Experimenting with Classifieds

As we all know, a short while ago the classified system has changed….. and actually, changed a couple of times.

The day the system changed, a lot of businesses saw a decrease in sales…. many of the ones I have talked to, about 20-30% decreases, which has been consistent since the change.

So, I’ve been curious how much impact classified ads really have now.

So, as an experiment, I upped my classified from 15,000 L to 35,000 L….. and there doesn’t really seem to be any discernible amount of traffic increase, even though that puts me in the top 10 paid ads for BDSM, bondage, weapons, and guns. I’ve asked a few people who have higher ads, and they’ve more or less said the same thing….. classifieds now have little to no impact on their business. With a new and functional ‘All’ search, very few people use the ‘Classifieds’ tab to search for anything anymore….. and well, in the ‘All’ search tab, like on a web page, most people are keen on ignoring the ‘Paid Ads’ on the sidebar. So, I’m going to continue this experiment for the next month, boosting ads up and down, just seeing what sort of impact it has….. if any. But, initial test results kind of indicate classifieds are far less useful these days.

A Very Long Time

It’s been a very long time since I have posted anything in my blog, and few people have been nudging me to do some sort of update here….. so, here it is, a blog update!

What have I been up to in the last four or five months of absence?

Well, due to a death in the family last fall, I took a few months of ‘work leave’….. and really didn’t work on much of anything. Emotions around me at the time had me drained and de-motivated, and there was very little I could really work on anything extensively. So, really, from Oct-Nov right up until a couple weeks ago, while I was in the world, I was more or less….. out of business, except to provide customer support for those who needed. But now, I’m back!

My beloved Emmalyn Wei keeps me company and occupied in the world of Second Life. There is nobody else who I would ever want to share my Second Life with outside of her….. she’s full of fantastic ideas and great advice….. we spend almost every moment online together, for over a year now. In Second Life, a world of quick romances and infatuations, that’s quite an achievement! So, much love to my Emma! A girl unlike any other!

Re-discovering Second Life. Well, I’ve decided constantly coming up with ideas in Second Life and jumping from project to project for that little bit of inspiration isn’t always fun….. so, I gave up on the idea of ‘working’ in Second Life. Everything I do now, is done for fun and pure creative outlets….. and if I feel it’s good enough to go into the Dictatorshop, then it does! If not, then it doesn’t. I’ve even been going on little exploration trips in Second Life, randomly teleporting, discovering new lands and new people….. getting outside of the world of BDSM. It’s really quite a bit of fun! And there are some truly spectacular builds out there in Second Life you really need to take a look at.

Now, projectwise……

LockGuard V3….. is still on the table (as it has been for awhile). Quite honestly, it’s not going to be vastly different from LockGuard V2, but it will have a few requested features and will still be 100% backwards compatible with all current LockGuard items out there. There won’t be any need for designers to upgrade their old items to LockGuard V3 unless they want to add new options to their toys which will take advantage of the few new features. LockGuard V3, as with all previous releases, will be released as free and open source….. and will continue to be a top Second Life standard.

Poseball Rezzing System….. It’s no secret that I’ve been developing a poseball rezzing system which is extremely easy to setup, extremely easy to use, and 100% reliable. The Capture RP van I have on the market has been using the initial system design flawlessly for nearly half a year, without a single reported failure or need for a reset, even under heavy use in free sex areas, and that is a good sign of success. So, this project has been the primary meat on my table the past few days while I take the initial design and push it even further so it can hold much more animation data. Of course, the system I’m working on will also have innate LockGuard support, so yay to bondage furniture designers who will use the system. It’s also a sure bet that once this system is placed on the market…. it will become a) the easiest to setup, b) the single most reliable system to use, and c) operate perfectly fine under heavy/constant use in laggy sim conditions.

Chakram….. This was something I more or less created for fun, but released as a product none-the-less. A Xena-inspired chakram which can be worn on the hip, held in the hand and thrown (and it will return), or split in half and used like a pair of blades. While the chakram itself is a very simple (which is good for physics), it’s scripting and animation is anything but simple. Try it yourself, how could you not like it?

Black Widow Whip….. the younger sister whip to the Dragon’s Tail. While the Dragon’s Tail has been one of my favorite products, and probably one of my eldest (outside of a couple cages), I felt it was time that the Dragon’s Tail had some company….. and boy, does it ever! Giving this new whip a dark, braided leather design, a few new styles of whips, creating a whole new set of smooth animations, and producing new sound effects timed to each animation….. the Black Widow Whip really shines as a true sibling of the notorious Dragon’s Tail.

Paintball in BigPond….. In the Pondfield sim, I created an elaborate team game system….. a server-controlled paintball system which automatically handles players, teams, game styles (deathmatch, team play, team capture the flag), and has checks against cheating. Honestly, although this was a corporate project, it was probably one of the most fun things I had ever had the opportunity to create in Second Life. We’ve played games with a whole bunch of avatars, running around, shooting in all sorts of game styles, and the performance of the server was exceptional. It was a lot of fun to create…. and to play!

Sex Rez Animations….. My Sex Rez animation line has been quite successful, and people are loving the animations! I get quite a few messages people asking me when I’m going to create some new animations so they can add them to their beds, and the answer is….. as soon as I get my fill of scripting again and I’m in the mood to go back to animating!

Old Inventory….. I’ve been looking through some of my old Dictatorshop inventory (simpler stuff that was created in the earlier days of the Dictatorshop (like the rocking horse, spreader bars, old gags, masks, etc) and piece by piece, when I get the inclination, I’m going through and updating the scripts and re-releasing these items. Some of the items, like the older gags I’m quite likely to release as freebies, since the builds are not on par to things I release in this day and age.

What’s on the Table…..

Well, I have several components of scripts for collars and new gags (including new builds for headgear, gags, masks, etc which have yet to see the light of day). These items, right now, are low priority for me, but within the next couple of months are quite likely to find their way to the frontline as I thin out my production line and feel the urge to fit new things into the pipe. But really, I work on these things when I feel in the mood to do so, and because of that they might hit the Dictatorshop in a week or even never!

Sad, sad, sad…..

Finally, awhile ago, it came to my attention a certain BDSM designer was being just ‘more than’ critical over me…. I certainly don’t mind a critic, it’s a good thing, but when you’re comparing your own *new* nearly 1000 L product to an *over-a-year-old* 100 L low-budget product, and going out of your way to degrade it and say how superior yours is and how terrible the other person’s is…. that’s hardly a fair comparison, is it? That would be kind of like Ferrari comparing their Ferrari F40s to Ford’s old Model Ts and saying how much better they are because the model T doesn’t have the features, function, or look of a Ferrari.

So, to this designer I say…. if you want a *fair* comparison….. try comparing yourself to somebody who actually released products in your field at the same time you did for the same price you did….. like RealRestraint, LuLu, or Amethyst.

Why on earth would you choose to compare yourself to one of the oldest products from the Dictatorshop which was *intentionally* created with the most basic of features and released for someone buying on a tight budget?

I think I know the answer….. I think everyone knows the answer to that, really.

Second Life & Second Death / Illnesses

I think I’ve seen the biggest boom this summer of people in Second Life saying they have cancer or have someone else come on and post that’s said, “OMG! So and so has died by [insert some form of tragic death]…..”

I’m pretty sure, that at least twice a month….. or more…. I’ve heard this about someone, somewhere, in Second Life. I’m not going to go out on a rant here, because well….. someone who would fake a major illness or a death doesn’t really deserve one. However….. I will post two very relevant pieces of information for people to view.

Munchausen by Internet (use the references at the bottom of the page):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_by_internet

And finally, the definitive YouTube guide about faking your own death or illness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXUHy8vrVY0

10Linden and Business

So, I’ve been following the whole slexchange.com and Anshe Chung’s “10 L furniture factory to devalue the economy” threads since they more or less started. Anshe (in her lack of infinite wisdom) has decided that the quality of content in Second Life is sub par and thinks she can increase the quality of content by reducing the price of content to 10 L. I knew the woman was a little off kilter, but now she’s proven herself to a complete whack job. And it just goes to show how “uninvolved” Anshe actually is in Second Life, because she actually has no clue what’s on the market, what its quality is, or what its worth….. and mostly because she actually *thinks* she has that sort of influence, which is nothing short of a joke.

And now, here’s just a few things to keep in mind:

(1) 100 people pumping out furniture will make absolutely no dent in the furniture market. There’s *already* 1000s of people in Second Life selling basic furniture, gadgets, and scripts for 10 L and less. Anshe’s 100 people will be no different than the 100 people who will start doing it this month independently, and the new 100 which will start doing it next month, and the 100 people after that the following month, so on and so forth. It’s no different than the dozens of Business In A Boxes with dozens or hundreds of items being resold on a daily basis….. 100 people, while it may sound a lot compared to 1, is insignificant when you compare it to the number of people actually in Second Life who are creating and selling or reselling content.

(2) It might have a minor impact on SL Exchange, but let’s face the reality here. How many people actually *know* about SL Exchange? Often, very often, I’ll get an IM asking if I carry or make such-and-such a product and I will usually say, “No, search SL Exchange for someone who sells one.” The response almost every time is, “What’s SL Exchange?” Also, very few of my sales come from SL Exchange….. it *might* count for maybe 5% of my sale numbers on a good day. Other people I know who use SL Exchange pretty much say the same thing. So, the thinking that dumping *anything* on SL Exchange can damage the economy is a farce in itself because SL Exchange is insignificant when compared to the vastness of the market as a whole. And do you think Anshe is going “pay” big money to advertise products for 10 L along with paying employees? I think not, because that’s a sinkhole where Anshe will *lose* an incredible amount of money….. and while Anshe is a little self-deluded, she’s not stupid.

(3) The 10Linden category? Big deal! How many people actually look through the categories on the left of SL Exchange? Sure, there maybe a few, but I am willing to bet *most* people use the Search function or look through featured items for what they want. Scrolling through a category of 100s of items is just tedious, and people have a habit of avoiding anything tedious. It’s just in our nature. Personally, I’ve never touched the categories on the left…… if I can’t find it in search or it’s not listed as a featured item, then it’s not worth me hunting for it.

(4) If *anything* is going to devalue the market, it’s not Anshe, it’s people’s response to Anshe. If you lower your prices to match or if you quit because you don’t want to compete….. Anshe didn’t destroy your market, you did. When content creators start to devalue their products en mass, then the market *will* devalue. But again, this isn’t Anshe’s doing…… this would be a hysteria response. So, do the smart thing and just ignore it, do what you do best….. build and create.

(5) Business is war. Make no mistake, while you may love your business, business *is* war. If you complain about the competition, you probably shouldn’t have gotten into business to begin with, it’s not for you. Second Life is a capitalist economy, which means someone who can provide a product cheaper and faster…… can and will, and there’s nothing you can do about that. That’s the core nature of business, competition, on all levels. Instead of complaining, spend that time improving your own product line. Focus on your own products instead of on hers….. because once you start focusing on someone else, you’ve already lost the battle, you might as well pack it in and go home.

(6) People love brands. No matter how much generic you flood the market with, people *will* buy a higher quality brand name for a much higher price, particularly if you provide quality customer support for these products….. which I can pretty much assure you, Anshe’s people are incapable of. They can barely get a land deal straight, and people are worried they’ll take over the content market? Seriously, who are they kidding?

(7) People think Anshe Chung was responsible for the land price craze last fall/this spring (and hence can affect the furniture market in the same way)….. and this is entirely inaccurate. Land prices increased because (a) Estate Listings and Mainland listings were not separated, so it was difficult to find good land to start with, (b) The major land barons collaborated with each other and set a bottom line price for parcels of land and then slowly started increasing that price to raise the price of land artificially, and most of all (c) There was a shortage of servers added to the colo-facilities by Linden Lab, so the number of people coming into Second Life was much higher than the amount of land being added to Second Life. And when demand is higher than supply, the prices goes up. When Linden Lab started adding land regularly, and the supply met the demand, the price dropped again. Economies 101.

( The economy is *not* fragile….. in the last year it has taken one screw after another, it’s been literally gang banged by a near continuous chain of events and grid blunders week after week, and it’s still ticking with not so much as a scratch to show for it. The economy in Second Life has proven time and time again that it is highly resilient to whatever is thrown at it…… so, seriously, people, take a deep breath and then let out a sigh of relief.

Anshe can’t hurt you.

Anshe can’t influence the market.

Now, once you’ve relaxed, go and have a coffee or a glass of your favorite soda, sit back at your keyboard, and keep doing what you’ve done even before you heard about this 10Linden thing…… because it’s like everything else with Second Life. It’ll be forgotten in a week or two and it’ll just be another piece of history everyone has forgotten about.

Cheers!

- Lillani

Matriarch Online, Grid Wonky

Matriarch was brought back online yesterday by Ethan, so a lovely thank you goes out to him for responding as quick as her could to the ticket request, despite the plethora of grid issues.

However, with that said, it seems the grid is still having some serious issues….. even deleting basic, unscripted prims has been failing at times. So, I don’t think we’re anywhere near the end of this virtual natural disaster for Second Life. While it is displeasing that the grid is down so often, or so much…… I look at them akin to natural disasters, acts of virtual gods. There’s little that can be done to stop them except wait for the government (Linden Lab) to clean up after the disaster strikes.

While occasionally, my patience does run thin, I do understand one thing…… Second Life will never be a perfect, smoothly running entity. That would be impossible. How do you make software capable of creating almost everything and anything….. run smoothly?

Matriarch….. like Atlantis….. Sank!

Well, it’s been 24 hours since Matriarch has vanished from the map…… completely…… as in crashed a half dozen times, went offline for several hours, and then popped off the map.

While I appreciate there are grid issues…… I don’t appreciate I’ll be billed full tier for an island which I have no access to nor seems to even exist.

Real Life

Well, I haven’t been online quite as much the last two weeks, I’ve been doing some dog sitting for family in real life….. so, my Second Life has taken more a backseat, but I’m still trying to maintain as much of a presence as I can. Anyway, yes, that’s where I’ve been much of the time for people who have asked…… I have been in real life! *Gasp!*

“Just Business”

I need to be less personally involved with people.

I really do.

Playboy…..

There’s very few things that interest me outside my own little secluded piece of Second Life. I rarely leave my property, but when I do….. it’s generally related to businesses. It’s rare I make an excursion of any sort….. however…..

I heard the Playboy sim was open, and well, was rather interested in what kind of presence Playboy was bringing to Second Life. Curiosity, in other words. After all, Playboy is Playboy….. a corporate brand which is a little less boring than say IBM, Dell, or Coca Cola.

Sadly, I didn’t find what I was hoping to find….. instead of something which reflects Playboy’s “style”….. I found an island which could have been set up by Joe or Jane Doe, and a very uninspiring landscape. While the building itself was nice, it was more or less an empty sim with a patch of mild inspiration here and there. The sim itself, was incredibly laggy….. and at the time of my visit, there were only seven people. I left, went back again later, and still only nine people….. the sim was still incredibly laggy. Sadly, it seems the lag is attributed to the scripts running in the sim. And given the lack of content….. I suspect inexperienced scripting to be the cause.

Outside of that, the other criticism I could really make would be about the branded products for sale in the sim. Listed for sale, Playboy SL products for ridiculous amounts of money. Playboy branded outfits were listed for 300+ L….. which, out of all honesty, almost anyone with the slightest bit of experience could make within 10-20 minutes. In fact, you could get much higher quality outfits in a single trip to Sarah Nerd’s freebie place for 1 L. If you want much better for your buck, visit Dark Eden or Barerose. And if you try to tell me a plain, simple “red shirt and bikini” with the word Playboy pasted across it is worth more than a Toyoto Scion….. well….. you’re off your rocker.

In summary, my excursion to the Playboy sim was an absolute disappointment….. Instead of finding a Playboy inspired sim, I found a laggy corporate business model looking to fleece people into buying simple products at outrageous prices for a brand. At least other corporate business models I’ve seen in Second Life give you quality products for their prices….. Playboy, however, does the very least while asking for the very most.

Bad form, Playboy, bad form.

Released….. the Gas Blaster

When the top selling point of an item is “self replicating fart clouds”….. there is something different about it. Taking the suggestion from a young family member, I’ve created the most vile, obnoxious, immature weapon you could ever hold in your avatar’s hand….. the Gas Blaster. The Gas Blaster, as the name sort of suggests, blasts clouds of gas. One shot from the Gas Blaster will create a fart gas cloud which lingers in an area. Not only lingers, but spreads….. doubling in size, up to three times. Of course, what fart cloud isn’t complete without the sound effects….. and plenty of them. If this isn’t enough vile obnoxiousness for you….. the fart clouds are sticky, and if you walk through one….. there’s a chance the fart cloud will stick to you and the only way to escape it is to teleport away. A direct shot will cause a fart cloud to instantly cling to your opponent.

It’s a gas, it’s a blast, it’s the Gas Blaster!