Have you ever had to fake where you lived?

[Bree Giffen]

Let's say you are approached by a random stranger in SL and they ask about where you live in real life. Have you ever faked where you lived? Like, saying you live in Bermuda and it's very hot and humid as you sit at your desk. How well did it work out?

I told someone I lived in Nevada once. I don't live in Nevada. I told them it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. They believed me as they were from outside the U.S.

[MoiraKathleen]

I don't think I've ever given a completely different location, but depending on how the random stranger approached me, how long we had been talking, what was in their profile, etc., I would be very vague, perhaps only telling them the time zone I lived in compared to SL time, or if I was feeling very comfortable with the interaction, I might tell them which State, or what part of the State I lived in, in the U.S.   There are only a small handful of friends in SL that I've told where I live at a County or City level.

I suppose if I did want to give the wrong information, I would probably choose the general area where I had lived as a young child, or perhaps the area where I have some cousins living.  Both of those areas are places that we travel to or through often enough, that I would feel comfortable discussing them as if I lived there.

[Robberinthemuseum]

2 minutes ago, MoiraKathleen said:

I don't think I've ever given a completely different location, but depending on how the random stranger approached me, how long we had been talking, what was in their profile, etc., I would be very vague, perhaps only telling them the time zone I lived in compared to SL time, or if I was feeling very comfortable with the interaction, I might tell them which State, or what part of the State I lived in, in the U.S.   There are only a small handful of friends in SL that I've told where I live at a County or City level.

I suppose if I did want to give the wrong information, I would probably choose the general area where I had lived as a young child, or perhaps the area where I have some cousins living.  Both of those areas are places that we travel to or through often enough, that I would feel comfortable discussing them as if I lived there.

I think if they lived close to me and I felt they were a bit too eager to meet in RL, I would just tell them it's private. Lies always come back to bite you in the ass 🤣 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Nope. My region is in my first life profile.

[Rat Luv]

12 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

Let's say you are approached by a random stranger in SL and they ask about where you live in real life. Have you ever faked where you lived? Like, saying you live in Bermuda and it's very hot and humid as you sit at your desk. How well did it work out?

I told someone I lived in Nevada once. I don't live in Nevada. I told them it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. They believed me as they were from outside the U.S.

I had a SL friend who pretended she was from North Korea when anyone asked  Pretty sure she was from the UK! Sometimes, people would say "There's no way you could access SL from North Korea!" and she said "We can as long as we don't go into American sims"   

I haven't faked it but have met people from London on SL, and one person lived REALLY close to me at the time...so I became a bit vague and hinted I was further away, lol.

[LittleMe Jewell]

My State and Country is on the RL tab of my profile.  I'm okay with everyone knowing that info.  I don't bother lying about anything more specific. I typically just tell folks that I don't give out that info.

[MoiraKathleen]

1 minute ago, Robberinthemuseum said:

I think if they lived close to me and I felt they were a bit too eager to meet in RL, I would just tell them it's private. Lies always come back to bite you in the ass 🤣 

I haven't yet given any wrong information - just vagueness.  I think I do have in my profile that I live in the same time zone as SLT, but I have not ever told someone the wrong State.  I have no intention of meeting anyone from SL in RL, or for that matter, of being involved in any type of relationship (other than friends) with anyone in SL. 

[Silent Mistwalker]

[Prokofy Neva]

No. I do think it's prudent not to give out your birthplace so that identity thieves and Kremlin trolls can't exploit that information. But what's to hide? SL is a real place with real people in it.

[Ajay McDowwll]

I don't lie about it.  The most I do is have varying degrees of vagueness, depending on who asks.  Sometimes I stick with SLT +3, sometimes I say southeast US, sometimes I go with Florida, or at the county level, and a few people know my city.

Fewer still have my mailing address lol -- but they're almost entirely people I know RL as well.

[Coffee Pancake]

I'm vague .. how vague depends on how well and for how long I've known someone. 

Travelled a lot and met many people from SL over the years  .. just it's a relationship and it takes time.

If I'm asking, I usually just ask about time zone

[Rowan Amore]

Why would I bother?

[Eddy Vortex]

Ja, komme ich aus die alte Welt. Kein Englisch. 

I never had to fib about my geographical location. The most strangers will get from me is my time zone.

[Mollymews]

i did tell one person who was pretty persistent in my IM that my RL address was 1 Lauder Rd, Mt Eden, Auckland.  I also told them that I am not always in residence tho. As I am quite busy doing lots of other things. So best to phone the building concierge person first to check whether I am currently in residence before they come see me. The concierge number is  064 9 638 2406. And if they ever do come can they please bring cream cakes because I like cream cakes

i never heard from them again after that. Dunno why 😸

 

ps. just so Anybody Curious doesn't have to look it up.The address and phone number is for Mt Eden Prison

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

I live near Port Washington, WI. So do tens of thousands of other people.

Many years ago, in the early days of geotagging IP/Wi-Fi addresses via war-driving, there was a way to “correct” the database. I moved myself from Port Washington to the Marshall Islands. That assignment lasted for more than a year.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Madelaine McMasters

[bigmoe Whitfield]

No, it's never really been issue,  I've always been upfront on my location.

[Fritigern Gothly]

3 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

Let's say you are approached by a random stranger in SL and they ask about where you live in real life. Have you ever faked where you lived? Like, saying you live in Bermuda and it's very hot and humid as you sit at your desk. How well did it work out?

I told someone I lived in Nevada once. I don't live in Nevada. I told them it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. They believed me as they were from outside the U.S.

I usually have no problem with letting people know where I live. But when I feel less than comfortable, I simply won't tell them or if they ask outright I either pretend I never saw the question, or beat around the bush. If I really have no choice but answer when I don't feel comfortable I will tell them that I don;t want to give my location, not even state. The best they will get is my timezone, which matches SLT (and that is close enough)

[Polenth Yue]

There's no reason to hide that I'm in England. Though sometimes people don't believe me given my active hours.

[Tary Allen]

I usually don't have a problem with that.

Unless is a completly stanger being very insistent, in that case I'm from "not your business" but only because I don't like pushy people. Or I can be vague and say Europe.

Anyway I have in profile the languages I speak, so it is pretty a big clue

Edited March 26, 2022 by Tary Allen

[Theresa Tennyson]

Why would you ever "have" to fake where you live if you're not in the witness protection program?

[Leora Greenwood]

I would reply, "Why do you ask?"  since I would be curious as to why anyone would care, in SL.  That said, I have many times run into male avatars who ask "How old are you?" as if that mattered either.  I usually reply, "I have been in SL since 2007."

[Gwin LeShelle]

When you start such a huge lie I imagine to always have to remember what friend you told what is a hard task...I would be much to lazy and unorganized for this 😆 I lived a while in Europe for work reasons this was really hard with my japanese friends ... Timezones and stuff.. and now being back at home in Japan finally and trying to meet old Euro friends online I only realize how much work this would require to fake your location on the long run.

But I put where I live in my profile,so when people don't read and ask (depending on my mood and how comfortable I feel with them) I tell them rather the country or the city I live in or that it's none of their business XD ...but sometimes people are like totally freaking out and telling me what a huge Japan fan they are and when they keep IMing me for DAYS  about what my favourite anime is and so on ...I honestly sometimes wish I had told them a fake location 😂

But at the end of the day I really find people weird that ask where you live on the first meeting. My experience is it's often men looking for potential RL girlfriends that ask things like location, age etc within the first 3 minutes of chatting so I rarely bother to answer x3 

[Sid Nagy]

Everybody who ever bothered asked will know that I live in the south of The Netherlands, in the province of Limburg.
But that is as detailed as I will go, because the place I live in isn't big enough to make it impossible to find me, if you find out a bit more RL information about me.

If I would live in one of the big cities like London, Paris, Berlin or New York, I could not care less to give that info out as well.

Now last Halloween I was dressed up as former US president Trump at a SL party.
Of course I had to fake that I live at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach Florida there. Pooping on a gold plated toilet every day.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Harper Held]

Nope:

"I'm in Alaska, have fun with that."

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

From planet Venus here.  The heat wave been going for 50 plus years in our neighbourhood!