Category: News

Marketplace: Merchants’ investigations continue

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update, April 5th: Linden Lab have provided feedback on the issues impacting Marketplace listings.

Merchants are continuing to investigate the listing errors occurring on the SL Marketplace, with several confirming a suggestion put forward by Argus Collingwood on March 31st,  and again suggested today that the issue appears to impact products with listing numbers in the 14xxxxx range. This has also been reported through the JIRA (WEB-4587)

It is currently unclear as to whether Linden Lab are looking into the possible connection, as apart from direct e-mails / e-mails with a handful of those impacted, the Lab and the Commerce Team remain largely silent on the issue.

Which is not to say they are sitting on their hands. As reported in an update here as well as on other blogs, the Lab has made a number of positive moves: extending the deadline for Direct Delivery migration /Magic Box retirement to the start of June; cancelling the overall timetable associated with DD originally published in the DD migration guide, and listing those JIRA they are actively pursuing. Merchants have also received assurances that LL are working to correct issues within support that have led to misleading or incorrect information being supplied to Merchants who have filed tickets on problems in direct response to requests from the Commerce Team.

However, the problem remains one of a need for more direct two-way communications. LL are assuring people the listing issue is being addressed as a “top priority”, yet the amount of information coming out of the Lab is limited. There has been no input to the JIRA from LL since March 29th – and no response to the idea of the issues being focused on items with listing numbers in the 14xxxxx range. Such is the silence of the Lab, that people are wondering if the associated forum thread is being read, and are trying to direct feedback to the JIRA to try to ensure it is being seen by the Lab.

As it stands, Merchants are trying to figure out matters and provide potential pointers to assist the Lab. The theories may be correct, or may be down to bizarre coincidence – and if correct, it’s entirely likely that the Lab have already made the connection and is working toward a solution. But given there is no concise feedback coming out of the Lab at all on matters, Merchants are still very much being left in the dark and to what might be the case.

Given the effort they are themselves putting into the matter, Linden Lab could at least meet them half-way and provide some form of feedback on what is happening and how useful the pointers may be. As I’ve said previously, detailed explanations are not required; but more direct feedback can only be a positive move on LL’s part on at least two counts:

  • It will reassure those worried about whether Merchants’ own feedback is being read by the Lab and looked into (if not already under investigation)
  • It will help underline the Lab’s commitment to resolving issues and working cooperatively with Merchants to address issues.

Related Links

Marketplace error – incorrect listings

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update 23:40BST: Sassy Romano and Sera Lok have published a list of JIRA related to this and other core Marketplace issues (including Direct Delivery).

Update 23:20BST: It is still being reported through various forums and blogs that LL have “stopped” supporting Magic Boxes. This isn’t the case; rather, there appears to have been a communications breakdown within LL that has lead to an incorrect Support message being sent out. As a result of this error, which occurred this morning, Commerce Team Linden posted the following assurance at the time:

“We are so sorry for this response. We are reaching out to you directly to help you with this issue and are already working to make sure that everyone in support is aware that we will continue to support Magic Boxes until they are officially retired. Thank you for bringing this to our attention”. [My emphasis]

So, Magic Boxes are still supported, and will continue to be supported, and issues with them should continue to be reported. 

Update 20:15BST:According to current feedback, the scheduled SLM maintenance did not address this issue, although there was no guarantee it would. That the maintenance was initially rescheduled to Monday April 2nd might be indicative that a resolution is in development.

There appears to be a major error with the SL Marketplace.

Merchants are reporting that listings are giving incorrect product attributions, linking to other merchant’s stores, etc.

A JIRA (WEB-4587) has been raised on the issue, which is being looked into as a “top priority” by Linden Lab. If you are merchant with SLM listings, and have not been aware of this issue, it would be advisable for you to check your store listings.

Key issues include:

  • 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.).

Further, it should be noted that:

  • It appears that even if your own listing do not appear impacted, it is possible your products are still being listed in other stores
  • Items previously correctly impacted can be impacted as a result of updates
  • The problem is not limited to Direct Delivery items, but is affecting both items migrated to DD and items still in Magic Boxes

Note: In the course of writing this article, scheduled maintenance for the Marketplace changed from being postponed from today until Monday April 2nd, before again being scheduled for today (Thursday March 29th) at 10:30am PDT. 

Related Links

Direct Delivery: emerging issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update April 1st: LL issue revised DD migration deadline based on issues occurring on the Marketplace

Update March 29th: Updates on payment problems (see below)

Update: As noted in the comments, it appears the Linux version of Niran’s Viewer is capable of running the Merchant’s Outbox without incident. If you’re a Linux user and keen to make the migration / stuck part-way through migrating, you might try it.

Issues are starting to be reported in relation to Direct Delivery.

Outbox Initialisation Failure

People are reporting that the Merchant Outbox is failing to initialise. The issue seems to be most closely related to Linux, but has also been reported for Windows and Mac, and JIRAs for all three have been created:

  • Outbox initialisation fails on Linux (JIRA VWR-28629)
  • Outbox initialisation fails on Windows (JIRA  VWR-28630)
  • Outbox initialisation fails on Mac (JIRA  VWR-28631) builds

I’ve used the Outbox on all current Viewers with the capability and using Windows 7 32-bit, with no issues. These currently are: the latest SL Viewer (3.3.0.251182), Firestorm 4.0.1, Niran’s Viewer (1.30+), and Zen viewer 3.3.2.0. However, I may have escaped issues for two reasons:

  • I am logged-in to my Merchant’s page on SL Marketplace
  • I use the English language version of the Viewers.

Linden Lab are still investigating problems, but if you are experiencing issues with the Outbox on Windows or Mac OS, you might try the following:

  • Ensure you are logged-in to your Merchant home page / manage listing page prior to trying to run the Outbox in the Viewer
  • Run the English language version of the SL Viewer

Lance Corrimal suggests the Linux problem is related to an OpenSSL issue with Linux builds of the Viewer (which has impacted Linux users’ ability to upload snapshots to their profile feed).

If you do have repeated issues with trying to get the Merchant Outbox to work, and the suggested solutions above do not work, please visit the relevant operating system JIRA and logged your error, giving full details of your Viewer environment (available by option HELP->ABOUT (Viewer name), and copying the information given there.

Payment System Failures – Updated

There are also reports that some merchants who converted to Direct Delivery are experiencing issues over payment for transactions.  While a similar issue existed prior to DD going live (transactions stalled at “being delivered”), the issue appears to be more noticeable now, with some merchants reporting that converting back to Magic Boxes seems to clear their particular problem.

A number of JIRAs are open on issues at present:

  • WEB-4441: Delivery status frozen with Being Delivered Status on marketplace transaction. 1399L lost and item never delivered (merged with WEB-4559, previously referred to in this article, now closed)
  • WEB-4580: Direct Delivery Issue – Item named with unicode characters causes order/payment system to fail
  • WEB-4596: Direct Delivery is hanging in “Being Delivered” rather than forwarding funds to Merchants even when the item has been paid for and received by the Customer. This is for NON-UNICODE Listings

Related Links

Linden Research seek Beta testers

Posted on by Inara Pey

Daniel Voyager is once again on the ball, noting on Plurk that Linden Lab has put out a call for potential beta testers.

The opportunity is presented on the Lab’s official website home page:

Call for Beta volunteers

Clicking on the link will open a form requesting various information from you.

The form (click to enlarge)

Some have taken this to be about Second Life, and have questioned the need for LL to ask for information “they already have”. However, it should be clear from the form itself that the call is not specifically about Second Life, but rather about Linden Lab’s upcoming new products.

There is no guarantee that those submitting details will be accepted for any Beta trials of products, and there will clearly be more involved in the process than simply filling-out a form (NDAs almost certainly will be involved).

Even so, it’s an interesting step for the Lab to take, and suggests that at least one of their new products is reaching a point where it is ready to be seen by something of a larger audience. If this is the case, then it would suggest that Rod Humble will be a step closer to his goal of talking more openly about the products – something he was finding hard not to do in a recent interview with Games Industry, which I reported on earlier this month.

With thanks to Daniel Voyager

Direct Delivery: the launch

Posted on by Inara Pey


Update: I’ve been informed that Viewers that have the Merchant Outbox as a folder may need a code port in order for it to work.  

The long-awaited Direct Delivery system was launched today in what amounts to a very low-key announcement that hasn’t been promoted to the Featured News section of the blogs and people’s dashboard. In development for around a year or so, the system has been subject to a range of issues, technical and otherwise and – at time – a dearth of information coming out of the Lab, something which itself has caused no small amount of concern from merchants.

What is Direct Delivery?

New DD folders as they might appear in some TPVs.(Note the Merchant Outbox FOLDER as displayed may be non-functional in the early days of DD)

For those not in the know – and there are some going on the number of “What’s that?” I’ve received when asking if people are ready for its introduction – Direct Delivery is, in a nutshell:

  • A means by which content creators and merchants can manage the goods they sell through the SL Marketplace without the need to use Magic Boxes to store inventory in-world. Everything can be handled directly from within their inventory / within their Viewer
  • A new means by which anyone buying from the SL Marketplace will receive items they buy / received gifts other have brought for them via the Marketplace, using a new section of the inventory panel / a new folder called Received Items.

The system uses two new elements in the Viewer: the Merchant’s Outbox panel / folder and the Received Items panel / folder. Whether a panel or folder is used is the choice of the Viewer developer.

Torley is back (Go, Torley!) with a video overview of Direct Delivery:

Essential Information for Merchants

As a part of the launch, LL have announced the following for the overall migration from Magic Boxes to Direct Delivery:

  • April 2 through 13, 2012: In-world Q&A sessions on using and migrating to Direct Delivery
  • April 18, 2012: All listings priced L$10 and lower must use Direct Delivery
  • May 16, 2012: Magic Boxes no longer allowed for any Marketplace listing
  • ANS is currently NOT supported with Direct Delivery – it will be “turned on in the next couple of weeks”.

Receiving Goods via Direct Delivery

Until the launch of Direct Delivery, items from the Marketplace would require that you manually accept them (via an in-world pop-up) before they would be delivered to the OBJECTS folder in your inventory.

With the launch of Direct Delivery, this now changes:

  • Any items you purchase from the Marketplace  – or which are bought for you as a gift – will automatically be received; there is no need for you to be on-line when they arrive
  • Items will be received into a new panel, called RECEIVED ITEMS, which is either a panel that will become visible at the bottom of your inventory floater when you have received one or more items from the Marketplace (most V3-based Viewers), or which will appear as a folder in your inventory (V1-style Viewers – see image above).
Direct Delivery: from the Marketplace to you (some steps omitted, example uses a V3-based Viewer with Received Items panel within the inventory floater) – click to enlarge

You can then drag and drop folders from the Received Items area into your inventory, from where you can rez items in-world as usual.

Notes: 

  1. If you don’t see Received Items ether as a panel in your Inventory floater or as a folder, then try following this link and obtaining your Direct Delivery Linden Bear (limited time offer from LL) – note you may have to log-in to SLM to get to the page. This will trigger a delivery to your Received Items panel / floater.
  2. Until the 16th May, merchants can continue to use Magic Boxes if they wish, and some may opt to do so while Direct Delivery “beds in”. Where this is the case, please note that items purchased from the Marketplace will continue to arrive in the OBJECTS folder of your inventory.

Converting Magic Box Contents to Folders for Direct Delivery

Note that boxed items can still be delivered via Direct Delivery, if required – boxes will be delivered within their own folder.

You can convert your current Magic Box items ready for Direct Delivery as follows:

  • OPEN the magic box and COPY TO INVENTORY. This will create a folder of all the items in your magic box – including the Magic Box’s own scripts
  • Delete the Magic Box scripts, as they are not required
  • Drag the first item from the Magic Box folder in your inventory to the ground and:
    •  EDIT it
    • Copy the name of the item from the General tab (highlight & CTRL-C)
    • Create a new folder in the Magic Box folder in your inventory and re-name it the same as your item (CTRL-V)
    • Open the Contents tab of the item in EDIT, and select / drag the contents from the item into the newly created folder in your Magic Box folder.
  • Make any required adjustments to the contents of the folder itself (i.e. if you have additional boxed items, these can be placed in suitably named sub-folders and the additional boxes themselves deleted)
  • Delete the original item from in-world and your Magic Box folder
  • Repeat for the next item.

This process is summarised in the diagram below.

Notes:

  1. In order for your items to be automatically linked with your existing Magic Box listings, it is important that the folder is given the same name as the original item (hence the advised use of copy/paste above when creating the folder).
  2. If a folder is named differently to the original item, it can still be linked to an existing listing, but this must be done manually.
  3. Once you have converted your Magic Box items and uploaded them to the Marketplace (see below), there is no need to keep the Magic Box folder – you can upload to the Marketplace from anywhere in your inventory.

Continue reading “Direct Delivery: the launch” →

Parcel encroachment live across the grid

Posted on by Inara Pey

It appears that parcel encroachment is now active across the grid (with thanks to Nalates Urriah).

The feature, which allows objects encroaching on one parcel from another to be returned, has been rolling-out across the grid for a while, and was turned-on last Thursday.

The feature has some guiding parameters to help manage / control the return of objects, which should provide a reasonable level of control, including:

  • For private regions, the feature must be turned on at a per region basis
  • Return is based on an object’s physical shape, not its visible shape, so while an object may appear to encroach on a region boundary, it may not actually be returned orthat it may not appear to encroach, but is still returned. LL currently list the objects most likely to suffer such mismatches as:
    • Trees and grass
    • Sculpt and flexiprims (and, one assumes, mesh)
    • static objects using the llTargetOmega() feature — they appear to be spinning but are not spinning in the physics engine
  • “Estate content” and public works content (Mainland) is protected against return (so, for example, items on a parcel that are owned by an Estate Manager / owner will not be returned)

Phantom and Volume Detect objects will still collide for encroachment. At the time the feature was first documented (January 2011), cross-region encroachment was under development. Whether this is still the case is unclear.

Some of the details as to how the feature works – and how to enable it – may change when the wiki page on the feature is updated.

No blog post / forum post appears to be on the horizon to announce the change. However, those wishing to find out more may want to keep an eye on the wiki page for updates.