Kitely Mentors Group Meeting, 23 Jan 2013: summary

[Marstol Nitely]

Kitely Mentors’ Meeting 23 Jan 2013

The meeting lasted 1.5 hours. In attendance:
Alan Hawks
Anita Hawks
Dinero Wind
Ilan Tochner
Inga Wind
Marstol Nitely
Ohn Lang
Roddie Macchi
Sally Cherry
Stiofain - Virtualbelfast Ireland

Everyone thanked Dinero Wind for his excellent coverage of the 3.5 hour meeting last week.

Just prior to beginning the meeting Ilan requested those attending the meeting respond with a yes or no, if possible, when he asked questions of the group. “Unless you want to provide details of course.”

Barring any problems Kitely will likely roll out a new release on January 24, after midnight. The release will include the following improvements:

1) Faster switching between pages on the website. Especially when moving between Public Worlds / My Worlds pages and world pages.

2) The Public Worlds page didn’t always show the Adult link when your account maturity was set to Adult. Kitely has fixed that problem.

3) Text has been added to the homepage to describe what Kitely is about.

4) Kitely will enable the viewer option to get emails when an IM is received while you are offline.

5) A web-style People Search option has been added to support in world searching. In order for it to work with unaltered viewers a list of results will be displayed. The name of the person can be clicked and then you’ll be sent an IM. Clicking the link in that IM will open the viewer dialog for profiles. “It’s a bit hacky, but making the link work in the embedded browser would have required you to use a modified viewer,” said Ilan. When asked if there are future plans for a Kitely viewer, Ilan replied that the focus is presently on server side improvements.

6) Merchants will be able to more easily upload their content into Kitely as they will not be disconnected when uploading assets. Before the fix the system might disconnect Second Inventory uploads that lasted more than 31 minutes because it didn’t detect user activity.

7) Adding “Likes” and removing “Likes” will be available in the forums.

8) A bunch of small bug fixes and backend optimizations will be included in the new release.

Inga Wind wanted to know if Second Inventory was the only option to upload to Kitely. Ilan explained that the Imprudence and Angstrom viewer backup functionality could be used, and you can also use the regular content upload tools. Dinero Wind mentioned the Dolphin Browser, but said he hadn’t got the grid manager to work with Kitely yet. A link was provided to the Imprudence Content Backup Wiki: http://wiki.kokuaviewer.org/wiki/Imprud ... ent_Backup. Sally Cherry asked for clarification that Ilan was recommending Imprudence, not Firestorm. He explained that Firestorm performs better on Kitely due to HTTP textures and inventory, but it doesn’t have the import capabilities that Imprudence does.

Ilan wanted to know if anyone had been talking with merchants about importing into Kitely. Some people said they had mentioned it and others had read the information and article in about it Modem World <http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2013/01 ... arketplace/>. One of the mentors had created a notecard and handed it out to merchants. Other mentors met the idea of the notecard with enthusiasm and asked for copies. The mentor who wrote it provided the notecard for anyone who wanted to use it. It will be posted in a separate post in the forums for easy copying. Here’s the link: http://forums.kitely.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=101#p50.

Sally Cherry asked if it would be alright to add some of the information on her blog at http://virtual-sarvana.blogspot.com and was told yes.

Ilan wanted mentioned he’d received pushback from one individual about the listing fees. He wanted feedback on what the mentors thought and if they had heard complaints about the listing fees. No one had received complaints. In fact, at least one mentor reported the merchants had been pleased that there was no upload fee. Several opinions and suggestions were given before discussing actual listing fees.

The listing fee is 100KC (approximately 33 cents usd) which can be paid with KCs (which can be bought using Pay Pal). Merchants receive a 50% discount on the listing fee for items listed before the marketplace opens. To become a featured merchant, a merchant should have a minimum of 200 items to start in the marketplace.

Featured Merchants will have no listing fee until the marketplace opens. Someone other than a Featured Merchant with, for example, 60 items would pay $10 until the marketplace opens. Information on becoming a featured merchant and the early bird promotion can be found here:
http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-new ... -promotion. The fees are meant to encourage high quality merchandise. The listing fee is a one time charge.

Anyone who intends to upload to the marketplace should contact Ilan for an invitation to the Kitely Merchants group which provides the 50% discount prior to the marketplace opening. It also allows access to the Kitely Merchants’ sandbox. The marketplace will, at least initially, be for items that delivery can be automated for.

Ohn Lang suggested a contest for a Ilan avatar makeover once we have a marketplace. Apparently the Kitely CEO could use some stylist tips. “I was just thinkin’ that our CEO avatar should rock,” said Ohn. Ilan seemed a little taken aback that people didn’t enjoy his “noob” look. Event suggestions from Sally Cherry included a hunt to help people discover various worlds and a Superbowl Party.

During a question and answer session Ilan gave a link to how to get the Kitely referral reward: [Edit: the referral program has been discontinued so the broken link has been removed]. He also said there is a reward if someone brings in several Featured Merchants, but the merchants have to tell Kitely who they were referred by when they first send an email asking to join the Kitely Merchants Group.

There were questions about how the AFK timer works. Apparently the browser doesn’t recognize editing scripts as activity and therefore doesn’t send it to the server. Avatars working exclusively on editing scripts without saving may be logged out after 30 minutes. Private IM’s may also not show as activity. Ilan said he would check into it, but it wouldn’t likely be changed by Thursday’s rollout. He said he was glad to hear about problems during meetings and that it helps them to know what needs to be improved.

Inga Wind said she thought Kitely needed more events and that the marketplace would take care of itself. Dinero said that people might hold events once a month if they could do it on one region for free for two hours (or something like that). Then if it were popular they could charge a group join or land use fee and do it for longer periods. Ilan said, “Every person on Kitely is on some plan. The Free Plan includes 2 hours/month (6 hours on the first month). The plans are designed to reduce the cost for people hosting events.” He said he would suggest that those planning on using a Public World for an event, contact the World Manager for permission by clicking on the World Manager’s name and selecting the Send Message option.

Ilan reminded those present that questions could be asked on the new forums as well as at the meetings. http://forums.kitely.com

[Dinero Outlander]

Thank you Marstol for providing a well covered summary.

Ohn Lang suggested a contest for a Ilan avatar makeover once we have a marketplace. Apparently the Kitely CEO could use some stylist tips. “I was just thinkin’ that our CEO avatar should rock,”

I really like Ohn's idea, Ilan could be the first down the fashion show runway modeling his new looks.

Of course then everyone will probably be green with envy.

On a plus note, it would also be a good way to show a successful Market plan.

[Adagio Greenwood]

I love the idea of a "Make Ilan Over" Competition.............. too cute!!

[Ohn Lang]

LOL! "someone" left out the part where Ilan asked if we didn't like his noob look and I said i love it!

There were two camps of thought on this: (1) Ilan's current look will make newcomers comfortable and not intimidated (2) A top-of-the-line look for Ilan would give newcomers something to shoot for and get them out shopping. Maybe I was the only one in the 2nd camp now that I think back.

Would be fun though

[Marstol Nitely]

I think it would be fun too. Plus I could shop for my husband's makeover at the same time! He's not on often, but I'd like him to look good when he is.

[Marstol Nitely]

Following your feedback during the meeting we decided to prioritize improving the idle user detection system to also detect private IMs and script saving activity.

For details see: http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-new ... dle-users/

[Dinero Outlander]

Following your feedback during the meeting we decided to prioritize improving the idle user detection system to also detect private IMs and script saving activity.

For details see: http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-new ... dle-users/

Adagio isn't the only HAPPY DANCING Kitely User this morning

Speaking of we could use a Happy Dance Emote/smilie with a chat bubble that says Kitely ROCKS! lol