MechanizedLife Poll: Please help us to choose an alternative storefront

Nov 27, 2009

MechanizedLife Poll: Please help us to choose an alternative storefront

34 Comments, Comment or Ping

Kumi Kuhr

I only shop inworld now so I haven’t chosen any of the above.

Nov 28th, 2009
Lizbet Loening

I haven’t experienced any of the alternative sites to XStreet. I’m a little unsure of how they work and if they are secure.

Nov 28th, 2009
Peter Stindberg

Apez allows you to make your own, personalized webshop on your own site.

Nov 28th, 2009
Robbie Kiama

metaLIFE is a marketplace both on the web and grid-wide marketplace in-world

Nov 28th, 2009
MeritKa Seetan

I just joined MetaLife and I am positivley surprised by all their services
(amazing free merchendise stuff-and easy to set up affiliate program if you need)
it´s such an pleasure to work with them
and
good thing
the team realy listens to their merchents and customers if it comes to improvements!!!!
I wouldn´t go anywhere else

Nov 28th, 2009
Lord Sullivan

About slapt.me

slapt.me was formed in April 2009 in response to the lack of an Independent shopping experience for SL and its residents. It is owned and founded by 3 residents, whose skills have enabled them to create a shopping experience, that you are already used to but with extras we have seen you ask for. The teams skills vary from programming and scripting, website development, design and marketing to customer service with blue chip companies.

The Founders recognise the fact that some SL residents want a truly independent site to sell their products from and a site that will listen to the needs of its clients and wherever possible, integrate them into slapt.me.

slapt.me will always treat its clients with the respect they deserve and always understands that the customer is king. We see you the client and us at slapt.me in a symbiotic relationship with each other, thus both of us benefit from each others participation, a positive sum game.
Mission Statement

slapt.me is dedicated to bringing new and creative ideas to the SL market place, both in your product offerings as well as in our marketing events and our forums. We will continue to develop our unique brand positioning for you our clients, to continually maintain and grow our solid brand recognition, and to adhere to high quality customer service standards. Because everyone wants to have fun everyday, slapt.me will continue to offer something for everyone with fun always in mind and we will never censor you or your products.

Slapt.me is growing fast and is honest and transparent with its user base with its sites metrics and its 5 year plan and is fully funded for future growth and is not reliant on making a profit to continue in business as this has been factored into its business plan.

Nov 29th, 2009
Deckheard Cleanslate

http://www.slapt.me gets my vote!
It’s the nearest thing I’ve found to what Xstreet was before it was taken over by LL.
It’s not just a market it’s a thriving community.

Nov 29th, 2009
Ceka Cianci

I use slapt.me now for all my off grid shopping..It like not skipping a beat after the xstreet moved everything to that blog oO

The system works fast..no lag on searches and i haven’t had any problems with purchases or delivery..
I’m not the most trusting person when it comes to leaving one system for another..I’ve known about slapt.me for awhile now and it was an easy choice..
They care about their customers and are always improving to make a better experience for the shoppers and merchants ..
I love that they are in the forums and active and listen to ideas that their customers may have..

I am a very heavy shopper in world and out..when i find a good system i stick with it..I have only so many hours to be online..I don’t want to waste them on transaction problems or lag..If there were problems i trust the people at slapt.me to handle them pretty quickly..

plus slappy the penguin is just too cute to miss heheheh

Nov 29th, 2009
Mimika Oh

Hedge your bets. List everywhere. It will be months before the dust settles.

Nov 29th, 2009
Kabalyero

As they say, don’t put your eggs in one basket that is why I try to list on all of them but I’m getting sales on metaLIFE and apez.biz. Another selling point about metaLIFE is that they now don’t take any commissions on web sales.

XstreetSL.com adds fees while metaLIFE removes them. LOL

Nov 29th, 2009
admin

Just to be clear, this poll regards the replacement for our MAIN STOREFRONT. That means all the links in the sidebar that redirects to product listings on a marketplace.

We won’t retire from Xstreet, and indeed, we will increase our presence on ALL of those marketplaces. Actually we are having a test product on all of them, FilterCam.

Thanks for your votes everyone, and for your comments, it’s all very interesting!

Codie

Nov 29th, 2009
Zenobia Fimicoloud

I have gone for Slapt.me, it is much the way good ol SecondLife Exchange used to be, PRE Linden… the forums are a fun and lively place to spend time as well as advertise your products and websites. Although there are a few kinks in the code, Contanza and Lord Sully (and the rest of the team) are open to comments and suggestions, and are working hard to get these ironed out as fast as they can. The interface is pretty easy to use (I managed to list over 40 products in about an hour and a half, ok, some of the product descriptions were pretty much cut and pastes out of xstreet but it is still impressive).

Not really used the others as yet I have to say (other then APEZ which I personally found a real bind to use, and still do), I have kept minimal items on Xstreet SL but as advertising only at this point, I intend to move fully to Slapt.me.

Nov 29th, 2009
Taylor Lubezki

Slapt.me gets my vote for sure.. The staff and Devs are second to none and the forums have been my home since XStreet closed theirs.. Slappy was a really cool project and neat to have around..

Setting up on slapt.me has been seamless compared to the others.. 2nd running goes to Apez.. most sales have came from there.. but I chalk that up to age.

Nov 29th, 2009
Pussycat

I’m backing several choices at the moment:

slapt.me
metaverse
apez
meta-life

Too early to tell which one will be the ideal choice in the long run.

Nov 30th, 2009
Almia Thaler

regardless what the vote says i’d go to Metaverse Exchange mostly due to its continued improvements and growing userbase. not to mention its great support and staff behind it.

Nov 30th, 2009
jacquelin seisenbacjer

Both slapt.me and mvx would get my vote, but I can only vote for one. To be fair though, I haven’t tried apez yet or meta-life. MVX has the multiple item in different color input ability (I believe that is on the agenda for slapt though too) I prefer the feel of slapt over mvx, but both look really professional, both have very helpful staff, and I use both.

Nov 30th, 2009
Ova Haul

I use a couple as a merchant, but my vote totally goes to slapt.me.
They really listen to what a merchant wants , and bend over backwards to help you with any problems you might be having….How can you not love the penguin and er, um a fish?!?

Nov 30th, 2009
Mimika Oh

metaLIFE has the cleverest affiliate system, HUD, and vendors.
MVX has logical and time-saving ways to list similar items.
slapt.me has the nicest appearance.
Vitty is bilingual.
Apez I personally cannot get along with.

See also http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2009/11/metalife.html

Nov 30th, 2009
Talulah Nomura

Has to be MetaLife, the live vendors and Branding opportunities are amaaaazing! I like Slapt but tbh, from my own sales point of view once i’d tried ML that was it - and the help, Robbie is brilliant, as are all the rest of the team. This product really does bring the best of inworld sales and the best of an online marketplace together.

Nov 30th, 2009
Eren Padar

XstreetSL is bottom of da bucket. Bleh.

I haven’t examined all the other boards yet, cos I went to MetaLIFE first and it’s great! So that’s what I sticked with!

Nov 30th, 2009
Andromeda Felisimo

I’ve been using Meta Life for some time now, easy, fast, convenient, excellent support, they listen and a million and one other small things that make it the greatest.

Nov 30th, 2009
Kozmo Engineer

Definitely vote for meta-LIFE. Just love how they deal with customers and do support.

Also I use in-world vending system metavendor, its just great!

And also as second alternative - Apez.

Nov 30th, 2009
Antonius Misfit

I voted for meta-LIFE(I love the branding system), but if the poll allowed selecting multiple choices I would have voted for meta-LIFE and Metaverse Exchange(as it’s the only site that caters to multiple virtual worlds and allows creation of one listing for several items such as a dress in different colors).

Nov 30th, 2009
Ghosty Kips

I chose Meta-LIFE as I’m only familiar with them, XStreet and slapt.me. While slapt.me has some good features, the interface is too clunky and the web site does not look like it’s ready for prime time. XStreet … well, I think we all know why they didn’t get picked. Meta-LIFE has a great site, good features, and I’ve found their support to be great.

Nov 30th, 2009
Fillo Farber

Since the LL announcement I have discovered MetaLife and these guys are very impressive. I think they have a high level of professionalism and seem very capable. Great marketing tools available too. For example my partner and I can put both our normally seperate items on one in-world vendor and split the income. We’ve always had to have seperate vendors in the past. These are free too - can’t beat the price!

Nov 30th, 2009
Bellissa Dion

In all of this no one seems to be too concerned about the fact that whoever is running these sites has control of certain aspects of your online existence (product, lindens etc). For me, when I trialled various sites, the absolute winner on trust was slapt.me. MetaVerseExchange appears to be a one man band who works damned hard but there’s little information concerning the business side of things, MetaLife, well I won’t go into my reasoning here but I’m less than confident in my ongoing security there and again, little information concerning the business side of things.

Yes I have a presence on all 3, I’m still waffling about removing items from one at least but I believe in a fair go. However, slapt.me will be my focus.

The slapt.me owners are very open about who they are and what their business projections are. They’ve planned for a full 5 years ahead in a very professional manner from what I can tell.

This is what sold me on slapt.me. Not cosmetics. The pretties will come, and the improvements made to the site already (since the XStreetSL listings announcement) simply support the impression of good business sense and care for customers.

If all you’re after is somewhere that looks nice then yes, other sites may suit you better. But if, like me, it matters who is in control, slapt.me is the only choice.

(No comment on apez)

Dec 1st, 2009
Its About Time

MetaLife ROCKS!

Sorry other sites, but you dont even come close to their services and support. Not to mention their personable staff.

Xstreet could only dream about being as versatile as MetaLife.

Dec 1st, 2009
Kozmo Engineer

Yes good points Bellissa, I still think that MVX is great - because they did something NO OTHER marketplace did lol - so let’s give some praise to man…

Also metaLIFE is VERY open to who they are. They are to be trusted IMHO, just check this one:
http://meta-life.net/help/about-us

Off course you’d have to read through their forums or participate in group chat’s to see their openness.. Loving their service all together, both their technical wizardry and their support.. Also it’s nice to see all those affiliate sales making me some additional income

Dec 1st, 2009
Crash Soulstar

I haven’t tried Apez or Metaverse, although I plan to, and I’m new to slapt.me, but that’s going well so far. But I’ve been using MetaLife for some time, and I think I have to vote for them. I like their brand system and I love their vendors. I have two shops which are actually just MetaVendors. Though I plan to add a slapt.me and apez vendor and maybe others at my shop at Noobia also, but my metavendors have been making some sales. Plus I like how you can put tags in your items without having to spam the description field. It must make things a lot easier to find. It’s hard to find anything on Xstreet any more. You just get too many choices, many not even relevant. And they’re always making improvements, too.

Second is slapt.me for reasons mentioned above.

Dec 1st, 2009
Siann Beck

First of all, let me say that I am all in favor of competition. I am not a believer in the philosophy of scarcity; there is enough for everyone, and I sincerely wish the others sites all success.

But I found your comments curious, Bellissa. As stated on our About page, Metaverse Exchange is a sole proprietorship registered in Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan, US, to my partner Ensler Klaar/Alan Little (our partnership is a separate arrangement). Looking at the Slapt site, all I can find is that it is “owned and founded by 3 residents”, without even their virtual names apparent. I don’t mean this as a knock against them; I have no doubt they are fully competent and trustworthy people. They have put together a fine operation, and as far as I’m concerned, the more the merrier. I just thought it interesting that you picked out this particular point.

Dec 3rd, 2009
Lord Sullivan

@ Sian

Our trading details are here http://slapt.me/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1574 including our RL telephone number also and also on our TOS and on my profile, in world. We are also a registered company here in Hollland. Just for the record

Dec 4th, 2009
Siann Beck

OK, I see it now; I hadn’t looked at your TOS, or read your forum much. And just to be clear, there was no intention to suggest that your operation is less than honorable.

Now, back to the program editor, and the race!

Dec 4th, 2009
kaii kiranov

I have looked at metaverseexchange (MVX), slapt, Metalife, and Apez. I had the best feelings about slapt and MVX, with MVX coming out on top. I was stunned by how fast I was noticing the management responding to feature suggestions, and other things. I mean it was days, not weeks, for some pretty important features. I just feel best about MVX and have decided to really support its growth. Collectively I hope all the competitions takes a big bite out of LL and xstreetsl.

Dec 12th, 2009