XstreetSL survey causes dismay

Pink seems to have opened a huge can of worms with a survey about how people sell virtual goods and how they may like to sell virtual goods in the future. This seems like a brainstorming session to me but it has caused quite a bit of outrage on the official blogrum. I'm not quite sure why it's causing such outrage, some of it is probably associated with Linden Lab's abysmal track record of listening to feedback. The Openspace and adult content discussions were shining examples of Linden Lab not listening to their customers.

Another issue however seems to be people adding two and two and coming up with five. Nowhere do I see it implied that these programs will be mandatory but people seem to be making that assumption.

Let's take a step back here, this is a survey entitled: "Second Life Merchant Survey - We want your feedback!" I mean really, the laughing should start there given their track record on feedback. The email also states: "None of these concepts are currently on our development roadmap, they’re just hypothetical scenarios that we’d appreciate your thoughts on." So whereas I think it's fine for people to discuss the proposals, they're a long way from being implemented.  However let's look at some of the areas of the survey that are causing concern.

Second Life-Certified Vending Machines

Unified store management, premium support and a delivery guarantee

Usage of the vending machine will allow the merchant to receive premium support for merchant activities, enable automatic listing on XStreet SL, and ensure that all items are delivered.... guaranteed. Additionally, the vending machines provide rich data reporting and business metrics.

In exchange for the use of the vending machines, Linden Lab will assess a 10-15% surcharge on all purchases.

Let's just look at this, guaranteed delivery? Yes please but wait, is this the only way to get guaranteed delivery? If they're suggesting that the only way to get guaranteed delivery is to pay Linden Lab commission then that would be simply unethical. Fixing the delivery mechanism full stop should be Linden Lab's aim.

The 10-15% surcharge probably doesn't represent great value, Hippotech take 1% I believe. Linden Lab might say the associated automatic listing and improved metrics represents greater value but anything above 5% is pushing it. I don't have a problem with the concept of such a vending system, when Onrez closed I can recall people bemoaning the loss of the vendor.

Now I'd assume this would have to be a scripted vendor, there's commission sharing and retrieving inventory from a centralised server to be dealt with, as Linden Lab plan to impose scripting limits next year people will be looking to reduce their scripts and as you can sell items without a scripted vendor this might not be as popular a suggestion as it once would have been.

Listing and Promotional Program

Cross-promote your items on XStreetSL and get Premium Classified Listings

By joining this program, any item you list for sale in-world can also be auto-listed on XStreetSL. Cross-posted items will automatically be displayed, in rotation, in a premium position as a sponsored listing in on the Classifieds page.

To participate in this program, a small surcharge will be assessed a fee 5-10 $USD for each item cross posted.

This can surely only be aimed at the big players, there's also no mention of whether this is a monthly fee or a one time fee but let's take a worse case scenario of it being USD$10 per item, that would be USD$150 for ten items, that's over forty thousand Linden dollars before you've started to sell. Now there are people who shell out more than this per week for a classified advert and tier costs of a full sim cost more than this but you're getting into expensive ballpark territory.

USD$5 - USD$10 is not a small surcharge by Second Life standards. However to make the premium classified listings worthwhile you want them only sold to a limited audience, if they're within easy reach then the value of a premium classified is diluted.

Merchant Marketing Program

Tools to help you grow your business

The program would provide exclusive use of branding systems, customized store systems (such as a custom URL/SLURL and web storefront), and automatic consideration for large scale promotions. Also included is a data dashboard to enable you to track purchases in real-time. Customer service tools such as AvaLine mean that you are always able to talk with your customers.

Membership in the merchant marketing program would be available at a cost of $10-100 USD monthly, depending on sales volume.

This is the idea I see most likely to fly. Some people are arguing that this will just increase the divide between the rich and the not so rich, but just take a look at the price you need to pay for a top eight advert, that divide already exists. This is adding value and you can choose to take part in this program. Let's not forget that tier on a full sim is generally USD$295 a month, which is three times more than they're proposing here.

The large scale promotions however, I guess that might mean spamming us like we were spammed for the Modavia fashion show, if it's for a fee it makes more sense, although it will still be annoying, however if a fee is involved there's less merit to accusations of favouritism.

I'd love to see web storefronts, when I click on view more items over at XstreetSL it's often a cumbersome experience. Anything that helps to improve the Xstreet layout is positive in my opinion.

I don't imagine many people will view Avaline as a value added feature, we have voice inworld. However as I said, this seems to be aimed at the big players and some people do sell more than USD$100 a month on XstreetSL. They may view this in a positive light but if you look at ebay, they have storefronts there but the little guy can still sell without one.

The Mall of Second Life

Free land for Second Life merchants

Linden Lab has developed an Island in Second Life that enables merchants to create their own stores as large or small as they desire. Display your creative works from shoes to houses.

In exchange for the free land and promotion of the Mall, Linden Lab will assess a 30% surcharge on all purchases.

First of all it's not really free is it, there's a 30% surcharge. If you're not selling items they're likely to not want you there. I am primarily a landlord so it should come as no surprise that I have a very negative view of this proposal, Linden Lab should not be competing in this fashion with inworld business owners. I don't see this as positive at all and the 30% surcharge is pretty high. If you sold five items at three hundred Linden dollars each that would be four hundred and fifty Linden dollars in surcharges, at which point it's cheaper for you to find a small plot of land and sell from there.

General observations

Now to start with I received this survey three times, all to the same email address. Please Linden Lab, give me a master account. If this survey was sent to a limited number of accounts that means I've received two surveys that two other people (rather than residents) could have used, which would have created more feedback for Linden Lab.

Another issue is that the survey wanted to know my age range, where I am from and what my highest education standard is, what on earth has any of this got to do with selling inworld or on XstreetSL? What are they doing with this data? They also still have radio buttons regarding whether I own private land or mainland, I own both.

An issue people seem to be missing is that if Linden Lab introduce systems that make XstreetSL less competitive then there are alternatives, slapt.me is one I know of. Other sites may well benefit from changes to XstreetSL.

I think people are overly worrying over issues that are a long way off and I have faith in the residents of Second Life not only adapting to change but coming up with alternatives that make the Linden Lab controlled systems less attractive. Everything will turn out fine, there are other issues that are more of a worry, business friendly mainland for example.