Second Life News 2013-19 #2

Server & Scripting Meeting 2013-19

Server & Scripting Meeting 2013-19

AO Functions

You’ll know they are there, if they work. I think Maestro Linden means they are grid wide now. He explained it this way:

Ah, see the next line, Inara:

* Changes since 13.04.26.274926
** Includes changes from Second Life Server 13.04.29.274986

That 13.04.29.274986 version has all the AO goodies.  I’m removing the “Changes since 13.04.19.274370” section from the 13.05.04.275247 release notes to prevent further confusion.

Direct Delivery

I don’t say much about the Market Place. It is too frustrating and the Lindens working on it stay hidden. But, this morning I see new forum posts about the SL Market Place Product Reviews not working. One person wanted to leave a comment on their product about a problem mentioned in a review being corrected. They couldn’t.

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Gwyneth Llewelyn’s mADness

I like Gwyneth’s writing because; her ideas are clearly expressed and her thinking rational. Her latest is about Linden Lab starting to use Google’s Adsense advertising and people’s reactions. It ranges from estimates of how much the Lab may be making to the psychological aspects of SL and the freedom available in SL that IS NOT available in other social sites/games/networks.

Gwyneth points out the details of how the Lab is using the advertising. She compares it to how other services use advertising. The Lab is certainly atypical in their use of Adsense.

The basic idea many people have is that paid services do NOT have advertising. But, that is not accurate. Consider cable and satellite TV. Those are paid services that have a load of advertising. Newspapers and magazine that we purchase have a load of advertising too. We pay to go into a movie and then sit through ads for coming movies and local services and products.

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Second Life Direct Delivery ANS Hits

Today an announcement came out that the new Direct Delivery system now has ANS… Automatic Notification System.

Today, Linden Lab launched Automatic Notification System (ANS). ANS allows those Merchants that used Xstreet with the Magic Box Delivery System to confirm that a delivery has completed and send order details in a consistent format to a specified URL.

In order to support ANS with Direct Delivery purchases, we have made ANS available in Merchant Admin under Store setup on the Marketplace web site. Note that the Marketplace version will only support sending data URLs; it will NOT support sending data to inworld objects. For more details on how this system will work, please see this user created content on the wiki.

Before we can retire Magic Boxes, we will need to complete support for limited quantity items (or items that are “no copy” for the merchant).

The Commerce Team (Reference)

The lack of ANS has been a problem for a number of merchants as they change over to Direct Delivery. So, this will be a welcome addition.

In the SL News Week 16 article I covered the roll out to Blue Steel and Le Tigre of a server maintenance package with enhancements for Direct Delivery. With any luck these new changes will make DD more usable and dependable.

Direct Delivery Fix

I came across Darrius Gothly explaining to someone how to get stuck items out of the Unassociated Items List. I think that info is handy to know, so I’m publishing it here.

The problem is seen when you move a Market Place item from your Magic Box to Direct Delivery using the Merchant’s Outbox. The previous item from the Magic Box is moved to the Unassociated Items List. If you just delete it, it will come back… again ad again. If you delete from the Magic Box and the list, it will still come back again and again. They seem impossible to remove. Darrius has a fix:
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Direct Delivery Poll

Princess Verwood has posted in the SL Forum that she is running a poll on whether merchants are changing from boxes to folders. Of course in the forum few people will see the poll. So, I’m reposting here.

I’m not sure enough people are able to use the Merchant’s Outbox to have decided.

I think I have 4 products out via Merchant’s Outbox. I’ve done those with folders. Previously they were boxed items in the Market Place.

Darrius Gothy points out that with the new ‘View Contents’ feature in the Market Place, using folders is more important. I know I prefer buying things in-world using BUY so I can open the package and see what all is in the box/purchase. Many items lack good information on the ‘box’ or product description. So, it is hard to know exactly what one is getting.

If one wants to sell to me, tell me lots about the product.

UPDATE: Oh DUH! Add the article link: Poll – Second Life Direct Delivery: Folders or Boxed?

Direct to poll link: POLL

 

Direct Delivery Issues Stats

We all hear about problems with Direct Delivery. We also hear the Lindens aren’t fixing things… whatever you think, there are some objective numbers in the JIRA.

The Market Place seems to fall in the Realm of the Web Project. That project also includes the JIRA, Wiki, and other Second Life web sites. It would be easy to say the Lindens are doing all they can to hide everything the Commerce Team does. I personally think it would have been better to break out DD as a separate project. But, the combination is what we have.

JIRA Stats for WEB

Second Life Direct Delivery Info

Yesterday the Commerce team was going to take the Market Place down for changes about 5 AM. Then that was going to be put off until Monday. Then they rescheduled it to 10 AM yesterday. They did take the Market Place from about 10 to 11:30 AM Thursday, yesterday.

We still don’t know what was changed or fixed. Just that the site was down.

Seen too often...

We do know there is a small problem with Direct Delivery Bears over populating the world. That problem has been solved with a small nuke.

I think it was SassyRomano’s finger on the button.

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