Category: News-Opinion

And another thing…

Posted on by Inara Pey

I’m posting this as a kind-of addendum to my last on the announcements from LL relating to Classifieds and paid ads, but also as a separate entry as it harkens back to the other current Big Thing  – the arrival of teens.

In the e-mail from “The Linden Advertising Team” (is this Nelson again?) is a little passage that may yet be a time bomb (and which explains why this announcement went out in a “no reply” e-mail, rather than in a comment-enabled blog post):

Maturity Changes: Previously, advertisers declared the maturity level of their ads. However, to prepare for teens coming to the main grid, we will be using the maturity system used for Search that is based on two factors:

  • Parcel maturity level
  • Content of the ads themselves

Advertisers’ declared maturity will still be visible in Viewer 2, but will be informational only and not affect the actual maturity rating for each listing. We are targeting these changes for the week of Dec 13th

So, in other words, those operating on Adult lands will not be able to advertise in Classifieds even if their ads conform to PG/G OR M guidelines – or if they do, they cannot SET LOCATION to provide a direct Teleport to their store / location (which teens cannot get to even if they do read the ad).

Now, given there have already been “improvements” to search covering the arrival of teens and it has been indicated that teens will only be able to search at the PG /G level – and while appreciating these safeguards do not cover every eventuality, this move is going to be seen by many in the Adult community as punitive against them. Rather than a better search engine and better policing on their part, LL have opted for a solution that may well inconvenience them the least – but could further marginalise a section of their mainstream user community.

Again, I have nothing major against teens entering the Main Grid; yes, some of the actions LL have taken have caused eyebrows to rise – but I still haven’t felt it’s going to be the God-awful disaster some have been predicting. That said, this decision does come across as unreasonable.

My real issue with the whole teen thing is more to do with the fact that it appears that some in Linden Land believe that teens are the new saviours of Second Life; that there are vast hordes of teenagers out there, champing at the bit to get into this virtual playground, and thus revive its fortunes if just a few “minor” things are nipped and tweaked.

Those of us who have been here long enough will remember something similar back in 2007 /08, when LL seemed to believe that if they just did *this* and *that* – and to hell with what the users felt – then Big Business (which sniffed around the edges of SL in 2006/07) would flood into the grid and take them to The Next Level.

And we all know how that one worked out, don’t we?

Does LL want our business?

Posted on by Inara Pey

You know, there are times when one has to ask exactly what they’re all smoking up in the Executive Suite at Battery Street, or what precisely is going into the coffee break brownies.

Two recent announcement from LL have me scratching my head. The first is that they are now offering some for of “advanced” Classified advertising system that allows, quote :allows the purchase of targeted display ads on Linden Lab web properties such as the Marketplace

Operated by GlamAdapt, this system requires and up-front payment in USD to have an advert or media stream appear on SL Marketplace web pages. What the payment might be, is somewhat unclear. The cost is broken down in terms of CPM – the cost of ad impressions per month, and so range from $9.00 to L$90 a month.  Now does a click count when someone hits the advert (as is the standard) or simply when someone opens the page and the advert is displayed (which is the implication here). The former is fine, but the latter? It’s also unclear whether sale tax is applicable on the fees – I’d be surprised if not – as you need to sign-up in order to get a breakdown of costs per advert time – and frankly, I’m not prepared to do so.

The second is and e-mail to residents advising us that as from the 13th December, in-world classifieds are to be limited to 256 characters in order To maximize relevancy, new characters limits will help you choose only the most relevant descriptive keywords.

I have a three-word response to this claim from Nelson Linden: bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

As Ciaran Laval (damn you man, for posting ahead of me! 🙂 ) states, 256 characters is an idiotically tiny amount when trying to write a cohesive advert. Far from discouraging keyword gaming, it’s liable to encourage it, as people forego ad writing and try to jockey keywords in their favour.

And that is a further rub: those of us that have always played by the rules with regards to Profile classified are the ones that have borne the brunt of LL’s misplaced “war on keywords” over the last 12 months – and this isn’t going to help.

The biggest insult over both of these moves is that it really does come across as a royal slap in the face for merchants. Office Hours meeting, blog post replies, the Commerce Round Table, forum discussion posts, the JIRA – all are awash with issues and complaints – 90%+ perfectly valid about the manner in which SL search has been repeatedly bugger up by Linden Lab.

And their solution is to a) make people pay for the privilege of having *some* hope of decent in-yer-face advertising, and b) further cripple people’s ability to usefully advertise using the in-world tools.

Now, to be sure, the GlamAdapt thing *might* be aimed at external advertisers (and if so, are LL hoping to suddenly find themselves with the likes of Amazon, Nike, etc. advertising on their Markeplace – and indeed, even *cough* IMVU, who are particularly aggressive in their web marketing!?), but posting it for current merchants while continuing to even the impression they actually don’t care about search, and that 12 months down the line a fix is still “coming”. While the change to classifieds just appears to be about a change for the sake of it, with absolutely no regard (again) for the existing damage to search or anything else.

This is the kind of behaviour that, as I discussed earlier, tends to leave people with a distinct impression that LL is the enemy within.

Casper the friendly Vending System

Posted on by Inara Pey

Further to the commentary on the closure of Apez, the hoped-for deal with CasperVend appears to be going ahead. Today a Notecard with circulated by CasperVend to all Apez customer, outlining a means to migrate to their vending service.

The Migration kit itself is located on SL Marketplace. It appears to eliminate some of the work required in setting-up vending systems, etc., completely from scratch, although from the outline description there is still a fair amount of work to be done.

I have no exposure to CasperVend (I use a combination of VendBob rezzing vendors and Hippo systems), but this life raft would appear welcome, even if those taking it are faced with a 1% increase in payable commissions or to pay for a “replacement” system.

Kudos to the folks at CasperVend for making the offer.

There are still concerns surrounding Apez I would hope Cenji (or someone will) fix, including:

  • What is happening with the refund of all deposits, given the caveats appearing in the last announcement
  • Why is the website otherwise appearing to offer a “business as usual” face to the world

I’m not suggesting any improper has occurred by asking these questions, rather simply that they need answering, and leaving both as they are could lead to further upsets, confusion and general bumpiness down the road.

But well done to Cenji and CasperTech for offering a first ray of hope in the matter.

Policies, debate and the vicious circle

Posted on by Inara Pey

In commenting on my last post about the Teen merger, Ayesha Askham raises a point that has been touched upon before – and not only by me; and that is LL’s seeming inability to think things through.

While I still stand by my view that the merger will not result in the heavens crashing down around our collective ears, how the matter has been handled is, as Ayesha rightly points out symptomatic of  an ongoing problem we, as users, face every time a policy change is announced.

That problem is this: once LL has determined a course of action, they resolutely set their faces towards that goal in spite of whatever reasoned arguments are put forward, or what later transpires to demonstrate that maybe we, the residents, do actually have a better grasp of the complexities of SL than those (currently) employed by Linden Research itself.

In this respect – and as many, many, many people have elsewhere pointed out – HAD Linden Lab sat down and listened to people back during the time of the Great Adult Policy Change farrago, and genuinely considered the overall benefits of defining a PG continent then the merger of TSL and the Main Grid would now be a non-issue.

But this doesn’t mean that we, as residents, are actually free of a portion of the blame here. The painful fact is that over the years, we’ve become our own worst enemy in trying to deal with LL. So often, we react to almost anything LL has to say as if they were the Axis of Evil actively and maliciously working to bring about the collapse of SL, and thus to be despised and vilified at every turn.

And if you don’t accept this, let me ask you: just how many times do you react to any news at all that may impact your enjoyment of SL with a roll of the eyes and a bitingly sarcastic swipe at LL? Even as recently as this week, and the news of the Apez collapse, I personally heard several people react with sentiments amounting to, “Bloody LL, killing the competition!” (or words to that effect) when LL had nothing whatsoever to do with the Apez crisis.

And herein lies my point: truth be told, we share a portion of the blame for LL not listening. I say this not to excuse or legitimise their  cock-ups; I’ll let my record for calling them out speak for itself. What I am saying is that even when we do offer logical, sensible, achievable and workable solutions to perceived issues / problems (as in the aforementioned case of establishing a PG/G continent), we do so with such force of anger / negativity we actually encourage LL to ignore us. The result is that – as Ayesha points out – LL and SL constantly seem to lurch from crisis to crisis. And even when they’re not to blame for problems – they still get a pasting.

And so the disconnect between company and users persists, and even those who once made an effort (however kackhanded)  to involve themselves with users end up retreating into their own little ivory towers as they scale the dizzying heights of LL management, and so perpetuate the problems and the angst (Good old Jack).

Some saw the “return” of Philip Rosedale as CEO as a sign that this circle would somehow be broken (as it was myopically and wrongly seen as being “Kingdon’s fault”). However, the fact is that while he may still appear to be the Cool Dude of SL, Rosedale himself has a lot to answer for when it comes to LL’s approach to its product and its users. And – whatever portion of the blame we ourselves should be prepared to hold up a collective hand to and say, “mea culpa!” – it cannot be denied that the circle can only be taken by someone at LL being prepared to “screw their courage to the sticking place” and make a decision to actively engage with users in the knowledge that in doing so (to mix my Shakespeare very thoroughly), they’ll have to risk the “slings and arrows or outrageous fortune” (or at least, outraged users) and by debating them, soothe them (so to speak).

But that isn’t going to happen until LL get an CEO who can actually break the mould within the company – and that is going to be hard.

BSG: Universal DMCA?

Posted on by Inara Pey

A rumour is circulating that Universal Studios have issued a DMCA take-down order against Battlestar Galactica-related (BSG) merchandise within Second Life, and Linden Lab have compiled.

Cairan Laval carries more word on the matter – and its possible speculative nature –  and of the potential meaning, if true.

Doubtless, if this is the case, then a lot of swearing is going on within the community; but the fact is, neither Linden Lab nor Universal Studios is the villain here. Whether we like it or not, BSG material is copyrighted. Full stop, end of conversation. Unless those producing BSG merchandise actually have a “little” thing called a “licence” to produce their goods, they are in breach of said copyrights. The same goes for those producing Star Trek, Star Wars, Simpsons, Disney, or any other merchandise directly based upon or utilising copyrighted or trademarked images and items.

I actually find it ironic that there are those in SL who scream blue bloody murder on subjects like copybotting, but who routinely pop out to the web and grab textures for use in their products or who routinely created merchandise for sale regardless of any copyrights on said textures or objects. It matters little to the size of the corporation behind the objects, be it Pepsi, LucasFilm, Viacom or – as in this case – Universal Studios. A copyright is a copyright, period; the “well they can afford it” attitude attitude doesn’t cut the mustard in exactly the same way it doesn’t when an in-world content creator finds they have been ripped.

Nevertheless, as Ciaran points out, DMCAs are perhaps not the best reaction from the corporations themselves. He has a valid point that SL could represent an (admittedly small) audience that is guaranteed to generate income – and more importantly – goodwill. So why not enter into modest licensing arrangements with content creators? Why not grant them the rights to produce goods on all OS-based grids? This would create massive feel-good for all concerned and once and for all lift worries and concerns over copyright breaches for those who’d like the assurance they are operating “within” the law, either as a merchant or a consumer, and be secure in the knowledge goods and products aren’t going to suddenly poof in the night.

 

Apez suspends services

Posted on by Inara Pey

Apez, the supplier of vendor sales systems, land leasing systems, a web merchants portal (like SLM) and other service has today announced it is suspending all business.

Apez has recently been looking for a potential buyer and has had other issues that have impacted the business, and these factors appear to have combined to adversely affect the business and cause the decision to suspend operations. The following was posted by Cenji earlier today, Monday November 30th:

Unfortunately, recent events including my recent announcement that we were seeking parties to take over Apez has resulted in a ‘run’ on the bank. This has resulted in depletion of the immediate L$ reserves. We had hoped to avoid this situation, but now that it has occurred we’re forced to suspend deposits and withdraws temporarily or perhaps permanently if we’re unsuccessful in attracting interest to keep the system in operation.

Unless new management is obtained, we’ll attempt to effect an orderly closure. Some immediate steps planned:

  • Keep the vend and lease systems operational in the short term to enable customers to transition their information
  • Proceeds from liquidation of assets will be used for satisfying withdrawal requests as funds are available
  • Develop a solution for liberating user data in a useable way.

We’re currently working with CasperVend to develop a migration kit that, when dropped into an iServ, will cause Apez.vend data and purchase history to be automatically transfered over to CasperVend’s system. We’ll provide information about how to obtain the kit once it is available. Note that CasperVend is otherwise unaffiliated with Apez Corp, so please don’t ask them for support with Apez products or services.

We’ll be seeking a similar solution for the lease service also.

Note that while ATM deposits have been disabled, we have no simple way to remotely stop iDeposit, iVend and auto-lease products from making ‘deposits’. Consequently, when we re-enable withdrawals, we’ll attempt to satisfy vend and lease ‘deposits’ from this time forward, first – and we hope to be able to satisfy all outstanding withdrawals eventually.

As I learn more of the unfolding situation I’ll post updates here.

Thank you,
-Cenji.

This is a major blow for many in SL – merchants in particular, where waiting for a promised migration option to keep things running smoothly may not be an option. Those using the leasing systems are in a similar dilemma.

Currently, it appears as those funds are finding their way through the systems from vending boards to Merchants’ accounts, but there is clearly no guarantee as to how long this might continue.

There are some questions here as well: Apez, despite operating a “banking” system, was not in fact a regulated financial service; so throughput should be direct in terms of money deposited and returned.

Ergo, there shouldn’t be a major issue in ensuring people can withdraw amounts deposited – less, of course, applicable commissions for the various iServices provided; so a “run on withdrawals” shouldn’t cause a major liquidity issue, unless said funds were being used to offset other aspects of the business that required funding beyond the means of commissions, etc., to meet. That there now appears to be insufficient funds to honour outstanding withdrawal requests, as the “hope to” and “eventually” in Cenji’s final comment imply, is something that is certain to raise eyebrows.

Nevertheless this is a sad – if not entirely unexpected, in many respects – turn of events. One hopes that is it resolved amicably, professionally and satisfactorily for and by all concerned.