ones...

OMG please do not do that. The XStreet one is far faster, more intuitive, and effective. All that all that waiting for ajax and copped images etc on OnRez drives me nutz!

Aside the fact that competition is good and i dislike this move of monopolization, the different sites existed for good reasons and, as even a blind person can tell from glancing over this thread, they cater to different tastes and needs. Good luck trying to merge those groups into one.

LL continuing the comissions per sale policy which will effectively amount to a sales tax in the end which will no doubtedly get higher over time is an outrage. Time and again LL have proven they know next to nothing about their world, residents needs or business. (See: OpenSpace debacle. You honestly did -not- know that at the given price 75$ -alot- of people would jump on the offer to make their long awaited dreams of an own sim come true and that those sims would be actually used? Predicting those happenings most semi-smart teenagers could have done without problems.)

So if you managed to somehow not entirely botch this (and i am having serious doubts there) i hope you -do- realize that the implications of having a grid wide and integrated shopping site will have far reaching implications on the complete in-world sales chain starting with shops, malls, mallowners, landlords including the land they occupy until it reaches back to you in the form of tier fees those parties are currently paying to maintain their vending sites.

So if the integration and website is good so you can cash-in off the site revenue, there will be much less reason to maintain in-world stores and outlets which will drive many middlemen out of business. Less reason for in-world things to exist or even visit.
Or perhaps the site wont be that great afterall, i'd call this conflict of interest.