Kitely Mentors Group Meeting, 19 June 2013: summary
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 4:40 am
Present at the meeting:
Babu Chuku
Buni Chuku
Dundridge Dreadlow
Ilan Tochner
Marstol Nitely
Mat Mahogany
Min Tigerpaw
Minethere Always
Sally Cherry
Sierra Jakob
Stiofain MacTomais
Progress report
Ilan began the meeting with a short progress report. He mentioned last Friday’s fixes for resident bug reports. “But we’ve mostly been focused on developing the product page,” said Ilan.” The one potential Kitely Market buyers see when they view marketplace items.” Its functionality is 90% done and now the Kitely team will work to beautify it. Ilan promised some nice features, including the ability to browse multiple variations on the same product page.
“Images play a big role in product pages, so it’s even more important to make sure the ones you include are visually impressive. So buyers can see how much they want what you are selling,” said Ilan.
During a discussion about marketplace pricing, Ilan suggested merchants unsure of how to value their items could use the SL marketplace as a pricing reference. He also assured merchants they’d be able to review market items before the marketplace release date. That should be enabled in the next major update.
Feedback and suggestions
When the conversation turned to feedback and suggestions, the chairs at the meeting were brought up (again). Marstol threw a chair at Ilan and told him to sit on it. He caught the chair, sat on it and was able to change sit positions. Sierra had given Ilan several chairs with different sit positions and colors, which she asked him to try out. He pulled out some lovely adirondack style chairs from Sierra which were received with much admiration. Ilan rezzed the chairs instead of the old ones and Sierra offered those present a great deal if they wanted to purchase a set. Many took advantage of the bargain.
Discussing community growth efforts
Ilan wanted to know if anyone had made mention of Kitely to new merchants in the past week.
Sally Cherry had mentioned it to a professor at a conference she attended. She’ll be giving him a more detailed explanation and demonstration in the future. She said he was excited about the possible disaster training that could be done on Kitely. Sierra said she had been waiting to be sure of things... “but I am going to go tonight and tell several EXCELLENT FAVORITE merchants to come here.”
Stio said he thought the creators would be more likely to jump in when the product view is opened. Ilan said that is projected to be deployed in 2 - 3 weeks. Marstol brought up that she’d read an article stating there’d been a huge jump in membership over the past month. Ilan said it wasn’t a huge jump, but that Kitely is growing very nicely.
Q&A session
Marketplace
Sierra had a question about the marketplace guidelines reference textures she will be selling. The Kitely Marketplace Image Guidelines read “Product images should accurately reflect how the product appears in the virtual world viewer. Don't show artistic renditions or real-world images; people should be able to see exactly what they will be getting.” Ilan said “I think that textures can be presented as they will look inworld even when just laid out in a grid in photoshop, so it makes sense to just present them in a good layout.”
Buni wanted to know if the guidelines were requirements or guidelines. Ilan said that some were requirements and others were recommendations. He said they have titles clarifying which are required and which are recommended.
Dundridge suggested it would be nice to have variation text. Ilan said the variation thumbnails are one way people can view available variations. He went on to explain that each image has an optional caption you can set in the Manage Images dialog of the merchant’s view of the product page.
Hypergrid
Buni asked when Hypergrid would be enabled. Ilan said there were additional things that needed to be implemented first. Like making sure Kitely’s inventory and asset systems work with them, upgrading to OpenSim 0.7.6 when it comes out, and adding access controls to worlds for Hypergrid, etc. Buni asked for a timetable. Ilan said “development takes time.” He added “you can read this week's OpenSim Dev meeting chat log to see why HG access is not something we're rushing into.” <<http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Chat_log_ ... 2013-06-18>>
Stio asked “how about a trial/experimental HG region on Kitely?” Ilan responded, “Stio, it won't work until we make it work. It's not about experimenting it's about making our systems work with something that isn't that well implemented.”
The Kitely Market will enable delivery to HG connected grids before Kitely itself opens to the HG for avatar teleporting in and out. The meeting adjourned at 3 pm pacific.
Babu Chuku
Buni Chuku
Dundridge Dreadlow
Ilan Tochner
Marstol Nitely
Mat Mahogany
Min Tigerpaw
Minethere Always
Sally Cherry
Sierra Jakob
Stiofain MacTomais
Progress report
Ilan began the meeting with a short progress report. He mentioned last Friday’s fixes for resident bug reports. “But we’ve mostly been focused on developing the product page,” said Ilan.” The one potential Kitely Market buyers see when they view marketplace items.” Its functionality is 90% done and now the Kitely team will work to beautify it. Ilan promised some nice features, including the ability to browse multiple variations on the same product page.
“Images play a big role in product pages, so it’s even more important to make sure the ones you include are visually impressive. So buyers can see how much they want what you are selling,” said Ilan.
During a discussion about marketplace pricing, Ilan suggested merchants unsure of how to value their items could use the SL marketplace as a pricing reference. He also assured merchants they’d be able to review market items before the marketplace release date. That should be enabled in the next major update.
Feedback and suggestions
When the conversation turned to feedback and suggestions, the chairs at the meeting were brought up (again). Marstol threw a chair at Ilan and told him to sit on it. He caught the chair, sat on it and was able to change sit positions. Sierra had given Ilan several chairs with different sit positions and colors, which she asked him to try out. He pulled out some lovely adirondack style chairs from Sierra which were received with much admiration. Ilan rezzed the chairs instead of the old ones and Sierra offered those present a great deal if they wanted to purchase a set. Many took advantage of the bargain.
Discussing community growth efforts
Ilan wanted to know if anyone had made mention of Kitely to new merchants in the past week.
Sally Cherry had mentioned it to a professor at a conference she attended. She’ll be giving him a more detailed explanation and demonstration in the future. She said he was excited about the possible disaster training that could be done on Kitely. Sierra said she had been waiting to be sure of things... “but I am going to go tonight and tell several EXCELLENT FAVORITE merchants to come here.”
Stio said he thought the creators would be more likely to jump in when the product view is opened. Ilan said that is projected to be deployed in 2 - 3 weeks. Marstol brought up that she’d read an article stating there’d been a huge jump in membership over the past month. Ilan said it wasn’t a huge jump, but that Kitely is growing very nicely.
Q&A session
Marketplace
Sierra had a question about the marketplace guidelines reference textures she will be selling. The Kitely Marketplace Image Guidelines read “Product images should accurately reflect how the product appears in the virtual world viewer. Don't show artistic renditions or real-world images; people should be able to see exactly what they will be getting.” Ilan said “I think that textures can be presented as they will look inworld even when just laid out in a grid in photoshop, so it makes sense to just present them in a good layout.”
Buni wanted to know if the guidelines were requirements or guidelines. Ilan said that some were requirements and others were recommendations. He said they have titles clarifying which are required and which are recommended.
Dundridge suggested it would be nice to have variation text. Ilan said the variation thumbnails are one way people can view available variations. He went on to explain that each image has an optional caption you can set in the Manage Images dialog of the merchant’s view of the product page.
Hypergrid
Buni asked when Hypergrid would be enabled. Ilan said there were additional things that needed to be implemented first. Like making sure Kitely’s inventory and asset systems work with them, upgrading to OpenSim 0.7.6 when it comes out, and adding access controls to worlds for Hypergrid, etc. Buni asked for a timetable. Ilan said “development takes time.” He added “you can read this week's OpenSim Dev meeting chat log to see why HG access is not something we're rushing into.” <<http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Chat_log_ ... 2013-06-18>>
Stio asked “how about a trial/experimental HG region on Kitely?” Ilan responded, “Stio, it won't work until we make it work. It's not about experimenting it's about making our systems work with something that isn't that well implemented.”
The Kitely Market will enable delivery to HG connected grids before Kitely itself opens to the HG for avatar teleporting in and out. The meeting adjourned at 3 pm pacific.
