VendeX

If what you need is a single or multiscreen network vendor with an easy price adjusting feature.... shameless plug....

http://slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=48375

Globally adjusting the price on L3s is not automatic but extremely easy.

Eh, as a pure consumer at this point, I guess I'm in the minority because I calculate every Linden to $US in my head, heh.

However, if I were selling I would definately want this hidden, for all of the reasons so far stated. You don't want people thinking like me if they haven't been. Keep them thinking "play money"...

As Yumi observed, though, it would be amusing to rub in the fact that some people really are five dollar ho's. (Which I noted immediately after hearing their prices, lol)

(apologies to the escorts of SL, girl's gotta earn her flexi-prims somehow, I guess)

I know we make real money in SL, and thats great, but doing this makes it a bit too real and too "serious" for me... I, of course enjoy making a bit of extra cash... but not to get rich quick...I enjoy what I do in Sl and I don't want it anymore stressful or rl like than it already can be...
Besides I know when I shop and I buy something for $250 and go back again to see the price as $256 or even $246 I stop to think what the heck is this designer doing? Are they here to make just a quick buck or do they actually care about thier product and customers...
Today is a good example of what happen... my husband, son and I went to this mexican resturant that we always go to, have gone there for years.. well we walk in and notice new menus different items and, DIFFERENT PRICES.. I sat and thought, ok maybe they werent making enough money or something, but how can that be if they are always packed and been in business for years... well come to find out, the owners son was arrested and has a $50,000 bond, so they decided to make thier customers pay for it... what did I do?.... I asked how much for our drinks .. $4.82, put a $5 bill on the table and walked out... making your customers adjust to your life style or mishaps, IMO is wrong...

with these changes made i would most probably use this system

Glad to hear your system is working out Sol, good luck.

Very interesting idea, and something that I'd thought about doing with a vending machine now we have llHTTPRequest. What put me off is that, personally speaking, I don't like the idea of not having fixed L$ prices and, what I've lost in the falling value of the L$, I've more than made up for in quantity. It's generally not good for a consumer to have the price changing on them, and it doesn't really engender good feeling towards merchants. That's why, apart from in certain sectors (such as computer parts etc.), prices don't generally move with frequency on things you purchase.

Anyway, being from the UK, I'm already exposed to exchange rate fluctuations, at the moment for the worse, but that, as with everything, will change and I don't have the need to convert L$ constantly and can wait both to convert L$ -> US$ and US$ -> GB£.

Interestingly, this makes it nigh on impossible for a merchant to list on SLExchange or SLBoutique or to produce POS posters or announcements that mention the price because the price will be fluctuating every day. It introduces ambiguity into the process, and doesn't make it clear for the consumer. After all the merchant probably won't know how much their product is priced at from one day to the next.

One point though, is there any smoothing of the value that takes place? For instance, if the vending machine gets it's daily price when some weirdo has sold way above the norm (e.g. L$400/US$ rather than L$330/US$) which does seem to happen a lot, if the vendor happens to check when it's at that price will the merchant's prices rocket accordingly?

I wish you luck with the VendeX though, it will certainly be interesting to see how both merchants and consumers react to it.

From description of system, it seems that yes, the exchange rate is checked every hour, but data on vendor machines is updated once a day so would presume that's a daily average rather than 'rate of the moment' ... if there's extra option added to change prices weekly/monthly like Sol mentioned, then transitions should suffer even less from short-term changes ^^;;

Yes, that's what I'd presumed but couldn't see it stated - I'd suggest you make it clear Sol, to avoid ambiguity for your potential customers. For myself, I'd like to know that there wasn't a chance I could get stung and my prices rocket for my customers.

In response to all this great feedback, I've completed the VendeX update.

Here's what's different:

1. The US$ price is now held on the notecard which goes in each vendor. The only price customers will ever see is the L$ price that is updated in the description field each time the vendor gets the latest L$ value from the server. They will also see the L$ price in the FastPay window when they buy an item.

2. The server now has a touch menu that allows you to choose how often it will retrieve the L$ value from the Second Life Lindex page. The default for the server is still hourly, but you can change it to daily, weekly, or monthly if you wish. The vendors themselves will still just update themselves from the server every 24 hrs. Anyway, this should allow for less periodic price changes for those that don't want it changing so quickly.

3. Just as a little extra, I made it so if the owner touches a vendor that it will display the L$ price calculation. This doesn't interfere with the new default action selection if you want to make it "click to pay".




Thanks again for your help Eddy.



I've included a screen capture of the Lindex page and have highlighted the average from the daily summary. This is the same average that is used to chart the progress of the Linden on the line chart. Thankfully, it's not subject to being thrown off by somebody typo'ing and selling their 1000L for 30000L/US$.

Hmmm this kind of makes the system more fragile to sudden changes, when it takes samples less frequently, though... wouldn't it be safer to still have vendeX pull the rates every hour for internal use, but just update the 'official', averaged rate for the vendor machines every week/month etc? ^^;;

Going to make a note to tell all newbies to avoid these vendors

Why?

Because you can see the contents of boxes before you buy them, and what is no copy/mod/transfer within them. You also have an unpredictable price with these vendors. Stability is an issue.

That is an issue any vending script. Why not just warn them to always check the sign for permissions and ask the creator in case of any questions instead of telling them to boycott anyone using this vendor?

Yes, stability IS the issue and the problem is the Linden is far from stable hence the need for such a system.

This is the only "valid" argument you got there buddy, and if stability matters to you then fine, don't buy.

I don't understand why you seem to be very much against it, even going so far as to tell others not to buy, as if the people who were using VendeX vendors were doing something immoral.

Stability issue???? What are you talking about. With these the price stays the same and the only thing that changes is the amount of fake currency required. I'm sure you wouldn't be against it if the price of L went lower?

question for clarification: how often do the vendex vendors update their prices?

No, the price changes. The L$ amount changes. I don't care how much USD someone thinks its worth. And yes, I would.

All of it is valid, Lo. Some of us base purchases base don can we get this as a gift..mod it to fit us, etc. Maybe you don't but alot of shoppers do. I personally don't like vendors.

I understand that -- but again, this has more to do with the person selling the items and whether they make it clear or not if it's mod/copy/trans, and nothing to do with VendeX itself.



Then why go out of your way to declare that you will tell folks not to use them? Why don't you just personally accept that some people do not mind using vendors?

True, and True. But still a valid point, with any vendor system. The price being unstable is a major concern. I don't want to try to buy an item and have the price change mid purchase.

You still have not answered my second question, which was why would you go out of your way to create bad business for someone, i.e., telling newbies not to use VendeX?

I do not own VendeX (yet), and I don't know Sol Columbia very well, so I'm not going after you on behalf of her, or the product in question. It just seems like an unnecessarily mean thing to do.

That's a valid concern and probably wouldn't have been taken so harshly if you had expressed it civily instead of a flippant comment about telling any newbie you meet to avoid anyone using these vendors without so much as offering a reason.

You just seem to have a problem with anyone who sees SL as anything more than "a game" and God forbid anyone should try to use it as source of RL income.

I come off rough sometimes. My apologies.

I suppose that is the best explanation you can offer for the offensive statement you made.