HATE.

The Blog's name is Love/Hate, and generally there will be far more love than there will be hate. Tonight though, something inspired a lot of hate in me, and this is a forum for things that anger me. I know this is something that angered a lot of other people too.

So what do I hate?

Disingenuous freebies/hunts. Also, just for the record, I don't want to hear your apologist "we should be grateful anything is given at all." bs. There are situations where that is correct. There are also situations where that is wrong. This is one of those "wrong" situations.

As much as some people like to believe, freebies are not just gifts for loyal customers. Freebies function as promotion, to draw people to the store, check out the wares and hopefully leave with something they didn't intend on buying. Promotion is important, of course, except generally you want the good promotion. Sometimes people don't really think this through when they are putting together a hunt, or freebie. More shop owners need to realize how freebies, especially HUNTS reflect on their store's image in the Second Life community. There are lots of things that can negatively impact a store's image in terms of these situations. Let's look at a few.

A) Packaging crap - A freebie is a representation of what is available in your store. It represents the quality of product available. Now, obviously, you are free to give whatever freebie you like, but if you're only going to give away outfits circa 2005, you aren't demonstrating value to the customer, or to anyone else. We have all encountered hunts where there was not a goddamn thing worth keeping, and you feel cheated. Please, don't sit there and say BUT IT WAS FREEEEEEEE YOU CAN'T COMPLAIN. Actually, I can, and will. I paid for that shit with my time that could have been better spent punching myself in the face.

B) I PUT OUT A FREEBIE FOR FIVE MINUTES BUT NOW I'M TAKING IT AWAY- Um what? I fucking HATE this shit. Even when I'm one of the few lucky ones to get the item it makes me so angry. It's disingenuous and kind of resentful of your customers. If you want to promote and give out a freebie, be cool about it, give people a REAL chance to get it. This goes for hunts too. HI I'M PUTTING ON A HUNT FOR TWO HOURS ON BLACK FRIDAY WHEN NO ONE IS AT HOME TO PARTICIPATE OR ARE SO LAGGED BECAUSE ALL OF THE PEOPLE TRYING TO TAKE PART IN THE HUNT is not cute. At all. I mean, really? It's like you really don't want people to benefit. It's unfortunate as well.

Christ, if you don't want to give out freebies, DON'T. Its as simple as that. There are plenty of stores that function that way, I don't shop there, but they survive regardless. I've made it a habit to only shop with stores that treat their customers fairly. Of course, I'll falter occasionally, but for the most part I give my money to vendors who give back. Vendors who appreciate their customers and realize that a happy customer is a happy Linden balance. Its really not that hard, I don't know why it has to be like this. I hate having to strike a store I like off of my list because of this shit. But you vote with your lindens, and my vote is for stores that are grateful for your patronage, and not resentful of it. Peace.