Selling on Xstreet just got more expensive

In here I have no clue, on the blogrums as they're a replacement for the old Xstreet forums I think it's fine that they have this rule. The rule is churlish, but plenty of places will have the same rule, ebay don't allow posts about rivals.

PART of the bloggums, a small part, is a replacement for the XSL forums. Except even that part is also supposed to be about in-world commerce as well.

This would be like Google Groups banning people who mentioned Hotmail, because there's a discussion group for Gmail in Google Groups.

No, it's clear that LL really does consider XSL income important. There's no chinese wall between XSL and the rest of LL. LL *are* bothered "whether people spend their Linden dollars on Xstreet or slapt.me".

because if I do they will slapt.me I understand that they don't allow it on listings on Xstreet as its the same way we do not allow listings on peoples items on slapt to other e-commerce websites.

However as far as the forums are concerned I think it is healthy to be able to discuss other sites etc. but with LL making these gaffes I think they don't want to just hand the merchants the other sites like ours on a plate as they lose their merchants and I can also understand that to a degree as LL I think, believe that people don't look outside of the LL forums for information, they seem to have a very blinkered view of the world for sure.

However by allowing a free discussion imho keeps you on your toes to deliver a decent service to your customers and maybe as LL are failing in that area, they try to stifle the discussions. Makes you wonder though for sure.

Just my opinions though

Same here.

I really should have at least one serving of caffeine before reading the forums. My first read of this book title was 'The Mythical Man-MOTH' and I thought, "Sounds like an interesting Sci-Fi novel." Did a copy/paste to read a review of it and...errrmmmm....it wasn't about moths.

Although, iirc from my work with computers yeeeeeaaaars ago prior to IBM's PC being introduced, the term "debugging" or "bug" came from one of IBM's mainframes going down and the discovered cause was a (I *think* moth) that got into the tubes and fried something. (Been a long time.)

So the book *could* have been about moths...kinda.

/slinks off to the next post

Thank you for posting that. The two points that jumped out at me were:



Oh I'm sure they have this idea on their "backlog of projects" (probably LL speak for "Don't hold your breath" even though this has been one of the top requests/ideas for cutting down on the number of listings that "clutter" Xstreet, causing the current new pricing system (according to LL). The quote even admits this will "improve the shopping experience."

Then in the same quote:



Which, according to LL, is why new prices are being added to cull out the "clutter."

So, unless I'm reading this wrong, this quote basically says it doesn't matter if we make a system of including a color-choosing system within one listing, or keep it as it is...it's all good.

Then why charge extra????

ETA: OOpppss..forgot to add the second point:



*Highlighting added by me

So great...now that I pulled all my lindens from my Xstreet account that I used to purchase items, I now have to put some back in to cover the fees.

LL is working toward closer integration of the 2D web and inworld, so they will not be blocking communication for in-world objects. Remember, website<->SL communications are required for many enterprise applications.

As for blocking individual sites, I hope that LL is not ignorant enough about proxies and/or the costs of deep content filtering to want to start down that slippery slope.LL considers the size of SL's economy as VERY important. It is a significant differentiator between themselves and Facebook, as well as nearly all of their 3D competitors. However, I don't know if they would be disturbed by another marketplace taking *all* the non-"solution provider" merchants; I guess I'm saying I'm not sure the revenue LL gets from SLX is important to them. f I were at LL, I would simply claim all market sites' sales volumes as part of SL's economy. It would be the overall economy size I would want to build (and, more importantly, tout).

ENIAC, not IBM. I've seen the moth in question (and was indirectly responsible for it being put on display in the Smithsonian). It was taped into a log book with a note about how it had been removed from a relay. The note included the notation that it was the "first actual bug found", implying that the term was already in use.

If you were at LL I have no doubt they would be a lot better focused, yes, but as you are not I'm not inclined to mix up what they SHOULD do with what they ACTUALLY do.

I know, Ciaran; I read the transcripts. I tried to be clear, saying that the office hour sample was *largely* unrepresentative, not universally, and that whatever the Lindens heard, it was through their patented F*-up-Filter. Anyway, I certainly didn't mean to add to the errant notion that the office hours were some wacky conspiracy to trick innocent Lindens onto the path of sin, so my apologies if I added to that impression.

Also, good reminder about how LL actually realizes any revenue from web retailing. I've tried to make much the same point on the Commerce "Forum" threads--probably too many times. Luckily most of the discussion has now moved back behind the Merchant Roundtable veil... a sanctum to which I'm no longer authorized having delisted everything.

I am beginning to think that LL's CFO and his staff went to the same business school that the airline industry CFOs did. Add fees to improve the experience, even if it does mean pricing people out of using it.. which will improve the experience for those that can afford it.

I've pretty much given up on LL making sense. I have no idea what their roadmap is, but I'm pretty sure they're being led by an outdated GPS system that is going to send them through a few lakes.. because the roads under them still exists!

Why would they be? It's 1% of the economy, unless they're doing better on the paypal purchases than I imagine I don't see how in the grand scheme of things Xstreet sales are important to LL.

As a proof of concept and being able to position themselves as a provider of similar services to other grids it may well be important to them, but I remain unconvinced that the sales side of virtual goods via Xstreet is important to LL to the extent that they'd be bothered about people purchasing from slapt instead.

I'm not saying they *should* be concerned.

I'm saying that they clearly *are* concerned.

If that was the case they wouldn't have rules against people advertising their goods on slapt.me on this forum.

/me is convinced LL is only thinking long-term.

It's not about 1% of however many people use it today, it's about 1% of the 10 million residents that will be using it a few years down the line. In theory. So the PowerPoint slides say.

Ah, ok. Thanks for that clarification. I knew it was something with a moth disrupting the works.

That's cool you had a hand in the moth being put in the Smithsonian. I'd love to hear that story if you would like to share it.

How do you get to this Merchant Roundtable? Is it part of the main blogorums on the dashboard page or on the Xstreet site itself?

I love this story - imagining the Smithsonian poring over a squashed moth in some guy's notebook. Hee.

This link to the LL guidelines re: profiles and signatures was provided in another thread "sl exchange alternative." After reading it, it got me wondering about something else, which I posted in the other thread, but this one seems to be where we're keeping up with the latest Xstreet changes.

The link:

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/02/25/second-life-discussion-guidelines

My question:

The subject of the above LL guidelines deals with not posting third-party websites or marketplaces in SL forums. I wonder how this applies to in-world advertising, specifically if LL will take any action against those merchants who have posted the "box" - for lack of a better term - of competing online marketplaces.

Has anyone heard anything about this? Or for that matter, anyone have any feedback from the Xstreet signs some of us have posted to spread awareness of the new pricing policy?

A "warning" from LL is one thing, but I would really hate to have my account banned forever.

When I was a nipper I visited Washington, and toured a number of museums including the Smithsonian. In one of them, which later turned out to be a Naval museum, the "First Bug" logbook was on display. Many years later, armed with my mistaken belief that it was in the Smithsonian, I asserted that it had been there in the '70s. One of the people reading the thread was sufficiently motivated by my misapprehension to contact the Smithsonian. Their response was "No, but it surely should be", and arranged a transfer. I don't know whether it was a permanent loan or just a tour, so I can't say where it is now, but I did find it amusing...

There is always the (user) Blogs. I see those becoming more and more useful/popular. Although, to be honest, they can't cover everything...newbies, for instance.

Originally Posted by Linden Lab:
"We've received feedback from our users that the volume of free, cheap (L$ 10 and under) & stale listings in the Xstreet SL Marketplace did not make for an optimal experience for shoppers or merchants." - I am not the one who sent such feedback, I am just happy with free and cheap stuff. And why Linden Lab bought out Xstreet (and other marketplaces) this year, when they know that Xstreet is full of freebies? I am hobby creator and I sell my creations in range from 10 L$ to 20 L$. That's why 10 L$ monthly listing fee is real obstacle for my humble Xstreet business as I can't afford to rent in-world shop. This new "roadmap" is aimed to destroy and erradicate small hobby creators.

I expressed my concern about it, mainly for the way it was being gamed by dispoasable alts selly stolen stuff.
$10L isn't that bad, you only have to sell one a month and it's covered. From my experience sales there is zero anyway for me it makes no differeence I wasted my time even listing stuff there in the first place, it seems to have been a freebie/dollarbie palace, I can't be bothered catering for people to tight arsed to spend 17 cents for entertainment.

LL want to make money so will do what they think works. There also seems to be a lot of the "Gimme everything for free" brigade upset too by this of course.

They aren't stopping anyone setting up a 3rd party freebie/dollarbie site, so many people seem to love the concept someones bound to do it for the love...............

I think I would be a little concerned if I had to PAY every month to list something I gave to the community for free.

I'd be more concerned trying to sell stuff in a world where "get everything for free!" is becoming the norm.
If the community want's peoples stuff, the community should cover cover the costs of offering it. If people are really doing it for charity why charge anything, might as well stick their stuff in a $0L vendor prim inworld and make them look for their freebies

Right, but I was extrapolating from that to in-world advertising, like many merchants have their Xstreet boxes placed prominently; now I see a competing marketplace service's "box" put out as well (sometimes right next to the Xstreet box).

So if the guidelines are this strict re: blogs, I wonder what the LL "think" is on displaying alternative sites in-world. Hopefully if they decide that's against their guidelines as well, it will be announced first.