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1. FoxyLady November 17, 2005

   It reminds me of the high school clique thing. A student government officer publicly praising/awarding. another student government officer for great leadership. :\

2. Lea November 19, 2005

   Hey there… as the person linked on the site, I want to reiterate that didn’t put them up to this and I expressed my concern to Simon about it. However, as he mentioned on the post, he felt it was worthy to be featured. Yes, my name is on as a Stylegala reviewer, but:

   a) I am not paid to review
   b) I actually DON’T get as much hits from my reviews (in fact, most people didn’t even know who I was or was even affiliated with SG until I was featured) and
   c) I don’t actually know any of the people on Stylegala personally.

   In fact, most of the Stylegala reviewers live on different countries (David’s in Sweden, Simon in the UK, Me in Canada, James in the States…etc)

   So, in short, being a Stylegala reviewer doesn’t necessarily mean instant money or notoriety. While I understand your concern, (remember, I expressed it to Simon myself before he posted), you mention the site is strong enough to be featured.

   It’s not a clique. It’s an opinion from one professional to another. There’s this huge misconception that this is an elitist club. It’s not. It’s a group of professionals that band together on one site to offer their PROFESSIONAL opinion on other people’s work. The end. It’s time to kill this destructive thinking. Of course, when you’re networking, you may actually end up MEETING these people and befriending the, but that’s just business! We’re not purposefully excluding people.

   There are over 180 websites featured in Stylegala in its inception. It features ONE reviewer’s site which Simon explicitly explained wh he had make an exception to feature me. Does that sound elitist or catering to a “club”?

   Would you have felt more comfortable if I was MADE a reviewer AFTER my site was featured?

   Think of it this way: Dionne Warwick, the voice behind Burt Bacharach hits and other classics since the 60s is actually Whitney Houston’s first cousin. Aretha Franklin is her godmother. Her own mother is an established gospel singer.

   Does this mean Dionne and Aretha had no right introducing Whitney to record executives? That even if her voice and talent are so damn obvious, she shouldn’t have gotten a record deal because she knows the people that work at Arista and may be part of their “inside circle”?

   Anyway, yeah, went off into a bit of a rant there, haha…

   My point it, Stylegala wasn’t purposely trying to be unethical, and frankly, I don’t think they were. Like you mentioned, the site’s good, no one seems to care… maybe it’s time to realise why no one else cares?

   Best,

   Lea

3. Lea November 19, 2005

   Oh, and just one other thing — I didn’t review my own site. I don’t run Stylegala, as well. It’s hard to compare to your Liquid Designs website, because you run it completely. Of course it would be unwise to add your own sites to a gallery you run, but Stylegala has 5 different official reviewers from different backgrounds. You’re comparing adding something about yourself BY yourself, to adding something someone else made by someone else — and that someone else just happened to be affiliated with the same site. Does that make sense? ha, i’m babbling now…

4. Nathan Smith November 19, 2005

   It’d be one thing if Stylegala was actually handing out monetary awards, or if Lea being featured cost someone else a spot. Being that neither of these factors is true, and Lea didn’t feature her own site, I’d say let it slide. I have recently started a feature / gallery site, and like you don’t want to see any of my own stuff on there. However, if someone else features your site, there’s little you can do. Once it’s out there, people cry “Nepotism” regardless of truth. In my opinion, Lea’s site deserves to be on there, moreso than others that have been featured in the past. The fact she’s also a reviewer doesn’t even matter. She does good work, period.

5. C Montoya November 19, 2005

   I totally agree with everything you guys say, and specifically what Lea said, that comparing my site and Stylegala is apples and oranges. My only concern is the appearance of it. I guess I could warm up to the idea of this happening in the future, if one reviewer reviews the site of another reviewer. I guess my concern is really just the appearance of it. People obviously didn’t care this time, but it could be taken the wrong way.

   Anyway, 2 nights of sleep (or lack of sleep… 5 hours between the 2) was enough for me to stop thinking about it. Thanks for the response