(Follow-Up) Things That Make You Go Hmm...

I wanted to post a follow-up to my original post about the use of the names of Several well known Shoe Designers (i.e. Stiletto Moody, Shiny Things, Maitreya, Storm Schmooz, Tesla, DeLa) in an add for Juicy shoes, where I made the assumption that "Juicy Littlething", the avatar that placed the Classified was in-fact Gorgeous Yongho aka. GOGOLITA.COM.

After reading a comment on the post from Tenshi, who pointed out that this indeed might be someone out to ruin the name of Gorgeous, I felt it was necessary to cover my bases and do a little more research.
Here is what I found:

I went to Juicy Shoes Mainstore, and looked at the Land Listing, found it was group owned, and looked at the Group Owners. As you can see in the following picture, "Juicy Littlething" is indeed a group owner for the Land Holder.


In addition, the Sign on the wall of the shop clearly states that all customer service issues be taken to "Juicy Littlething", who I can only assume is either an employee of, co-owner of the shop, or Gorgeous Yongho's Alt account.


I also received a comment about a post that GOGOLITA.COM made regarding the use of sub-contracting to make a product, in particular where she referred to Stiletto Moody's Collaborators as "Sweatshop Workers". I decided to inspect one of the shoes, and found that the creator of the shoe was not Gorgeous Yongho, but rather an avatar named Elven Dreamscape. As Gorgeous had claimed to be friends with one of Stiletto Moody's former employees, I wonder who really is responsible for making these shoes.


Here are two shots of Elven's Profile.



Another comment also stated that the Classified had been edited sometime between yesterdays post and this morning. As you can see, the Names of the other Shoe Brands have been removed, although curiously, the word "moody" still appears in the listing. Call me ignorant, but I have never run a search for "moody" when looking for shoes. Perhaps this is an act of mere defiance, as the word "moody" is not copyrighted.



So, as far as covering my bases, I think I have done all that I can to be sure that my original suppositions are correct about the origins of the Classified Ad in question, and the lack of ethics displayed in using competitors names in your listings. Of all the comments I have received, the most interesting to me was one that suggested that using a competitors name to sell your goods is not only unethical, but also against the Terms of Service agreement, I wonder if anyone else has more information on this point.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm....

Stiletto Moody, the creator of some of the best sculptie heels on the GRID is having a GALA Awards Night Today to Celebrate Her Recent Customer Photo Contest, and a display of the finalist's photos. I have a deranged Inventory, over 31,000 Items.. so Landmarks get lost and deleted a lot. I ran a Search for Stiletto Moody in "All(Old)" so I knew where I was headed for the event, and came upon a most surprising Classified Ad. It came up in search as the first hit that was not a Group, and above the actual shop listing. I pretty much clicked on the classified ad by accident, thinking it was a Stiletto Moody classified.

Had I been paying closer attention, I might have read the name of the Classified first. "Juicy Main Store - SEXY SHOES & STILETTOS!!!!" obviously not what I was looking for. But I was kind of surprised that the listing came up on the search term Stiletto Moody, so I scrolled through the listing to find out why.

Here Are Screenshots of the Listing, and Profile of the Avatar who pays for this Classified.




Now I may not be an ethicist, nor am I trying to stir up controversy (plenty of other people do that with more panache then I can claim), but I have read at least 2 posts on the GOGOLITA.COM blog, including one titled Stiletto Moody or.. Sasawe Capalini? where Gorgeous Yongho (aka GoGo) has made it clear that she is no fan of Stiletto Moody, her shoes, or her methods of creative collaboration. She actually tagged the post "fugly shoes". I say fine, knock yourself out, your opinion, you are more then entitled, etc. It is very clear that the Alt used to list this Classified "Juicy Littlething" is one and the same with Gorgeous Yongho, as the photos in the listing for the Juicy Shoes can be seen on GOGLITA.COM quite readily. Take a Look Here. My point here, is that if you have such a strong dislike for a designer, and are very public with this opinion, why would you include the name of that Designer/Brand in your own classifieds, unless you are trying to achieve more hits in search? Lots of people do it, including certain Key Words in your ad will definitely result in more hits (i.e. Sex, Escort, BDSM, hooker), but not only is the Stiletto Moody name copyrighted, but it seems highly unethical to me that you would use the name of a competitor to sell your own shoes, particularly when you have been so vociferously opposed to said designer.

The complete list of Key Words used in the listing appear below:
shoes, heels, pumps, stiletto, sculpted shoes, sexy heels, colors, rainbow, pink, model, couture, high heels, fashion, sculptie, sculpt, sandals, pumps, platforms, fetish, slingback, woman, ladies, couture, runway, hot, foot fetish, bdsm, hooker, sex, escort, stiletto moody, maitreya, quality, texture, storm schmooz, dela, shiny things, tesla

As you can see, several other top shoe designers in-world are also mentioned in the Classified. I am really curious to know what your thoughts are on this issue. Please feel free to comment, all comments will be posted unedited.