OMGFASHIONWEEK has begun in New York City, and it’s already shaping up to be a non-event. After all, how exciting can it be when even Messica isn’t attending anything?

Even tumblr has said ‘eff it’. With the departure of Rich Tong they are hardly bothering; after a couple of seasons of ‘no1curr’ from the fashion industry they are no longer bothering to fly in “20 bloggers handpicked by Rich Tong Tumblrs from around the world”. Instead, they have selected 5 local “emerging voices in fashion” (read: people you have never heard of) to post stuff under their “NYFW” tag.

What is going on? Are bloggers no longer able to get sponsors to send them to New York in exchange for blurry instagrams? Are Fashion Week planners finally sick of a bunch of nobodies clogging their shows and events and finally locking their doors to random bloggers? Does anyone really care?

In the wake of Jessica Quirk’s announcement that she will no longer be accepting “c/o” items, GOMIBLOG has received tips that more bloggers may be forced to join in the “NO C/O” movement. Jen Loves Kev had already decided to no longer accept sidebar ads, and now the blog What Would A Nerd Wear has announced she too will be turning down freebies from companies.

Well supposedly we can look forward to similar announcements from more bloggers in the near future. The tipster claims this will be more of a face-saving act on the part of bloggers as companies have decided to not send out as many courtesy items to bloggers in 2012:

A few companies we work with…have informed us that sending items in exchange for a blog mention will not be part of their campaign strategies this year…they are not seeing increased sales compared to the amount of swag they have sent out…

In a nutshole, companies are finally seeing that style blogs don’t have nearly the influence on the buying habits of their readers as they have previously made it sound. This was an inevitable conclusion; no matter how much a reader loves a blogger or the item she’s wearing, if they don’t have the money, they won’t buy anything.

The tipster went on to say that bigger bloggers will “most likely still receive some courtesy items” but the days of “anyone with a style blog” being able to wrangle free goods is over. This could change the whole face of style blogging, making it even more competitive as bloggers try to reach the level necessary to appeal to companies still offering swag.

While some worry it may narrow the playing field to only those with money to drop on clothes on a regular basis, many hope it will force style bloggers to return to a more organic state – real people wearing the real clothes they bought with their own real money. Without a constant stream of free clothes making it easy for anyone and everyone to have a modicum of taste, those with real personal style may emerge victorious in the new blogging landscape.

Jen Lula, style blogger, has decided to “simplify” her blog by getting rid of ads and sponsorships.

After some deep thought I decided that over the next few months I am going to phase out sponsored ads…there will no longer be ads on the side of my site. There will no longer be giveaways and there will be no more in your face, check out these sponsors posts. Sometimes, I really feel like this takes away the integrity of a blog.

She has decided to use the time she was spending monetizing her blog on more enriching pursuits, such as “playing with Rowan, going for walks as a family or sewing something on my sewing machine.”

She says that style blogging no longer has the appeal it once had (“I don’t want to wake up one day and be 45 years old, still taking daily outfit photos…I want more.”), and she wants to shift her blog focus to things that are more in line with her current interests:

The blogs I follow have shifted a lot this past year. I read way more lifestyle blogs and not so many fashion ones. That is just not where I am in my life anymore…I am finally able to leave that behind.

Jen goes on to state that she has also decided to withdraw from the group blog Delightful Dozen.

Considering how hard it is to attract and keep sponsors and publicize a blog, I can’t blame her for wanting to throw in the towel and get back to real life. Professional blogging is a rat race full of people willing to climb over your baby if it means grabbing the brass ring. It can be exhausting if you let it become the main focus of your life, and no one can fault her for deciding to “simplify” by getting back to blogging just for fun.

I’ve never been a Jen Loves Kev fan (reading about babies and housewifery holds no interest for me) but best of luck to her with her decision.

Kim Baker, the blogger formerly known as “Anthroholic”, may eventually have to answer for her behavior.

A source tells us that to their knowledge at least five people have filed complaints with the FBI – not exactly an avalanche of complaints, but our source hopes it is enough to spark at least a cursory investigation:

There was a bit of paperwork involved in filing the complaints so it took us all a while to get it done but it’s done. I don’t know if anyone else has filed but I know the five of us have completed the process…I’ll let you know if anything comes of it but hopefully charges will be brought by the internet crimes bureau.

Despite deleting herself from the intarwebs and issuing an apology (and a few refunds) some in the “Anthro” community feel Kim should be held accountable for her crimes:

I truly believe if she isn’t forced to face what she’s done she will just pop up again and do the same thing.

We will keep you posted on the outcome.

Tina Haupert, runs some “Carrots ‘N’ Cake” healthy living blog, recently received an email from the producers of the Dr. Oz show:

So, I bet you’re wondering how this whole thing happened, right? Well, I’m going to tell you. It started on November 15th when I received an email from the producers at The Dr. Oz Show inviting me to submit a recipe to their first ever Healthy Holiday Cookie Challenge.

She allegedly implied this was a personal invitation – except the actual email included in the original post showed otherwise. The email supposedly invited her to submit a holiday cookie recipe, and encouraged her to extend the opportunity to enter the contest to her readers. Instead, she simply submitted herself and left her readers in the dark until she won the contest. Several readers commented about this, so she edited the post to remove the email and deleted several comments calling her out on the matter.

Despite Tina deleting the evidence, commenter Kimberly refused to let the issue die and asked Tina WTF:

How come you never shared this contest with your readers like the original e-mail that you had in this post (I see you’ve edited the post and taken it down) asked you to do? I usually like your blog, but it seems strange that you would go back and edit this post if you feel like there was nothing wrong with what you did.

Tina’s response is a classic blogger ‘sorry you got upset’:

When I wrote my post yesterday, I decided to include the email from the producers as a way to explain how I ended up on the show. I didn’t think anyone would get upset about not being notified of the contest, but readers did, so I edited the post.

Why should you care? Because this is a classic example of bloggers who do not care about their readers. Despite many bloggers trying to do the ”I love my readers, I consider you guys my BFFs!” they are ultimately in it for themselves. And if that bothers the readers, hey just edit the post to hide what you did wrong and make a meh apology, because whatever I’m on tv bidges!

Next time you read about some blogger getting ‘asked’ to participate in some amazing opportunity be sure to remember how many of them actually come by these things – it might have involved an agent or a deception. Considering the fame-seeking, cut throat nature of blogging these days I’m sure this type of thing happens more often than readers know about.