Voice Verified?

[Luna Bliss]

4 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

I'm honestly starting to question my sanity.

The most insane ones always believe they are right and never question it.

Hugs

[Ted McGregor]

1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

The most insane ones always believe they are right and never question it.

Hugs

Luna !

That's .... sweet of you to say to her.

(Of course I'm always right  when while not questioning my insanity.)

Edited January 19, 2020 by TDD123

[Madelaine McMasters]

2 hours ago, Beth Macbain said:

I'm honestly starting to question my sanity.

Lordy Beth, you've got plenty going on to drive you crazy, but I'm still a long way from questioning your sanity.

...sets you on fire.

[Beth Macbain]

56 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

...sets you on fire.

I love you, too, Madelaine. ❤️

[Lindal Kidd]

Amina...do you mean to say you are all out of Bob Dylan posters?

I'm so disappointed.

[Seicher Rae]

21 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I really have neither the time nor the inclination for mud wrestling at the moment.

I'm pretty sure this will disappoint several regular Forumites who would pay good $L to see you mudwrestle with other female avatars. Just sayin... might be a good fundraiser?

[Ted McGregor]

58 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

I'm pretty sure this will disappoint several regular Forumites who would pay good $L to see you mudwrestle with other female avatars. Just sayin... might be a good fundraiser?

Stop arousing me, demmit.  Shut up and take my money !

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 hour ago, Seicher Rae said:

I'm pretty sure this will disappoint several regular Forumites who would pay good $L to see you mudwrestle with other female avatars. Just sayin... might be a good fundraiser?

Well, it would make for a pretty dull show: I'd be down and swathed in mud in seconds. As my recent sad endeavours at snow clearing have reminded me, I was not designed for upper body strength.

Still, anything for a good cause. right?

5 minutes ago, TDD123 said:

Stop arousing me, demmit.  Shut up and take my money !

Behave yourself, TDD, or we'll hide the lubricating oil or whatever it is that keeps you running.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Ted McGregor]

2 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

we'll hide the lubricating oil or whatever it is that keeps you running.

/me ignores Scylla's post and imagines Scylla using the lubricant to oil .... 

 

/me pops a couple of fuses.

[Seicher Rae]

40 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I'd be down and swathed in mud in seconds. As my recent sad endeavours at snow clearing have reminded me, I was not designed for upper body strength.

Same here, although I don't think I'm on the schedule for the mud match, at least not for this thread (I have shown amazing restraint and haven't posted in this thread, well except these last two). Ffs, who knew there was so much snow in New England in winter? As for the wrestling, I'd be on my as* quickly and then just making faces about where the mud was going. Btw, why is this even a thing? Wet tee shirts I get, but mud? People are weird.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

9 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

Same here, although I don't think I'm on the schedule for the mud match, at least not for this thread (I have shown amazing restraint and haven't posted in this thread, well except these last two). Ffs, who knew there was so much snow in New England in winter? As for the wrestling, I'd be on my as* quickly and then just making faces about where the mud was going. Btw, why is this even a thing? Wet tee shirts I get, but mud? People are weird.

Yeah, mud, jello, baked beans . . . weird, eh?

Oh well, arguably better to be wrestling in it, than pelted with it?

Many years ago, I actually tried mud wrestling in-world. As I remember it, you sat on the pose balls, and then hit the down key as quickly and often as possible. I was awful at that too. And, given the fact that you didn't actually get covered in mud, even if you ended up (as I did) pinned down, it also seemed rather pointless.

As for the snow, yeesh. We got somewhere between 20-25 cms. of it, I think, and every millimetre of it was registering in the pain in my arms this morning.

 

[Seicher Rae]

4 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yeah, mud, jello, baked beans . . . weird, eh?

Baked. Beans.? I'm really out of the loop. At least that you could nosh on while sitting chin deep in it. Then again, considering where all that stuff is getting stuck in... never mind.

20-25 cms of snow? :::does the math, carries the 3, chews on the pencil eraser::: Yeah, we got a shi* load of the stuff, too. Arms AND back, just to one-up you.

ETA: Ah, a thread derail. I always enjoyed that... I used to get pointed at a lot for those. Good times, good times.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Seicher Rae

[Scylla Rhiadra]

3 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

Baked. Beans.? I'm really out of the loop. At least that you could nosh on while sitting chin deep in it. Then again, considering where all that stuff is getting stuck in... never mind.

There's a scene in The Who's Tommy, featuring both Ann Margret and baked beans prominently. I saw it when I was . . . well, really young. It gave me literal nightmares.

[Lyssa Greymoon]

Before I knew it the worst thread on the first page turned into the best!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

3 hours ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

Before I knew it the worst thread on the first page turned into the best!

Every thread is the better for the addition of legumes.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Maitimo]

10 hours ago, TDD123 said:

/me ignores Scylla's post and imagines Scylla using the lubricant to oil .... 

/me pops a couple of fuses.

You really have to watch out for that overheating problem you got there, TDD. It isn't good for the circuits.

[Mahala Roviana]

Baked beans are better with tiny wieners.

[Selene Gregoire]

4 hours ago, Mahala Roviana said:

tiny wieners

aka Vienna sausages 

[OberonEagle]

Frankly I find more hurtful and dishonest those dudes who pretend to have feelings they don't have, prey upon you and play with your good heart... and then they trash you, if they don't get what they want from you.

Even in MMORPGs there is who have met their RL partners. Surprising, they weren't orcs and elves in real life. Did they lie? No, but their feelings were true. They didn't join a game believing it was a dating app, though. Things just happen, sometimes. However, if you are intentionally looking for a relationship, what's your first choice? Looking around, in your real life? Searching for a dating agency? Opening OKCupid, Tinder? Or... Second Life?

Here you are in an imaginary world, where everyone is free to be whatever they wish. You are among vampires, mermaids, aliens, anime, furries... even if you have an human avatar and you aren't roleplaying, nor you take SL as a game, people can still dream a little: almost everyone looks like a young top model without any trace of cellulitis or like a beefy gym guy. And maybe they also own horses, sport cars, luxury yachts, villas, castles... plus you can go to tropical beaches and surf all the year at any hour you wish. Is everyone lying here? Maybe someone to themselves, believing this must be a real life dating app and any profile part of the catalog... But if in the SL part of my profile there is something about F-15s that doesn't mean I must be a real life jet pilot. In fact, it's still "your world your imagination", even when you are basically yourself but you idealize your look a little and then you make virtual selfies or you go to do imaginary virtual things in imaginary places. And, you know, usually in the RL part of their profile, most people doesn't really tell so much or nothing at all about themselves.

And voice verification is silly: maybe you ditch a woman who is using an alt and she is afraid to be recognized by her voice; then maybe a trans woman who has a female voice and would have easily passed if she wished, but instead she told honestly about herself first, but you call her liar and abuse her; finally you happily go to pixel bump a guy who sent you a fake picture and made you listen the voice of his wife or used a voice changer. 👍 On the other hand, if you were actually just looking for a body rather than a person and pretending love, that's karma for you.

If someone instead loves me as a friend (or more) and would like to be closer and eventually gives me their trust telling me how they are in real life, surely I won't abuse them and their trust: that would be really petty and awful to do to whom loves you. You can listen to each other and I can understand that there are things that aren't so simple and easy to say even if you really would, so it could be difficult to say that immediately. Maybe one is disabled, but in SL he doesn't need a wheelchair; or is a lot older than me, but visualizing himself still 20-30 years old makes he feel better; or she is trans and afraid of the prejudice and harassment, but she uses a woman avatar because that's coherent with her gender identity and that makes her happy to be herself in SL, and so on (don't worry, not a big problem to me, especially in SL). Then of course there are also loads of guys who experiment with different genders or play "shemales" or just like to see a woman avatar, but that's a different story. As long as one doesn't try to play with my feeling pretending feelings that he/she doesn't have, you can visualize yourself as you prefer: male, female, human, furry, robot, whatever.

[Da5id Weatherwax]

Honestly, I stick to two very simple principles in SL.

I make no effort to hide who I am, even the aspects of my personality that are not reflected in a particular avatar are there to be found if you want - though why you'd be interested in some of it is beyond my ken - and any alts are just crash test dummies with no life outside my workshop.

I accept everybody else as they present themselves in SL - not just the avatar but the person. If an avatar is "hollow" without a "real" personality driving it then sorry, but you and I aren't going to be having much meaningful interaction anyway, because I will have no interest in you. But if the personality presented is "real" then it doesn't matter if how they present themselves is radically different from in RL, because to express that real personality it HAS to be there as at least part of that persons self. So I don't care if I know the lass I'm talking to in SL is the alt of a SL guy or vice versa - I'll address them with appropriate pronouns and interact with them as the facet of their self that they are presenting at the time.

 

For me, what you see is what you get and I choose to respect everybody else by responding to them as if that were true of them too. It results in a refreshingly drama-free existence.

[Alwin Alcott]

8 hours ago, OberonEagle said:

 those dudes

people ... it's not only males that see others as consumption, many females do the same, as example see the hundreds of posts for escorts  in the employment forum, the only self caring sugar babes in the relational forums and the many self exposing profiles inworld

[Syo Emerald]

30 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

see the hundreds of posts for escorts

Not comenting on the sugar daddy people or others, but escorts? Escorts are honest. They offer a paid service. If you think they see men as consumption, so does everyone in SL who sells something.

[WingsOfPurity]

On 1/15/2020 at 12:34 PM, Beth Macbain said:

I have a question, and I'm going to start this off with some assumptions I'm going to outline here.

There are a lot of people in SL whose avatar doesn't match their RL gender. There are a lot of people who don't consider SL a game. There are a lot of people who consider SL strictly a role-play environment. When it comes to the voice verification thing, it's mostly a big deal for those who engage in the more adult activities. Some people are looking to create relationships, friendships, etc., that stay only in SL, and want to extend those things outside of SL. There is a lot of chatter in different places and different times (and different threads) about whether or not someone's RL gender matters in SL.

(End of assumptions)

I'm a straight woman. I have absolutely no issues with anyone being who they are or who they want to be. 

However, when it comes to having sex with someone, I want that someone to be a heterosexual man. And yes, that includes in SL and RL. I'm in a position where I am free to mix my two worlds together, and I know that many aren't. I think it's amazing that people who, for a variety of very personal reasons, are not free to live their real lives as who they are, or who they wish to be, can use SL as a really beautiful platform to be their beautiful and free selves.

There are a lot of people who get very angry about people who want to know the person behind the avatar's true gender. 

Would you feel that same in RL? If a straight woman meets up with a man in real life, they dance, have drinks, etc, and then go back to one of their homes for a little naked fun, and the man strips down and is actually a woman, and she hasn't told the other party that she is actually a woman, hasn't she withheld a piece of crucial information?

I met a man on SL. Knew him for several months, but never voiced. I developed real life warm fuzzies for him. We were intimate. 

And then someone else told me he wasn't a he, he was actually a bisexual woman. My trust was absolutely destroyed. It wasn't like we just met - we had formed a relationship. I felt betrayed and tricked. And I did try to work with it. I tried my damnedest, but I'm just not sexually attracted to women when it comes to relationships. A one night stand, sure, maybe. Something ongoing? No. It's just not who I am.

Am I a terrible person because I want to learn someone's real life gender as I'm getting to know them, or is that a reasonable expectation? Or, perhaps, instead of gender, whether or not the other party considers SL a game or not, so you know not to necessarily take them at their word when it comes to anything? Or to know that their avatar is an alternate version of themselves? 

Just to make sure it's absolutely clear - I do not care what shade someone is on the rainbow. I want everyone to be exactly who they are with same rights and treatment as any other human being. 

If we're developing a relationship, be it just a friendship or something more intimate, I do want to know so I can adjust my own expectations of what the relationship is going to be. 

 

Nothing wrong with what you want. Just make your expectations clear so that people who don't want this can avoid you, just as they must make their expectations clear about not wanting to disclose RL information.

[Beth Macbain]

I'll take 'threads I'm not revisiting' for $2,000, Alex.

[kali Wylder]

On 1/19/2020 at 9:06 PM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

There's a scene in The Who's Tommy, featuring both Ann Margret and baked beans prominently. I saw it when I was . . . well, really young. It gave me literal nightmares.

I remember that , it was gross.  The movie Tommy was way too vivid, I preferred my imagination while listening....