In only what can be described as S-Week (S stands for Screw by the way) Linden Lab has felt the need to drop multiple bombshells on its patrons (read: employers). The news quite frankly is not good. In fact it looks much like a Abe Vigoda/Bea Arthur Sex Tape.
We’re going to start with the oldest and work our way to the newest. I am going to give you my honest opinion on what exactly is wrong with what they are saying and exactly how they can fix it.
Pink Linden wants to know what we’re feeling. Wants to know what is on our mind.
In fact she sent out a survey asking us what we thought about some ideas in order to…..actually it’s not very specific. I would venture to guess help curtail content theft. Let me check here one second…
Okay I found it. Basically they’ve come up with these vendors. You put your wares into said vendors for sale. LL takes a 10-15% commission for said sales. Also, for the low low price of 5-10USD per item it can be cross listed on XStreet (would they make the listing for you? It’d almost be worth it if they would do that so you didn’t have to deal with the mess known as creating a listing on XStreet) and you would get “premium” listings . Oh and there will be a Merchant program to give us tools to sell our stuff. The cost? Only a measly 10USD to 100USD depending on the volume of our sales. Also if we’re willing to “donate” 30% of our sales to the Lab, and pay all the other fees. We can indeed have a free spot in the mall! Isn’t that fantastic? I’ll tell you what, makes me happier than Glen Beck snorting cocaine off Sarah Palin’s ass. Now then….
A few points.
- Let’s be honest with each other shall we? This is going to happen. Yes I know you made another blog post detailing how this was all just information gathering but really now, who exactly do you think you’re fooling? I mean yes, you were information gathering. But in the whole “Hey, we’re going to do this. I wonder how bad it will piss them off” sense.
- Just so I am clear. You actually won’t take a proactive stance towards content theft. However, you’ll be happy to have us register and essentially pay for your protection. There is a word for that. Let me find my dictionary one second……..oh I found it. Extortion
- At this point, I would go ahead and change your motto. It’s no longer “Your World You Imagination”. It is now “Welcome to Second Life: Arbeit macht frei”
The XStreet “Free Ride” is OVER!
Yes that is right boys and girls. As of 1:53PM today the gig is up according to Colossus Linden. Coming soon to everybody’s favorite merchant website will now be charging you. For what you ask? I will break it down by the magic of copy pasting.
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
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
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
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
That’s right! Want to list a FREEBIE on XStreet? That’ll be 99L. Why? Because XStreet is currently a fat bloated slow moving pig. And of course! The only solution is to charge. For everything! Yes, if XStreet has LESS listings it will make more money for you and it will run smoother.
I swear to god the baby died from impact before the bathwater even touched it.
So let me get this straight. You’ve already ruled out the following solutions to the XStreet Problem.
- You’ve obviously cleared out all of the content that violated copyrights correct? If I type: Coke, Nike,Miller, Coors, or anything like that it will come up empty yes?
- You’ve upscaled in correlation to the growing demand on your servers.
- You’ve learned how to make and run a database
- You asked one of your investors (E-BAY) how to do this correctly?
You’ve done all those things? Well I guess the obvious solution is to of course charge your residents an arm and a leg for the use of something that you took money for anyways. Will putting an item up be any easier? Will you get us our money in a timley manner with this change?
I am going to shoot straight here for a moment. Lindens, were you any of the employees I have under me in the company I work for and you came up to me with these great and innovative ideals….well
I hear you meet the most interesting people in unemployment lines.
But I am leaving out an important part here. In these trying economic times, when belts are tightening are you helping the people responsible for your paychecks? Are you making things easier for those who use Second Life as a supplemental income to help with food, bills, rent, etc? No, you’re not. You are finding new and innovative ways to milk more money out of us. And for that, Shame on you Linden Lab.
Also I am going to verbalize what a whole bunch of people are thinking after your announcements. Fuck You Linden Lab, Fuck You Very Much.
Want to make a difference? Pull all of your stuff off Xstreet and check out these alternatives:
3 Comments(+Add)
While I agree with your points–and believe me, I do, to the point of sending out a tweet of the link–you will miss being linked in the wee blog because of that one phrase.
Comparing what is–when all is said and done–videogame economics to the Holocaust? Bad form, guys. I get that you’re angry–I am too–but some things go beyond the pale.
Ahh, funny story about that. I actually wasn’t using it in reference to the Holocaust but in it’s original intent.
Quoted from Wikipedia:
There’s a lot here so I’ll only talk about one point of disagreement: I don’t mind XLStreet charging for freebie listings. I think they should have been doing so all along.
Weather one is using a “classified” or freebies as marketing tools in world, or doing similar externally each has a cost. The costs vary. And the costs are to all parties. Or should be.
For marketers sampling campaigns are some of the most expensive marketing you can do in the real world. For potential customers, taking up someones time is the price you pay for something free. A price you can never get refunded.
The cheaper a sampling campaign is to the marketer, the steeper the price being paid by the customer (More marketers crying out for attention, more messages to be sifted through, more clogging the distribution channels of information and product. All mean more time spent obtaining less quality.)
Aligning the costs for the marketer with the price paid by the potential customer only makes sense.
As for the rest of your post, I’ll defer to your expertise. But I will suggest the real world model would be wise for the Lindens to emulate. (Flat rate and graduated commissions for mall renters, modest barriers to entry to discourage over-eager participants, running the mall as a profit center and marketing it broadly as a destination, etc.)
my 2¢
JC