If These Walls Could Talk - A Challenge to Tenshi Vielle

Preface:

After a conversation with Pixeleen Mistral about a one sided article written in her paper, she assured me that she wanted to have more than one side of this story. By her request I wrote this article. After I sent it to her , she never responded to any of my messages. I take this action to mean the SL Herald has no interest in seeing any other side of this story. photoLIFE will soon begin the task of getting a professional review from a journalist who takes pride and honor in their work ... that work will be pubilshed as soon as its available. Our product, the photoLIFE 3.0 is held in high regard by hundreds of users. I believe a full and fair review will indicate this as well.

If These Walls Could Talk - A Challenge to Tenshi Vielle

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is OomPoppaMowMow Snookums, the creator and owner of the photoLIFE Photography System. If you’ve ever heard the song “Elvira” by the Oakridge Boys then you probably recognize the name. Yeah… you're welcome. I know you’re trying to get that song out of your head now. I suggest the Gilligan's Island theme for that. Anyway, recently an article was published in the Herald targeting photoLIFE as a company that casually disregarded someone’s artistic rights and seemed to feel good about doing it, while just a few articles below, the editor of the Herald states in an article of her own that “The Herald adheres to the highest standards of journalistic integrity”. While I can say I feel very confident this editor purposes to uphold these standards, I’d like to address the standards held in the article about photoLIFE written by Tenshi Vielle.

Obviously me being personally involved I'm here to give a different side of the story. I commend the great editor for allowing it and offer a sound ear for any reasonable feedback. Rather than spend a large amount of time trying to convince you what we "really meant" by uploading someone's photos without permissions, or why it wasn't "really that bad", I'd rather take you on a different journey. One that isn't based on what my view is, but one that has been agreed to by all parties involved. Yes, that’s right. The photographer whose work was mishandled has agreed to all of the following points.


1. The photo that was allegedly being sold was actually a 20 meter long wall that contained a total of 19 other photographs from several other photographers all linked together, many of which contained the name of the photography studio right on the photo itself. The wall also had the name of the photoLIFE Flickr site written on it showing where these photos were located. Can anyone imagine who would want to purchase a 20 meter long wall of photos from photography studios around the grid? Common sense says nobody except maybe the owner of the photography studio used to make the photos would have a need for an item like that. Would You Buy This Wall? The photos appearing on this wall are all replacements by Team photoLIFE members so that the exhibit could continue in the SLBD event. We received 20 high quality full perm photos to use on the wall within 5 minutes of the request. Thank you Team photoLIFE.

2. The SLBD event does not allow any items up for sale. That fact alone should help suggest that this was a mistake. The builder of the wall exhibit used a prim from his inventory that had once been used to sell something. He was in a very big hurry to finish the build for me and never stopped to check permissions on his wall.

3. LL has reviewed the incident and the exhibit was corrected to comply with TOS. Intent has a lot to do with how something is handled. Doing photography in SL for almost 2 years and running a group of over 500 photographers we have never had a case where one photographer was stealing another’s work to profit, but imagine a 20 foot wall of photographs with the logo of the studio and photographers name on the front of most.

4. The individual whose work was taken without permission states that she never felt like the intention to take her material was malicious, but that if the other individual involved would have been more apologetic than this story would have never been told. Everyone involved agreed that this was not handled correctly and again new policies are in place to prevent this from happening again, but would the story have been as interesting to have heard the individual never felt it was intentionally malicious.

5. As soon as I became aware of this incident I contacted the individual involved to personally apologize. This was never written or followed up about but photoLIFE was portrayed to be as thoughtless and heartless as possible.

6. The writer of the article and the photographer involved are personal friends. Probably a good reason not to mention this one. Not giving full disclosure of these facts prevents the reader from being able to judge clearly how unsensational this story really is. Makes it harder to get those hits on the blogs, yanno.

7. The photographer had an already well known dislike for the photoLIFE staff. They've stated that this whole problem would have just gone away if the builder of the wall would have been more kind. While I do agree with that statement, I do believe the level of hostility was far worse due to the already strained relationship between the two.

Hardly the same story huh? You know these kinds of facts are hard to miss.

For me, I can understand why this photographer is angry. They had a right to be. I can accept the fact that a mistake was made and some public trust was lost. I will work hard to restore trust in the company I have worked so hard to create. What I can’t accept is not making every effort to make sure that all the facts of this story are told.

I have implemented 10 new policies that are designed to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. I have discussed this issue with the photographer on numerous occasions emphatically apologizing for all that was done wrong, and recently published a public apology, not for public opinion, but based on a conversation I had with this photographer. We have a relationship that is important to me. Yes, even after all of this.

While portraying our company in the worst possible light wasn’t good enough for the writer, her partner decided to join the fun and write a review of our flagship product on their blog. Can you guess where this is going? It's not really hard is it? This review was said to be a 5 minute “look” at our system. A system that’s estimated to have a 2 week learning curve got a 5 minute "look" without any demonstration from any photoLIFE rep involved. Nice review huh. I can see the creators around SL lining up for these 5 minute reviews now.

It’s no surprise it was less than stellar. The truth is the photoLIFE system is one of the most comprehensive available and 5 minutes can not begin to give a clear picture of what it is capable of. For any review ever done on the system, we offer a demonstration by someone who is familiar with it. We've had many reviews done and this is the first that wasn't absolutely 100 percent positive. I constantly get individuals contacting me saying how much they love their studio long after they’ve purchased it.

Anyone that knows me or has ever met me in photoLIFE will tell you that I don’t push my products. I often suggest that others go around SL and see what’s available, to take their time, and that photoLIFE isn't for everyone. Also, our customer service program has been said by many to be the best in SL and I'll proudly stand by that statement.

-------The Challenge To Tenshi Vielle--------------

A challenge for a full and fair review on the photoLIFE 3.0 studio.

The Rules
A demonstration given by myself at my home in SL lasting 1-2 hours.
The Editor of the Herald will be invited to attend.
Your review must be based on a fair perspective on what the studio actually does.
You can't use excessive profanity or strange versions of the words douche.
You can't be personally insulting.
No promotional statements of other products offered by other companies. Comparisons are fine as long as it’s not an obvious promotion.
The review must be written in a fair and professional manner not discussing outside issues other than the performance of the studio itself.

If you decide to accept the challenge you will be compensated for your time to stand for the review and the article you write. 3000L appears to be a fair price for these two things. You will also be given a gift certificate of the photoLIFE 3.0 studio to use yourself or give to a photographer friend for references during the writing of the review.

During the demonstration you will be able to bring one photographer friend along with you. This photographer must have been in the photography business in SL with a commercial studio in business for at least 90 days. We are flexible on this requirement but you can see it would make sense for a fair review of a photography studio.

If you decide to accept this challenge, know that I do have knowledge of you as a very talented and capable writer. I'd just like you to do it with full knowledge of the product.

Once your review is written, and it meets the criteria stated above, I will publish it in the Opium Sim blog and send it to the Team photoLIFE group. That's me being fair.

If the product sucks horribly you should be very excited about another opportunity to tear it apart publicly. It's my hopes that you'll see what over 1000 other users have seen. A studio built with the development and feedback of hundreds of photographers doing business in SL.

I look forward to your response.

LIFE is GOOD
OomPoppaMowMow Snookums