And I thought the Steamlands had DRAMA

Not. Even. Close.

I have a sekrit alt who dips into SL fashion/freebies/hunts from time to time, and so I occasionally add a fashion blog to my RSS reader. (I use Google reader, by the way. If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, a reader can allow you to be aware of any new posts on the blogs you follow by going to one central webpage or application.)

So, I came across Penned Down, by Pennelope Thiessam. It was a small, new, snarky fashion blog meant for a few friends until the behemoth Shopping Cart Disco mentioned it. (Just to be clear: I don’t want anyone to get the mistaken idea that I follow Shopping Cart Disco. The ensuing brouhaha was tweeted about by someone I follow.) Tenshi Vielle called Pennelope classless and not worthy of a link back. Needless to say, traffic to Penned Down went through the roof.

Penned Down is certainly not for everyone. The self-description?

Self Appointed SL Quality Control Coordinator

Welcome to my blog. Beware, entrance is not for the feint of heart. My language is crude, my honesty is blunt, it is almost guaranteed you will be offended. Please proceed.

Something I didn’t know is that there’s a large contingent of SL fashion bloggers who believe strongly that if you don’t have something nice to say you should say nothing at all. Pennelope chose not to play by those rules, and the comments on her posts have been mind-blowing. She also says she’s been banned from several sims. This post asking whether she should post a list of the sims from which she has been banned has an amazing 134 comments as of this writing. Reading only a few comments will give you an idea of the vitriol.

Several sentiments have been repeated and repeated by the commenters on Penned Down and on other blogs that got drawn into the fray (and apparently a lot of drama has been going down on Plurk as well). Some of them just really get my goat, and so I thought I’d reply.

But these designers whose clothing you say negative things about are really nice.
I don’t buy things because the business owner is “nice.” I buy things because I like them or they meet a need.
“This is a lie and you are crazy.” —Ivey Deschanel
I will, however, choose not to patronize a business if the owner is rude, annoying, bigoted, or any number of other things I don’t want to support. I can always do without or find someone else to buy from.
But these designers worked so hard on these things.
And your point? People work far harder on businesses that fail every day. If people (read: potential customers) say something negative about your work, you have two choices: you can decide you don’t care about their business, or you can work harder or create something different in order to attract their business. It’s more pleasant when they give only constructive criticism and do it only privately, but that’s really nothing you can control or should expect.
But I’m selling this for pennies/giving it away!
I consider 50L Fridays (and other group theme events) and hunts advertising, not favors to me. Hunts, especially, are a LOT of work and annoyance for the hunters, with very, very little payoff. If designers put crap in a hunt or make the object extremely difficult to find, they should expect to get a negative reaction. Even if you think of these items and events as loss leaders, they need to have some virtue beyond being free, or you won’t actually be attracting a paying customer. And that is what you want, right?
It’s my sim, and I can ban anyone I want, for any reason.
Are you running a business or not?

And finally. Sn@tch? Really? Really? Someone thought Sn@tch was a good name for a business?

3 Replies to “And I thought the Steamlands had DRAMA”

  1. Hee – I caught a whiff of that, probably from the same Tweet as you did. And I frankly fled without looking too much once I got the gist of the drama.
    I do agree with all your points. To my mind, a hunt or a big sale should be where you put your best foot forward to show new potential customers how awesome your stuff is.
    I almost never hunt, but on those rare occasions I do so, like most I take the items back to my home and commence to opening boxes. The folder contents, including that little LM, stays or goes depending on what was in the box.

  2. Looks like my earlier comment got lost in the aether.

    I was going to say there seems to be many designers in SL who, were they subjected to the same criticisms a RL fashion designer gets, would shrivel and die in a foetal ball. Christine put me onto an occasional guilty pleasure of the “What the Fug?” blog but for the most part I avoid the fashionista blogsphere.

  3. The only reason I’m commenting on this article is because my quote taken out of context is bewildering to me and also to give you a little inside info on what ACTUALLY happened since you are publishing innuendo and gossip. People who are spreading around that this was all over a few simple critical blog posts are either delusional or sadly misinformed. Pennelope was banned for personal reasons long before the SCD post and though I don’t like a lot of things she has said and she has hurt a lot of feelings, I have over and over again commented she has every right to say them, Just as much as I have the right to not want her on my land or near my customers and friends. And I certainly have the right to not want her money. Why you are making insulting comments against me I have no idea. You do not know me and obviously don’t know all the facts regarding this issue. Am I banning you for having an opinion? Absolutely not. That would be ridiculous. And just as a sidenote…the name Sn@tch makes me six figures a year. Now we wait for the onslaught of bashing comments from the peanut gallery since I DARED to speak in regards to the issue. See you in church!

Comments are closed.