Is Secondlife american culture ?

[Fionalein]

1 hour ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

And they ARE in fact American.

of course they are - no talking them back here

 

[Blush Bravin]

1 minute ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

You are not yourself French. 

Did you miss this? 

9 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

As an American

I never claimed to be French. I said I have French roots. I am totally American. Never said any different. Please read more carefully. 

[Shudo]

10 hours ago, Lureo said:

I just notice that here in this forum most of people are american (USA+ Canada + other english countries). All is in english. If you don't understand english how can you understand the culture. If you understand a little you still don't understand.

I am not American nor do I speak American English.

English might be the Lingua Franca of SL but trust me, there are more then enough people outside that country inside SL. People who are Bilingual or Polyglots so that as a result I'd say SL's culture is likely a touch more European then American. I believe in fact that all Europeans and Asians combined also outnumber the Americans.

10 hours ago, Lureo said:

what is your experience with multucularity ?

90% of my friends list is not American. I am fast learning the German, French, and Japanese languages and do try to speak them as much as possible in world. I also spend a lot of time in German dance clubs and Japanese social regions.

 

[Selene Gregoire]

18 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

I did mean to put in a "except natives" clause when writing my above rant but I forgot, natives are usually more than happy to state that they are native, Native American, american etc.

You better try reading that article I posted. We do not.

[ItHadToComeToThis]

8 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

I am totally American

Ladies and gentlemen bare witness to a rare and remarkable event. An American is actually admitting to being American. There are those of us who have waited what seems like aeons and had almost given up hope. I have quoted the post incase she tried to change her mind.

[Blush Bravin]

1 minute ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

Ladies and gentlemen bare witness to a rare and remarkable event. An American is actually admitting to being American. There are those of us who have waited what seems like aeons and had almost given up hope. I have quoted the post incase she tried to change her mind.

I also think anyone from either North, Central, or South America are Amercians. I've often wondered what we from the USA should really call ourselves. I think it's rather presumptuous for us to call ourselves Americans as though we are the only ones. Somehow USAians just doesn't cut it though.  

[ItHadToComeToThis]

2 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

You better try reading that article I posted. We do not.

And I had such high hopes, but you have dashed them. On a serious note I wasn't really including natives in this. Even if you take into account what that article is saying..native tribes still generally come from the Americas (in talking about American specific tribes aka north and south). Saying you wish to be known by your tribe is fine as that tribe is still American (land wise) in origin.

Interesting side conversation : I used to be friends with a guy, not native, who spent a great deal of time studying those native mythology books that teach you to "perform native ceremonies" and used to host regular medicine wheel groups. Now before you say anything I am more than aware that those books are generally either nonsense or a mish mash of all different beliefs and practices and that native spiritual beliefs are usually tied to specific pieces of land and are not mutual across all tribes. But I went to one once out of curiosity and it seemed more pagan in origin than anything else, now don't get me wrong I don't know what a medicine wheel involves. But, I am guessing that elemental representations in the four corners and a quartz crystal in the middle and nag champa incense were not part of it. Was still interesting all the same even if it was more than likely hokey 😂

[ItHadToComeToThis]

8 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

I also think anyone from either North, Central, or South America are Amercians. I've often wondered what we from the USA should really call ourselves. I think it's rather presumptuous for us to call ourselves Americans as though we are the only ones. Somehow USAians just doesn't cut it though.  

I think it's okay to call yourself Americans. Look at Australia, it's what a couple of hundred years old and was started as a prison colony. They have no issue in saying "yeah I am Australian" in fact they come across as proud of it.

[Shudo]

7 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

I also think anyone from either North, Central, or South America are Amercians.

Hmm, not really the world view. A person in Brasil is likely to call themselves a Brasilian and a person in Canada a Canadian. This is akin to a German not commonly saying they are a European but German, and a person from Algeria saying they are Algerian not African.

To the outside world, I think it's fair to say that Americans only refers to the people inside the USA.

7 hours ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

I think it's okay to call yourself Americans. Look at Australia, it's what a couple of hundred years old and was started as a prison colony. They have no issue in saying "yeah I am Australian" in fact they come across as proud of it.

Except, we are the only country on the continent, so it's a fair claim. If anything, we changed the name of the continent to the country name

Terra Australis was the original continent name before first fleet. It's first people were, and still are the various Koorie nations who have been here for more then 50,000 years. So a little more then a "couple of hundred".

Edited March 29, 2019 by Shudo

[Selene Gregoire]

4 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

And I had such high hopes, but you have dashed them. On a serious note I wasn't really including natives in this. Even if you take into account what that article is saying..native tribes still generally come from the Americas (in talking about American specific tribes aka north and south). Saying you wish to be known by your tribe is fine as that tribe is still American (land wise) in origin.

Interesting side conversation : I used to be friends with a guy, not native, who spent a great deal of time studying those native mythology books that teach you to "perform native ceremonies" and used to host regular medicine wheel groups. Now before you say anything I am more than aware that those books are generally either nonsense or a mish mash of all different beliefs and practices and that native spiritual beliefs are usually tied to specific pieces of land and are not mutual across all tribes. But I went to one once out of curiosity and it seemed more pagan in origin than anything else, now don't get me wrong I don't know what a medicine wheel involves. But, I am guessing that elemental representations in the four corners and a quartz crystal in the middle and nag champa incense were not part of it. Was still interesting all the same even if it was more than likely hokey 😂

You have neither the knowledge you are trying to claim nor do you realize you are talking to someone who is Oglala Lakota, not American. My ancestors were on this continent thousands of years before the first so called settlers ever crossed the Atlantic.

[Pamela Galli]

22 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

I also think anyone from either North, Central, or South America are Amercians. I've often wondered what we from the USA should really call ourselves. I think it's rather presumptuous for us to call ourselves Americans as though we are the only ones. Somehow USAians just doesn't cut it though.  

Short for United States of Americans. I can’t think of other countries with America in their names. 

[Zeta Vandyke]

Am Dutch myself, and due to being online in my timezone, I tend to meet tons of people that are not American. My closest friends are from non English countries, like France, Italy, India, Indonesia. But still, they all speak pretty good English.

To be honest, you can not expect to fully participate in an online world wide community when not speaking English since its the major international language online. If you only speak your own mother language, you are the one who does not meet "international standards" and your own limitation in not understanding other languages is the cause of not feeling part of the community.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, there are communities for every language I assume, but that way you limit yourself to that maybe small community instead of enjoying the world wide part of SL.

[Blush Bravin]

4 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

Short for United States of Americans. I can’t think of other countries with America in their names. 

Yes, I know but having been a world cultures teacher, I know I have heard on more than one occasion from Canadians say, "You know you're not the only Americans." American is more than the name of a country. It encompasses nearly the whole western hemisphere. I think out of respect we should acknowledge that fact.

I'm not saying we should call ourselves something else, but more than we need to be more inclusive of others when we use that name and not think we own it.  

Edited March 28, 2019 by Blush Bravin

[ItHadToComeToThis]

13 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

You have neither the knowledge you are trying to claim nor do you realize you are talking to someone who is Oglala Lakota, not American. My ancestors were on this continent thousands of years before the first so called settlers ever crossed the Atlantic.

I meant American in the land sense...nvm I know what I meant. Stop being so defensive I was not trying to insult you. 

[Zeta Vandyke]

7 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

Short for United States of Americans. I can’t think of other countries with America in their names. 

We have American's over here too! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America,_Netherlands

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

50 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

Honouring your roots is fine. But the truth is, even though you are descended many generations ago from the French. You are not yourself French. Take me for instance. I come from a part of the UK where most are descended from the norse vikings. My family name is also Irish in origin and I have ancestral jewish roots in the middle east. Do I claim to be norse, Irish or a near eastern jew when someone asks me, no. All of those things where so many generations ago. If anyone ever asks me I am either British (universal term for the uk) or a local term which describes being from the island I live on in the UK. I wouldn't dream of trying to convince someone that I am norse and Irish on my mothers side and part jew on my grandmothers because its simply not true. I may genetically be descended from norse, Irish and jewish roots but that doesn't make me norse, irish or jewish.

Soooo, how much time have you spent in the United States and/or how many Americans have you actually met?

[Pamela Galli]

2 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

Yes, I know but having been a world cultures teacher, I know I have heard on more than one occasion from Canadians say, "You know you're not the only Americans." American is more than the name of a country. It encompasses nearly the whole western hemisphere. I think out of respect we should acknowledge that fact.

I'm not saying we should call ourselves something else, but more than we need to be more inclusive of others when we use that name and not think we own it.  

I was an American history teacher. 🙂 

I know the common assertion that denoting ourselves American is arrogant. I think the alternative explanation is more correct. If there was a word that fit us more appropriately, what would it be? 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Pamela Galli

[Selene Gregoire]

22 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

I meant American in the land sense...nvm I know what I meant. Stop being so defensive I was not trying to insult you. 

Reservations are not US lands.

[Madelaine McMasters]

14 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

I meant American in the land sense.

Understand that Selene's people were on that land thousands of years before Amerigo Vespucci was born. "America" is a recent development in her ancestral history, and not one her culture identifies with. Across the planet, you'll find ancient entrenched cultures that resist identification with recent interlopers. We can't all be expected to know the deep histories of every place on Earth, but it's helpful to be mindful that places can have deep histories, and there are people who cherish those histories.

[Fionalein]

37 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

I meant American in the land sense...

The not so small remains of the Maya population might want to have a word in the extents of "America" ;-)

[ChinRey]

5 hours ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

Trying to convince me that you are hardcore Irish, even though the closest you or four generations of your descendants have come to being Irish is buying Lucky Charms for your breakfast and wearing a Shamrock hat one day a year, is just not going to cut it any more.

I don't really know about the Irish-Americans vs the Irish of course but I've met a few hardcore Norwegian-Americans and seeing how proud they are of their roots and how keen they are on hanging on to Norwegian culture, is sooo flattering and sooo embarrasing at the same time.

[animats]

I'm in the US, and most of my friends in SL seem to be in Europe. Causes some time problems.

One thing that makes SL US-centric is that the servers are in Phoenix, AZ. Lag increases with distance from there. There's about 200ms of additional lag to Europe, and more to eastern Asia.

Putting SL on Amazon AWS (the "moving to the cloud" project) can help. The sim servers need to be close to each other for low lag for adjacent regions. So a continent has to be in one AWS region. Continents running on servers in Europe and Asia would be quite possible, as long as you have to TP between continents in different regions. Users near the server would get low lag, and users in the US would get higher lag. Estate owners should get to pick their AWS region.

 

[Shudo]

25 minutes ago, animats said:

One thing that makes SL US-centric is that the servers are in Phoenix, AZ. Lag increases with distance from there. There's about 200ms of additional lag to Europe, and more to eastern Asia.

Ping time into europe is 120-ish ms, so 240-ish ms return. Ping into Australia is 240ms, so 480 ms return.

But I need to debunk your claim that these longer ping times make SL US-Centric. What a pile of absolute hogwash. Pings are what they are, so it's not like most people go from 10ms to 240ms each alternate week. How you see SL is how it's always been.

Also, it's really not a PVP game. Who cares if your avatar takes 1/2 a second to stop walking after you lift your finger off W?

[animats]

12 minutes ago, Shudo said:

Also, it's really not a PVP game. Who cares if your avatar takes 1/2 a second to stop walking after you lift your finger off W?

You must not drive or fly in SL.

[ChinRey]

47 minutes ago, animats said:

I'm in the US, and most of my friends in SL seem to be in Europe. Causes some time problems.

One thing that makes SL US-centric is that the servers are in Phoenix, AZ. Lag increases with distance from there.

There's more to it than that. Here are the ping sim times I typically get:

SL (servers located in Arizona):

 

OS Grid (servers located in Texas):

 

20 minutes ago, Shudo said:

Who cares if your avatar takes 1/2 a second to stop walking after you lift your finger off W?

I do.