Well it seems a little bit of controversy is good for the not only the soul but the blog stats too. LOL  Last weeks discussions of freebies was certainly interesting.  Fortunately I didn’t get the hate mail/comments that Ana and Prad did.  I will never understand how viscious people can be simply because they either don’t agree, or don’t understand.  Anyway, enough about serious stuff for now.  The economics of SL won’t crumble in a day or two.

 If you want to read something laugh out loud funny, then go read Prad’s blog.  His latest post is sheer genius.  I warn you though, put beverages down before reading.  I will not be responsible for you spewing (insert beverage of choice here) on your monitor or keyboard.  Nor will I be held responsible for the pain and suffering of your nose when the above occurs.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

Lands was a busy blogger too.  Her post about the Women of Crown is really lovely.  Gave me a warm feeling inside.  These ladies are family and you mess with one of them, you take  your life in your hands.  Just sayin…  Her reflections on RL and SL are awesome too.  I’ve got a post floating around in my head about that too.

Yesterday was the 1st annual pub/bar crawl.  Sponsored by Molaskey’s and organized by Nasus Dumart.  It was a lot of fun.  I wasn’t able to go out to the other bars, I was DJing the event for the Crown but it seemed to be a success.  It was nice to meet some new people, make some new friends.  I hope everyone stops back at the Crown in the future.

I spent some time working on the gallery.  I think it’s just about ready to open.  Invites will go out in the next few days.  Each artist will have a  panel in which to display their work.  Themes will change frequently.  Each artist will need to change their art every 2 weeks or so.  Details will go out soon.  I realize there are loads of galleries out there. This is meant to be constantly changing.  A commentary on SL itself with things changing in world at such a quick pace.

The Crown moves soon.  She’s all grown up now, moving to her own island.  *sniffs*  Her father and I are so proud.  She’s grown up to be the warm, friendly and welcoming place we’d always hoped she be.  She turns one year old soon.  There will be a party.  Lots of cake. You must come.

That’s it from me for now.

Wow.  It amazes me how quickly people can jump to personally attack someone on their own blog.  Yesterday two blogs, Ana’s and Prad’s started a discussion about freebies in SL.  Now I don’t know Ana other than what I read on her blog.  I do know Prad though.  If he takes up a serious topic on his blog, it’s because he has an opinion he wants to share. 

After reading his post and Ana’s I added one of my own.  You can read it here .  After following the comments all day and then catching up on Plurk when I got home, what is amazing to me is how quick some people were to jump to attack Ana and Prad for starting a discussion about a topic that in my mind needs to be discussed.  It doesn’t mean everyone needs to agree.  In fact, it would be sad if we did all agree on everything.  I enjoy a good honest debate, but when people start making personal attacks, that’s wrong.  Is it that they have nothing to say but want to *participate*?  Or are they simply seeking attention for themselves?  I don’t know.  Maybe a bit of both.

I resisted starting a blog for a long time.  Reason… I didn’t want to subject myself to either having no one read the blog or to having the personal attacks.  It occurred to me though, I write it for myself.  If someone reads, great!  As far as personal attacks, no one has yet.  If they do, I stand behind what I write here.  If you disagree with me, tell me.  Argue your point.  Hey, you may even change my mind!

So, to get back to yesterday and the freebie discussion.  A few things occur to me.

1.  Most people like getting freebies in one way or another.  Well who doesn’t really, especially if it’s something well done and given to you by the creator for one reason or another.  I certainly don’t turn down group gifts.  Nor do I refuse gifts from my friends who are content creators.

2.  Most store owners want to increase traffic AND sales.  Well this is really a no-brainer.   Announcing a freebie will increase traffic.  Will it increase sales?  Don’t know.  I think there is a 50/50 shot here.  The theory is that the more people who come to the store, the more chance you have to make a sale.  I’d really love to see a test to see if works.  Not hard to do either.  Would take 3 weeks in total.  One week of normal operations.  One week of a freebie.  One week of no freebie but other *advertising*.

3.  Store owners/content creators don’t like the folks who walk around like they are *entitled* to something.  Well really, who does?  I agree it has gotten way out of control.  Whether it’s RL society issues or not, i’m not sure.  I have  noticed though an entire generation of young people who feel they are *owed* something.  I could write an entire blog post on this subject alone, and maybe I will.  My suggestion here, if you have people like this, mute them and ban them.  I  know someone(sorry can’t remember where I saw it) already mentioned this.  I think in the comments of Ana’s post.  You aren’t going to lose a good customer because this person won’t pay for anything in the first place.

So, those are the 3 main things I’ve seen/heard/noted from the discussions yesterday.  Instead of attacking each other, why not get together and do something to try to change what you don’t like and promote what you do?  Run some experiments/tests to see what really improves sales.  I put some suggestions on my post yesterday. 

I may not have a store or be a content creator myself, but I am a consumer.  I spend my $L like a lot of people, pay tier(own a sim and 3 open spaces), and run a bar(The Crown and Pearl) so I do have some knowledge of how things work.  I’d love to see several store owners come together and try something different. 

That’s my 2 cents worth.