Blogger's Dilemma

Written 1 August, 2010

Blogger's Dilemma

I like to help people out when I can, and I often do. I don't at all mind taking a look at someone's work, and I would never say anything bad about someone' shonest effort, honestly requested. I'll even take a look at someone's work when they're promoting themselves. But I hate it when people misrepresent themselves.

As did BigDogg Mubble, who didn't tell me he was scooping me. And as I do by the sim I just reviewed, because the reason for the request was put to me as a celebration of Indian Independence Day. When I got there, it was pure commercialism. If there was anything about Indian Independence Day, both Sweetie and I missed it. Even the supposed giveaway was for pay.

So, a dilemma. Do I not blog about it even though I promised I would? Do I blog and paint a false picture? Or do I blog and tell the truth? Do I bow to pressure, or do I provide a (hopefully) helpful critique?

In the case of Mr. Bigdogg's house, I chose not to blog, except to talk about his farming his story out to, apparently, anyone who would listen.

In the case of the most recent request, I chose to blog and tell the truth. Had I been approached by a request for review to promote a business venture, but this was put together as a celebration-- which it wasn't, except to celebrate making money.

Sweetie and I found a flat, mostly ugly, overloaded, laggy, and yes, I'll say it, tacky sim devoted entirely to commercialism. As Sweetie said in chat, "It was being spammed with visual billlboards and notecards and stuff that got me. It was like Las Vegas advertising for every dollar you have at every moment."

Well, let's just let Sweetie tell it:

"It's blatant commercialism to the point of abusing the server, with common mall mistakes like overplanning of space, with lots of planning and building issues, like camera traps and billboards assaulting you at every turn, and a bad entry area and a rather... flexible understanding of using the images of others, taking mine is illegal, using others' old stuff for resale-- perfectly fine. It just runs the irony meter off the scale."