SL Direct - Second Life Directory

This is to announce alpha level testing of SL Direct. I am currently looking for people interested in testing the in world features of the service. Currently SLD is scheduled to open on Friday, January 2, 2004, baring any unforseen problems in testing. Currently out of world functions have been disabled as a security precuation during testing, but feel free to take a look at the temporary site:

http://sldirect.3d-game.com

SLD Is a full service directory, inculding fully searchable personal, business, and service listings, not unlike your phonebook.

SLD also has searchable classified ads for land sales, product and services, as well as First Life event announcements and more.

Searching the listings is free. Creating a personal profile is free. There are small one time fees for permanent business and service listings, and small monthly charges for classifieds. Featured listings and banner ads (only for in world business and services) will also be available.

All account and ad forms are begun in game, and completed on the website. All information for the directory is kept out of world on the SLD SQL server. The entire process is automated, and will allow creation of accounts and changes to your listings 24/7/365.

This service is limited to Second Life users, and therefore when SLD opens an account must be created in world in order to search the directory. No First life advertisizing will be allowed. All personal information provided by account holders is subject to the utmost level of privacy, and will never be released or used without permission.

Please feel free to contact me in game for more information, or email [email]sladmin@sldirect.3d-game.com[/email]

This is a good idea. We need somehting like this.

Azelda

Thank you to everyone that has been helping with beta testing. I'm still in need of 10 more testers. If you can help please contact me in world or at [email]sladmin@sldirect.3d-game.com[/email]

Things look good for a Friday evening opening. If anything changes i'll post here.

Why was I asked for my password?

SL Direct is only for Second Life users. In order to search you must fill out an in world application form. This is to insure the system is only used by SLers, and the account is totally free of charge.

It is NOT asking for your Second Life password, rather a random password that is generated for you when you create an account.

I am basicly providing this service for free (some piddly amount of lindens in game won't come close to covering my colocation costs, even though I own the colo space) and I want to keep out people who would try to harm the system as much as possible, thus reducing my costs and making it possible to provide this. This system is fairly automated, and I don't want to spend more then a few minutes a day servicing it once it gets up and rolling, if I can help it.

Also this system should be used to advertise Second Life products and services, not First Life ones. With in world created accounts I can hopefully keep the grief to a limited subset of internet users, namely people that have at least signed up for a Second Life trial.

If you would like to help with the beta testing contact me in game Selador and I'll give you an account form.

Searching is currently disabled during the form beta test, but the plan is to open fully Friday evening.

uhh, isnt this exactly what the builtin parcel directory does? $30/week isnt a gigantic fee to pay for listing. We used to pay more than that for a single teleport in 1.0... Are the I-booths all gone? Seems like they did the same thing, except we didnt have a parcel directory before.

You can't do parcel directory if you don't own land. Also with the classifed ad you can advertise for one specific product. This system is also key word searchable.

And this service is less then $L30 a week.

The cool thing about this directory is that it looks like you can search for products rather than shops.

ie, if I want an elevator script, I just plug in a search and boom! out pop all the elevator scripts available along with prices and locations. That strikes me as extremely useful.

I was just thinking two days ago about asking the Lindens to make this, so it's rather nice timing.

I'm not affiiliated to this project in any way, and I dont know cua Curie, but based on what is in this thread, this idea rocks!

Azelda

If you put "elevator scripts" in your parcel description, and people type "elevator scripts" into the search box, they will find you

That doesn't get around the fact that you cannot create a parcel listing if you don't own land. There should be a whole new subset of people that cannot own land, but may have something they have created they would like to sell.

The in world find feature leaves alot to be desired, and this fills in some of the holes.

Good luck. IMHO the whole point of me coming to SL was to get away from the WWW, much like me coming to the WWW was to get away from TV, and TV to get away from books, etc, etc.

Thanks. We've had great response so far.

It's unfortunate that data storage in world is so poor that an outside system is required for this type of project. Hopefully SL will evolve to the point where it won't be nessecary to leave the world to get outside data, or for long term stable data storage.

P.S. My god who would leave books for TV ewwww lol

I talked to cua a bit about this idea and I think it's a good one. Perhaps not for everyone but it certainly has merit. As cua said, saving data in SL is a joke. Notecard names is a stupid method (work-around) yet it remains the only persistant method. As well, like Eggy I tend to shy away from anything html based. But html crap does have some utility, namely that almost everyone on the net has a web browser and can easily access the info cua has setup on the web.

I like that fact that it's searchable, and more specific than the in game Listings (find) functions. Until the in-game listing is improved it will remain quite basic and under utilized except for very basic searches, imho.

Bos

I ran into some real life issues that have delayed me a bit, but the directory should be ready to fully open by the middle of next week.

The web site is running. Beta testers can create their accounts and edit them, but search functions are still disabled.

The site address is http://sldirect.3d-game.com

If anyone is interested in helping out or wants more information you can reach me in world, or at [email]sladmin@sldirect.3d-game.com[/email]