Avatars are anti social

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

Mostly local chat is dominated by gestures or a few people and when someone might try to interact they are ignored. So why bother? 

[Gwin LeShelle]

10 hours ago, SpiritSparrow Skydancer said:

Mostly local chat is dominated by gestures or a few people and when someone might try to interact they are ignored. So why bother? 

True. But we in the Japanese community use local quite wild and often x3 because IM sessions with 12+ people is just not fun I guess haha

but yeah local is mostly dead when I think back to my first years where it was buzzing and people had conversations everywhere it’s like dead land now 😕
 

and it’s not avatars that’s antisocial at the beginning everyone was free to talk all open behind their avatars in SL…the internet thing was still shiny and new to many and now people in general are more jaded, some got burned badly and many are just very cautious nowadays since we all are much more aware that it’s not safe to share too much with random strangers online

Edited August 1, 2023 by Gwin LeShelle

[Zalificent Corvinus]

11 hours ago, SpiritSparrow Skydancer said:

or a few people and when someone might try to interact they are ignored. So why bother? 

So, you're saying local chat is dead because...

People you don't know are talking, and they don't stop their discussion just because you said "hi".

 

Ah-ha...

[Randall Ahren]

56 minutes ago, Gwin LeShelle said:

since we all are much more aware that it’s not safe to share too much with random strangers online

Except on the SL forums, where we learn all kinds of personal information. That's why the forums have been more interesting than going in-world. You get actual responses here in a short amount of time. In-world, it's typically an off-line message long after you've logged out "sorry, I didn't see your message."

[Zalificent Corvinus]

4 minutes ago, Randall Ahren said:

Except on the SL forums, where we learn all kinds of personal information. That's why the forums have been more interesting than going in-world. You get actual responses here in a short amount of time. In-world, it's typically an off-line message long after you've logged out "sorry, I didn't see your message."

That's just people with a better grasp of "social" behaviour than you, trying to be polite so the target won't catch on to the fact that they would rather stick forks in their eyes than talk to a stranger-danger who comes across as a potential sex-pest IM spammer.

 

If your first attempt to communicate with people is "sex-pest IM spam them", expect them to not reply while you are nearby.

[Prokofy Neva]

On 6/26/2023 at 5:17 PM, Coffee Pancake said:

A common criticism ..

• Visit a social location, dozens of carefully dressed avatars standing around in silence.
• Why are these people not all having an entertaining conversation that one might listen in on, and perhaps join in?
• Put all the same people together in group chat or discord and that conversation will happen and continue to happen.

This behavior is replicated on other platforms and MMOs.

In WoW for example, local chat is dead. Trade chat (a region wide chat where toons/avatars are not in close proximity) is very active. Guild chat (like our group chat) is also active. Dungeon chat is dead aside from purposeful information (don't go that way, wait for me a moment, etc).

Minecraft, people will randomly chat when miles apart .. but not when together without purpose.

 

People will chose not to engage with avatars in the same local vicinity unless all are personally known or they have no other choice. If conversation is forced to local, it will be brief and to the point. Local social among strangers can happen when centered around one or two instigators, the moment they leave, it ends.

Avatars are anti social.

Long ago and far away in another galaxy (the Sims Online, 21 years ago), I came to a skill lot and couldn't understand why people seemed not to be AFK, yet silent. And someone explained to me: they are in IMs. That was my first introduction to the IM, which enables people in seemingly social situations with a group to have private side conversations, as if at a fancy dinner party in RL.

If you turned off the IMs, people would talk in room chat out of desperation or log off.

The other problem is that events and venues aren't theme-related enough to serve as conversation starters themselves.

[Prokofy Neva]

8 hours ago, Gwin LeShelle said:

True. But we in the Japanese community use local quite wild and often x3 because IM sessions with 12+ people is just not fun I guess haha

but yeah local is mostly dead when I think back to my first years where it was buzzing and people had conversations everywhere it’s like dead land now 😕
 

and it’s not avatars that’s antisocial at the beginning everyone was free to talk all open behind their avatars in SL…the internet thing was still shiny and new to many and now people in general are more jaded, some got burned badly and many are just very cautious nowadays since we all are much more aware that it’s not safe to share too much with random strangers online

I notice a lot of tenants simply put right on their profiles that they disregard room chat.

I rarely do that and I wonder why people developed such an allergy to room chat. Possibly because it is often filled with gesture and animation spam and idiotic emoticons and character spam.

But I also think that many people have the habit of talking all night in IMs. The other avatar they're having deep conversations with may not even be with them in the same sim. You wonder why they don't sit in a house and have tea, virtually.

 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

8 hours ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

So, you're saying local chat is dead because...

People you don't know are talking, and they don't stop their discussion just because you said "hi".

 

Ah-ha...

I never said I . And piss off

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

7 hours ago, Randall Ahren said:

Except on the SL forums, where we learn all kinds of personal information. That's why the forums have been more interesting than going in-world. You get actual responses here in a short amount of time. In-world, it's typically an off-line message long after you've logged out "sorry, I didn't see your message."

That is true! Lol. Although the drama or baiting  leads to a swift ignore for me! 

[Zalificent Corvinus]

31 minutes ago, SpiritSparrow Skydancer said:

And piss off

A new possible explanation for people not talking to you emerges.

[Love Zhaoying]

Unpopular opinion: 

Instead of "Avatars are unsocial", maybe they just don't like YOU.

Just a thought!

 

[Love Zhaoying]

9 hours ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

So, you're saying local chat is dead because...

People you don't know are talking, and they don't stop their discussion just because you said "hi".

 

Ah-ha...

Adding: Sometimes when people say, "~~~@@+== Hi ==+@@~~~", they get ignored!

 

[Luna Bliss]

8 hours ago, Randall Ahren said:

You get actual responses here in a short amount of time. In-world, it's typically an off-line message long after you've logged out "sorry, I didn't see your message."

You might try going to some of the groups at Whole Brain Health. New people are always greeted at each event and not ignored.  I haven't experienced any sex-spammers in these groups and so there's no need to ignore newcomers.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Luna Bliss

[Zalificent Corvinus]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Adding: Sometimes when people say, "~~~@@+== Hi ==+@@~~~", they get ignored!

 

Oh don't... Periodically, I notice the viewer doesn't correctly load the "blocked list", I usually discover this when one person turns up and says "hi" with those ascii art greetings like that, with squeaky kpop sound effects, that are really annoying as she says "hi" like that with a gesture to every single person present, one after the other...  

 

[Silent Mistwalker]

10 hours ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

So, you're saying local chat is dead because...

People you don't know are talking, and they don't stop their discussion just because you said "hi".

 

Ah-ha...

Why stop the discussion when the person can be included. The thing most people are in SL for. Inclusion. Problem is people are too stuck in a rut of their own making and are too afraid of "new blood". They also can't stand it when you can see through their bs. Rude af people aren't the kind most want to associate with.

[Love Zhaoying]

57 minutes ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

Oh don't... Periodically, I notice the viewer doesn't correctly load the "blocked list", I usually discover this when one person turns up and says "hi" with those ascii art greetings like that, with squeaky kpop sound effects, that are really annoying as she says "hi" like that with a gesture to every single person present, one after the other...  

 

It's so hard to pick up "actual chat" amongst all the gesture spam. 

I wonder if people who say "hi" in a gesture-heavy place think the gestures are actually "chat"?

[Zalificent Corvinus]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

It's so hard to pick up "actual chat" amongst all the gesture spam. 

I wonder if people who say "hi" in a gesture-heavy place think the gestures are actually "chat"?

There were TWO people who joined from different time zones, in different years, but who basically had chosen the same 'cute' name, with a different number on the end because there's dozsns of folks in SL with that name.

One is a pretty ok person, the other is the gesturbating ascii-hi person. 

I can never remember which number ends the name of which, as I might not see either of them for weeks, so I don't know if I should say hi, or attack until its too late...

The gesturbater... Doesn't think, they have the IQ score of a stale cheese sandwich, and seem to assume that it's perfectly ok to walk upto people having a conversation, and announce they are going to play ALL 485 jpop/kpop sync dancers in their collection.

When you've heard "Co-Ed Hookers of the Imperial Japanese Navy Female Vocal Trio" sing a choppy bad edit of their classic hit "Waki-Baki No Taki" for the 47th time in a row, and know there's another 483 sync dancers still to be played, your mind just sort of glazes over, and it's all you can do to stop your self snatching the chopsticks out of her candy pink anime hair buns and brutally stabbing her in the eyes till the "music" stops.

 

[Zalificent Corvinus]

17 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Why stop the discussion when the person can be included. The thing most people are in SL for. Inclusion. Problem is people are too stuck in a rut of their own making and are too afraid of "new blood". They also can't stand it when you can see through their bs. Rude af people aren't the kind most want to associate with.

SOME people will stand and listen for a bit to get a grip on what people are talking about, and try to join in, after they said Hi once, in a simple manner.

But there are some, who say hi, complain that it's rude if you all don't stop talking and say hi back, then whine that you are talking about stuff you were talking about before, and not stuff they want to talk about.

Realistically, you can't "include" some people in your group's conversation as all they want is to drag all of you into THEIR one sided conversation.

 

It's that "assume any group of stationary avatars are fake people or cleverly scripted bots, just NPC" thing.

 

There was a whiny type on the forums not so long ago, who constantly complained that nobody would talk to him inworld.

In one post however, he admitted that if he went someplace new and somebody he didn't know said "hi", he AUTOMATICALLY assumed they were just "a cleverly scripted bot" and instantly muted them, then came on the forum and whined about nobody talking to him... Again.

 

[Orwar]

2 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Problem is people are too stuck in a rut of their own making and are too afraid of "new blood".

   I'm very fond of new blood .. 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

5 hours ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

A new possible explanation for people not talking to you emerges.

 I do not respond well when people twist what is said to their agenda.

  Is there a specific reason you decided to do that?

 

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

6 minutes ago, SpiritSparrow Skydancer said:

a free account moocher

A . . . what?

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

A . . . what?

I think it's supposed to be one of the lower rungs on the ladder Second Life Caste system.

Not sure though, could be autocowrecked and actually be something about a "free coupon for mocha".

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I think it's supposed to be one of the lower rungs on the ladder Second Life Caste system.

I really don't get the element of snobbery that some people -- and maybe SpiritSparrow doesn't actually mean to telegraph this -- direct at "free accounts." It's like, "there aren't enough ways for me to feel superior and elite in SL, so let's make one up!"

Those "free account moochers" are building and selling things, renting land and often opening it to the public to enjoy, and pumping literally millions of dollars into the SL economy.

This place would have died long ago without them.

[Gwin LeShelle]

6 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I notice a lot of tenants simply put right on their profiles that they disregard room chat.

I rarely do that and I wonder why people developed such an allergy to room chat. Possibly because it is often filled with gesture and animation spam and idiotic emoticons and character spam.

But I also think that many people have the habit of talking all night in IMs. The other avatar they're having deep conversations with may not even be with them in the same sim. You wonder why they don't sit in a house and have tea, virtually.

 

yep thats what we do. we meet for concerts, firework shows or just garden pool parties with weird fun. or we go explore dressed as hamsters and so on. its always open chat fun  and we often even are all in the same room in RL or in skype calls haha and we still chat a lot  maybe we just talk too much x3 

Its fun to explore and engage together, but I only do this with RL friends nowadays since no one in SL seems to talk much anymore

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Orwar said:

   I'm very fond of new blood ..