Clean Up Marketplace in Search from Sellers No Longer in SL.
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Madi Melodious
This is becoming more of a problem with each year that goes by. People come and leave SL but their objects remain showing up on the marketplace even though they have left. This continues to the make the marketplace less useful and makes search feature less effective.
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Sasun Steinbeck
I totally agree with this. I did some scripting work for a client many years ago that required an external HTTP API call to a server I maintain for the product to work. He abandoned SL and his products are still being sold, and those APIs no longer work (they were replaced with a new LSL function so the external API call was no longer necessary). I'm sure they are all super frustrated with a brand new product that will never work and the creator long, long gone from SL. I actually have a fixed version of his product but he's just not around to fix it and none of his customers know that I even exist. His stuff should absolutely be removed from the marketplace as "abandoned".
Madi Melodious
One of the issues that I see and have in mind is when I do a search I will find items that are no longer for sale. If I find something the click on it, only to have that item no longer be available. If the item is no longer available why would it be showing up in search?
AlettaMondragon Resident
Madi Melodious That happens to me too, sometimes the demo seems to be linked to the product but it doesn't exist, or the other way around, the demo came up in a search and is available, but the full product doesn't come up. Alright so I think I will check inworld but they either don't have a link to their inworld store or it's dead, and a look on their profile and places search reveal they've been gone from SL for some time. It's sad because I couldn't get a few nice things because of this. Such listings definitely shouldn't be on the MP.
Cooter Coorara
The mission of Linden Labs is not providing a virtual world for us to play in. LLs primary mission is to earn profits for its stakeholders, as is the mission of every business. Second Life is a profit center.
LL's goal of maximizing profits is realized by many factors, not only its MP. It is also getting abandoned land back in use to maximize tier, encouraging people to become Premium and Premium Plus members, pulling in money via uploads, etc. They can increase profits by increasing any of their profit centers, but the number one way to increase long term profits is increasing the number of new members and retaining its current members. SL runs on member content, and it relies on its members to create that content. SL needs us. Therefore, SL wants us to be happy. Earning Lindens make us happy.
Imagine Sam Walton opening his first little Walmart. Instead of having to compete with other department stores, Sam had to compete with every store that ever opened in retail history. There was no one running those stores anymore, but they still sold the same old merchandise and the same old prices as years ago. Sam tried to compete but he was fighting ghosts. He shuts down, cutting his losses.
Next comes Elon. He wants to build and sell cars. Sam has a small parcel of land and starts buying the parts he needs including computers. The software was extra. He spends more than he ever thought possible, but he finished his first car. He checked his competition and their prices. His car was better than anything on the market. He priced it fairly. He put it on his lot. Cars drive by but nobody stops. They love their Model As, they say. Elon drops his price. He develops new models and buys more parts, more upholstery, and more software. He learns new building techniques, investing considerable time doing so. Elon checks the internet for car manufacturers. He sees Chrysler, Ford, and Chevrolet. He also sees Stanley Steamer, Pace Arrow, Auburn, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Plymouth. Elon logs off. He closes his Tesla dealership.
If anything causes the demise of Second Life, it will be the same, tired old content. New creators will leave SL, taking new ideas with them. Except for waterfront, SL is full of abandoned land. Second Life becomes no longer relevant.
AlettaMondragon Resident
Cooter Coorara You really got me with Stanley Steamer and Oldsmobile! 😄 I really feel just like that sometimes when trying to shop on the MP, but inworld too.
I think my point still stands that there are old products and actually freebies that have their place on the MP, let's say if someone wants to buy a Ford Model T or a steam tractor especially because it is old, historic and so not like anything today, how happy would they be if they could just walk into a dealership and choose one? In fact that is a thing in the real world too, selling collections of antique art, vehicles, tools, their replicas, basically everything, and they certainly don't compete with Tesla, GM or any big manufacturer that deals in the present.
Regarding the prices, it is a big hit or miss in SL, not only on the MP, but mostly, because the products don't cost anything to be listed if you don't use enhancements, until someone buys one. Then 10% goes back to LL. This actually discourages many creators from using the MP lately, because
IF
their business does well, they don't lose 10% of their sales and their rent or tier might be much lower, especially they can manage these costs monthly instead of a steady 10% loss. So for a creator whose business took off and maintains steady profits, the MP becomes a joke and a loss, and growing inworld makes much more sense. If someone makes one tiny product once a year on average and sells it for cheap (like I do), obviously an inworld store would be nothing but a money drain, and 10% off every sale on the MP is not a problem.One thing that is very important, prices and quality often don't correlate in SL. There is a lot of overly expensive crap in the real world too, but if not enough people want it, not even for vanity, whoever makes and tries to sell it will eventually go bankrupt. In SL, it is astonishing how many people rush to buy a lot of overpriced crap willingly, either acknowledging the lack of quality or not, but actually preferring those creators, while their skills speak for themselves through the quality of their products, and my favorite word for it is abysmal. They have established a brand, however, and just like in the real world, that is enough for many people to keep throwing money at them, regardless of what they get for it.
J
Juniper Linden
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Issue tracked. We have no estimate when it may be implemented. Please see future updates here.
AlettaMondragon Resident
I upvoted this because I agree in general, but it is also a very important point that some creators left everything in their MP store for free before they left SL, but even if they're not free, it could be useful to be able to buy them when a friend, family member or anyone asks you where you got that thing from. Or if you want to have it on an alt, too. If it works the way Cackle described, it is good enough anyway, but sadly the MP has bigger problems than the old items, it is much worse when it is the new items obstructing effective searches because some spam-creators (I'm sure all of you have seen at least some of them while trying to look for clothes on the MP) upload about 30 or more single-color, now even possibly AI-generated mesh judging by how unreal they look in the pictures, "products" and they have hundreds of these and they keep uploading them like daily. So if you want to look for "LaraX top" in "newest first" sorting to find new clothing items... well good luck, now it is really easier to take a stroll through an event or a few stores, or just get new release notices from a few good creators. It is terrible because the point of the MP is that you can search, so the way it should work you would enter your keywords and get as many
relevant
results as possible, try demos and buy quality products without moving a step inworld. This worked when I was new nearly 7 years ago and then it started to degrade slowly, and for at least 2 years now the MP is mostly useless for clothes because of this problem. Obviously it is not a coincidence but this is how they try to push us to spend more time at shopping events inworld instead of browsing listings to find things we actually want to buy.Blueridge Azalee
I find that when you buy a product from someone that is no longer in SL, and there is an issue with it, it remains unresolved and you are stuck with it as is, which most of the time is useless. They can't stand behind it and don't fix it.
Moo Boo
Maybe not a full deletion from the marketplace, but I would like the ability to see a "last online <data>" or similar so that I know if I can get support for an item or not.
Cooter Coorara
Moo Boo this is a good step in the right direction.
Holocluck Henly
As long as things are offered they are of value. There is a store by a legendary creator whom I would have liked to still get items from and their stuff is gone (not by them).
Sometimes an existing offering is our only hope for access to unique or beloved items.
Unless the creator requested it or they had their profile deleted OR they were permbanned OR the items were stolen or some other violation, product should remain accessible.
Seriously.
Cackle Amore
They already addressed this a few years ago if I recall.
If I remember it correctly, if a stores account owner is no longer active for over a year, then their stuff gets delisted
However, if people are still buying their stuff, those items remain
Darien Caldwell
Cackle Amore Exactly so.