In March 2012, merchants started noticing issues with some (or even many, in a number of cases) SL Marketplace listings. Key issues included:
- Listings on Marketplace stores do not match the actual items
- Incorrect merchant attribution (products from Merchant X listed as belonging to Merchant Y, despite appearing in Merchant X’s store)
- Products from one merchant appearing in stores belonging to other merchants
- Items incorrectly priced
- Incorrect ratings assigned to products (G-rated items appearing as Adult, etc.).
A JIRA –WEB-4587 – was raised on the matter, and extensive forum thread also reported the matter, and merchants were assured the matter was being looked into as a “top priority”, and in May 2012, an updated was issued by the Commerce Team noting that:
(WEB-4587) Listings show up with images from other Merchants listings:Current status: we have identified the problem and are working on testing the fix.
The fix apparently didn’t work, as the issue was subsequently reported as one the Commerce Team would address “after the next Marketplace update“. This only problem here being that subsequent updates failed to address the majority of JIRA relating to Marketplace issues, including WEB-4587 – and then stopped altogether – something with prompted me to comment on the continuing erosion of merchant trust.
On April 24th 2013, just over a year since it was first reported, the Commerce Team published an update on the listings issues and WEB-4587, which reads:
For those of you who have had an incorrect image appearing on your listings–or have seen your image on someone else’s listings, we have come up with a supported process to get these listings cleaned up.
Someone Else’s Image on My Listing
If you are seeing someone else’s image on your listing, you should be receiving an email with a link for you to go remove those images from your listings. These images will be returned to the listing we have identified as correct. Any listings not reviewed by May 15, 2013 will be unlisted until the Merchant has a chance to remove the image manually and reactivate the listing. We will provide a summarized list of these and notify all Merchants whose listings have been deactivated.
My Image on Someone Else’s Listing
If your image is appearing on another Merchant’s listing, the following will happen:
- The Merchant will be notified to review their listing and confirm that the image does not belong with their listing.
- The image will be returned to your listing. At this point, you will be able to review your updated listing here (link). This may occur after the review period for step 1 has already completed.
If the listing your image is appearing on is not reviewed in step 1, the listing will be unlisted to prevent your image from appearing on the incorrect listing.
We appreciate your help in getting this cleaned up.
So the good news is, there is actually movement on the matter. Admittedly, in reading the forum post, I cannot help but conjure a mental image of some poor sod (or three) at the Lab having been tasked with spending the last 12 months digging through the Marketplace and manually checking images against project descriptions / links – but movement is movement, and is, on the whole, to be welcomed.
There are some issues being reported with the process, however, as noted in the thread following the announcement. Some of these issues appear to be related to items which, in lieu of any communications from the Commerce Team, merchants opted to previously manually remove from their listings, and other appear to indicate that not all incorrect listing items have actually been captured by whatever process was used at the Lab. Others are reporting mixed outcomes simply as a result of following the given instructions.
It’s not clear how widespread issues are in following the instructions; certainly the problems being noted appear limited going on the amount of feedback on the thread. Not that this is any comfort to those affected, but it perhaps indicates that for most people who were blighted by the issue, things are now being put right.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
It sounds like database corruption. In which case fixing individual records will not help. Someone needs to figure out if it is the physical media, a broken file, or a program trying to do something like writing records with duplicate keys.
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I quit the marketplace a good long time ago over this and other issues. Linden Labs charge me a fee on every transaction, for providing an advertising and delivery service, yet if anything goes wrong it’s all my problem.
They bought XstreetSL, and renamed it, and I still cannot avoid the feeling that they don’t know how to maintain it. You still get references to the old name in emails and on the web pages. And it’s a database. They can be complicated beasts, butit’s usual to expect the people running a database not to mess up the data. They run tests. They keep backups. They shouldn’t have been running a corrupted database for this long.
It all seems rather unprofessional. And I have to give this outfit my payment card details if I want to have a Premium membership.
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I have a lot of respect for the staff at Linden Lab. Many of them are working under a lot of pressure, and nearly all those engaged on customer-facing aspects of the platform – viewer, server, tools, scripting – are all willing to set aside time to meet with and communicate with users via in-world meetings and /or via regular blogs.
The one exception to this (both in terms of communications and my respect) is the Commerce Team. Their attitude frequently comes across as arrogant as much as the ongoing issues with the Marketplace leave one with the conviction that they actually don’t have a clue. This is probably an unfair conclusion – but it is very hard to avoid.
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This may sounds like an odd question, but d***ned if I can find the info anywhere! How is it I add a comment to the Activity section of this bug tracker? I’ve got this issue in my store, the process fixed some but not all, and I have the additional issue that most of the corrupt listings are not actually in my inventory any longer and so I cannot remove them––believe me, I tried, through the Magic Box and every other way I could fine. LL has not commented on this latter part of the issue. Thanks!
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The JIRA (Bug Tracker) is now closed to public comments – not just WE-4587, but all items (unless part of a “special” project, in which case LL may allow comments to be made.
The only way you can currently contact the Commerce Team on this matter are to:
I’m afraid I can’t offer any more advice than that.
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Actually, that’s quite helpful, thank you. And it tells me I wasn’t missing something obvious about the comments section. I’ve already made efforts to contact the commerce team and will pursue the others you mention. All the best!
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You’re welcome! Glad the notes were of help :).
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