you can't mend a bird with a broken wing, no matter how hard you want it to sing

So...this came up from a couple of different directions. And this one's huge--I know I stress over a lot of the little details, but this really is a game-changer, and people are experiencing a lot of emotional swing over this.

First, the problem: merchants who've converted to Direct Delivery are having their listings mangle. Wrong pictures, wrong descriptions, and in some cases, wrong avatar listed as the maker. Big? Big. WAY big, as this image shows.

(And it's worse than I thought--Sera Lok's comment below tells me that this is happening even when Direct Delivery wasn't employed, so...Yeah. This just upgraded from "big" to "showstopper".)

Now, Ms. Vollmar's store apparently is all better now (likely because she was the first to complain), but check out Edie Bouvier's store:

(from the shopping album; linked slightly larger for clarity.)

So, in this image alone, I count one wrong name, one wrong maker, and--if you click that item--an entirely wrong description. That seems to be the only wrong item left, but still, that's pretty dire.

(And yes, I am very neatly sidestepping Ms. Bouvier's copyright infringement; that's a whole other can of virtual worms.)

I checked out another commenter's store. From Lok's Low Prim Furniture comes this:

(from the shopping album, shown slightly larger for clarity again.)

Yep. Even better, when "babett Bailey"'s item is clicked, it goes directly to the front page. Does "babett Bailey" even exist?!

(Apparently yes, but that's not the point--the point is that this is happening at all.)

Let's take another example from the forums, Angelwing. Now, I'm not a member of their group (currently), but I really like Ms. Susanti's stuph. I've literally dodged buying outfits because they clock in at 300 prims, but she does great details, she does beautiful work in silks and fantasy attire, and she's really given her shop space serious thought. I can't fault that.

But apparently the Lindens can:

(from the shopping album)

Yeah. Check out the description on the "Coin" silks and tell me the Lindens aren't maliciously lighting their business on fire, with intent and purpose.

In case that lost some impact, let me show you the entire pic with the description that comes up when you click one of those items:

(from the shopping album)

Yeah. Let that sink in. I really, truly think the last thing any maker of upscale silks and fantasy attire wants is for people to think she's interested even for three seconds in selling a gesture--a male-voiced gesture, at that--that will let her customers tell the world at large that they, too, suck balls.

The hell, Lindens. WTF is wrong with your code?!?

Ms. Vollmar set up a JIRA report on this issue, as she should have; which the Lab is saying relates and/or is trumped by this JIRA, and may in fact relate to this now closed JIRA. My advice? I know, I know, it's more email in the inbox, because Linden Lab sucks at customer accountability, but seriously--this needs to be fixed stat, so I'd just vote for both 4587 and 4588, in the hopes that something will get through their dense as dwarf star matter skulls and they'll actually fix something that's desperately broken instead of, oh, I don't know, inventing a way to play Second Life with their minds, or something.

Because all the gods know, the Lindens are devoted to the next shiny toy--at the expense of all their existing architecture.

But the worst example found tonight is stephanie Leclerc's. I don't even know what her store name is, because the banner on her Marketplace store reads "Better Living by De Adamczyk"! And here's a screen capture of the very first page:

(from the shopping album)

I deliberately set the listings on her store to "list", over large product images. Most of the product images are wrong, true, but in her case, there's not one name on that storefront that's hers. NOT. ONE.

Even worse? When I deliberately search for her name, free of actual storefront addy, I pop up items by Aftershok Ziplon, Lico Bravin, asia Biscuit, octagons Yazimoto, Nyx Bayn, Sixx McMahon, Christopher Meredith, Rogvu Farina, Brandi Streusel, Chatte Ocello, MasterChains Adored--oh, and THAT listing needs to be seen to be appreciated:

(from the shopping album)

The HELL, Lindens. Toss up a big fuss over ageplay being pedophilia, and then you list something like THIS NONSENSE.

And that doesn't even go into the names that aren't hers on the other ten pages of listings that remain.

Just to reassure myself how big this was, I traipsed over to the grouped listings for Dare Designs, Girl Not Included, and The Fooding--among others. Between Dare Munro and Axi Kurmin--and their multiple business operations in Second Life--they've listed literally thousands of items.

And what did I find? Very first page, wrong listings:

(from the shopping album)

Yep. I count Dare Munro, Axi Kurmin, VNP Ninetails, RyanConway Serenity, alexto Rau, Roxanne Hynes, followmeimthe Piedpiper, Rosalynne Writer, Gwen Carillon, and Cristina Sugita on the first three pages alone. What's worse? There's two hundred and thirty-nine pages I didn't check.

This needs to be fixed. This needs to be fixed now. And even more important, Linden Lab will lose customers over this.

I swear to God, they're trying to torpedo their own game. Do they even care at all anymore?!?