Styling your Secondlife with Firehorse

This week I styled a male av for L$500 from www.SLexchange.com.
Now the process of signing up is basically similar to last weeks signing up at www.onrez.com, go to the website, fill in the details, go to the email address you registered with to get your activation code, find a terminal in world (easier because the site has a massive list of terminals for you to tp to), activate your account and pay the terminal – now the money you deposited is available for use on the SLexchange site.
Personally I didn’t find SLexchange particularly easy to use, the search doesn’t seem very refined, and the site feel didn’t suit me. In the past I have had problems with SLexchange – or to be accurate, the people who sell on there – because of the ability to sell second hand goods I have seen freebies being sold for quite large amounts of money and I have, in the past been ripped off – the item I’ve bought being nothing like the description. To be fair this can happen even in world or on any other out of world shopping site and there are thousands of users who use SLexchange who have never had a problem. My other small niggle is that for some reason SLexchange doesn’t allow you to gift freebies. Right – on to the styling.

The first purchase was a Redford skin from Sane Krasins for L$40. Now this was a most pleasant surprise – this is actually a good skin, it has good facial detail and on the whole good body detail – the back of the skin looks a little odd and the hands lace any refinement. But having said that my guinea pig commented that this skin was at least as good if not better than the skin he regularly wears.
The next thing was the JPC Animation Overrider for men, sold by Jhary Priestly for L$49. If I were kind I’d say nothing – after all – you can’t have high expectations of an L$49 AO – but I am not kind and seeing how many wonderful cheap (and free) AO’s are available for women I had hoped that this would at least be an improvement on the duck walk. It wasn’t – not unless you want to look like a Thunder Birds puppet. It was so bad that my guinea pig was reluctant to put it on even to show me – he’d tried it at home and caused an outbreak of rather unkind laughter.
The next item was hair – and searching for cheap mens hair on SLexchange made my eyes bleed – I was a dozen pages in before I got past the various free demos – but for you dear reader, I persisted. As a fashion addict I know how much bad hair there is out there, as a mens stylist I know how rare good mens hair can seem so imagine my delight when low expectations were more then surpassed. I bought Cabelo Renegade from Lasher Oh for L$39. This is a lovely hair, well textured, well coloured and with a refreshing, young, devil-may-care feel. A bargain indeed – I have seen much, much worse mens hair for a lot more money – my only caveat is that it may need resizing to fit you properly – if this hair came in a choice of sized it would be perfect.
On to the clothes, and if clothes maketh the man, then we might be struggling but – hey – I love a challenge.
My first purchase was “man belted pants in brown” For L$100 from Patoula Yao.
They have some nice details, they aren’t outstanding but they are reasonable and for everyday wear they fit the bill.
Next was the Empire Dark Collar Shirt from Arron Dreadlow for L$30. This shirt is a bit of a must have for the price. The only flaw is it is too short if it isn’t changed so you walk around with a bare belly button – not wonderful.
My next purchase was a pair of Urban Shoes from Slworld Boa for L$10 – these are unlaced. Very well made, very well textured and a real bargain if the style suits you (the mother in me wanted to shout at my poor guinea pig to do his laces up and put his shoes on properly – I am just not hip and trendy!).
The next purchase was the *Karizma* Black Tuxedo, by Karmen Harris for L$125. This was a disappointment. The front of the jacket is beautifully detailed, but the back has an unfinished look and the trousers have no detail.
To go with the tuxedo I bought a pair of **MQ sculpted Men shoe black by Mira Questi for L$51. These were a reasonable attempt, sculpted shoes aren’t easy to make and although a brave attempt I couldn’t recommend these.
Next I ventured into swimwear. I bought a pair of FD Swim Trunks from Frisco Laguna for L$30. These were great – a good design that most men would be more than happy to wear on the beach – an unqualified success.
To finish the look I opted for a pair of sunglasses with a black frame from Zoltan Beck for L$10. These are well made and my only gripe is the lens are clear but never the less quite fetching, if a little bookish.
To conclude, this experiment was not a total success and I couldn’t, in good faith recommend anyone tries this for themselves. If you know what you want, or want to get ideas to shop for in world then SLexchange is a great tool, and I dare say we would have been more successful if we’d been doing the same experiment for a female avatar, but good menswear is hard to find at the best of times, and SLexchange (or any off world shopping site) probably isn’t the best place to try to get your look together.
Much thanks to Mr Neuron Bandit, my guinea pig for this article who was a good sport and didn’t object to anything I made him wear (except the AO).

My way ? (by a faithful reader)

I know that there is no choice as I load the next items photo to slexchange... this is the only show on the block. I want to get the word out more about my items and that means selling them on the web and the place where that can happen in Lindens and Pay pal is SLexchange.com.
I had been a member for many years -- I listed my skins and a few other items and never tried to do much more than that.

Never bought a "feature" or paid for the front page banner or highlighting but after having great success with my clothes and hair inworld I decided I would feature a few items.

I watched the page flutter in seconds to change and saw the items that were pasted in small thumbnails on the main Slexchange page. I could see the adult items if I signed in and said I was an adult .. and of course already having posted my skins and the nude pictures on the mature or adult pages I could see that difference but it seemed the more I looked at Avatar sets and skins on the general "G" rated page -- the less of difference I saw.

Yes I could sell my skins and avatars with little problem by simply fogging out the private parts... Well I would be more in my line and instead of just fog I would cover her privates with snakes and scarabs.. I do Egyptian after all.

Sales were going along swimmingly and then suddenly I was getting non sufficient funds notices.

But wait -- I was just on SL exchange. I had never taken any money OUT of SL exchange. I had made money in sales and I just saw the posting that said I Did have funds. I watched as SLexchange took the money for the ad. Where was it going??

I didn't understand that SLexchange would continue to take money from my account for featured items I had posted. I mean I clicked the "just for one week at $L899.00. Why then was I getting emails that said I had depleted my funds.

I wrote for support help. I reread. Until I found a "hidden" clause. SlEx would AUTOMATICALLY take money out for MORE WEEKS.. if I didn't click DISCONTINUE this feature.

Awwww there was a trick.
The only for one week was bogus. And that meant I had to be careful from then on.
Then one day I got a review as I continued to post features and learn about what worked on Slexchange one day I got a review.

I don't know -- this guy just didn't now his facts and IMing him back was kind of like talking to someone who was sure the aliens built the pyramids But all and all I was happy some one was looking and people were buying my Cleopatra Goddess Avatar Set on SL exchange Main "G" rated page that I was paying a lot for every week to be seen.

Life went on and I snaked out more Goddess avatar sets and sold some here and there and made sure to CLICK the Discontinue and watched my profits grow but still did not take any money out-- till one day I cant remember how much -- a couple Linden thousands I tried to deposit into my SL account ... but it never showed. It showed that I had lost L$2000.00 but not in Sl as a addition to my account there.

I wrote (again) slexchange. They wrote me back telling me how it was a second life problem and they did -- and they DID adjust it.

I resolved to figure out another way to get my funds from SLexchange in the future .. since this was not going to be reliable.

BUT suddenly one night -- actually it was solstice... I was posting some little holiday outfits I had made.. uploading little photos and watching them appear when about 11:30 PM sl time I saw every single item get checked to ADULT. Now if you work in slexchange at all you know what this means. I had over one hundred items and that's a lot of unclicking.

Lots of hair and jeans and this and that that were not adult. No idea why this had suddenly happened. After all the Holiday outfits were not revealing .

I had no time to go back and unclick so I wrote a letter to them about this suggesting I was not "hacker safe" who could possibly be working this late on SLExchange and make such a radical mistake at me but some hacker? No reply ...I went on with the holidays occasionally checking my items and did notice that every time I tried to at least FIX my FEATURED items (remember we are paying nearly one thousand lindens dollars a week to run a feature .. were checked as they should be -- main page items...
And then the worst of it came .. Every item I had set for only a week sent me a bill and TOOK my money to pay for another week and then another. But I checked Not to renew. I rechecked and rechecked not to renew And then I wrote and I told them of the billing and rebilling and the checking and the making all my items adult and my being unable to get any benefit from any of the money I had paid for the ads since they were not posted on general pages and were reposted on mature and I was rebilled again ....

They fired me ...they said my Cleopatra avatar exposed her buttocks.... they took all my money I made on Sl after paying them for all those ads I didnt ask for .. and then they fired me........they finally answered one of my emails after a month of going "WHAT THE HE** is THIS??" I saw many buttocks exposed and I put snakes all over to hide privates.
They said I was hostile and threatening and would not pay me back
And that they had told me time and time again that they had had to answer me about a lot of things time and time again. And that once they HAD to set everything to ADULT it went right to default which meant unless you find the HIDDEN CLICK to make sure they didn't run your ad again and take your money again -- that they would do so. I limped away feeling very bad .. they are after all the ONLY game in town ... And I told some friends ....who said that if this was true about Cleopatra's buttocks then WHY had they let it be a feature I posted and paid for on G pages for so long? And why was this ad showing torture devices on G page pulling that Females Privates out? (only covered by a bare torture device)? And why had no one told me sooner -- or at least said -- "HEY! CLEO's BUTTS OUT"!?? After all had she not been on the pages making them commission for many months now?
Sort of like hiding the click here if you really really want it for only a week -- other wise we will revert everything to default and take all your money..... But when they are the only in town who gets to choose?

Well now that I am free I have decided to get everything I can on what happened to me and from others with SL exchange (Dates and figures) and make it clear that this only game in town needs to play fair.. then I think finding others who will come play against them is the next step!