Ejumacate me: Transactions in SL

Hey kids, it's time to play Teach the Dumb Reporter!

I've gotten this far: It doesn't appear that non-LL financial transactions in SL are noted *anywhere*. No receipts, no records.

So here's my question: Why hasn't some enterprising vendor scripter written a program that will result in a receipt?

Ejumacate me! Am I wrong? Which I hope I am?

I love being wrong like this. This makes my job easier.

Also can be seen IW

world/account history/sales and gifts

JEVN has a reporting system. You are sent emails with a list of transactions.

[Why I'm interested in this stuff: I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to verify disputes between customers and merchants in my new column for the M2.]

So obviously only the individual in question can see his or her transaction record. So what's a dumb reporter to do?

Well, I could ask for screen shots. That's a help, but they can be graphically manipulated. So here's the dumb question, which is probably for a Linden: Is there a way for these records to be given to me, by request of the concerned parties only, as official records? I wouldn't need to see everything, just the records in question.

Wouldn't a written permission given to LL by all parties concerned be sufficient for LL to disclose the records of any specific transaction?

An IM from all parties concerned should be equivalent to a written permission, since the sender is traceable.

Of course, LL would need to assign one or more person to handle the requests, against a standard fee.

this would go a long way toward establishing a credible way to settle transaction disputes...

It is possible, but highly irregular and I don't think LL wants to be in the business of doing this unless the amounts are significant.

I won't be able to check out every single suspect transaction. If the Lindens would, I doubt I'd be asking them to check on at absolute most five transactions a week.

But would this be a good feature to somehow program into SL--a way for people to automatically with permission on both ends check the transaction records for one particular transaction? yes.

I suspect you are going to need a back up plan.

MeiLin, excellent question and points.

How about posting in the group tools forums about this?

I think some kind of publicizing technologies of transactions for auditing purposes is something that is *sorely* lacking in most payment transactions system I am aware of and certainly in SL ..

The question I pose though .. should both parties have to consent to publishing the transaction or just one?

Oh I suspect so, too. Nevertheless, a girl has to ask...

I would say both. If one won't consent, though, it looks pretty bad. I'd be willing to go to print with something like this, for example:

"Joe Dokes says Mary Zee was supposed to give him a gazingus pin and paid her L$50000 for it, but she didn't go through with the transaction. Zee says she did not agree to any such thing and Dokes never paid her anything. Dokes has agreed to provide the transaction record; Zee has refused to cooperate with this reporter."

That speaks volumes and doesn't say Zee did anything wrong, just that she wouldn't cooperate with an investigation. Reporters do this all the time and we don't get sued.

Apparently there's been some controversy about this idea already--transaction records, I mean--and I haven't even officially suggested it, or even thought it all the way through. As far as I'm concerned, this is all hypothetical. (The column isn't hypothetical; I'm doing the column.)

This thread was never intended to be anything other than educational for me--hence the only half-facetious title. I haven't asked the Lindens for any kind of arrangement, and were I to, I'd fully expect they'd turn me down. They're Lindens, after all.

I'm just trying to figure out the lay of the land here. I'm about 16 days old, after all. My goal is not to muckrake as much as arbitrate disputes and try to identify shady merchants, casino owners AND CUSTOMERS. This isn't about talking smack about merchants, and the column will deal with a number of personal finance issues, not just disputes. Remember that nine times out of ten customer complaints turn out to be people not reading the f-ing manual. I once ran a tech support department. I know.

We have a couple of issues that the real world does not:

- juveniles running around in a world of business, and

- fairly strong anonymity.

So... When is it truly a customer dispute at all, and when is a merchant's frustration merely 'prank call' style amusement perpetrated by an errant child?

For the record, as much as I appreciate the Metaverse Messenger (and I do!) I would never comment on a customer issue so publically.



I have a lot of respect for the real creators and merchants, and the customers that keep them in business.

What disputes that may arise between good folks are trivial, compared to fixed gambling scripts, Ponzi schemes and so forth. I suspect that there is where the real story might be found.

Indeed, and that's a large part of what I hope to be writing about. As I said above, this thread was primarily about educating me. Don't take it as indicative of what the column will be about--solely about, anyway. I'm not interested in every penny-ante yard sale argument.

For any merchants/creators reading this and wondering who the hell I think I am, please know this: In the 17 days I've been in-world I have seen AMAZING things that you-all have done--things I would buy in the real world if I could, places where I would hang out in if I could. I've tried my hand at building and I know it ain't easy.

I have been treated with such kindness and generosity. My only goal in writing this column is to make it easier for the newer and/or more naive residents to learn the financial ropes and avoid scams. That's the essence of it. Figuring out the transaction system is part of what I need to learn.

And as for disputes, from the IMs I've gotten there really does appear to be a need for a neutral, private, non-Linden third party, a mediation service perhaps, that can look at SINGLE transaction records, listen to stories and arbitrate a solution. Could be either a non-profit or a for-profit. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a niche: Go for it.