Well the past week in SL has been rather drama filled for a few individuals out there it seems, and for some reason, I seem to gravitate towards finding out a little more about the psyche of some of these 'roleplayers' that seem to congregate in SL. I don't mean roleplayers in the traditional sense (think Goreans/cyberpunk/vampires/etc) but rather these people who think they have some sort of powerful role within the SL community. Now I must go off on a tangent here, because at one stage, I was as to blame as anyone for being sucked in (to some degree) by this ellusive little world known as 'SL modelling', and for all the time spent in this world, I learned a few lessons about the people involved in it.
Now as many of you have probably read, this week saw drama in this modelling world explode with the departure of Maggie Mahoney and Ocean Bates, owners of the SL version of RUNWAY Magazine and the chaos which ensued was rather lol-worthy to many a SL resident with any knowledge of the scene. For me personally however, knowing that I have been on SL for just a while, seeing events like this is not surprising to me in the slightest.
People at times seem to forget that this is SL. SL doesn't affect your real life and if it does, you need to take a break seriously. I say this to the people who become involved to the point where if SL is emotionally affecting you in a negative way, then it is time to click that red X in the corner. I learned this the hard way so to speak, even though I was told this a long long time ago (thankyou Rebel) but with these recent events this makes it more apparent than ever.
I made a post on Shoppingcartdisco about a little group chat that I was a part of when I logged into SL and learned the news of Maggie and Ocean leaving. So me being me, I go to the group that this probably affected more members than any other, that being Runway Kidz, a group whose owner claims it to be a 'model support group' and as such I thought at this time it would be best if I go to this group and see what the general concensus was about these people's actions that indirectly affects every single person who is a part of this modelling world, because now you have these designers weary that if they make a payment to one of these 'magazine' owners, what is their recourse if said owner decides to just abandon SL? Well all I say to these people is welcome to SL, and the danger filled world that it is! Thing is, this whole modelling world is very superficial, and a little akin to a playground if you will. I can only say this via my experiences with it, and lets just say, I do know what I have experienced in this very world, and I have some very informed opinions on the matter. Now lets go thru a little history here with regards to my experiences with Runway Kidz to begin with.
Back in September/October 2007, Summer Deadlight invited me to be a part of Runway Kidz during the Savvy Avvy 07 Male Model search contest. I joined and started to meet new friends, all being models and things, and it was a great group with some really interesting chats and things and this is undisputable. So with all my experience with this group, I now find that trying to do what used to be a commonplace activity (that is, asking peoples opinions on various 'power holding' identities or corporations [sic] related to modelling) was now something that had no place in this group, and after an hour or so of discussion, complaints were made about my questioning and I was removed from the group by Summer. The funniest thing was that while this was going on there was a group chat in the Boulevard Agency group in which some characters were trying their hardest to make jokes about me personally. Yes, at one time I was in this group and had the power to invite members who are actually friends of mine and do show me what is going on in there, so you had better watch yourselves when you try to character assassinate me in forums you do not think I am privvy to.
So to those who think I did something wrong within this group chat, I would just like to say, you are all spineless individuals who take some sort of pride in their status as models and thus, the illusion that they are superior to anyone else on SL. You are all free to post here if you choose to as well, and I do know which members among you are real people, and would not sell your mothers soul to the devil if it meant getting your av featured in some designers vendors ads.
Now to my history with BOSL. At one point in my SL modelling career, I was invited by Fortunate Szondi and Ally Geer to join the Boulevard Agency. Now at the time I was thinking this was great as I was able to work with people I liked and admired and knew they were good at what they did. Now as for what happened next, Summer resigned from her position as model manager in Blvd, then 4 shows were planned. With less than one week to go prior these shows, Frolic vetoed Ally on a decision to invite someone to the agency, going against what he agreed to initially, in that she would have 100% control over everything in the agency. Now I can understand that he has a vested interest in the Boulevard name as he owned the sim and everything, but here is case number 1 of him screwing over someone who had no motive at all other than to help him. So in light of Fort and Ally leaving, I was put on the spot to make a decision, whether to pay attention to what he just did to a person whose conduct was unquestionably professional in her approach to work and dealings on here, and leave with them or stay and help out Frolic. I chose to stay as he promised me everything would be OK and we did the shows and things and it was a successful operation I guess you could say. Over time, I personally worked very hard with Frolic together on many more shows and things, and it seemed to be a bit of fun I guess. So eventually I won the BOSL model of the Year award and as such I now had to live with this 'award winner' spectre hanging over me.
Anyway, to my association with Runway. Around late May 2008 I was asked by Maggie to be a part of the Runway bridal review show and I took part and to me it went on too long and I spent most of those 2 and a bit hours in IM to friends and things chatting. By this stage I didn't care much for SL modelling to be honest, as I was rather bored by it and the late nights I had to spend up to attend shows and events (due to my RL timezone being incompatible with the SL midday times of these shows) and eventually I ended up winning the Runway Model of the Year award as well, so now I was this 'tall poppy' in many peoples eyes, although I must thank Cynthia Smit for constantly reminding me I am not defined by my actions on SL, as many people within the modelling world seem to think is the case.
Now to my disassociation with both partys. At some stage Frolic asked Cynthia to shoot a pic for his monthly editorial note (link), and with my encouragement, she shot 2 pics for him, spending hours on them in photoshop and was not charging him because he was essentially marketing her. It was under this mutual obligation that I thought it was just a friendly favor that benefitted both partys, and it all seemed ok. Proceeding on and asking his opinion of the 2nd shot (link), I was passed a texture of a portrait of Frolic done by a "new photographer" Ashoka Eales. Now I already knew this was the new alt of my ex-partner, the 'on her death by via cancer' Christieanna Daviau (see previous blog) and I immediately told Frolic that if he helped promote/represent 'Ashoka' in any way then I was "gone" and I would never want to help him on anything in the future. Now this might sound like an extreme thing to say when you consider that we had been working on events for a year, and this was the only thing I had ever asked him to do for me, due to the hurt her lies had caused me at one point in time. But it seemed that this was too much of a favor to ask, and as a result he ran the Ashoka picture in the mag and Cynthia was screwed over as well.
So fast forward a couple of weeks, and I see that Ashoka is releasing a clothing line and some people who full well knew the extent of her lies were actively promoting her on flickr, and as a result I made my sarcastic comment on flickr which caused an uproar, with Runway taking me off the cover, and things. Frolic left me offline messages at this time, telling me to contact him and once I eventually logged on, he told me I didn't know the whole story etc and that I should remove the comment. I told him no, because she was a compulsive liar who didn't deserve all this positive press and if it took me taking a stand with that comment, then that is what it took. Anyway around this time, I spoke to Maggie, telling her my stance on this issue and why I felt compelled to write what I did. Thing is, Maggie seemed sympathetic to me and seemed to realise she had jumped the gun in her decision but it was then revealed to me her personal circumstance of being a cancer survivor made her react in such a way with removing me etc, and she even agreed that what I was lied to about was the act of indecent human being. But alas that is why the tone of my post on here was a little apologetic towards Maggie herself, but as for Ashoka, her lies will never be forgiven by me, unlike Frolic who was able to look past these lies as well as the fact that as Christieanna, she 'left' SL also owing a designer $15000l for undelivered design work.
So moving on, we see that people can leave SL with the money, come back as an alt and all is well, no matter what they did in their previous incarnation. As Jonny, I will continue to say what is on my mind regardless of the situation, and this is no different a circumstance. I won't run and hide behind an anonymous screenname on forums, I won't run to an alt, even though many people have suspected me of doing so at times.
Anyhow, my opinion on the matter is this, I don't personally know what happened between Frolic and Maggie, but I do think that the staff were not informed about what is going on in regards to the situation. As for not being paid, welcome to the SL modelling industry. You know what you are getting into, there is rarely any guarantee of payment, and to me what BOSL was going to achieve by taking Runway on board, (other than a few more google hits and Frolic furthering his accension to the latest SL martyr) I don't really know. As for the repercussions of this whole debacle, I found it funny how people in the RK chat were criticizing my every right to proclaim the awards I have won in the past and how, as a result of these events, I actually seem an idiot to claim myself to be involved with such drama-causing partys. Fact is though, when you apply for a job in reality, do you not give them a copy of your CV with past employment details and qualifications? Or do you not live in reality and just spend all your time in SL like some of these people involved do? Truth remains that now I actually feel embarassed to be considered a model on SL and from now on would just like to be known as Jonny, the person who blogs about whatever he feels the need to, and in this case, that was just informing people that there is 2 sides to every story, just that some partys feel the need to lie or cover up various things. I hope all this gives you a little insight into the partys involved, and my reasonings for not really wanting anything to do with them and their little 'clique' of false superiority anymore. As for these people who say I have "changed" over the time they have known me, well all I can say is if I have changed, I have just become a little more sceptical about trusting people in SL.this is primarily due to the way in which some of these partys involved in this fracas have treated me in the past, and I have lived and learned through my experiences with them. As a result, as a person I still feel completely honest about who I am, I say type things in SL in regards to business dealings (prefer it over voice) as we all know that people can quite easily get away with lying over voice chat as there is no record of it. I do feel sorry for any person who goes thru the trauma of cancer, as I stated in a previous blog, and at this juncture, I urge you all, to get out of SL for a while, go and enjoy your RL, because one day, you might have something bad happen to you in RL, such as finding out you have an illness or whatever, and if you can only think about SL and what you are represented as in world, then I severely doubt your ability to fight against whatever distresses you.
