Sunday, September 16, 2007

Sample of Life with Simone

Thought I lost this notecard that was tossed at everyone on 2007-07-19 09:12:28 PM LST. But.. I didn't. :) Direct from Simone, a re-run to make you grind your teeth.

1) There will be no private classes at your leisure. I have told TWO of you that I would make special arrangements to accomodate you because of your personal situations. THat's it, that's all, there ain't no mo'. You two need to get a hold of me.


2) Nothing happens for Virtual Angels that the corporate brand SIMONE! DESIGN doesn't make happen. I hope I am making myself clear. You want to help this charity? Then consider helping the brand throwing money and effort hand over fist at the charity. The BRAND is what is paying for the lawyer, the accountant, and the professional charity organizers to help create VA in reality. So it would be appreciated if the attitude of supporting the brand being akin to stepping onto a fresh steaming road apple ends here.


3) Amazingly, some of you just want to model, even now. Let me please make sure you understand me clearly. I don't need models! NEVER DID! That ain't the point, NEVER WAS! If you're approaching other designers to model and don't have time to support the brand, PLEASE don't make the mistake of thinking I don't KNOW!

4) If it's a pain in the ass for you to devote some of your SL time to this group, please let me show you the exit sign! It's costing me DESIGN time to train you, to organize you, and to track you down to verify what you're doing!

5) For those of you in VA, Nazz will be giving me the rundown on your activities. Believe me when I say he's a bigger 'richard' than I am about making sure things happen!

6) For those of you who think attending the events others have organized is 'enough' of an effort.... OFGS people. Do I REALLY need to address this one?

7) Most of you are working hard. A few of you are working twice or more times what you should be, and I can't thank you, or apologize to you enough. I do vow, however, to get rid of the noise-making, poop-talking dead weight in record time.

Simone

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

omg...lol

Dorra

Anonymous said...

then why was it called super model contest? thats what the group name was too... I don't get it... what a waste of time and effort and money for 90+ people.

Dorra

Anonymous said...

I'm one of the anons that has responded in other posts and has been very supportive of Mairead.

There is one thing we all have to keep in mind about the whole definition of a "Simone Super Model" vs what is the conception of a model. Before the contest even started there was a 'powerpoint-like' presentation that was in the store an given to everyone that joined the competition group that did explain that Simone wasn't looking for people to just be models in the traditional sense.

There are a thousand other ways that we were screwed over (or at least over 100-- several of which actionable within the US) but Simone did make "What is a Simone Supermodel?" mostly clear from the beginning. She did continue to add and remove things from this first presentation though.

I think I know what the other modeling rant was about. One of Simone's friends was running regular fashion shows at the time and there were already many Simone models that had been involved with this before the Simone contest. Several Simone models heard about this and asked to join in as well, and it looks like some of the specific people that asked to join were people that Simone felt weren't pulling their weight, hence the prohibition.

That was one of the most disturbing things about working with Simone. So much was done with sweeping generalizations and what seemed to be declarations sent out in a fit of anger or rage.

I haven't contacted you in-world yet, Mairead but I'd sure like to sometime. I'd love to see this blog used as a place to post all of the unedited notecards and notices so others who were around at the time (or people that happened to be on line for the specific middle-of-the-night tirade in group chat) could put more things in context.

Anonymous said...

In my stint as a simone "model", I hated with passion the CAPS, the exclamation marks, the angry IMs... too much anger and an utter lack of respect to people working hard for her. I felt used and disillusioned. What a waste of my SL time.

If you think everyone is beneath you Simone, wake up.

Unknown said...

Anonymous said --

[quote]There is one thing we all have to keep in mind about the whole definition of a "Simone Super Model" vs what is the conception of a model. Before the contest even started there was a 'powerpoint-like' presentation that was in the store an given to everyone that joined the competition group that did explain that Simone wasn't looking for people to just be models in the traditional sense.[/quote]

I am going to put up screenshots of the Powerpoint presentation. It implied she wanted enthusiastic people, not just barbie dolls.

What was required of the "models" went far beyond enthusiasm.

For that matter why did she even bother to call it a modeling competition if she didn't want models?

Perhaps because if she put a call out for people to do events, brand promotion, web and graphic work, FOR NOTHING, no one would have showed up?

Perhaps this should have been slated as an intern's Job Fair instead?

Anonymous said...

Me again...the one you quoted.

I remember speaking with Simone a few months ago when she started using the word "interns" to describe us. I think it was something that she came up with a month or so into the debacle as a way of justifying all of the time expected for so little of a pay off. During another conversation, she stated that she expected to release about 300,000L$ worth of products during our year. At 270L$ per US$, that's about $1100 USD per year (90 US$ per month).

At that time she spoke about what a wonderful opportunity it was and that in a year, any of us would know all about how to do real Second Life promotional activities rather than the way many companies come in to SL and try make the same mistakes over and over. A lofty attempt at grasping at straws, but there was no training involved. We were all in our little niches and never were exposed to all angles of promotion. If one's responsibility was just setting up and event and hosting it, one never learned all of the many tools available to actually promote the event. With the blogs disbanded, the opportunity to learn how to use "new media" and SL promotional tools was not only not done, it was not allowed. What little promotion that was done was done by specific other people.

To me, the saddest part of the whole thing was one of the things Simone said early on. She said that she was really lonely designing by herself all the time and wanted friends. She specifically stated that it made her sad that even her best customers would only come in a few times a year and say hello and she really craved more interaction. When the competition had knocked things down from over 200 to just under 100 she talked about how much it hurt to have alienated so many good customers and how she was not looking forward to doing it again. I had seriously been thinking of dropping out during round 3, but to me by this conversation, I figured out that as long as any of us finished the round, we were all in. (I wasn't totally correct. I understand that she did IM 2 people after round 3 right before the title change...so a few people didn't make it).

I really can't help but feel sorry for her. In spite of her designing success, she seems so lonely and now so many of her old regular customers are gone. I'm still 'angry' and want her to fulfill her obligations though.

One thing she said just really kills me:

"when you decide (for example!) your virtual prostitution is more important than the role you play here"

If this is the case, at least this person was allegedly being paid to get screwed over! (insert your own joke here!)

Anonymous said...

If she would just admit what she did, apologize and fulfill her obligations it might be possible to forgive (not forget) what she did.

I remember 6 months or so ago when there was a huge drama concerning another designer. That designer addmitted what happened, dropped out of game for a while, but is now back. Not as high profile, but she still has friends and a decent business in SL.

Dorra Debs

Unknown said...

I have to say I don't remember that conversation, however, I do remember standing next to the photo booth one night with her and her carrying on about the women who "wanted to learn to be like Simone". She was totally not into helping people become her competition.

As for owning up, that would be nice. I really don't want to interrupt her business or make her lose sales. I simply want her to live up to the agreement of the competition.

It seems the only way to let her know she just can't do this sort of thing with abandon is to take it to the public.

Anonymous said...

Me again.

It was Simone herself that commented about how she felt that she was going to lose customers because of the cuts made during the first round, and I'm observing that many of the people that were regular customers may now select not to shop at Simone! Design anymore just like Simone made a similar observation. Some of the comments that I mentioned in other posts were from general chat, not group chat, so the only people that heard would be those that were nearby. I'm also being careful also not to mention any private communication.

I personally do not want to disrupt her business in any way. I also just want the rest of the items that we were awarded.

Unknown said...

Yes indeed, interesting to note that Simone just release a beacoup boat load of dresses today.

One would think she was holding back until after she unceremoniously dumped us all.

Ya think?

Anonymous said...

dresses are ordinary anyway. they look very similar to each other