Direct Delivery Migration Clock Ticking On Items Priced Ten Lindens Or Lower

The end of magic boxes is nigh, sort of, as the clock ticks on deadlines for people who haven’t yet migrated unlimited items. Today is the end of the road for listing new items in magic boxes for items priced at ten Linden Dollars or lower, which would not be a smart move anyway as the item would be unlisted tomorrow!

Commerce Team Linden has updated a forum post with the latest information:

April 2, 2013 has arrived, and we have begun the first phase of Magic Box Shutdown. As of today, Merchants are no longer able to list unlimited-quantity items for L$10 or less using Magic Boxes. By noon PT tomorrow,

April 3, 2013, any active, unlimited-quantity listings for L$10 or less using Magic Boxes will be unlisted. Note that the following will still be allowed:

 Magic Box listings priced at L$11 or higher.

All Magic Box listings with limited quantity items, regardless of price.

 Note that the second deadline is fast approaching. On April 16th, 2013:

 Merchants will no longer be able to list unlimited-quantity items using Magic Boxes, regardless of price.

Any remaining active, unlimited-quantity listings using Magic Boxes will be unlisted, regardless of price.

 For the time being, limited-quantity items can continue to use Magic Boxes and will not be affected. “Limited-quantity” refers to items that the Merchant does not have rights to copy (such as breedable animals that are “no copy” for the seller).

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Breedables Needs A Food And Accessories Category

I recently posted on issues with breedables food being moved to a category outside of breedables: Common Sense Required Regarding Incorrect Category Decisions. When I wrote that post there were examples of breedables food in the breedables category, whilst other breedable food had been moved to another category or unlisted from the marketplace.

Since then, things have changed. More breedables food has been moved out of the breedables category and planted under the Animals category. This goes some way to addressing the issue of fairness but does absolutely sod all in the common sense stakes.

There is some logic to the moves, there is no category for breedables food and accessories. The marketplace team don’t like people listing items in the top level of a category, that’s what sub-categories are for but the answer here is to create a category under breedables for items that are related directly to breedables, rather than moving items out of the breedables category altogether.

Food is often directly related to breedables, if you don’t feed them they don’t prosper, you can’t usually use food substitutes, it has to be the right food and it’s food that is directly related to breedables, not other animals, so it should be in the breedables category.

The same goes, albeit to a lesser extent, for interactive items. Where an item only works with a certain breedable, it should be in the breedables category. However there are areas where breedable related items do not need to be in the breedables category.

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Common Sense Required Regarding Incorrect Category Decisions

There have been numerous reports of merchants being bemused as to why their item listing is removed from the marketplace for being in the wrong category. Sometimes it’s clearly an issue that the item is in the wrong category and sometimes it’s not so clear.

The Dwarfins Marketplace store has suffered a blow due to Dwarfins food being removed from the Marketplace due to it being deemed to be in the wrong category, the wrong category in this case being breedables. This is a rather odd move being as the breedables category has food for Meeroos, Amaretto Horses and Ozimals.

However it should be noted that Fennux  and Snuffles food can be found in Animals/Animals & Pet Supplies/Animals Feed & Water Supplies. This sort of inconsistency is not helpful and really there should be some common sense applied in these situations. The Animals & Pet Supplies category is not suitable for Dwarfins items, being as they aren’t pets and as breedable animals do not belong in the animals category in the first place, it seems silly for Linden Lab to agree with whomever flagged Dwarfins food.

Now it has long been suspected that Linden Lab only respond to flagged items, they are not proactive, they probably don’t have the time to be proactive but a cursory glance at the breedables category shows breedable food items in that category, ergo breedable food should be left there.

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Bring Inworld Items To The Marketplace

I’ve largely been supportive of Linden Lab’s efforts to bring advertising to their website. One area where I remain unconvinced is with regards to the dashboard, which I feel should remain unhindered. Another area where I’m not convinced it’s a good idea is the SL Marketplace.

One reason why I’m not convinced the SL Marketplace is a good fit is because people are already paying to advertise their wares there. However I do welcome Linden Lab’s blog post wherby they announce their intention to allow Second Life residents to be able to buy advertising space on their properties, Second Life related adverts are a good fit for any of their pages really. The devil will of course be in the detail, but the concept has potential. Inara Pey has a good blog post about LL’s announcement: Linden Lab Comments On New Advertising Moves.

However I often read people suggesting they use the SL Marketplace like a catalogue and teleport inworld to buy items. I think there’s potential here for extending the marketplace to have a catalogue section, such as an inworld items category, whereby a merchant would pay a listing fee for a limited time inclusion in this category.

Now you may wonder why they wouldn’t just list said item on the marketplace in the first place, well, when it comes to no copy items, they’re problematic, Direct Delivery doesn’t support them for a start, you’re better off buying the no copy item inworld and picking it up really, which is how sales of breedables often work.

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Is It Time For Seller Registration On The Marketplace?

I’m always wary of discussing issues of malpractice within Second Life commerce, but there are scams out there and it seems the marketplace is one place where they are materialising. Inworld sales can also be an issue of malpractice and most certainly have been in the past.

However it’s the marketplace which seems to see some of the more blatant scams and I’m starting to come round to the idea of a sellers registry for being able to sell on the marketplace. I’m not talking about making it premium members only, there are plenty of leigitimate merchants who have no need to be preimium. There are also alts of premium members or people who have alts of accounts who have a payment history with Linden Lab.

I’m not a fan of restricting merchants inworld, largely because this would require some serious reworking of the systems by Linden Lab to still be able to allow people to transfer items to each other. Passing items around for free has many use cases inworld, from education to simply sharing information.

However the Marketplace is a different beast and it’s probably time for Linden Lab to introduce a system whereby merchants need to be verfied somehow to participate.

Continue reading “Is It Time For Seller Registration On The Marketplace?”

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