{"id":809,"date":"2009-01-21T19:56:54","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T19:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=809"},"modified":"2014-01-12T13:17:19","modified_gmt":"2014-01-12T13:17:19","slug":"will-xstreet-sls-currency-exchange-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=809","title":{"rendered":"Will XStreet SL’s Currency Exchange Survive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was originally posted by Konner McDonnell at the now defunct Your2ndplace and is reproduced here\u00a0with permission from\u00a0Konner McDonnell<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

As first reported by famed blogger and SL icon Prokofy Neva <\/a> and confirmed here by Nobody Fugazi<\/a>, Linden Lab has acquired popular commerce websites XStreet SL (formerly SL Exchange) and Onrez. By way of reminder, LL\u2019s announcement<\/a> stated that the company intends to \u2018build upon\u2019 XStreet SL\u2019s platform, but will discontinue Onrez after February 11, 2008.<\/p>\n

For many (myself included), the looming question isn\u2019t \u201cwhat will this mean for my business\u201d or \u201cwill this reduce instances of IP theft,\u201d but instead \u201cwhat will become of XStreet SL\u2019s currency exchange?\u201d A fair \u00a0question, really. XStreet\u2019s currency exchange rates are typically better, the fees more reasonable, and those who sell their \u2018limited license right\u2019 can immediately have their funds transferred to Paypal.<\/p>\n

This looming question remains largely unanswered. In a crude Q&A session <\/a> taking place on the SL forums following T Linden\u2019s announcement, T and Colossus fielded every question except those concerning the currency exchange. Many people asked, with one poster noting<\/a> that the Linden Duo had sidestepped the question time and again \u2013 which\u00a0 probably means the XStreet SL currency exchange will go the way of the
\nDodo.<\/p>\n

This suspicion is based on an observation that LL is not adept at damage control or misdirection. They avoided the \u2018ad farm\u2019 issue for quite a long time. They undercut their Land Baron middlemen good and proper. So when they start talking about \u201cnew features,\u201d I check for my wallet, so to speak. Further, I know that LL makes their money from land\u00a0 sales, tier, and the Lindex. Given the Machiavellian zeal displayed through their handling of the land issue, reigning in the currency trading competition was predictable \u2013 not to say I predicted it. I\u2019m just as complacent as everyone else.<\/p>\n

Beyond my own cynicism, there\u2019s Colossus Linden\u2019s answer<\/a> to one user\u2019s inquiry about commission:\u00a0 \u201c[Linden Lab] will be keeping [sales commissions] and most other features of Xstreet.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what features are being removed \u2013 perhaps one of them is that which you\u2019ve carefully avoided discussing? Keeping in mind that \u2018most other features\u2019 implies that 51-99% of current features will be retained,and therefore that as little as 1% would be removed – and could\u00a0 be as little as removing the \u2018forum topics ticker\u2019 on Xstreet\u2019s main page-, I must confess that I perceived that 1% as being that which was being presently avoided AND was the thing I was worried about losing.<\/p>\n

I sure do it hate being left to my own devices and flawed judgment, but it\u2019s actually quite brilliant: If you keep people wondering, they\u2019ll\u00a0 do your advertising for you, they\u2019ll keep coming back for those answers, and you can hook them on \u2018new features\u2019 and other such things. On the other side of the coin is confirming people’s suspicions right away and risk turning them off. Besides, there\u2019s no point in making people angry when you can avoid the question entirely \u2013 it\u2019s not as if\u00a0 people will stop buying Lindens.<\/p>\n

For all my conjecture, at the time of writing this, there is no confirmation as to whether LL will remove Xstreet\u2019s currency exchange. Should they? My personal opinion is no. At a glance, it seems like they have much more to gain from leaving it alone. There will always be competition. The key in benefiting from competition is to be your own biggest competitor. Whether this is ethical or even remotely possible in\u00a0 this context is, well, subject to debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was originally posted by Konner McDonnell at the now defunct Your2ndplace and is reproduced here\u00a0with permission from\u00a0Konner McDonnell: As first reported by famed blogger and SL icon Prokofy Neva and confirmed here by Nobody Fugazi, Linden Lab has acquired popular commerce websites XStreet SL (formerly SL Exchange) and Onrez. By way of reminder, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Will XStreet SL’s Currency Exchange Survive?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[154,3,14,647],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6rJUK-d3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3525,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/3525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}