Should Second Life Fashion Bloggers Adopt “News Style” Writing?

July 2nd, 2010 Posted in Bitch Please, Lizzie, Op-Ed
8 Comments »

News style (also journalistic style or news writing style) is the prose style used for news reporting in media such as newspapers, radio and television. News style encompasses not only vocabulary and sentence structure, but also the way in which stories present the information in terms of relative importance, tone, and intended audience.

News writing attempts to answer all the basic questions about any particular event – who, what, when, where and why (the Five Ws) and also often how – at the opening of the article. This form of structure is sometimes called the “inverted pyramid,” to refer to the decreasing importance of information in subsequent paragraphs. -

News stories also contain at least one of the following important characteristics relative to the intended audience: proximity, prominence, timeliness, human interest, oddity, or consequence.

Journalistic prose is explicit and precise, and tries not to rely on jargon. As a rule, journalists will not use a long word when a short one will do. They use subject-verb-object construction and vivid, active prose (see Grammar). They offer anecdotes, examples and metaphors, and they rarely depend on colorless generalizations or abstract ideas. News writers try to avoid using the same word more than once in a paragraph (sometimes called an “echo” or “word mirror”). – Source Wikipedia.

I WUZ JUS INFORMD DAT SECOND LIFE FASHION BLOGGERS SHUD BE WRITIN IN MUTCH MOAR PROFESHUNAL MANNR. NO USE OV SLANG OR ABBREVIASHUNS R APPROPRIATE 4 USE IN DIS LOFTY PROFESHUN. I SAY PULL TEH STICK OUT OV UR ASS AN LIGHTEN UP PEEPS. DIS AR TEH 4 FUN – Y MAK IT ALL SERIOUS. 4 SUM BLOGGIN IZ BOUT HAVIN CERTAIN STYLE AN IF DAT STYLE IZ FULL OV SLANG AN COLLOQUILISMS DAT SO BE IT. WHEN TEH NYTIMEZ CONTACTS ME AN ASKZ ME 2 BLOG PROFESHUNALLY 4 THEM, DEN IM GONNA BECOME MOAR, LULZ, “PROFESHUNAL”. TIL DEN JUS CLOSE TEH PAEG U R HATIN ON AN PROCED 2 TEH NEXT BLOG.

Hey Blog Critics perhaps you should make yourself familiar with the concept of Gonzo Journalism before snubbing your nose at certain bloggers. And if you don’t know what that is perhaps you should google it (nice use of colloquialism there).   For me in particular I make grammar mistakes all the time.  I misspell words all the time.  I may even leave out a word or two as well.  My use of punctuation SUCKS!  But guess what?  I have a bachelors degree and have completed coursework on the masters level in Social Work.  I ain’t a dummy but I do make mistakes. I am tired of people in fashion trying to impose standards in regards to what is a good blog:  This uppitiness ranges from criticizing their grammar to deleting their blog from a feed because their pictures aren’t good enough.  For god’s sake why add them in the first place?  Lighten up folks – end this virtual snobbery now!  Okay end of rant.

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Bully for you – The Anti Bully Campaign in Second Life

April 6th, 2010 Posted in Lizzie, Musings
1 Comment »

I have been thinking about the concept of bullies in second life.  For two reasons:  1.  the upcoming pink shirt day and 2.  A recent comment I made on SCD which resulted in couple people lashing out at me for what ever issues they have with me personally.  So I decided to do a bit of research into what exactly a bully is.  I researched article, after article, after article and its appears bullying can be summarized as follows:

  • Bullying is about repeated abuse of an individual or group over a period of time
  • Bullying is about power, perceived or real, meaning that the target is perceived as an outsider or less than powerful than the dominant group:  We are going to bully you into submission to make ourselves feel better.
  • Bullying is about social isolation:  We need to run this person out of realm, our world etc and make sure that no one will be friends with this person.
  • It is about spreading gossip about the person, threatening others who wish to socialize with this person, publicly humiliating this person and so on. – Don’t you dare be friends with this person or I hate this person so I refuse to wear whatever they buy etc etc
  • It is more than just an angry outburst its repeatedly attempting to make this person feel less than, uncomfortable and unwanted.
  • It involves mocking, arguing others into submission, even spreading lies and false gossip.

And what about the bully themselves.  What common traits do they seem to possess.  Well my friends here is what I have found out:

  • They tend to be authoritarian with need to control those around them either passively or more directly.  They can be described as control freaks.
  • They appear on the surface to possess arrogance and narcissism or display an overabundance of shame and anxiety.  Either way the bullying gives them a sense of empowerment.
  • They tend to be highly opinionated characterized with displays of superiority.
  • They appear to possess a Jekyll and Hyde nature meaning charming in public whereas in private, aggressive and vindictive
  • There is an excessive use of charm almost to the point of appearing superficial and glib.  They can be described as smooth, fawning and sycophantic.
  • They target those they feel threatened by in an effort to uplift their own weak sense of self.
  • They may event attempt to  portray themselves as the victim and rarely the perpetrator
  • Often times, the bully has also been bullied and has yet to fully process what has happened to them.

For me personally I have been accused of being a bully.  And have I?  Yes I may have.  I have gotten so angry at a couple people in my second life and revealed things they should not have been revealed.  And for me personally I have come to see this side of me in the context of virtual living and have made a conscious effort to work on it.  I allowed my anger to control my choices vs. looking at it from the context of potential abuse.  Just because someone treats you like crap doesn’t make it okay for you to lash out and publicly humiliate someone even if the story is true.

But what bothers me about this use of the word bully in the context of SL is it seems to be used more as a tool of social control vs actual concern for a target.  It is used as a way to make a person be quiet rather than to respect them as an individual who has a need to express his or her opinion in whatever manner they choose.  If someone says something perceived as controversial or negative the best way to shut them these days seems to involve calling them a bully.  Please keep in mind I am referring to plurks, posts or opinions that are general in nature – not say a post about some sort of butthurt at the hands of some specific person.

I also am bothered by the promotion of this anti bullying day in second life.  I just worry that some people will jump on the band wagon out of a need to look good vs being concerned with the actual issues at hand.  This anti bullying day was not started to wage a war against bullying in second life but to help protect school children from harassment and intimidation.  This day is meant for real life action and support not for a virtual get together. And frankly some of the people involved are less than admired and may in actuality be viewed as bullies themselves.

I do commend those that believe in this day but instead of some in world passing of pink shirts I challenge you to move your efforts and actions to real life.  But if you choose to keep it in context of SL, why not take a moment to really think about the actions and behaviors of your peers.  And if you really feel as though someone is exhibiting the behaviors of a bully, take a private stand and discuss their behaviors with them.  And for god sakes, don’t plurk or blog it.  This will only create a defense mechanism you may not be able to overcome.

Okay enough said, the bully has spoken.  This is just my two cents folks – love me or hate me I am not afraid to say I feel.  Ciao!

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Hi My name is Lizzie and I am a Drama Llama

March 7th, 2010 Posted in Lizzie, Op-Ed
4 Comments »

On my previous post someone left a comment critiquing my opinions.  And let me tell you all a little secret – I actually enjoy it when someone leaves a well thought out critique of my writing and opinions because I love debate.  I have immense respect for people who aren’t afraid to express their thoughts and feelings even if it is in opposition to something I have written.  Well I take that back, I don’t like it if they are just doing it to be an asshat and believe my friends this was not the case with this commenter.  So I left a comment but I thought, “hey why not right another post because more people may read it, YAY.”  Folks I am a Leo and I like being noticed, ha.   So here we go……..

Hello Second Life, my name is Elizabeth and I am a drama addict.  I truly am a certified Drama LLama and I where that badge proudly! As pointed out by the commenter, I fully admit I leave SL more often than some characters on soap operas, LOL, but unfortunately I don’t come back as some hot 21 year old who was sent to Europe for boarding school.   Its simple I get annoyed with myself when I let a virtual environment upset me too much so I go.  But then I miss it and come back – yes I am a hypocrite LOL.  Also I am not afraid to admit I like to read and even write about drama because I think that more often than not what one person thinks is “drama” is actually another person expressing an opposing point of view.  Some people do it to create an environment of negativity for another person or a group or even a product, some people write about it just to say what irks them about this great world known as Second Life.

One point of my post was to say there are a lot of bloggers out there who really don’t even bother to try and make their look appear different in a skin from say the next blogger on the feed in the same exact skin.  Very few actually try and create a “character” with their avatar or to try and find one thing that makes them stand out from the crowd.  For example, Puma Jie, Gogo, Vega, Uma, Gidge, Cajsa and even Tenshi are very recognizable because they have taken the time to make their avatar look unique.

And it regards to “my supporters” in reality they are my friends and I would equally support them as well.  My point of discussing the suck ups on plurk is that there are a few in this fashion community who take all this fame too seriously and feel the need to suck up for acceptance.  I wont be friends with someone who is merely around to hitch a ride on my accomplishments.  I really feel as though I am a misfit in SL and maybe some of my so called supporters feel this way too. And if feel the need for attention, I say I need attention, LOL.  And actually the commenter reminds me of my friends cause they see when Lizzie is being a hypocrite or about to push publish on a post that will only do me more harm than good and aren’t afraid to call me out on it. Lets face it, we are all hypocrites – from time to time we say and do things that we dislike that others do.  And yeah it sucks but that’s just the way it is I guess.

And regardless of the critics or people out their who like to use my words for fodder, I am going to continue to talk about the things I like and I don’t like cause this world ain’t all unicorns and rainbows but I believe I do it with balance. I am just as likely to point the beauty of SL as much as the ugly.  Okay I think I have said enough.

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Is it me?

March 5th, 2010 Posted in Lizzie, Op-Ed
17 Comments »

Is it me or do you feel like way too many avatars featured on the feeds look like a bunch of clones including some “big name bloggers”.

Is it me or do you wonder if some of these second life SLebrities that do nothing but create a blog/plurk prom queen or king persona are people trying to compensate for not sitting at the cool kids table in high school.

Is it me or do you get a bit sick to your stomach when you see someone on plurk post a pic of their mug that looks like half of the other bloggers on the feeds and see a million suck ups saying “OMG YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL”.

Is it me or do you find it pathetic the way some women fall over each other trying to get the attention of some of these males on plurk.

Is it me or when you see some people brag about how wonderful their RL is on plurk, do you think they are full of shit?

Is it me or do you get a bit weirded out when people talk about how hot your avatar is, seeing how it is just a cartoon.

Is it me or do you actually fear Internet fame cause it seems like the beginning of the road to Loserville.

Is it me or do you get annoyed when people actually think they can separate their RL from their SL.

Is it me or do you get annoyed with people who actually believe that some people in SL are cooler or more popular than others and that they want to be accepted or close to them for this fact only?  FFS they are dolts behind a computer just like you and I.

Is it me or do you get annoyed with some of these plurkers who tend to blame all the negativity and drama on plurk on people who are not a member of their fashion inner circle.

Is it me or are you a bit sick and tired of hearing that if one plurks or blogs things that irritate them or make them angry that they are labeled “negative” or expressing their “true character”.  Aren’t we allowed to get pissed off now and then? LOL.

Now don’t get me wrong I do think there are people in SL who are genuinely loved, admired  and “popular” because they really are nice people (*cough* Gidge, Cajsa, Gogo, Kess, Mouse, Pumpkin, Wilma).  And for me these people tend to be the most open about themselves and are quick to admit their real world beautiful geekiness, LOL.

I also think that some of the most unique and interesting avatars are not found on the feeds.  Instead they are lurking around SL just having a good time.

And NONE of the people I refer to in a harsh manner in this post are on my friends list in world or my friends list on plurk, thank you very much LOL.

Am I really the only one who thinks these things cause if I am, I am one super pretentious BITCH, LOL.

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