Do you all think that Second Life is less sociable now than before?

[Silent Mistwalker]

4 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

For those of us who are "oldbies", SL hasn't just changed over time, we have changed.  

You have no idea how badly I wish that were true for me.

[Guku Aabye]

10 hours ago, Jester Shenanigans said:

I would say its way less sociable now, when i first joined in 2009 people were very friendly and there was always someone that wanted to talk, but just like rl sl has gone the way of zombies and one word replies, just how it is.

Yeah I agree but I do think people are getting sociable again in Second Life. 

[Guku Aabye]

7 hours ago, Gabriele Graves said:

SL now as compared to 2007 when I started, is much, much bigger but the concurrency hasn't grown along with it.  This has got to have a thinning effect.  The people I meet and interact with seem very much as they always have.  It is just that you hear the same thing over and over, "where does everyone hangout?".  There isn't just one place.

True. 

[Modulated]

19 hours ago, Guku Aabye said:

Do you all think that Second Life is less sociable with people now than before?  Or do you all think that it's more sociable now with people? 

Far , far less than it used to be .

[Guku Aabye]

4 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

For those of us who are "oldbies", SL hasn't just changed over time, we have changed.  

So - if us "oldbies" were new in SL today - perhaps we would see differently whether SL is "sociable" or not.

We would probably be making new friends with other "newbies", who share in common the excitement of the newness of Second Life.  

Kind of like when you are young, you share "in common" with your classmates that you all have the same "life experience".  People / users of the same SL "age" share a common "Second Life" experience.  That "in-common" experience is a basis and reason for bonding and socialization.

I still try to be sociable in Second Life with others like when I started and knew how to do things in Second Life. I mean I could be sitting around talking with others back then and you get messages from others asking you. "What are you doing?" etc. and they would be asking you to hang out with them. Not anymore really. But I do believe it's coming back the socializing like it used to be back in the day.

[Guku Aabye]

5 minutes ago, Modulated said:

Far , far less than it used to be .

Yes I agree. But I do believe it's coming back the socializing like it used to be

[AnnabelleApocalypse]

I would say overall, yes. And I think its for a few reasons. 

SL used to be the only game in town for "virtual world" type stuff. A lot of the people who just want to drop into somewhere, goof around and chat have gone to VR chat. At least, that's where a lot of peeps I know have gone. I have tried VR chat myself and if your looking for somewhere to just goof around very cheaply, it can be a lot of fun. I hear NeosVR is now quite popular with the furry crowd. 

So I would say were now left with more of the "hardcore" user base than say 3-4 years ago. 

These people (painting in VERY broad brushstrokes here) are more likely to be "platform dwellers", not going out much, doing photography, building their own stuff or working on their own bit of land. None of which particularly lends itself to meeting new people. At least, that's what I find myself doing more and more these days. Or they are simply kind of "over" the SL social scene.

And if you fall into that "trap" for too long, it can be really hard breaking out of it when you DO feel like socializing. 

So its not that people are necessarily less social. More that the activities the current userbase engage in offer less opportunity to be social. If that makes sense?

Anywho, that's just my opinion/impression based on my own experiences.

Edited June 20, 2022 by AnnabelleApocalypse

[Ceka Cianci]

The big difference I see from back then and now is, General chat not used as much..

Most of my conversations today are in IM's, where back then it was a good mix of both.

[Guku Aabye]

2 hours ago, AnnabelleApocalypse said:

I would say overall, yes. And I think its for a few reasons. 

SL used to be the only game in town for "virtual world" type stuff. A lot of the people who just want to drop into somewhere, goof around and chat have gone to VR chat. At least, that's where a lot of peeps I know have gone. I have tried VR chat myself and if your looking for somewhere to just goof around very cheaply, it can be a lot of fun. I hear NeosVR is now quite popular with the furry crowd. 

So I would say were now left with more of the "hardcore" user base than say 3-4 years ago. 

These people (painting in VERY broad brushstrokes here) are more likely to be "platform dwellers", not going out much, doing photography, building their own stuff or working on their own bit of land. None of which particularly lends itself to meeting new people. At least, that's what I find myself doing more and more these days. Or they are simply kind of "over" the SL social scene.

And if you fall into that "trap" for too long, it can be really hard breaking out of it when you DO feel like socializing. 

So its not that people are necessarily less social. More that the activities the current userbase engage in offer less opportunity to be social. If that makes sense?

Anywho, that's just my opinion/impression based on my own experiences.

Yes, I know back in the day I would be socializing with lots of people. But it seems like it's not there anymore like it used to be the socializing. But I think it will come back to Second Life someday. 

[Guku Aabye]

1 hour ago, Ceka Cianci said:

The big difference I see from back then and now is, General chat not used as much..

Most of my conversations today are in IM's, where back then it was a good mix of both.

True. I agree with that. I know for me I would message people first and we get to talking etc. and then go do something with each other. But now it seems you add them as a friend, and they don't want to do anything. But I do believe it will come back soon to hang out like it was back in the day in Second Life

[Jester Shenanigans]

1 hour ago, Guku Aabye said:

Yes, I know back in the day I would be socializing with lots of people. But it seems like it's not there anymore like it used to be the socializing. But I think it will come back to Second Life someday. 

I really hope you are right about that, i really miss socializing with people like before since i am a very big social person

[Guku Aabye]

5 hours ago, Jester Shenanigans said:

I really hope you are right about that, i really miss socializing with people like before since i am a very big social person

I do believe it will come back like how it was back in the day in Second Life. 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

On 6/20/2022 at 10:00 AM, Paulsian said:

People in world freak me out because I have to turn names off and settings to low (for performance) and they are rendered like tall grey aliens. Most of the time I run from them. Hard to strike up a conversation with a tall grey. It's a personal fear I have. I communicate with the people in the chat box not people I see around me. Maybe instead of having places to go to communicate there could be chat channels. Over 30s Over 40s forever 20s? And then can chat from anywhere with people we enjoy chatting with. Most of the time now I find myself in world but chatting here  Sure we have groups but they are too clicky in my opinion. Chat box channels? Maybe people can make their own channels? Finding in world conversation is bit tricky. 

That defeats the whole purpose of a immersive virtual community .. aol has chat rooms. Wait is aol still around? 

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, LittleSparrow Skydancer said:

aol has chat rooms. Wait is aol still around? 

AOL chat rooms have been gone for years, I think. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was shut down much more recently. Some of us old farts still use AOL email.

[Robberinthemuseum]

On 6/20/2022 at 11:00 PM, Paulsian said:

People in world freak me out because I have to turn names off and settings to low (for performance) and they are rendered like tall grey aliens. Most of the time I run from them. Hard to strike up a conversation with a tall grey. It's a personal fear I have. I communicate with the people in the chat box not people I see around me. Maybe instead of having places to go to communicate there could be chat channels. Over 30s Over 40s forever 20s? And then can chat from anywhere with people we enjoy chatting with. Most of the time now I find myself in world but chatting here  Sure we have groups but they are too clicky in my opinion. Chat box channels? Maybe people can make their own channels? Finding in world conversation is bit tricky. 

I think chat channels are a great idea. But then, why do that in sl at all? You can chat in discord while you explore anyway

[CaliRachel]

Second Life is becomming LESS.  when you cant log in on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Honestly!

[Robberinthemuseum]

8 minutes ago, CaliRachel said:

Second Life is becomming LESS.  when you cant log in on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Honestly!

You couldn't log in? I was online!

[Kitty Mosellen]

On 6/19/2022 at 5:09 PM, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

You may get different answers from people based on how long they have been in SL.  Oldbies will see different changes than someone who has 5 years in world.  I am not sure if people are actually less sociable, but I do think friend groups have gotten smaller and harder to get in to.  Sandboxes are no longer the place to go to meet people.  Large club chat seems to be mostly gestures in local and chatting happens in IMs.  Smaller get togethers still seem to be chatty.  Some groups are very chatty.

I am not reaching out nearly as much as I did a decade ago.  I used to love chaotic infohubs, but they are empty today.  I spend more time on my own than I used to, but I enjoy doing my own thing. Besides, there is no stress or anxiety to hold up a conversation on my own.

In my opinion the social movement has been shifted to groups and Discord. I do agree that its harder to get into groups in- world just for the sake of conversation. As far as the sandbox I never used this outlet to socialize. My experience with sandboxes is a place to build and to rezz objects, however I am seeing less open sandboxes and sandboxes that now have shops and activities, which really leaves no room in rezzing objects.

[Guku Aabye]

1 minute ago, Kitty Mosellen said:

In my opinion the social movement has been shifted to groups and Discord. I do agree that its harder to get into groups in- world just for the sake of conversation. As far as the sandbox I never used this outlet to socialize. My experience with sandboxes is a place to build and to rezz objects, however I am seeing less open sandboxes and sandboxes that now have shops and activities, which really leaves no room in rezzing objects.

I agree with you

[Kitty Mosellen]

11 hours ago, Robberinthemuseum said:

I think chat channels are a great idea. But then, why do that in sl at all? You can chat in discord while you explore anyway

I think the idea is to be more socialize in-world, not everyone wants to deviate from their viewers to go on to Discord. To be honest I will use Discord for my breeding such as Kreatures, however I really do not feel comfortable in solely communicating on Discord when I can easily do this more safety on my viewer. Just my opinion:) 

[Kitty Mosellen]

11 hours ago, CaliRachel said:

Second Life is becomming LESS.  when you cant log in on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Honestly!

Sorry to hear that you are having login issues. You may want to check with support to see why. I have been on second life for a long time and I must say I do not have the same issues:)

[Kitty Mosellen]

20 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

AOL chat rooms have been gone for years, I think. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was shut down much more recently. Some of us old farts still use AOL email.

Confused? Aren't we talking about second life not AOL:)

[Love Zhaoying]

13 minutes ago, Kitty Mosellen said:

Confused? Aren't we talking about second life not AOL:)

Nope, I am not confused. I was replying to @LittleSparrow Skydancer, who mentioned AOL. 

[Kitty Mosellen]

On 6/19/2022 at 4:49 PM, animats said:

People don't seem to be more or less sociable than a few years ago. But they are clustering in different places. Many of them spend most of their time in Bellessaria's suburbia.

I've met users who didn't know mainland existed.

I do admit I will consume most of my time shopping for items for my homestead land. In my opinion I stay away from the mainland because its too cluttered (Eye sore not pleasing to the eye) and I am thinking more people are renting/owning homestead and private islands, due to having a better scenery, then what the mainland offers. This being said I do agree since the beginning of second life that majority people have moved away from the mainland and finding other areas to be more sociable in.

[Guku Aabye]

On 6/19/2022 at 3:49 PM, animats said:

People don't seem to be more or less sociable than a few years ago. But they are clustering in different places. Many of them spend most of their time in Bellessaria's suburbia.

I've met users who didn't know mainland existed.

I agree however, in my opinion majority business have moved to private regions to reduce the lag time.