Interesting Question About Our AV's and Friendships

[Silent Mistwalker]

22 hours ago, RowanMinx said:

A lot of people, such as myself, use it when they partner to take on the same last names.  Others, just to have a last name.  We were all Resident before they stopped showing that all the time.  The fallout from doing away with last names.  We were all one big Resident family.

And before that we all had first and last names. No two names could be the same. Yes, I know about substituting upper case i for lower case L and all that. That's beside the point. LL made a huge mistake when they took away first and last names and now they can't fix it without a major overhaul they aren't going to pay for.

[Syo Emerald]

2 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Good question. Some of us don't use display names as our logins were our "display" names before display names ever existed on the grid. In addition, many of the display names are not legible.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for display names, just not the ASCII characters. That was taking it too far. That's LL for you though. It's either too much or not enough. They never seem to be able to find the middle of the road.

In my humble opinion: Whoever at LL decided to do away with the firstname lastname concept should be tared and feathered. Worst idea ever. And I agree that the whole ASCII abuse in displaynames is awful. I refuse to adress people by their displayname, if they do that. Same if they misuse letters from foreign languages, because ß looks totally like a fancy B...

[Rowan Amore]

I remember back when the whole Resident thing started and people would put in their profiles, "Don't bother IMing me if your last name is Resident"  I always thought that was rather rude.

[Rowan Amore]

2 minutes ago, Syo Emerald said:

In my humble opinion: Whoever at LL decided to do away with the firstname lastname concept should be tared and feathered. Worst idea ever. And I agree that the whole ASCII abuse in displaynames is awful. I refuse to adress people by their displayname, if they do that. Same if they misuse letters from foreign languages, because ß looks totally like a fancy B...

What exactly was their thinking behind doing away with last names?  And I'm the same, I don't bother if the display name is unreadable or I use their log in name to address them.

[Silent Mistwalker]

16 hours ago, Bagnu said:

Some may have a purpose with their login name. I see some meaningless ones though. Mine certainly is. 

I disagree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu_Bagnu

The name fits when you think about it. Are not seaside resorts "playgrounds" for escorts? 🤭

[Silent Mistwalker]

14 minutes ago, Syo Emerald said:

In my humble opinion: Whoever at LL decided to do away with the firstname lastname concept should be tared and feathered. Worst idea ever. And I agree that the whole ASCII abuse in displaynames is awful. I refuse to adress people by their displayname, if they do that. Same if they misuse letters from foreign languages, because ß looks totally like a fancy B...

That would be one of the CEOs that is long gone from LL. I'm thinking it was M Linden. I'd have to check to be sure. It may have been the CEO after him. It was one of the two.

If I can't read it (or see it, I think I have them turned off in FS) I will use the login name. Full stop. All anyone need do is ask me politely to call them by some other name. I make no warranties or guarantees that I'll remember but I will try out of respect for another human being.

Edited October 1, 2020 by Silent Mistwalker

[Luna Bliss]

On 9/20/2020 at 5:34 AM, YuriaVodka said:

not gonna lie, but I tend to avoid avis who are non-mesh or non-human no matter how nice and friendly they seem

Why is that?  More so the non-human avoidance is what I'm wondering about...

[Rowan Amore]

🙄

[Jordyn McGregor]

7 hours ago, RowanMinx said:

🙄

Ya know, that reminds me of a friend I used to have to just HAD to have something to complain about.  In this case, it's something to grab the pitchfork and rant about as it doesn't fit a narrow minded narrative.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Jordan Whitt

[Rowan Amore]

4 minutes ago, Jordan Whitt said:

Ya know, that reminds me of a friend I used to have to just HAD to have something to complain about.  In this case, it's something to grab the pitchfork and rant about as it doesn't fit a narrow minded,narrative

IDK.  Just makes me think of bagpipes for some reason.

 

[Jordyn McGregor]

44 minutes ago, RowanMinx said:

IDK.  Just makes me think of bagpipes for some reason.

 

 

[Yuumo Ichibara]

In my case it is not so much the appearance but what is written on the profile and what groups are visible that influence my decision to initiate contact, and vice versa. I‘ve lived multiple lives on SL and have curated my profile time and again to match the role I was playing at that time and to blend in with communities or subcultures. I do pay compliments whenever I see extremely gorgeous or amusing AVs of any gender, race, or species. As a shapeshifter myself, SL to me is like Wonderland so I love the diverse surrealistic possibility of meeting creatures in every imaginable form. Also, in my experience the most outlandish avatars often have the funniest and most intriguing personalities. I think if you have been on SL since its earlier years you would be less discriminating of how others presented themselves as since the freedom is what brought us in the first place. Half of the time I could not see–or be seen by–everyone due to avatar complexity so I base my interactions on what I perceive from profiles with things like mutual interests, shared groups, or maybe something witty and hilarious that I read on their bio or picks. Conversely, there was a time that I wrote in my RL tab something along the lines of “60 plus truck driver with gasoline breath and grease-laden hair sprouting out of every orifice” and that really elicited many hilarious reactions from strangers that turned into friends and at the same time turned off the WRONG type of men (you know, the kind who persistently demand “RL verified females”) If there is one form of discrimination that I think is acceptable, it is discriminating against creeps and perverts who take things too seriously.

Names also have an effect to some degree. When I first joined in 2010 I was too excited to login so I unwittingly settled for a random name: Miu Verlaine. I did not realize that I shared a last name with a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. Back then I received a lot of IMs and FRs from French and Dutch-speaking people, and people who were into literature would quiz me out of the blue about his work and the Decadents. I was totally oblivious in those days so I ended up learning so much and making a lot of profoundly interesting friends because of my name. I got involved with literary groups, and expanded my book collection in real life. I discovered the likes of Paul-Marie Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire and connected with their fans on SL because of my (now retired) last name. When I rejoined earlier this year I found out that it was now possible to change your name, so I paid for premium and a name that I felt complemented my image. From my end I do not care about others’ names as long as my laptop can read the typeface they wrote it in because almost 90% of the time it is just boxes.

TL;DR I care more for the profile than looks or names

[Luna Bliss]

On 9/20/2020 at 5:34 AM, YuriaVodka said:

not gonna lie, but I tend to avoid avis who are non-mesh or non-human no matter how nice and friendly they seem

When I was a new resident like you I felt a little wary of non-human avatars -- they didn't seem serious, and what I was into at the time was very serious to me. Fortunately, I went outside the confines of my mind and let a strange winged creature teach me a few things, and I went on to amazing explorations in art and creativity as well as earning hundreds of thousands of RL dollars. So as an SL oldbie giving some kind advice to a new one, be careful about closing off too much -- you may miss out on something important.

Undue discrimination isn't just an affront to those we discriminate against -- it's an affront to ourselves as we likely miss out on the special offerings of those we discriminate against.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Luna Bliss

[Rowan Amore]

6 hours ago, Yuumo Ichibara said:

In my case it is not so much the appearance but what is written on the profile and what groups are visible that influence my decision to initiate contact, and vice versa. I‘ve lived multiple lives on SL and have curated my profile time and again to match the role I was playing at that time and to blend in with communities or subcultures. I do pay compliments whenever I see extremely gorgeous or amusing AVs of any gender, race, or species. As a shapeshifter myself, SL to me is like Wonderland so I love the diverse surrealistic possibility of meeting creatures in every imaginable form. Also, in my experience the most outlandish avatars often have the funniest and most intriguing personalities. I think if you have been on SL since its earlier years you would be less discriminating of how others presented themselves as since the freedom is what brought us in the first place. Half of the time I could not see–or be seen by–everyone due to avatar complexity so I base my interactions on what I perceive from profiles with things like mutual interests, shared groups, or maybe something witty and hilarious that I read on their bio or picks. Conversely, there was a time that I wrote in my RL tab something along the lines of “60 plus truck driver with gasoline breath and grease-laden hair sprouting out of every orifice” and that really elicited many hilarious reactions from strangers that turned into friends and at the same time turned off the WRONG type of men (you know, the kind who persistently demand “RL verified females”) If there is one form of discrimination that I think is acceptable, it is discriminating against creeps and perverts who take things too seriously.

Names also have an effect to some degree. When I first joined in 2010 I was too excited to login so I unwittingly settled for a random name: Miu Verlaine. I did not realize that I shared a last name with a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. Back then I received a lot of IMs and FRs from French and Dutch-speaking people, and people who were into literature would quiz me out of the blue about his work and the Decadents. I was totally oblivious in those days so I ended up learning so much and making a lot of profoundly interesting friends because of my name. I got involved with literary groups, and expanded my book collection in real life. I discovered the likes of Paul-Marie Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire and connected with their fans on SL because of my (now retired) last name. When I rejoined earlier this year I found out that it was now possible to change your name, so I paid for premium and a name that I felt complemented my image. From my end I do not care about others’ names as long as my laptop can read the typeface they wrote it in because almost 90% of the time it is just boxes.

TL;DR I care more for the profile than looks or names

I'm in total agreement.  I've seen some awesome looking avatar but then I open the profile and it might be totally blank or full of quotes, YouTube links, rants about how much they DGAF, basically nothing that intrigues me enough to even bother IMing.  But then, they're often standing with people whose profiles look the same.

[Rowan Amore]

13 hours ago, Jordan Whitt said:

 

Although not much beats a man in a kilt, I meant more like this: