Well its been rolled out for a while now, but there don’t seem to be any actual fixes in the works (or if there is, they have not yet been implemented). What am I talking about? Simple Second Life has a external/internal section called MarketPlace that allows in world creators to sell their wears though the second life site itself to other’s in world without having to have an in world store for the Avatar to go to and you don’t even have to be online and in world for them to look at what you have on offer, they just look at your listening and if they like it they log in and buy it and it gets delivered to them directly without them having to go to a store in-world or anything.
The issue is that the original workings which had been in place long before Linden Labs took over the company (Market Place was once an independently owned company that LL bought out), and up till now though there was errors they where not bad enough to cause to much issues but that’s in the pass and the new changes are leaving many merchants in the dark and dust in some cases.
Case in point, I’ve been on Second Life since 2003 and I’ve seen a LOT of changes in that time period. Well this latest change I am NOT pleased with at all, why? Simple I got told by one of the Lindens themselves that the only way to work around the issue in my own case is to create a NEW account and start over from scratch if I wish to continue selling my items on Marketplace. Yes you read right, “start over” as in create a NEW account and transfer over all my product lines to the new avatar and using that new account publish everything from scratch back onto Marketplace.
To say I am not pleased is an understatement to say the least, I’ve got a couple hundred things that I have been selling on Marketplace – having to re-brand things is annoying and to keep the same brand, well I could but since I used the name of my AV as bases for the product line it doesn’t work anymore not when I had to choose a NEW name for the Avatar because the name I used with my old one was already taken. I could go with my company name as I had back in the beginning and I am tempted to do so but in truth I don’t wish to cross between the two areas for various personal and professional reasons (mostly because in world I do sell and make adult based items that I do not need associated with my company brand name).
To cap it off I have to actually wait 5 days before I can start doing anything on Marketplace with the new Avatar, so it at least gives me a few days to recreate boards and marketing and what not – but having to start up another site with the new name is another bother that I am so NOT pleased with having to do but since keeping the old name won’t work and for professional reasons using my company name just doesn’t feel right I’m left with having to re-brand, rebuild and redo a site to go with it all.
::facepaws::
Now what will really tick me off is if LL actually does fix things so that my original account works again for selling on Marketplace – ya its bound to happen knowing how they are but the kicker trick of it is will this happen before their own expire date or will they extend that date to later thus giving other people more time and what not. Either way I think re-branding and going with a name that mean I can use what ever under it might well be the better option in the long run of things – though regardless its still annoying making the changes.
Oh well such is life on SL in general, its annoying at the best of times and down right peeving at the wort – either way we’re in it for the long haul because we’ve put in this much time as it is to pick up shop and move else where (though I’ve been exploring other virtual worlds – but nun of them have what SL does but some are getting close to surpassing it if they don’t change things fast).
A side note I also have no way of knowing until 5 days have passed if this is even going to work as I have been told it will – so there is actually a good possibility that regardless of having a new account and everything that it will not work and I’ll be left in the same state as I was before creating the new account and everything (which is why re-branding and everything I’m only going to do for a few key products just in case its a complete farce – if it works out then I’ll pull the time to covert everything over, but not till I know 100% that its going to work).
Well keep things posted and updated as to what is going on with SL, till then take care everyone.