Announcing Mr. SL World 2007 . . .

Announcing the winner of the Second Avatar Mr. SL World 2007. May I have the envelope please? [Trumpet Fanfare . . . Drumroll . . . ] Wait, there seems to be something wrong. The web site is now announcing "SECOND LIFE's MOST DESIRABLE MALE MODELS for the year 2008." What happened to 2007?

Second Avatar management has not answered my inquiry, nor has it released the judging criteria for 2007. On top of that, their voting system allows multiple votes from the same user, turning the popularity contest into a space invaders type computer game, where the winner is the one who can click their mouse the fastest.

Sour grapes from a contest loser you ask? Maybe. But the fact is that no winners have been announced and all the 2007 contestants appear to have been automatically entered in the 2008 event. Well, at least I can take comfort in the fact that my picture didn't appear as runner up to some hunky real life porn star who is about to create his avatar in-world.

It's starting to look like Second Life fashion contests can be about as trustworthy as SL banks or stock exchanges. At this point I could self righteously call upon Linden Labs to clean up the fashion industry or I could just shrug my shoulders and go dancing with my MODA friends. Hey Circe! Who's playing tonight?

12avatars.com

The 12 Avatars contest was a hard fought battle. Am I the only one who is profoundly disappointed with the results? Scattered in the midst of some worthy, intelligent, community minded and hard working women such as Callie Cline and Sue Stonebender are models from Playboy and Hustler Magazines.

Even if they were judged on physical perfection and style alone, the real life models are not even in Second Life yet, so one has to wonder at the criteria used to select these two people over the hundreds of stylish and beautiful women who took part.