Pink Rebuttals

Late last week a survey cycled around asking various Second Life merchants what their opinion was on some ideas Linden Lab had for content creators.

Needless to say, folks went up in arms. They went even more up in arms after there was an interview between Pixeleen Minstral and Pink Linden at the Hearld where Pink alludes to Apple taking a 30% cut of IPhone App sales… and suggests that LL may do the same.

Pink took time to rebuttal yesterday on the Second Life Commerce Forums.

Hello all,

As most of you know by now, we launched a survey last Friday about hypothetical, potential scenarios for merchants in the future.  I want to reiterate that all scenarios proposed are hypothetical and have no plans for release in their current form.

There is some speculation flying around and I want to take a moment to correct some myths I see being propogated.

• Myth #1: Linden Lab has plans to release these ideas soon and our feedback means nothing. This is false.  We recognize that in the past the company made some choices that would indicate a pattern of non-listening.  We are not repeating this pattern here.  We are honestly at the early stages of thinking about how to make the platform, the Grid and the company evolve, and before we come to any of our own opinions we wanted to ask questions and start the dialogue with you.
• Myth #2:  Linden Lab posed/social engineered the original questions in the forums about 30% and premium accounts. This is also false.  We did have some broad discussions in the Lab about some of the concepts here, but we investigated this concern and to the best of our knowledge the people asking these questions are not employees of the Lab.  If any Linden employee violated our common sense confidentiality rules and released this information prior to the survey being launched, and there is proof, we’d like to know about it.  Please send me a private message with that information.
• Myth #3:  Only Linden “friends” or XStreet merchants, or some other limited people, were invited to the survey because Linden Lab wants to control the results. False.  We took a broad statistical sampling of various selling categories and amounts to collect feedback in the most scientific way possible.  We have already had over a thousand responses to the survey in completion.
• Myth #4:  In option #4, Linden Lab is proposing a Mall. Boy, do I wish we’d chosen a different word, now that we better understand the connotation of it in world.  To be clear:  what we are opening for discussion is that tier fees, all, be waived either on private islands or mainland in exchange for a percent of sales.  We picked 30% because it is what Apple is charging developers for Apps in the App Store.  In no way are there plans to eliminate private islands, but simply to offer an option to merchants.  We know we’d have to provide value in order to justify the fees, so we proposed a few as an example of what could happen.  As many of you have pointed out, it might be a boon for those just starting out or for those who are going through a rough patch in their business.
• Myth #5:  Linden Lab favors large merchants (or, favors small merchants, depending on your perspective). False.  We strive for balance in the economy, for a healthy mix across all sizes of merchants.  If you think any of the proposals suggested hurts you, please tell us why.  That’s why we asked.
• Myth #6: Linden Lab would implement all of these ideas.  False.  They are various concepts put together to assess various issues.  We may launch some, any, or none of them, and possibly not even in any recognizable form.

Now, to answer some of your questions:

• Why aren’t you fixing X feature? We are fixing and improving a number of things at present.  While we do that, we plan ahead and start to evolve plans for the next set of features.  This is a normal course of business for  most companies.
• Why can’t everyone take the survey? To get the best, most accurate assessment from the widest possible group of merchants, we needed to sample from various sales categories. Getting too many answers in one category would skew the results.  We are reading the comments in the forums but they will be used as color on the results we get from the survey.  If we don’t get enough answers for statistically valid results, we will invite more people to take the survey.
• Why are the proposed fees at this level?  Because we want to hear your opinion about the fee structure.  We simply cannot afford to continue to release tons of new features for free. A few new ones could be included to increase value in current programs, but on the whole, to add what merchants are asking for as a whole has a cost we cannot continue to absorb without charge.
• My alt got it and I didn’t.  Or I got several surveys under various alts.  What’s up with that? Because of our commitment to anonymity, tight now it’s very difficult to de-duplicate alts for us, so we’re doing the best we can.  We trust people to take the survey once, or to take it with the “alt’s” opinion if it differs.  For example, a merchant who has a services business may think differently about fee structures than her alt who sells goods.  We think it’s fair for the same merchant to answer twice in this regard.
• What about the seller registry in the content roadmap? It’s still on there.  We are going to hold a special extra commerce office hours in the next 30 days to discuss our thinking about it and get your input. We are working with the solution provider team to brainstorm ways to tie the two together.

I want to take a moment to thank those who took the time to express a thoughtful response to this survey even if with concerns and questions.  Change is never easy and we sincerely appreciate those who are actively and seriously thinking about these issues and expressing concerns in a constructive way.

Thank you as always for your passion for Second Life, and for your business with Linden Lab.

Read more here: https://blogs.secondlife.com/message/35661