RUNWAY Magazine Hits Milestone

Since launching their first issue in March 2008, RUNWAY Magazine has made its mark on the fashion industry in Second Life, distributing over 40,000 copies of their August 2008 issue alone.

Find out more in the DESIGN section

SL Models Academy rips off AVENUE Models Academy

It has come to our attention that SL Models Academy has copied and stolen AVENUE Models Academy curriculum and student information wholesale making the same claims to have instructors from Runway Kidz and Runway Magazine. What Vanessa Knoller, Head Instructor of SL Models Academy (and also using the same titles as our Academy) forgot to do was in duplicating the whole Academy Info notecard word for word was to change who to pay to. So it was by chance and a twist of fate that due to a careless copycat and thief that several model trainee applicants came to us with payments for the course.

We wish to announce that there is no association with SL Models Academy who are obviously lying when they say they have the same top models and instructors teaching the course and trying to offer the course for cheap. At AVENUE we are strong perpetrators of originality and preserving the highest levels of quality and professionalism in what we do.

Not only has Vanessa Knoller who happens to be Founder of SL Models Agency tried to ripoff on our Academy she has also imitated our blog site:

The Avenue blog above and the ripped off site below

Imitation can only be regarded as the highest form of compliment but let it be known that we have no association with thieves of any kind in SL least of all SL Models Agency which obviously lacks their own ideas and most of all integrity. AVENUE will never support the same for rip offs of designers and any other creators in SL.

Here is Runway Kidz statement to support this report http://runwaykidz.wordpress.com/

Rusch Raymaker

Along with this press release I also received confirmation IMs from others including Wyntir Jewell who had this to say:

Wyntir Jewell: Dana I was looking on fashion planet and Avenue models had an article about Vanessa knowler who is using their notecard for her agency and academy and copying their blog, I looked at the blog and she is using a pic of me on the front of their blog too, I have put a message on fashion planet saying I have nothing to do with this agency. I have also sent a stern message to ms knowler telling her to remove my pic.

source: http://avenuemodels.wordpress.com/

SL illustrated in a mess - I speak to the organiser Ted1 Kamachi

I recently reported on the problems this contest was facing and how some of the club owners and girls involved felt ( read my reports here and here). Today I had the opportunity to speak to the organiser who agreed to give me a statement as to what actually happened and his own actions to clear up the situation as fairly as possible:

SL Illustrated had found that the voting counters would allow a person to vote multiple times for their favorite model. As soon as the error was reported by club owners, we launched an inquiry to first see how many counters were affected (all in the same way).
Next we consulted with club owners and participants to understand peoples feelings toward this.
Many good points were raised - continuing with votes was not fair given knowledge of this flaw by only a few, stopping votes was unfair because it penalized honest people who didn't even know about this, etc.
We also worked with the scripter to see if there were any ways to fix the code.
It took in total several hours to come up with the right solution.
The solution was that we would send only the top 2 models from each club, models are not competing against others in different clubs, they are then competing against only the same members from their own clubs.
This isolates the vote errors in the first phase.
Next, we decided on changing the criteria for the final selection - less emphasis on pure vote and more on a judging panel and subjective criteria.
The new criteria is as follows:

Rules and Regulation for the model’s pageant:
1. Top 2 models from each establishment that participated during the initial elimination round will be chosen to qualify in the finals round.
Each finalist will represent their establishment in the finals.
2. Finals are scheduled to happen on November 24, 2007 at the SL Illustrated Sim.
3. Each model will be doing a 1 minute catwalk wearing the theme they are projecting in their calendar.
While doing the catwalk the host will be reading their response to a question asked them before the actual pageant, responses should be not be more than 40 words.

Criteria for Judging the models:
40% - Beauty ( Skin, Shape and avatar physical appearance )
30% - Grace and Poise ( Animation on walk and poise )
30% - Personality and Wit ( Based on the model’s answer to the question )

Please accept our sincere apologies for the troubles caused by this mishap.
We accept responsibility and are committed to improving conditions in our subsequent and more prepared competitions going forward.

For more info on the SL Illustrated contest, please check our website http://www.slillustrated.com/

SL Illustrated in a mess???

Multiple IMs all telling me the same thing the SLillustrated contest should be scrapped, it was unfair, cheating, scandal, multi voting etc........ what is all about?
I took it upon myself to find out;
The contest idea was a simple one -
'To demonstrate to the world that an SL beauty can be a beauty in every sense of the word. A person beautiful on the outside and inside.'
'SL Illustrated is sponsoring the biggest Modeling contest in SL 100k in prizes 50k for top models and 50k for their sponsoring clubs.'
A simple idea a huge incentive for both clubs and girls:
Categories and Awards:
SL Illustrated Finest ( Individual ) This will mean the ultimate winner during the Finals, the girl getting the most number of votes - award will be L$ 25,000.00., and a modeling contract with SL Illustrated
5 Runner-up - award will be L$ 5,000.00 each, and a modeling contract with SL Illustrated.
SL Illustrated Finest ( Establishment )
This will mean the establishment that was able to get the most number of votes put together for their 12 calendar girls - award will be L$ 25,000.00
5 Runner-up - award will be L$ 5,000.00 each

So what was the problem? The problem was a script that allowed some of the special voting booths to accept multiple votes where others were only able to vote once - the girls and owners worked hard to get as many votes as possible since voting started on the 31st but it took until today before anyone realised some could vote more than once, or if they noticed they kept very quiet about it, as you can see immediately this gave some clubs a HUGE advantage over the rest whether it was tampering or script error there is no information. The question now was what now?
Handled right this could have been sorted out in the way it eventually was very quickly, the unfortunate thing is that one person did not act in the best interests of this contest, he was slow to respond and then dithered asking advice and generally putting peoples backs up. Most people would have immediately, upon confirmation of a voting problem, have suspended all voting until things could be clarified instead as I became aware of the problem voting was still open even on the voting stands allowing multiple votes. Voting was eventually closed early at 12 today.

read on in the EVENTS section to find out how Ariel Lingiuan has managed to save the contest even if some of the girls have now lost out

Avenue Inc opens in heaven

Breathtaking setting, fabulous designs, professionalism to the highest degree, great company what more could I need?

Find out how the huge opening event went in our DESIGN section