LL advertising private businesses in their blog?

[Phorumities]

OMFG who cares if LL promoted a couple of brands in an official blog.

[Tarani Tempest]

Much ado about nothing.

[Phil Deakins]

No Tarani. The Blueberry part was a red herring but Xiola's blog is still an ad - until she, or someone, explains what it is. That's what the thread was about.

[Annie Nova]

How convenient that no one even responded when Blue explained about the giveaway, could be that some people are just too ashamed to admit that they were totally and completely wrong about her? If you respond, I will not answer I refuse to get dragged into this grab your tinfold hat conspiracy thread. Just wanted to put this out there. 

Peace and out.... 

[Tarani Tempest]

25 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

No Tarani. The Blueberry part was a red herring but Xiola's blog is still an ad - until she, or someone, explains what it is. That's what the thread was about.

It has been explained...numerous times.  Blueberry ....if you've not noticed, has also given an explanation as well.

My advice.... for what it's worth: Remove your tinfoil hat, the coast is clear.  

 

 

[Cindy Evanier]

To be fair, there are many reactions on blueberrys post and the actual OP called for LL's explanation 

[Solar Legion]

4 minutes ago, Tarani Tempest said:

It has been explained...numerous times.  Blueberry ....if you've not noticed, has also given an explanation as well.

My advice.... for what it's worth: Remove your tinfoil hat, the coast is clear.  

 

 

You'd have better luck trying to talk sense into a rock.

[Blueberryxx]

30 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

No Tarani. The Blueberry part was a red herring but Xiola's blog is still an ad - until she, or someone, explains what it is. That's what the thread was about.

Phil bless your heart, she wore Neve top, Neve pants, Gos shoes, and a piece I made as an accessory to wrap around your waist. I went to look for the post everyone was talking about, only to see her wearing NOT Blueberry clothing (Love you Neve I am just a bit jealous). Let my wrap around sweaters have their 5 mins of Linden attention in peace. 

[Sandy Schnook]

I know I probably shouldn't chime in.  But seriously, if clothes in a blog from any creator on any site, makes Second Life look like something interesting that someone completely new wants to try, I'm good with it.  More people in SL can only benefit the entire SL economy.

[Tarani Tempest]

1 minute ago, Sandy Schnook said:

I know I probably shouldn't chime in.  But seriously, if clothes in a blog from any creator on any site, makes Second Life look like something interesting that someone completely new wants to try, I'm good with it.  More people in SL can only benefit the entire SL economy.

Bingo! You win stuff

[Love Zhaoying]

Time for..

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

On 9/1/2018 at 5:36 AM, Phil Deakins said:

@Xiola Linden

Xiola Linden just posted a blog which is nothing other than an advertisement for what I assume to be a couple of private SL businesses. One is Uber, and the other is Blueberry main store. Are they private businesses? I hope not because I hope that Linden Lab is not going start using their blog for blatant advertising like that.

Oh, my Sweet Summer Child, Don't you know what a OOTD/LOTD (Outfit of the Day/Look of the Day) picture is?  Not only that, but it is Xiola, well known for shopping.  I've personally referred to her as the "Fashionista of Lindens" since it sometimes it seems she's the only one that doesn't look like she time traveled from a 2006 era sandbox.

On 9/1/2018 at 7:08 AM, Akasha Sternberg said:

Maybe she gave the outfit to Xiola - maybe Xiola bought it...

I do actually like the increasing activity of Lindens  - Dakota posts on the forums, I ran into River in a photo groupchat inworld, Xiola blogs - it makes them more real and not some abstract bot employee... We all do have private lifes and professional lifes (even if your profession is being a home-manager).... Yeah of course they could create alts for that but they shouldn´t have to...

Most likely Xiola bought it, she's mentioned that she shops like we do.

On 9/1/2018 at 7:26 AM, Phil Deakins said:

The thing about Xiola's blog entry is why. Why post it at all? Is she starting another thing like Pic Of The Day? She hasn't said that that's what it's about. To all intents and purposes, it's just Xiola using the official LL blog to say 'look at me', and 'here is where you can buy the clothes if you like what I'm wearing'.

Oh, my Sweet Summer Child, you don't KNOW?  Xiola is a Fashionista.  Pixel Vanity is a thing.  She IS saying look at ME and here's where you can buy the stuff.  But it's Xiola, she shops, a lot at many places.  Practically the first thing I have done upon seeing her is to check out what she's wearing and use the WISHW Hud on her.  Should she only wear things she makes?  Because to fashionistas like me, she's a walking showcase of stuff to take a look at.

On 9/1/2018 at 7:35 AM, Phil Deakins said:

I'm not a shopper, so there's a lot I don't know. But Uber and Blueberry are the ONLY places mentioned where she got the stuff.

Oh, my Sweet Summer Child, this is why you're seeing "FIC" in something that is rather innocent, you don't enough of Girl Fashion World in SL to read the style card.

On 9/1/2018 at 8:02 AM, Skell Dagger said:

The fact that one of the very few Lindens who actually has an interest in current fashion does the same thing... why the hell does it matter? What matters is that one of the biggest 'industries' in Second Life is being used to draw in new users.

Adam & Eve and Nylon Pinkney made early default starter avatars. People fussed about favouritism back then. Strawberry Singh and Winter Jefferson (both well-known bloggers) also feature heavily in Linden advertising, especially so on the Marketplace banners - and again there's fuss about favouritism.

Do we really want to go back to the days when less fashion-savvy Lindens did all the advertising, and we had monstrosities like the one below 'showcasing' what was possible in Second Life?

CC approves +10.  Totally agree, we do NOT want to go back to those days.  Xiola doing this is...in general, a good thing.  It's not favoritism because it's Xiola, who is known as a shopper in general.  She wears all kinds of things.

On 9/1/2018 at 8:18 AM, Phil Deakins said:

It's that what is promoted on private blogs does not give the appearance of being official Linden Lab endorsements. Imo, Xiola's offical blog post does give that appearance. If I were in the clothing market, I'd feel like being up in arfms about the favouritism.

It's not favoritism because it's Xiola, who is known as a shopper in general.  She wears all kinds of things.  If it's favoritism then her wearing ANYTHING that wasn't made by LL itself is showing favoritism.  Should she become a primitar or be Ruth so as to not show "favouritism"? 

On 9/1/2018 at 9:09 AM, Garnet Psaltery said:

I didn't even notice it was from Xiola as it had that same 'model-with-photoshop-skills-and-a-need-for-selfies' look.

Ha!

On 9/1/2018 at 9:47 AM, Magnek Fang said:

"Gee, I wish the Lindens would pay more attention to us."

*LL does so*

"OMG Favoritism!"

 

I know, right?  Anytime LL does something to showcase good stuff in SL, some oldbie crank time travels from 2006 and essentially goes "FIC"!  This is one reason why we can't have nice things.

On 9/2/2018 at 3:25 AM, Phil Deakins said:

1, 2 and 3: I'm not aware of any of those things ever happening. I'm not saying they didn't but I don't believe I ever saw any of them.

Oh, my Sweet Summer Child.....

On 9/2/2018 at 4:48 AM, Love Zhaoying said:

Xiola’s too busy shopping. ?

Probably, it's what she does.

On 9/2/2018 at 8:48 AM, Phil Deakins said:

I never saw the marketplace promotions because I've shunned the marketplace from its start. The other 2 aren't solid

That's land. Merchants are different. I don't see any way in which LL favouring certain, presumably the bigger, merchants can make more money for LL,

Okay, you don't know about fashion, you don't shop and you don't use marketplace?  Did you just time travel from a sandbox in 2006?  LL gets a cut from Marketplace transactions, didn't you know?  LL gets a cut from the L$ purchases on the Lindex of all those girly girl shoppers that they spend at in-world merchants...and the marketplace.   Having MASSIVE amounts of content encourages all those girly girls to shop like madwomen.  There's a reason why SL is still the Queen and Champion of virtual worlds. 

On 9/2/2018 at 11:42 AM, Marianne Little said:

This crap is craptastic. I always said Lindens should be more inworld, shop and live like one of us.

This part I agree with, and yes the fuss some oldbies are making over this picture might discourage them from doing more of it.

On 9/3/2018 at 7:50 AM, Phil Deakins said:

The "best customers" are those from whom you earn the most money. LL's best customers are the very large land-owners, and not those who remove the most money from SL. LL could be earning very little from those who take a lot out, making them very small customers by comparison.

Oh, my Sweet Summer Child, you have some very big blinders on there.  Where do you think the Land Barons get their money to pay LL from?  SL is an almost pure trickle-up economy.  The Land Barons are essentially middle-men.  The important people are the ones PAYING the Land Barons.  THOSE are the people LL needs to keep happy.  How could you not know this?

On 9/3/2018 at 8:31 AM, Blush Bravin said:

Let's just see how many residents we would have if there were no merchants in SL! Linden Labs best customers are those who keep people logging into SL not who pays them the most money individually!

I've said for years that the Land Barons are middle-men, that the really important users are the ones who pay the Land Barons and shop like madwomen.  Because it's their L$ that trickles up, that fills LL's coffers.

12 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

I'm reminded of a ditch I was in from waaaay back - back in the days of RA. It seemed like the entire forum population was against me - and they were all wrong.  It was all about what the phrase "many, perhaps most" actually means. What it doesn't mean is 'the majority', but they all insisted that it does. It does mean 'perhaps the majority', but they all insisted that it actually meas 'the majority' - no maybe about it. They were all wrong, of course.

Hello, Sheldon.  And by the way, to most people "many, perhaps most" does mean a majority, because a majority is 51% or more.  and  "many, perhaps most" does imply more than 50%.

8 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

 

hehehehe

He he he.

41 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

No Tarani. The Blueberry part was a red herring but Xiola's blog is still an ad - until she, or someone, explains what it is. That's what the thread was about.

It is a simple OOTD/LOTD post.  Outfit of the Day/Look of the Day post.  No ulterior motives need to be involved.  You're reading too much into it.

3 minutes ago, Sandy Schnook said:

I know I probably shouldn't chime in.  But seriously, if clothes in a blog from any creator on any site, makes Second Life look like something interesting that someone completely new wants to try, I'm good with it.  More people in SL can only benefit the entire SL economy.

Darn right!

[Blueberryxx]

9 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Time for..

This made me laugh. Witty! 

Allow me to be serious for a minute before the thread does get locked. Between Phil, ChinRey and Callum, you guys probably ensured I never get featured again. While it is not that serious, and I am not too salty over it, I wouldn't want this to happen to another creator. Have a suspicion? Reach out. Anonymous bloggers aren't working day and night to give you the most factual information. It is gossip, it's entertainment for some people. Nothing more, nothing less. It would have taken you maybe 2 mins to type my name and ask me what the deal was. Here we are 11 pages in, same conclusion we would have ended up days ago.

I volunteer and sign up to Linden Lab events, which get posted on the official website. There is nothing special about it, pay attention to the announcements and participate too. Whoever mentioned I did free gifts for a Linden Lab event, do you also remember how I had a HUD made for people to put me on follow and skated them through ice and took about 40 people of most fun lag fest through adventures? It is not always about the money. I love Second Life, it has given me a job I am beyond grateful for, and I will continue to do giveaways as a thank you, I will volunteer with Linden events every time. 

I will end it on a sweet note, and a tldr I have no hard feelings, remember to reach out, take what you read on anonymous blogs with a grain of salt. I highly doubt a Linden will even come and entertain this mess, so I hope we can lock the thread as Love suggested and go on about our days.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Blueberryxx said:

This made me laugh. Witty! 

Thanks, I’ve wanted to post “thread lock” often, but usually resist. I totally agree that this was a “gossip thread” (in fact I stated it).

[Jules Catlyn]

Personally i hope this thread doesn't prevent Xiola or any other Linden from posting things and brands they like in future.

[Phil Deakins]

Too many posts since my last one but...

First, there were plenty of responses to Blueberry's post. Whoever wrote that there hadn't been any, go back and look at her post.

Second. This thread questioned Xiola's blog post. It was not about Blueberry's giveaway. If you imagine differently, go back and read the first post - and the title.

Third. Blueberry's giveaway came into it as either a coincidence, or related, and nobody judged it as being either, because nobody knew one way or the other. Suggestions that it might just be a coincidence were put forward, firstly by me, but nobody made any judgements or jumped to any conclusions. Questions were asked, that's all. That has now been satisfactorily dealt with.

I think that's it. Any finger pointing is stupid and childish, and ignorant of what's actually been written in the thread. So to those who are finger pointing, grow up and get over it.

One more. In my opinion, it is absolutely wrong for LL to promote one or more of their paying customers' businesses unless they offer similar promotions to all of their paying customers. A few people don't share that opinion, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinions.

[Xiola Linden]

 

 

 

 

 

Hello all,

I am surprised to think that a simple (unedited) snapshot could cause so much conversation - but happy to see at least that notice was taken! I do want to take a minute to clarify a few things related to this.

Part of my job is to curate, uplift and highlight user generated content in Second Life. One, because we have such a creative and incredible community, from fashion designers, event organizers, charity events and fundraisers, Region builders, musicians, artists, and so much more. Two, it helps show off how incredible Second Life and the community are.

Sharing new and different types of content on all our social media ( including the community platform that houses these forums and the blog) has always been something I've wanted to do. I started the Pic of the Day program about 7 years ago and over the years we've featured hundreds of user-created pictures with credits that showcase the amazing creativity from our community.

It is no secret that I love to shop, and that I enjoy exploring the Grid, just as most of you do. I was a Resident before I was a Linden, and now I am both. It is a rare position to be in, and an interesting balance of perspectives. My goal in doing content like this is to show Second Life off and to have some fun while doing so. People always ask for credits, and I profoundly believe in crediting creators as much as possible, when possible.

I do personally have love for the creators and items featured in the post, but that does not mean that I do not also have love for creators and items that are not featured here. Ultimately, I hope to showcase a lot more of the great things that are made here in Second Life via different types of content - both user-created and Linden-created!

catch you inworld!

~Xiola

P.S. On a related note, stay tuned for news about a new free community initiative that will soon help drive traffic to and support many of our community bloggers.

 

 

 

 

[Sandy Schnook]

If you mean promoting as in crediting creators in the Picture of the Day, the next two previous POTD are also fashion photos and have links to the style cards.  Neither of which contain anything by Blueberry and do give equal time to other creators.  If you mean Xiola, last I heard, was that aside from working for LL, she is still a person entitled to her own sense of style and her own opinions.  If she was a nobody that did the exact same thing we wouldn't be hearing so much on this.  The only other promotional part has been explained fully by Blueberryxxx herself.  My only concern might be if Xiola alone determines which photo gets picked.

[Janet Voxel]

This thread was quite a reach....

[Tari Landar]

1 hour ago, Phil Deakins said:

Second. This thread questioned Xiola's blog post. It was not about Blueberry's giveaway. If you imagine differently, go back and read the first post - and the title.

Third. Blueberry's giveaway came into it as either a coincidence, or related, and nobody judged it as being either, because nobody knew one way or the other. Suggestions that it might just be a coincidence were put forward, firstly by me, but nobody made any judgements or jumped to any conclusions. Questions were asked, that's all. That has now been satisfactorily dealt with.

I think that's it. Any finger pointing is stupid and childish, and ignorant of what's actually been written in the thread. So to those who are finger pointing, grow up and get over it.

One more. In my opinion, it is absolutely wrong for LL to promote one or more of their paying customers' businesses unless they offer similar promotions to all of their paying customers. A few people don't share that opinion, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Good grief dude just STOP, lmao, you're already so far behind. YOU brought blueberry's name into it, YOU suggested LL employee was advertising in favor of particular creators and that it wasn't an opportunity open to all. There was literally *no* coincidence, those were your posts, lol. You're trying to make it like others did this, others tied the two "incidents" together, others were finger pointing, when it started with your two posts, the first one, and the third one, on page one....Yes, you were absolutely finger pointing when you claimed that this wasn't something LL would do for anyone(advertise), and when you tied both incidents together to try and paint some conspiracy, lmao. You dug the hole, not everyone else. 

Maybe ya shoulda taken that grow up advise on page one  

 

Edited September 5, 2018 by Tari Landar

[ellestones]

3 hours ago, Xiola Linden said:

P.S. On a related note, stay tuned for news about a new free community initiative that will soon help drive traffic to and support many of our community bloggers.

likes this

[Blaise Glendevon]

Well, this is a profoundly dumb overreaction. Bless your heart.

[ellestones]

20 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

I've been in some ditches, but I've always managed to make it through to the cup of tea

and sometimes the ditch has been dug so deep that the tea has to be lowered down to the ditch digger on the end of a long rope

:D

 

[Phil Deakins]

6 hours ago, Tari Landar said:

Good grief dude just STOP, lmao, you're already so far behind. YOU brought blueberry's name into it, YOU suggested LL employee was advertising in favor of particular creators and that it wasn't an opportunity open to all.

Absolute rubbish. I did suggest that Xiola was promoting businesses, whether intentionally or not, and I did bring Blueberry into it. But as for being "so far behind", I'm actually way ahead of you. You see, Tari, votes don't change facts, no matter how much you'd like them to. They didn't change facts when the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of 'many, perhaps most' actually meaning 'the majority', and votes don't change facts in this case. There are votes on both sides. The votes are opinions, and the votes in this case aren't far off being even.

In case you missed or forgot the multitude of statements, I'll refresh your memory for you. Nobody said that LL supports Blueberry in any way that they don't support any other SL business. The idea had been questioned, of course, by me and others, but I'm sure that not even you would seriously suggest that we ought not to question things that we think might not be right. Eventually, Blueberry herself told us exactly what the situation is, and that part was settled.

So we are left with Xiola's blog post, which is what this thread is about, as you should know. The thing about that is it looks for all the world like an advertisement. There is no denying that. I questioned it because of what it appears to be. There is no denying that either. Some people posted that LL should not be promoting inworld businesses to the detriment of others, and some people think it's ok for them to do that. Both sides posted why they think it. Nobody has posted what the blog post actually is, because nobody in this thread knows. That's where we are now.

The reason I'm way ahead is because I was never behind - but you are. The situation is that the Blueberry question (that's what it was - a question) has been answered satisfactorily, but we are no further forward on the blog post question. All we have on that score are a few people posting opinions and thoughts. That's the way forums work, y'know

On the other hand, you've got youself behind (in a hole) because you've shown the attititude that even to question something that Xiola did, and/or whether or not there is favouritism from LL to Blueberry, is a wrong thing to to. I guess it's because you're a fan of Blueberry, but that's just a guess. Or maybe it's because you're one of those people who automatically believe that anyone who doesn't agree with their opinion is therefore absolutely wrong and digging themselves into holes. I don't like to think of anyone that way, but such people do exist, even in this forum. You won't find me in this thread saying that anyone is wrong because they don't share my opinion. If you'd care to go through my posts, you'll find that I've always been scrupulously fair, except on one thing - that LL should not promote the SL businesses of their paying customers unless the promotion is available to all of their paying customers. In fact, that's the only opinion that I've stated. Everything else has just been questions and details.

Now, if you'd like to make a true statement about exactly what Xiola's blog post is, then I'll be satisfied that my question has been answered. But you can't do that, because you've only got what the rest of have - opinions. Since you can't do that, I suggest you stick to the thread's topic, and refrain from being so accusing.

 

ETA: I've just seen Xiola's post in the thread. I haven't formed any opinions about it though. I've added this bit because some of what I wrote in this post was wrong; i.e. that nobody had explained what the blog post was about.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Phil Deakins
Addition

[Phil Deakins]

1 hour ago, ellestones said:

and sometimes the ditch has been dug so deep that the tea has to be lowered down to the ditch digger on the end of a long rope

I always drink my tea above ground