Hair Fair 2006!
by matthiaszander on 14/04/06 at 2:19 pm
by Matthias Zander
Hair Fair 2006 began this morning on Panache Island to a amongst a great amount of lag. I visited the Hair Fair just after waking this morning, and let me tell you, it is HAIR OVERLOAD! There are some things in the exhibition that lasts until April 20 that are done extremely well, but even more that were done very poorly, and some very obvious omissions.
The good things at the Hair Fair and the good things that Hair Fair participants did were very noticeable. Unfortunately, part of that is because they are rather rare.
This amazing display is how Lash Xevious decided to display her hair at the Fair. The statues, which can be seen from the central area of the Hair Fair, catch the eye and draw you in very quickly. Excellent work! Her booth is also not over-crowded, and it seems to load much faster than many of the other booths. Lash wins Best Display by a longshot. No other booth was close, except for one.
Zyrra Falcone and HoseQueen of Panache did an amazing display, especially on HoseQueen’s half (the right half). Zyrra’s is a bit over-crowded, but the way that she did it makes it semi-work. I personally would have preferred that she show less color options on each set, and put out a landmark giver to her store on the island the Hair Fair is being held on and direct people there for more hair and color choices. Congratulations, Zyrra and HoseQueen, you have the Most Effective Display!
Unfortunately, there were also a number of extremely bad things that were done at the Hair Fair. Hopefully, the people making these mistakes will read this and correct them before the end of the Fair.
When I was looking for the least effective display, it was honestly hard to find only one. There were three that instantly stuck out, but I was able to narrow it down to two.
An empty display is certainly not an effective display. That’s the problem that Carryn Concord from Tickled Pink, wuvme Karuna from Caliente Express, and Asri Falcone from Asri Falcone Originals are currently facing (wuvme’s display, in the center, is fully-loaded in that picture, from what I can tell. The bottom eight boxes have a texture other than the default grey loading texture). The Herald is told that Asri is currently building her display as I write this – way to go, Asri. Better late than never. What makes this especially bad is that Ticked Pink’s booth is directly seen from the central area of the Fair. OOPS!
I waited for about 15 minutes while staring at this in my view to try to get everything to load. It just wouldn’t do so because of all the tiny, tiny boxes with the huge textures. Let this be a lesson to Rita Groshomme of Empyrean Emporium and Sparkle Skye of Allure – don’t use so many boxes, and use smaller textures. This and the empty displays above die for the dubious title of Least Effective Display.
I think there are four main overall issues that the Hair Fair faces, and unfortunately, they can’t all be overcome at the same time without great expense.
1) The sim was constantly full. I kept trying to teleport in a good friend of mine so that she could look around, but the sim is set to accept only 40 people – as an island, that number can be set up to 60. They might look into temporarily raising that.
2) The sim was too laggy. I could barely walk at times because of the lag. Other times, it seemed better. Unfortunately, this would conflict with the solution to the first problem.
3) Textures loaded far too slow. I was literally there for over an hour, and I was never completely loaded. Designers need to learn to use smaller textures.
4) It was very disorganized and overwhelming. The looming walls with tiny boxes climbing all the way up was just too much.
The only way to fix all this would be an idea that I overheard while there. The suggestion was that this would work so much better at the corner of four simulators. Let’s look at how this would impact the four problems above.
1) With 4 sims, you can have up to 240 people there at a time. No big deal.
2) Lag would be necessarily cut in fourths by dividing it up between four sims
3) There would be less textures in each sim, though it would still try to render them all. That’s where 1.9.1 with its wall/render-blocking would come into play as well as…
4) Create different categories, and have one category per sim. Four categories I could see instantly are male, short, long, and "formal" hair that is more geared towards being worn with formal attire. Having enough selection for a male section is something that obviously wasn’t worked on for this Hair Fair, so they’d have to do better with that.
The lack of male hair that I just mentioned leads me to the final criticism of the Hair Fair that I’ll discuss here: some huge, eggregious omissions. I don’t know if it was a personal bias agaist certain people or what, but some of the larger names, such as TOmmy Fairplay of DragonFly Designs, weren’t represented. TOmmy has a decent selection of male hair, something that the Hair Fair seriously needed. To the organizers, I would say that it needs to be more diverse if you plan on pulling something like this together again.
Overall, I would sadly recomment skipping the Hair Fair altogether. I’m attaching a list of all of the designers represented below, and would definately recommend going to their individual stores. It will be less laggy, less crowded, and even with the travel time, it’ll take less time overall because you’re not waiting for hours for textures to load.
Participating Designers:
Six Kennedy, GuRL 6
Babyboo Glitterbuck, Here Comes Trouble
Bailey Mackenzie, Here Comes Trouble
Raylin Portocorerro, X’Clusive
Tami Mcoy , hairstyles by Tami Mcoy
Canimal Zypher, Canimals
Elikapeka Tiramisu, ETD
Asri Falcone, La Cadre
Lash Xevious: Lashed
tessa craven , Hair ~n ~Things
Zyrra falcone, Panache
hosequeen mclean, Panache
Rita Groshomme, Empyrean Emporium
Garbage Prototype, The Random
Wuvme Karuna , Caliente Express
Kiki LaFollette, Hair FX
Karessme Sugar, Karessme Designs
Carryn Concord, Tickled PInk
Sythia Veil, Unveil
Ginny Talamasca, Crowning Glory
Washu Zibrastripe, Mirada
Mystikal Faddoul, Mystikal Designs
Torrid Midnight, Torrid
Starley therian, Celestial Studios
Hope Somme
Apr 14th, 2006
Great reveiw–like to see more of this type of article in the “Herald”–the SL version of the restaurant critic!!
Hair Bear
Apr 14th, 2006
A “great review” would have included all of the designers’ names. Several of them are missing from the list of participants. Also, this article reeks of sarcasm and mean spiritedness in its personal review of the actual displays. These critisms could all be said in a more tactful and constructive way. Afterall, we should remember, we are dealing with real people behind the toons! I give the review a large thumbs down.
Mystikal Faddoul
Apr 14th, 2006
It would be nice if Matthias had taken the time before writing such a negative review of Hair Fair to have interviewed its organizers in order to provide a balanced story. What the article doesn’t say when it is critical of the lack of men’s desingers, is whether those designers were invited, and whether it was their choice not to participate. Six Kennedy spent a lot of time and energy over 2 months ago reaching out to people to invite them to participate. She, Raylin, Zyrra, and others have worked very hard to make this event happen by hounding, managing, and creating every aspect of this event. Sure there are improvements that could be made, but the reviewer did not take the time to talk with anyone who participated in or helped to organize the event.
In addition, with regard to the men’s hair, I would like to just say that I do make men’s hair, and I have some shown at the event. I track my sale of men’s hair and women’s hair very carefully. I have noticed that most men I actually know in game have 1 hair and that is all they ever buy. Most women buy 1 hairstyle a week. It’s just good economics to work harder on the women’s stuff because it sells 20 to 1. It’s just like trying to find RL tv you want. If you’re not the ‘buying’ demographic, it will always be harder. period.
K. Desmoulins
Apr 14th, 2006
Finally someone who got beyond the glorified temporary mall appearance. I agreed, I was camping out the night of the opening, and it hurt just flying in let alone walking through. The displays were good (the ones not overloaded).
This hair fair should’ve been treated like a portfolio of a few hairstyles showing what the designers can do, not loading it up in need to make bucks.
What I was sad to see however was the lack of variety in the designers picked. All of the styles seemed a bit tame compared to the crazier goth, cyberpunk or rave-inspired hair that I know for sure is in SL.
Hopefully the next hair fair or future inspired ones will learn from this. Good try though.
Torrid
Apr 14th, 2006
First, I’d like to say that Zyrra did the best she could in the amount of time she had. She put a lot of work into those displays. The choice to put it in her sim was kind of last minute, we don’t have the luxury of access to four sims. It also may have been a good idea to ask questions or do an interview to get information about how things came together.
Second, as far as people being omitted, there were several people that were invited and never responded. Zyrra couldn’t possibly force every hair creator in SL to participate.
Third, of course there is going to be lag when there are a lot of textures and a lot of people in one place, this is Second Life. I am sure there are some hair designers using larger images and that is a lesson learned. I was actually able to move well most of the time before the problems with SL started.
Fourth, a lot of people worked very hard to make this happen. Everyone has been extremely helpful, friendly, and inspiring. It was a great idea and of course there are some mistakes we will learn from for next time. It is definitely worth fighting some lag (which we all do at most events) to visit. Despite all the problems Second Life has had today and the sim having to be restarted, we’ve done very well. Thank you to everyone who dropped by and for all the wonderful compliments.
Garbage Prototype
Apr 14th, 2006
Hello there, I am in the Hair Fair 2006 and hope to be in 2007. There are some misleading things about your article though, Carryn Concord , wuvme Karuna, and Asri Falcone all had good reasons for not setting up (ON TIME) I was talking to Wuv and she had some real life things going as well as the others. However they did set up right as soon as they could! There are some ideas that I think are great like the categories and most did do this within their own stalls, however.. putting them into 4 sims is a bit much not only that but HAVING 4 sims! That is crazy just for a week-long event. Another thing I noticed that you said that Zyrra did a “Over-done” set up but is it really? I mean im looking at it right now and i think it is nice, just looking at it its walls surronding a center stage and some booths around the stage with alot of room to walk. Then this whole thing about “people were being over looked”, did you even talk to Zyrra? She even let in people on LATE submissions into the hair fair she added multiple people near the end and even after the dead line! Your post was good dont get me wrong, its just that you have some of your information wrong and you also didnt really look into some of the evidence you put in, I just felt i had to respond to this.
Have a great night
-Garbage Prototype
Zyrra
Apr 14th, 2006
Hair Fair 4/14-4/20
Featured artists on display are only ones who replied and agreed to join the fair. Some did not reply and some lesser known may have been overlooked. however we all did the best we could to get everyone we could think of involved. not to mention the many artists who apporached Hair fair to participate.. it was NOT by invite only. everyone has a mouth to say hey i make hair can i join in? This is a first ever event and it grew by the day. the Panache Sim was the only one available that could even attempt at handling such a display.
I’m not certain how much more organized you can get with the fair. booths are clearly labled the design concept is simple and clean with a clear path around the perimeter of the fair. If you feel the booths are tall I suggest you visit anyone of our stores and you will find that our stores are similiarly layed out.something our customers are quite used to. We as a group are very pleased with the result. We have taken many notes on “to do next time” and we all look forward to it being even better when that time comes. For now we just hope to have fun, which is our initial inspiration for the event.
To address the lag today.. SL clearly has had some issues which have been somewhat resolved after sim restarts. We bumped to allow 60 visitors at one point we crawled to a hault and we had reduced it back down to 40. just a few stats to note: Simulator scripts were hovering around 750 jumped to 2500 with 40 visitors and over 4k with 55 visitors.
Lastly i will say that if you choose to follow the writers advice and skip hair fair and just go to our own stores you will miss out on all the new styles being released all this week. along with a 30k contest, parties, fun and lots of meet n greets..something us as designers felt was very important to show some appreciation to our supporters. additionally all the styles that premier are exclusively at this location for the duration of the fair.
BTW Should anyone have 4 sims to allow for such a grand event I do hope someone offers them up for our use next time around. tyvm
Booth Roster is:
Side Displays
01. Six Kennedy, GuRL 6
02. Zyrra Falcone and HoseQueen Mclean, Panache
03. Raylin Portocarrero, X’clusive
04. Washu Zibrastripe, Mirada
05. Elikapeka Tiramisu, ETD
06. Sythia Veil, Unveil
07. Babyboo Glitterbuck and Bailey Mackenzie, Here Comes Trouble
08. Karessme Sugar, Karessme Designs
09. Starley Therian, Celestial Studios
10. Canimal Zypher, Canimals
11. Tessa Craven , Hair ~N~Things
12. Kiki LaFollette, Hair FX
13. Garbage Prototype, The Random
14. Carryn Concord, Tickled PInk
15. wuvme Karuna , Caliente Express
16. Asri Falcone, La Cadre
17. Ginny Talamasca, Dazzle (formerly crowning glory)
18. Louise Andrews
19. Tami Mcoy , Hairstyles by Tami Mcoy
20. Mystikal Faddoul, Mystikal Designs NEED LOGO
21. Pandia’s Purrfect Hair, Pandia
22. Lash Xevious, Lashed
23. Lost Therian, Naughty
24. Rita Groshomme, Empyrean Emporium
25. Sparkle Skye, Allure by Sparkle Skye
26. Torrid Midnight, Torrid
COLUMNS
01. Goldie Locks, Selena Gateaux
02. Fashionably Dead, Toast Bard
03. raven lament
04. Prim Roots, Jenna Fairplay
05. Redd Oasis, Redd Columbia
06. Candie Made, Candie Minogue
07. Rising Phoenix, Ariel Black
08. Glossy page
09. DeGroot Design, Sherona Degroot
10. Zaige
11. Sinsation, Sinnocent Mirabeau
12. Calico Creations, Calico Ingmann
13. Eternalynn Calliope
39 in total compared to your list of 25
<3, Zyrra
Raspberrie
Apr 14th, 2006
I bet you don’t have smooth sailing when you’re out checking out the genitals on sale, but that doesn’t stop you from going back or advising to visit. It’s SL – lag happens.
Torrid
Apr 14th, 2006
Oh and by the way it’s “TorridWear” not “Torrid”
.
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
I appreciate all the feedback. Let me hit a few of the main concerns you guys hard.
First off, the list of perticipants was copied directly from the most recent list that Six had dropped me in the press kit. I assumed that since she dropped it to me less than a week ago, that it was correct. It’s not my fault that she missed 14 designers or had some of them wrong (such as TorridWear being Torrid – that was how it is in the card, I guess, since the list was copied/pasted).
Zyrra, you brought up a good point about the L$30k contest. I meant to mention that in the article, but it completely slipped my mind. That would be a very good reason to go.
As to the song being overly-critical, the Herald is a place for honesty, and that is what I put into every review – honesty. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read my reviews. It’s as simple as that.
As to the four sims idea, as I said, it would be extremely costly to do, unless the Lindens would rent you the vehicle sims as has been done in the past. I know it has been done in the far distant (prehistoric, if you will, since that was the theme of one of the most recent examples) past, so who knows if they’d do it again. Otherwise, that might not be viable, no, but there would be other ways to minimize lag, such as the texture issue.
Anyway, I’m appreciative of the feedback you guys gave, though I will say that much of it is in a much more hostile tone than the original post – something those of you who think my reviews are too mean may want to think about.
In addition, even compliments I gave arne’t taken as compliments – that’s also not my fault. Good luck with the Hair Fair!
Zyrra
Apr 15th, 2006
Original post by K Desmoulins
This hair fair should’ve been treated like a portfolio of a few hairstyles showing what the designers can do, not loading it up in need to make bucks.
What I was sad to see however was the lack of variety in the designers picked. All of the styles seemed a bit tame compared to the crazier goth, cyberpunk or rave-inspired hair that I know for sure is in SL.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
K, I appreciate your view of the entire event buti think if you revisit the displays you will find that there are between 3 and 9 hairstyles per designer. each designer made approx. 2-4 new styles to feature. (not including last minute participants) this is certainly a very small fraction of each designers portfolio. most have 30+ styles in their home stores.
Secondly .. I’m saddend to hear you feel it was done to make bucks. Trust me the time and commitment each person put into this was astounding. and considering they could have made just as much if not more by releasing it on their own is just simple fact. Our clear intention was for enjoyment and gathering together as i stated in my first post.
feelings on lack of variety in designers picked is way off base.. designers were not “picked” Six and raylin invited everyone they could think of. and i added about 15 in the last week before the fair. please refer to my initial post for more comments on this.
Lastly,the design and layout was planned by a few of us .. i dont agree with the “mall” like comparision.. it is much more of a venue type. center stage contest * gathering area with displays surrounding. no its not like the Panche home store build nor is it my personal style in the least. but it was simply efficient and fit the space available.
oh .. one more note.. this entire event is the brainchild of Six Kennedy. if it were not for her inteterest in gathering us all together none of this would have happened. Ty to her and Raylin for bringing me & HoseQueen / Panache into the organization of the event. and ty to all the designers who gave so much time energy and donations of $ to to the enitre event. Who could have imagined that a simple showcase could have grown so huge in the 2 month planning stage.
everything else stated by anyone thus far is debatable. everyone has an opinion and thinks they can do better. but it is what it is. we hope people visit and we hope people enjoy it. nobody is forcing this upon you and we hope you see our intentions clearly. of course things can be done better .. more time more money more this more that. we made do with what we had and did it to the best of our abilty at this point in time. everyone just needs to look at the positive side and go with it. Don’t be so damn serious, have a lil fun:P
Lash
Apr 15th, 2006
i’m glad i was a part of hair fair. there’s a lot of things happening behind the scenes. i’ve grown to like these folks and have fun hanging out with them and this whole event had us talking to each other on an almost daily basis. so it flared up my nostrils when i read comments that were made without getting all the facts.
the 4 sims suggestion is something that i remember only vaguely since i was a newbie when the prehistoric event was launched. and this LL service isn’t common knowledge. i actually liked how things were spaced out. yes, it’s a condensed area, but if you had a question, you could glance over your shoulder and the designer would be dancing on a stool in the middle of the whole thing. it has a intimate feel and if it was bigger, that feel would’ve been lost.
not everyone has the same experience. my computer blows so i couldn’t walk but i could pan my cam around and buy things just fine. whereas i got a friend with a laptop running everything at full specs with great FPS.
the spirit of this project was: let’s get together, make new hair, hang out, mingle with customers, have fun. we’ll definitely consider the suggestions for next time to improve things lagwise … but, imo, if it gets too strict or corporal, it’d sound like work.
A reader
Apr 15th, 2006
SL Herald, always fairly biased.
But that’s not shocking, is it? I don’t see the obvious omissions. I see the [alleged RL info elided just to be polite; I'd do the same for you -- Ed.] ‘reviewer’ Matthias Zander, biased, being in Tommy Fairplay’s come to mama group of DragonFly Oasis Inc. LOL…and that was the only name he mentioned as being left out? Right? Oh my. Grow up wannabe jorunalist 
One of the golden rules of journalism is…at least TRY to stay neutral. And do your homework 
Oh Well :(
Apr 15th, 2006
I agree that this was a neat thing to do, but what about people who cannot get into the sim because it is full 24/7? From what I have heard from a few friends that could get in the sim, there were about 8 or 9 of the designers just standing/sitting around and talking to each other. Unless there is a problem with a display they have, there is no reason for them to be there in my opinion because people who want to look around and buy things can’t get in. It’s not fair to others who can’t get in the sim. I don’t know anyone who wants to waste their entire time on SL trying to get into a sim that is always full.
A few things my friend said were that when she finally did get in, that it took well over a half hour for anything to rez, and after being there for an hour, a lot of things weren’t rezzing still. Too many big textures were hindering being able to see anything so she could get what she wanted and get out to make room for others trying to get in.
One of the things that isn’t fair to people is the Hair Fair only items that won’t be sold after the event. This really isn’t fair to people who may never get to the sim or have pc’s that may not handle that type of environment.
Elika
Apr 15th, 2006
Well, I just have to say….that this was fun from my countdown til the event 10 weeks ago and was fun from countdown at 10 days ago…and it was fun opening night. Yes, of course the lag monster is going to be holding us back when there are 40 people present and over 30 designers displaying their work….it’s to be expected, no? Can we really solve that problem, reasonably? Personally, I don’t see us all pitching in to buy 4 sims that are connected just to hold an event, but as Zyrra stated, if anyone’s willing to offer their 4 and a few thousand prims…please step foward.
I know journalism is supposed to bring the truth and honesty, I see your point and your view…but who’s truth and honesty are you bringing? Why not cover the event in the light of it’s intention….which is to have fun and expo hair. I mean this type of event was never held before….at least not in my modest length of existence. Our event even inspired The Shoe Wars. Why the need for negativity and mean-spiritedness?
The thing about “invite only” my question is…If you had realized the Tommy Fairplay was left off the roster a week or so ago (when Six gave you the note) why not mention it to Six or Raylin or anyone else listed on the roster you had? I know if I were a journalist I would be probing people with these questions to get the facts to fuel my fire rather than making assumptions…..you know what they say about assuming right? You make an ASSoutofUandME. I know personally I did not even know about 25% of the people on the roster made hair. Not that I didn’t care to, just never got around SL enough to know them all. I’m sure that’s the same with Six and Raylin. So most of the time they relied on people coming forward and asking to participate.
Most of all, I’d like to comment on your “Least Effective Display” award…..what was the point of that? Honesty? True Journalism? Objectivity? Why not ask Asri, Carryn, and wuvme why they weren’t ready on time? I myself struggled to get my display up. I was puking my guts out this whole week and so was my infant son…..I’m sure if I wouldn’t have taken my pepto to cure me for 1 hour I would have received your award too. Life happens….RL and SL. Why this need to be mean about it? Honestly, I don’t understand this need to single them out in that manner….criticism is one thing….mean-spirit is another.
Overall, I think Hair Fair is a great success…it’s a week long event if you go on opening day or on Wednesday…you’ll still see the same things so maybe go on Wednesday might be less lag. I look forward to being apart of many more Hair Fairs to come. Thanks to Six, Raylin, Zyrra, Washu, Hosie, and all the participants for all your hard work and making this FUN!
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
Quote from “A reader”:
“Matthias Zander, biased, being in Tommy Fairplay’s come to mama group of DragonFly Oasis Inc.”
If you’d take time to actually investigate, you’d see that the only reason that I’m in that group is because I have a store in DragonFly Oasis, not because TOmmy and I are actually close.
Nice try on staying neutral yourself, and actually investigating what you’re accusing.
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
Quote from Elika:
“The thing about “invite only” my question is…If you had realized the Tommy Fairplay was left off the roster a week or so ago (when Six gave you the note) why not mention it to Six or Raylin or anyone else listed on the roster you had?”
So one minute, I’m to assume the list I had was complete, the next, I’m believing it was incomplete (referencing Zyrra’s post above)? It seems like you’re going multiple directions with that one, Elika. I do, however, appreciate the feedback, though I do wish that you would receive mine as openly as I receive yours.
I think it’s so funny that people think this review is filled with such negativity and seem to ignore things such as the vehicle sims (which make it so that you DON’T have to spend thousands to get the sims for a week). I’d love to see a study on selective reading, just like those that have been done on selective listening.
Hosie
Apr 15th, 2006
First of all, I do appreciate the kind things you said in your review. I don’t think it was “all bad,”
but I also don’t think it was an entirely fair review.
To address the issues point by point:
Lag: Lag is an issue in Second Life, period. I personally expect to endure lag at any large, heavily populated event, even more so at events with a lot of textures. Also, Second Life was experiencing problems throughout the grid on the day you visited, and lag greately improved on Friday afternoon after the Lindens worked to solve whatever the issue was. That said, you’re absolutely right that things COULD have been done better or differently. We should have made sure everyone used the right size textures (many of us know to use 256, but some don’t), and the 4-sim suggestion is awesome one, we just didn’t think of it, nor do I know if we could have even found a place like that. I didn’t even know about the vehicle sims.
Individual Displays: Lash’s display is beautiful, they always are
I think you should have taken into account though the very nature of selling hair. Lash packages hers a little differently than some others do – she has (I think, don’t quote me!) 3 different texture “packs”, so her displays will always be smaller and more simple than some of the rest of us. Zyrra has something like 35 textures she offers, and I know many others do as well. So trying to display three new releases, made specifically for Hair Fair, in a variety of textures, is bound to take up a lot of room. I think your suggestion about maybe displaying a few and providing a landmark giver is a good one, but at the same time, like Zyrra said, our customers are accustomed to seeing hair displayed in this fashion and we want to give our customers as much variety and options as possible. It’s no different from most of our shops. And thank you for the compliment on my display – I did try to keep it simple with single large images because that’s what I felt would work best for my products. About the innefective displays, as you called them… well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. And an empty display really isn’t effective 
However, real life will happen, and I know everyone did their best to set up as soon as they could.
Overall Build: I have to say I totally disagree with you on the build. I think it works really well for what it is intended, and although it’s not my personal style, it’s clean and easy to navigate. It does look very different and a bit more jumbled from when there were no hair displays on it, but people have to be able to display in whatever way they feel is best for their product. It’s not reasonable to expect that the organizers would dictate exactly the way people could set up their displays. I can’t think of a build that would have been more effective, unless as I said before, we would have been able to use 4 sims.
Lack of Male Hair: I looked around before I responded to this, and I feel the male hair offered is probably fairly proportional to the existing ratio of male vs. female hair available out there. I personally don’t enjoy making male hair, it’s not fun for me, so I don’t do it often. But there were several styles available for men at the Hair Fair.
Leaving Designers Out: I can say for a fact that no designer was left out intentionally. Six and Raylin did the initial invitations, and they invited everyone they could think of who made hair. I had NO idea there were so many hair designers out there, and once we started realizing some people were left out of the initial invitation, every effort was made to seek out more designers. Many people approached us directly about being involved, and they were welcomed with open arms. As with any event of this kind, some people are bound to be left out, and I truly feel badly for anyone who feels this was done on purpose, but if anyone WAS left out, I can assure you it was NOT done intentionally. Most of us creators spend the majority of our time hiding out in our skyboxes, or wherever, doing what we do best …. creating. So to expect that we would know who all is out there and invite every single last one of them is not reasonable.
As far as people not being able to get into the sim because the designers are sitting around, well that was part of Hair Fair – we advertised that we would be available for people to stop and chat with, a ‘meet and greet’ with the designers. Many many people have expressed appreciation for this, and we’ve had the wonderful opportunity to meet some of our customers. There have been times I have not been able to get into Panache myself, because it was full, and just like other popular events, you either make the decision to come back later (or not at all), or you keep trying. Eventually you WILL get in, maybe just not in the time frame you’d like.
I don’t think any of us entered into this event to “make a quick buck” – it took a lot of time away from when we would normally be working on hair or clothing or skin. I did this to bring something fun to the Second Life community, and to have fun with the other hair designers. Honestly, reading your review with your final recommendation to “skip” Hair Fair was disheartening, to say the very least. I am confident that we all did the very best we could, and for a first event of it’s kind, I think it kicks ass
There are definitely things we will do differently in the future, and as I said before, some of your comments and recommendations ARE constructive and appreciated. I really do think some comments were unnecessarily hurtful though, nor do I think you took all things into consideration, and for that I am disappointed. I hope everyone who is interested in Hair Fair takes the time to form their own opinion after visiting Hair Fair, and take into consideration the spirit of the event. We did it to have fun, and to share with the community, and it really has been a wonderful opportunity to make new friends.
Zyrra
Apr 15th, 2006
I just wanna comment that the Hair Fair was meant for the designers to be there.. It was planned and our standing around is cause we want to be part of it. It’s not just about selling goods its about being united as a community and doing something FUN
About the Bias against TOmmy statement..
You do realize that the only thing that came from this statement was to instigate drama. Toss out a potential personal issues between people? Totally unwarranted and unfounded. what is your motivation to single TOmmy out? oh ya and do you realize that I have made hair for TOmmy? do you know i did hair for the kiss avatars? Did you know that i consider TOmmy to be a really great guy? I never thought or knew he made hair. in all the times i have chatted with him he never once mentioned it. and i would never assume he did seeing as hes asked me to make hair for him in the past. so ya check your facts theres no personal issue with TOmmy. and if TOmmy has feelings about this all he needs to do is message me and say so. i will certainly apologize for not being aware of all of his Skills.
PS!!
and i shout this to all the readers..
THE NEW HAIR ON DISPLAY AT HAIR FAIR IS THERE EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE DURATION OF THE FAIR
in other words this means after the fair is over it will be available in our shops..
huggs n love .. come down to hair fair to chat with us & have a lil fun
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
Hosie,
You know I love ya hehehe. Contrary to your concerns, I don’t find your critique of my review to be at all hurtful or offensive. It’s your opinion, and I can completely respect that.
Lag: I definately understand lag. If I can get into the sim today, I’m definately going to try to get in and see if it’s any better. I honestly hope it is, because Hair Fair is something that I *WANT* to see succeed, but it just didn’t do it for me yesterday at all. On the textures, I think it’s a very under-stated thing that some designers who have even been designing for a while don’t think about. A 512×512 texture takes four times as long to load as a 256×256 texture. A 1024×1024 texture takes 16 times as long to load as a 256×256 texture. In a way, that’s a problem with SL in general – a definate lack of education for designers on how to minimize lag.
Individual displays: We completely agree on Lash’s, so I won’t worry about going there, but hers is EXCELLENT. On wanting to display many different things a booth, that is a huge issue. One solution, though certainly not ideal, would be to use vendors. I saw one booth that had a multi-panel vendor, and while that may not be the best solution, an extremely large single or even tri-panel vendor to replace 35 boxes would save not only on textures and “wall clutter,” but also on lag. As I said, I know that’s certainly not ideal, but it’s a thought. Yes, I know real life happens. I’m a complete believer that SecondLife should come after First Life. However, a “coming soon” or “sorry for the delay!” sign wouldn’t take that long to do, and could be accompanied by a nice landmark giver to the designer’s main store, which would be much more effective than a simple blank wall.
Overall build: I don’t disagree that designers should be able to display how they’d like to, and perhaps this is the anal side of me coming out as usual, but I would have liked to have seen it with more organization, as I stated in the review itself. If the goal of this is to get hair out there PERIOD, and let people see what’s out there, not necessarily WHO it is, why even need labels for who is who? Categorize it, have designers throw it up there, and let people buy what they like the best.
Lack of male hair: It could be that those were the ads that weren’t rezzed for me. I waited for over an hour for things to rez, and some still didn’t after that amount of time. I do know that many designers are female, and have trouble getting into men’s heads to know what they want ON their head. Looking at the list of designers (that Zyrra posted up top, not the much shorter one that I was given), I see only two males that are displaying at the Fair. That, I believe, contributes to a huge deficit in male hair in SecondLife.
Leaving designers out: Definately, not everyone can be included in something like this, however I would definately have tried to include more males. Having not been involved in this at all, I have no way of knowing if you did or not. I’m just saying what it appears to be from my angle.
The rest of your post wasn’t directed at the original review, so I won’t cover it as in-depth as I did the first part. The one exception was where you talked about my recommendation to skip the Hair Fair. I’m honsetly sorry you found that disheartening, but from what I observed yesterday, and with the lag/non-rezzing that I experienced, people could definately save time doing that. As I said up above in this comment, I’m going to stop back by the sim today and see if it’s better – and I hope it is.
A reader
Apr 15th, 2006
All I can say is you shouldn’t throw with stones sitting in a glashouse of bias, Matthias. You are in a way dependant from TOmmy, that is obvious just from looking at your SL profile (like that RL info that was censored here). Not much investigation needed – besides…I don’t have to…I’m a reader. I don’t need to see more and most of the readers of this crap paper don’t either. That damn bias sword has two blades.
.
And, yep, by acknowledging that, Matthias actually admits to have written one unfair piece of crap in the herald..including his 6grade sPeLlIng. Hosie put the rest very well. Not much to add
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
Zyrra:
You said, “You do realize that the only thing that came from this statement was to instigate drama. Toss out a potential personal issues between people? Totally unwarranted and unfounded. what is your motivation to single TOmmy out? oh ya and do you realize that I have made hair for TOmmy? do you know i did hair for the kiss avatars? Did you know that i consider TOmmy to be a really great guy? I never thought or knew he made hair. in all the times i have chatted with him he never once mentioned it. and i would never assume he did seeing as hes asked me to make hair for him in the past. so ya check your facts theres no personal issue with TOmmy. and if TOmmy has feelings about this all he needs to do is message me and say so. i will certainly apologize for not being aware of all of his Skills.”
I’d like to first quote exactly what I said: “I don’t know if it was a personal bias agaist certain people or what, but some of the larger names, such as TOmmy Fairplay of DragonFly Designs, weren’t represented. TOmmy has a decent selection of male hair, something that the Hair Fair seriously needed.”
First off, I said I didn’t know if it was a person bias or what it was. I NEVER ONCE said that there *WAS* a personal bias. It’s very different. Second off, TOmmy was the very first omission that came to mind when thinking about other designers, thus why his name was brought up. Another that comes to mind is Ben Stravinsky from Lost Dog, though he only has one style (thus why I didn’t bring his name up previously, though it is an amazing style). I’m sorry you feel that I was saying that there WAS a personal issue between you and TOmmy, but that’s not what I was saying at all. He was an example, not meant to be an end-all and be-all.
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
A reader:
You said, “You are in a way dependant from TOmmy, that is obvious just from looking at your SL profile (like that RL info that was censored here). Not much investigation needed – besides…I don’t have to…I’m a reader. I don’t need to see more and most of the readers of this crap paper don’t either. That damn bias sword has two blades.”
I am in no way dependant on TOmmy, and I have no clue what RL info was censored in your original post – I’m not the person who censored it. Yes, I’m in the group. Yes, I have a small store on DFO. No, I am not dependant on TOmmy. It’s as simple as that.
You also said, “And, yep, by acknowledging that, Matthias actually admits to have written one unfair piece of crap in the herald..including his 6grade sPeLlIng. Hosie put the rest very well. Not much to add
.”
As for unfairness, I wouldn’t say that at all. This is my opinion and my review of the Hair Fair, just as you have your opinion. If you can’t even admit that everyone has an opinion, then why are you at the Herald? As to my spelling, I love how you can’t find anything dealing with the subject to criticize, so you go to a question of spelling and resort to ad hominem attacks. That shows an extremely high level of maturity.
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
Just an update from the Hair Fair, where I currently am at the moment.
First off, Carryn Concord of Tickled Pink and Asri Falcone of Asri Falcone Originals have their displays up now, and wuvme Karuna of Caliente Express has changed hers a bit, perhaps almost ready to finally finish hers off. That side is looking much better, ladies!
Second, I originally came here to test lag, as promised, but I can’t get an accurate test. Because of the problems with the grid at the moment, I was the only person here when I arrived, and now, 15 minutes later, I’m one of only 8 people here.
Finally, even with this few people, I’m having some major rezzing issues. After 15 minutes here, less than half of the complex has loaded texturally. That is what I see as the largest issue with the Hair Fair, and it is something that could be vastly improved if people would, as HoseQueen and I both suggested, use 256×256 textures.
Hosie
Apr 15th, 2006
Ok, I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth posting war but I do want to address this one issue, regarding the intent of Hair Fair and your recommendation to skip it:
Matthais, you said:
“The one exception was where you talked about my recommendation to skip the Hair Fair. I’m honsetly sorry you found that disheartening, but from what I observed yesterday, and with the lag/non-rezzing that I experienced, people could definately save time doing that.”
This makes me feel that you don’t understand the intent of Hair Fair, which as I stated was:
“I did this to bring something fun to the Second Life community, and to have fun with the other hair designers.”
and…
“We did it to have fun, and to share with the community, and it really has been a wonderful opportunity to make new friends.”
See, it’s not about saving time or just having one huge hair store, it was about it being an EVENT, with socialization and fun. So yeah, save some time and go to our individual stores after the event is over if all you wanted was to purchase the hair. But if you want to experience the event as it was intended, chatting and having fun with the designers and other customers, then come by… we want to see you
THAT is why I said your comment was disheartening… not because by you recommending people skip it we’ll lose out on a few sales, but because you totally missed the whole point of the event (again).
<3 Hosie
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
Hosie,
I totally see where you’re coming from after reading that comment. I suppose I didn’t put as much emphasis on that because while I was there yesterday, I saw a grand total of one designer there (Torrid), and she left while I was still working on getting everything rezzed. When I just went back for a while, there were none of the designers there (though the sim count as a whole was dismal at that point, thanks to login issues – some of the designers ARE online).
Matthias
Urizenus
Apr 15th, 2006
Awesome! Hair show reviews get almost as many comments as mafia stories. Who knew?
Reader
Apr 15th, 2006
I think you need to go to take a course in journalism it is obvious you certainly lack many skills such as research and getting correct information. A good journalist takes the time to speak to the organisers, participants and consumers, if a display was empty maybe you should of asked why and find out the reasons behind it.
You say people should have used vendors its been my experience that several vendors contribute more to lag, additionaly how are multiple people to shop at same time using a vendor. I have been at a vendor when multiple people are trying to shop it is very frustrating and good luck getting the correct item when your about to purchase. That is an in effective suggestion.
The fact that the sim has been full nonstop shows that it is indeed a success. Though I did have to wait for textures to load I simply scanned other booths or came back to those that took longer. I have been back to the hair fair several times and made many happy purchases as my friends have. I also plan to return as I haven not gotten to all the booths yet. If people cant get in, then try a bit later as I did I only found a few times I was not able to access it.
You also failed to mention that people can certainly wait a few days to visit the fair it is a week long and traffic will likely lessen during the week. A good suggestion would of been to suggest to people that they should remove thier multiple attachments and AOs to help reduce lag as the major source of lag in SL is avs.
I find it really amusing that you tell people to give this event a miss, it smacks of some sort of gripe you have with the organsiers. All in all I found this to be a really great event and found your reporting to be less then honest and rather malicious.
Matthias
Apr 15th, 2006
“I find it really amusing that you tell people to give this event a miss, it smacks of some sort of gripe you have with the organsiers.”
Just because I’d recommend giving the event a miss, it doesn’t mean that I disagree with the organizers in the least. You’re dead wrong there. YOU might want to do a bit of research before throwing around baseless accusations, “Reader.”
A reader
Apr 16th, 2006
Hey, I’m “A reader”. Not just a “Reader”. That’s not my post dude. But it’s not baseless that you’re an amatuer, Matthias. You’re creations in Second Life are just so insignificant, that you try to get some attention through criticising others. You didn’t even interview these people. You didn’t give them a fair chance. Now, why should we, your readers, have any mercy with your amateurism?
Well, at least you got yourself and the Hair Fair some attention in the Herald. You did a good job in that. But for what price? You’ve definately shown bad spirit and amateur behavior, mixed with a good portion of arrogance. Now simply don’t tell others to do research. That is YOUR job in the first place, before you go out into the world and post something. That’s a form of responsibility and character.
In my humble oppinion, you simply did a bad job in researching, now you take the heat for it. That’s life. And if you can’t take it – too bad. You should maybe go back to…modelling? Vigorously evaluating avatar genitals? Well, something you CAN do – whatever suits your skills best.
One last note, you once again miss the point that your readers actually don’t need to do any research. We actually just ‘review’ what you wrote here and draw our conclusions based on that.
“This is my opinion and my review of the Hair Fair, just as you have your opinion. If you can’t even admit that everyone has an opinion, then why are you at the Herald?”
- Yes, “I think we all agree, the past is over.”
Ever heard the term, tautology?
Nuff said.
wuvme
Apr 16th, 2006
Hello there,
This is wuvme, i had some real life things to do, im pregnant in rl, and i have been really busy with my life, i have a life beyond my pixels
Im trying to set up as soon as possible, *almost done*
Sorry for any inconvinience, but its done today
And i could not care less what the herald has to say about the hair fair, i think its great, alot of people worked hard to make this event come true, and i think its great for the community and i could care less what this little “Virtual” newspaper have to say, because they did not do anything besides write a little article.
- Wuv
Urizenus
Apr 16th, 2006
I find it amusing when people who make virtual hair for avatars think it is an insult to call the Herald “virtual”. Gosh, the Herald delivers news over *the internet*! Serious news sources apparently disseminate information on clay tablets.
Mystique
Apr 25th, 2006
> I find it amusing when people who make virtual hair for avatars think it is an insult to call the Herald “virtual”.
If I can’t disintegrate in my hot hands and trash it, however could it be dubbed “news”
But seriously folks, regarding the hair fair, I admire your collective first effort and all the hard work that went into it. I enjoyed attending and I hope to see it happen again in the future! So thank you!!