I felt it was high time for another "It's Half Twelve..."esque rant, but without the grouping because to tell you the truth, I'm running out of ideas :P I just thought I'd float some ideas around. It's not a personal attack on anyone in particular - if I was legitimately pissed off about something, believe me, I'd say. But there are some things that I've noticed that make me just pause and go, "O_o" and I was wondering if any of you guys had noticed the same sort of thing?
This is all rather disjointed with no real flow or continuity, so do bear with me.
Revenge of the Blogger/Bandwagons, thou must join it
Slightly misleading title there because revenge implies that you personally have been wronged in some way.
I don't know if many of my readers are interested in the mineral makeup community but there's been some problems lately with companies repackaging and potentially (and in one case actually) endangering their customers. Google Glittersniffer if you want to know more about it. You'll probably find the other companies once you dig a little deeper.
Anyway, this is obviously highly upsetting and shocking to former fans of the companies involved or those that may have used their products/given them away to friends and family. There are also some really influential bloggers in the MM community (everyone probably knows who they are) that spend lots of their own money trying out new products from indie companies and I personally enjoy reading their reflections and thoughts on the matter, articulated in a cool and reasonable way.
I do kinda feel that it's unnecessary for someone who's never ever tried the products of these companies and has no personal connection to them to be blindly ranting and raving based on a couple of skim read posts. That's just my opinion. (Please don't hesistate to disagree - as always, anon is on if you prefer that.)
Slightly off topic, but phoning and harrassing people (YouTube gurus) in real life based on percieved wrongs on the internet that have nothing to do with you is pretty horrendous too. I don't understand that at all.
Fake Giveaways.
This stuff really annoys me. It's become popular to have people jump through loads of hoops to enter/recieve more entries to a giveaway - (you have to follow me on Twitter/Tumblr/like me on Facebook/read my LUUUX post and then you have to link me and blog about it, read through x number of posts and tell me your favourite look/design etc) and while there's nothing wrong with this, in my opinion (you've paid for the goodies, you get people to do what you want and if the worst comes to the worst, they can just not enter) I find it really rude for someone to just /abandon/ their blog immediately after the giveaway date has ended and never pick a winner or to simply act like the giveaway never happened and enjoy the new followers in the GFC box. Seriously, that's so disrespectful. Fulfilling your a million and one requirements to enter used up my time, so the least I'd expect is for you to keep your side of the bargain, as well. Fair? Or no?
I've interacted with commentors on my blog who have had a blog which I have followed in turn, and entered contests (nail art or giveaways) only to find they simply drop and run and don't update after that or pretend the giveaway never happened.
I have a nasty feeling a certain giveaway that's going on right now will end like this - the prizes seem far too generous and good to be true...
The Issue of Blog Photos
I do feel like one of the things that sets blogs apart from magazines is the fact that magazines use stock photos and talk about the product whereas bloggers will show you the product, swatch it, maybe show you a couple of nail designs they've done with it as well as talking about the product. That's where the sense of "realness" comes from - the connection between reader and blogger, which magazines don't really seem to share.
If you've got a very sucessful blog, you recieve lots of things to review free but you never post your nails/eyes of the day/face of the day and you only use stock photos, I will regard your blog as more of a magazine and less of a blog, and...put less value on your opinion, if that makes sense. Does that sound harsh? I don't know. At the moment, there's not that much of a problem - both sides know where they stand.
However, when a company invites you to a launch or whatever and you're the only UK blogger covering this, but you take only one or two (blurry) pictures of the products, this becomes somewhat of a problem. If the reader can't clearly see the product or what the launch was like, they're automatically going to become less interested in what you have to say. Since I'm rubbish at French and have forgotten a lot of my Spanish, there are not many other places where I can learn about the company. So I'll just give up. I see that as a wasted opportunity on the company's part, to be honest. When it comes down to it, magazines can hire photographer to cover events, but a hybrid can't do it that effectively. Is it wrong to expect a very successful blog to have some basic skills with a camera? I'm not imploring that everyone should own a DSLR (god no, in fact - those things are expensive) but just learning how to use it makes such a difference. Anyway, my own pictures are still quite bad so I can't talk.
Sense of Entitlement?
I don't follow many people on Twitter at all, or other social networking mediums (save Google Friend Connect) but I have seen a huuuuuge amount of pressage over certain bloggers getting sent collections and others not. I find it quite pathetic, to be honest. It all sort of came to a head after this new Illamasqua launch with some people feeling that they should have recieved product/launch invites (if they were located in the UK) as well as some other bloggers. Tell me, why do you feel entitled to this? Like seriously, explain. Companies aren't charities and they're not communist states, either. Should everyone with x number of followers automatically recieve free stuff? Perhaps they looked at your blog and disliked your writing style, or the style of makeup you do doesn't fit the brand image or whatever. Perhaps you've just flown under their radar - but surely all whining about it is going to do is make you look bad? I don't know. Enlighten me, anyone?
As always, feel free to disagree with my opinion.
Eh. A Long List of Stuff that Irks Me Slightly About The Beauty Blogging World
Get it off ya chest.
ReplyDeleteOn the giveaways situation - I'm pretty new to the very idea of a blog and (fortunately/unfortunately) due to my immediate experience with a very generous blogger, I'm minded to be the same way. To have a giveaway, increasing followers and make them jump through hoops...to get air afterwards? Not a good look.
Thanks for this post, it's given me insight into the things I may not have payed that much attention to before. :-)
I agree with everything you wrote.
ReplyDeleteEspecially the photos. I'm a crazy visual person, so bad/ no real photos drive me up the wall. I know that mine aren't so hot either, but I at least try really hard to make them sharp and well-lit. That's all I ask of others, and I don't think that it's too hard to do it. All you have to do is take an hour and fiddle around with your camera.
And the entitlement thing...I read posts where people rant about not getting free stuff from PR, and I'm like omg, hush your mouth. Maybe you just aren't as great as you think you are. -__-
I've never encountered the fake giveaway thing though. I actually won't enter a giveaway if it's a million and one steps. I like polish, but man I'm lazy. I can follow you, like you on facebook, put you on the blogroll, and give you a spot on my giveaway sidebar. But if I have to go to your shop and favorite an item and tell you why I like it and then go to blah blah incorporated and like them on facebook and then write on their wall, etc. I just give up.
I'd be so mad though if I did all the work and the giveaway was a fake.I can't believe people actually do that...why though? I feel like it's so stupid...people are gonna figure out that you lied about the giveaway and then you're gonna be known as that lying blogger.
But you know, I actually feel like poop a little bit, because I completely forgot to announce the winner of the Icicle Lights giveaway. Lol, it was such a little giveaway and there were only a few entries, so I selected the winner, sent them out, and promptly forgot the whole thing. I hope people don't think that I lied. :(
@Chaos Butterfly It never even occured to me that someone might think you or I was lying if we didn't announce the winner of a giveaway. I always announced them at first and then I decided it was boring to announce a name that has no internet presence. So I stopped unless the winner was a fellow blogger but maybe I should just announce them anyway.
ReplyDeleteI really hate it when people whine about not receiving free products. I agree with all of your points. I do this for fun and feel super lucky when I do occasionally get freebies! Companies don't have unlimited product to giveaway and they have every right to be picky.
I know exactly which giveaway you're talking about, but have you wondered for a bit that there may be a reason the host is being a little TOO generous? Perhaps she was offered money for buying a laptop from her rich aunt, and was afraid her parents might suspect her of ASKING for the money, so she decided to ask her aunt to get a bunch of lovely stuff from the nearest brand stores instead, and DHL it to an address a month or so later, which is obviously the address of the winner of the giveaway? Also, about announcing the winner, if she's got about 600 or more entrants with, say, 50 or more entries EACH, she should ENTER THEM ALL INTO THE EXCEL SPREADSHEET, SHUFFLE, and THEN choose a fair winner? Please ask the person you point a finger at about the situation before you blindly mention it as a FAKE GIVEAWAY on your BLOG, it really hurts the host!
ReplyDelete@Ash-Lilly (love your name) Basically. It's such a shame that you're new and have already experienced this sort of thing.
ReplyDelete@ChaosButterfly: I love your photos! I find that they always display the colour of the polish accurately and are pretty high quality. But I too do like my visuals so it irks me when the photos are poor.
"Hush your mouth" is completely the right expression in this situation. I just think it's so rude to behave in that way. I always just htink, take your ego down just a tad, lady.
I wouldn't worry about that. Many people don't announce their giveaway winners. People would only get suspicious if the winner had waited like one or two months with still no product.
@April: I agree completely with your comment, so not much to add. I too would feel special if a PR sent me something to review, but I certainly don't expect it.
@Glamadazzle: Emailed. Though I wasn't talking soley about your giveaway as such. Also I don't understand the last part of your comment :/
Wow I didnt know people did that with giveaways, thats really awful! I've never gotten anything to review but if I did while I might say its a bad product I'd not be a b*tch about it.
ReplyDeleteYup, people do, Enigma. I think it's awful.
ReplyDeleteYou're so articulate, so never mind that you've forgotten your French and Spanish. :) That was a very interesting and entertaining read. Some things, I've heard of. Some others, I wasn't aware of. I don't very often take part in giveaways, so I was probably naive to have never thought that there could be fake giveaways out there. :P I don't understand how people can be dishonest like that.
ReplyDeleteLol, thanks so much, Witoxicity!
ReplyDeleteI've cut down on my giveaway entering rate as well because of this sort of thing. I don't get why someone would be like that...urgh.