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Are we all being too nice ?


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Modern social media is driven by engagement.

It's the primary metric of a successful platform.

Every other platform generates engagement by pitting users against each other. Twitter with it's nuance free tiny messages and ability to quote tweet being the worst of the bunch. Facebook thrives on the modern equivalent of chainmail from that racist in law. Reddit is thousands of insular bubble communities just waiting to overflow and brigade each other.

And in SL .. well .. we stand about in silence pretending everyone else is really active in IM. Grif is at an all time low. It's all very mature and ... dull ?

 

As much as we might dislike drama, it's addictive and engaging as all hell.

What would engineered friction in SL even look like? 

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2 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Modern social media is driven by engagement.

It's the primary metric of a successful platform.

Every other platform generates engagement by pitting users against each other. Twitter with it's nuance free tiny messages and ability to quote tweet being the worst of the bunch. Facebook thrives on the modern equivalent of chainmail from that racist in law. Reddit is thousands of insular bubble communities just waiting to overflow and brigade each other.

And in SL .. well .. we stand about in silence pretending everyone else is really active in IM. Grif is at an all time low. It's all very mature and ... dull ?

 

As much as we might dislike drama, it's addictive and engaging as all hell.

What would engineered friction in SL even look like? 

Apparently, it looks confused.  😆

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24 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

As much as we might dislike drama, it's addictive and engaging as all hell.

I have thought for a long time that I am atypical in this forum, but I still can't decide what a typical forumite looks like.  I can tell you for sure that I do not find drama addictive or engaging, though, so if that's "typical", I'm more of a misfit than I thought.  I'm not easily riled and will not go out of my way to pick a fight. I won't usually waste my time trying to show a whacko the error of her ways or convince a troll to be nice.  Not while there are plenty of interesting conversations to join and lots of good people to trade ideas with -- or just be silly around.

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While I do somewhat understand the reasoning behind the way the forum (far more the forum than in world really) is set up and run ... I do find it incredibly frustrating, especially when dealing with people who know exactly what they're ding and manage to pull off their pretended innocence/ignorance so effectively as to have avoided any action against them for years.

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36 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

As much as we might dislike drama, it's addictive and engaging as all hell.

Speaking for myself...I LOVE watching a good drama, but as for acting in it, pass.  

But as for your opening question, are we being too nice...I don't believe so. 

I was called toxic today for a throwaway comment I made on a thread that was said in half jest, but I do have an "I told you so" waiting because I suspect it is something that WILL happen.

I have also been called a troll, a Karen and many other unpleasant names all because I hold differing opinions from the vocal few who like to steamroll their opinions over everyone else's.

I have a growing list of people I have blocked, so no, I don't believe we are too nice around here.  About 99% of the stuff I say on here is said in jest, from a place of fun and trying to lighten up the boards, so it would be nice if people had more of a sense of humour around here.

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2 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

As much as we might dislike drama, it's addictive and engaging as all hell.

I don't do Facebook anymore, primarily because of the drama - and have never done any of the other social media outlets.  I used to sometimes watch a few reality TV shows, but stopped because I got tired of the constant drama.  There are various threads here in the forums that I have started ignoring because of the drama.

Yet, at the same time, I still find myself sometimes sucked in, participating in the drama of these forums.

 

So, yes, addictive and engaging as much as I might hate it.

 

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I was meaning engineered in a mechanics sense (and not really about the forums, forums are perfectly good at generating friction, right down to getting upset over passive aggressive reactions).

Twitter for example has quote tweets , these only exist to put someone else's opinion in front of your own crowd to either riff or rail on it, and are very much a design choice on the part of the platform. The length of tweets is deliberately kept short because it prevents nuance. Twitter can be an absolute S-hole that has made an art form of interpersonal strife. But .. irrespective of everything else, 4 years of political mayhem have left it a far stronger and more vibrant position going forward, maybe even saved the platform.

Could SL, in world, benefit from friction in a way that made dealing with it worth the hassle. Early SL during the days of explosive growth was far more rough and ready than it is now.

 

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1 hour ago, animats said:

Space is what keeps everyone from being in the same place.

Everyone just logs into their own little bubble. If only we could get everyone close together every single time they log in and force them to interact.

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4 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Modern social media is driven by engagement.

It's the primary metric of a successful platform.

Every other platform generates engagement by pitting users against each other. Twitter with it's nuance free tiny messages and ability to quote tweet being the worst of the bunch. Facebook thrives on the modern equivalent of chainmail from that racist in law. Reddit is thousands of insular bubble communities just waiting to overflow and brigade each other.

And in SL .. well .. we stand about in silence pretending everyone else is really active in IM. Grif is at an all time low. It's all very mature and ... dull ?

 

As much as we might dislike drama, it's addictive and engaging as all hell.

What would engineered friction in SL even look like? 

I have no Twitter presence *because* is is such a contentious, social dumpster fire.

IMO there is less on-platform social engagement because many residents “silo” themselves voicing on other mediums and not really paying attention to local text or even SL Voice. I see the effect of this a lot at dance events.

Modern American Society places a lot of stock on “not going outside accepted social norms” in terms of political thought and doing so can have serious social consequences. A plausible result is that people build up the habit of only expressing themselves freely with people they know well. Effectively, this is an “echo chamber” effect where people only open up to those who already agree with them.

I spend a lot of time texting in local chat when I DJ and the fruit of this is that…slowly….people open up.

Its not a speedy process 🙂

 

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Edited by Amanda Crisp
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3 hours ago, animats said:

Space is what keeps everyone from being in the same place.

I think is more of lag and performance issues that keep people from being in the same place.

People also often lack proper communication skills or just manner when they talk or meet, this in my experience can certainly push a person from visiting crowded and social areas. Also I'm certain many of us hop inworld to relax and rest from the drama in our lives and we actively try to avoid it inworld as well. Sadly this does lead to people not getting together.

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5 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Modern social media is driven by engagement.

It's the primary metric of a successful platform.

Every other platform generates engagement by pitting users against each other. Twitter with it's nuance free tiny messages and ability to quote tweet being the worst of the bunch. Facebook thrives on the modern equivalent of chainmail from that racist in law. Reddit is thousands of insular bubble communities just waiting to overflow and brigade each other.

And in SL .. well .. we stand about in silence pretending everyone else is really active in IM. Grif is at an all time low. It's all very mature and ... dull ?

As much as we might dislike drama, it's addictive and engaging as all hell.

What would engineered friction in SL even look like? 

Grief is at an all time low partly because the tools for dealing with it are better than they were 10 years ago and partly because the old school griefers have grown up and are too busy looking after their kids, and the new-school griefers think that SL closed down 10 years ago. 

There's little friction in-world because everyone is hanging around afk while they're really roasting each other on Facebook and Discord. A big factor why this happens is probably related to the failings of in-world group chat.

Yesterday I discovered that a long term regular and DJ from one of my favourite clubs had gotten banned from there quite some time ago. (I had wondered why I hadn't seen her around for so long). I would love to know what drama unfolded there.

As for participating in such drama, no I don't want that. If SL was engineered to create friction, I would quit. There's a reason why I don't use any other kind of social media.

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   Are you saying I'm not antagonistic enough? :|

   I don't really feel as if there's any shortage of drama in Second Life. But it doesn't have the same sort of reach as a FB chain mail thing might since it usually only affects the people involved and the people in their direct vicinity - unless it ends up on virtual secrets, or on the forums.

   As for hanging out in crowds in SL, aside from the lag, the conversation in nearby chat usually provides little more than braindead gesture spam, at least in clubs. In non-musical hangouts I have no idea - last I happened to find myself at such a place there were two people dominating the conversation over voice, bickering, with the third most talkative participant in that conversation being someone's child screaming and crying in the background whilst their presumed mother was heavy-breathing into the mic. I haven't really actively sought such places since.

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3 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I don't do Facebook anymore, primarily because of the drama - and have never done any of the other social media outlets.  I used to sometimes watch a few reality TV shows, but stopped because I got tired of the constant drama.  There are various threads here in the forums that I have started ignoring because of the drama.

Never did Freakbook, never will. But have heard other talk about all the drama on it.

 

19 minutes ago, Maitimo said:

Yesterday I discovered that a long term regular and DJ from one of my favourite clubs had gotten banned from there quite some time ago. (I had wondered why I hadn't seen her around for so long). I would love to know what drama unfolded there.

As for participating in such drama, no I don't want that. If SL was engineered to create friction, I would quit. There's a reason why I don't use any other kind of social media.

My man who DJs was fired from a club for a comment he made.  He was simulcasting from our bar (mainly playing tunes for the staff while preparing take-away meals) and made a comment about a former US president. The owner is very protective of him and sent him out the door.

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Ok yeah SL might have no tweets. And maybe not many people chat in Public.

But we got the most special newbie experiences, wanna see some halfnaked wannabe Dom with leashed flexi hair slaves? Welcome to SL ? 

We also offer the infohub special virtual package, with all kinda nakedness and trolls!

Wanna feel unwelcome? Read some profile and play bingo how often some things like "No drama" or "don't talk to me" in various versions will be mentioned in them.

TP to a store or visit some regions as an under 30 day old avatar I bet thats fun too when you get banned  just for being new xD

Many noobies I talk too say one thing "you are the first to even answer my IM" 

We need to be less nice? More the other way around 😉

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

What would engineered friction in SL even look like? 

It would be political. Or perhaps religious, somewhere religion is still distinguishable from politics.

To really succeed, find a foreign state actor to sponsor and reward the most disruptive behaviour. 

This won't happen, though, unless the platform:

  1. profits from the friction, which has always meant advertising as the main revenue model. Some people will pay to be contentious, but most will only invest the time it takes to ignore an ad.  And
  2. uses an algorithm to automatically optimize presented content in order to maximize that profit. In contrast, Second Life can't get basic Search to work, and "optimizes" it for unregistered bots. Instead, it would need to promote individually-tailored content that drags the viewer down the rabbit hole to white supremacist ideology, Islamist militancy, or furry pr0n addiction.

 

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59 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

2. ... content that drags the viewer down the rabbit hole to white supremacist ideology, Islamist militancy, or furry pr0n addiction.

 

SL already has at least one of those three things.

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Forum seems very quiet to me lately, but I've not been active much either.

I don't know if it's "reopening anxiety" or what, but I've found my mood low and stressed lately and I know others are feeling the same. I've been spending less time on the Internet as a result. And when I do, I'm at places where swearing is allowed (not at other people). 

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21 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Forum seems very quiet to me lately, but I've not been active much either.

   A fair few people are on temporary or permanent breaks due to various incidents from the past year or so. Political/religious drama and photo critics/repost-spam in the vanity threads are usually the given reasons from the people I've spoken to.

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Strange, about Twitter being drama, iv had an account since jan 2014 and never ever been in a Twitter drama (to my knowledge). Twitter is the only social media i use and i see many of my followers as irl friends. I think the trick is to be very careful who you follow… I wouldnt wanna have any drama in SL as it is my haven from RL work and stuff.

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1 hour ago, Amina Sopwith said:

I don't know if it's "reopening anxiety" or what, but I've found my mood low and stressed lately and I know others are feeling the same. 

I've also been feeling quite uneasy recently, and so have people I know IRL. Finding it hard to relax and concentrate on things...

Sending you lucky vibes ☘️

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