In a world where we all see different angles and perspectives I have invited Peter Stindberg, owner of Babel Translations (Second Life’s premier translation company), co-owner of GREENE Concept sculpt furniture and also the business analyst for ~flirt~ fine jewellery, to give us his take on these events. -- Trinity Dechou

At the time of writing of this article, I have 150 items listed both on OnRez and XStreet SL, spread among 3 companies I own or am involved with. Those items generated a 5-digit revenue during the time they were listed and therefore selling on OnRez/SLX (as I still am inclined to call them) is a not-to-be neglected part of my business endeavours. One of the businesses I am involved in does not offer transferable items, so we officially encourage users to use one of the web portals to gift someone with our creations. Some merchants report that OnRez performed better for them, some merchants reported that XStreet SL provided better results - for my businesses both performed more or less the same.

Using OnRez and XStreet SL as a merchant

One of the biggest problems using the web services however is creating the listings. Dropping the items into the dropboxes provided by both seems easy enough, but the task of making the product description and web listing is immense. I would not call either web backend ideal, but the OnRez backend is way more advanced compared to the SLX backend. With the OnRez backend, you can easily bulk-edit product listings and the use of AJAX technology allows for parallel image upload. The dropboxes themselves try to detect duplicates, which is meant well but if you offer two versions of a product with different permissions, you need to use two dropboxes - that took us some time and a support call to find out. The only real downside I found in the OnRez system was that offering an updated version of a product requires you to make a completely new product listing. Last but not least, OnRez did not charge commission from merchants, and their advertising options were not only lower priced but also ran twice the time of the comparable Xstreet SL offerings.

The Xstreet SL interface on the other hand looks a bit outdated. Bulk editing items is not really possible, but at least you can adust some parameters on an overview page. Managing large amounts of items was really a stressful task - the implementation of the "templates" a while ago was a little remedy. Still doing mass-listings on SLX requires some planning to make it halfway managable. Mass edits on SLX are a task you really don't want to do... Updating an item on SLX wiht a newer version is pretty simple though, as you only need to select the new item from a drop down list in an existing listing.

Both platforms miss a tool to cross reference listings (for example multiple pieces of a jewellery set) - it's a tedious process to first publish the individual listings, then copy all their listing URL'S, and then going back into the individual listings and add the cross references.

From a merchants point of view my hope is that Linden Lab will incorporate the best features of both platforms, so that listing items will be a less time and work consuming process. From a shoppers perspective there is in fact not much difference between the portals - OnRez looks nicer but is rather slow, Xstreet SL looks more homegrown but has more merchants and the site is much faster despite OnRez using Akamai global caching services.

My wish list for Linden Lab would be:

• Create powerful bulk-editing tools, so that listing and editing of multiple items gets easier
  
  
• Eliminate the need for users to sign up or verify with XStreet SL
  
  
• Improve the transaction download or...
  
  
• ... splice the XStreet SL transactions into the regular transaction history of SL
  
  
• Link the L$ balances in-world and on SLX
  
  
• Make uploaded textures on SLX available in-world, and make in-world textures available for web-based product listings on SLX (yes, you can keep your 10 L$ fee for that)
  
  
• Maybe think of ways to tie classified listings into the process
  
  

From a business person's point of view I am not too happy about this turn of events. The reason behind this is most likely the wish of LL to control the largest 3rd party currency exchange and - as speculated in the SL Herald - to offer inventory "transfer" options across several grids - which goes in fact hand in hand with the announced plans of XStreet SL mid last year to expand into other grids as well. However, buying OnRez and SLX borders to a monopoly, and I firmly believe that monopolies are bad. So what are the alternatives?

The alternatives

First player that comes to mind is Apez.biz - a web portal you probably have never heard of, but which in fact is older than XStreet SL (which started in December 2005). Apez offers a wide range of services and their website is quite confusing, but in fact the timing could not be better for them as I got word from Apez that a relaunch is imminent. Submitting items to Apez reminds a little bit of submitting items to a HippoVend server. The backend process could be streamlined a lot, but the technology is all there and in place. With over 15,000 registered merchants Apez.biz is in fact about twice the size of OnRez, but it seems their PR got neglected a bit in the past as they are not very well known. However their web backend offers many useful features, for example maintaining several virtual accounts (e.g. "personal", "business A", "business B", "alt") or the ability to send L$ from your own account(s) to any avatar in world - a feature I had missed dearly in the past. What is even more important is that via the apezAPI, a merchant can incorporate their own personalized webshop on their own website, and by this offer offline-selling right from the branded website.

I did not have many items listed on Apez, but those I had sold steadily. I shunned the work of listing 150 items on a third portal, but this work seems now to be much more well invested. A merchant who does not want to keep all their eggs in one basket is well advised to take a closer look at Apez, and in fact, during the time I was writing this article the number of merchands on Apez.biz jumped by over 30.

Some number crunching on the official merchant directories of XStreet SL and OnRez - courtesy of Rika Watanabe - provides some astonishing results. In public, it is always speculated that SLX is much larger than OnRez. And with 16,683 merchants featuring 705,252 products - an average of 42 products per merchant - this is truly an impressive size. In contrast, OnRez features 8,718 merchants with 337,427 products and an average of 39 products per merchant - so more or less exactly half the size in merchants and products, but the merchants on OnRez seem to be more the "power merchants". The picture gets complete if you look at Apez.biz, which features 15,934 merchants - almost as much as SLX has - but only lists about 100,000 products, equalling a meager 6 products per merchant.

But maybe competition might arise from a sector that is on nobodies radar - from one of the large vending system manufacturers in SL. I recently spent a lot of time adopting the HippoVend system from UK based Hippo Technologies. The process of filling the vendors and managing product listings on a web backend is very similar to the process required for the web portals. Since Hippo Technologies system is used by a large number of merchants in SL, an open web frontend offering the items of countless HippoVend systems would start with a massive number of objects. Andy Enfield was kind enough to answer to this suggestion on my behalf, but - for now - his answer is little encouraging:

"The purchase by Linden Labs of both OnRez and XStreetSL leaves a huge gap for a potential competitor to come into the market. Web stores are something I've stayed away from, not wanting the headache of dealing with running the financial services required, but it'll be interesting to see if some new company emerges into the potential gap. Collaboration may be the way to go --- it might be interesting to see what would happen if a new web store partnered with an existing vendor maker (either Hippo (one of the Grid's most popular) or any other) to marry inworld and offworld merchant services."

Tapping into the thousands of merchants and the millions of products being offered in Hippo vendors should be an attractive asset. I really look forward if this open invitation by Hippo Technologies gets taken up by someone.

Conclusion

So what is the bottom line? For the time being, I think it wll be business as usual. Most serious merchants are represented on XStreet SL anyways - so nothing changes for them unless Linden Lab changes the way in which XStreet SL works drastically. And I doubt they will. Currency traders, for which SLX was an "insider's tip" in the past, will focus on other 3rd party exchanges trying to get a better deal there. The Electric Sheep Company who operated OnRez was rumoured to abandon SL for quite some time. Of the merchants who were on OnRez but not on SLX, a portion will transfer, and another portion will use the opportunity to stop web sales altogether. For shoppers, not much will change - there might be slight improvements down the road like syncing the user databases so you automatically have an account on XStreet. For merchants, most likely all will stay the same, but ther eis potential for improvement. For market sanity however I hope a new competitor will arise, and my money is on Apez.biz. And therefore my encouragement goes to the readers - merchants and shoppers alike - to sign up with Apez since a market (any market) needs competition.

A very controversial and hot topic at the moment is the Linden Lab acquisition of Xstreet SL and OnRez. Arguably I think that this manoeuvre by the owners of Second Life could prove to either be on of the best (or worst) things they have done.

Apotheus Silverman the owner of Xstreet SL, along with 8 members of his staff, will be employed directly by Linden Lab to integrate the Xstreet platform into Second Life. On February 11th trading on OnRez (originally developed and maintained by The Electric Sheep Company) will cease and the site will close. All OnRez only merchants are urged to create Xstreet accounts asap to make the changeover as easy as possible.

With approximately 120,000 avatars registered on Xstreet SL (formerly SL Exchange) and an undisclosed (yet considered smaller) number of OnRez users this move affects the majority of Second Life merchants and web shoppers.

All of the preceding information is fact. From here on in, the facts are mixed with my opinion, as a Second Life/ Xstreet SL/ OnRez shopper.

One of the most common complaints about this development is the stronghold monopoly situation that LL now appears to have. I don’t personally subscribe to this opinion, as Linden Lab did not have (until now) any web based merchant system in place. Encompassing the largest sites under their wing is a sound move by Linden Lab, to offer web based shopping (which we know as a popular alternative method to teleporting and visiting shops). Indication stands that OnRez would be closing in February as The Electric Sheep company continues to withdraw it’s prescence in Second Life, therefore for the purposes of the monopoly analysis, OnRez should be therefore discounted. Alternatives are in place for those who don’t want to use the integrated machine that Linden Lab will no doubt build. On the shopping side, smaller popular sites like apez.biz should be able to capitalise on being a truly independent site. Predicting a new ‘all worlds’ merchant site isn’t too far fetched either, considering XStreet SL themselves investigated coverage of other worlds, and one would certainly think if there was a ‘good’ time to launch it, that time would be now. Lastly, the forums on Xstreet have quite an avid following, I would expect them to become a casualty of this buyout since their independence is lost, however sites like SLUniverse should bear witness to a rejuvenation of their forums.

Speculation surrounding Xstreet SL of late has been that the site was troubled. With falling sales and commissions the site was deemed, by many, to be in trouble. Perhaps these rumours had more weight than many of us thought. If Xstreet SL had collapsed it would have caused a cataclysmic wave in the economy of Second Life. If this conjecture is true, Linden Lab may have stepped in to stop this from happening.

Xstreet SL, and OnRez were well known and respected institutions in-world, with good coverage on many sims with terminals, and box hosting sites popping up left, right and centre. One institution with more coverage than these two companies put together has to be of course Linden Lab. Once the initial furore has calmed, providing Linden Lab put the necessary resources behind Xstreet SL, this site with the in-world backup could increase users, items and ease of use immensely.

Talking about ease of use, I perceive the biggest advantage of this development as being the potential to streamline the systems. One problem many ‘high users’ had with this site was the time it took to list items online. With a Linden Lab incorporated Xstreet SL, merchants, may, find selling their items get easier. Currently deliveries depend on the blackbox/dropbox systems, which of course rely on the hosting sims of these boxes being online and responsive. With the potential for streamlining and direct inventory transfers the future of these sales is an interesting and greatly anticipated one. It’s also been cited on the SL Blog, that the potential for sharable wish lists and, I’m sure popular, scheduled deliveries are amongst some of the possibilities for future innovation.

It would be business suicide for merchants listed on these sites to leave, therefore without a mass exodus; everyone will sit back and watch the developments unfold with great interest. One of the biggest areas to watch will be the future of Xstreet’s own Linden Currency Exchange, although Linden Lab promised nothing will happen to this until they watch the intricacies of this system in the coming months, I suspect this will be the biggest casualty of this buyout.

This of course is my personal opinion about this matter, it is based from facts, but the opinions formed are mine. In a world where we all see different angles and perspectives I have invited Peter Stindberg, owner of Babel Translations (Second Life’s premier translation company), co-owner of GREENE Concept sculpt furniture and also the business analyst for ~flirt~ fine jewellery, to give us his take on these events. (A merchant's view: SLX, OnRez and the alternatives)

Undoubtedly one of the most common complaints on the Second Life JIRA is the ability to have a separate body art/ tattoo layer. Of course this is not the only JIRA request regarding clothing layers on avatars. However, recently at Nyx Linden’s office hour, information was released that could dramatically change the way we wear our clothes.

Currently the clothes we wear are baked together and uploaded as six textures (head, eyes, hair, upper body, lower body, and skirt) to the servers, from where our friends and fellow residents download them to render our appearance. As well as this being done, a fail-safe has been in place, which also downloads from the server the separate layers, in case a baked texture is not available (this is why editing appearance can help you bake for other residents). Obviously downloading the unbaked layer textures, which are rarely used, is a demanding resource hog. However Nyx and BigPapi Linden are implementing changes to address this. In the future, hoped for release in RC 1.23, when you change your outfit, your client will bake one complete version of that entire outfit (including skin) which viewers will download only instead of that and the individual layers, as it does now.

Not only will this improve the speed at which you download clothing textures, as layers won’t be downloaded as well, it will also open the door for major future developments. You will be in control of how your avatar looks and in the future you will potentially be able to wear anything you want in a tiered manner. At the moment, if you wear tattoo’s on your ‘under’ layers you can’t wear actual underwear. Once the baking developments have been implemented and completed with a rollover period for older clients, you should be able to wear clothes anywhere, even if you wish, wear your underwear outside your pants.

Nyx also announced that as part of these changes, Linden Lab will also look at having a 4th channel in the baked textures, allowing for alpha masking (also another common JIRA request), meaning parts of your avatar will be able to be hidden. This development will hopefully stop transparency issues on many attachments, for instance sculpt shoes and prim avatars, providing you can remove the invisi-prims they currently use.

Content theft is one of the biggest problems facing Second Life. With the current system, all layers being downloaded as well, it opens the doors to special clients built to steal textures. Once these changes have been implemented single layer textures of other avatars will not be sent to the viewer, therefore clothing content theft will be made harder.

In an environment where Linden Lab are often brought into question over the grids stability and ongoing improvements, these developments (which should start rolling into place soon) will effectively kill two birds with one stone.

As anyone who knows me, or has even bumped into me wandering around the grid, will be able to tell you, I like my fashions a little bit on the quirky side. From the pulsating heart on my sleeve to the voodoo doll on my belt or even the myriad textured tentacles that often protude from my back, if I can find something a little bit unusual and twisted to wear, then I am a happy Voodoo. Therefore, you can understand why, when glancing through the Second Life Flickr Pool, and saw the pictures from one designer, who is making dresses made from fingers, rifles and syringes, and spinal attachments that give the look of exposed wiring sticking out of you, I needed to pop along and have a look.


The shop in question is Grim Bros and the designs there are uniquely unusual, but created with an attention to detail that really grabs your eye. As I wondered around the shop, I became nervous as to exactly how much money this little trip was going to set me back, but was pleasently surprised that the prices are very reasonable, meaning that there are now quite a few peices created by designer and owner Cutea Benelli in my inventory. Another happy hapenstance was the fact that Ms Benelli coincidentally turned up while I was browsing the store, so I made the most of the oppotunity, and sat her down for a quick chat:


Voodoo Buwan: So, how did Grim Bros come into existance?
Cutea Benelli: Umm.... it actually started with a horror shoppe called Low Prim & Grim. It was a b-movie thing, but by definition simple, very low prim stuff. Grim Bros more or less was a spin-off of that, the first items very bloody. So about a year ago, we bought the plot and i started to build.
Voodoo Buwan: So, as your building skills increased, so did the company?
Cutea Benelli: Well I still consider myself a beginner in terms of building. So much to learn. Actually i built a building far too big for the stuff i had and I don't like building architecture. So i decided to instead fill the building with wares:) The company still is rather small compared to most serious designers out there.
Voodoo Buwan: A lot of your merchandise is very detailed and unusual in it's styling. Where do you get your inspirations from?
Cutea Benelli: I don't know, they just happen really. I talk to somebody and they use a phrase and poof there is a picture in my head of a hat that has that name, stuff like that.
Voodoo Buwan: Making a name for yourself in SL can be very difficult. Are you using any methods to try to get yourself out there?
Cutea Benelli: Not much apart from the obvious, such as classified etc. I am a lazy marketer in sl:)
Voodoo Buwan: So, hoping that having good products will be enough to get customers in?
Cutea Benelli: Works for me. I think for now, word of mouth is the biggest marketing asset in sl. I do sponsor events occasionally and there will be a shakespeare play soon, the costumes of which will mostly be by me. A steampunk rendition of "the tempest", with the avatar repertory theatre.
Voodoo Buwan: How has the consumer reaction to your items been? With items like the syringe spine there could be adverse reactions from people who might see it as condoning drug use?
Cutea Benelli: So far I haven't experienced any serious bashing. No wait, there once was a woman announcing a boycot for my store because i was ...ummm.... glorifying communism, as i had a che guevara shirt there. She never saw the flea market soviet hat i guess. But anyway she was throwing a tantrum as if i had a Stalin altar
Voodoo Buwan: Do you bear these criticisms in mind when designing, or is it more important to be true to your creative vision?
Cutea Benelli: well i stick to my own ideas, i suppose, but i don't see a lot of designs that i would consider offensive. Provocative, perhaps. It would be hard to comply with everybody else's standards, but as i said, i haven't had many complaints about concepts yet. I did get rid of the che shirt at some point but just because it seemed so redundant.
Voodoo Buwan: What's next for you and Grim Bros then?
Cutea Benelli: i don't know. i just created my first full-fledged avatar, and also there were quite a few cyberpunk designs in the last few weeks, so who knows. i don't plan:) I will go where my mind takes me.
Voodoo Buwan: And is there any advice you would give to any would be designers out there?
Cutea Benelli: i am tempted to say "don't listen to other designers' advice" except there are a lot of practical things to consider :) I think the most important bit, at least for me, is to create stuff i enjoy myself. One of the reasons i hardly ever do custom builds. I have more fun building if i love the idea:)
Voodoo Buwan: And is there anything else you wanted to add?
Cutea Benelli: Perhaps I could just mention that people should visit the Bogon Flux, the bastard lovechild of blotto Epsilon and myself. It is a house that builds itself and destroys itself again. It was created for burning life but has found a permanent home in China. There is a video about it, created by Mescaline Tammas, and it even made it on www.boingboing.net :)
Voodoo Buwan: So, you've got your fingers in a few pies then?
Cutea Benelli: Well yes, I'm insatiable;) As i said, i go where my mind takes me.