Linden Lab – Page 155

February 28, 2013February 28, 2013

Chui Hits Beta, LL Equip Their Flak Jackets

The Communication Hub User Interface (CHUI) has hit the beta viewer and will cause some major flak when it hits the main viewer, if it ever hits the main viewer. I’ll start off by saying that it has some really nice features, but they are going to be unfamiliar features and people will undoubtedly complain about the amount of screen space it takes up.

I’m not going to go into too much detail here, if you want more detail read the Second Life forum post from Viewer Linden, alternatively read Inara Pey’s blog post or watch Torely’s video, I’ll embed that at the end of the post. I’ve also edited my images to protect the innocent and not so innocent, so if it looks odd, it’s because I’ve blacked out text and names.

When you go into conversations, you get some previous chat and then today’s chat, as well as some options and it’s these options I’ll briefly touch on. There are four options:

Open Conversations Window.
Pop Up The Message.
Flash Toolbar Button.
None.

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February 27, 2013

Will Second Life Ever Be Able To Address International Issues?

I was listening to MetaReality Podcast over the weekend when Qarl mentioned that Second Life under Mark Kingdon had been considering ways to bring back gambling, according to some it has never really gone away, but the days of casinos on the landscape are certainly long gone.

This remined me that I’d been reading about real money Facebook apps: Facebook strikes deal with 888 to launch more real-money gaming apps in the UK. The key here being the in the UK part, so as to not fall foul of laws regarding online gambling in jurisdictions where it’s not allowed.

A quick recap on gambling in Second Life, as far as I’m aware it was never licensed. However it was popular and it did require land, so it generated tier revenue. Linden Lab took a business decision to ban it, but I can recall a forum or blog post where Zee Linden, former CFO, said they had been considering finding a way to bring it back. However that has never happened.

When Linden Lab struck a deal with Dragonfish to process payments, I wondered if this was to do with introducing gambling back to Second Life, as Dragonfish are related to 888, the same 888 who are introducing gaming apps to Facebook. When you used to email support, they had an 888 address. This was for the now defunct Local Payments System, US residents didn’t have their payments processed in this fashion.

Now one way of bringing gambling back to Second Life would have been to do what Facebook are doing, and restrict it to residents of a certain country, so for example if 888 had opened an 888 sim, only UK residents would be able to enter. This would obviously be problematic, especially as gambling winnings would find their way into the wider economy, but it does raise the issue of restrictions on Second Life based on the geographic location of Linden Lab, rather than their customers.

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February 26, 2013

How About Introducing A Verified Merchant Scheme For The Marketplace?

I think it’s probably coincidence but I’m seeing more reports of dodgy market place stores appearing and end users getting ripped off. Let’s get some things straight here, The SL Marketplace is not a hive of villainy, the vast majority of people shop on The Marketplace happily, they receive good service and goods they want.

Dodgy goods and practices in Second Life are also not exclusive to The Marketplace, long before The Marketplace arrived copybot was being misused. I’ve had a skin creator in tears inworld showing me a store selling her ripped skins and she was extremely frustrated about the options open to her.

However The Marketplace, unfortunately, makes dodgy practices easier, the question is, is there any way of minimising the issues? I’ve seen suggestions such as requiring premium membership or PIOF to operate a Marketplace store. PIOF hasn’t stopped dodgy Mesh items being sold on The Marketplace and a premium membership requirement would drastically cut the number of sellers on The Marketplace, whilst at the same time punishing honest sellers who may even spend more than premium membership fees each month renting land.

However I don’t think doing nothing is an option anymore. Maybe we need to see a simple verification scheme, whereby people who have a payment history with Linden Lab become verified merchants and can display a verified merchant logo on their listings.

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February 25, 2013February 25, 2013

Marketplace Could Do With Buyer Protection

I’ve seen a few complaints recently regarding people receiving items that are not as described via the marketplace. One was a complaint that the buyer purchased three full perm mesh items, but received two boxes with no mod notecards in them, for the princely sum of 18,500 Linden Dollars: About Marketplace and thieves.

Another thread details how someone paid 6,000 Linden Dollars for a Mesh Avatar and after purchasing discovered that they also need to purchase a client from the Marketplace for the sum of 20,000 Linden Dollars : How do I get a refund from a Marketplace seller who falsely advertised?

In the latter case I can find examples on The Marketplace of something along those lines, ~~they can be found in the :::Next Gen::: store on The Marketplace~~ (Listings have been pulled). Those avatars actually look pretty impressive, the description states:

“The New Age range is entirely compatible with ALL mesh & rigged mesh clothing. You will look better than most of the people you know in this brilliant avatar.

All of our worn products work in conjunction with Premier Life and give the user such an enjoyable experience that has given us the opportunity to be in 3D development for the last 3 years.”

Maybe the buyer should have asked what Premier Life is before purchasing, but the description does not say that you must buy Premier Life, whatever Premier Life is, even ~~The Marketplace description for Premier Life~~ (Listing has been pulled) contains little details:

“This is the Premier Life Client which is needed to view ALL Next Gen Wearables.”

That line should really be in all their product descriptions, although if Premier Life is a third party viewer then it’s in breach of policy on client names, however as it will cost a buyer a whopping 20,000 Linden Dollars, it should be firmly pointed out in all listings that this product is required. I doubt that the merchant is trying to deceive anyone, it looks more like an oversight to me but it’s an oversight that should be rectified.

The bottom line here is that The Marketplace should have a dispute resolution centre similar to eBay’s.

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