trixp Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Hey guys! I know there are probably a lot of old threads about this but please hear me out!My name is Nicole and I am a Second Life player and am doing research on gender and sexuality in virtual worlds at Concordia University in Montreal! I really would like to have an open discussion about this but I've also written a few questions just to get the conversation flowing. I've also made a short survey on google for anyone who wants to remain anonymous or just doesn't feel like answering in the thread or being part of the discussion. I would appreciate ANY answers or time you take talking to me about this. I have tried to talk to people about these questions within the game but not many people are keen on discussing this stuff with me.Here is a link to the survey and here are the questions which I've asked in the survey:1. Do I have permission to use your answers in my research? Just say yes or no, if you're worried about anonymity just let me know and I will leave your username out! 2. How would you describe your gender offline?For example are you male or female or neither? Does your physical birth sex align with how you identify your gender? 3. What gender do you choose to embody in second life?Do you use an avatar that matches your gendered body offline? If so, why? If not, why?4. What can of physical traits appeal to you when you are creating your avatar and why?Regardless of gender, how do you choose how you want your avatar to look? Do these traits parallel you appearance offline? If not, why do you choose these specific traits? 5. How do you choose your gender in other virtual worlds?If you choose to embody the same or different gender online as your physical body offline in second life, do you do the same in other virtual worlds? What about in single player games? 6. Does your sexuality offline match your sexuality online? Do you ever experiment?For example, if you are a heterosexual male offline do you always engage in heterosexual interactions on second life? Do you experiment? If you were playing as the opposite sex online how would this affect the way you engage in sexuality online? 7. Do you ever experiment with different sexual practices online that you don't offline?Which ones? 8. If you experiment with gender/sexuality on second life, what do you find most appealing about it? Feel free to post anything, even if you don't feel like answering all or any of the questions. I just want to pick your brain and engage in discussion with everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake1 Nightfire Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trixp Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saraya Starr Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 sighs...not again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfBaginski Bearsfoot Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 This all looks a bit sub-standard in the area of research ethics. OK, I'm not inclined to click on any links to on-line surveys, and I'm not likely to answer this particular sort of question (clue: my AV is not human anyway), but I really don't know if you're who you claim you are, and that's a big obstacle. And "a short survey on Google" doesn't give me any confidence that this is proper academic work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syo Emerald Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 What if I tell you most people probably don't enter SL to question their own sexual identity? Even if there avatars gender doesen't match their real ones? Thats like thinking because an avatar isn't human the person behind it secretly wants to be a different species. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinity Yazimoto Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 survey filled ! :smileywink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake1 Nightfire Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Trinity Yazimoto wrote: survey filled ! :smileywink: Would you stop encouraging them?:matte-motes-wink-tongue: Do you remember when every other thread was a survey? It was extremely annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinity Yazimoto Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Drake1 Nightfire wrote: Trinity Yazimoto wrote: survey filled ! :smileywink: Would you stop encouraging them?:matte-motes-wink-tongue: Do you remember when every other thread was a survey? It was extremely annoying. lol Drake... as far as i know... noone is forced to fill survey and noone is forbiden to fill them either ....:smileywink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syo Emerald Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Sure...just as nobody is required to click on the usual spamthreads we get every weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinity Yazimoto Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Syo Emerald wrote: Sure...just as nobody is required to click on the usual spamthreads we get every weekend. This too.. Althought these spams are against TOS, survey threads are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake1 Nightfire Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Trinity Yazimoto wrote: Syo Emerald wrote: Sure...just as nobody is required to click on the usual spamthreads we get every weekend. This too.. Althought these spams are against TOS, survey threads are not. Technically... Spamming, Solicitation and Advertising: Spamming is not allowed. This includes aggressive self-promotion. No advertising or promotion of specific Second Life merchants, Marketplace listings, products, or services, unless the forum area is specifically for the buying or selling of Second Life products or services, for example, a “for sale” or “wanted” forum. Do not reference other websites offering any product or service.Note: It is OK to have a signature line with a link to your Second Life profile or information about your Second Life business. One could consider these survey posts as self promotion. Also.. evryone knows the general pop of the forums hates these with a passion.. sooo. No Flaming: "Flames" are hostile or disruptive posts, or messages intended to incite an angry response. Spirited discussion and constructive disagreement are welcome, but name-calling and airing of grievances are not appropriate in our discussion areas. We will also not tolerate any post that encourages others to violate any policy of Linden Lab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikka Luik Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 And in the spirit, dutifully submitted my responses - and so did my cats =^^= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinity Yazimoto Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 ah yes, you have a very personal interpretation about this.. i have another one... No worries about this anyway, as long as everyone respect different point of view :smileywink: (edited : vocabulary) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Monday Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 As you can tell, Nicole, you're going to get a lot of people who are resistant to taking surveys. We get A LOT of people coming in here asking all sorts of questions about our experiences in SL. And so you know, I don't answer the surveys either. I will make a suggestion, if you haven't already. GO INTO SL!! For your experiment...create two Avatars..male and female. Go to the same places...see how people react to you. Then maybe you can have some kind of background before you just pop in here on your second post and start asking everyone questions. (If you have already done so, accept my apologies. I am unable to see how old Avatars are). I've said this before...I would be more likely to respond to something if the OP said something like "Hi..I'm Nicole and I've been playing SL for a few years now and I found...blah blah blah...what is your opinion on that...." Good luck getting more than a few people responding to your survey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Done. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morgaine Christensen Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Okay, just so you know...this made me laugh in RL when I really needed one. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perrie Juran Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Drake1 Nightfire wrote: Trinity Yazimoto wrote: Syo Emerald wrote: Sure...just as nobody is required to click on the usual spamthreads we get every weekend. This too.. Althought these spams are against TOS, survey threads are not. Technically... Spamming, Solicitation and Advertising: Spamming is not allowed. This includes aggressive self-promotion. No advertising or promotion of specific Second Life merchants, Marketplace listings, products, or services, unless the forum area is specifically for the buying or selling of Second Life products or services, for example, a “for sale” or “wanted” forum. Do not reference other websites offering any product or service. Note: It is OK to have a signature line with a link to your Second Life profile or information about your Second Life business. One could consider these survey posts as self promotion. Also.. evryone knows the general pop of the forums hates these with a passion.. sooo. No Flaming: "Flames" are hostile or disruptive posts, or messages intended to incite an angry response. Spirited discussion and constructive disagreement are welcome, but name-calling and airing of grievances are not appropriate in our discussion areas. We will also not tolerate any post that encourages others to violate any policy of Linden Lab Well Drake, if you have been RIC'ing these threads and the Mods have not been removing them, then the Mods either are ignoring the rules or your interpretation is wrong. And as much as a lot of these surveys annoy me, I lean toward your interpretation is wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwenting Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 submitted a dozen responses, all with totally fake and randomly selected data. Best way to get rid of these idiots, show them how utterly unreliable their "surveys" are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Monday Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 jwenting wrote: submitted a dozen responses, all with totally fake and randomly selected data. Best way to get rid of these idiots, show them how utterly unreliable their "surveys" are. I prefer to not answer them at all rather than mess up their data. They worked hard on this...and even if it's the wrong way to go about getting information, it's better not to answer it at all. Having no data is better than having false data IMHO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christin73 Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Seems like good valid questions. People post surveys to forums all the time. They are good questions that would be interesting to see answered. Perhaps someone sould post a valid poll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted McGregor Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 trixp wrote: Hey guys! I know there are probably a lot of old threads about this but please hear me out! I really would like to have an open discussion about this but I've also written a few questions just to get the conversation flowing. I've also made a short survey on google for anyone who wants to remain anonymous or just doesn't feel like answering in the thread or being part of the discussion. I would appreciate ANY answers or time you take talking to me about this. I have tried to talk to people about these questions within the game but not many people are keen on discussing this stuff with me. Survey : Are you over 18 years of age? * Do I have permission to use your answers in my research? * How would you describe your gender offline? For example are you male or female or neither? Does your physical birth sex align with how you identify your gender? What gender do you choose to embody in second life? Do you use an avatar that matches your gendered body offline? If so, why? If not, why? What can of physical traits appeal to you when you are creating your avatar and why? Regardless of gender, how do you choose how you want your avatar to look? Do these traits parallel you appearance offline? If not, why do you choose these specific traits? How do you choose your gender in other virtual worlds? If you choose to embody the same or different gender online as your physical body offline in second life, do you do the same in other virtual worlds? What about in single player games? Does your sexuality offline match your sexuality online? Do you ever experiment? For example, if you are a heterosexual male offline do you always engage in heterosexual interactions on second life? Do you experiment? If you were playing as the opposite sex online how would this affect the way you engage in sexuality online? Do you ever experiment with different sexual practices online that you don't offline? Which ones? If you experiment with gender/sexuality on second life, what do you find most appealing about it? Feel free to post anything, even if you don't feel like answering all or any of the questions. I just want to pick your brain and engage in discussion with everyone! :robotsurprised: You asked them all these questions and you lack response ? :robotindifferent: ETA : My question to you is rethorical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Tex Monday wrote: jwenting wrote: submitted a dozen responses, all with totally fake and randomly selected data. Best way to get rid of these idiots, show them how utterly unreliable their "surveys" are. I prefer to not answer them at all rather than mess up their data. They worked hard on this...and even if it's the wrong way to go about getting information, it's better not to answer it at all. Having no data is better than having false data IMHO I agree Tex. In this case, I'll hope that trixp learns a little about the perils of anonymity in social interactions as well. I just did. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trixp Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 Fair enough! Just to clarify I'm not doing research funded through the university. This is for my own personal interest and to insite discussion with peers in an upper year anthropology class. Although I am writing a short "ethnography" for this class my intention isn't solely to disseminate gendered identities on SL. I mostly wanted to instigate conversation with other RPG players and to see how they felt about it. Because it is online, ethics get a little bit blurred. The internet is an anonymous space so ethical issues like age and cognisense can't really be judged unless you choose to tell me (the entire point of my research). My apologies if my google survey has offended you or anyone else! Just wanted to give people who DID want to discuss the opportunity to do so anonymously. What could I do to prove to you that this is proper academic work? How would you suggest I avoid this apparently shotty looking approach? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trixp Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 Thanks! I never assumed that people would choose a different gender on SL because they are questioning their own gender or sexuality offline. At the same time, I want to find out if there are instances of this. The anonymity of the internet can be great because it provides safety for people who might actually want to experiment with gender in ways they can't safely do offline. Beyond playing with gender, it has perks for exploring sexual identity as well. The internet spans the world and gives people who may have a difficult time finding a safe and inviting community offline the option to find one online (this encourages democracy and a lot of other great stuff!). So I guess my response is that I'm not just interested in how people bend their gender or sexuality online. I'm interested in how people simply construct their gender/sexuality online, whether it matches their offline identity or not. I guess I will have to focus next on why SL users secret desire to become a robot offline then.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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