Virtual Worlds – Page 179

November 12, 2013

More On PrimBay

Thanks to Lelani Carver, I have more information on CasperTech’s PrimBay. Lelani has updated her blog post to include a link to the PrimBay Wiki, which has a lot more information than I was originally able to relay.

I said in my previous post that the site looked a bit sparse, the Wiki informs me that this is by intent:

“The front page of PrimBay is simple. Just a search box. Find what you need, quickly and easily.”

I’m afraid I have to give that a thumbs down, largely because it doesn’t draw curious users in. However other features are certainly worth a thumbs up and they include:

A demo button will be available on listings, no need for a separate listing!
Ability to share listings in social media.
Full purchase support, by L$, Credit Card, or PayPal, including an (optional) device which can make payments automatically, similar to the marketplace.

However where PrimBay really gets interesting is with regards to the future (the current roll out is still officially in the beta phase). Some of the proposed future features:

A special edition of caspervend designed for primbay-only merchants.
Auctions – PrimBay has been designed with auctions in mind, and we will implement these in the coming time.
Multiple store fronts – Multiple brands, one avatar.

There’s more to read on the wiki but PrimBay seems to be throwing down the gauntlet to the SL Marketplace team by introducing features that SL Marketplace merchants have long wanted to see. Multiple store fronts and a demo on the listing being two large feature requests that the SL Marketplace has not yet implemented but which would prove extremely popular for merchants and shoppers alike.

Another feature that SL Marketplace merchants may welcome is via the listing process. As I said in my previous post, you need to be a merchant using CasperVend to list your items on PrimBay, but in order for your items to appear on PrimBay all you need to do is have your account set to enabled and the items will, after a period of up to one hour, appear on the PrimBay website. No need to create a new listing on the site and inworld, one listing will make your item appear inworld and on the site.

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November 11, 2013

CasperTech’s PrimBay To Provide Web Based Virtual Shopping Experience

I’d heard a few whispers about something called PrimBay from Caspertech but details were thin on the ground. However I’ve unearthed a bit more information via a blog post from Steampunk enthusiast Lelani Carver. Now the first thing to note is that you have to be using CasperVend to sell items on PrimBay, Lelani gives a little bit of blurb about the venture in her post:

“For anyone using Caspervend products, there’s now an online marketplace where your products are listed, similar to the Second Life Marketplace, but scripted to be much faster, easier to search, and with better options for showing color variations and demos. ”

I’m not sure what stage this venture is at, the actual website (which can be found at https://www.primbay.com/) looks rather sparse and lacks information. However if you browse categories you will see, as you’d expect, categories and if you click within those categories, for example buildings & prefabs, you will see listings. Alternatively you can just search for items by Lelani Carver!

According to Lelani’s post there are plans for banners and storefronts. I also suspect this may be used to sell items on other grids, for example there’s talk of Avination currency in the terms of service and when you click login there are options to login as a Second Life customer or Avination customer.

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November 11, 2013November 11, 2013

New Marketplace Merchants Will Need PIOF

Linden Lab have announced that those who want to open new stores on the Second Life Marketplace will be required to provide payment info on file (PIOF). The move has been warmly received by merchants, many of whom who seem to view it as a beefing up of security.

This will, once one or two teething issues and quirks are ironed out, undoubtedly reduce the amount of throwaway alts used to practice questionable behaviour on the marketplace. Obviously it won’t cut down on all questionable behaviour but it will greatly reduce it and we should see less of the most brazen scams taking place … one would hope!

The blog post states:

“Only newly created accounts will be required to meet this requirement at this time, and existing Merchant accounts will not be affected. However, we strongly recommend that all merchants complete the steps necessary to meet this new requirement.”

If they ever do get around to requiring PIOF for exisitng merchants, I think we’ll see a few more complaints, but as it currently doesn’t seem to have any implications for exisiting merchants, the news has been well received.

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November 9, 2013

Disrespecting Hedgehogs, Mafia Hits, Trolling Forums – A Look At The Old Police Blotter

Back in the day Second Life used to list the 25 most recent offences in what was known as the Police Blotter. Later on it became the incident report. These reports looked like this:

Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Violation: Community Standards: Indecency, Global Standards
Region: Ahern
Description: Offensive language in IM.
Action taken: Warning issued.

Being as that offence took place in Ahern you can’t help but wonder whether the issue was using offensive language in IM, whereas in Ahern it’s traditional to be abusive in local chat. Some of the offences fall into the bizarre category, such as what appears to have been the St Patrick’s day massacre:

Date: Friday, March 17, 2006
Violation: Community Standards: Violations using Alternate Accounts
Region: —
Description: Use of primary and alternate accounts for mafia “hits” on residents.
Action taken: Suspended 14 days.

We see examples of offences that were serious enough to be listed but had a touch of humour about them:

Date: Friday, June 30, 2006
Violation: Second Life: Respect, Pets
Region: Arabian Nights
Description: Hedgehogs will be respected, dammit!
Action taken: Warning issued.

Date: Saturday, July 8, 2006
Violation: Terms of Service: Adult Allowing Teen Access to MG
Region: Hawaii
Description: “My little brother did it.”
Action taken: Suspended 14 days.

Then we see examples of action being taken because of abusive behaviour in the forums, spamming event listings, nudity in profiles and using real world trademarks to sell goods in Second Life:

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November 8, 2013

AnnMarie OToole’s Automated Vehicles Hit The Buffers

They filled mainland roads .. and roadside parcels. They sped along the highways, cars, tanks, Taxis, Ice Cream trucks, motorised vehicles but it seems that they’ve now crashed permanently. I’m talking about the infamous AnnMarie OToole (not to be confused with Ann OToole) automated vehicles which have apparently disappeared from the Second Life highways.

In her profile, AnnMarie says:

“Yes I am the notorious AnnMarie who invented the drunken vehicles on the SL Roads but the Lindens have shut it down.

Remenber you live in a dictatorship, not a democracy. No charges, no arrest, no hearing, no representation, no appeal. Don’t forget to give copies of all your creations to an alternate account and never keep Linden $$, convert to US$ or risk losing everything.

5 years with over 110,000 visitors taking over 325,000 rides. All gone.”

Now these vehicles were not universally popular, this may be an understatement. A thread over at SLUniverse entitled Guess who’s at it again…Exploiting Mainland cites many reasons for their unpopularity. Allegations about exploiting exploits, crashing, using Linden rez zones, polluting the highways etc.

AnnMarie herself actually pops into that thread to explain a few things, to try and dismiss a few misconceptions and most intriguingly to me, to explain about the problems with an Ice Cream Truck:

“There was a conflict with the Ice Cream Truck, it used to vend ice creams when clicked but people wanted to ride them so the click was changed to RIDING instead of VENDING. Despite 10 fancy Italian flavors they all tasted the same . IM me if you would like a free ice cream.”

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