What happened to Aspire? Seven Months Later!

Well a great article was published over at Shopping Cart Disco where I just had to re post the article and the comment I made over there. Apparently the two who owned Aspire disappeared in to thin air never to be heard from again, walking away with money from people.

Note: Just to be clear, Aspire had a sim called Aspire Isle, a fashion magazine, and a modeling agency. All gone.

-------[ORIGINAL ARTICLE]-------

Aspire Disappears; Seven Months Later, Still Nothing
by Tenshi Vielle

So, I’m still catching up on what the heck happened in Second Life while I was busy battling RL drama. Apparently, Aspire Isle disappeared in September.

Why am I just now looking into this? A co-designer sent me this notecard:

Hi Tenshi,

I know of you through DIS group and through reading your blog. We also both had a store located on Aspire Isle. You seem to be a bit of a slueth and I’m wondering if you have heard anything about what is going on with that? In particular, the Shop Line thing. I paid roughly $27K in lindens for a one year subscription to that group. I’ve sent requests to Kristianne Matfield to be refunded….and I have as of yet gotten a response…or a refund.

Anyway, I’m sure the money is long gone by now, but of all things that gets dragged out into the open in the blog community, I have never heard any mention of this. Maybe I just missed it, I don’t know. So that’s why I’m contacting you, to see if you know anything of it.

Thanks!

Hrm. Come to think of it, I was owed an ad by Aspire, after the transfer.


I started poking around. Kristianne Matfield’s avatar still exists in SL, and still has a profile, (The Duality group says she was online 4/4/09) but when I tried to TP to my Aspire isle location - nothing. No server response - the island is gone. The blog went stagnant on September 3rd, 2008. No communication, no notices, nothing.

Granted, Aspire lost much of its luster after Bianca Darling sold it. Aspire was her baby, and the new owners just didn’t share the same passion for it as Bianca did. The sim was majorly automated - 20% proceeds were taken from my vendor sales via script, and interacting with the sim/owners/etc was simply not necessary.

Everyone who prepaid for the ShopLine service is getting nothing. All the advertisers are getting nothing. BabyHoney Bailey, manager, got nothing but flack after Kristianne and Bendover up and disappeared, saddling her with the disgruntled shop owners and advertisers.

When Kristianne and Bendover took over the magazine, the new issue under new management was slotted for May 1st but didn’t come out until August 1st. Kristianne and Bendover’s online prescense after that issue slowly tapered out to nothing. They stopped responding to messages. One of the photographers for the magazine was in the middle of a shoot for the next issue when Bendover disappeared from the shoot completely, never to be seen again. No statement issued, nothing. The editors knew nothing. Babyhoney Bailey took the shaft for everything.

People assumed that Babyhoney knew the story because she was the one closest to them - truth be told, she knew as much as anyone else. Babyhoney and Kristianne were friends outside of Second Life as well, but from what I understand, Kristianne stopped communicating with Babyhoney entirely. No more answering her phone calls. No answered emails. Nothing.

Sounds like the money was burning a hole in Kristianne and Ben’s respective pockets.

As a retailer and former supporter of Aspire, I am annoyed to discover that I not only missed this happening due to lack of announcement, but that I am out of a shop space that I once enjoyed and am out the advertisement space I am owed. There’s no one to complain to at this point… there’s just nothing.


Source: http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=1041&cpage=1

-------[SL DAILY BUZZ REPLY]-------

Erin, I absolutely love what you said! May I quote you?

"Ethical people don’t just disappear, leaving staff, clients and the rest of the grid in the dark. Period." - Erin

I really don't really care what lame excuse people use to excuse their poor actions. Just know NOT to trust Kristianne Matfield and Bender Hamer as they have proven to be unreliable.

If what is being reported here is true what Moria said "Bianca Darling came to the first show they did and then passed her a notecard detailing everything she did wrong and telling her how terrible it was. I know she was very angry because she felt Bianca sold it to her and was still trying to run it."

I'd rip Bianca a new one. Who is she to pass out nc's about something she has nothing to do with? Or was it really that bad? Well who's fault is that? If it was so bad, clearly they were not prepared or shown how to do it. Who knows I was not there, so I really cannot say.

Ultimately that is no excuse for what these people did. As for what Anne Toole said, "Anyone done the math? A sim costs a lot. Used to cost more." Yes you are right it is expensive. But they should of had a proper business plan if that was the case. Clearly, they failed on everyone who was there supporting them without a word.

Despicable. SL is fraught with this kind of shameless behavior. One thing you learn is to pay month to month because no one can guarantee they will be around to fulfill those obligations.

Well I have to admit I was wondering what happened to Aspire, and it did seem like it just went silent. I am glad that someone has posted about it.

And just to answer Jenny's question about who is Babyhoney Bailey. She was the won who had been the first person to win the Miss Universe (now known as Miss Virtual World) contest. She had turned in her crown decrying that she was never given any of the prises that were promised her. She was also on the staff of Aspire at the time and they took a lot of heat for it. I really don't know if it was true or not, and honestly, I do not really care. Nor would I even classify Babyhoney Bailey famous.

As for Frolic Mills, either you hate him or you love him. Everyone seems to hate him because they are jealous of his success. However he achieved it, he did it, and there will be people out there who will want to tear him down for it. If Frolic Mils is as terrible as people say, believe me it is only a matter of time before the truth is out there.

From what I have been able to surmise is that most people who hate him are jealous of him. To be honest, I don't see why anyone would be jealous of him or even waste the energy to hate him. It is such a wasteful emotion.

If I had to pick anyone to dislike or hate it would be people who publicly abuse/attack other people just because they do not like them. There are only two people I know of who do this, and one got deleted from SL and the other one has ruined their reputation permanently, and have made themselves irrelevant because of it.