FFAQ

FFAQ – The Fashion Consolidated FAQ

This set of Frequently Asked Questions, or Fashionably Appealing Queries, is essential bedtime reading for any Fashion Consolidated member, fashion buyer or designer. Please read before contacting staff with questions!

Japanese translation (to be updated) – thanks to Estella Thereian

General Questions

1. What is Fashion Consolidated?
   Fashion Consolidated is the largest general fashion and av-related group in Second Life®. It provides buyers with daily new release notices from many hundred SL™ designers, including some of the very biggest, allowing you to keep up with the latest in fashion immediately inworld and get the scoop early. For designers it provides an opportunity to reach thousands of buyers instantly with new releases. In other words it’s a consolidated group of many many vendors’ own groups, freely available for any shopper to join. For a general introduction see the About page.
2. Who is it for?
   For men, women, nekos, fairies and furries who want to look good in the latest releases of fashion, skin, hair, tattoos, ao’s etc. on SL.
3. Which designers are on FashCon?
   A lot!
4. My favourite designer isn’t listed. Why?
   It’s probable they haven’t heard about it. Let them know about the group and your wish to see them posting there by pointing them to the Apply page!
5. Wait, so what’s FashCon?
   It’s a nickname for Fashion Consolidated. Saves your fingers. However don’t search for “FashCon” in groups! That one’s a placeholder set up to redirect you to Fashion Consolidated.
6. Wait, so what’s Fashion Consolidate Cafe?
   It’s a secondary group specifically set up to allow more or less unrestricted Group IMs. Read the Group IMs section below to learn more. Join Fashion Consolidated Cafe if you like chatting generally with other FashCon members. It’s a great community of designers and buyers. Remember you also need to join the main group to get notices. If you can’t find the Fashion Consolidated Cafe group, try the “All” tab in Search, or search for “consolidated” and click on the Members column in group search results.
7. Why would I want to join as a buyer?
   • You joined as many designers’ groups as Linden Lab® will allow you to, along with all your social groups, and you still can’t keep up with latest releases from all the other designers whose work you love.
   • You can’t keep up with all the fab fashion blogs online and want immediate inworld notification of the latest scoop.
   • You keep turning up at parties wearing the same “old news” releases as 8 of your friends. You want new stuff!
   • You love Honey Fairweather in an increasingly troubling way, and want to be close to her in spirit.
8. What does it cost to join as a buyer?
   Nothing. Rien. Nada. Zero L$.
9. I contacted staff today and didn’t get a reply yet!
   Please expect a response in 2-4 days. Always send notecards – not IMs. Also please make sure you are contacting the right person: FashCon has staff to help with specific areas as follows:
   Sun Michalski/Sun Graves: notice content, group spam, advice on sending notices as a designer
   PK Emmons: purchasing and using FashCon kiosks, FashCon HUD
   If your queries aren’t covered above of in this FAQ, you can contact Honey Fairweather, but always send notecards rather than IMs. She has “office hours” of 7am-3pm SLT and outside of that won’t usually reply except in an emergency. Check her profile for current status before sending.
10. What’s the most important thing to remember?
    In life or on FashCon? They’re the same! Be nice.

Joining

11. How do I join FashCon as a member?
    Like any other group on SL! If you’re new, it’s easy:
    • Click on the Search button at the bottom of your SL viewer.
    • Click the Groups tab,
    • Type “Fashion Consolidated” in the box at the top and hit “Search“.
    • Click on the Fashion Consolidated group in the list below (ignore the “FashCon” result).
    • Click on “Join (L$0)” on the right hand side under the pic. You’re done!
12. What can I expect once I join?
    Quite a few notices, all packed with tasty pictures and landmarks to the very latest fashion and av items for sale on SL. Most people can’t join many groups for specific vendors, and FashCon ensures you get the latest, as it’s released.
    You’ll also get a number of freebies – kind designers often release them exclusively to FashCon, just because they love you.

What-If and How-To’s

13. What if I get too many notices?
    You can leave and re-join at any time, as you wish. But if you just want a rest from the notices and keep the ability to read as you want without leaving see the question below.
14. How do I stop the notices popping up for a bit, and still keep up with releases when I want?
    ‘S easy! Just go the the group front page (in the menu at the top of the SL Viewer, pick Edit, then Groups, then double-click onFashion Consolidated). Then un-check the box that says Receive Group Notices. Then, when you have some time, you can click on the Notices tab on the same page, hit Refresh, wait a few seconds for your computer to catch up with your lightning fast fingers, and catch up on notices. It’s particularly helpful to click the Date column as this orders notices by date: click twice and all today’s notices are at the top. You can also click the From column if you want to review all notices in the last month from a particular designer.
15. I missed a notice! How do I find out who it was from/what it said?
    Check the notice archive: select Edit, then Groups, then double-click on Fashion Consolidated, then click the Notices tab. Wait a few seconds then double-click on the Date or From tabs to order them so you can find the notice by date or designer. The notice appears below!
16. I want to chat about FashCon, notices and fashion.
    Group IM is disabled in the main group as it’s so large. If you want to chat, please also join the group Fashion Consolidated Cafe. This was set up to cater to just those people who want to chat more generally with FashCon members. The only rules there are don’t be rude or abusive and don’t send ads – but you can chat about anything else. No notices except the occasional admin notice will be sent to the Cafe group – it’s just for chat. If you can’t find the Fashion Consolidated Cafe group, try the “All” tab in Search, or search for “Fashion Consolidated Cafe”.

Designer’s Questions

17. How do I get permission to send notices?
    Please see the Apply Page. Please ensure before joining that you are in agreement with the FashCon posting rules which are available in several languages, more information below.
18. I have questions about how to use my kiosk.
    Please read the Kiosk Instructions, and see support information at the bottom of that page. If you have any questions about buying or using a FashCon kiosk, please contact the FashCon Kiosk Maintainer PK Emmons via notecard.
19. I bought a kiosk but I still can’t post notices.
    As detailed in the instructions, new designers are added once a week, when the kiosk data is processed. This is usually on a Sunday or so. Please be patient, and if you haven’t been added one week after setting up your kiosk, contact my kiosk maintainer PK Emmons.
20. I lost my FashCon kiosk when my sim was deleted (etc.)
    First check it’s really gone – search for “kiosk” in inventory and make sure you check in Trash and Lost and Found. Also look for any coalesced prims in Lost and Found – the ones with the multiple box icons – they may not be named “kiosk” but may contain it among other items when you rez it. If it’s lost for sure, then contact PK Emmons indicating when and where you bought your kiosk and what style it was (poster/stall/box).
21. I have more than one store location – should I buy another kiosk?
    No! Don’t waste your money. FashCon currently can only register your main store’s SLurl in the FashCon HUD and website. However, I have free “Infohub” kiosks that you can add to your secondary stores if you like, which will hand out FashCon information to your shoppers, thus allowing them to keep up to date with your releases. To get put on the list for one, please send PK Emmons a notecard(not IM!) saying how many and which type of kiosk you’d like (poster/stall/box).
22. How do I know when I’ve been added as a designer?
    Check for the Create New Notice button to be available to you in the group Notices tab. Please don’t ask when it’ll be done unless you’ve waited more than a week: checking here is your way of finding out if you’ve been added. If you still haven’t been added after the next weekend, send a notecard to PK Emmons with details.
23. What do I do once added?
    First of all welcome to a vibrant inworld fashion community as a designer! Please firstly read the whole of this section of the FAQbefore posting a notice. Then go to the Fashion Consolidated group front page in your viewer (Edit, Groups, “Fashion Consolidated“) and check what’s listed under “My Active Title” – please change this to Officer role if it isn’t active aleady: this identifies you as a designer. Then send a notice saying hello to the joyous FashCon hoardes, maybe an introduction to what you sell, and your aims on SL with some pictures on a notecard of your latest releases. Something nice to make them think “hey! I like you! must see more”.
24. How do I send a notice?
    Edit, Groups, “Fashion Consolidated“, double-click, Notices tab, Create New Notice. Make sure you add an attachment to show more information than you can squeeze into the text box. People only get interested when they see stuff.
25. How often can I post a notice?
    This is FashCon Notice Rule No. 1: post no more than once per week. A week is not defined Sunday-to-Sunday, but as a stretch of 7 days between notices. No strict weekdays to stick to, but use common-sense – if you have to borrow (at most) 2 days and post after 5, wait another 10 days before posting again. FashCon buyers are keenly aware of any designer infringing this rule, and tell me about it: such designers quickly get a reputation as a spammer. Keep a close eye on this. Anyone consistently posting too frequently will be removed. If you have questions about FashCon notice content, please contact the Content Moderator Ivy Norsk via notecard.
26. What do I send after the first notice?
    This is Rule No.2: only send notices about your new releases: no general “come to my shop” notices. FashCon is for new releases. Send what you’d send to your own group: you’d never send another “hey I still exist but I have no news!” notices, everyone would discount it and future notices from you as spam and quit – they’ll do the same if you do it on FashCon. Notices about fashion shows as long as they are open to everyone and you include information about your new releases to be announced are acceptable.
27. What items can I tell FashCon about?
    This is Rule No.3: all notices must be about fashion or av-related items. Not furnishings, not guns, not vehicles. Valid content would include clothes, shoes, skins, jewellery, hair, ao’s and poses where they apply to an av and not furniture. Use common sense and think “anything that enhances an avatar’s inworld look”.
28. What should I include in the notice?
    Rule No.4: always include pictures. Almost all buyers on the FashCon group express a preference to me directly or via questionnaire for attached notecards with full details of what you’re releasing and some irritation with designers who don’t. Attaching pics is essential to get anyone interested – just drag them into the notecard you create. Some members have also asked me to remind designers to add landmarks to notecards, and some want you to make sure the name of your shop is on the pic, so they can keep it and remember where it’s from later. Those two are up to you, but I’d recommend you do.
29. I can’t be bothered taking pictures
    Then don’t send a notice. FashCon is about new release pictures. If you care enough about your product to think it’s worthwhile buying, you’ll care enough to take a pic to show it well. Please do this when you send a notice – no plain text messages and no landmarks alone.
30. I sent a notice and it didn’t pop up for me. Should I resend?
    Firstly please wait several minutes before jumping into resending – SL suffers bad glitches and delays. Secondly, at the time of writing, notices seem to often not get through to the person who sent them, but get through to others ok. Please don’t just resend! Check with other FashCon members (not via group IM, but privately, or easiest of all in the Fashion Consolidated Cafe group) to see if they got it.
31. What else can I use notices for?
    Please don’t use FashCon to advertise or promote your own specific campaign/blog/hobby/gripe, nor to tell the world about an imminent rumour of grid attack of virus. No matter how important it is to you, others will see it as a cue to do the same, and soon FashCon will stop being a Fashion Consolidated group. It’s what people signed up for, and they’ll start to think of you as a spammer. You don’t want that. Anyone who purposefully abuses the group this way will be removed. Remember the Fashion Consolidated Cafe group is available for more general chat.
32. But someone just broke the above rules. They must have changed so I can too. Right?
    No. The rules don’t change and someone’s breaking them because they didn’t read this FAQ, or can’t be bothered to stick to them. What happens next is, firstly, that FashCon buyers spot the rulebreaker in 20 seconds and either discount that designer forever, or decide that there’s no point reading future notices from that store. Secondly, we’re chasing around contacting the designer privately and asking them to stick to the rules if my fingers can keep up. What we can’t do is send a notice every time reminding everyone that the rules are still in place. So: don’t do what others do, just stick to the rules here and you’ll be fine.
33. I’m a designer and I suddenly can’t post. Why?
    This probably means that you broke one of the posting rules. Please don’t get mad – it’s the only way we can signal to designers amongst so many that they need to re-read these rules. To get re-admitted, just re-read this FAQ (hi there!) and then send a notecard to my content manager Ivy Norsk indicating that you read them and agree to stick to them from now on.  You’ll be welcomed back with open arms providing you’re not a habitual criminal.
34. What are those posting rules again?
    • Rule No.1: no more than 1 notice/week
    • Rule No 2: only new releases
    • Rule No.3: only fashion and av-related items
    • Rule No.4: always send pictures
      These rules are available in several languages, and more details and explanation available on the rules page.
35. What happens if I don’t follow these rules?
    From March 2009, the following action is taken:
    • Rule break 1: warning and explanatory notecard to designer
    • Rule break 2: two week suspension
    • Rule break 3: removal of the designer from the group
      The application of this procedure is at the discretion of Honey Fairweather, group owner. Refunds will not be given for those removed from the group for rule breaking.
36. Why are there so many rules about what I can post?
    So that the people who joined FashCon to receive a manageable amount (1) or relevant (2) on-topic (3) and interesting (4) notices get what they expect and stay! It’s in your best interests if FashCon members stay enthused by what they get and stick around.

Content

37. I’m not a fashion/av designer but I sell furniture/homes/hamsters. Can I advertise on FashCon, please?
    Sorry no! No meanness intended, but I have to honour what people who join FashCon do it for, else they’ll all leave.
38. I own a model agency, or I’m a mall owner. Can I advertise shows and events?
    Sorry, no. Currently, the only people who are permitted to send notices to FashCon are designers themselves. This is in order to prevent duplication, which would inevitably cause members to be frustrated and leave. I’m sure you understand how this could work out if a fashion venue, mall, model agency and designer all sent out notices with the same outfit. However, this shouldn’t be a problem, and FashCon is happy to be used as a way to publicise your event via the designer themselves, providing they send a notice themselves about the event. Note that rules mean that the events must be open to all, and must be announcing new outfits with pictures of them. You may also discuss events in the Fashion Consolidated Cafe group IM, but please remember not to send one-line ads: it’s a community, and you should interact with others there. If you have questions about FashCon notice content, please contact the Content Moderator Ivy Norsk via notecard.
39. I have a mall – can I join and advertise new releases for all my designers?
    Sorry no. Strictly only designers themselves. To publicise your mall, ask your designers to join and place their kiosk in your mall (or subsidise them to). This will create a presence for your mall on the FashCon HUD and website.
40. I have a fashion magazine/blog/agency – can I advertise it, please?
    Sorry no! I’d love to help and there are some fantastic magazines/blogs/podcasts out there for SL fashion. But FashCon isn’t FashEverything, and if it becomes a general notice area for anything fashionish, people will be flooded and leave. Please don’t be hurt when I say no. Remember I have to honour the intentions and wishes of people joining up for a very specific service.
41. I take photos/provide models/have rental space for designers. Can I tell them, please?
    Sorry no! Designers make up only a small percentage of the people who would get your message and the rest would all leave. FashCon isn’t designed as a conduit to sell services to designers. Don’t hate me.
42. My designs have been stolen/I see some designs I think are stolen in notices.
    FashCon has a content theft policy; read this post to understand what you need to know. If you aren’t a designer directly stolen from but want to help, please contact the designer and encourage them to follow the content policy to help us removed any piracy from FashCon.

Other Groups

43. I see other fashion groups with “Consolidated” in the name. Should I contact Honey for help?
    No. At the time of writing, no other active group is in any way connected to Fashion Consolidated other than Fashion Consolidated Cafe. Others have chosen to brand fashion groups with the same word or name after FashCon took off, but these are unconnected.
44. I’d like to launch a subgroup of FashCon, or a general fashion group. Should I use the Consolidated name?
    I’d respectfully ask that you consider not using the name “Consolidated” in your new group name. Other groups with a similar remit and the same name can create confusion, and I’m sometimes asked what their connection is with my own or if I am responsible. Subgroups are something that have been under very lively consideration with me for a long time and will remain so, but at present, I feel the community will possess more cohesion without fragmenting. I would ask that you consider if it’s in your better interest to launch your own group with a unique non-associated name, showing your own unique concept and individuality. Please do get in touch if this is an issue for you.

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