SL Marketplace Direct Delivery Reportedly Delivering Fail

Emilly Orr has a rant about the current unstable state of the SL Marketplace direct delivery system, which many have reported is failing, helpfully accompanied by this illustration and comment:

Maybe it's just me, but the longer this drags on and the more businesses are hit, and hit hard, the more this seems like a metaphor for Second Life as a whole...

Evidently it's not just her: Inara Pey notes other problems with the Marketplace. To be fair to Linden Lab, direct delivery of SL made products from a web-based e-commerce site is a massively complex undertaking that will probably take awhile to get right. However, as Ms. Orr notes, a lot of people's livelihood's literally depend on it working. I've asked Linden Lab for an update to these issues, and will post their reply, when and if I get one.

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[foneco zuzu]

At least for once I hope more will understood that Second Life needs is shops in World and buyers as well, not a website that worked great when it was private and as soon as the Lab grab it, screw all!

[Inara Pey]

Not to nit-pick, my report on the Marketplace issues is at:

http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/marketplace-error-incorrect-listings/

The link you have is to a personal opinion piece, which doesn't really explain the matters, but rather delves into issues surrounding the problem from a personal perspective.

[Adeon Writer]

I don't have first-hand experience (yet) but what I am earring from a friend who does sell is that direct delivery is resulting in far less missed deliveries.

Of course that's hear-say, but I'll know soon enough.

[shockwave yareach]

I too have had products not get delivered. I've had to relearn how to redeliver stuff as it has been more than a year since I had the problem (my box is in a low lag private island to guarantee delivery -- funny how that doesn't matter anymore).

I put this down as teething pains for an alpha level roll out. But if they think they are ready for full scale deploy within 2 months, then I want some of whatever excellent stuff they are smoking over there.

[Flipper Peregrine]

It really isn't that hard, Hamlet. I had SLBoutique to beta in under two weeks, with redundant delivery systems and the wallet, neither of which LL has... not to mention split payments. Back then, I made the simple recommendation that llGiveInventory() simply support giving based on UUID rather than contents of a prim (checking the creator's created UUIDs), and recommended an API for delivery. Not rocket science... it isn't like they're running Amazon's warehouse or something, it is all 0s and 1s. Just my 2 cents...

[Metacam Oh]

This isn't new, the marketplace has not been delivering items properly now since at least November. The only thing that has saved me during projects has been that a lot of merchants have inworld locations to buy from. Otherwise I would spend all night waiting for delivery and then see in the morning the delivery failed and they gave me a refund.

[shockwave yareach]

Flipper: And if I happen to stick into my OWN deliver system the UUIDs of, say, lots and lots of very expensive merchandise others are trying to sell in their stores... then test delivery to myself...

An interesting approach. But I think limiting the number of items salable in marketplace to match what land you have (or rent) is more important. We need a way to keep both inworld and web business going, or even more people will quit paying LL for land they don't need anymore.

[draxtor]

I am totally aware that Inara [whose blog I enjoy] has written a personal opinion piece but I feel I need to chime in coz I am lovin' the direct delivery! This past week I spent quite a bit of Lindens for our upcoming Anime episode & sent gifts to 5 avatars [awesome av from Utilizator and hip mesh clothing from Loki Eliot just to name two talented designers] & it just worked like a dream! No issue whatsoever.....good work Lindens & so important to provide for new folks a more intuitive shopping experience!

[Ann Otoole InSL]

I have never witnessed a bigger database cock up in my life. And LL's silence says it all.

good job hiding rodvik.

[Ehrman Digfoot]

I'm happy they rolled it out, even if it has a few bugs. All of the prudent merchants I know are wading into the waters slowly and carefully only listing a few items at a time. In general, I favor moving things out of beta sooner, and as long as the old system remains in place there is no reason to complain.

[Hollee Dion]

They've been working on this new delivery system for well over a year now to the exclusion of any and all other features on the marketplace. While they didn't announce a release date, you can deduce they never expected it to take quite as long.

From the May update: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Marketplace-Update-May-2011/td-p/866779
"The current schedule still has us on target to go to Beta at the end of June/early July. We expect the Beta period to last for a couple of months before Direct Delivery is available to all merchants."

Then from their meeting in August - (about 18mins in) http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16643492 -
"..no definite date but we hope to have it done in the next two the three months" (paraphrasing).

By August they'd stop posting monthly updates and pretty much went silent. Now it looks like it's going be another couple of months before they are even ready to start work on customer facing features.

To take so long and to have it come out in pretty bad shape is not very reassuring. There are many bugs and feature requests that are over a year old at this point, like an opt out of sale emails or grouping of items together by color. It's a pretty poor showing for a tech company.

[Pussycat Catnap]

There are days when I think Ann's being overly dramatic and acidic, and there are days when I feel she's right on the money.

On this one, I think Ann Otoole has it about right.

Its liking walking into the room and finding out your 2-year old discovered your makeup stash and your collection of antique water color paintings, at the same time...

Oops doesn't begin to describe it.

[Archangel Mortenwold]

I can testify to failed deliveries since "direct delivery" was implemented. Several times in the past few weeks I've bought items for friends via the marketplace only to see deliveries fail, and so so repeatedly.

[Krinkles Q Klown]

Stop apologizing for LL's incompetence, Wagner.

Not one single thing that they've built works as promised, expected or designed (if you can call "Throw It Over The Fence" a design strategy; it's not; it's an anti-pattern).

What's it going to take? Another 5,000 sims walking off the Grid before they finally get it through their heads that Direct Delivery isn't what makes them money? Selling space on their servers do! (Of course they don't manage that well either.)

Bwahahahaha! I'd be laughing so hard I'd be wetting myself if it weren't for the fact that I'm *pissed* at the Grid's up-f***ed-ness.

Rodvik said "Stability was their focus for Q1" in his blog post. Q2 would be pathfinding.

Looks like Q2 is going to be fixing all the gawdda*ned problems with their DB. Chris* on a crutch! WTF is the beta Grid for?

Fail. Fail! FAIL!