Success and Apez, Meta-Life, slapt.me

In looking for alternatives to XStreet, I see one thing all 3 of these businesses have in common. So far as their websites are concerned, they are run by anonymous avatars. That is a major differentiator between them and XStreet; if any sort of big mistake or fraud takes place on XStreet, you can call real people who are bound by a recognizable body of commerce law. Meta-Life is the closest to actually disclosing who runs it - a young man named Robbie in Lithuania, who also has a management team of other avatars. Apez is run by a single avatar, and of course our own Lord Sullivan runs slapt.me. [Since Europe was not hit by the epidemic of weird names that infected the U.S. starting in the 60's, I assume that is not his real name ].

I imagine one could track down the website owners, but that's not the point. I think the most successful one of these three will be the one that incorporates and puts real names to their management, on the About page of their website.

What do YOU think?

so was xstreet..has it been a full year yet that they became part of LL?

Nope, it was last January.

And, SLX was operated by a company named Virtuatrade: http://www.virtuatrade.com/

According to a whois search, slapt.me is registered to an xxxxxxxx. Metalife.biz is registered to a xxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx. Both have full contact info. Apez uses an anonymous registrar that forwards email/postal mail, so that's a bit dodgy...I understand doing this for personal domains, but I would not do it for a business domain even if it cuts down on spam.

I appreciate the spam exposure that putting an individual's name on the market website could provoke (and, Veritable, Lord Sullivan would probably appreciate your removing that RL name from your post!). I think SLX's approach, of giving the company name that owned SLX on the SLX website, and having a separate website for the company, was a good one. That company would then name a CEO etc., and those individuals may or may not disclose their avatar's names.

click the contact info there..
their services only show slxchange..
it's about as legit as these others

Does that not undermine the idea of transparency that you are complaining about? This is someone who has opened a business using that name to register a domain.

Does that not undermine the idea of transparency that you are complaining about? This is someone who has opened a business using that name to register a domain. I have not linked an RL name to a SL avatar, but have merely listed the owner of the domain name under discussion.

When I started using Xstreet, I never checked who managed it or how complaints might be resolved. It was recommended as a good legitimate site for L$ exchanges and buying things. So I guess that most of my future online buying will be done at whichever new site seems to be the most used and considered legitimate by other SL residents.

I never buy big dollar items online via Xstreet anyway, so I have little to lose if something is not delivered and nothing can be done about it.

You have no idea!

Isn't it a ToS violation to even mention those other places here?

That said, you can find info on most of them in-world (got signs for 4 of them in my shop) - and URLs a plenty to sites where there is freedom for discussion.

Lord Sullivan could be a Lord, though. They have those in Europe.

I do not and have never used slapt.me for the simple reason that I can't actually get to it.

Haven't heard of apez. Meta-Life reminded me of a SL credit card that was out at some point, and so never thought of looking at their website. I rarely use Xstreetsl to search for things, but I do not buy from any of them. I used to buy freebies on OnRez, though, back in the day.

The most, beyond buying freebies, that I use on-line outside of SL market-places is as a method to find places to look in world. And therefore I never even thought of the people behind the sites.

It is certainly against the Commerce Blogrum rules to promote them. But, we are not on the Commerce Blogrum, and this thread is not promoting them.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I won't use any of them because I don't need yet another sub-minimum-wage demand on my time.

Hi Nika a very good point

We have full disclosure on our site slapt.me with a postal address and fax number in our TOS and full contact details in my profile, including a contact telephone number and most that know me, know that I also have my RL name as my alt here as well, Iain Sullivan. I will add the telephone number to the TOS as well later today We are also a registered business/company here in Holland and have to comply with Dutch law.

I do agree with you that merchants should be very much aware of this and ensure that they have full contact (RL) details of the people that they are entrusting their L$'s to as I would want the same myself.

I have made full disclosure in the interests of transparency back in April 09 and have no objections with my RL name Iain Sullivan being linked to this avatar Lord Sullivan on the forums here as I have the details available in my SL profile thereby allowing it into the public domain as is the registration of our website.

I have nothing to hhide when it comes to running my business and feel its important for any business in SL such as ours that they should NOT hide behind anonymous emails/avatars etc. as if if you want to trust us with your L$ it is only right that I give you recourse should anything happen.

Honesty and Transparency is the number 1 priority for me in running slapt, as there has been to many frauds etc. in the past done because SL allows anonimity for businesses.

Just my opinion though

Damn to bad Linden Lab doesnt has the BALLS to be able to do this LOL
kinda shows what type of people work at Linden Lab that they need to cower behind all the junk they have put between them and thier customers... and shows they have NO long term strength at all...

O and I have copy and pasted this to MANY gamer sites and ALL RCE game sites... ya know just incase in gets... ya know deleted from the forum here.. it will still be in google cashe for anyone to search.

I've moved my stuff over to Meta-Life as well as keeping it on X-Street until the hammer comes down. My observation so far is that traffic on Meta-Life is a fraction of the traffic on X-Street. The only item of mine that has 'sold' so far on Meta-Life is my freebie box of old treehouses and other prefabs that I no longer sell. No surprises there as it's my only regular seller on X-Street as well. As for actual L$ sales on Meta-Life: nothing so far.

Still, it's early days yet and things will most likely change after the new pricing policy on X-Street comes into effect.

I list on slapt.me, Apez and Metaverse.. slapt.me is my clear number one choice right now for listing.. Sales will come as the exposure gets better.. Apez has always brought more sales than XStreet.. So pulling my items Xstreet was a pretty easy decision.

At one point I was listed with ML and a forum moderator there.. I locked and deleted a post that put another marketplace in a negative light (no not Xstreet) and a professional knows that you simply can't let someone bad mouth a competitor in a public forum. It can be looked at as an endorsement if you let it continue. I was let go as a moderator for being professional. I simply can't list my items and work in an un-professional environment I've had enough of shady stuff from LL and XStreet.

I don't either. For those, I use xstreet to find a list of vendors selling that item and I go check out the item inworld. For less costly items, I do the same if the description and the photos are unclear.

I have use both slapt and metaLife. I place both sign in my shop (purposely exclude xstreet sign).

If someday these alternative shopping sites were to become serious competitors to xstreet, I'm not surprise to see LL ban all of them. Its their world, their game, your creation (so what).