Fashion blog ettiquette

I've started a fashion blog for Mens freebie fashion http://freeformen.wordpress.com/ and I've already started to get designers sending reccs to me.

But what do I do when a reccommendation is awful? I don't just mean a garment that's not to my taste, but one that's actually badly made, with poor textures, mis-matched seams etc? Should I just not review such an item like that at all? Review it but don't give my personal opinion of it? Review it and tell the whole gory truth?

Or doesn't it matter when the outfit only costs L$1 anyway? If it had come from a box out of a freebie warehouse I'd be inclined to say it doesn't matter. But what about a store's own freebie offer, where it's meant to be promoting the quality of the store's products? It certainly doesn't inspire me to want to spend lindens in a place like that.

What do you lot think?

I suppose it depends on the individual designer's ability to accept constructive criticism.

Personally, I would give each item a fair review based on its merits or lack thereof. A fawning review or one that conveniently ignores the massive flaws in the product is basically a free advertisement and not an impartial critique.

If something is a freebie, it's certainly worth pointing out, but I fully agree with you that it is not a licence to pass on shoddy designs if it is a store freebie and not an aspiring designer being philanthropic.

That said, I get the impression that the fashion community in general doesn't take too kindly to honest, warts-and-all reviews. I'd love to see someone really get their teeth into tell-it-like-it-is reviewing AND manage to avoid the quite ludicrous drama and back-biting that follows SLs fashionista movement wherever it goes.

Good luck!

I think it depends upon your goal for the blog?

The only real reason for giving special treatment for poor reviews is if you're planning on making money off the blog, and you believe that offending designers or shop owners will hurt your business. And even so, that's just an opinion on the business model, and doesn't mean you couldn't be profitable while treating everyone the same.

On the other hand, if you're really just trying to serve your readers, without regard to selling advertising, then there's no reason not to operate will full integrity. Publish the truth, don't whitewash it. Put your integrity above everything else.

I'm definitely not intending to make money off the blog; it's just something I thought of doing after failing to find a similar blog myself. Plus, I had this new alt hanging around with nothing to do. *g*

You can say that again. There have benn a couple occasions here where creators have asked for opinions on their goods, only to go off into a tizzy when given them if they weren't glowing.

Firstly, I would send a copy of the review to the designer before it's printed. If they are very new and inexperienced, perhaps you can ask they resubmit for review at a later date, find something positive to say and perhaps decline to print it. Your writing style will be of iimpact also. If you are giving constructive criticism or going for the high drama ambush critiques popular today.

The free fashion blogs that I frequent are normally just advertisements for a designer who will offer a quality freebie and submit it to get traffic to their store so theat the rest of the line can be seen and hopefully appreciated. Personally, if I see a quality freebie and I hop over to grab it, I do stick around long enough to rez it all and often times will buy something else if I like the line. If it's a crap freebie, I won't even visit the store.

I think that for a designer to offer up a crap freebie because it's not their best work is pretty much shooting themself in the foot.

Here's my view.

I believe that any review should be honest and impartial and for that reason, I prefer to shop on SLX if for no other reason that I can read other reviews and leave my own.

I have left what I felt to be honest and pretty critical reviews and have received unrequested refunds and comments from the designers.

In one case, one replied back and said honestly "it was an early product" and she agreed that it wasn't up to her recent standard.

So, is there any latitude for contacting the designer and offering right of reply either before or after publishing? If they can't take positive critical review then they shouldn't really be in the business of creation but equally, I don't want to read a glowing report which is inaccurate but nor is an over critical review of an item say priced at 400L, expecting the detail of something similar which would go for 1000L.

Aside from MoxZ's comment about advertising, I confess I don't see a reason for a fashion blog about freebies.

As I see it, the fashion mags and blogs are there to get designs that are for SALE out there in front of people's eyes. Good review = more customers = more sales. On the buyer's side, the reviews save them time and let them better decide how to allocate their clothing budget.

But with freebies, there's nothing in it for the maker, and the "buyer" will just pick up one of everything, whether they're good or bad, and decide for himself what he wants to keep.

You should do whatever is fun for you, of course...I'm not telling you that you should stop. I'm just puzzled because I don't get it.

Many of the stores that I buy clothes from, I first found via a freebie offer and liked their stuff. After spending money on items that did not fit right or did not really look like the picture, I started getting leary of buying something that I had not actually seen on me or someone.

I joined the Free Style group a long time ago when my account was new, initially just to get free and cheap clothes, but foiund that it is the best way to try out new designers -- especially the ones that are a bit higher priced. Their corresponding blog gives me the chance to see pictures of some of the clothes on someone, which sometimes eliminates a trip to a store.

It's your blog so you can take whatever aproach feels right to you. Myself, I would probably not review items I didn't care for. Maybe the blog could end up being a showcase for great free items rather than a a source of real criticism.

You could always include a mention of the store with the poor quality item in the review for something else without pictures or commentary. That way it gets a mention, and free is free after all, the "buyer" isn't out anything by picking one up, whether they like it or not. That way you don't have to say anything that makes you uncomfortable either way.

I just found some women's fashion freebie blogs, and had fun going off to undiscovered parts of the grid. I went to check out a free product from a tiny little shop I'd never heard of and ended up wandering around the neighboring stores for quite awhile. I think it is a great way to offer some exposure to lesser known places.

Many of the items in my closet I have found through freebies. I liked the style or such and looked for the maker.

I think a blog would be a wonderful idea by the way. Is there any for the ladies? I have read a couple but seems they are just advertising for one maker so to speak.

If it was me I would be honest and do like the others said submit it to the maker to show them before publishing it.

Bec

I've never seen anything negative on either of these, so I don't know if they just avoid negative items entirely or if they just always find something nice to say:

http://slfreestyle.blogspot.com/

and

http://fabfree.wordpress.com/

You can also do as we do on www.slmen.com, we just review good items, when I read blogs I really don't want to waste my time with crappy stuff, so my advise for you is just to review by quality... another good example of freebie good stuff blog is Creamy's blog: http://slfreestyle.blogspot.com/

The only reason I might read a blog such as yours is to get a someone objective opinion on a product before I spent time and money pursuing it.

You need to be as honest as possible about the products that you review for such a blog to have any value to other readers.

However, to make your blog valuable, it's also important to try to step back, recognize your opinion is one opinion, and different people might have different tastes.

One thing I'd say is that the more specific things that you have to say about a product, the more useful it is. Declaring that a product is a "bad" product just isn't that helpful. Specifying the specific reasons it strikes you as bad is much more helpful- mismatched seams, low-resolution textures. If you list enough specifics, then generalizations (a "bad" product really aren't necessary).

I think it is fair to take into account the cost of the product when reviewing the product. Most good, educated consumers with limited amounts of money aren't necessarily looking for the absolutely best product of a type they can find. Rather, they are looking for the best values. So, a product might have problems that make it an inferior product to that which you might spend a few hundred L for. But, for a $1L or free, it might be worth picking up.

It's a good practice to say as many good things about a product as you can, even for one that may be bad overall. This isn't necessarily just to soothe the feelings of the creator. It helps your readers who may not have the same tastes as you. You may find that the bad aspects of a product outweigh the good aspects; other people might not be as put off by the bad things, but find the good things really important. If you challenge yourself to say as many good things about a bad product (or as many bad things about a good product), ultimately your blog will be more informative to readers.

The most important thing is just to be as honest as possible, and then be as detailed and complete as possible.

I understand why you would be hestitant to say things that particular designers might find insulting. However, I think what you might find is that even if you give a bad review to something, if it's also detailed, complete, and fair- providing good backup to your review- designers will accept bad reviews more. Some designers might even appreciate your honesty, and take a bad, but well-justified review, as an opportunity to improve their work.

You may also provide a space in your blog to allow designers to respond to what you have said about the product. That should make them feel better about the whole process, because they do have a say to minimize what might be a bad review on your part. The goal isn't to be "right" about a review, but to provide as much information as possible. If you have done the best you can do with the review, then designers' responses shouldn't bother you too much.

As I like to say, I don't need to get in the last word, if I have chosen my first words well.

Ideally, you'd want to have a blog that serves consumers well, but helps you maintain relationships with designers as well. However, you have to decide if the primary goal of your blog is to help consumers, or to showcase designers. If you are doing it for the consumers primarily, then in the course of honestly, you're just going to have to accept the fact that you will inevitably upset some designers.

I think for some people even bad news is good news. Hey Second Life thrives on bad news doesn't it?

I'd say you should include badly designed clothing freebies. It's possible the designers know there are problems and that's why they are making them free. I've seen several designers who have given out freebies and explained that they made some mistakes with a certain item of clothing and instead of just trashing it they are just giving it away free.

A freebie may not reflect the overall quality of the designer and people do improve over time as they make items. I've seen some old freebie clothes and when you look at the creator it's some old SL designer who makes really good stuff now. Who knows? Maybe getting a bad review will push the designer into releasing a better item for free.

While I'm all for giving away quality freebies, putting my best work out for 1L isn't a good idea for anyone, is it?


I'm the designer who's things are "horrible" in the eyes of the OP. I reponded on his blog with a comment that the length of the pants were due to a bug in SL, that the texture is full length, and even extends beyond the template limits. I also thanked him for his constructive criticism. I do worry now that the bad publicity over a freebie will cause me to lose potential customers. His review of a freebie item I'm offering to the general public shouldn't speak for my entire line, but it will to quite a few. I've spent days to weeks lining up textures on most of my items. As I said, I'm not going to put my best work out for free. I'm sorry.

I"d rather he just sent a note back saying "I'm sorry, I won't be reviewing your items. Thank you for your submission" than to post the negative review he did.

Thank you all for allowing me my say.

Dani

He didn't actually say "horrible", though, did he?

I'm curious about the policy of sending items for review, but not wanting anything that isn't complimentary to be published. Likewise, I'm curious about the premise behind offering freebies - is it a showcase for one's work that acts as a loss leader to encourage customers to browse regular priced stuff, or an opportunity to shift an experimental item or reward existing patrons?

This doesn't specifically apply to you, Dani, it's more of a general question to clothes designers/sellers.

That is actually a good question and I am curious as to how the designers look at it.

As a consumer, I use the freebie to evaluate a designer - using the quality of the item along with the average price of their merchandise. If the freebie does not seem good enough quality to warrent their average price, I will not take a chance on actually spending money there. I know a lot of designers that give away super quality items to their groups and such - items that are just as good of quality as their other merchandise.

Of course it's a good question. No need to sound so surprised

As an equally avid consumer, I'm of the same opinion.

That's my feeling as well. I think of freebies as samples, so I disagree that a freebie shouldn't represent a designer's best work.

I'm no longer new, but I still have to watch what I spend. When I do splurge, I try to purchase from designers whose high quality freebies/group gifts I"ve benefited from.

Some of the best established names in SL are also the most generous with quality gifts.
Looking in my virtual closet, I would be surprised if anyone could tell the difference in what I paid for and what I got for free.

On the original topic though, I'd say contacting the maker to let them know that you found problems with their work would be the fairest thing to do.
If someone is charging for shoddy goods, or has poor customer service, that's one thing, but giving away low quality freebs is a whole different matter.

Well, no, he didnt say horrible..he said Awful.

Not in his review.

Personally, I took the situation referred to in the OP as a hypothetical one.

I read through the review and I saw the phrases 'somewhat plain' and 'a little odd', but I didn't see 'awful'.

You're both right. He said Awful here in the forum, and I have been known to make assumptions that were incorrect, and I'm NOT paranoid, they really ARE out to get me hahahaha. It is possible I am hypersensitive about the whole thing, which is understandable...and I do realize that, which is why I've tried to keep my comments neutral and appreciative I wouldn't want people to not be honest, but as I said, I feel a very negative and incorrect review such as the one I got could cause the loss of many potential customers. I welcome constructive critizm, I just would have preferred it be made in private. I'm of the school that if you can't say something nice, just don't say anything. I realize not everyone is that way, and there is no "right" way to be.



Thank you for your feedback in this thread. I am hearing what all of you have to say.

one option -

If it's an awful or really bad product... don't publish a review

I know a couple that only publish reviews of products they feel meet a good standard

It lets them be critical and yet not post negative reviews.

Some will send notecards to the creators and explain why they did not publish a review listing the things they found lacking or troublesome.

One or two have been jerks about it... but the stance was "Would you rather I publish the review I sent in the notecard for all to read? It can be arranged"