Forum Marketplace Shutting Down - Monday, October 31st

Yodapollo

Hey, everyone!

A few weeks ago, we announced that we would be making some significant changes to the forums, including shutting down the current forum marketplace.

We now support 3rd party sellers and assets, including templates, on the GameSalad Marketplace. We will be shutting down the forum marketplace on Monday, October 31st, at 9:00AM PST. Everyone currently selling or wishing to conduct business on Marketplace will have until that time to wrap up any details or take them offline.

As promised, sellers and buyers on the forum marketplace are being given at least 48 hours to settle all final business, and submit requests to be included as an official Marketplace seller, before closing down the marketplace forum.

The forum marketplace was always intended as a temporary solution, and the official Marketplace provides a reliable, trustworthy environment for buying and selling assets and templates.

For those who specialize in selling audio, we will have a solution soon within the official Marketplace. It will be in the next major update to Marketplace, and should be coming before the end of the year.

Also, we understand that many people offer services, beyond asset creation, such testing, additional programming support, etc. Services and 3rd Party Tools (i.e., Deep Blue Apps tools, NOT Templates) should be listed under the Jobs forum only.

To be clear, the buying and selling of assets via our forums is prohibited as of Monday. Threads offering goods for sale will be closed and/or deleted.

Thank you for your understanding as we strive to improve the experience and reliability of purchasing assets and templates from other members of the community.

--Yodapollo

Rob2

All seems good, what will be the policy on forum posts with signatures advertising various bits and bobs?

quantumsheep

tenrdrmer

Woot!!! Just in time for my sale to end. LOL Sorry for the shameless plug.

So is the Jobs thing gonna stop showing on the main forum? Cause I think we will just find massive amounts of service listings now for Custom "work" with "work" examples listed of templates they have made.

Wouldn't it be best to make a section of the marketplace where approved sellers can list any services they offer as well? that will fully eliminate the I just started using GameSalad last week but I know enough to work for hire junk. Just a thought. I guess we cant make everyone happy.

wormil

How exactly does the marketplace work?

quantumsheep

tshirtbooth said:
i take it signatures are still allowed

cheers

I'm hoping some rules are set up for those.

For example, Touch Arcade has a limit to just four lines, and no images.

I'd really like that, personally!

QS

tenrdrmer

tshirtbooth said:
i take it signatures are still allowed

cheers

I hope the new Forum has a Signatures Plugin or something so the signatures are not added into peoples quotes requiring that we go through and remove all of the links etc...

tenrdrmer

http://vanillaforums.org/addon/signatures-plugin

Looks like theres a plugin and it seems to have all the features all of us want.

`
"This plugin allows users to attach their own signatures to their posts.

Users can also opt to disable signatures for themselves if they prefer not to see this feature. A third option allows for the selective removal of images from signatures, leaving only the text."
`
Sound perfect if you ask me

David_GryphonsRealm

The reason why is bcuz I know not everyone that sells here is going to make it in the official MP from GS. I like having a good varierity and the prices from the "up n coming" u just can't beat. I've bought very good and polished templates for very low prices. Some even $1 !! I just don't know if this will still be an option with the new GS MP. As I've had a look around over there and templates generally are $30-$40. Well. Good bye marketplace in the forums. I hope u find a good home in Internet forum heaven. Lol.

David

dotsonj23

This all sounds good as long as in the jobs forum people can advertise services for custom art. I know there will be some abuse but for us that buy custom art if you don't allow that it makes it really hard to find those services from people that already know the basic parameters we need for GS. Maybe to stop the inevitable abuse, GS could charge service providers of custom art a small amount to advertise in the jobs forum and also let people rate the quality of the services they get. This would quickly weed out the crap service providers when they have low ratings and at the same time bring in a little cash for GS. I think win/win for everyone even good service providers bc they could build a rep off good ratings. Whatever happens though, if custom art services won't be allowed to be advertised I am going to be irate (not as a seller but as a buyer). Just my two cents.

tenrdrmer

dotsonj23 said:
This all sounds good as long as in the jobs forum people can advertise services for custom art. I know there will be some abuse but for us that buy custom art if you don't allow that it makes it really hard to find those services from people that already know the basic parameters we need for GS. Maybe to stop the inevitable abuse, GS could charge service providers of custom art a small amount to advertise in the jobs forum and also let people rate the quality of the services they get. This would quickly weed out the crap service providers when they have low ratings and at the same time bring in a little cash for GS. I think win/win for everyone even good service providers bc they could build a rep off good ratings. Whatever happens though, if custom art services won't be allowed to be advertised I am going to be irate (not as a seller but as a buyer). Just my two cents.

He specifically said Services should be listed in the Jobs Forum

dotsonj23

tenrdrmer said:
He specifically said Services should be listed in the Jobs Forum

It says "services beyond asset creation" can be advertised in job forum. At best that statement is ambiguous. At worst it indicates no asset creation services advertised in jobs forum, which would include custom art services since that is asset creation services. Who knows what he meant but it warrants clarification and if it means the worst way it could be interpreted I am going to be pissed.

dotsonj23

Yoda, where are the terms of use for art purchased on marketplace. All I see is "all rights reserved" which means without getting a license we can't use at all. I assume we get a commercial royalty free license but I don't see where it says that. Am I just blind? If it's not there it needs to be otherwise no one should be buying anything. But possible I am just blind.

quantumsheep

tenrdrmer said:
http://vanillaforums.org/addon/signatures-plugin

Looks like theres a plugin and it seems to have all the features all of us want.

`
"This plugin allows users to attach their own signatures to their posts.

Users can also opt to disable signatures for themselves if they prefer not to see this feature. A third option allows for the selective removal of images from signatures, leaving only the text."
`
Sound perfect if you ask me

That sounds positively heavenly!

Steverd

While the forums are down, how about a switch to vBulletin software..
Very powerful forum software.. I run a few forums using version 4 of it.

Steve

Braydon_SFX

Looks good

Are they making any other adjustments to the site/forums?

EatingMyHat

I hope that the Marketplace will pick up as well as the forum. I just posted my last template to the forum and sent the Marketplace submission.

UtopianGames

I like the idea of closing the forum but the official marketplace needs to be advertised a lot more judging by our own sales compared to the official marketplace.

I would suggest sending out a newsletter to inform the 75k members about the new marketplace.

We've had 20 quality templates in the official forum for a month now with only 4 sales last time i heard so something isn't working.

Darren.

debugdesign

I still don't get it... if it aint broke don't fix it - If people don't like the marketplace thread, don't go there... why close it???

Photics

UtopianGames said:
We've had 20 quality templates in the official forum for a month now with only 4 sales last time i heard so something isn't working.

Wow, that's bad. It seems like the Marketplace should be more popular than that.

As for signatures... that's an interesting matter... will the new forum have signatures?

Heh, and I'm planning to put my sound files back online this weekend. I'm glad that I'm able to announce it here before the deadline.

Toby

Better get my stuff in quick.... found the link!

applaudmobile

What happens to those of us that provide custom-made music ? This won't be possible to put on the new marketplace since it's custom made to the clients specifications - length, style etc. And will be one-off rather then re-sellable stock audio assets.

Are we going to be allowed to advertise this under jobs?

I will hopefully make some stock music too for the official market place
http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=33963

StormyStudio

Hmm...slightly miffed...I know the marketplace section was a pointless mess...but it still gave us somewhere messy to advertise. I'm happy to see it go...but the new marketplace doesn't seem to running smoothly yet.

I'm still waiting for any sort of email response to my 1st (of many) template submissions for the new marketplace. And I submitted with in days of it first being announced....

@SaladStraightShooter... if you could update us (me) on the status of the marketplace and the new 3rd party content that would be great... its been weeks and weeks and weeks and still no reply.

I've got a (hopefully good) selection of templates I'd love to sell on the new marketplace. In the meantime you can only get them from my site. http://www.stormystudio.com/templates01.html

Things like PaperToss, Point and Click collectables menu, 3d swipe-able room, and more...

Toby

I've just submitted to the email address provided. Fingers crossed.

JohnPapiomitis

debugdesign said:
I still don't get it... if it aint broke don't fix it - If people don't like the marketplace thread, don't go there... why close it???

because other people want to get there stuff shown. Ill come out and say it since no one else seems to want to. WE all know that the old marketplace forum was tshirts and darrens personal advertisments forum and thats it. Take yesterday for example. Every single thread was tshirt and darren. They each bumped like 10 of them. Then when other pople bumped theres so they could be seen they started bumping theres again.

This is a nice way to make sure everyone gets noticed like they should. I dont care who you are, no one or 2 poeple should have the marketplace filled up. I would definetly call it broke.

applaudmobile

@saladstraightshooter - ok thanks, good to know.

quantumsheep

MChewie

I want to give an update to everyone on Marketplace, and address some of the topics that have been brought up.

For everyone that has applied to Marketplace, we have not forgotten you! We approved our first batch of submissions that came in the first day, which was sizable. Those brave first went through the admission process, which has allowed us to catch some issues and make the process smoother for everyone else. As such, everyone who has not heard from us should expect to get a response next week (probably early next week-just to put a little extra pressure on us).

Marketplace has been working on several items simultaneously, and I'm happy to share what the current status/priorities are for us.
1) The top priority is getting new content up and approving new asset creators!
2) Marketing of Marketplace is about to kick in. We'll be doing announcements and taking over a section of our newsletters to let everyone know about new assets.
3) Continued refinement of the underlying technology, which will allow for better searching, shopping, and purchasing. This allows us to bring you
4) Audio assets! We are planning to have audio assets in November (and I'm not shooting for the last day of the month just to slide in and beat the tag). Expect submission guidelines to be released soon, so we're all set with assets when the technology is greenlit.

I'm always interested in ideas around Marketplace, and have been keeping a wishlist of features and content. We're expecting to have some pretty cool additions around themed packs, sound effects, music, and even a special Game Team One (GameSalad's internal game team) pack coming soon that should be fun. And we certainly wouldn't want to charge for that one--it's too much fun to put a price on. So if you have ideas on what would be cool for the store, let us know!

I hope that this helps you understand a little more with where we are-there's a team of people now just focusing on MarketPlace, and they're very excited about the new stuff and focus on getting more assets and better marketing around the project.

Thanks for listening, and I'm really looking forward to impressing you with what we're doing.

-MChewie

tenrdrmer

Mchewie. Any chance of letting Marketplace Approved users List services in the marketplace as well. so we don't have to have any services listed on the forums?

Also would be great if the submit and upload process was easier. Like maybe an online form and upload instead of the .cvs thing and emailing everything

gregr209

The Marketplace forum was a great place. The new GameSalad Marketplace...not so much. I understand the business reason for wanting a cut but losing the Marketplace forum just is going to limit things.

Being able to see the Youtube demos of the templates and screen shots have been very helpful. I don't think the new GameSalad Marketplace allows that. Not sure...I just know that the stuff in the GameSalad Marketplace is expensive and I have pretty much been in and out of it. Plus the level of discussion in the marketplace forum was great as well.

Just my 2 cents. Not that it means anything at all :-)

Greg

Steverd

I will also miss the Marketplace forums, it's ALWAYS the first section I goto when I log on.
What about the old messages, there some great archive stuff there.

Still could use better forum software here like vBulletin....
Steve