About Gothmas by Gaslight (FAQ)

1. What is Gothmas by Gaslight? (GxG)

Gothmas by Gaslight is an annual holiday shopping event with a dark twist.  It primarily caters to the goth, steam/dieselgoth and the dark Victoriana communities.  This is GxG’s fifth year.

2,  When is it and where is it held?

The event will take place from NOON  December 15 PST- through January 3 on two sims, Cursed (this is an Adult sim, though the event itself isn’t particularly adult in nature.)  and Sium (M).  The sims are adjacent.

3.  Who organizes this event?

GxG is organized by the World Goth Fair people, aka Cursed Events:  Axi Kurmin, Lokii Violet, Sonya Marmurek, and Nephilaine Protaganist (with backup and supporting cheerleading by Cruel Britannia and a cast of thousands…) Our website magic is done by Synjari Myriam, and we get extra special decorative help from Sohma Dix and Ely Hynes.

4. Is it a charity event? 

No.  This isn’t a charity event, and here’s why:  Charities do well during the holiday season.  It’s the one time of year they are guaranteed a good, solid boost.  But as people bargain hunt for retail goods, independent artists often take a huge hit, right at the same time that they (like everyone else) need a sales influx.  So this is event isn’t connected to a charity.

5.  How many merchants can you accommodate?

75, not including our stores and Gothika.  (which brings the real total to 80, plus Gothika, which isn’t a store.)

6.  Are there sponsor slots? If so, how many and what do you get for sponsoring?

Not including the stores owned by the organizers, we have room for twelve sponsors.  You get your store within sight of the landing point, a slightly larger booth, an extra 25 prims, and your logo and store in the sidebar of this website and on the sponsor page (along with blurb).  The fee for sponsors is 1000L.  They sell out VERY, VERY FAST.  We maintain a waiting list for those who didn’t make it.

7.  What are the fees for regular merchants, and how many prims do we get? 

There aren’t any booth fees.  However, the event takes a 10% cut on sales.  It’s done this way vs. a booth fee so no one loses money.  This way no one is trying to recoup booth fees against sales.  All booths are the same size (we’ll get a shell out to everyone as soon as we can), and are approximately 10x15M. (this is the same size as a medium booth at our other events.)  and we’re giving everyone 75 prims.  We’ll provide scripted vendors and gacha machines.

8.  What are the item requirements?

There are no exclusivity or reserve requirements, however, all items brought to GxG must be within the thematic scope of the event.  A note to horrorgoths: the same rule we use at WGF applies here:  Please do not bring anything with you that you wouldn’t show to the family of a murder victim.  This isn’t the event for that- we aren’t a horror event.  It’s a goth event.  Because this needs to be spelled out even further… We are looking for:  Traditional and Victorian goth, Dark Victoriana, Diesel and Steamgoth, and NOTHING ELSE.  Cybergoths can wait until February- we have an event for you.  Anything wildly out of scope is being *SENT BACK*.  Not joking.

Also, if your store (inworld or marketplace) contains items that can be considered: sexist, misogynistic, racist or homophobic, we won’t accept your store into the event. It’s very simple- we aren’t supporting stores that sell that kind of merchandise. We don’t think it’s funny, or cute and we don’t want stores that do at our events.

9.. What is your policy regarding scripted vendors?

Landmark givers/group joiners/subscribos are all okay. Simple split scripts are totally fine.

However, *NO NETWORKED VENDORS* will be allowed. Yes, this means you.  No, we’re not making exceptions.

That means no Caspervend, Hippovend, BSM, E2V,  etc.  Networked vendors make off-sim calls to a central database and when under load simwide,  can drag a busy sim to a crawl, especially when a bunch of different kinds making different calls to different servers are all in use at the same time.  If you can’t live without your networked vendors, then this isn’t the event for you.  Sorry about that.

There isn’t a discussion about this. There are no negotiations about it. In fact, we’re fantastically tired of even HEARING about it.  Just accept it.  It’s very frustrating to hear about how your vendors are somehow special and mystically don’t cause lag.  Trust me- they DO cause lag, when used simwide on a full sim.  We are not willing to police who is using what networked vendor system, and not all of them are created equal.  We cannot spare the time to have to negotiate who is bringing what vendor.  We don’t allow them at all, and this is a firm, non-negotiable point.

We will need a 512×512 full perm logo from your store at the time you apply.  No logo? No application processing.  No kidding. Chasing people down for logos is a giant pain in the ass.  That said, if your store has been in any Cursed Event in 2014 and it has not changed, you do not need to send another copy- we have it. It’s cool.

Please be aware we are not admitting gesture vendors or stores that only sell shapes.

10. Will there be Gacha machines?

Yep.  We’ll provide the machines.  You can set the price of your machines yourself to whatever you want.  No, you don’t have to use them.

11. Do I have to specifically have a gothshop to be in the fair?

No.  However, and this is very important, all the stuff you bring to sell at the fair MUST be goth/steam/diesel/dark Victoriana.  Anything else is getting *sent. back.*  (I’m serious about this, I will send it back.)

12.  Will you have official bloggers?

Yes.  Blogger coordination is handled by Sonya Marmurek.  Bloggers will have access to the site through the build process, and any and all review copies.  If you’re interested, please fill out the blogger application. Please don’t ask anyone but Sonya about blogger related stuff. We only have to then turn around and ask her anyway. You may as well just cut out the middleman and go directly to her. It’s her job- the rest of us don’t do bloggerythings.

Blogging GxG is optional on BOTH sides.  That means we are not going to set rules about who blogs what, when, and for how many cookies.  That said, we also do not force merchants to provide review packs, either. They can if they want to, and if not, that’s fine too.  We ask that both sides be respectful, and that’s pretty much it.

We will allow access to the fair several days early for bloggers to run around and do their thing.

We do not guarantee that everyone who applies will be accepted.

13.  When will merchant setup take place, and will there be early access for bloggers?

Merchant setup will take place starting the 10th of December.  Bloggers will be allowed early access.

Due to the epidemic of people being late to events we will insist that everyone be fully set up by NOON on December 14.  Anyone not at least partially in by then will lose their booth slot.

14. What is the policy regarding infringing/ripped content?

The policy of ALL the events I’ve ever organized has always been the same- if you rip stuff, be it art, textures, models, whathaveyou – I will punt you out so hard and so fast they will see you fly across the grid. I have done this before, and will not hesitate to do it again.

SOME SPECIAL NOTES:

***IF YOU HAVE AN ART GALLERY***

If you, personally, did not create the artwork or photos in that gallery YOURSELF, do not bring them to this event. We will remove you. If you grabbed it from the net, google, whatever, and messed with it in photoshop- do not bring them to this event. We will remove you.

It does not matter if you make “an original piece just for the fair” if everything else in your store originated as someone else’s artwork. We will not keep you at the fair. we are *Not interested* in work that is not completely created by the merchant. Please, save your time and ours- we *really will remove you* if you’re selling work that isn’t yours.

***IF YOU HAVE A TEXTURE STORE***

If you, personally, did not create the textures in that gallery YOURSELF, by your own hand/photo work, do not bring them to this event. We will remove you from it when we find out it’s happened, and someone *always tells us* it’s happened.

It does not matter if you make “an original piece just for the event” if everything else in your store originated as someone else’s texture. We will remove you. we are *Not interested* in work that is not completely created by the merchant. Please, save your time and ours- we *really will remove you* if you’re selling work that isn’t yours.

***IF YOU HAVE A STORE THAT SELLS ANY ARTWORK/TEXTURES AT _ALL_***

Also, please read the above. This rule applies to you also.

***IF YOU SELL MESH CONTENT***

You had to go through the same IP quiz that everyone else did to upload meshes at all. If we find out you’re selling ripped content or if we find out you’re selling INFRINGING content – which doesn’t have to be ripped, just be ripping off someone else’s IP – we will pull you out of GxG so fast it will make your head spin. It is not fair to everyone else who busts ass to make their own stuff from scratch. There is no way for us to know the legitimacy of every item in every booth, but you can bet that with that many eyes on items, SOMEONE will know, recognize, and prove where it came from. Don’t do it. We will find out and we will remove you from the fair.

If you don’t make your own meshes yourself, and aren’t uploading them, but are buying items full perm on marketplace, is is up to YOU to know that your stuff is not infringing someone else’s IP.  It is up to YOU to know it’s not ripped off from a movie, a video game, or some other property under copyright or trademark. It is up to YOU to be sure that the merchants you’re purchasing things from, full perm on marketplace are legit, and not thieves themselves.  “I didn’t know it was stolen” is a limited defense. When it’s one item, and everything else is obviously fine, well you know, stuff happens to everyone sometimes. No one can be expected to know everything.  But when there’s multiple problems, that defense doesn’t work, and our only recourse is to remove you from the event – because what it tells us is you aren’t aware of your own genres to know what’s real and what isn’t.

If you will be selling music related merchandise at this event you MUST HAVE A WRITTEN LICENSE from the band. No exceptions.  Get. A. Freaking. License.  WE DO IT, and you have to also.

We shouldn’t have to say this, but we realize we do- it’s not ok to use ripped textures on other things.  So no, you can’t use that album cover texture. No, you can’t use that fabric texture that you grabbed off google, etc. If it’s someone else’s copyrighted content, someone’s gonna report it to us, and once they do, we’ve no choice but to tell you to remove the item and retexture it. Please, don’t make us have to do this. It sucks for us, and for you.

There will be *NO EXCEPTIONS* to this policy, and just to be clear – the org team is the arbiter of what we feel comes too close to the line of infringement(or in fact, sails right over it). We are not beholden to anyone else on this.  Save yourself the hassle and just don’t do it in the first place.

15. Is there a flickr group?

Yes.

16.  What is your merchant policy regarding cancellations?

We maintain a waiting list for merchants once all booth slots are gone.  No one minds if you have to cancel. Stuff happens, particularly over the holidays. That said, we mind a LOT (no, really, a LOT) when people decide not to do the event and don’t bother to TELL anyone about it.  If you aren’t set up 24 hours before we open and you have not communicated with us despite our attempts to do so, we are giving your booth slot away, and we will roundfile any further applications to our events. Not telling people you have to cancel is just fantastically rude, and we have no patience for it. At all.  If you have to cancel that’s totally, utterly ok, but TELL SOMEONE.

Due to the epidemic of people being late to events we will insist that everyone be fully set up by NOON on December 14.  Anyone not at least partially in by then will lose their booth slot.

17.  Why is this different than other events?

GxG is NOT like our other events. This is a VERY low pressure event. The truth is, the grid goes pretty much dark in December. People have RL concerns, and concurrency is very low.  If you’ve never done an event before? This is a *great* way to start. It’s very low key, and a really easy introduction as to how events work.  If you’re an experienced merchant? This is a simple setup that costs you nothing up front, and it will make you a little cash for the end of the year.  If you’re new? Oldbies *will* help you.  It’s a very mellow atmosphere, and it will make you a couple bucks at a time when everyone needs some.

 

18. Can I have co-designers in my booth (more than one store in a booth, basically.) 

We understand that a lot of stores are partnerships, and that some folks have multiple brands. That’s a problem we encounter ourselves, actually.  Here’s the deal – yes, you can do this, under certain conditions.  Here’s what they are:

a) we have to be notified about this *BEFORE* applications close (in this case, before November 30) .  Past that point we do not have time to effectively research additional brands-  we have our hands full.

b) we need to approve the additional brand- that means we need to know the name of the store, what it sells, where we can find it, and who owns it. Just like every other merchant in the event.

c) the additional brand cannot have been denied entry on its own. That is to say, if that brand applied to the event and was turned down, they cannot come in under someone else’s brand either.

 

19.  How will I know if I’ve been accepted?   

We will have an ongoing merchant list available on this site. I will also be emailing acceptances to everyone, as well as sending group invites to the Cursed Events group (if you’re not in the merchant group already).  We know that SL likes to eat group invites. If you miss yours, just ask one of us to resend it.  Please check the merchant list AND YOUR EMAIL before flipping out, okay? If you aren’t accepted, you’re welcome to ask us why. We’ll tell you. That said, don’t ask questions you don’t really want the answer to, either.

 

20. Why is the group just for merchants? Is there a shoppers group?

The group is just for merchants because that’s its purpose- being there for merchant info and for bloggers to get review copies.  It’s also there because when we have multi-sim events the group tag allows for rez rights on other sims. Because of these reasons, it isn’t intended for shoppers and is not public access.

UPDATE 12/14/14

Over the past couple of years MANY people have asked us for a group for shoppers and gacha traders.  (many. )  The reason we never did it was because there were very poor group management controls available to us, and none of us has the time or patience to babysit an open group.  However, the newest release of Firestorm contains the LONG awaited group ban function.  As promised, as soon as it dropped, I installed it and created a group. It’s called Cursed Shoppers, and will cover all our events in order to save group space. The group is open and free to join.  The group key is here:  fe9d4c5b-4fa9-a1df-dd7e-adb54a334366 .  It will take some time to populate, but merchants are welcome to join and send out demos if they like, or whatever else they’ve got.  Gacha trading is welcome and you can ask questions about our events there too if you want to.  Have at, people.

 

21. Who is the Cursed Mascot?

The Cursed Mascots(I think there are four…) are actually all one person with various accounts.  They all have the same typist.   They’re mostly harmless. Do not  eat them in ways they don’t like – seriously, that’s even in our sim covenant.

 

22.  Will there be music events?

The Gothika Mobile Unit will be running its regular schedule during the run of the event:

Monday 8-10pmSLT (Lokii Violet)
Monday 10-midnight SLT (Bronxelf)

Tuesday 8-10pm SLT (Pie Zipper)

Wednesday 8-10pmSLT (Lokii Violet)
Wednesday 10-midnight SLT (Bronxelf)

Thursday 1-3pm SLT (Cruel Britannia)
Thursday 10-midnight SLT (Bronxelf)

Sunday 8-10pmSLT (Pie Zipper)

 

Any other questions? Leave a comment and we’ll see about adding them.

 

 

 

 

 

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