inKLine Media

News spread around the merchant and commerce circles yesterday after Linden Lab announced it would retire Magic Boxes by April 2nd as part of its switch to Direct Delivery.

Merchants have lodged numerous criticisms over the Direct Delivery system since its debut, but those have subsided as LL worked out the bugs over time.

“I have been using the new system for quite awhile now to advertise my properties,” said Joy Canadeo, the owner of Norris Point Estates, “and I  find it much easier to use than the Magic Boxes”

Yesterday, any merchant with an item listed using a Magic Box was informed via e-mail of the development.  The announcement seemed to cause few ripples, since many saw this coming since Direct Delivery’s launch last year.

“I changed over yesterday,” said Heavenly Villa, the owner of L’aize Dayz. “I got an error message, but it seemed to work ok.”

“In order to keep listings that are currently using the Magic Boxes active,” said a posting by Commerce Team Linden, “you will need to convert them to the Direct Delivery system.”

The final switch to direct delivery will unfold as follows according to the posting:

Important dates for this plan:

• April 2, 2013:
  • Merchants will no longer be able to list unlimited-quantity items for L$10 or less using Magic Boxes.
  • Any active, unlimited-quantity listings for L$10 or less using Magic Boxes will be unlisted.
• April 16, 2013:
  • Merchants will no longer be able to list unlimited-quantity items using Magic Boxes, regardless of price.
  • Any remaining active, unlimited-quantity listings using Magic Boxes will be unlisted, regardless of price.

While residents have until those dates to switch over any Magic Box listed objects, the posting suggested that merchants should start preparing to make the switch now.

To read the full posting, click here.

UPDATE: While the immediate impact of the phasing out of Magic Boxes seemed relatively calm, the Commerce Linden comment forum is starting to fill up with complaints, according to namssab1nad Piers, owner of Lumiere Lighting.

“The merchant forums have a lot of people pissed off over getting rid of Magic Boxes and problems moving stuff over,” said Piers.  “This is going to hurt a lot of people.”