Monday, October 22, 2007

HOF-gate...dare I interject?

Anonymous said...
Hey Conscious Scrapper - what do you think about the Kristina Contest/Hall of Fame controversy? I am just surprised that so many people didn't know Hall of Fame has been rigged from the beginning
October 15, 2007 11:49 PM


Okay, I'll admit it. I was trying to stay away from this hot topic because I was waiting for CK's response to the uncovering of the scandal. I read CK's response, choked on my coffee, and then I read it again. I do just so happen to have a plethora of opinions about all of this and well...since ya asked...

I think that while we, the scrapbookers, have won a battle, we are only postponing the inevitable results of the war itself. Look, the damage has been done. Thanks to the money hungry moguls who saw our hobby as a means by which to make a quick buck, our hobby has been literally bent over and served. Sorry so crass, but that's it in a nutshell! People have abandoned scrapbooking because of the industry. What used to be a cozy community for sharing and celebrating a shared hobby has become a playing field for competition, and an unlevel one at that. The industry big wigs have lined their pockets and we are left periodically reaffirming our reasoning for scrapping because at one time or another we've drank the kewl-aid. We have cried out in protest about the amount of stash one is perceived to need to catch the eye of the mag editors and our cries have been answered with advertising for nifty (and expensive) ways of managing our rediculous amount of supplies. Our hobby was stolen and exploited and we are sitting here trying to make sense of the pieces that kinda sorta look like what we used to love.

Yes, we won this fight. The promise of justice has been put on the agenda and Kristina Contes has been disqualified. But, did anyone happen to miss the band of lemmings that flocked to her defense despite the amount of solid evidence and her own personal damning testimony? Those people are part of the reason that this victory is not a sweet one. As long as there are enough of us who will "take it like a big girl", we will never truly win. I must give a little credit to CK for making the decision to disqualify KC, but I'm far from the dumb box of bricks they think I am. Would they have come to the same conclusion if KC hadn't decided to respond to this scandal by rudely dismissing the protesting public as rabid and crazed? No doubt, CK would've found a way to sidle out from under the thumb of angered public opinion without having to accrue the addition costs that their ultimate solution will require. Big Picture did it with Stacy Julian and Heidi Swapp...but of course, they are not nearly as vocal as our Mrs. KC. In short, I think that KC did more to seal her own coffin than CK did. She pretty much forced their hands and made it pretty easy for them by behaving in a manner that had the CK legal department cringing and pulling out hairs. Unfortunately, I'm sure that her fandom will make sure that she is still treated as a celebrity...because shame and dishonor is the new black...didn't you know?

CK has promised to lend more attention to detail to the 2008 contest (after throwing nameless people under the bus for the 2007 debacle) and has issued new affidavits for the remaining 24 recipients to sign. The photography rule, that has been loosely enforced is not under scrutiny and CK is in full blown CIA mode. Any recipient who is found in violation of the contest rules will be "dealt" with accordingly.

Newsflash: Did you know that it's easier to lie when you are telling your fib to a piece of paper or to an email?

If CK really wanted to get to the truth, they could have their legal team visit each recipient and question them face to face...now that's something for reality TV! As it stands, most of the questionable entries, if not all, will be defended by their submitters and things will go back to "normal".

CK has not clearly addressed is the atmosphere of favoritism and "celebrity" worship that has done little more than negate the importance of personal interpretation in scrapbooking. CK hasn't addressed a lot of issues...but were we really expecting to get the WHOLE brass ring?
So what does this silence mean? It means business as usual, folks. It means more contests, more publishing opportunities that only the elite are supposed to dare to try to take advantage of. It means more 'select' scrapbookers will be put up on pedestals and forced down the throats of the masses. I think the only real difference will be that CK will start gagging it's more "polarizing" golden children in hopes of convincing the rest of us that they ARE the best thing since sliced bread and not spoiled overly entitled children who can't handle the emotional ramification of 5 minutes of fame. CK's 2nd biggest mistake (destroying the true meaning behind the scrapbooking hobby being the 1st one) was in searching out a new demographic to keep their pockets full instead of listening to the whispers of contention coming from it's readership. Getting in bed with someone as abrasive and emotionally underdeveloped as KC was pure poor judgement, in my opinion. That was harsh, but I really haven't been allowed to see the nicer, more grown-up side of KC...and since CK stamped their logo on her forhead, they facilitated the mass exodus of many of their loyalists.

Almost as shocking as the public announcement that Mrs. Contes would be disqualified, was her blog entry in response to getting kicked to the curb. Suddenly, all of this scrapbooking stuff was just a convaluted hobby that robbed her of time and freedom. Suddenly, it didn't matter whether she was a HOF or not. I'm sorry, but anyone with even a fading remnant of emotional maturity would care if they were publicly disowned and de-throned and their shame was celebrated by the masses. Furthermore, Mrs. Contes continued to defend her actions on the basis of the age old "I'm not the only one who's done it" defense. Once again, she makes it so easy to dislike her. Instead of apologizing for allowing a shadow to fall on the heads of all of this years recipients, she attempts to throw them and past years recipients under the bus. Classy, I tell ya, just classy. She went on to say that she would never step down (even if it means saving face and maybe earning back some of the respect that she worked so hard to lose) because, again, she was not the only one to skirt the rules. I guess to KC, the whole 'it takes one person to start the pendulum of change' thing is nothing more than meaningless lip service for the weak spirited and untalented. If we all lived in KC's bizzarro world, we'd no doubt be sending those found in possession of moral aptitude and/or integrity to the gallows.

KC will never see the error in her ways...not when her fandom-ites are buffeting her with "luv" and encouragement. Do those women really think that the people that protested the contest are so far off base? When did it become alright for someone to cheat, lie, and steal? Yes, steal...she shouldn't have entered if she didn't plan on following the rules..I'm not convinced that she didn't know that she was a shoe in, so she entered under a cloud of fraud, knowing that she'd win if she submitted...therefore, she stole a title that she didn't earn. There wasn't an iota of eloquence in her blog entry, either one of them. She insulted the scrapbooking public, she insulted CK (I can abide that...I've done it myself) and she even insulted those who have been supporting her despite her dishonesty with her comment about the possibility that many of her email supporters just kissing up because of what they think she can do for them in the future.

So, I guess the real question that needs to be addressed is "where do we go from here"? Do we trust CK's decision and hold out hopes for integrity on the part of the company? Do we take this little win and move on to the next area of injustice? I personally think that we need to sit back for a quick second and rejoice the fact that the collective found it's voice and we, for once, refused to sit down and shut up. After that, we need to go back to scrapping the way we want to. In a perfect world, I would say that we should continue to flog the industry with our wallets until we reclaim what was ours to begin with, but for now, I think it's just best to sit back and see how CK's learning experience effects the industry. If the HOF contest goes away and takes that silly SOY contest with it, we'll know that our voices were heard deeply. But time is the only indicator to how much of a win it was.

We CAN move towards more unity and acceptance. The industry can only dictate the trends if WE allow them to. Yes, there will be people who will bow down and scrap anyway that the mags tell them to...but do we have to buy the magazine? CK wants our money, to me that means that they have a responsibility to evolve with the demographic majority instead of trying to force an evolotion of the demographic majority. If they had stayed the course that they started on years ago, they wouldn't be suffering the readership losses that they are now. Had they stayed the course, they wouldn't have had to try to pull in a demographic that is so entrenched in it's me-ism that scandals like HOF-gate are inevitable. If they had stayed the course, the need for blogs such as this one and Scrap Smack would've been nil. CK lost sight of who it was that gave them their power. They have been duly reminded, but there is only so much that we can do to make sure that the slap they've received from the collective fresh in their corporate minds.

We COULD move on to another agenda in the interim, one that is unrelated to the HOF-gate scandal. A good one would be to hold the manufacturers accountable for the amount of scrap crap that they toss out every few months. How? Well, when they start to chum the waters after the next trade show, we can turn out eyes towards our overflowing stash and keep our wallets locked up. We know now that when we want to, we can get our voices heard...now we need to learn how to channel that power in a way that doesn't require a scandal to motivate us. I know that I won't be wanting for any new scrap wares anytime soon...even if they came with voucher's for a bubble bath with Matthew McConaughey himself!

The industry has lost me...at least for a good long while.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The apple (is. the SB industry)
IS
indeed rotten

Anonymous said...

All I saw was bubble bath with Matthew McConaughey and all other thoughts disolved with that image. Mmmm... scrapbooking? what?

Actually, I'm cautiously willing to see where CK goes from here. I've heard enough insider gossip to make me feel like they're at least trying to go in the right direction and undo some of the harm that's been done. Of course at this point, I'm also cynical to say I'll believe it when I see it. But I hope to see it.

Anonymous said...

First the Stacy Julian/Heidi Swapp fiasco, then Hall of Fame DQing, now Two Peas secret board was outted. Yes, this industry is rotten to the core. So glad I decided a few years ago to stop submitting and just enjoy scrapbooking as a hobby and that I have enough supplies now that I don't need to buy anything else for a long time.

Anonymous said...

ladyjae?