The Alphaville Herald

Borked Inventory Poofs Purchases

by Pixeleen Mistral on 15/10/06 at 2:57 pm

Inventory bug – use it or lose it after purchase

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Inventory loss demonstrations now available throughout SL

“PURCHASED CONTENT IS BEING LOST!” said Shep Korvin in the Linden Answers forum early sunday morning. Buying goods that disappear is not good for anyone’s business and Mr. Korvin pointed out, “in-world content producers (like myself) are taking a big PR hit”. What is happening to our metaverse retail economy?

For the last several days apparent problems with in-world vendors that uses the llGiveInventory command have resulted in lost purchases for customers who do not rez their new wares before they log out of Second Life. Mr. Korvin has constructed a demonstration of the bug near his shop. I am sad to report that his demonstration of the inventory problem works perfectly – or doesn’t work perfectly – depending on your perspective. While Mr. Korvin seems to have addressed the inventory issue with at least some of his vendors — I picked up a really cute pair of pink tourmaline lace panties at his shop which did not disappear — other merchants do not appear to be aware of the problem. This became clear on the next stop in my weekend shopping expedition.

Considering how I might best accessorize my panties, I decided that some sort of helicopter might be a good accent, and I headed off to buy one. I found the perfect helicopter – an MD 500C – at Jillian Callahan’s store. While a little pricey at L$420, the notecard said I could colorize the copter to go with my outfit. Does it get any better than having your chopper match your panties? Seriously?

Herald expense report: receipt for helicopter destroyed in researching story

Following the same procedure outlined by Mr. Korvin, I was able to buy, then lose an entire helicopter. I really hope the Herald expense account covers this.

Don’t do this kids – and here’s how!

The larger question here is why the Lindens are not actively warning residents about this problem. Or did I miss the warning? If Linden Lab provides a platform for economic activity in Second Life, doesn’t this also entail some responsibility to the merchants that depend on the platform? When I contacted Live Help, Stephen Linden told me, “I think the issue is related to people’s inventories” and continued, “it’s being investigated”. So at least some of the Lindens seem to be aware of this, but as we roll the Herald presses, Linden answers to forum questions are still missing. If nothing else, having staff on duty on the weekend to answer the questions in the forum would help calm unhappy resident content creators.

And so I logged out of the metaverse, L$420 poorer, but wiser. I think I’m going to hold off on purchasing that pink helicopter for a bit – at least until the Lindens prove they have fixed the inventory.