So are you still calling Myth#1 a Myth Pink?

"Myth #1:  Linden Lab has plans to release these ideas soon and our feedback means nothing.  This is false.  We recognize that in the past the company made some choices that would indicate a pattern of non-listening.  We are not repeating this pattern here.  We are honestly at the early stages of thinking about how to make the platform, the Grid and the company evolve, and before we come to any of our own opinions we wanted to ask questions and start the dialogue with you. " Pink Linden, November 16th 2009. Source here.

"We've received feedback from our users that the volume of free, cheap (L$ 10 and under) & stale listings in the Xstreet SL Marketplace did not make for an optimal experience for shoppers or merchants.  We looked into this issue, crunched the numbers, and a few weeks ago we held 3 office hours sessions on the topic where we presented the issues & ideas we had and asked our customers to help us determine the best way to deal with this problem.  We've now had a chance to review all of the feedback and suggestions which we have summarized here.  Today we'll present the plan that all of our residents have helped us build." - Colossus Linden, November 18th 2009. Source here.

Now the second quote is the proof of the pudding of the first quote and I'm afraid it's not good reading for Linden Lab, because the second quote is at odds with the feedback of the office hours they are based upon, I know, I attended and the discussion was about freebies and cheapies with Linden Lab suggesting they can't afford to keep supporting them. So how, do Linden Lab, on a discussion on freebies and cheapies come to the conclusion that every merchant on Xstreet wants to pay more to list there? I mean, this wasn't even on the agenda, this L$10 listing fee for all items that aren't freebies was not an agenda item, it was not the purpose of the meeting, it wasn't a secondary point of the meeting, it simply wasn't what the meeting was about, yet that's how Linden Lab are spinning this.

Now let's get something straight here, I don't object to Xstreet saying that a lot of freebies are actually advertising tools and therefore should be treated as advertising tools. However, as was pointed out at the meetings, there are also freebies that are genuine freebies, aimed at helping noobs in many case and then there are demos, for items like skins and hair that are pretty damn useless in their demo form. These issues were raised, but Xstreet staff, in their rush to raise the costs of doing business on Xstreet have ignored these issues.

This has ended up not being about freebies and cheapies, despite that being the point of the meeting, but it has ended up being a simple price increase. As I said previously, there are some decent ideas in the policies Xstreet have made, but they need to be tweaked and are not ready for prime time in their current form. Ignoring the feedback is not a good policy, indeed it's same old same old.

So Pink, as I said on the blogrum, actions speak louder than words and until your actions prove that you guys do actually listen, you are wide of the mark in suggesting that Myth#1 is a myth. The actions on freebies and cheapies prove yet again that you're not listening and if that wasn't bad enough, moving the goalposts with the listing fees for all is a double whammy in terms of you guys not listening.

This all seems to have been a means to engineer a price increase for doing business on Xstreet and nothing more, goodwill is again lost.