Miriel Enfield

So, normally I avoid this kind of post, 'cause it's just trouble and I have a reptuation. And I'll probably regret this later. But hey, I'm exhausted and stressed and you only live once and what's social capital if you can't spend it occasionally, right?

Anyway, I'm organizing the second annual Jewelry Exposition (plug, plug, go visit when we open and buy lots, kthxbye). There is, I swear, something in the water this year. Maybe a month ago a few people made an unpleasant attempt to turn the expo into Hair Fair, and a week or so after that I had Ann Otoole yelling at me out of the blue. And then today, I got this. This is not the best piece of Jewelry Expo drama, but the Hair Fair business ventures far into tl;dr territory. So you're getting this, with the name redacted.

Some background information:

1. We auctioned off ten special sponsor booths. These were quite expensive: they went from L$10K to L$30K. Redacted won a kind I'd dubbed a type C booth. Compared to a regular booth, a type C has over four times the prim and texture limits, over three times the square footage, is in a much better location (it's a freestanding booth in the middle of the expo), and allows the owner the buy twice as many extra prims and textures.

2. So that people could put their stalls together early, I sent out copies of all the booths to the group. I made them full perm for convenience -- you know, in case people wanted to rename them or they had one too many prims for the land or whatever. It didn't even occur to me to send out a note saying that you wouldn't actually be able to modify the build.

3. Yeah, the expo build looked pretty bad last year. This year, too.

(Name Redacted's partner sent me an IM with questions, saying to contact her with the answers.)
[2008/09/28 13:57] Miriel Enfield: You cannot build your own booth. However, you can add walls, a floor, and a ceiling to the existing booth if you want, and you can build higher than the 9m walls. Since you have a freestanding booth, you can also place signs with your business name on the outside walls.
[2008/09/28 13:57] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[2008/09/29 7:00] Name Redacted: (Saved Mon Sep 29 04:42:36 2008) Hi Miriel, thanks for your replies. I think we may have a minor problem if I'm not allowed to rexture the inside of the booth. My build relies upon the walls being glass, at least from the inside. I'm not so fussed if the outside walls are glass or not, but the inside needs to be to be in keeping with the themes of my jewellery, and the expo. I have a very low pixel glass texture which I was going to line the inner walls of the booth with. Perhaps you'd like to come over and see the build - I've not finished all the textures yet, but the majority are done. If I can't retexture the booth walls we have a problem as the build just won't work - there was nothing in any of the many lists of rules and FAQ's that informed us that we couldn't, and as you sent out booths full perm, I presumed we'd be able to. I am away from ... midday GMT on Wednesday (4am SLT) so I think we need to resolve this as a matter of some urgency. Many thanks again for your help
[2008/09/29 7:07] Miriel Enfield: I'm sorry you thought that (it's not included in the rules because nobody ever assumed it before) and that it interferes with your plans for your booth, but I can't grant you the ability to modify the build itself. If I do it for you, I have to do it for everyone, and there's a massive potential for trouble there. Even if nobody acts maliciously and everyone perfectly understands and follows the rules, there's a possibility of things getting accidentally moved, deleted, retextured, etc.
-- Instant message logging enabled --
[7:30] Name Redacted: (Saved Mon Sep 29 07:22:47 2008) Miriel - you sent out modifyable booths. I have spoken to some of the other sponsored booth creators and they all assumed, like me, that we could modify the build, otherwise you'd have sent them no mod. I know at least one other person had intended the walls of her booth to be glass. I appreciate that allowing everyone the ability to mod their booths would be fraught with potential problems, but those of us who have basically paid for the expo should be afforded at least some privelidges surely? It would be entirely reasonable to allow us modify rights for a few hours, and then revoke them.
[7:30] Name Redacted: (Saved Mon Sep 29 07:25:25 2008) I very much appreciate the amount of work you have done for the expo, and have not complained about the restrictions - I understand the reason for limiting texture size and have happily worked around that. However, there is no *good* reason to not allow C booth sponsors the ability to mod at least the interior of their booths. it would be minimal work for yourself - granting and then revoking rights.
[7:41] Miriel Enfield: I'm sorry that you and some others misunderstood. I made the booths mod for convenience, and I honestly hadn't thought that people would get that impression. I should have been clearer, and it's a mistake I won't repeat next year. :/ However, like I said, if I grant modify rights to you, I have to give them to everyone. People who were unaware that this was allowed (because it wasn't) could feel cheated. A bigger issue is the fact that granting everyone rights just isn't feasible for me. We have a lot of vendors and not everyone can be on at the same time. Modify permissions would have to be enabled for far longer than a few hours. As for privileges, that's what your extra prims, pixels, and space are, as well as your better location. Again, I'm sorry this was unclear, but the answer is and will remain no.
[7:52] Name Redacted: I am trying to carefully word my reply as I have no desire to offend you. I have utmost respect for you as a designer and for organising the expo. However, you don't *have* to give modify rights to everyone - those who have paid large amounts of money, and are basically funding the expo, have BOUGHT the right to some priviledges others that have paid only 100L do not have. I appreciate that last years expo was apparently a success, and why change a working formula - but with all things, there is always something that can be improved upon. I'd not started making jewellery last year, and I'll be frank, I thought the expo was visually very poor. I didn't buy anything there. I am asking for 4 people to be allowed rights to modify the interior walls of their excruciatingly expensive booths. In the grand scheme of things it's a small ask. Remember, if our booths look good, you look good.
[8:01] Name Redacted: In fact, it had been my intention, in my build, to prove to the others who have been complaining, that it's easily possible to make an outstanding display within your restrictions....
[8:09] Miriel Enfield: I'm sorry, I had to AFK.
[8:11] Miriel Enfield: It wouldn't be just four booths. There are ten sponsor booths, in fact; the people in the other six also paid a lot of money. Again, though, you already have bought privileges. Your extra prims, pixels, and space, and better locations, are your privileges.
[8:12] Name Redacted: Has anyone ever told you in RL that your inflexibility is not one of your best features?
[8:12] Name Redacted: :-)
[8:13] Name Redacted: 10 people is still not very many.
[8:14] Name Redacted: And, whilst I'm sure it feels like it, I very much doubt that the whole expo will fall apart if you stop controlling every single minute detail of it
[8:22] Miriel Enfield: I said no and I gave my reasons. I can't just go making new benefits for sponsor booths at this point; that's not fair to people who may have bid, had they known they'd get mod rights. I can talk about build modification in the meetings for next year, but I'm not going to go changing the rules for this year's expo at this point in time. If you're that upset about it, I can refund you your booth bid (but not your L$100, that's nonrefundable) and give your slot to someone else. Otherwise, I'd appreciate it if you dropped the subject.

(This came later: not the timestamp.)

[9:20] Name Redacted: May I just check, before I do anything else - are there any other "rules" you have forgotton to tell us? If I build within what you have said so far am i safe?
[9:25] Miriel Enfield: For the record, I didn't forget; it just didn't occur to me. And you should be fine.

Serious question: was I being unreasonable? I've considered it and I don't think I was, but I trust you guys.

Decadent

I can see where people would have gotten the impression that they could modify their booths somewhat due to the perms, but the conversation should have ended when you said "No."

The snide comments later are just the icing on the cake.

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Miriel Enfield

Yeah, that was a mistake on my part. :/ It didn't even occur to me that people could interpret it that way. The problems with letting everyone mod the build seem so obvious to me that I didn't realize people would get that impression.

It's my least favorite part of making rules: when someone wants or does something that I can't really allow, but which I didn't even think to forbid.

Darkley

The thing is, unless its come up before, you wouldn't think of it - next year you will have in giant writing NO MODIFICATION OF BOOTHS

you apologised and made it clear - end of story

I hate people who have that 'entitlement' attitude - i paid this therefore im special and should have special dispensation to do whatever the fuck i like

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Vertigo Paris

I have to admit, I probably would have assumed the same thing but I would have also asked to clarify before going on the -assumption-.

My advice is take her arguments and mull them over for next year's, would it really be so bad to let them mod the inside? If not, go for it! But I think you absolutely made the right call in not letting them do it at this point in time. Today it would have been mod rights, tomorrow what would it had been?

As somone who participated in the fair and would like to again, a sudden rule change would have looked fishy.

And besides...why can't they put prim walls up to give the glass look they want? Or am I missing something?

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Siobhan OFlynn

I think you were beyond polite and patient.


And I agree with Darkley, I hate that "entitlement" attitude.

And yeah, what Verti said, too. Why can't she simply put up her glass walls as a prim inside the booth?

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Miriel Enfield

She can't put up the prim glass walls because you'd just see the regular booth walls through them. She wants (I assume) a booth that you can look out of.

I actually have thought about letting people mod the walls next year, since this conversation. I'll bring it up at a meeting, but it'd have to only be for the freestanding booths. Letting people mod things with shared walls and floors is an invitation for trouble. All you need is one person accidentally selecting the entire wall instead of just one face, and suddenly their neighbor's booth is messed up. :/

Natalie P.

Needs moar beatings, imho.

I'll help.

<--- not to be trifled with today.

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Vertigo Paris

Meh, unless she wants a view of the rest of expo (which I am not sure why, you don't want ppl to see someone else's stuff while in your store, do you?) she could easily texture the back side of the prim with a scene on the 'outside' of the glass.

That's how *I* would solve the problem but she could very well have a different agenda.

Miriel Enfield

I think she does want a view of the expo. I'm baffled as to why. Then again, I also tend to be at little bit of a loss when confronted with people who get so attached to their booth designs. I get being upset, but I don't get acting like your booth is ruined.

Of course, my booths tend to look like they're held together with duct tape and chicken wire, so I may not be the best person to imitate here.

Cincia Singh

Maybe a line in the rules about "anything not expressly permitted in the rules is forbidden." That may help prevent conversations like you've had.

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Miriel Enfield

Then I run into the problem of not being able to think of all the things I should allow, though. Besides my reputation as an organizer is bad enough as it is.

Vertigo Paris

I was pretty impressed by some of the booths last year. I tried very hard to keep mine as minimal as possible and yet, there were a couple that were very grandiose and showcased one peice of jewelry.

I was very at that but at the same time in total awe of their build. I can't even begin to tell you how much I freaked out when I saw that Shiny Things was my neighbor. Sean had to pull me off the ceiling.

Ahh, the memories. And all because of you!

Mourna Biziou

Snarky comments followed by an emoticon just push my buttons. grrr.

And yeah, what others have said. The mod sample booth might have made me think that would be the case at the fair, but once you said it is not, that settles the issue.

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Siobhan OFlynn

Miriel, I don't believe for an instant that your booths look that bad! Your jewelry, hair, eyes and clothes are exquisite and I don't think you're capable of producing anything that looks crappy!

Now, if *I* built your booths, they'd look pretty horrific. But then, I can barely texture a prim.

Siyu Suen

Another thought is that once she places her booth, you could just delete the one you created. No mod rights involved, and then if someone else asks, say that it was requested by a sponsor, and if another sponsor requests, that's feasible too as long as the request is made a day before the fair opens. The rules won't have to be changed, and you won't have to grant mod rights to ANYone, since that would be my issue with it as well. But deleting a booth? I could deal with that, as long as she placed hers exactly where the past one was, with the same dimensions and qualities.

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Vertigo Paris

Oooh, I actually like that idea....

Siyu Suen

But I definitely think mine is thinking outside the box (*giggles*), because neither Miriel nor the vendor thought of that. Miriel was in every right to refuse what the vendor was asking for, which was mod rights.

Miriel Enfield

I'd ranted in another thread that she was unreasonable to assume the booths would be mod; seeing these responses, though, it looks like that wasn't a fair judgment on my part. Anyway, there'll be a big "no, you can't mod this" note sent out with the sample booths next year.

I'm really, really uncomfortable changing things around at this point. It's not entirely fair to the people who may have bid had they known, nor to the people who won the other kinds of sponsor booths. Suddenly granting significant privileges to some vendors and not others seems like a recipe for bad blood.

Miriel Enfield

Clearly, you did not look close enough at my booth last year.

It'll be harder to prove you wrong this year, since I'm putting more effort into my stall, but I'm confident I can do it. Just spend a lot of time scrutinizing the roof texture, and I'm sure you'll agree: it's ugly.

Siyu Suen

Completely understandable, but I think people would be less upset about having not bid on it if the stalls were identical to yours, only with a different texture. As in, they used exactly the full perm boot you sent out, retextured it, and put exactly where your booth that you built was. I think privately IM'ing ten people and saying "I did this for this one person, if you want to get back to me about possibly doing the same, let me know three (or w/e) days before the expo opens".

However, I don't think this person should have anyone kowtowing to them or bending over backwards to their will, they started off very reasonable but they should have shown more respect for your wishes. So maybe you should just chalk it up as a thought for next year and let it lie. Tell her as much too, just say "next year this will be an option, with sufficient time for me to handle it" and let it go.

Miriel Enfield

That's the plan. The more I think about it, I realize the less it'd be a problem for the freestanding booths. I'm just really uncomfortable with suddenly changing the rules for a handful of people at this point.

Tya

if possible, send out a "reminder" notice about how much people are allowed to " mod" their booth.


were you unreasonable? no.
was she. yes.


best line:

Miriel Enfield

I did this. I think it's what prompted her last comment to me.

I really did have to AFK. The dog's really sick and I needed to watch her for around fifteen to twenty minutes.

Arilynn

I have no idea what your booth looked like last year, but give yourself credit. I'm sure it is better than what most could have done, and you are working on improvements for this year. Here's what my booth looks like so far - I'm excited about displaying my fine selection of white cubes:


I hope this thread has made you feel better and people are more appreciative of your hard work.