Quadgate o7'

Hai Guise!! Okay, so this whole quad thing has really been a bit of a whirlwind for me personally. I have to admit that I had a few reservations going into the post, which caused me to delay posting it for several days even though it was something that I felt needed to be addressed. I had been discussing it with many of my close friends, and everyone had split decisions on whether we should take on the issue or not. The biggest fear being that we would somehow bring more hurt or pain to someone who could potentially be hurting from something serious that went wrong in RL. I won't speculate as to what the issue could be, but the thinking is that it must be something serious to illicit such a strong response as to shut down four major retailers. In the end, I felt that the post I wrote in no way belittled anyone or put any added pressure to disclose anything personal or private. It was meant to only address a topic that was widely being discussed, which is how bizarre it is to have the Quad closing doors in unison with little or no explanation. I focused on the business aspects of it. For sure, they have every right to do whatever they feel is in their best interests, but I do think that we of the blogging community have a right to comment on the actions we observe in others as long as we are honest and not intentionally causing harm.

To make a long story short, this is how I came to publish the post which I had begun writing almost a week prior. I was immediately contacted to remove the post due to the serious, personal, and private nature of the subject matter. I will admit that given the reservations that I had going in, this caused me a moment of panic, and I removed the post to conform to their wishes.

In hindsight, and after reviewing my post, I do not feel that anything I said was hurtful or causes any additional damage to any of the affected parties. I am still totally in the dark as to what the issue is, as much as most of the rest of you. Everything, I addressed was/is open knowledge and being openly discussed amongst everyone who regularly shops the quad already, and I was just giving a public voice to the comments. In the absence of information, rumors and hearsay are bound to run rampant, and I am not adding to that mix by offering speculation.

I hope I have not overly disappointed any of the MG readers, with my sudden case of nerves about writing a post that some of my favorite people do not want to see published. I removed it in a moment of reaction, but I am now reposting it in it's entirety as I feel that I did cave into pressure that I should not have conceded to. One change I am making out of respect to the Quad is to disallow any anonymous posts, to keep random people from trying to fuel the controversy by making unsolicited speculation that is not backed up by facts or the name of the individual making the comment.

I am sure that some will disagree with my decision to repost, much as some disagreed with my decision to post it in the first place. In the end, I have to do what I think is right, and in my heart, mind, and soul after reflecting on it for a day, I truly believe that I owe it to our MG readers to continue to cover issues we believe are of interest to each and every one of you.

-Original Post-
Hai, meet me, I procrastinate. So what? Tenshi posed the question, why haven't more of you? We've been questioning it for days. So the fab four of the Quad (Last Call, Celestial Studios, ETD, & Canimal) have decided for "RL reasons" to close their sims for an undetermined amount of time and because their personal posts all said the same, ending with "Please respect our decision" no one has touched it, really.

Though I do respect their decision & hope all is well, something must be said about the way it was handled. I would hate to make anything worse for them but at the same time feel there must be an explanation to making a decision that would affect SL as well as their own RL financial situations.

Last Call put out the awesome Halloween costume release, and even collaborated with Celestial Studios on the limited Halloween release. Yet neither were open for Halloween. Why close the entire quad instead of just announcing that there would be no customer service at this time? This has caused a lot of speculation, rumors, and goss to be whispered among the masses, but with no real definite reasonings other than "RL".

What is the most surprising to me is the way in which the wishes of the Quad have been carried out without comment from the hosts of bloggers out there both fashion oriented and others looking to scoop a big story. I mean think for a minute if something of this magnitude happened in the "RL" as those nonbelievers like to call it. "Attention, shoppers we will be closing down Neiman Marcus, Macy's, JC Penney's, and Hot Topic for a few days. Please respect our wishes."

I mean OMG, there would be reporters and news stories and tons and tons of speculations, and it would make huge shockwaves through the retail and domestic economy. I am not sure that volume wise the Quad compares in proportion, but oh gosh, they are huge. I mean I spend a high proportion of my L's there. It seems like it would have been a lot cleaner to just keep the stores open, and not offer any customer service because this would not create any huge ripples, but only minor inconveniences. It is equally parts amazing that they shut down and that all of SL is keeping totally mum about it.

Again, I hope nothing majorly wrong has happened with anyone's RL situation to cause this catastrophe. I am not poking fun or taking issue with the fact they closed down to deal with their "mysterious" situation. I am however, flabbergasted at the lack of coverage it has received and also surprised at the choice to shut down stores without explanation, rather than to limit services or else offer an explanation on the need of everybody to band together.