Cecil B. DeMistletoe

I’m inspired again.

My friend Thaddeus has taken a new project under his wing and is organizing a Grid-wide Hunt called Antiques Grid Show Autumn Hunt. It will feature 30 merchants offering antique home & garden goods, clothing, and jewelry. And he had the idea to approach me about making a silent-film style video to promote it.

And so that’s what I’ve started doing. I’m blogging now when I really should be making costumes for my Keystone Cops.

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Quick word of best wishes and hopes for a complete and speedy recovery to R. Crap Mariner (or rather, to the human behind the avatar of said), who is awaiting surgery. We’re all pulling for you, except perhaps a certain white-suited ninny who’s probably working on his CRAP DEATHWATCH post as we speak. Fuck him. We’ll try and keep him and Catherine the Greatly Disturbed at bay until you’re back in the ring.

Grid-wide Hunts, Revisited

Back in 2009 I wrote an article on business in SL, and near the end of it I said that Grid-wide hunts are a waste of time and not useful to your business at all. Well, times change, experiences change, and my position on that has changed somewhat.

I no longer think that hunts are completely useless or counterproductive. I do, however, still believe they’re not often done wisely (in some cases by the hunt planners and in other cases by the participating merchant). So in the interest in updating and sharing what I learn as I go, here’s some useful information on participating in Grid-wide hunts as a merchant.

Dear Grid-Wide Hunt Organizers,

As someone with a bit of event planning experience under her belt, I can appreciate what a monumental undertaking something like a grid-wide hunt must be. I can also appreciate that since so much of it depends on what other people–and not what you–do, there are tons of unpredictable factors involved.

That said, there are a few things you could have done to prevent today’s hunt from being a total clusterfuck.

Don’t make the morning of the hunt the time you check the stops. Ever heard a group chat full of impatient child avatars? It ain’t pretty. The stops should have been checked the night before, and those merchants who can’t wrap their heads around “set contents for sale $0L” (which in itself baffles me) contacted before today.

If there is a delay, say so in an announcement. Rather than exhausting your time telling us to stop asking you over and over again why the hunt hasn’t started yet and when it finally will, make a group announcement. Then you can spend less time repeating yourself and more time fixing.

Help your volunteers help you. If someone is actually gracious enough to offer a hand to help get this thing organized and moving in the right direction, please offer full information in return, including the locations of the boxes or at VERY least hints, and what if anything the problem is with various stops. And then, stay online and answer questions. If you give a volunteer a notecard listing little more than which merchants are at which stop and then LOG OUT, you can’t honestly expect the volunteer to hold it together for you. I understand you’re overwhelmed and need to unplug. We’re here to help you out. But help us help you, please.

And merchants: guys. Come on. You put the shit in the box which has the LM, you set the contents of the box for sale for 0L. Why is this so difficult for 40% of you? WHY?!

As for hunters, please, I know you’re champing at the bit for your haul of free goodies. But do remember that the hunt organizer(s) are only human. If there’s a problem, try to help solve it. If you’re lost or confused, don’t just sit there and pee your pants and wait for someone to do it for you. Make an effort to find information on your own. For example, you’re in the hunt group, there was probably an announcement with the information you’re repeatedly asking about now (yes, I “heard” you the first five times), including the hunt start point and the basic instructions for the hunt. Check the group’s back announcements.

And if you’re trucking along just fine, maybe see if you can help out. I’m not saying hold people’s hands for them, but offer a good hint when they ask for one, maybe linger where the box is until some other people find it, pass along information, stuff like that. I know it’s not up to you to make the hunt work, but if we help each other out it can go much smoother than it has so far.

Putting my foot down

It’s official, I have to put my foot down.

NO MORE GRID-WIDE HUNTS.

I don’t want to hunt in any more, I don’t want to partake as a business in any more. It’s getting–no. It’s gotten ridiculously out of hand. I swear to god I’m going to make a t-shirt that says “PRAD WAS RIGHT”.

Stopping the madness has to begin somewhere. I’m starting with the elf in the mirror, to paraphrase the Michael Jackson song.

Twisted Treasures for Guys (part 1)

I’ve got a couple guy friends who are second-living on the cheap, and as a service to them I wanted to make special note of items on the Twisted hunt that are available for them.

'Argon' hair from #1 DV8; full leather outfit from #8 Bloodlines

I love these boots!!!

Got these on the Twisted Hunt today, to go with my slutty pirate outfit for future pirate parties. They come from stop #6, Dare Designs.

Reflections on my first hunt (as a retailer)

Greatest Love (aka OMG there’s HOW many stops?!) has drawn to a close. It was the first grid-wide hunt I ever took part in as a retailer and it probably won’t be the last. I met lots of new people, made a handful of new friends, and talked a lot to the folks who came into my shop (My favorite comment: ‘Think the ceiling is low enough? Nice stuff tho,” spoken by someone just as I was rezzing in nearby. She and I ended up friending each other, heh).