Survey on Linden's Upcoming Freebies Policy: Is It Good For the Second Life Economy?

Online Surveys & Market Research

The Lindens just announced a policy for its ecommerce site, targeting low-cost freebie items sold on XStreetSL: "[Since] the increasing quantities of free, cheap and stale goods are hindering that experience for shoppers and merchants alike," as Colussus Linden puts it, "we will take action to counteract and balance them within the marketplace, for the benefit of all." This will be done by adding small fees and commission charges to all xStreet sales, effectively penalizing extremely cheap items. The announcement has riled many content creators, including talented figures such as Ordinal Malaprop, who's retaliated by removing all her wares from the ecommerce site. Outrage aside, my main curiosity is this: As quality content offered at very low rates, freebies are often blamed for harming the SL economy. So will this new Linden policy help improve the economy, at least the aspects that are part of xStreetSL?Please take the survey, and discuss in Comments.

Hat tip: Wizard Gynoid.

Comments

[Huns Valen]

dis is wiggidywiggidywack yo

[Sin Trenton]

Well, I stopped being surprised ages ago.
No protest, no anger, I simply deleted my things on SLX.
And no, I had no freebies on SLX. But I still have principles.

[Alazarin Mondrian]

I had alot of items listed on X-Street including some freebies. None of which were junk. Treehouses and prefabs that were very carefully constructed. Wildly imaginitive stages. Music that I spent decades writing and recording before SL was even a glimmer in Philip Rosedale's eyes. All to be scorned as 'junk' simply because it doesn't sell in sufficient quantities to cover the extra up-front listings fee.

I had to remove my stuff. It's not drama, it's survival. In RL, I'm your typical mid-50's starving artist on and off welfare. I simply can't afford to put money into SL ventures. I'd like to but eating, keeping a roof over my head and paying my bills come first. Everything I've done in SL has been financed by L$ I've earned from my treehouses, stages or live music performances.

For me, X-Street is no longer a viable option as the monthly cost of keeping my items listed would frequently outstrip my sales earnings. Fortunately I found my old Meta-Life inventory box, so I'll give them a try and see how it goes.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

In my business, we have a multi-tiered customer model.

Ultra-rich clients have a team of experts standing by to attend to their every need, day or night, and the best people are assigned to those teams.

Merely rich clients have an assigned specialist to see to their accounts, and they get priority service.

Normal clients get assigned to the new hires, en masse. They get form letters, and attention as time permits (it usually doesn't), and if one gets peeved and leaves, nobody really notices or cares.

I hate, hate, HATE this model. It's an archaic remnant of a feudal aristocratic model of valuing people by their holdings rather than by their intellegence, creativity, charisma, or other factors so much more important than the knack for acquiring and holding on to money.

I abide by the system at work because I have to. I do NOT have to submit in my free time to a system that values me less than an institutional, educational or large retail client because my account is not a major revenue stream.

Unless they pull their heads out soon, LL is going to suffocate. News flash for the new kids on the block; Linden Labs didn't make Second Life, the community did. And we can unmake you. Chew on that for awhile.

[Anonymus-Not]

Wow, that's good news. Xstreetsl today is == find gems in the trash.

Already, people pulling down items (like the guy mentioned in the article who had all these year 2005-6 quality trash) is a great, great blessing for the avid shopper.

Oh, and premiums don't whine. As a premium member I receive more $ a year than I have to pay.

[Mr Happy]

It's a good move. Regardless of price there's a lot of crap on XStreet that will no longer be there when they add a listing fee. I've seen stuff on there listed for a huge price that clearly will never sell simply because it's crap. Without a listing fee the crap would remain there forever. There's no better way to filter out crap than to charge people to list it.

Well done, LL!

[Corcosman Voom]

"I wonder, wouldn't it be preferable to separate freebies onto their own separate xStreetSL page?"

@Hamlet - that appears to be on the roadmap.

"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"

[Ari Blackthorne]

Not intended as a "snarky" response - and I am 100% dead serious when I say all you merchants who are leaving XSL in droves on "principal" - good, go.

You are providing the rest of us with a better chance of visibility.

In real life when change like this happen, a business either adapts or shutters its doors. So adapt for throw-in the towel I say.

And because of all this, I vote *yes* on the new XSL roadmap.

[Samantha Poindexter]

You may stand out more on XSL, Ari, but will it help you if nobody is looking there?

I'm thinking the answer is "no."

[Nexus Burbclave]

@Ari, if that is not intended as a snarky comment, you have achieved epic comment fail. There was one sentence in your entire comment that wasn't complete snark and borderline schadenfreude.

[Renee Roundfield]

I had two freebies up -- ashes for Ash Wednesday (I have an idea a lot of those are running around on vampire sims, but still) and a welcome mat that had a sample script in it for people to either use or learn from.

Many of my items are priced at 10L, because they are fun little things. Gingerbread man, snow man, a stalk of broccoli. Seriously, how much should people be made to pay for broccoli?

I'm spending the weekend moving my stuff over to slapt.me.

[Rex CrononTo me it seems that most of the clutter is generated by those that like to game the search by using keyword spam, and secondly by those that have tens(somewhere between 10-50, or more?) of listings of the same item but in different color variati]

To me it seems that most of the clutter is generated by those that like to game the search by using keyword spam, and secondly by those that have tens(somewhere between 10-50, or more?) of listings of the same item but in different color variation.
I don't blame clothing/skin sellers for listing multiple items of same color since is impossible for buyers to change the color of clothing/skin.
Those that for example sell one pair of sculptie shoes in every possible color, have no reason to do so, since they could very easily add a script that would change the color.
To me the major reason that search is so cluttered and why is so hard to find things seems to be KEYWORD SPAM. Because of what these people have done(and some are still doing), many more is very likely that will have to pay dearly:(
p.s.
for more, see my post on the second thread, located here: https://blogs.secondlife.com/message/40625#40625

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

LL killed off the superior OnRez shopping portal and the OnRez viewer in favor of the dreadful Xstreetsl site. They bungled that and now they bungle this.

In my nearly three years in SL, I've gone from being utopian about SL and LL's vision to gradually but inevitably bashing the company for awful decisions. Like others, I've come to see how they do things: a decision gets made, then the Resident-base is told "we want your input," the pre-arranged decision is announced, and then the Residents yell on the forums.

With OpenSpaces they backed off a bit, as they did long before my arrival in SL with the prim-tax. Perhaps they'll modify this decision.

Too much attention about the latest policy has gone to the freebie market and not to the low-cost, small-volume items one could get (if one could find them) in the mess that is Xstreetsl.com. Those small merchants are being squeezed by LL.

It's impossible to find some of these items in-world, by the way. Just try a search at Xstreets, bad as it is, and then try to find a result with SL's in-world engine. Good luck to you.

It's a pity.

[Coke Supply]

I've pulled all my stuff from xstreet AND won't be putting it back again if they reverse this decision. Fuck them. What Scarp Godenot said above is 100% true. I've been in SL for 3 years now and LL have never given a shit about anything except how to extract our cash from our pockets. And if they have to spit in our faces to get it, then that's what they will do and you won't see them flinch as they do it either.

[Wizard Gynoid]

The manner of Linden Lab's announcement of this decision is incredibly inept. Announcing the intent to charge a commission on sold items is not a surprise. I expected that, given that LL bought the SLExchange website. But to charge for freebies? That's just plain ridiculous. Yes, there a lot of them on the site, but avies *love* their freebies. Anybody who is in touch with the SL community would know that! I have found very valuable freebies on Xstreet. Yes, I had to wade through a lot of crap to find the jewels. But it was definitely worth it when I found the jewels. And yes, I offer some freebies myself. It's just a nice gesture I think. I didn't have to do that, and now the Lindens are discouraging me from the practice! Unfortunately, this action communicates a callous and cynical disregard for SL culture and its community. I'm sure that was not LL's intent.

[Loki]

I pulled all my items from Xstreet, i cant have myself worrying over items that are not making money each month actually loosing me money by being listed. I sell items to help pay for my overpriced homestead tier, Being listed on Xstreet makes things harder.

[Ari Blackthorne™]

My comments were not snark.

So my only main reply is simply this: business has overhead sometimes. All those of you who run your nusiness on an emotional peradigmrather than adapting go ahead and leave XSL. All the better.

I will stay. and the more of you who leave the fewer of us who remail = better visibility for the ones to think logically, rather than break into hysterical knee-jerk argument avery time Linden lab sneezes.

[Unguent Whitfield]

The Lab cannot afford to loose the goodwill of the small time creator, who would otherwise be advocates of Second Life in real life. Those who create, and invest time are a precious resource, and play a vital role in the ongoing viability of this virtual world. I urge those at the Lab who plan long term to consider the "roadmap" again.

[Jeroentje Jansma]

When I look at this piece of the text from the SL blog:

" 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. "

.. I got loads of freebies or dollarbies from XstreetSL, NONE of them are marketing / promotional tools! Great gadgets/Fun items created and shared by people that don't have shops and/or sell other items for high prices and/or have no other items listed!

And the second bullit: trust me, they will go from there and raise that L$99 in the future!

LL is trying to get the same amount of income from less and less paying people. Think about all the sims that are given up. Shop owners that gave up their shops and only sell through XstreetSL

So.... let's all hop over to http://slapt.me and let XstreetSL die a silent dead.

And here, on the blog of Allegory Malaprop, a listing with XstreetSL alternatives:

http://allegorymalaprop.blogspot.com/2009/11/xstreet-alternatives-recap.html

Regards

[noname]

it's simply about money and its ridiculous, as if they dont already have enough of our money. i have the solution for LL they can take that game and incert into their asses. i WILL not be bothered with such bullshit!