Linden Labs new SLX policy

As many have already noticed, Linden Labs has decided to change the policy regarding freebies and actually the way the economy is run on SLX.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/commerce/blog/2009/11/18/roadmap-...

The link above will lead to the blog post and anyone fallowing the SL forum and blogs will notice, that once more there is a overhelmingly negative feedback to this, even when Linden Labs claimed to have done it because of the feedback they recieved. This is more or less the same thing they have done during the adult policy change as the decission was already taken and no ammount of screaming and no arguments, no matter how logical, would have changed this decission. But other then before, this new change in the way Linden Labs decides to treat it's customers make me wonder, if they have really lost all sense for buisness. Especially since it was claimed, that the SL and SLX economy is running good and there is a increase of 70% in the volume of SLX transctions. Such a large increase would rather mean, that the listing costs could be lowered or that the additional money could be invested into the one single thing that would really help both the SL and SLX economy. A better search engine (even when I admit, that as bad as the old search was, I never had the problems the supporters of this policy claim to had). Anyways, lets go over the policy point by point.

The quotes from the blog post will be marked with a XX at the beginning and the end.

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Improving the Shopping & Selling Experience on Xstreet SL for free, cheap & stale listings
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This would be nice. But the changes as proposed will lead to the loss of free and cheep listings. Exactly those things that the newcomers to SL look for and need. Anyways ... on with the text.


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We've received feedback from our users that the volume of free, cheap (L$ 10 and under) & stale listings in the Xstreet SL Marketplace did not make for an optimal experience for shoppers or merchants.  
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Now, the volume of free, cheep and stale listings on SLX wasn't small. I actually don't see it as something bad considering that many freebies have been great and helpful and the easier the access to them, the faster the newcomers to SL can start to create themselves a SL existence. Stale listings are another problem but the definition about what is a stale item and what not is tricky. After all, items often sell in one month and not in other. I myself have in this month sold one item two times that has not sold in the last two months at all. So now it is not only the problem of the customer to find the right merchant, but also to find the right merchant at the right time because chances are big that specific niche products will faster fall under any 'stale-listing' rule then a customer could find them. Small stores that create items of interest for smaller communites are often full of 'stale' items of often fantastic quality.

So the question is, who was the one giving the feedback. So far most people who comented on this specific question on the blog have said, that they have not been asked. I have nto been asked either and while it is impossible to ask anyone, it is possible to send out advertisment E-Mails about a fashion show. So if LL can send out advertisment E-Mails, why can'T they send out a question for feedback on a policy change, that will drastically influence any merchant on SLX? It is a comunication problem but it also shows, that if they have recieved feedback, it was form a very small and very favored group that apears like they wanted to get rid of competition. After all, is soemone sells a product for 1000L and someone else is selling the same product in superior quality for 20L, then it is esier to cry to the Lindens and remove the competition then to improve. Of course, this has nothing to do with the amrket and proper behaviour on it. But then, I have no idea if this is true or not but fact is, that the Lindens have failed to inform the merchants about this policy change and the feedback in office hours can not be taken as sufficient when speakign about such a big change. It rather seems like those office hours are being used as a smoke screen to cover the fact, that this was planned long ago and the Labs treid to fly under the radar long enough for this to remain unnoticed by it's customers until it is too late.

This is at least my impression but I was a SLX merchant and I am looking at the blog regularely.


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Today we'll present the plan that all of our residents have helped us build.
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Now this single line is simply insulting towards all those who have already expressed their feelings in the forum as well as with the removing of their items from SLX. They should not claim that the residents have done it, they should be honest and say, that it was them. That it is the Labs that want the money and that this plan was made long before any office hour was held. Not that this would have been on the agenda or discussed in lengh, but if people would know up front that the LLs want to discuss changes to SLX policy then OMG! they could come and ask questions! And point out how damaging the plan is to large parts of the SLX economy and SL in general.


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The Xstreet SL Marketplace is not meant to provide a replacement or even identical experience to that of shopping in-world.  
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Sure! For me it was a fantastic shopping catalogue. I could look up items, browse through them and then visit the right inworld store to buy it. This is how I have used SLX for the most part. After all, the SLX search might be bad, but the search in SL itself is even worse. The residents are screaming and begging LL to fix this for years but it seems like this feedback has not been heared so far.

Does anyone has a prediction about the SL economy and it's growth if anyone could actually find what they are lookign for? It is again niche markets and small sellers that suffers the most form this as it is hard to get noticed in a search engine, that doesn't work properly or allow for a listing to be presented in a form that would lead customers to the product they want. This might sound harsh, but the person who has thought up this policy as well as its implementation and the lack of implementation of needed changes in the search engine should be fired and replaced wtih soemone who knows a little bit about economy. Or a blind chimpanse since it can't get any worse then this (and yes, I regret that I have written this, because I am sure, that it can and I fear that it will get  worse).


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Instead, it serves as a specialized shopping experience which makes shopping & selling easier and different in many ways.  
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I want to ban the use of the word 'experience' from any post any Linden makes in the next three months. It just sounds like some amrketing-speach and only makes matters worse since this constant push to make everything look good and bright is insulting to any sane person reading it.

LL! Be honest with us!


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All of our research and your feedback demonstrates that.  Since it is clear that the increasing quantities of free, cheap and stale goods are hindering that experience for shoppers and merchants alike, we will take action to counteract and balance them within the marketplace, for the benefit of all.  To be clear:  we believe in a free marketplace and will not implement price controls on what merchants can charge for their goods.
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Of course, the solution that would have helped the most and was wanted by anyone I know or have seen posting in the forum was to improve the search. This would have not only improved the shopping and allow the customers a easy way to find the goods they wanted, but also kept the amount of different items on the site. The niche products would stay and the small merchents could still get their profit and someday maybe grow into bigger ones. It looks very much like a twisting of words to me. The LLs have asked what to do about freebies and people told them they would like to sort through them and find specific items. So instead of actually doing what the custoemrs wnted, LL has decided to remove all freebies no matter their purpose, quality or intention.

This is not for the benefit of all! This is surly not for the benefit of those who want to share with the community, this is not for the benefit of small merchants and people who only create for fun and are happy if one or two items are sold per month. This is defintevly not for the benefit of niche markets that does not sale lots of goods daily and it is clearly not for the benefit of the customer. The only thing that benefits the customer are lower prices and more goods. Not higher prices and less goods like the most likely result of this policy will be.


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   1. Enable shoppers to quickly find the type of item they want, at the quality they want, and at the price that makes sense to them.
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By removing the cheepest ones and favoring those who sell items at higher prices. I do not see the logic in this since the only thing that would enable shoppers to find the items they want is a better search. Not a smaller ammount of items to look through. For me as a customer, this is defintevly not a good move. I look for niche market products and I create those, but with this, small scale and for fun creators wont have any benefit form listing their items on SLX what will reduce thier market visibility and take any reason away to present their work to a greater audience. And when work can't be presented to a audience then many can decide to not produce it at all. And then SL will loose a big part of the creativity that actually is the one comperative advantage SL has over the rest of the currently starting or already existing virtual worlds. The content creators! Without their work SL is nothing. It is empty and boring and it is the fact that it isn't, that drives people to come inworld and persuade them to spend money. It is not the LLs product that does it, but the work of it's residents.

So some respect would be expected.
 
Some people have actually wrote in forum posts, that it is the 'why paying if it is all free' attitude that is on the roote of all those problems in SL. But I can put it differnetly:

Does LL deserves to be paied when they continue to disrespect their customers, ignore then and show little to no economic knowledge or understanding of the community?

I say no. They earn enoguh through upload fees and they have earend more thorugh my commissions on the sale of items. If they want more, then they need to deliver a service worth paying for.


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 2. Enable merchants to find these customers and put their products in front of them.
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SEAAAARCH!! .. a better SEARCH!

And agian in case it was not heared or misunderstood:


SLX and SL both need a workign search engine.


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Monthly Listing Fee for Freebies of L$99:
    * Listings for free items will now be treated as a marketing/promotional tool and thus will have a price.
    * L$99 is the price of our least expensive listing enhancement and so we will start there.
    * Depending upon desire for this marketing opportunity and perceived value given such demand, we will adjust the price as necessary to maximize this value and keep the freebie listings from becoming bloated again.
    * Expected Delivery: 30 - 60 days
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This of course forces anyone who wanted to give something back to the community to pay for this privilage. Theose people want to help SL and better the 'experience' but are not punished for it. The freebie resellers and thieves wont be bothered by this, because they don't put out freebies on SLX, but want money for their stolen stuff. So the only ones hurt are those who want to give something out for free. There are of course promotional freebies .. lots of them .. but from my own experience, this is a small percentege of freebies on SLX. And if they are so bad, then why not simply create a different category and who wnat to search for freebies can do it, who does not want it can not.

The LLs have people who could creata a virtual world like SL, but it seems like a workign search engine is beyond their ability.


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Minimum Commission of L$3 on all items priced L$1 or greater:

    * We will enact a minimum commission of L$3 on all sales of non-freebie listings.
    * Since Freebie listings are now considered marketing and are charged as such, they will not incur this fee.
    * A L$3 commission will raise the commission on all listings under L$50.  This was a range suggested by residents, but it turns out that this is the price range where there is a very high transaction volume and low commission income which combine to cover the costs of those transactions.
    * We may adjust this minimum commission as we see its effects on the marketplace.  L$3 does not cover the full cost of a transaction, but the goal here is first to manage freebie growth first.
    * Expected Delivery: 30 - 60 days
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Freebie growth first, the rest later. What is cheep will be charged more so items can cost more and the customers will have to pay more what of course benefit directly LL. That is the market and they are free to do it, but if there is such a high transaction volume for under 50L items, then why is it punished with this? It is the nature of customers, that they want to buy cheep and in the current economic situation it is only natural, that cheep items will be bought more then expensive ones. Of course this is not a problem of the cheep items but a call to the creators of the expensive goods that the customers seem to prefere chaap stuff. And cheep does not mean low quality since there is enough overpriced stuff on SLX that can be found better and cheeper in other stores.


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Monthly Listing Fee of L$10 for all items L$1 or greater:

    * All non-freebie listings will now be charged L$10 per month to remain listed in the Xstreet SL Marketplace
    * Currently, less than 20% of Xstreet SL listings make at least one sale per month.  This displays just how much clutter of unsold items exists on Xstreet SL.
    * Doing this will provide an incentive for merchants to remove listings which are not selling, while keeping this fee low enough to have a minimal effect on listings which are selling and are desired by shoppers.
    * By reducing the overall number of listings on Xstreet SL, the shopping experience will drastically improve which will please our shoppers and be a boon to the business of all of our merchants.
    * Expected Delivery: 60 - 90 days
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Now this is the point, that took my own store form the market and is a real blow for non full time buisness creators and niche markets. In this part of the economy the clutter, or with other words the often high quality items those stores and creators offer, is being sold only occasionally when a customer in search for something very specific stumbles over it and decides to buy it. This is not clutter but the nature of niche markets and with the SL search as it is, it is not easy to get some visibility inworld that would get those creators some L$ they tend to spend on other people items, rent or uploads.

So with those people gone, who does not sale enough to justify paying the fees to keep their 'clutter' listed, those customers who look just for those items will leave SLX as well. And if they look further, they will find the alternative site those items have been lsited and LL has already angered enoguh people to move away form them and their policy.  


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Separate freebies into their own category:

    * There is already a freebie section on Xstreet SL.  This section will become the place to browse for new freebies.
    * We will remove free listings from the browsable categories and keyword search results on Xstreet SL.
    * Expected Delivery: 60 - 90 days
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So now with freebies .. with the LLs own words .. promotional items put together into one big category it will be a totally useless promotional tool. One could justify to pay for promotion, but why should someone pay for a promotion tat can't be found in search? This defies logic.

People who look for freebies are mostly not on the search for promotional items, but are lookign for .. well .. freebies. Free items they can use to have something to wear for the start. Or to see what can be done and learn or simply to find something small and fun some creator has build in a creative urge and felt like giving away to the community.

Besides .. the search is not working anyways and needs to be fixed, but this was said before already.


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Thank You to All of Our Xstreet SL Marketplace Users:
We'd like to thank all of our shoppers and merchants who have made the Xstreet SL Marketplace the success it is today.  The Marketplace continues to grow at a time when the real world economy continues to struggle.  We'd also like to thank all of the residents who helped us develop this plan.  Our plan of action was designed with your input on both what the issues are and great ideas of how to solve them.  We would not have such a well developed and thought out plan without you, so sincerely, thank you.
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Yes .. we the merchants wanted to put us out of the buisness. We the customers wanted less diversity and creativity on the market and yes, we wanted to pay more for a service, that has done nothing to jsutify the additional costs and does not show any respect towards those people who keep it running.

Yes, we thank you LL. It seems like the Lab knows what is good for the customers and the community. I am sure, that in the end angering many many many content creators will benefit SL.