do as you will but don't you lie

This happened on the 27th, but I already had entries lined up for the following days, so. Got this out of the blue while trying to find a hair that matched the current retro look:

[11:09] JotaVico: heyyy
[11:10] Emilly Orr: Hello?

OF NOTE: Jota is not anonymized. Not because I don't think he's being a jerk for IMing me out of the blue, but because he apparently is looking for photographic clients.

[11:12] JotaVico: How are you? Are you interested in photos? I'm looking for new clients. I can show you my flickr with realistic photos? Can i show you my prices?

This is the other reason he's not anonymized, because he did send me the link, and I looked it over. He does fairly good work, if you like duck lips on people. Though I fully realize that may not be his fault, and more the fault of the pouty-runway-model look that's taken over all genders on SL for mesh heads.

[11:12] Emilly Orr: You're...kidding, right?
[11:12] Emilly Orr: How did you get my name?

This seemed to stump him, so at 11:20 am, I tried again.

[11:20] Emilly Orr: Okay, if that's too difficult for you, then sure, show me your prices.
[11:22] Emilly Orr ponders the lack of response and peruses your profile.
[11:22] Emilly Orr: You know, for a photographer, having only one pic on the profile is kind of sketchy. No FL pic at all? No info? No picks?
11:23] JotaVico: My photos are in my flickr.
[11:23] Emilly Orr: I asked about your prices.

Wow, way to miss the question entirely.

[11:24] Emilly Orr: And yes, I know that, I saw them. I mean on your profile. You know, the thing that comes up when you hit "Profile" in SL?

So he sent me the notecard of his prices. It's L$3850 for a single person, portrait, and from his Flicker it seems to be shoulders and up, or occasionally neck and up, only. For couple/two people (I guess he means friends) portraits, it's nearly double that, at L$6550. Everything seems to be on the same nondescript black background, no outdoor shots, no non-studio work at all. If this is standard for photographers in SL now, it's news to me.

[11:24] Emilly Orr: Not interested, and it's spelled "available", but thank you. I'll pass it on.

And that seemed to be that. I did mean it when I said it to him, I am passing the information on. And yes, the line below the prices on the notecard he sent read "I'm avaiable now for take the pic?". Riiiight.

I'll leave room for not being an English speaker natively, but still. Way to come off like a jerk and a boring person. Barely anything on his profile, misspelled words, and IMing me out of the blue. (He never answered that first question, by the way--how he ran across my name. Still don't know. Which is also irksome.)

In less snarky news, someone sent me a pastebin link for lower-poly stores. I have no idea who wrote this list, but I'm also passing it on for what value it may be.

This is a list of shops with efficient poly counts and texture usage, good UV maps, and everything they create is modify. These people understand and respect the platform they are creating for. Content from each shop is thoroughly checked using a viewer with enhanced inspect abilities before being added to the list.

If you know of a shop that should be on this list, please contact me. Shops that make it common practice to make their content no modify will not be considered. This is mainly because the average consumer cannot check UVs and textures for themselves, but also because this special snowflake mentality is genuinely harmful to Second Life.

This makes me think it might be a NiranV project about avatar/landscaping optimization, first mentioned on New World Notes. I thought I remembered the original post being somewhere on their blog, but damned if I can find it. I'll ask friends and see if they still remember where it is.

Last update: May 23rd, 2019.

---------------------------------------------------
Top tier. Items from these shops are made to a modern visual standard while staying well optimized. If you are ever wondering what acceptable triangle and VRAM numbers are, look at similar items from these shops to know what to aim for:
---------------------------------------------------

DECO (GutterBlood Spoonhammer)

The only DECO store I found was [DECO], owned by Max Butoh, and it doesn't seem to have an in-world store. The only thing mentioned on Spoonhammer's profile, store-wise, was BLUD Official, which again, has a group, but no apparently in-world store. Neither seem to have a Marketplace presence, either, so...good luck finding them.

Half-Deer (Halogen Magic)
+ILO+ (ZoZo Raven)
G Field (Cerberus Noel)
The Black Forest (Arduenn Schwartzman)

The only thing listed for Arduenn is Warbug, so if the Black Forest is part of that, great. Otherwise I can't find it.

Realist Tek (Jay Taggart)
Birds-E-Mart (Raven Seraph)
JOMO (Xiaoduo Abbot)
Organica (Aki Shichiroji)

My only problem with Ms. Shichiroji's lovely work is that most of her trees have the same shape. I want more out of a tree than curved Japanese maple with varying leaves. That, and I do wish she'd bring back her skins and update them to mesh. That being said, she really does amazing plants, trees and landscaping details.

Schadenfreude (Allegory Malaprop)

This is another case. I love Ms. Malaprop's work, I always will. I wish more of it would be converted to mesh.

---------------------------------------------------
Decent tier. Items from these creators are usable as-is, but are lacking in areas that would make them perfectly efficient, such as wasteful UV maps, or some textures too high resolution (but still better than nearly everyone else).
---------------------------------------------------

NOMAD (Piraiyah Novikov)
Barnesworth Anubis (Barnesworth Anubis)
UTILIZATOR (Utilizator Mode)
fk0724 (fk0724 Resident)

The only thing that shows up under this name is Anhelo? So not sure if that's the same business or not.

Lassitude and Ennui (Jackal Ennui)
HPMD (Sasaya Kayo)
ColdLogic (ColdLogic Resident)

Again, the only thing I could find was neve, but it does say it's a brand made by coldLogic? So maybe that's it?

Violent Seduction (Iki Akiri)
Chin Rey Houses (ChinRey Resident)
OPQ Builders' Supplies (StormKB Resident)

Okay, this one's weird, because it seems to be the same place as Chin Rey Houses? I don't understand, but OPQ is also listed on Chin Rey's profile, so the confusion continues.

OPQ Gardens and Landscaping (TessJL Resident)

This is listed as belonging to yet a third person, but it's also listed on Chin Rey's profile, and all three of these businesses operate out of Coniston sim, so...baffled, here.

Dysfunctionality (Kalia Firelyte)

And that's the list. All of these (presuming I tracked down the right places, and I tried to do my best) offer either very low-poly mesh items, or reasonably low-poly mesh items, so they will rez in faster and more effectively. Helping, therefore, with the overall lag on SL, and our computers, in general.