Linden Lab Updates Marketplace Policy In Regards To Inactive Merchants

 

 

On Wednesday August 12, Linden Lab announced on it's blog that it had updated it's Marketplace policies. This was in regards to inactive merchants and items that are not selling.

There is now a "Product Unlisting Policy"

If a Merchant has not logged in for one year AND a specific product has not generated a sale in one year, that individual product listing will be automatically unlisted from Marketplace.

This policy applies only when both conditions are met.

If a Merchant has not logged in for one year AND a specific product has not sold in one year, that product will be automatically unlisted.

The Lab would add unlisting by itself "does not delete the product, the listing data, or the merchant account. The product is simply disabled from appearing for sale on Marketplace unless reactivated later by the merchant."

 

 There is also a "Store Disabling Policy"

If a Merchant has not logged in for two years AND their store has not sold anything in one year, the entire store will be automatically disabled.

The Lab would add this disabling of a Marketplace store, "does not delete the merchant account, products, or store data. The store is simply removed from active Marketplace visibility unless later reactivated by the merchant."

The policy enforcement will be aided by "a new automated monthly review process that identifies inactive products and stores based on account activity and sales history."

To keep products actve, the Lab encouraged merchants to "Review older or lower-performing listings periodically," and "Refresh product listings, images, descriptions, or pricing to help improve visibility and sales activity." They added, "Active merchants and actively maintained products will not be affected by these changes. Accounts will not be affected by these changes."

To read the announcement in full, Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Great Canadian Grid Offline

So soon after High Fidelity is about to all but shut down, another virtual world is in trouble. According to an article on Hypergrid Business, dated December 28, as well as some chatter on Discord, the Great Canadian Grid, a small Opensim world, has been taken offline.

The reason for the world being offline is apparently a personal dispute between it's owner Roddie Macchi and that of a larger virtual world, Digiworld's Terry Ford. Digiworld had been handling the smaller world's grid management services. Then somehow the two owners got into an argument of some kind, and the Great Canadian Grid was taken offline after these services were stopped.

Macchi has reacted by starting a Gofundme campaign, which he says is to help pay for technical help and new services to restore the Great Canadian Grid.  As of the writing of this article, $1,175 USD had been raised.

There was no shortage of negative comments following the articles, as well in Discord. A few compared the Great Canadian Grid Gofundme to the InWorldz one over a year ago, which was unsuccessful in saving it. Some felt the incident not only made the two grid owners, but also Opensim as a whole, look bad, "It deeply saddens me it has come to this but it is our farewell to opensimulator altogether. My wife and I are heading back to our mainland parcel in Second Life ..." "... you complain that 'Why are people from Second Life not coming to you?' Coz you are terrible managers."

Bixyl Shuftan

Events This Week Temporarily Going Inactive

The "Events This Week" section hasn't been updated in a few weeks, temporarily shelved as the paper worked on articles delayed by the Relay For Life Weekend, and it's related news stories. Before and since, some of the locations outside the Sunweaver/Angels community where the paper is located have stopped releasing schedules of the week ahead, so we had to do an increasing amount of guesswork.

The section is temporarily going inactive, perhaps only until next week, perhaps a few weeks, perhaps longer. Time will tell.