SL Marketplace Makeover: Linden Lab, Your Search Function's Fail, So Create a User-Made Collection Feature!

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

I recently shared some choice words about the shortcomings in Second Life Marketplace's "Mad Style" featurette, which was supposed to showcase SL styles similar to that seen in Mad Man, but only showed just how atrocious the search function in Linden Lab's e-commerce site is. It's time for Linden Lab to add a collection feature to the Marketplace, for users who want to make their own lists of recommended content. (Similar to what's worked so well for sites like Etsy and Amazon.) Let's call it a Marketplace Treasury.

What would that look like? Just imagine a Mad Style feature in which content creators could categorize items of theirs which had a Mad Man-esque style. Here's the prototype I came up with:

Here's my mock-up of what an SL Marketplace Treasury page could look like. I kept it consistent with the Marketplace's current visuals, of course, and kept the search tools on the side of the page, for easier browsing. I figure that a Treasury page should have a title as well as a link to the creator's own Marketplace presence, and maybe even an eye-catching picture to make the items really stand out -- or even to make the Treasury stand out from others Treasury pages.

Treasuries would be a great tool for every user of the SL Marketplace. In addition to the obvious uses, bloggers could put together outfit Treasuries to share, and designers who have multiple brands run through alts could collect their works in one place. Searches could even become far easier and more fruitful: Some designers don't use keywords or tags very well (or at all!) so it can be hard to find their work. But if your search results also returned Treasuries or other kinds of user-made lists full of handpicked content, it would be so much easier to find exactly what you're after. So how about it, Linden Lab?

And if you're geared up for a little Marketplace shopping now, I'll give you all the details for my own Mad Men style look... the old fashioned way:

• The hair is one of my favourites, Dura-Girl 31 by chiaki Xue of Dura [Marketplace listing]
• This skin is a limited past release by Amesha Jewell, but you can nearly recreate it with other releases from her store Heartsick [Marketplace store]
• I added a touch of cuteness to the skin with tattoo dimples by Launa Fauna of l.fauna [Marketplace listing]
• The dress is Peggy by Miko Omegamu of Icing [Marketplace listing], a classic brand completely absent from the original Mad Style feature
• Finally, the pose used is from the Pencil set by D.Luxx [Marketplace listing]

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Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

I see value in letting people make public 'favorites' lists with theme names.

And even for people to share and invite others to group together their lists.

But any system that is opt in, where people could check that a given item was a 'mad men' item... would fail as soon as folks realized they could opt in all their junk for added exposure.

So the only solution I do see might be perhaps a 'what our group likes' system.

So for a group... 'Pussycat and Friends'... I could put up a list of things I wanted to feature, and then invite people in who could then add to my collection.

- The collection would need a few more features as safeguards against abuse. It would need links to the profiles of EVERY contributor (no ability to be a shadow voice). And it would need the ability to be linked to a blog... but NOT to multiple blogs.
- Why not multiple? So that it can be proven to be a contained theme and not just a spam house.

Otherwise the current inworld systems of hunts, and out of world systems of blogs, is better suited for the task.

For years people have organized themed hunts and blog events. Just do that with "Mad Men" for now.

[Pussycat Catnap]

If we did the themed group thingy I suggest, another safeguard I'd recommend is that no more than 1/3rd of the items could be items sold by the people putting up the list.

- To prevent these from just being repeats of merchant stores.

[Frans Charming]

Another feature: a treasury of items from other treasuries. That way the lab could request some treasuries to be greated and add those to their treasury and use that to showcase.

If a content creator afterwards adds unrelated content to the treasury, the lab could remove their entire treasury from the showcase.

[Kala Bijoux]

Looks great! Thank you for taking the time to do a mock-up. I think that if LL put in the proper safeguards they could easily prevent the type of gaming like keyword spam. They could have votes for popular treasuries and/or some of the safeguards Pussycat mentioned. Nothing is perfect, but it would prevent a lot of the abuse that happens now AND it would be a showcase for SL's best items.

[elizabeth (16)]

i think you on spot on about this idea

i think as well that marketplace groups would work. like pussycat said

groups would actual help new designers to get established, like become more visible

if a good marketing person can make a theme group. then can invite designers to join the group they made for that theme. then marketing person (who is effectively acting as a magazine editor) would then pick whatever stuff to put in their marketplace magazine

cant include a designers stuff in your magazine unless they say is ok by joining your group. once they join then magazine editor can pick whatever from their shop. designer gets to be a magazine contributor, but editor has editorial control over actual content

bc anyone can start a group (magazine) then after a time, people will follow the magazines that has the stuff that they most interested in

if you a newbie designer and make good stuff then the magazine editors (the good ones anyways) is going to want to include you

is quite a lot of plus in this for designers. lots of who make really good stuff but they rubbish at marketing, or making ads even sometimes

[Dave Bell]

I can remember, in the days when I signed up with SL, there were at least three external market operations. Linden Labs bought the largest, and reworked it into the current Marketplace. The other two eventually closed down.

Are any alternatives to the Marketplace still running?

Currently, the Marketplace seems to be an on-going, ill-managed, disaster zone. If they cannot deliver the basic functional system, bells and whistles such as this are a waste of time.

[Dizzy Banjo]

I think this is a great idea. Like all systems I guess people would find a way to game it, but that can be minimised.

Personalised recommendations based on content which other users bought / browsed who looked at that item ( a ala Amazon ) are also an obvious logical addition to me