Kitely Mentors Group Meeting, 16 Jan 2013: summary

[Dinero Outlander]

The meeting lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes (this summary is highly condensed) and was attended by:
Ilan Tochner
Bladyblue Bommerang
Dinero Outlander
Graham Mills
Inga Wind
Marstol Nitely
mat mahogany
Minethere Always
Ohn Lang
Stiofain MacTomais

Important news, information and announcements:

Ilan stated that people have made various requests for the forums and that Kitely will be looking into them. Those requests that can be implemented in a short amount of time will be implemented in the next few days. For example, Liking of forums posts has been implemented and will be rolled out sometime next week and so has email notification for offline IMs. He stated that they are also looking into fixing partner indication in profiles and a few other things.

The announcements were met with enthusiastic approval especially by Minethere and Marstol.
Bladyblue commented that through Cloud Party, people on her Facebook friend's list can message her in world, and asked whether that was because Cloud party is a browser-based world.
Ilan replied that It's because they are tightly integrated with Facebook and that this functionality can be implemented in Kitely just the same (in other words they can add that feature if they think it is worth prioritizing).
Bladyblue further commented that she has 800 Facebook friends (mostly SL avatars) that would help her with recruiting people to join Kitely. Several other people stated that they are not Facebook users but think that Facebook users may appreciate such functionality.

Bladyblue stated that she can use that functionality to tell her Facebook friends when she is in her world and ask them to join her. Ilan commented that Kitely had already implemented automatic notice via Facebook and/or Twitter when you visit a world but decided not to enable it at the time.

Ilan then asked, what people thought about such a (configurable on/off) feature and whether they would enable a feature that would post in their FB feed everytime they entered a world. Most of the attending people, being non FaceBook users were indifferent, those who are Facebook were in support of the proposal.
Ilan stated that if/when they enable this feature they will probably make it an option to be able to post without posting about Adult worlds.

Ilan asked whether someone would view this option in a negative way, i.e. the mere fact that Kitely has it will somehow be a “Bad Thing (tm)”. Bladyblue and Dinero replied that they think Facebook/Twitter users would embrace it, to which most agreed and Graham added that Twitter is popular with educators providing a good opportunity for future Kitely growth.

Ilan concluded discussion of this issue by stating that he’ll discuss it with Oren Hurvitz, Kitely’s VP R&D. (editorial comment: Ilan updates that Facebook has changed their APIs since Kitely implemented this feature so enabling it will require Kitely to do a substantial amount of work that is can’t justify prioritizing before the Marketplace is rolled out).

Ilan continued and stated that “As you may know our upcoming marketplace will include various search options not available on SL marketplace. A category describes what the object is an attribute descries a feature of the object, such as its color, the gender of the person it is designed for, etc. I'd like to discuss some of the values we have planned with some of the attributes”.
At this point Bladyblue asked whether there has been an effort to entice the existing SL merchants to place their collections in the Kitely Marketplace before it launches. Ilan replied that they are trying to do so but as of yet only a handful have started using Second Inventory to move their content from SL to Ktiely.
There was a proposal that there should be a commission-paid Marketplace manager, this idea received little to no comment.

A further proposal was also proffered that the existing “Big Name” SL merchants get free access to Worlds, or free stores in a special location and some special mention in the Marketplace, along with the title of Gold Star Kitely Merchant or something similar. This proposal was met by resistance from most of the attendees some chose not to comment on this or suggested less indulgent courses of action.

Ilan pointed out that there was a similar but not free program in place already for the marketplace. "A Big Name can get a sponsored Gold-like account for 4 months if they have a lot of content in our marketplace ready for the opening." and that "One of the big benefits of our marketplace is that once they list something it is fire and forget. Money earned just gets deposited into their PayPal accounts. No need to convert currencies or wait days." (Editorial comment: Ilan updates that the Gold-like sponsored plan is off the table but that qualifying merchants will get access to a shared sandbox always-on free-access world for the period before the marketplace opens so they’ll be able to move content into Kitely with ease, see early bird promotion link below).

Bladyblue further stated that it has to be something Kitely can afford to give to them for a much longer time because the marketplace won’t be vital within 4 months. She continued by stating that most of the time, those folks just want to be treated special and that she believes that they should get some sort of permanent "Olbie" discount or special treatment. At this point the discussion about the merits and problems of having some preferential treatment for Big Names, and the criteria for choosing them, became the focus of the rest of the meeting.

Summarized list of Pros and Cons of VIP status in the Marketplace, as suggested by attendees:

Pros Of Preferential Treatment:

A successful alignment with already successful designers/creators known for quality and good appearance would occur.
In one's opinion, successful merchants no longer care about 'In-world shops" only a marketplace.
A larger quantity of better quality products, than are currently available in Kitely.
Kitely members would benefit from an increased quantity of skilled creators.
Larger sales on Marketplace increases income for Kitely through the Fees and commissions.
Established merchants have experience in customer support.
Established merchants have experience in predicting, meeting with the ebbs and flows of customers desires needs and wants.
Good sales in a marketplace environment could entice expanding to '"inworld" stores.
One suggested that they have greater faith in established merchants being, more honest, reliable and accessible.

Cons Of Preferential Treatment:

Suggested that other grids offer discounts to preferred merchants, not carte blanche or lifetime benefits.
It was stated that there are VIPs and then there are free loaders.
Merchants who make all of their sales in the Market place only, are not encouraged to provide "inworld" services, or provide employment opportunities for residents.
Existing Kitely residents may possibly be offended by better treatment for new residents.
A special title for larger merchants could imply, that they are Kitely endorsed, or preferred over other residents and merchants.
A special title for larger merchants could imply, that their products/services are better than other's products/services.
Income that Kitely could have incurred the company won’t by giving long term discounts, free grace periods etc., and this will be at the cost of future capital for expansion.

Pros Of Not Giving Preferential Treatment:

Newer merchants and existing Kitely residents would have a more even playing field to successfully compete.
It was suggested by one that people can simply search for who they like, special treatment only feeds their pocket books and vanities of the larger merchants at the cost of the smaller merchants trying to compete.

Cons Of Not Giving Preferential Treatment:

Slow growing marketplace with less content.

Summary information and announcements from the course of the meeting:

Any builders, scripters, designers, animators et cetera, interested in having a Kitely store in the marketplace can contact Ilan directly by email (or via a personal message in Kitely’s support forums).
For any of the same that prefer a direct instant message or chat dialog Ilan has Skype and will provide the contact info if asked in a private message.

Ilan Tochner: "When you create a new listing in the Markteplace there is a fee (100KC) when you add another variation to an existing Marketplace entry there is a fee (25KC). There will be a discount for entries created before the marketplace opens."

Kitely Promotional video on Daniel Voyager’s Blog http://danielvoyager.wordpress.com/2013 ... mment-6871

Tentatively proposed a Kitely Owned mall open 24/7 which is free for all users. Kitely merchants with the best sales and service records would be able to rent stores, which would initially be free for some period of time. Top Merchants to be in a lottery pool for the stores.

Important links for intended content providers:
Sandbox exclusively for the Kitely Merchant’s group membership.
http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Ila ... ts-Sandbox

Finalized preferred Marketplace content providers incentives.
http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-new ... promotion/

[Ilan Tochner]

Thank you for agreeing to write the notes Dinero. You did a great job summarizing the long meeting we had

[Ohn Lang]

Fabulous summation Dinero. TY so much!

[Danko Whitfield]

If Kitely does "enable a feature that would post in their FB feed everytime they entered a world" without it being an option, I would strongly object. I don't want to "announce" my travels within Kitely to the outside world in an automatic fashion nor do I want to receive notices on my FB page about where my FB Friends are in Kitely.

I hope it is an option that needs to be activated rather than deactivated and I hope it is announced in the fullest way when it is added so I can be on the alert to make sure the option is 'off' on my account.

If it is presented as an option, I can certainly deal with that (and I will!) but if it were presented without the option, it would definitely be a mark against Kitely for me and I know I would not be alone.

Many people 'love' their FB page and its uses, I understand this, but some of us think of FB as a necessary evil
I don't think Kitely should go overboard in aligning itself with FB. I would point to Cloud Party's recent decision to go beyond FB-only logins and the positive reaction it received in the virtual blogosphere both from bloggers and commenters who said the FB-connection had been the only thing keeping them from trying CP.

Thanks.

[Dinero Outlander]

Thanks ever somuch Ilan, and Ohn.

Danko Whitfield "If it is presented as an option, I can certainly deal with that (and I will!) but if it were presented without the option, it would definitely be a mark against Kitely for me and I know I would not be alone."

The Facebook/Twitter options were obsensibly proposed as a setting that is "OFF" by default but a user could toggle "ON", I hope that helps allay your concerns.
I personnally DO NOT use any social media whasoever. There is no FB or Twiter account to even setup for the opton.
Virtual Worlds are as close as I come.

I am sending a paste of that porton of the meeting, to your forum PM. Really hope ya don'tmind.
If anyone that did not / could not attend would like a complete copy of the meetng, PM me an email addie to send to.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Danko,

When we eventually enable the social media posting feature you will be notified that you now have the option to enable it. If you don't intentionally enable it then it will remain disabled for your account.

[Dot Macchi]

Thanks for the reassurance re. Facebook etc., Ilan. I had similar reservations to Danko when I read that.

By the way, Dinero, thank you for the summary. A lot of work went into that!

[Adagio Greenwood]

Yes, I agree with that suggested FB change being an undesirable one in my mind; thank goodness it would be "off" by default. The only reason I am Adagio Greenwood on FB and hence on Kitely is that my kids created that account when they got tired of me not being able to get their feeds (now, of course, there are times when they are sorry they dragged me into FB )

Adagio

[Danko Whitfield]

Thank you Ilan. I was not panicking above as I know you guys think these things through thoroughly, which is one of the things I like about Kitely. And I do realize features that cater to FB users make sense. I just wanted to get my two cents in there as it was noted in the minutes that no one spoke in opposition. I would like to see the option in the settings page so that I am not even asked the question in a popup window when I enter a world.

I have noticed that Kitely is very good about making features like this optional and I want to applaud that...no, I want to give it a standing ovation! I realize it is extra work when things are made optional but please do know it is very much appreciated.

Thank you Dinero for sending me the transcript of that part of the meeting. That was above and beyond the call of duty. It was helpful to read it. And thanks for doing the minutes as it is a help to those of us who could not be there but are interested in the issues that come up.

[Ilan Tochner]

Thank you for your feedback Danko, it will be taken into consideration.