Is it frowned upon to use a real picture in your Second Life profile, or is it just really rare?

[theif519]

I don't know, perhaps the whole point of Second Life is to live that new, second life, without any connection to your real life, but I've seen more empty profiles than real ones. Is there an unspoken rule against it? What am I supposed to place as my profile picture? I still have a default avatar too, since I just started yesterday... err, two days ago since it's 2:30 in the morning. Also, I've noticed that there's both a First Life picture and a Second Life picture in the the profile. If people use their Second Life avatar in the first life one, what do they put in their second life one? Perhaps it's different for others, since on SL Viewer i didn't notice the 2nd life one, but on Phoenix Firestorm there's the option for it.

 

 

So, why is it that there's an abundant lack of real pictures? Is it to keep the guise of roleplay, or, which is most likely, wanting to keep their private life private, which I do understand, but on IMVU there were tons of real life ones compared to here, why is SL different?

[Tari Landar]

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theif519 wrote:

I don't know, perhaps the whole point of Second Life is to live that new, second life, without any connection to your real life, but I've seen more empty profiles than real ones. Is there an unspoken rule against it? What am I supposed to place as my profile picture? I still have a default avatar too, since I just started yesterday... err, two days ago since it's 2:30 in the morning. Also, I've noticed that there's both a First Life picture and a Second Life picture in the the profile. If people use their Second Life avatar in the first life one, what do they put in their second life one? Perhaps it's different for others, since on SL Viewer i didn't notice the 2nd life one, but on Phoenix Firestorm there's the option for it.

 

 

So, why is it that there's an abundant lack of real pictures? Is it to keep the guise of roleplay, or, which is most likely, wanting to keep their private life private, which I do understand,

but on IMVU there were tons of real life ones compared to here, why is SL different?

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Because SL is not IMVU, would be the short answer, best not to compare the two-or any other environment for that matter. The long answer would be that for some people SL is exactly that, a second life. Some people do completely separate themselves from their avatar-and are of course free to do so. Some people only separate certain things, or certain areas, but still feel somewhat connected to their avatar. Some people, like myself, don't separate the two very much, if at all. For me my av is simply an extension of me. It's still me. But up until about a year ago, I didn't have any rl pics either. Mostly because I just didn't want to, lol. No real reason other than that.

Some people don't like sharing their rl info, even in picture form. That's not uncommon at all. You can put whatever you want into either pic section, providing you follow TOS of course. It's up to each indidivual to decide what, if anything, to put, and where. If you're comfortable and desire to, you can share your rl pictures, but there's no reason to feel you have to share any pics at all, sl or rl.

 

[Phil Deakins]

No, it is not frowned upon. It is a person's choice and most people don't put RL pics of themselves in their profiles. Some people do though, including me.

[Leia36]

When I started SL I had my RL pic up in my profile under "1st life". I was advised to drop it by one of my mentors and share my RL pic with those close to me and not make it open to everyone, which makes sense to me. To others, they might have their own reasons to post their RL pic, its a completely personal choice.

[Alazarin Mondrian]

Post as much or as little RL information about yourself as you are comfortable with. Remember that SL, like the rest of the internet, is visited by scammers, stalkers, psychos, datascrapers and other ne'er-do-wells. Less or none is safest. There's no need to make your profile hostile and defensive. As a matter of fact some would regard that as a challenge. Furthermore do not, under any circumstances, ever give out any RL information about yourself to anyone in SL who demands it or attempts to trick it out of you by telling you a bit about their RL life as a quid-pro-quo for getting some information out of you. Chances are that they're just making up a fabrication about themselves.

 

An example of a safe profile would be:

I am a penguin and live in Antarctica with the rest of my flock. We discovered Second Life after we broke into an abandoned station with a working internet connection. It's great fun! My hobbies are fishing, sliding down ice slides and fishing ;-)

 

An example of an unsafe profile would be:

I live at 123 Any Street, Any Town, Any State, USA. My phone number is123-456-7890. The front door is always unlocked and I leave the keys in the glovebox of my unlocked car on the driveway. I work on the assembly line at Nucleon Atomic Motor Cars Ltd. in Any Town. The password for my Facebook account is: blahblahblah and the password for my SL account is: yadayadayada. My bank account number is: 1234-5678-9098-7654. The password for my paypal account is: password.

[Monti Messmer]

Hello, i don´t just to not spoil the imagination. A picture tells alot, age, color, gender ..... things i don´t want to be known by everyone, because everyone can view your profile.

Sometimes, especially for girls, having a RL pic in the profile causes alot drama.

Last thing. I´ve seen toooo many RL pics that are not the person behind the avatar so that makes this feature obsolete.

Monti

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I've been in SL over six years.  Early on I rarely saw anyone use their RL picture, even in their first life tab.  It is only since facebook that I've seen more people do it, but still they are the minority.  Of people that have a RL pic on their 1st life page, I've seen plenty use pictures I've seen on the internet so I really don't trust anyone's RL pic as their actual pic. I don't see many empty profiles but when I do they are usually newbs who haven't built one yet, or alts of people trying to hide for one reason or another.

SL is not IMVU they are very different.  I tried IMVU and felt it was to SL what a comic book is to good thick novel.  If I had to guess though, I'd say that IMVU avatars all look much the same and are way more cartoonish and maybe people subconsciously feel they want to show they are individuals and not just a toon by displaying their human picture.  SL avatars, while not perfect, are more like RL people, or at least the ones that are not fantasy beings, and are much more individual looking, so maybe people don't have the same need.

 

[161488303349]

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theif519 wrote:

So, why is it that there's an abundant lack of real pictures? Is it to keep the guise of roleplay, or, which is most likely, wanting to keep their private life private, which I do understand, but on IMVU there were tons of real life ones compared to here, why is SL different?

---

sexxors (:

[Phil Deakins]

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Leia36 wrote:

When I started SL I had my RL pic up in my profile under "1st life".

I was advised to drop it by one of my mentors

and share my RL pic with those close to me and not make it open to everyone, which makes sense to me. To others, they might have their own reasons to post their RL pic, its a completely personal choice.

---

That was bad advice. Why would anyone advise anyone to not have their RL pic there?

[Phil Deakins]

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Monti Messmer wrote:

Hello, i don´t just to not spoil the imagination.

A picture tells alot,

age

, color, gender ..... things i don´t want to be known by everyone, because everyone can view your profile.

---

That's precisely why I put my RL pic in my profile.

[Leia36]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

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Leia36 wrote:

When I started SL I had my RL pic up in my profile under "1st life".

I was advised to drop it by one of my mentors

and share my RL pic with those close to me and not make it open to everyone, which makes sense to me. To others, they might have their own reasons to post their RL pic, its a completely personal choice.

---

That was bad advice. Why would anyone advise anyone to not have their RL pic there?

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Context Phil

If I showed you it you would understand, In my case it was good advice. Besides the only people who 'need to know' are my partner and close friends, certainly don't want someone taking my pic and using it for whatever reason without my permission either.

Like I said, its a completely personal choice, that's the advice I would give if anyone should ask me.

[Honey Puddles]

From a historical perspective, SL users have rejected all attempts to get them to link their Second Life accounts, to their realword identities. Due to it's original lack of free account options, SL became an anonymous, adult playground.. where people could act upon their fantasies, and become whatever they wanted. Lots of men in RL made female SL lives, and lots of people explored relationships and sexualities that they felt their real lives couldn't accept.

The "First Life" tab, used to be the last tab of the profile, an afterthought for those who wanted someplace to say a little something about their real life identities. A few years back, this was moved to the front of the profile, and nowadays lives at the bottom of the main page of the profile. A lot of us oldtimers still don't feel comfortable putting much there, especially in a world where people can get fired for what's on their facebook or twitter.

Newer users coming here in a post-Facebook, post-iPhone world, might have no compunction putting their whole real life up on display in their profiles.. while others may be more secretive. For personal privacy reasons perhaps, or maybe they operate several 'blind' alts, where one person at one keyboard might have several SL "characters".

here's my profile, since I'm going to talk about it: https://my.secondlife.com/winter.ventura

From a personal perspective, I don't use the "Real World Biography" sectionfor much. I provide a few simple facts that people might find useful, but nothing exactly "deep". (answers to the standard "ASL" type questions, mostly, and a link to my blog). I've got a picture in there, but it's just an older profile picture I don't use anymore.

I wish I could say that I'm proud of my profile, but it's just a mishmash of information that I've tried (and mostly failed) to organize several times over the years.

My life is fairly sloppy, and things just don't fit into nice neat boxes.

--

Do I frown upon people who put real life pictures in their profile? Yes and no. Too often, I've seen people post pictures that were OBVIOUSLY not them. I've also seen more pictures of exposed penises than I'd care to.

But the thing I hate the most, is when people put a first-life pic in their "main" profile pic.

To me, that just screams "I don't get what SL is all about, I just came in from facebook". In fact, the "looser" the picture there, the worse impression it makes on me. If you're dressed up and looking nice, I might accept a RL photo in the "Second Life" section.. maybe you came to SL for work related issues.. or at least you're making an effort. If you're duckfaced and high, with your hat on sideways, I am unlikely to even reply to your IMs.

Move that pic to your "Real Life" photo section, and put in ANY picture from SL in the "Second Life" section.. and you instantly gain like 50 points in my book.

Taking a decent photo of your avatar isn't hard. All you need to do is master moving the camera using [Alt] + [Left Mouse Button]. Go someplace nice looking in SL, turn your back to a decent view, move the camera around so we can see your face, and hit [CTRL] + [ ` ] to save the snapshot to your computer's HD... then pop over to https://my.secondlife.com/settings/profile, hit "Profile Picture" and upload your new screenshot to your profile, free of charge!

[Amethyst Jetaime]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

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Leia36 wrote:

When I started SL I had my RL pic up in my profile under "1st life".

I was advised to drop it by one of my mentors

and share my RL pic with those close to me and not make it open to everyone, which makes sense to me. To others, they might have their own reasons to post their RL pic, its a completely personal choice.

---

That was bad advice. Why would anyone advise anyone to not have their RL pic there?

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If you are a female in RL and put your pic there, you are going to be hit on a lot more and get more IM's you may find offensive or ,may be sexualy harrassed or stalked.  This may happen to men too for all I know, but I do know it happens to women.

If you are unattactive or disabled in some way you may find yourself an object of ridicule or the butt of jokes.. 

Childish? yes  Does it happen? yes

 

[Tari Landar]

My rl pic is me and hubby, aside from the fact that my rl tab pretty much lets you know who that is, I don't share any other rl info with folks I don't know. But I would never advise anyone not to. I would warn them about possibilities of sharing too much extremely personal infomation, though. I would tell them to do what they are comfortable with. I would also tell them it's never wise to judge others based on what they do, or do not share. You just never know, without getting to know the person and such judgments are typically quite unfair.

I don't judge anyone for what they don't share. I think it's a very personal decision each should make for their own self. I try very hard not to judge folks based on what they put in their profile, but I will agree that sometimes it's very difficult not to. Though I can get over my own opinions pretty easily. One of my best friends in SL has a profile I still to this day can't stop laughing about. First impressions speak volumes sometimes. So for folks who do want to share, I recommend doing so wisely. Make sure it's something you feel comfortable sharing, something you believe paints you in whatever light you'd like to be painted in. And then... don't worry about what anyone else thinks. If you like it, if you're comfortable, that's all that matters.

I got a nasty Pm once here after another thread about sharing rl pics, and how it bothers some people that people put rl pics at all in their profile. Something about bragging, ugly pic, "nice relationship, good luck with that lasting" and all sorts of other garbage. I laughed, told them to enjoy their sl and have a good day. Moral of that story.. someone is always available to judge, no matter how silly their judgment, or what it's about. Some people just have to have an opinion about everything and have no qualms sharing it. Be prepared for that, and even more importantly, be prepared to brush it off. Some are a bit more harsh than others about sharing their thoughts.

[Knowl Paine]

Security is the first reason. Photos tend to have backgrounds.

Extremely talented, and creative, photo shop editors, is another reason.

It's always funny, until it's your photo, on 10,000 boxes.

 

[LosAngelesGraff]

I add my rl pic in my 1st life spot. I think more people should do so.

[Nova Convair]

There are different views about SL.

People who post "do this" or "do that" obviously miss the fact that not everyone has the same opinion as themselves. Try to look further than only at yourself.

For me SL is SL and RL is RL. I have no interest in linking anything and therefore have nothing RL related in my profile. Others have no use for a second life and try to act like RL in SL. Well not my business and not my problem

To the OP: just do what you want there is no wrong. Everyone is old enough and knows enough to know the risks of sharing too much RL info I assume - and thats not related to SL but for all RL infos that are posted somewhere.

 

[Sassy Romano]

It hasn't happened too often recently but I used to get sent unsolicited RL pictures

...usually from Italian men

...usually not of their face.

 

 

[Leia36]

A few weeks ago I got sent a link in an unsolicited IM on a general sim, the link was to this guys msn account, his request went something like, "Come watch me *bleep* off baby. You know you'll dig it"

I soooo wanted to post it in local chat, guess I'm too polite

[Tex Monday]

On your Second Life tab...just take a really nice, flattering picture of yourself and place it there. I think people are more likely to talk to you if you have a picture on your profile.

Now..as for 1st life tab...I personally have a beautiful picture of a mountain view from Vermont, my favorite vacation spot. I don't want to put my RL pic on that tab..partly because I'm a very bad person in SL..:matte-motes-sunglasses-1:, but that being said, I commend anyone who decides to do that.

It's all personal preference..as many people here have said. It's not required to put ANYTHING on any of your tabs. Do what you feel comfortable with..that's it

[Ceera Murakami]

More than anything else I guess it depends on how you, personally, view and use SL, and how the people you want to associate with use and view it.

A substantial portion, quite possibly the majority, of the more established, long-term users in SL see the virtual world as a place to be something quite different than their real life self. They might play as the gender opposite to their real one, or dabble in graphicly adult sexual situations that intrigue them but that they wouldn't dream of doing in real life. Or the account may represent an entirely fictional character that has nothing at all in common with their real life self. For those people, they are not likely to want to post theior own real world info at all, and many of them would prefer not to know a think about your real world info.

I'm part of that group. I use SL to tell stories and enjoy roleplaying interactions with other people's fictional characters. Ceera isn't the real me, and is never presented as being the real me. But I put a lot of time, effort and hard work into making her a believable character that seems 'real' to those who enjoy interacting with her. Most to the people I hang out with do the same. And if someone else has been doing a good job of portraying their avatar as a cute little kitty girl, the last thing I want to see if I check their profile for any reason is a picture of their real life self as a  50 year old, balding hippie with bad teeth. It's like going to a furry convention and having someone in a beautiful and incredibly well-done fursuit take off their costume head in public, destroying the illusion of the character they were presenting moments earlier. So, for me, being forced to see someone's real-life picture if I even glance at their profile is a reason to make me less likely to want to interact with them at all.

Other people are into the Facebook attitude of sharing anything and everything about their personal lives, and they often create accounts here thinking it's like Facebook - a place to represend yourself as your real self, with the expectation of possibly meeting in real life for dates and whatever.

Those people have no problem at all with posting their real life photos. They also tend to mix poorly with the first group that I described. The two attitudes about what SL is and how it should be used are absolute opposites.

[theif519]

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Alazarin Mondrian wrote:

Post as much or as little RL information about yourself as you are comfortable with. Remember that SL, like the rest of the internet, is visited by scammers, stalkers, psychos, datascrapers and other ne'er-do-wells. Less or none is safest. There's no need to make your profile hostile and defensive. As a matter of fact some would regard that as a challenge. Furthermore do not, under any circumstances, ever give out any RL information about yourself to anyone in SL who demands it or attempts to trick it out of you by telling you a bit about their RL life as a quid-pro-quo for getting some information out of you. Chances are that they're just making up a fabrication about themselves.

 

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Well, that applies to any game really, but giving out key personal information and only putting out a picture is a bit different

 

I'm sure it'd be hard as hell to dox someone without anything else though

[Mora Eldritch]

In my opinion the lack of RL pictures is due to the fact that SL typically garners complex relationships and creative activities.

I would sooner compare IMVU to something like Facebook then to SL. I've played IMVU and it's much less a virtual world and much more a chat or meet-up program. (I'm not trying to crap on IMVU, it's just a much different experience.)

People come to SL for many different reasons: RPing, creative expression, finding love, finding conversation, to attend church, escapist personification, to discover different kinds of music, games, people, art, to perform live music, to DJ a radio show, to create their own world, to create art in a collaborative environment that spans the world. So on and so forth.

Some people have multiple avatars that personify different moods or different elements of their personality. Others partake in adult activities, different lifestyles or are part of subcultures they may otherwise not have if they were in RL.

There are probably many reasons why most people don't include RL pictures but people my guess would be that people inherently don't want to be judged and want to feel free to do what they wish in SL without any possible RL ramifications.

Other reasons may include:

- They don't want you comparing their RL selves to their SL avatar.

- They want to feel immersed in the SL experience and keep any RL elements removed.

- They feel like having their RL picture up is a risk to their security.

- They don't feel comfortable with how they appear.

- Probably many more reasons, people are complicated.

All of these reasons are legitimate, and even then people will usually share RL pics etc if they trust you.

My opinion is:

Let people share what they are comfortable with sharing and respect their choice.

And if you want to share your RL pic, put it in the 1st life tab that way people can't complain because they're the ones who clicked it.

[Nuhai Ling]

The simple answer to your question is no, there is no stigma attached to leaving out a 1st Life picture in your profile.

Residents coming in for fun and social reasons have normally left real life images off their profiles. Others like business professionals and educators that Second Life promoted itself to years ago were the people normally using the 1st Life tab. Since most of them have left and the few still here keep to their sims, it may seem like everyone in SL skips that part of their profile.

Even if the 1st Life information is filled out, I still don't give it much credit. Check out a resident's group list instead, that will give you some real insight into the person! :matte-motes-big-grin-wink:

[solstyse]

As one of sl's "fictional characters" I don't value first life info at all. I won't even click the tab to display yours unless you do something to call attention to it. when Il'm on a roleplay sim, the only thing I really care about is your character. If you are an sl builder or designer, then I care what you are capable in sl, not so much what you can do out of it. And even then, it's a matter of type what you want, display any picture you want....

For me personally, sl is all fiction. An individual avatar (and the profile connected to it) can be based as much or as little on someone's real life as they want, including the "first life" tab. I have seriously contemplated putting up a pic of a pet there just to be funny.

 

*edit* I completely forgot to add, also, as a fictiional character, I don't want my views, actions, and opinions in sl ever coming back to haunt the rl me. And it does happen. There was some politician who recently made the news for having a World of Warcraft account.