Finding out what viewer a resident is using

[Deborah Ansar]

(I use Viewer 1.23 because I have a PPC Mac)

Last week I sent an IM to a resident. We don't know each other, we never met and we were not in the same region. She was online and responded quickly. After we talked for a while, she said she could find out what viewer I was using, and she managed to guess Viewer 1.23.

My question is: how is it possible to find out what viewer a resident is using, just by sending/receiving IMs?

[Linda Brynner]

Users of some 3rd party viewers (even accepted by Linden Lab) can show that info. The users of such viewers can even see where you are, what your avatar key is and much more. A while ago i have even seen a screenshot on the internet revealing pc account user names. The latter turned out to be a special case where somebody was using a public pc. However I find it highly rude and disturbing.

I am a user of the official 1.23.5 myself, just out of the principle that i can´t find any need to see more info than 1.23.5 shows by default. But quite some people are very peeky in SL i have discovered. Again, I find it highly rude and disturbing, extreme bold even. But for some it seems a game to want to know everything they possibly can *rolling eyes. And some others in SL are kicking on 'showing off' their 'special powers'.

Not really something to be stressed about, but rudely it can be to my experience.

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

Reminds me of a friend I have who runs with Show Look At enabled 100% of the time.  I asked how she could operate in SL with all those crosses on the screen.  She explained how she couldn't live without it.  Kind of gave me a disturbing view of her mentality in the process.  (._.)

[Archie Lukas]

The Phoenix Viewer does it by default.

It also has built in Radar, which is very useful for wandering girlfriends in a show store.......!

 

Phoenix is also a lot friendlier than the official viewer, which I still hate with a vengence.

[Mariska Lysette]

What Archie said (minus the wandering girl friends - if I'm trying to keep up with a friend then I just look for yellow dots on mini map)

I don't know about the other nosier stuff mentioned but Phoenix displays the names of different TPVs and also Viewer 2 - ergo anyone without a viewer tag is on 1.23)

It's been a while since I used Viewer 2 - I thought that too showed the different viewer tags above people's names, I guess I got that wrong.

[George Orellana]

I'm one of those psycho weirdos too. I have show look at enabled 100% of the time. I don't even care for it nor do I care who is looking at me, why I do it? I don't even know is sorta like a OCD thing, I just have to have it enabled or I don't feel like my viewer is working right

[Twinkie Nirvana]

Radar in some TPVs also shows what viewer a person is using, so if the person was in a nearby region, they may have seen it there.  If they were farther away I have no idea how they could tell.

 

Imnotgoing Sideways wrote:

Reminds me of a friend I have who runs with Show Look At enabled 100% of the time.  I asked how she could operate in SL with all those crosses on the screen.  She explained how she couldn't live without it.  Kind of gave me a disturbing view of her mentality in the process.  (._.)

It's handled better in some viewers than others.  I keep it on all the time as well, although I don't pay attention to it unless someone's cross sticks on me and stays.  I don't understand why other people using this feature disturbs you.  To me it adds a dimension that's missing in SL, which is the whole business of glances and stares.

[Deborah Ansar]

Linda Brynner wrote:

 

Users of some 3rd party viewers (even accepted by Linden Lab) can show that info.

 

Such as?

 

 

The users of such viewers can even see where you are

[Deborah Ansar]

Archie Lukas wrote:

 

The Phoenix Viewer does it by default.

It also has built in Radar, which is very useful for wandering girlfriends in a show store.......!

 

Phoenix is also a lot friendlier than the official viewer, which I still hate with a vengence.

 

According to this page http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=summary_of_features , the feature I was talking about is not supported...

[LittleMe Jewell]

Linda Brynner wrote:

Users of some 3rd party viewers (even accepted by Linden Lab) can show that info. The users of such viewers can even see where you are, what your avatar key is and much more.

None of the viewers can "see where you are" unless you are in the same sim, or possibly within a certain distance in an adjacent sim -- and I can do the same thing with a script, so that is no big deal in my mind.

And absolutely everybody can see your avatar key by simply looking at your profile.

*rolls eyes*

[Joseph MacAlpine]

Deborah Ansar wrote:

 

(I use Viewer 1.23 because I have a PPC Mac)

Last week I sent an IM to a resident. We don't know each other, we never met and we were not in the same region. She was online and responded quickly. After we talked for a while, she said she could find out what viewer I was using, and she managed to guess Viewer 1.23.

My question is: how is it possible to find out what viewer a resident is using, just by sending/receiving IMs?

 

The Emerald viewer used to have that feature, which had been removed long before that viewer was banned. Emerald could tell if the recipient was using Emerald or not (Viewer 2 wasn't officially available yet, so Viewer 1.23 was the most likely alternative).

[Deborah Ansar]

thank you