Selling on Xstreet just got more expensive

There are more problems in the pipeline:

That was a complaint yes.. But to fix that would be to fix their search engine.. no pose a 10L fee on every item listed. I'll let you do the math on that. Current there is over 1 million items listed at XStreet.. Think of that income they will get..

I'm so glad you feel the need to label 80% of things as crap. I used to use Xstreet to purchase things and for my hobby business of selling hair. I have never had issues with this so called "flooded" market. I also received a merchant survey in my email which described LL's new crappy feature to multi-list colors, I'll have you know they plan on adding a 10-25% sale surcharge. This mail was sent by Pink Linden.

Now since you are quoting "according to LL" that makes me think you've never used Xstreet to purchase things because if you have I highly doubt you would consider the marketplace "flooded."

well, I'd have to agree that piqued me a bit too. I make some items which are quite high end, highly crafted and scripted functioning products that don't necessarily sell every month, and I sure don't consider them clutter, nor do the select clients who purchase those items, so, consider me miffed as well

That reminds me of another thing that came up as I was evaluating how to respond to and adapt to these announced changes, and that is seasonal items. As usual it's taken me by surprise, but a lot of my Christmas items had already started again going out the door even in October *what is wrong with you people!? it ain't even Thanksgiving yet!* , and then I've had to scurry around again setting it all up inworld to have available for the season. But, what to do with these kind of seasonal products on Xstreet? Keep paying to list them all year round, or just pull them once this current season is done and that's it, only have them available in world season to season. *shrugs, haven' quite decided on that yet.

I think it's a big shift, but to be honest, I'm mostly in favor of the proprosed changed. There's too much crap in Xstreet now, and just fixing the search engine won't change that. Now people have to be smart and think about what they're listing and why. And it will make it much easier for me to shop in Xstreet without wading through pages of stuff like plywood boxes.

I say this as a merchant who WILL be affected by the changes. To be fair, there are only about 3-5 items of the 30 (?) or so items I have listed that sell on Xstreet. I'll keep those ones in, and remove the rest, which sell more in-world. It won't affect me to remove the ones that don't sell.... because they DON'T SELL.

I was never going there again... but I just made my last Xstreet purchase

TY Madeliefste - I will wear it with pride, and not a little sadness.

Rime

Edit: Typos

LL isn't just using this as a way to reduce the freebie clutter, however. They're doing this to help "streamline" the search feature of XStreet.

There were other ways to handle it for XStreet, like creating a tool that allowed people with listings for various items to condense it to one listing with each item color being a link with picture mouse-over. That would reduce my number of listings by a huge margin. Also making it easier to delete items would help in reducing the number of old items, because I HATE going through and having to delete each and every item by itself. Also having a sales tracking for items would be great. That is the one ONREZ feature I miss. If I could track my items sales, I'd know which ones were doing poorly and delete them off too.

For freebies, they could have simply given them a section of their own and then, *gasp* give us a Google-like search system.

I have no sympathy for LL at this point. Adding fees should have been the last resort, but it's the first thing they do.

So, Jade, you don't mind the upcoming surcharges either? Paid items will see a rate hike too.

The freebies I have up there do 'sell' and also have good ratings, and good feedback but should I keep them up there? Even if I combine them into one, which hardly benefits someone searching for that one item in the box...especially since SL also does not allow multi listings in one (there goes the idea of packing it all into one box)...I'd still be paying that L$ fee to give things away. I don't know what decision to make about that. Then again, I have to tell myself that mine are not the only way that person can find what they wanted. And that it is not that huge of a deal. They will find someone else, hopefully. But it feels a bit guilty, like I am passing the buck. "Let someone else give a freebie" type of thing. And I didn't go into it intending to do that.

So why is LL doing this, again? To benefit us or benefit search, Jade? It doesn't seem that way. They have even stated that they are getting rid of 'clutter.' Well by their definition since several of these go out a week if not more, they are not clutter items, but I'd be charged as if they were because they are free.

(Going by recent months) It just feels like LL wants to get rid of the 'old farts,' the Zindrites, the freebie users, the freebie makers, and anyone else who isn't the creme de la creme, in favor of those who are: young, 'with it' (enough to not say 'with it'), upwardly mobile, plugged into trends, around for decades to be a virtual consumer, good enough in virtual manufacture or virtual real estate to be useful to the new corporate clients...etc.

Am I the only one who feels this instinctively, or am I just having a bad morning. Lol.

Just ran some more quick numbers and to put the L$10 per item per month listing fee into perspective, if the number of items listed stays the same as now (ha! I say to that) they just added over US $550,000 to their annual revenue.

L$10 - just pennies... What was that about death and taxes?

Rime

Well they could have done in in a smart way that would have costed money, or do it in a dumb way that will bring some money.

Guess wich they chose?

OK, but do you think that LL deserves this L$10 for that resident's free work? Because that money is going to LL, not the resident.

OK, the money will go to some other resident who takes the free work and turns around and sells it for L$100 or more. The educational value of having the free original listed alongside, to highlight the fraud, will now be silenced. Way to go Colossus and Pink!

I've just realized a lot of the beautiful yet free textures, sculpts, etc. on XStreet SL will disappear.

This sucks.

What I'm seeing from this change is a measurable impact on the value of the Xstreet service to me, directly attributable to the listing fee. How much traffic Xstreet brings to my store is hard to measure... maybe you can do that, but for a (physically) small store it's close to impossible. Neither is it easy to quantify how much value I'll gain in Xstreet visibility by these changes.

LL (and it seems, you) are claiming that listing fees will improve the value of the service to me. I just find it very difficult to share that belief, when the only evidence I'm seeing is the extra cost.

What is the problem, don't you see how searching through endless in-world locations, if those items continue to be made available at all, will enhance the value of Second Life and improve the human condition? Because that's what SL is all about, improving the human condition, that's their mission statement and everything!

I absolutely hate the new LL XStreet policies. I think there are lots better ways to solve XStreet's problems than adding a lot of new fees. But I have to agree with Marcel...there IS a lot of crap cluttering up XStreet. And there are a lot of in world shops selling crap, too. It's just another example of Sturgeon's Law ("90% of EVERYTHING is crap!"

And yes, I've run into the XStreet Search Clog many times...where you get hundreds of pages of results, most of which are page after page of the same item, in a hundred different colors.

The problem is getting rid of the crap without throwing out the many USEFUL, QUALITY items (free and otherwise) now listed. LL's fees will get rid of both.

/me squints through the Hubble telescope, looking for the mission statement...

...then falls out of the sky, having rezzed in a sim that's vanished.

I'm sure that my crap will be someone's treasure.

Was just wondering- does anyone have an opinion on if this will somehow impact the Xchange rates?

But that's where "One mans trash, Is another mans treasure"..

Who are we to say what is junk and what's not? Who is LL to say so?

Two simple fixes..

Move Freebies / Dollarbies to their own area..

If an outfit comes in multiple colors have Linked sets or a color chart to pick the color the customer wants.

That would clean up a TON of the site right there.

Or even just make the keyword search better. It's amazing how much unrelated stuff comes up. Also, it often seems no two identical keyword searches get the same results. The categories could also be more specific. (For instance, IIRC there is a 'pants outfits' category but not just 'pants' or 'slacks.' They could have dress pants, casual pants, sweat pants, jeans, low rise pants, high waisted pants...you get the idea.)

Exactly and Delist the merchants items for gaming and suspend the accounts of the abusers.. Simple fixes and no double dipping in merchant pockets..

For most of us that create only as a hobby this will be the end. In-world shops, while nice
unfortunately do not make enough to pay the shop rent. It was nice to have some pocket
change from selling items on x-street but now I can't even afford to do that. This is like a
kick in the face for those of us who create for fun.

You know, I really liked sl when I first started here but the most of the fun has been sucked
out for me. It seems that SL wanted to be Business 3.0 but started off on the wrong foot.
Unfortunately for them it's never going to happen.

Good bye and God Bless
S

so how do you take things off xStreet? just by using the deactivate option, or are there other steps i need to make to ensure i am not unduly charged?

3Ring this is gonna suck but it's the process..

Deactivate each item.. you can do this by mass checking then setting status..

Then ONE by ONE edit and Delete.. It sucks for sure.

Do we know for sure yet whether we'll get charged a listing fee for deactivated items?