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Thought's on MTV's Catfish wanting SL stories


AnnaMarie Ragu
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Hey guys hope everyone is doing well.  So, I just saw on my log in page a new post to the LL blog.  Apparently MTV's show Catfish is looking to hear from people in SL.  I remember watching the movie that the show is based off of and I can only imagine the drama and problems that this could cause on top of I don't think it is going to be the most positive view of SL that LL seems to think it will be, I worry it will only cause more negative opinions in the media, etc.  What do you guys think?  I am posting what the blog said below.  Thanks everyone ahead of time for participating!

 

MTV’s Catfish: The TV Show brings together couples that have online relationships to meet offline for the first time, often with surprising results as the differences between online personas and offline lives are revealed.

MTV is now casting the show’s second season, and they’re interested in hearing from Second Life users who have fallen in love inworld, and would now like to meet their love in person. If you’d be interested in being on the show, you can apply online here.

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Oh congrats!  Well your story would definitely be a positive one then.  I was going through the questionnaire for the show and their questions are definitely geared more towards what can cause drama, which being a TV show, especially one based off that movie, it will obviously need that drama to retain audiences.  Unfortunately, I think most of the SL/RL relationships don't fair as well as yours have.  But I guess we will see.

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AnnaMarie Ragu wrote:

 I was going through the questionnaire for the show and their questions are definitely geared more towards what can cause drama, which being a TV show, especially one based off that movie, it will obviously need that drama to retain audiences. 

Yikes! You should consider your OP a Public Service Announcement—if I ever happened to be someplace and that program was on I might have said, "Hmmm. Wonder what this is about?". Having seen your post I'll just move right along instead, and probably save myself yelling, "Gaahhh!" Sounds like 'Jerry Springer Meets the Metaverse'. Ick.:smileyhappy:

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YUCK!!!! Empty-V should stay away from Secondlife. Focus more on playing (good) music??

Besides, not everyone lies online. The ones I met from Secondlife in person were being honest about everything is seems. I guess though at least it would be funny, expose some people, cause some drama. A lot of Secondlifers seem to love drama. :matte-motes-inlove:

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Sounds like a complete disaster waiting to happen.  From the questions I am willing to bet they aren't going to pick the happy couples just the drama queens and kings.  This is not a good thing for SL. It will be negative publicity and attract players who think it'd be cool to come in here and catfish some residents for cheap thrills.

I agree with Dillon, it is Jerry Springer does SL.

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I think it's a good thing -- if you watch the Catfish TV series, you wonder how on earth these ppl avoid picking up on such obvious clues. Maybe it is just the dose of reality some ppl in Internet relationships need. Certainly ppl need to take off their blinders when they come to SL as well. 

 

What I would like to see also is what happened to all the partners who were forced to leave SL forever because they got bubonic plague or hit by a bus.

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I saw some reruns of this series. I remember thinking SL would be a perfect place for them to fish for catfish. 

(You can fish for catfish, although some people prefer sticking their arms in the mud holes, but, that is very dangerous.)

They only need to go back through the archived forums to find tons of catfish stories.

 

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MTV?

I wouldn't touch these guys with a ten feet barge pole.
My advice: Run away from them. As fast as possible.

Basic rule, especially for tv stations like MTV: They are not interested
in proper reporting, they look for the seedy icky stuff, as that increases viewer quotes.
If necessary, they will invent  and script stories to pad out the show.

 

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You might be right.

It will inevitably bring attention to SL, if it airs. I just hope the attention is good.

Plenty of posers, are going to try to peddle their half baked stories. They could make it a forum contest, "the best of the worst". :smileyvery-happy:  Allow experienced Residents, to offer opinions on authenticity. :smileywink:

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Hmm, MTV went pay-to-watch a while ago in my country can't say that I miss it in any way.

But most of their shows where always out to find sensation and drama. I don't really think its going to do SL any favor, if that show brings it back into media attention.

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I've never watched the show nor will I start. They wont focus on the good relationships that come from SL the show itself is about people who lie about themselves to others, why would a success story be told?

 Whatever, I imagine they have tons of applications already.

 

 What people often forget is not everyone uses SL as a social media and many use it as a roleplay arena where the whole point of it is being something you are not..

  I've not cared if that guy I met was a girl, nor do I care that big hairy werewolf isnt really one...

 I will say though, those people who IM you begging for linden $ with a photo of a sweet young girl in a pouty pose and cleavage prolly aint a girl.

 negitivity and drama make good tv.

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Dillon Levenque wrote:

 

AnnaMarie Ragu wrote:

 I was going through the questionnaire for the show and their questions are definitely geared more towards what can cause drama, which being a TV show, especially one based off that movie, it will obviously need that drama to retain audiences. 

Yikes! You should consider your OP a Public Service Announcement—if I ever happened to be someplace and that program was on I might have said, "Hmmm. Wonder what this is about?". Having seen your post I'll just move right along instead, and probably save myself yelling, "Gaahhh!" Sounds like 'Jerry Springer Meets the Metaverse'. Ick.:smileyhappy:

Being that MTV pioneered such trash as Real World and JackAss I can imagine what sort of trash Catfish is.  Never seen an episode of Catfish and likely never will, the spread of their drama driven reality television to other stations made my decision to drop cable TV easy, and since then I've enjoyed the extra money and time I've had for other things.

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I sat and watched every episode that has aired so far last night and I am not impressed.  Neither do I think this will go well for Second Life as far as positive publicity goes, but then perhaps SL has adopted the "any publicity is good publicity" attitude.  I do think that the " Jerry Springer meets the metaverse" comment is dead on and it is going to bring in an influx of the wrong kind of people after this airs.  The show will find a way to twist any story to make our Second Life neighbors look desperate and comical and that is a shame.

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Fair enough, long as you have watched it. My only beef is it's unfair to slag something one hasn't viewed yet.

Yes they will go for the drama but no more so than the catfish stories they had from Facebook or even Myspace (people still use Myspace?)

I see a postiive side to it. A lot of people when they first join either are fooled by someone very slick or they are abused in some way, emotionally or even sometimes physically. Warning people not to take everything said at face value isn't a bad thing. We all have been in SL long enough to know better, but not everyone does. 

I think it won't matter because people who think SL is stupid will no matter what. People who think SL is worthwhile will, no matter what.

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Melita Magic wrote:

We all have been in SL long enough to know better, but not everyone does. 

 

I don't understand why but it seems to be a curse that afflicts so many that when it comes to just about anything on the Internet they forget the great maxim, Caveat Emptor.

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Melita Magic wrote:

Fair enough, long as you have watched it. My only beef is it's unfair to slag something one hasn't viewed yet.

Yes they will go for the drama but no more so than the catfish stories they had from Facebook or even Myspace (people still use Myspace?)

I see a postiive side to it. A lot of people when they first join either are fooled by someone very slick or they are abused in some way, emotionally or even sometimes physically. Warning people not to take everything said at face value isn't a bad thing. We all have been in SL long enough to know better, but not everyone does. 

I think it won't matter because people who think SL is stupid will no matter what. People who think SL is worthwhile will, no matter what.

Agree.

 

It's not just SL, its the whole Internet -- if Catfish makes ppl ask some questions early on before they get their hearts broken, that's a good thing.  

 

However, I know someone in SL who was so "in love" with her boyfriend that when the boyfriend turned out to be a married woman with two children, she just decided to ignore that little factoid and carry on. So, for those who just want to keep things a fantasy and never meet, it really doesn't make much difference.

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Melita, I haven't watched the program nor will I. My opinion was based on the questionnaire which seemed to me to be clearly striving for 'drama' in the most unpleasant sense of that word. I never watch stuff like that. The only glimpses I've ever had came from being places where someone had a daytime program running and I couldn't get away.

 

I did watch a few clips and trailers of the movie. It appears to be a fairly well done (if perhaps partly faked) documentary involving one person's experience in an online relationship. The TV show seems to be something entirely different.

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Pamela Galli wrote: 

However, I know someone in SL who was so "in love" with her boyfriend that when the boyfriend turned out to be a married woman with two children, she just decided to ignore that little factoid and carry on. So, for those who just want to keep things a fantasy and never meet, it really doesn't make much difference.

I think Nev and Max would drool over a story like that. They keep saying on the series they want to find a pair who actually has a happy ending. A couple who don't care about anything but what was on the 'inside.' Some have said that when they first meet but later in an update, they say they drifted apart soon after the meeting. I think it can work out that way, but is probably rare. The people who go on the series do so willingly, if anyone wondered. No one's ambushed.

 

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With many shows and especially with certain kinds of subjects, it is really easy to not realise what you're getting yourself into and end up on tv as the local village idiot.

In this case I would like those who are tempted to sign in, to consider it, a lot.

Please remember that you're not just risking your own reputation but also the already bad reputation of SL.

Does the world really need to know that people who in RL may appear unusual and odd spend most of their times in a virtual world doing online hanky panky?

That is what most people think SL is all about already.

Do we want to see another show where someone expects to meet someone really pretty who they met over the internet only to discover that the love of their life is not?

Try and imagine how it will look for people who have never seen or been in SL.

Or would we like the world to see that there are also people in SL who don't fit that stereo type?

Do we want viewers to think "hey SL is actually cool and some interesting people use it" or "Ah yes, its all weirdos and loners who play dirty things in a virtual world"?

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