Be invisible in SL?

[Taryn Kendall]

Hi, 

Is there an easy way to be in world and not be seen by friends either on my friend list or even in a search? Thanks!

[Marigold Devin]

Welcome to Second Life Forums, Taryn

The only assured way you can be inworld and not be seen by friends is to create an alt and tell no one about it.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Taryn, Marigold is a shining example of "stealth by alt".

Half of SL's mythic folklore is attributable to Mari's ulterior avatars.

;-).

[Loraan Fierrens]

There is no way to be 100% invisible, in the sense of your status being shown as offline. There are a couple of options in the viewer that get you part of the way there, but there are limitations.

First, in the Privacy tab on the preferences panel, there is an option "Only friends and groups know I'm online". As the name suggests, if you check that, only your friends and member of any groups you are in will be able to see that you are online. The general public will not see your online status in the viewer (more on the emphasis in a moment).

If you don't want your friends to see that you are online, you can go through your friends list and remove the permission for "See my online status". In the standard viewer: right click the friend in your friends list, open their profile, click on the gear icon, and select "Pemissions". Uncheck the "See my online status" line. In some of the Third Party Viewer (e.g. Firestorm), you can do it directly from the friends list.

Now for the caveat. A simple script will allow any Second Life user see the online status of any other Second Life user, regardless of their preferences. So, if someone really wants to know if you log in, they will. Also, I believe your online status will always be shown in the group members list of any groups you happen to be in, so there is that too.

A few words of caution, from personal experience. I have used with the friends visibility settings when I didn't want to advertise that I was on and ended up making a good friend thinking I was mad at him and had removed him from my friends list. Yikes! So, that is not something I'm ever going to do again and would recommend to use the option only with caution if at all.

[Bobbie Faulds]

Also, regardless of wht your settings are, you'll show online in any groups you belong to. So, you'd need to uncheck the show groups in my profile so no one knows what groups you're in.

[LlazarusLlong]

Yes, there is.

In fact there are lots of useful capabilities, including the ones you describe, which are not available to normal residents.

Those who know refer to this as "God Mode".

But you have to find a sympathetic and trusting (or mischievous) Linden willing to confer the powers upon you.

Or just bribe one. It doesn't take much - LL pay isn't that great, and job security minimal.

[Ohjiro Watanabe]

An alternative to the alt strategy is Comm/Online Status/Unavailable. Anyone who IMs you will get a message that you are busy.

It is not a personal message so no one needs to feel offended, because you don't want to speak to them.

It is perfectly reasonable to want to be alone so that you can sort your inventory or write a script or shop or something of the sort. So, you shouldn't feel the need to appologise.

[LlazarusLlong]

And you can personalise the "Temporarily Unavailable" message however you like, which can be fun, especially as there is no filter such as used for the forums which would bleepify words such as **, **** and *********************************.

I used to use a message saying that I would rather not be disturbed because I was in intimate congress with an avatar used by Michelle Pfeiffer, and was not deterred particularly by the messages asking if we'd like to make it a threesome, but was forced to amend it when Michelle threatened to release the videos of our rl liaison if I didn't stop bringing her name into disrepute.

Maybe what we need is a separate thread in GD where people could post the messages they use in such circumstances, or make suggestions for others.

[Kelli May]

You can be invisible to Lindens by having a non-Premium account.

 

 

Or a Premium account.

 

 

Or posting on the forum.

[LlazarusLlong]

Congrats Kelli! You get the Pserendipity Posthumous Award for Nihilistic Realism.

It's awarded very seldom.

For making the dead spin in their grave.

With amusement.

[irihapeti]

i just dont answer any IMs when I am doing something and dont want to be distracted

a way to do this is kinda like send to answerphone

Preferences \ Chat \ and set all to: No action. And uncheck Play sound for all. Also remove the Chat button from the button toolbar so is no color indication onscreen that anybody is contacting you

when do this then dont get any immediate viewer indications of chat/IM at all

have to open the Communicate \ Conversation window to see/read any you did get

+

i dont bother to try hide my online status (for all the reasons already given is waste of time). Just send all to answerphone and I will answer them when I check my messages

most people accept that if dont answer them straightaway then you busy and is ok if get back to them later on

bc I dont have my Conversations window open then dunno if I got any messages. So am not distracted by knowing that I have them

[Darrius Gothly]

Seconded!

[SweetLadyMell]

Umm, invisible as in...what? Like a Harry Potter cloak ( https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/INVISIBILITY-CLOAK-HUD/6447741 ) or, "nobody noticing you" kinda? SL is above all SOCIAL...so...why hide...

[Taryn Kendall]

Thank you so much!!

[Taryn Kendall]

LOL!! Thanks!

[Coby Foden]

---

SweetLadyMell wrote:

Umm, invisible as in...what? Like a Harry Potter cloak (

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/INVISIBILITY-CLOAK-HUD/6447741

) or, "nobody noticing you" kinda? SL is above all SOCIAL...so...why hide...

---

I think that when people are talking about "invisible" they don't actually mean being invisible. What they do mean is being able to login silently, so that the system would not announce to all friends "Avatar XYZ is online" at login.

In Second Life there are times to be social and there are times not be social, just like is the case in real life. We do need our private moments in both worlds.

• When I'm adjusting my newly bought clothes I'm very far from being social. I want to concentrate fully on the task at hand without any interruptions.

• When I'm designing something I definitely want to be left alone. No interruptions. I'm fully concentrated on that particular task.

• When I go shopping inworld, go to clubs, go strolling about, go sailing, explore places, etc., then I'm social. Talk to me, IM me, ask me to a party. Social activities are welcome.

Therefore, Second Life should have two different logins:

• Social login

-- This would be like the present login is.

• Silent login

-- The system would not announce to friends "Avatar XYZ is online"

-- If somebody would IM me the system would say "Offline"

-- The system would announce everywhere my online status being "Offline" (to scripts, groups, etc)

So I would not be invisible while logged in with "Silent" mode. Anybody who would be within draw distance from me would naturally see me. Even minimap would show my green dot on it.

The silent login feature has been requested, but for some strange reason it has not been implemented. (Supposedly it would break things, for example merchants need to know the true online status of an avatar. I have never fully understood why? Can't they fix the system so that the merchants need not know the online status?  Weird.)

Silent login is not about "hiding" nor being "invisible". It's just to have a private uninterrupted time inworld, to do things one needs to do, with their full focus and attention. Second Life is not like some social chat room, it is more like a real world - there is time to be social, there is time to be private. So it's kind of limiting to say that "SL is above all social".