There is this giant virtual world/video game named Second Life, and within it people like to do good deeds. For the last several years there have been various charity funds, including Fashion For Life (FFL, a donor to the Cancer Charity Relay for Life). Part of the fashion world in Second Life are various blogs, where people volunteer to blog about items specific to the event; sometimes they are given things to blog, and other times they purchase their own, but there's been increasing tension because of store owners who believe bloggers are taking advantage of free gifts and not blogging them.

In the wake of the 2012 Fashion for Life event, Fashion for Life recursively blogged about the bloggers, including call-outs to people who either didn't blog for the event (the original has been deleted but an image was saved by Shopping Cart Disco here). This spurred the so-called Second Life Associate Press (not associated with the Associated Press) to post a Hall of Shame targeting bloggers "who took advantage of Harper Bereford’s trust and got the goodies but couldn’t be bothered to do even one post and you all need to know who they are." One of the members of the SL Associated press, Quella Quan, was even kind enough to contact the bloggers in world, point them to the post, and in at least one case ask why the person hadn't blogged. Another blogger admitted her shame on Second Life's official forum and received a fascinating array of responses.

In a supreme fit of irony, one of the bloggers listed didn't blog because her cancer has re-occured. That's right - people associated with a Cancer Charity shamed a cancer patient for seeking treatment for her cancer instead of blogging for a Cancer Charity.

If that wasn't delicious enough, the Editor of SL Associated Press/Best of Second Life (don't ask me to tell them apart, I have important tv shows to watch) posted the best half-assed apology ever, wherein the claim was made that things shouldn't be deleted (even though they were) because CENSORSHIP and that really the tone was wrong, not the message - since we all know those damn cancer patients should just blog from their beds of pain if they want to not be "Tacky tacky tacky".

The final bout of irony - for the first several days of the wank, the writer for the SL Associated Press was too busy with offline things to deal with the fallout of his post.

For more details, check out the original Shopping Cart Disco post on this, and the charming follow up.


Notable Quotables:

"SL Fashion is such a nepotistic little clique it gives me the shits."

"What is also saddening is certain sanctimonious hypocrites crying they are so ‘dismayed’ by the words and behaviors of others when they are lying, thieving, fake, drama whores themselves and people fall for it. If you’re going to comment on this at least be honest with yourself bitch and take a good long look into the mirror!"

"Donation to this year’s FFL : about 11K spent shopping for a truly great cause Seeing Nave called out for the inexcusable idiot he is: PRICELESS"

"What Nave did was necessary so these people who were mentioned will never sign up for free items in a charity and then ignore the event again."

"I never had any drama until I started blogging. Since I joined the old blog I;ve had haters, stalkers and drama. I mean, really, is this supposed to go with the territory?"

And from the gentleman who helped to start it all - "I’ve returned from my weekend of RL adventure away from the internet and SL. I returned to a post-apocalyptic wasteland in SL...It’s interesting to me, in reading through that holocaust of derision, that few, if any, of the people pissing and moaning the loudest had anything to do with FFL 2012 in any form...I apologize to the ones I named who’d posted and somehow I missed seeing that there was an FFL item buried in one of the posts they made (although one of my evil friends suggested that it is as easy for them to edit a blog as it is for me. I won’t be following up on this idea though)."

Dave Willis, author of the webcomic Shortpacked, posts a comic about two outspoken, popular(?) fandom bloggers who apparently are not big on Beast Wars. It is not very flattering.

These two bloggers (one Tom Croom, and one Joey Snackpants) soon show up in the comments to sow seeds of dissent. Or something.

Tom Croom is in a webcomic!
You clearly don't understand the true definition of "straw man".
Tom Croom will tell you why Beast Wars sucks if you donate $250 to the charity of his choice!
YOU CANNOT TRICK DAVE WILLIS.
Joey Snackpants still thinks Beast Wars sucks!

And as a bonus: This all started when because someone didn't get invited to a Transformers convention. I mean, have you seen their panel?

ETA: Apparently there's a Shortpacked tag.

Taken from the pages of wank_report...

Num8 (now KurwaSuka) was a wolf furry who spent his days happily living in France, running the IRC channel #FursuitTV, making appearances on furry puppet shows, and just generally being known far and wide as an all-around nice guy. Until one day, when he was tragically diagnosed with brain cancer. Metastatic brain cancer.

Because he wanted to spend his last days with the friends he held so dear, a collection was taken up in his name to send him on a weeklong trip to the States, during which he would pay a visit to various furry gathering hubs (and also Disney World). Reports of the exact amount that was raised vary somewhat, but according to Pawpet, the community that was collecting on his behalf, around $2000 was donated to the cause.
( This will not end well. )

What follows is an account written by swsa, a friend without a JF account, and it is such a classic take-the-money-and-run story that I present it to you unaltered (well, okay, I threw in some links).


In Moonlight fandom, their high priestess of campaigning is named Leeser. Leeser's status in the fandom grew and grew as she organized fan cons, did the leg work for their Variety ad, etc. She is absolutely beloved and a hero of their cause. Which is why another fan apparently felt secure enough to give her $11000 in order to pay for bus ads to run in L.A. ( This ends about as well as you might expect )

ETA ∞: I was waiting to update until the supposed Leeser-vindicating deadline this afternoon, but it looks like... I don't even know what. So:

The donor updates:

The ad agency has stated they cannot confirm whether the funds are available or not. The New York office is placing at least a 3-5 day hold on Lesser's account in order to verify funding with the bank, however it may be longer. They are now hoping to be able to post this account on Friday. The ads have arrived and are waiting in the warehouse. Lesser is aware of this. I am so angry at this moment I dare not say too much more. One thing I must say though is to Lesser: Shame on you! To put me through this is one of the most unconscionable deeds I have experienced in my life.

Also: Homophobia on Leeser's board? Convention money shenanigans? Sockpuppetry? (Note: the Blue Whale Pub board seems to be down at the moment.)

ETA ∞ +1: And now about $8K in convention funds cannot be accounted for. (More.) Yes, we are pretty sure this is not VB on the rampage again.

ETA ∞ +2: I think dhaunea called this one...

ETA ∞ +3:: The ads are going up on Monday?

ETA 9/29/08: Y'all, please somebody take this over and do a new entry or something. I can't keep up with all the board shenanigans now.

Dearest, beloved, Fandom Wank.

I know you were looking forward to great excitement today. Some of you said words to me that indicated you anticipated fiery 'judgement' upon those who remained fresh and dewey white, those you call n00bs.

Anyway, you got today instead.

Stop anticipating things, we'll just break your hearts.

Sincerely,

Sepia P. Magpie, Esq.



PS: Use this post to reflect on how you could be better people. Or just fuck around in the comments.

Grabbed from wank_report.

Around a year ago, there was a tsunami which a few of you may remember. It was on the news once or twice. Potterfandom, always willing to pass the hat around, stepped up to the plate with comms like pr0n2therescue and art2therescue. And there was rejoicing.

Then, a bit over a year later, there was a hatememe. Which brought up this.

[info]celestialsoda. I'm half convinced that she kept all that money that the fanartists raised last year for the tsunami victims. She jumped down some girls throat for daring to question how much money was raised on one of the auctions, and as far as I know a final accounting was never done. Not cool.

And even though I bid on and won two pieces of art for that, I have to say this practice of fanartists selling their work is bullshit. Spin it all you like, but it's copywrite infringement and no different than a writer trying to sell their fanfics. People, stop thinking if you don't call them on their bullshit they might draw you something! They won't!

( And the rejoicing ended. )

Predictably, explosions follow, and demands for accountablility.

</a></b></a>celestialsoda has yet to reply in any form I have seen.

ETA: The response.