ShopaholicFeed.com

In the Snowstorm Product Backlog Office Hour Wednesday, I commented that "I think options are bad for users and bad for code quality". If you read that whole transcript, you can probably see that it was interpreted badly. The most extreme variant, reported by someone who was watching in-world chat afterward, held that Linden Lab wanted to remove all options from the Viewer. Let me start by saying that is not the case and never would be, nor is it something that I or anyone at Linden Lab has ever seriously contemplated.

However, I still stand by my original… Read the rest

Over the past few weeks, we've been spinning up the Snowstorm Team. As I outlined in my original post, our team is committed to enabling the rapid deployment of new features and functionality in the Second Life Viewer.

The Snowstorm Team is working in the open - this includes meetings, documentation, code, and design discussions. We're planning to use this blog as a place to explain our point of view, kick off design discussions, share progress, successes, failures, and challenges.

In my office hour the other day we had a lively discussion about Viewer preferences and customization. Q felt he… Read the rest

Linden Lab recently welcomed a new addition to its executive ranks: Kim Salzer, who became our Vice President of Marketing, at the beginning of August. Kim (known as Kim Linden inworld) joins us from Activision Blizzard, where she was Vice President of Global Brand Management for properties like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty 2, among others. Kim brings a deep background in gaming (including experience at Electronic Arts working on massively multiplayer online games and hit sports franchises), and in online learning, and we’re excited to have her as part of the team. As an introduction to Residents, I… Read the rest

With the upcoming closure of the XStreet Exchange, we will also retire XStreet’s cash-out system, which provides Residents an alternative to selling their Linden dollars for US dollars via the LindeX. Undoubtedly one of XStreet’s strengths has been the predictability and speed of its cash-out process, and it is understood that our merchants, who are an integral part of the Second Life economy, expect the new process to be equally efficient and predictable.

While XStreet’s turnaround time remains the target for the LindeX, our current policies with respect to LindeX turnaround times will remain in  place for the time… Read the rest

Migration of Listings and ImagesThe Commerce Team is extending the data migration of products and images until Wednesday September 1, 6PM PST.  This Migration will apply to all listings - but only listings  that are active will be visible to the public. You can change your  migration preference by going to the "My Inventory page" on Xstreet. If  you find migration bugs, you can file bugs using the public JIRA, also  known as the Issue Tracker. File them as Project: "3. Second Life Website - WEB" and Component: "Marketplace". More info on how to do that.… Read the rest

I'm regularly in the blogs.secondlife.com forums, not just helping where I have knowledge, but staying in touch with our culture and encouraging you HOW to share info easier.

I keep seeing "OMG HELP ME!" questions where the original poster seems at a loss for how to describe something in words, and there's a big gap between what they saw and how they're struggling to explain it. Also consider language barriers: instead of trying to tell, simply SHOW!

Well, that's where we need to go beyond words: whether techy terminology confuses you or you wanna be a more effective, vivid communicator,… Read the rest

After the flood of comments that greeted our announcement of the upcoming Display Names feature, we’re happy to announce that we are now releasing a Project Viewer to help us further test performance and let Residents get a sense for how Display Names would work should they go into production.

Once you download the Project Viewer, you’ll be able to freely change your Display Name via the Profile Pane of the right-hand sidebar. Once in production, Residents will be able change their Display Names no more than once per week, in order to cut down on the… Read the rest

We  are rapidly approaching the launch of the SL Marketplace! We will continue to make weekly announcements to keep everyone informed as this  happens.

Today, we posted to the Community blog letting everyone know that changes are  coming. We know that this transition greatly affects you, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed on what the next few weeks will bring.

Transition PlansHere is a quick overview of what to expect in the next few months while we  move toward retiring XStreetSL and launching SL Marketplace. Dates are supplied where available.

• XStreetSL Feature Enhancements suspended - Tomorrow, September 1st,

… Read the rest

If  you’ve been following the commerce blogs over the last few months, you  know that we’ve been working on a new online shopping experience for  Second Life Residents, the Second Life Marketplace Beta, which in a short time will replace XStreet SL.

Here are a few of the features we're excited about:

• An updated look and feel:  The Commerce Team drew from the leading retail web sites to create a  professional shopping site with visual appeal and a smooth path to  purchasing. New touches include larger product photos on listing pages  and new ways to view

… Read the rest

Setting up shop in Second Life has many nuances: some best practices are universal and adopted from the real world, such as delightful customer service, while others are specific to the inworld experience — brick-and-mortar stores are concerned with navigation, yes, but fly-friendly layout and teleporter placement go beyond. For example, this pic by way of Rhonda Huntress shows Argrace's simple and clean map:

Alas, the tough thing is: where do you go to learn these best store practices early on? There's scattered info I'm compiling, with your guidance, into the Marketplace Seller's Guide that can expand over time… Read the rest

This afternoon, we’ll be blocking logins for the 2.0.1 version of Viewer 2. All users still running a 2.0.1 Viewer will be prompted to upgrade to 2.1.1. Our developers have made numerous stability and performance improvements that make the 2.1.1 release a much more reliable Viewer.

One of the notable changes in 2.1.1 is that we’ve defaulted HTTP Textures to ON for all users. HTTP Textures is a feature that allows us to transmit textures from SL over HTTP instead of UDP. This should make textures load much faster.

In the event you have any issues with HTTP Textures, you can turn… Read the rest

Are you a winter sports fan? Do you like fast-paced, competitive action? Do you enjoy being part of a big friendly community? Welcome to Second  Life's fantastic new winter sports area, Chamonix City! This winter wonderland is a group of Regions connected to Braggiani and is opening   Saturday August 28th. It is the result of a collaboration between Linden Lab and one of our inworld partnership groups, Global Online Hockey Association (GOHA). If you have a similar, winter sports themed community that is free and open for all to enjoy, please let me know! I would love to… Read the rest

As this year's fall fashion season begins, the top designers in Second Life are unleashing a new wave of fashion forward creations to help you make over your look. Fortunately, you don't have to travel to NYC to attend Fashion Week to see the latest styles. Stay home and get a sneak peek at the hottest looks and future SL fashion trends at Modavia Fashion Week, held Sept. 9-16 in Second Life. This event, which occurs in parallel with Fashion Week in NYC, includes 35 shows over eight days in a new multi-sim venue. That's four to five fashion events… Read the rest