RUTHED

Here’s a story for all of you. Once upon a time, around 2004, in stumbled a large avie who had no lindens, no newbie manual, and lot of prims and texture skills to waste.

So said avatar made her own clothes, then her own skin, out of old sketches she had laying around. Then said avatar went to make her own hair, because the hair she had bought from the few stores in SL were attachments like pigtails, ponytails, dreadlocks, some textured in grayscale hair textures, some textured in wood, always black. This avatar got bored and wanted some close to her hair in RL.

So she made her own texture, made a shoulder length hairstyle, made a short bob, made bangs etc. She had about 4 styles when she opened her store. All black hair, mod/transfer/no copy.

Customers came in (to her surprise) but then they began to give feedback. Not all favourable. Hair was too big, “no copy” makes them afraid to modify. So the hair maker made her shape smaller, repackaged the hair to that smaller size, she made the attachments modify/copy/no transfer. And made more hair.

More feedback came in, people were tired of black hair, the designer then made new textures, at first a white and blonde one, figuring it would be the best base colour that can be tinted easily to other colours (less clutter in inventory too). She still had difficulty matching the default hair to the prim hair though. And when an update to the SL viewer made the alpha textures even more horrid on top of one another, the designer nearly threw up her hands in exasperation. Until she had an idea and began to cover her bald head with solid hair textured prims.  She ran with that idea. The store was good. Hair became even more fun.

Now people will jump in, prolly older or old as me to say, no they did it first. And I don’t really care. Never said she created prim hair, nor would she dare make that claim. Honestly, who does that? But if you were around in 2004 with 300 black prims on your head, can you really say you made it marketable? I’ll say that designer made the “all prim hair/make your head bald” thing work. How? By personally going through the customer service of re-training people’s thinking and convincing them it’s okay to be bald; writing notes on how to bald oneself step by step; creating manuals on how to modify prim hair and colourize it. I love how people took those notecards and regurgitated them on their blogs without crediting her for it too. Seriously, I do. Cuz when one kinda spearheads a hair-revolution, one gets flack for it. Suddenly the critiques were about the 40-50 torus prims the hair had were too primmy, or only clueless lag-inducers wore it. I didn’t know if the comments pertained to the designer or the customers, or whoever it was referred to — we just let it slide. The hair designer’s marketing slogan soon became: “Own It.” Thanks for the idea.

That person bowed out of the business a long time ago. But I think the trend started still remains. What was made back in the day pales in comparison to what is out now. But looking back, listening to people made that SL business relevant. Even if it was just for a blip of a SL millisecond. A little designer can look back and say she made a fairly significant difference to the way things were done. It was a good ride.

The moral of this is … listening to feedback helps. Especially the ones that keep you humble and remembering that you still haven’t achieved perfection. If I slouched back every time someone said something critical about my work, I would’ve never made an honest effort to improve it. Swallowing pride and honouring those comments helped me through a financially difficult time in my life. There were times that the critiques felt over the top like the accusation that posting a seemingly overtly sexualized ad for hair, was objectifying women and setting back the movement, which incited angry and defensive reactions, but in the end, resulted in a more mindful of the way advertising things.

Criticism is subjective, but it doesn’t mean it’s without merit. A lot of people still go for the brunette hair in SL, but does that mean designers should just stick to that colour and not offer other colours? A gripe about the lack of variety provided the plethora of fatpacks offered today. If we all decided not to accommodate other people, we wouldn’t be as far as we are in SL fashion as we are now.

Somewhere along the way, SL business tactics have gotten more combative. I don’t agree with the practice, becuz if a sales lady in RL gave me lip over a faulty garment I purchased, she’d be out of a job. I don’t understand how the principles of cordial business behaviour suddenly don’t apply in SL. If people are going out of their way to create realistic shopping environments in a virtual world, why can’t they apply realistic professional behaviour when it comes to business relations? Or are they just envisioning the melodrama of the fashion designers in RL and thinking it’s kosher to be combative with critical customers and reviewers alike?

Honestly, I don’t like those RL designers with the Diva-complex. So why would I support that mentality from SL designers?

I guess it’s preference. Some people design for the sport of it, for money. Some do it for the attention that comes from the profession. One takes feedback as an honest challenge to do better. Another one just wants praise, be it blind, deserved, or not.

I guess what I’m trying to address here is, for the designers out there … if someone complains about your product, do you just dismiss them as some lowlife who hasn’t been enlightened by your awesome skills? Why? What’s the harm in investigating? Look at what they’re looking. Find out where the flaw truly is. Is it their bad or yours? Sitting back on your chair, scrambling for friends to pat you on the back, and brushing off the complaint is stupid, unproductive, and cocky.

Yeah, I’m telling you you’re acting stupid. If you can’t handle the negatives of conducting business then you’re not worth shopping at.

Real money making should deserve some real professionalism. I’m sick of the mentality that people who try to market things to the SL public are untouchable. The economy isn’t what it used to be, so if I’m going to spend RL dollars on virtual wares, they better be worth it. Anything less is inconsiderate and in denial of the greater reality.

And as for the customers, you need to speak up. A designer who truly cares about the work they put out there won’t stand for a constant stream of hot air blown up their ass. Be honest. If it ain’t working, it ain’t working. The best that can happen is you finally get something you enjoy using. The worst is you stop shopping there.

Anyhoo, Viva SL Fashion. :P

There was an entry several posts down that I really felt for. I’m talking about the Stalker post. We know, seen, and heard about all the primpeepee-runners and skirt-chasers in SL. But these are all the tolerable setbacks of the cavemen-personas who populate SL. They’re gnats we can bat out of our way and go on with our SL days.

Aside from the occasional accusation of stalkery that sometimes stem from team-hysterics, how often do we really talk about the truly demented types in SL? And what did they exactly do to invade our little SL bubble? This isn’t the average “they said, we said thing, big mess, big noise, done by next Tuesday” thing. This is the kind who don’t back away after snarling at them to keep their distance. Where you hear rumbles about them but it goes away due to some serious PR-control. I’m talking about the screwed up personalities who upchuck their venom of twistedness on unsuspecting people, ensuring that if they can’t manipulate or inflict some control on others in RL, they can try and exert it on folks in SL.

Honestly, we all operate with this sense of a security blanket: “As long as we’re encountering these people online, we’re okay. We’re safe.”

Well, at the risk of sounding paranoid and fear-mongering, I’m going to burst your bubbles and say, sorry sweeties, you’re not entirely safe. Don’t assume the sociable stranger chatting you up at a live musician event is right in the head. Or the guy with the cute profile pic who IMs you randomly praising you for this and that is just friendly.

For starters, those who have their SL names plastered on Flickr, Plurk, Facebook, etc accounts, you’re already exposing yourself to get random IMs. I admit I have one of these accounts and I tell you, one was already enough. The moment my account gained more visibility, the more IMs I received in SL. Really weird IMs like “Hi, beautiful” Or just the unspoken friend offering that I would automatically turn down only to get an aggressively emo IM saying: “You don’t want to be friends??? Why you gotta be like that?”

And this is where I get pissed off. Becuz stalkers, have this sense of entitlement. They think they should be your friend and by not wanting to get to know them, you’re suddenly a mean person and hurting their feelings. They put the pressure on you, manipulating your emotions to feel empathy and make you be more sociable online than you’d be in person. I HATE THAT. And I hope most of you don’t fall for that bullshit.

Realize this, a stalker has been watching you for awhile. They have your whole story (and when I say “your” it’s you and him/her) made up already in their head. While you might be encountering them for the first time, in their head, they’ve had this conversation with you forever. So if they start asking, why, how could you, what did I do wrong?, etc, at the slightest whiff of rejection, there’s your sign. Restraining order, mafia friends, whatever. Get rid of that. ASAP.

I’m telling you it’s effed up. The best thing to do … don’t talk to anyone LOL. I know that’s extreme but in addition to what I mentioned above, here’s some flags that could tip you off:

1. Unusual closeness. — How often is it that we will meet our soulmate or meet a kindred spirit? Don’t kid yourself. It’s pretty damn rare. As rare as our individual DNA’s. So the chances of meeting someone who can relate to everything you mention is highly unlikely. There’s something weird about having a conversation with someone who’s too agreeable or praising for the mundane details of your small talk. Talking to you with a flair of familiarity that is a lil unnatural. Only long lost identical twins make headlines with this kismet connection. Not some schmuck in his underwear hacking at his keyboard while he eyeballs your avatar.

2. Too eager, clingy. — A healthy individual can stand on their own. Constant offline IMs, TPing to you the moment you log in (no mapping rights FTW), and this pushy need-to-know-everything is suffocating and just not right. If they are spouting nonsense of love, relationships, trying to jump on your poor avie’s bones without any preamble, and this is only the second time you’ve chatted them up. Seriously, you’re not that irresistible. That eagerness is coming from a deranged place. Especially if you’ve done nothing to invoke that kind of response. Chatting with someone doesn’t mean it will lead to anything erotic or romantic, but these folks don’t get that. Already, you saying “what’s up?” is foreplay to them.

3. Admitting to conflicts in the past — sort of. It’s the commonly joked about observation in SL … the ones who have “NO DRAMA PLEAZ” or any overtly anti-drama sentiment in their profiles usually indicate that they’ve been in one heck of a mess before. The stalkery types will usually admit to having conflicts with previous folks, but not go into great details, only to say the other person went apeshit. Like they were blameless in the drama. I can almost guarantee that’s not the case. We all have flaws that we don’t like to broadcast to people, but it’s another thing when the person goes out of the way to make others look bad and in turn make themselves appear almost victimized in the situation. Hey unless, it’s like, their ex held them hostage ala-Misery style well then, duh. But the jist of a stalker’s portrayal as the blameless one is that they are trying to impose an impression. To stroke your empathy and lower your guard around them.

4. Not taking no for an answer. — It’s like what I said earlier, if you try to keep your distance, they make you out to be the bad guy. But don’t waver in your decision. Whatever debate they bring up is coming from a place in their head where they think you already belong to them. Don’t entertain it. Mute. And I know some of you take a while to mute. Cuz you have to know what they are saying, but it’s only opening up the opportunity for them to get you to take the bait and talk to them. These folks can actually be quite manipulative and persuasive. So mute. Ignorance is bliss. Be grateful it’s as simple as that sometimes. And here’s another thing, just becuz we are all online doesn’t mean we have to suddenly forego our sense of personal space. Any guy or girl who tries to grope me or my man in RL is getting impaled by my stilletto. That applies in SL too. Those ~smiles and kisses~ emotes really annoy the piss outta me. ~Kisses hugs~friend offers~ back off dude you don’t know me. Folks, you’re not impolite when you tell them grabby pervs to get the hell away from you.

5. Overly sexual, dramatic, extreme, attention-whoring. — You know it’s like, there you are talking casually then the person suddenly lays it on thick like emoting kisses, undressing their avie, or going down a hate-the-world spiral, becoming really down on themself, and whatever odd little shit to supposedly entice some reaction from you. And it’s so out of context. Like there was nothing leading up to that kind of behaviour. It’s akin to being in a coffee shop talking to some guy about java beans and then suddenly he bangs his head into your crotch. Like wtf? And please don’t flatter yourself thinking, omg my avie is so hot they can’t help themself. I think you’re all fabulous but yeah, pride is a drug. :P And then there’s the dramabonanza spectacles. Threatening to either slit their wrists or cursing the world for its flaws. (Like whoa, the world, society, life is flawed? Like that’s so like deep. Err. Am I supposed to be enlightened? How bout yeah, get over it and yourself?) Try to calm them down, you’re accused of not understanding them. Try to get them to talk, they get all withdrawn as if they’ve got a pandora’s box of information to give to you. You’re just not doing enough to get through to them. Don’t make it a burden. You’re not a therapist. These theatrics are usually done to get you to put some kind of attention on them. Sometimes to extract overt concern, protectiveness. It’s needy, manipulative. And way too easy to get sucked into. And for them, it will never be enough.

I can go on and on, but I’m just speaking from my observations. I have to say it’s a scary situation to be in. This’s coming from someone who’s proud to be paranoid. A wise man once told me it just meant I was more aware. Anyhoo, SL Pepper spray, anyone? o.o