Socially|Mundane

As a shopper, I love Xstreet SL. However, as a shopper I hate Xstreet SL. On the other hand as a merchant I love Xstreeet SL. But I also hate Xstreet SL for the extra work is causes me.

You can't live with it and you can't live without it. I won't hold my breath for something better to come along.

As a customer:
Xstreet SL is probably the easiest and fastest way to "shop" for anything Second Life. I didn't say it was easy or fast. Rather it is easier and faster than hunt-shopping on the grid in-world. Thus, making it easiest and fastest, but still really sucking the "hind teat" as far as things go.

As a merchant:
The experience of creating and maintaining a listing is the evil incarnate. I must maintain a separate "inventory" box, jump through the most inefficient web design "dashboard" known to man (okay, known to Second Life merchants) and keep all this stuff synchronized. Additionally, the web interface is inefficient and outright a pain-in-the-royal-ass to use with too many damned clicks here and there and page refreshing. Is there any web-tool worse?

As a customer:
Shopping on XSL is hit or miss. Does it cost less in-world than on XSL? Is the XSL "version" up-to-date with the latest script versions? Is this really all this merchant sells or is there a much larger selection in-world?

As a merchant: I have to box everything (extra work if that's not needed in-world); I have to take a lot of pictures of my stuff (extra work if it's not needed in world); I have to wrack my brain to write a creative, convincing sales pitch to put onto XSL (extra work if it's not needed in-world). Effing XSL sucks, but I have to do it because it's not only a sale outlet, it's advertising.

As a customer:
I face a damned double-edge sword with Xstreet SL because I might be paying more for the same thing than if I buy in-world, I might be getting an old version of the same thing in world, I might not be seeing the perfect product I'm looking for because it's not listed on XSL, but it is for sale in-world.

As a merchant:
I will ignore Xstreet SL at my own peril because such a large potential customer-base will shop there or at least conduct their shopping search through there. The extra work is miserable where I must take and edit pictures of every damned product, even though they aren't required in-world (because my products are rezzed for use and perusal); I must write-up something to convince the browser to actually teleport to my showroom or even less: make that purchase right then and there; I have to maintain two inventories of the same stuff.

As a customer:
I love to hate to love that damned Xstreet SL for all the damned garbage I must filter through to even see the stuff I am interested in, then decide if I am paying more than I need, am getting the current version of something and even if a creator has what I really want, but aren't listing it there.

As a merchant:
I love to hate to love that damned Xstreet SL for all the extra hard work I must do explicitly to list my stuff there even through all that work is unnecessary in-world, so it's really easier to list only my older stuff and get to the new stuff when I am bored out of my head and have absolutely nothing better to do.

I love to hate to love you, XSL. You suck hind-teat¹ . Damn you.