Stuff, STUFF and More Stuff

Interview with „The Staff SL“ group owners Ahn and Alex

Article by Ayla J Illustrations by Ri

MenStuff WomenStuff HomeStuff

KidsStuff PosesStuff

Ahn Avion (skintrader.greyskin) and his partner Alex Avion (alexavion) are in charge of the stuff Groups and all events, hunts, sales and creation into this varied set of Groups.

WEBSITE: https://sl-stuff.com/

LANDMARK The ‚stuff Groups Shopping Plaza, De Campion (63, 148, 72)

How did you both run across One of the first hunts Second Life and what made you stay?

Ahn I heard about it from a friend back in the days of Yahoo! Chat. She had been looking for something more interactive than text role play (RP). She had been in Second Life a couple of weeks prior to inviting me to check it out. My computer, at the time, wasn‘t cooperative with SL so I had only tried it for a few days, left, and returned about 6 months later when I heard that my favorite band was going to have a presence here. It took them 5 years to finally get here, but I was hooked on SL long before that.

AlexI came to Second life after reading a story about it in a technology based magazine. Being both a long time text based role player and an artist, the idea of a world where you could create a visual „second life“ was like a dream come true for me. I came, looked around, loved what I saw and have never really left for more than a few days since. When I first came to Second Life „Flexi“ prims did not exist yet. The changes in appearance and scale of SL over 15 years has been amazing.

I participated in was Womenstuff. I know Menstuff was your first group, but what gave you the idea for expanding the Group?

Ahn Menstuff came about when the Make Him Over (MHO) group was being disbanded due to personal issues between the group owners. Rob Moonites (rob1977.moonites) and Ivy Maverick were part of the MHO management team and came up with the Menstuff group. When I returned to SL, the first Menstuff Hunt had already started. I was in a store looking at tattoos when I saw the Menstuff sign. I joined the group and immediately jumped into the hunt. I spent a lot of time in group chat asking for help with the hunt which eventually turned into offering help to others. My assistance in the group gained Ivy‘s attention and she made me one of the group moderators. By the time Womenstuff and Homestuff came into the fold, I had been made manager of all 3 groups. Rob was the first to fade from SL to real life and, not too long after, Ivy as well. I‘ve been running the groups ever since.

AlexI started designing under the Brocade Tiger brand not long after I started living in SL. I took part in the very first Menstuff hunt (and all of them since). I met Ahn when he was working as a Moderator and would come to my store to make sure I was set up and ready for the Hunt. Years later I am still designing with Brocade

Tiger and he still has to make sure I have my hunt gift ready in time for the hunt to start. It was only after he and I became partners that I ended up as a ‘stuff group manager. Mostly I did that because running the group alone took a lot of Ahn‘s time and energy and I wanted to ease his load. Also I wanted to free up some of that time and attention for me. It worked. *wicked grin*

Can you give me a rundown of the rest of the groups? I know Womenstuff came next, then Homestuff and now recently, Posestuff and Kidstuff. Was it a natural progression of what your customers were tuned into?

rare to get feedback. One of our team managers created a store catering to child avatars and that‘s where the idea of Kidstuff had come from. I had heard a pose designer mention that, in most style cards seen in blogs, that the pose creator is rarely given credit. I confess I hadn‘t even thought about that until the designer mentioned it. In an effort to show appreciation and credit to the hard work they do, Posestuff was created. A blogger can style up a work of fashionable art, but in the wrong pose, it will look hideous.

Do you have certain times you enjoy setting up the sales, such as holidays seasons or in the summer or fall?

Ahn I enjoy watching Alex in his creative process set up for various themes. Does that count? Anything visually artistic is Alex‘s specialty. I organize the box, he builds and decorates it.

Alex When it comes to the hunts, we try to do one every few months just to keep our shoppers and designers engaged. Because they do take a great deal of time to set up, we try to have them in months that are not as likely to be real life busy. With holidays, people often have real life things to do and are less often in SL. We try to aim for the times more people will be seeking entertainment and make the hunts happen then. I tend to call Ahn the „Hunt 28 Sisters in SL Magazine Master‘‘ because he does the spreadsheets and the web pages and all the technical things that only make my head hurt. My job in the hunts is to make the hunt object look cute, run after LMs and give Ahn foot rubs to keep him from getting too stressed out. The Hunts are his baby and he puts a lot of work and time into them. After they start we both tend to have a couple weeks where we are pretty useless and just lay around in our sweats at our virtual home and relax.

Then there is the Plaza. I wandered around there for a bit and checked out the shops and the ambiance - which very much reminded me of my hometown antique and other striptype malls. The fountain at the entrance is where you can join the different stuffGroups and get a link to the webpage for hunt hints and other info. Brick sidewalks and kiddie coin rides are a nice touch and it’s not loaded down with tons of prims and scripts which make it difficult to move around.

The items on display at the HOME landing of the Plaza are quite varied, are they from your group hunts, or just things you enjoy?

Alex Okay....I had to go land at the Landing point and look around to see what you were asking about. I am not sure I ever could tell. It looks normal to me but then I am not really an expert on being normal. I made the Plaza and shops to have a strip mall or craft fair sort of feel. There are billboards and banners for advertising and information. We have penny rides for the Kids, and various scooters and transports that shoppers can use to ride or race each other around on the streets. It‘s meant to be fun and also to encourage people to use the streets and see all the shops we have there. I do enjoy decorating and change up small details fairly often both on the Plaza and in our home. Halloween is my favorite holiday and tends to get very interesting when it comes to the Plaza decor. Ahn There are currently 35 stores at The ‚stuff Plaza - 14 Womenstuff, 13 Menstuff, 4 Homestuff, 2 Kidstuff, and 2 Posestuff. going, they have had a „Lounge“ where designers can leave a free gift for group members as a teaser and sample of their wares. We needed land to place these Lounges and wanted to add a few select stores around them.

How many shops are in the Stuff Groups Shopping Plaza? It is a gigantic strip mall of clothing, poses, furniture . . a great mix of vendors?!? How did that get started?

The concept was that there would be shop locations to represent all five of the ‚stuff groups. Something of a sample of what the groups have to offer. We try to make it fun for the renters and the shoppers, by having mini hunts and store decorating contests for the holidays. It has been harder to get the Pose and Kid‘s designers to engage so they tend to have a smaller representation then the other 3 groups, but I am ever hopeful for continued growth.

Any ideas for what could be next with the ‚stuff Groups?

Ahn That‘s a very good question. We‘re always on the lookout to discover what can engage designers, their customers, and potential customers. Any and all that have any ideas are free to message me!

Alex A few years ago we used to do a monthly themed sale and I rather miss doing those, even though they were a crazy amount of work. I am considering ideas on a new event on the ‚stuff Land Plaza but am still in the concept creating stage right now. I also would like to start up a small bi-Monthly Gacha area at the Plaza. I have the space set up for it and am working on the coding of the machines. I just need some interested Gacha makers. If your readers are interested in making a Gacha set, send them my

Alex As long as the ‚stuff groups have been way.

Your comment about your BLOG Ahn & Alex, because we think we're interesting! . . I think that is a great statement! You ARE interesting which is why we wanted to do this article. I see both of you model, and there is AA Photography . . . with so many irons in the fire, which is your favorite?

Ahn Though it may sound cheesy, it is no less true when I say that any part of it that Alex and I can do together is my favorite. Alex I used to really love the Modeling but a lot of its appeal has worn off for me over the past few years. To do well in modeling, you have to be engaging and know and please the right people. I am more of a grumpy introvert and just don‘t have the proper people pleasing personality to be a really good model. I get the same joy out of styling and blogging designs that i did out of modeling, perhaps even more because I can do and wear what i like and not what i am told to wear. I love SL photography. When I have a free hour or two inworld I almost always end up taking photos. The whole process engages my creative side and incorporates all the things I like best about SL, There is the travel to find the right looking location, the shopping for the props and costumes I want, the fussing and arranging to make it look just SO. More often than not the subject is Ahn and/ or myself. As a bonus, Ahn is a very creative writer and sometimes he sees my photo and gets inspired to write a short story about it. My enjoyment of making photos has even inspired Ahn to start working with photography as well. We recently both got to be in a virtual art gallery show together. I enjoy SL best when he and I get a chance to create something together, be it art,

stories, role play or even a hunt.