Xstreet SL and OnRez to Join Linden Lab!

This post FTW!

We are still working on the best course of action on many of the concerns raised on this forum. That is why we *have* the forum - so we can hear your concerns and work to respond to them as fast we can and still give you an honest and responsible answer. Some of these questions we will need to reflect on in greater depth.

Here is a brief summery of some frequently asked questions:

"Will Linden Lab continue to provide the high level of Merchant support that has made Xstreet a success?"
The Xstreet team and myself have worked hard to earn a reputation of rapid response to the support issues of both merchants and shoppers. Support technology and processes were assets that Linden Lab were very excited about when we began the acquisition discussions. We will continue to uphold this dynamic combination of people and support tools while adding the existing Second Life support tools and documentation.

"What will happen to the Xstreet forum?"
Linden Lab values and learns from forum conversations and recognizes the value of the forum community. We are still looking for the best way to support Second Life forums and to encourage free speech while still keeping the forums a positive and productive exchange of ideas. Linden Lab will be evaluating how the Xstreet forum fits into the overall Linden Lab plan for forums and fostering online community.

"Will Xstreet have the same withdraw delays as Second Life?"
There have been questions about the 5 day delay that is part of withdrawing funds from a Second Life account and if we will be following that policy on Xstreet. We don't have immediate plans to change how depositing USD via paypal and withdrawing USD via paypal for Xstreet works. There are two sides to the equation that we need to keep in balance here: speed of transaction and security of transaction. We won't ever introduce a delay without a compelling reason. However, we will monitor fraud levels and other security concerns and will introduce a delay if security concerns require it. There are no plans to do so right now and we will alert our users to any planned change.

"Some Residents have been banned from Xstreet. Will Linden Lab reactivate those accounts?"
We are looking into this issue and we are going to be getting back to residents on this.

"What will happen to the Onrez Vendor System? Will Xstreet introduce a vendor solution?"
We understand that the Onrez vendor system was a feature that the Residents valued and we are looking at the best approach to a networked vendor solution.

More answers can be found here:
Xstreet and OnRez Acquisition FAQs
https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=5809

Xstreet Merchants and Shoppers FAQs
https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=5816

<3

It's to bad OnRez was the Facebook and XLStreet was the ugly MySpace. Clean functional > design mess.

Although I didn't use any exclusively or much, I always preferred OnRez. But is this good news? Maybe.

Taking out or combine the two "online" shopping networks and capitalize on the micro-transactions is a good move.

A bit off-topic, but SL is quickly showing it's age with the advent of over "online multiverses". They need to update their generic user models and animations. They need to provide users with the ability to create complex models and creations. They should experiment with "baking" a region. This way the end users download a 'scene' with proper lighting and not 45000 "blocks". This could open up for actual builds with architectual tools.

Great congrats to XStreet SL for making the big buck in this deal. Smart move. You havea reat system there. To bad if it follows the path of SL, it will now start havng issues. I just wish LL would focus on the SL Platform. There is so much that still needs to be fixed. Group Chat still lags out, under estate powers abuse report emails still dont't work.

Anyway I hope you don't touch anything over on the XStrret platform.

Umm...no. That site is almost completely composed of stolen content.

With respect, if this was the case you would have consulted people for feedback *before* you purchased OnRez and XSSL and asked us what we would think of such a move and then make a responsible course of action based on that feed back. *That* is what the forum is for. The fact that you just went and purchased the commodities without actually asking any of the residents, vendors and content creators how such a move would be regarded seems to indicate the opposite to what you claim in the quote above.

I'll reserve everything else just to re-iterate something that's been said a few times but is extremely important.

To Grant, and any other observing Lindens:

You have a *very* big chance to do things right and restore widespread lost faith in SL and LL.
If this acquisition turns out good, and the work effort carries over into repairing the state of the grid itself, people might return, their Money included.

However. Running in parallel is an equally big chance to deepen this lost faith and drive off a *vast* amount of your userbase.
Such as if this acquisition turns out bad, worsens the state of the grid... Or the beginning of things far worse, such as the "Linden Sales Tax" some people suggest this is a forebearer of.

Your choices in this situation will define SL and the feelings of it's users.

Hmmm. I guess I do things differently. I start with a category (which XStreetSL has lots more of) and then sub-search the category. Plus I can set prices on my search instead of those silly arbitrary ranges that Onrez uses. Finally, Onrez always seemed to lose track of the "search for items in current results" and start returning global results after the 2nd or 3rd page of items. A subsearch of a subsearch would have been nice.

I agree with other posts though about Onrez having a better look and feel. Plus being able to customize a storefront for all your items.

The hardest hit will be those with extensive Onrez inworld vendors. Uggggh. The amount of time LL is allowing for moving is just pathetic.

But honestly, my sales through XStreet/SLX have always been about 5x what I've sold via Onrez item for item.

Oh well, it's all moot anyway. So much of this junk is partially why I've lost some interest in SL in general. RL health problems are also a problem so maybe I'm just cranky.

I have to agree I joined Onrez when it was SL Boutique, and continued to struggle with it over the years. Search is not as efficient as Xstreet, I could never find my own products using Onrez search less alone comparable products without fishing through dozens of irrelevant listings. I don't agree that Onrez's product set up is simple, it's not as intuitive as Xstreets is. Sales on Onrez never amounted to much, and I finally stopped trying to relist products there because I saw Onrez as a dead duck.

Now I do know people who told me they did well selling on Onrez, and I feel sorry for them that they don't even have 30 days notice to pack up and get out.

Onrez sucked, glad to see it go.

The vendor features may be worth keeping. And if Xstreet/SL is going to offer in world vending, it would be great if there was a way to make an affiliate vendor one could just give to others with all the settings predetermined within it. That was an attraction of hippo vendors, which I was just about to get around to using when this take over of Xstreet was announced.

I second that - I use OnRez for the vendor packs and functionality. So, incorportate it. Thanks.

Exactly Insky, I used both onrez and xstreet. I advertised both, but fact is onrez didn't even compare to xstreetsl.

I sold 3 items in 3 months on onrez, where I have daily sales on xstreet.

Xstreet is more visible, easier to search and find items, just a much better system of rating, reviewing items as well as locating items.

Since I am a scripter I wrote my own vending system for my in world store so that isn't a problem for me.

I think if you changed this to "We will keep the in-world OnRez vendors working with existing content and configuration until XX/XX/09" you'd probably pull all your chestnuts out of the fire.

A few days of work with such obvious decisions seem to require two weeks of brainstorming and a screw-up before realizing they got it wrong only months later at LL...

Too bad the SLBoutique model was to be completely free with no advertising of affiliate structure to support it. If you had not sold your soul to become an Electric Sheep (which I then deemed as poor value to The Electric Sheep Company "when kept as such" everybody would be rushing to SLBoutique by now. That is, assuming you would not sell your soul to LL either.

Last time I tried adding product to OnRez I had the following issues:

*) Adding pictures for products was very clunky compared with XStreets
*) Updating existing items with new versions makes you enter all the details again if the package name is not exactly what it was last time (ie. you increment a version number in the name).
*) Sales history information is pretty much non-existent.

I stopped using OnRez due to the hassles of adding stuff there, the interface for adding products is far superior. It may not look as pretty but give me usable over pretty anytime.

Another data point is that having exactly the same products listed at both places for months, only XStreets yielded sales, zero, none, zip from OnRez and yet on XStreets my products sold and are selling well. I don't care what people were saying about how good it was, to me it was a far inferior marketplace.

If LL's new XStreet/OnRez based product ends up with the OnRez interface for people listing items then I will probably cease to use it and hope for the next independant offworld marketplace to spring up.

XStreet has always had excellent support, and I have fervent hope that tradition will continue. Whenever a cash exchange failed or went wrong, the XStreet team has been very quick and courteous in resolving it. I applaud the XStreet team for their professionalism in resolution support.

I believe this integration is a natural and much necessary progression for Second Life.

At in-world stores, demos are helpful, but you don't have the benefit of full product descriptions, images of the products in use, and suggested use visuals/instructions. XStreet ads provide for extensive descriptions and visuals.

XStreet also allows a much greater service for comparative shoppers. You can list your product search by price, relevance, etc., and compare and contrast various products without TPing all over the grid.

It is my hope that the integration of XStreet into SL will bring merchants easier, more standardized tools (i.e. vendors, catalogs, etc.) and listing methods in the future.

For example...

One simple technique that I use to drive sales is - I've created a single-prim "shop-at-home online catalog", textured to look like an attractive catalog, which when clicked, opens our XStreet "More Items By This Merchant" listings in your web browser. This simple "catalog" allows potential customers to peruse ALL our items for sale, with full pics and descriptions, and is always up-to-date with new items added immediately as they are available for purchase. This type of "catalog" is easy to create for even the most unskilled scripter, and is copyable and transferrable, allowing customers/clients to spread the word and give copies to friends and associates (thus driving even more sales by word-of-mouth recommendations).

I foresee standardized (and easily modified/customized) catalogs like this, and easy-to-use standardized vendors for people starting out in business in SL as the next step in this evolution.

In these economic times, Second Life can be a powerful force in creating new jobs and income for many people world-wide. Simplifying the process of setting up a new business ventures in-world is an excellent step in the right direction, and I applaud all efforts toward that effect.

It's amazing and refreshing to see how quickly things are changing, with a new U.S. President sworn into office just one day ago. We need to evolve out of the old ways and open new venues for the world's economies to prosper, and for the poor and disadvantaged of the world to become self-sufficient.

Let's all work together to make Second Life one of the changes that makes Real Life a better place for all, and usher in a new era of togetherness and caring for all of our brothers and sisters worldwide.

Much of what I've seen from rezzor.com is ripped content. Someone needs to do some serious DMCA house cleaning over there.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fermat Euler
Well people... You have the Rezzor Shop

www.**removed url**.com


Try it.

ONLY SYSTEM WITH RESELLER VENDOR
-----------------------


Much of what I've seen on rezzor.com is ripped content. Somone needs to do some serious DMCA house cleaning over there.

Indeed. A Prime example of why external marketplaces may have to be squelched permanently.

Not even if I beg....?

Good - Lindens have bought out XLStreet - gives me a reason to cut back my spending! I've already lost my Openspace so now this is one less place for me to shop. Thanks Lindens!

BTW - when are you going to put back SL Economics so I can watch the "Islands Added" numbers drop some more??

Are you lying by intent or didn't you read the postings done by other Lindens?

One of the early yellow postings made it very clear that the OnRez commission of $L0 will be raised to the level of XSL.

Do you people not get it?

They bought two websites and are closing one as the first move. This is nothing to do with providing better service and everything to do with monopolization.

Better service?
Why did Xstreet layoff some staff - thereby downgrading their ability to service the current model?
Why close one site immediately without having a valid vendor system in place to replace it?

LL have no intention of providing a 'better' service...just removing competitive systems is all. Moving some staff across is just part of the deal to make Apotheus feel better about the transaction.
LL already say they don't know how they will integrate it into search (i bet they actually do). There is no way to integrate the current Xstreet system into search without taking a percentage of the sale for listed items. Inevitably preference will be given to those willing to pay the tax... and then... to those willing to pay a higher tax - same thinking as classifieds are now.
The biggest issue here..is the backdoor approach to bringing in a system of taxing item sales.
This is clear anti-competitive behaviour (buying a business to close it) and very clearly a not-very-subtle move to bring in a system of taxing item sales.

It took me a while to figure out what's going on. It seems pretty simple once I dug through all the corpspeak.

1. Linden Lab bought XStreetSL and XStreetSL will keep going as is for now. It will evolve into something else eventually.

2. Linden Lab bought Shop OnRez and is killing it off completely. It's just plain going away for good in about three weeks and never coming back ever in any form.

I am not crazy about either development, but I can live with them. The deadline for pulling the plug on OnRez seems pretty abrupt... but no matter how much lead time you give us before OnRez dies, we would procrastinate.

Are you [...] or didn't you read the original announcement? OnRez is not being merged with XStreet, it's being shut down.