Office Hours with Lindens AKA Land That Time Forgot!

I might just be tilting at windmills now over the changes Linden Lab is proposing for XStreet SL but I have this masochistic streak that just won't let go. So yesterday I attended the 4pm SLT session hosted by Colossus (Big Ava - Big Ego) Linden and Pink (Bunneh Cute So I Can't be Evil) Linden.

There were about 40 avas there including some well known merchants. One thing was clear -- save a few "Linden Shills", most of the attendees were not in favor of the new fee structure and pretty much everyone would far prefer LL devote resources to fixing things that are actually broken vs. adding new features into XStreet SL that may or may not have  real world benefit.

Yet, like good foot soldiers on the front lines, Pink & Colossus with, assistance from Grant Linden and those shills I mentioned tried valiantly to keep their picked topics on track.

1. Making the XStreet SL Homepage look nicer
   
2. Wishlists via Facebook
   
3. Merging inworld accounts with xstreet accounts
4. Improving search

With the exception of improving search, wishlists have never been on anyone's radar screen that i know. And while the homepage is a muddle, that too is pretty low on the priority list for most merchants.

Fixing search, improving merchant tools and getting rid of or modifying potential sales killing fees might just be a teeny weeny bit more important. But noooooo, we had to wade through a dull presentation of here's how we're going to screw you and why you'll like it. Any attempt to discuss the fees was dealt with by the obvious cold shoulder or by answering different questions that weren't asked. Lovely. It was a total dog & pony show only you didn't even get to ride the pony or pet the dog.

What we also saw where some strategically placed Linden Alts whose roles were to support Pink & Colossus with timely fan-boi comments.When an alt starts saying "well I know you Lindens have to get to dinner", you know the conversation is being "managed" to the extreme.

NONE of the tough questions any of the merchants posed regarding the new fees or how the would be handled were ever dealt with. In fact, they became officially "off-topic" about 1/2 way through the event. I think my funniest moment came when Pink asked if there were any other shopping sites we individuals thought were good examples for SL to use in developing XStreet SL.

I said yes followed by (something to the effect), "ONREZ, they had real store fronts, easy listings, search that worked, a simple interface, multiple select items. But then you bought them and shut the place down." I got a fair measure of applause and agreement over that.

The rest of the event was mostly Pink & Colossus figuring out new ways to dance around the same old issues. Even some valiant attempts at re-opening the process for new feedback went nowhere. Linden Lab is interested in your input only when it matches their carefully nurtured and insular world view.

So I wouldn't count on any brilliance out the Commerce Team. They've set their sites on a vision that goes no further than the tip of Mark Kingdon's nose. Like it our not, our shopping and selling experience is going to roll in whatever they decide, regardless of the sheer number of intelligent and reasonable people who've offered great suggestions as alternative paths. Disappointing yes. Unexpected no.

Any future office hours,  please bring your box of popcorn.

XStreet SL Changes Protest Kit

One of the many suggestions from other merchants that I found intriguing was to attend the next Linden Lab Commerce Team office hours in silent protest. You eat popcorn instead. The idea is that Teh Lab is not going to do anything based on what you say and you're screwed anyway so just register your displeasure.

For those that want to take this approach, I put together a little kit:

You get two t-shirts hastily made by me (full perms) and a bucket o' Protest Popcorn with a munching gesture (also full perms but only partially made by me). There's also a nice notecard with some thoughts, ideas and other crap in it.

To get your free kit, visit my mini-sky-shop here and snag it for yourself:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Alope/248/185/601

Linden Lab Office Hours for XStreet SL

All merchants who are concerned over the Lab's current direction with XStreet SL should attend one of these sessions. The official "topic" of discussion is "TBD" (haha). I plan to be there for at least one of them.

DATE:  Tuesday December 15th (next Tuesday), 2009
TIMES:
   -  Session 1 =  10am SLT
   -  Session 2 =  4pm SLT
   -  Session 3 =  8pm SLT
PLACE:  "XSTREET SL Garden Park" :   http://slurl.com/secondlife/Xstreet/34/95/22
TOPIC: TBD

Here are a couple of freebie protest T-shirts on XStreet SL if you want to wear one to the office hours:


https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1943184

https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1944400

*Snickers* - Cobalt Butterfly Outfit

This is one of the first full outfits I ever made and sold in SL. I'm wondering how it stands up to current offerings. Personally, I think it's still pretty nice. The only thing I can see that could be improved a tiny bit is some very light fringing on the edges of the prim skirt. Comments welcome!

New Outfit - Inga Wind *Lorelai*

It's time I blogged about something less depressing than Linden Lab's latest ventures into stupidity soooooo -- here's another fashion writeup!

This new outfit from Inga Wind reminded me a little of a gondolier in Venice so that's how I shot it!

Unfortunately, I can't show as much detail as I'd like since it's a natural Windlight photo and not in my usual studio setup. Anyway, like all of Inga's outfits, this one is beautifully done with lots of attention to small details. It's also a departure for her since the outfit comes with HAIR (in both hat and no-hat versions)! And OMG, it's very nice hair! Not sim-crashingly prim-heavy and detailed like Damselfly but very pretty and it moves very naturally. Very similar to one of my regular hairs so it's a keeper regardless!

On to the other parts. The heels are dreamy by themselves with cute little bows and the pants have prim cuffs that blend in perfectly. The jacket uses a system skirt to flare the bottom which is a very clever idea although it can create very slight mismatches in color depending on the lighting. My only criticism is with the prim mini-skirt. Being a single sculpty, you have to be careful about your poses since your legs will stick out the sides in certain positions. But then, that isn't a whole lot worse than regular flexi prim outfits either.

Another winner for Inga Wind!

Outfit includes top, pants, glitch pants, prim mini-skirt, jacket, hair (with & without hat), hat and shoes.

Update template for my blog

Just curious as to what people think of the new look.

The "Merchants roundtable" in Second Life

In case you don't know, the "Merchants roundtable" in Second Life is a special non-public section of the official Linden Lab blogs where residents who sell things on XStreet SL supposedly discuss things related to XStreet SL. This is a short detailing of my experiences there.

First, a pet peeve of mine: failure to use the possessive form of a noun. It should be Merchants' Roundtable and, if you're following the naming conventions used elsewhere on the LL blogs, Roundtable should be capitalized. Oh well.

Second peeve, the LL blogs suck. They are extremely slow to load. The editor is buggy and the insert cursor is hopelessly jumpy. Threaded view doesn't page forcing you to look at thousands of posts in one long screen. Navigation is obtuse and, unlike the regular SL forums, there is no easy-simple-normal way to see all the sections for posting at once.

OK, 'nuff said about that.

My adventures into the Roundtable started when Colossus Linden dropped his bombshell "Roadmap for Managing Freebies on XStreet SL" into the PUBLIC section of the Commerce Forums blog. A friend pointed me to the post and after reading it, all I could see was red. As if the issues over Openspace SIMs, adult content and third-party viewers weren't enough, here was Linden Lab once again springing more half-baked ideas on the Second Life Community using what can only be described as the most arrogant, condescending, confusing and poorly-worded corporate double-speak I've ever read coming from a Linden.

I'll leave the furor and fallout over the post itself aside. Enough's been written on the official blogs and elsewhere about the consequences and merchant reactions to fill several novels. What really ticked me off was the Colussus announcing the Roadmap as though it was something most merchants wanted and that the whole idea was based on resident feedback!! Ackk!!! No one asked me for feedback. I hadn't heard of a single merchant saying, "Hey, LL, give us listing fees so we have to increase our prices."

Then, reading through the huge volume of (overwhelmingly negative) replies to Colossus, I saw another seller mention the "Merchant roundtable" forum. Huh?? I've been selling on XStreet SL since it was SLX and I'd never heard of that section. Nothing ever showed up in my Merchant control panel on XStreet about it. I follow the blogs & official SL Forums pretty regularly and this was news to me.

OK, so how do you get in? Hmm. Searching the SL website is no help. No answers there. So, another person in a similar situation asks the question -- how DO you get in? Answer? You have to file a support ticket! Then Pink Linden will give you the magic key. Yeah that's obvious.

I dutifully filed my ticket (and it's not really obvious which category the ticket is under) and, to LL's credit, I had access about 24 hours later. However, I've heard several stories about people who've applied and actually had their SL profile accounts messed up. Instead of getting access to the Roundtable, they've been shut out of the blogs entirely (bugs).

Now, once I'm in, here's what I found (and that's really the whole point of this long-winded diatribe):

• A small but highly vocal "clique" of LL fan-bois & fan-grrls who possess the critical thinking and communication skills of a crayon. As a relatively newbie looking at how they post, I get the impression that they are more interested in currying favor and privileges with the Lab than actually paying attention to what the long-term ramifications of these new policies might be.
  
• A small but highly vocal "clique" of anti-LL residents who possess the critical thinking and communication skills of a crayon. Many of these people will see evil in everything the Lab does.
  
• Thoughtful discussions easily derailed by both cliques.
  
• Almost ZERO participation by LL employees. They start threads, comment maybe once, then disappear.
• A huge volume of rather spammy posts by two LL fans in particular who seem to have more interest in getting their advertising sigs repeated as often as possible versus actually contributing. No, I really don't need to know how great a creator you think you are and I don't need or want your fake food for my non-existent dining room or kitchen!! These two also manage to give new meaning to the word condescending.
  
• Lots of "atta boy" and "I agree with this" posts.
  
• Lots of extremely rude posts with foul language. I'm sorry but putting s*** into a sentence doesn't help your argument one bit.

My impression is that the Roundtable is like a grade school class where the teacher has left it unattended -- spitwad fights, hair pulling, yelling & screaming. It certainly isn't the professional, well-mannered island of logic I had imagined when I first requested access.

Oh well.