2 other users is also here

[Bree Giffen]

This makes the forum feel more like a chat room. 

[Harper Held]

Holy *****, I can't believe I actually managed to spell Scylla's name properly the first try....

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Han Held said:

Well, I don't like it!

I mean -what's the use case of this?

Isn't more of a distraction than anything else?

OH HEY BREE IS TYPING OHEY SCYLLA IS TYPING

meh -what's the appeal?

You got a lot of sleep very quickly, Han!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

This makes the forum feel more like a chat room. 

This is probably the intention?

[Harper Held]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

You got a lot of sleep very quickly, Han!

naw, I just figured half ***** trollin's better than none! 🤣

[Rowan Amore]

If anyone wants me, I'll be in the Avatar forum.  🤣

[Scylla Rhiadra]

6 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

No, it was actually NOT something LL knew about so...let's see what they do.  @Tommy Lindenmentioned in another thread, they're looking into it.  

So I see. That's a good thing. It would not surprise me if they roll it back.

What does surprise me is that this was implemented automatically, without LL being consulted first. If that is, in fact, what happened.

[Rowan Amore]

2 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

So I see. That's a good thing. It would not surprise me if they roll it back.

What does surprise me is that this was implemented automatically, without LL being consulted first. If that is, in fact, what happened.

The page that came up when the update was being performed mentioned admins and mods accessing their control panel to adjust as necessary and why I pinged Dyna, Abnor and LL.

[Madelaine McMasters]

2 minutes ago, Han Held said:

Well, I don't like it!

I mean -what's the use case of this?

Isn't more of a distraction than anything else?

OH HEY BREE IS TYPING OHEY SCYLLA IS TYPING

meh -what's the appeal?

Don't look at the world from your perspective Han, it's only yours.

You need only Google "typing indicator" to see the countless articles explaining why they exist. Most of those articles are sales pitches from tool providers. Here's one that isn't...

https://medium.com/swlh/the-loss-of-micro-privacy-baa088f0660d

From that article...

In order to set expectations and make conversations feel more engaging, the team introduced what they called the typing indicator. Every time users started writing a message, it sent a signal to the server that would in turn inform the person on the other end that the user was typing. This was a massive technical bet considering the cost of server space. Around 95% of all MSN traffic was not the content of the messages itself, but simple bits of data that would trigger the iconic dots to show up and disappear!

From an engagement model perspective, the typing indicator flipped all the right behavioral switches that got people hooked. Every time someone started typing, it created anticipation followed by a variable reward. Today, this is a well-researched area in psychology that serves as a foundation for anyone attempting to build addictive products.

I'm part of a human population that's being studied endlessly by another part of the human population. I take little comfort from believing I understand the psychology being exploited by online social tools, and that might somehow vaccinate me. Even if I am unaffected (I have significant doubts), I live in a world full of people who have proven they are.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

24 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

From an engagement model perspective, the typing indicator flipped all the right behavioral switches that got people hooked. Every time someone started typing, it created anticipation followed by a variable reward.

Ugh.

Yeah, this is what I do when I want to teach my dog new tricks.

24 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I'm part of a human population that's being studied endlessly by another part of the human population. I take little comfort from believing I understand the psychology being exploited by online social tools, and that might somehow vaccinate me. Even if I am unaffected (I have significant doubts), I live in a world full of people who have proven they are.

And this is the problem. One can know one is being manipulated, and yet still be manipulated.

Sometimes the effects of that manipulation backfire, of course.

In the 90s, I was forced (for reasons) to sit through no fewer than THREE stage performances of Les Miz. It was the most nakedly manipulative piece of trash I've ever been compelled to experience -- they pulled every rhetorical and visual trick in the book to get people laughing, crying, and enthralled.

And because I was acutely conscious of the fact that I was being manipulated -- yes, I cried at all the right places, and laughed at the stupid gags -- I hated it every moment of it. I have never been left so bitterly resentful of a work of "literature." I felt like a lab rat.

An index of how much it backfired is that, the third time I saw it, I had to be almost physically restrained from standing and applauding when "adorable little Gavroche" is shot and killed on the barricades.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Ceka Cianci]

I just wish i could change the highlight color over the names.. That's really all that is bothering me about it.. it looks like crap on dark theme.

[Nekomimis]

The little nosy gremlin inside of me loves it, and it does make it feel more active, but the socially anxious part of me is worried others will think I'm weird for lurking on a forum too long. I think the most uncomfortable part for me is that they can see what you are currently looking at on your profile, including other individuals' profiles? That feels a tad too far for me and makes me worried that, for some reason, someone is gonna see me looking at something and judge me, even though I know it doesn't matter, lol

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Nekomimis said:

The little nosy gremlin inside of me loves it, and it does make it feel more active, but the socially anxious part of me is worried others will think I'm weird for lurking on a forum too long. I think the most uncomfortable part for me is that they can see what you are currently looking at on your profile, including other individuals' profiles? That feels a tad too far for me and makes me worried that, for some reason, someone is gonna see me looking at something and judge me, even though I know it doesn't matter, lol

Thank you for this, very sincerely.

I think you've made a really important point: one of the problems of this kind of affordance is that they are built for whatever the software designers have determined is the "normal" user, and aren't sophisticated enough to acknowledge or account for the fact that people are individuals, and respond to things uniquely.

Someone will doubtless be along shortly to insist that it indeed "doesn't matter," and that you are "wrong" to feel anxious about it. You're already sufficiently self-aware that such "advice" is pointless and, indeed, insulting.

Your responses to this are entirely valid. Thank you for articulating them. I hope that they are taken into account as LL determines whether to retain this new feature.

[Madelaine McMasters]

30 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

33 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

This makes the forum feel more like a chat room. 

This is probably the intention?

The intention is almost always engagement. Chat is more engaging than the forums.

I wish I'd bookmarked/saved the article, but years ago I read that Microsoft had game psychologists and designers on the MS Office team. Their goal was to increase the amount of time users spent using Office by offering endorphin producing incentives throughout the suite. I presume the users of Office have different goals.

3 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

One can know one is being manipulated, and yet still be manipulated.

Hell yes. I sense manipulation all over the place as it elicits emotional reactions I don't want. It takes time for me to assess the manipulations I detect and determine what to do with or about them. I also detect manipulation after the fact when I begin to wonder why I'm making the choices I do.

14 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Sometimes the effects of that manipulation backfire, of course.

Yep, I have examples of my own. Some years ago, at the Milwaukee Film Festival, I sat through a screening of "The Giant Spider Invasion", a craptastic low budget sci-fi flick that was filmed in Steven's Point, WI. Bill Rebane, the director, gave a talk before and answered questions after. He explained that the studio's "market research" had a heavy hand in the film's creation. The film was laden with tropes so threadbare that we in the audience could anticipate them. I think that's what makes opening run flops into cult classics. We eventually revel in our ability to spot the manipulation and pat our sophisticated selves on the back.

The last laugh, of course, goes to the manipulators. After the screening, Mr. Rebane thanked us for continuing to fund his retirement.

[Madelaine McMasters]

9 minutes ago, Nekomimis said:

The little nosy gremlin inside of me loves it, and it does make it feel more active, but the socially anxious part of me is worried others will think I'm weird for lurking on a forum too long. I think the most uncomfortable part for me is that they can see what you are currently looking at on your profile, including other individuals' profiles? That feels a tad too far for me and makes me worried that, for some reason, someone is gonna see me looking at something and judge me, even though I know it doesn't matter, lol

How do you know it doesn't matter?

You aren't the only person harboring a nosy gremlin.

Your disclosure has produced a judgment on my part, which is reflected in my reaction to it.

[Love Zhaoying]

These "new features" are more than a decade old for some websites. It's not like LL decided to just go code it for us, like a surprise flaming bag of poo on our doorstep. They probably either a) turned it on by accident, b) thought we'd like it (old people? change? nope!), or c) didn't even know the update had these decade-old features enabled.

Y'all rant as if LL gone and did it a'purpose because they are just ornery and don't care what we think. 

We can't have nice things, apparently.

Have people started changing their profile pictures in protest yet?

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

How do you know it doesn't matter?

You aren't the only person harboring a nosy gremlin.

Your disclosure has produced a judgment on my part, which is reflected in my reaction to it.

Shhh, don't tell them / admit that everyone judges everyone else for everything, 100% of the time. That would make this seem inconsequential!

[Rowan Amore]

47 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Don't look at the world from your perspective Han, it's only yours.

You need only Google "typing indicator" to see the countless articles explaining why they exist. Most of those articles are sales pitches from tool providers. Here's one that isn't...

 

I hate when people don't have that options turned on in the viewer.  When chatting with someone in IM, I want to know that they're still there and responding.  In the forums?  It might only be useful to me in the Answers sections as often 2 people post the exact same thing.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Rowan Amore said:

I hate when people don't have that options turned on in the viewer.  When chatting with someone in IM, I want to know that they're still there and responding.

/me glares at Maddy

[Love Zhaoying]

49 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Don't look at the world from your perspective Han, it's only yours.

You need only Google "typing indicator" to see the countless articles explaining why they exist. Most of those articles are sales pitches from tool providers. Here's one that isn't...

https://medium.com/swlh/the-loss-of-micro-privacy-baa088f0660d

From that article...

In order to set expectations and make conversations feel more engaging, the team introduced what they called the typing indicator. Every time users started writing a message, it sent a signal to the server that would in turn inform the person on the other end that the user was typing. This was a massive technical bet considering the cost of server space. Around 95% of all MSN traffic was not the content of the messages itself, but simple bits of data that would trigger the iconic dots to show up and disappear!

From an engagement model perspective, the typing indicator flipped all the right behavioral switches that got people hooked. Every time someone started typing, it created anticipation followed by a variable reward. Today, this is a well-researched area in psychology that serves as a foundation for anyone attempting to build addictive products.

I'm part of a human population that's being studied endlessly by another part of the human population. I take little comfort from believing I understand the psychology being exploited by online social tools, and that might somehow vaccinate me. Even if I am unaffected (I have significant doubts), I live in a world full of people who have proven they are.

Don't we have a "typing indicator" in Second Life chat?

[Madelaine McMasters]

4 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

/me glares at Maddy

[Nekomimis]

17 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Shhh, don't tell them / admit that everyone judges everyone else for everything, 100% of the time. That would make this seem inconsequential!

To be fair I don't have enough energy to judge everyone I see like that, but I am well aware that everything has the potential for being a point of judgement!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

35 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

These "new features" are more than a decade old for some websites. It's not like LL decided to just go code it for us, like a surprise flaming bag of poo on our doorstep.

No one has suggested otherwise.

35 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

They probably either a) turned it on by accident, b) thought we'd like it (old people? change? nope!), or c) didn't even know the update had these decade-old features enabled.

It would appear that the latter is the case. In which case, letting LL that some of us dislike this feature is a rather good thing.

35 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Y'all rant as if LL gone and did it a'purpose because they are just ornery and don't care what we think.

No one has done any such thing. Those of us who don't like it have expressed our opinion on the matter.

35 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

We can't have nice things, apparently.

This isn't a "nice thing." In fact, although I've specifically asked two of the people who apparently don't dislike it what it adds to the forum, neither provided, or could provide, an answer. The closest I've seen is Bree's suggestion that this makes the forums feel more like a "chat room," which isn't necessarily a "good thing."

35 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Have people started changing their profile pictures in protest yet?

This is unnecessarily unpleasant and insulting.

You used to be a rather easy going lion, Love. You were a positive, cheerful addition to this place.

You seem to have decided recently that it's more fun to do "snide." (And I'm not the only one who's noticed, btw.)

I'd like to see the "old Love" back again, please. I liked him.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Scylla Rhiadra
Unnecessary repetition

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

1 hour ago, Bree Giffen said:

This makes the forum feel more like a chat room. 

InvisionBoard does have that function --- it's engaged on some other boards I'm on.

This does remind me in PMs or Group chat inside SL where it indicates someone is typing --- and that's been a feature forever.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Kimmi Zehetbauer
Old and forgetful.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

This does remind me in PMs or Group chat inside SL where it indicates someone is typing --- and that's been a feature forever.

The "someone is typing" feature does, yes. The question is whether that is a positive addition to the forum?

I dislike that feature, to be honest, less than the "the following people are reading this thread" thing.