Courtney Sinister

I think sl is just mad at you for calling it a "game." But seriously, I think your graphics card is not all you think it is. Lower your graphics settings and try another viewer and see if it improves.

As people have said, it is simple to know if you log on or off in sl. They shouldn't currently be able to detect alts easily, unless you are not careful. I enjoy determining who is an alt of who, it's sort of a hobby. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you don't use spy tech like Redzone to do it, and if you don't hassle them about it. I keep the knowledge to myself. What I use to determine who is an alt of who is the silly mistakes most people make. They introduce alts to the people they know, then log on and off contigously. If Fred and Sue are seldom on at the same time, and one always logs on within a couple minutes of the other logging off, it gives a pretty good clue. If they have the same groups, make the same typos, have the same indosyncracies, you have some good confirmation. If they bring up the other account to ask how you feel about them or show up in a place they shouldn't know about when people close to the other account are there, it is just getting childish.

If Lindens keep pushing for sl to be things that it is not, it will only get worse. SL is poor facebook style social network. SL is not the right platform for people who want a rl chatroom. SL is not technically appealing to pure "gamers." What SL has always been best at is being a virtual world in which people can immerse, create, and interact, leaving behind just a little of their rl when they do. As it moves away from this, either because the teirs are too high to allow free creation of the resident's fantasy world and its components, or because of the promotion of less immersive uses of sl have changed the "atmosphere," or because of technical barriers, it will founder. I agree that the answer is advertising, not upgrading. SL should be advertised as what it IS, not as something that can fit ever niche for everyone. That advertising should be aimed inworld as well as out. People won't spend high tiers for a spot in a chat room. People won't spend L$1600 for virtual shoes if they are just here to look for gems. They will spend (both time and money) to feel that magic that brought us here but which is more and more elusive in today's SL.

As far as what viewers, it is not only important to know how many people are actually logging on with which viewer, but who they are. As far as I can see in the places I go, very few people who have used sl for more than a few months use the sl viewers, most veterans still use phoenix, with a still fairly small but growing number moving to Firestorm and a handful using other third party viewers. The sl veiwer users are also far more likely to not have payment information on file. If most of those doing the buying in sl are not using the SL viewers, that is important information to know.

I also refuse to give into the body nazis and turn myself into a sl stick-woman to fit into mesh. To me it appears that the reason it is all being made so tiny is that it has the same visual effect as the much (and rightfully) maligned "skirt" layer of clothing--which is good for some jackets and not much else. Like the skirt layer, mesh, as used now, seems to make tiny asses look big and well shaped asses look planet-sized. At least that is how the dresses I tried on worked. I assume that is one reason Mesh clothing makers are building garments for stick figure avatars. My shape is ME. I am not willing to carve off parts of myself to fit into any fashion so that mesh implementors can have their pounds of flesh. I sincerely hope that a solution is found for this, or else that mesh is abandoned in the fashion world. It will be better put to use in other areas.

Peggy, thanks for the reminder, forums are full of cranks and trolls. You fit the role well. I see nothing in your post worth adressing, so I'll stop responding and hope some find it interesting at least, if not helpful.

Hehe I'm sure you are right Dres. I know there are many sl users (like you and me!) who are not clammy or basement dwelling at all, it is just that when someone voices, that is the image that hits me.

Pussycat, I think I did a bad job with my descriptions of the type. they were meant to show levels of immersion in sl, not openness about rl necessarily. I guess a good way to say it may be that the archetype Ones are always their rl self in their own mind in sl, Archetype Tens are always their sl self in their own mind in sl, and all the real people are somewhere in between.

Peggy, I am convinced you have either not read my posts or are unable to understand them. Insulting how someone views sl is arrogant for very clear reasons, and that is what I am pointing out. Rather than me telling them they need to get in line I am conplaining that they are telling others to get in line. Please tell me what line I am asking people to join? I have clearly stated that all uses are legitimate. If you can't understand that basing the use of a line for mesaring such differences on the Kinsey scale (which is about sexuality) has nothing to do with sexuality in this context, nothing I can write here can help you. But you may have a point, most troubles may not come from differences in how we use sl, it may be that some people are just jerks like you who will attack everyone and everything without bothering to read it well enough to be able to actually know what was said.

Randall, I think your use of sl is a great one. As far as people who don't like to be asked about location, it isn't anything about wanting to "hook up" or not, in the case I'm talking about it is because many sl users want to relate to other users as residents of sl, not of rl and don't want to be immediately indentified as their rl selves. It is sort of tossing the illusion out the window from the start. Most immersive people I know don't mind sharing location a little later in their discussions with a person, I realize users like you don't feel that way, and that is just as legitimate. It is exactly that disconnect between how different people use and think of sl I think we have to be able to talk about if we want to keep sl great for everyone.

It was not primarily meant to be a survey, but a way to discuss a real issue. There is a fair amount of conflict going on out there around what sl is and what it should be. I thought this might help people talk about it. Every day I see sl being pushed toward being a social network. Every day I hear arrogant asses saying "It isn't real!" "You can't really touch!" It has certainly gotten more that way since I started in 2007. Your comments about how people don't fit one number on the scale seem to eerily echo my coments when I said the exact same thing. You could have just used cut and paste in fact. No one is trying to pin you down. I based this roughly on the Kinsey scale, which is also not meant to be something that identifies a set permanant number for everyone, but which has turned out to be a very useful tool for discussing sexuality.

If it is asked within the first few lines of my first conversation with someone, I respond to the question "Where are you from?" with the answer, "My partner and I have a place on _____ Island." That will either stop further rl questions, get them to ask again while allowing the issue to be addriessed, show their complete lack of geographic sense, or scare them off totally. I really don't mind the question under the right circumstanses, but it seems to me that asking age and location in the first minutes of talking is ignoring the potential of sl--unless you are one of those social network users. Just to be clear, I'm not saying one way is better than another, though I certainly have my preferance. I also fear very much that the Lindens are favoring the ones on the scale these days to the point where I wonder if they even know we 6-10's exist (and do most of the shopping).

You see it all the time, some people won't share rl, others say that is silly. Some ask rl questions on meeting, others resent it. Still others wonder what the fuss is about. I'm convinced it is because there are 2 archetypes of sl use, and many shades in-between. I call my way of measuring this the "Immersion Scale." Imagine a line with numbers along it. At one end is the number 1, at the other, 10. 1---2---3---4---5---6--7---8---9---10 Pure ones would use sl only as a social network. Their avatars are not "them" in any sense, even in a pretend one. They are merely placeholders for their rl selves. Ones don't roleplay, are free with rl info, voice often, and expect contact with sl friends outside of sl. They often think those near the other end are "fake" and have no rl . Pure tens use sl as a "second life" and immerse themselves in it. They are almost always "in character." They resent being asked about rl, "become" what may be a VERY different sl self when in-world, and may seldom voice. They think ones on the line lack imagination and do not understand the wonder of sl. Most are somewhere in-between. Some are one type in one area of sl, and other types in other areas. For example, at a beach you might be just saying hello and asking where people are from and their age, then you might go to a club, wherfe you dance as your immersed self, but with frequent breaks from that into rl information about what you are doing or how your friend's work day went. Later still, the same sl user might go to a roleplay sim and totally immerse in their rl self. Nevertheless, I find I can usually find a useful spot on the line for people I know, and it helps me understand them and how they feel about sl issues. I'm a 7. What are you?

Voicing at a club where a DJ is playing music is rude, no matter what kind of club it is. Telling people to turn on their mics is rude. Many people of both genders don't like to voice. This usually has more to do with where they fit on the "Chatroom--Immersive" type user scale than it does with anything else. For me, if someone starts voicing, I'm ripped out of the virtual world I love and shoved back into my seat in front of the computer, and all the interesting characters are suddenly pale clammy nerds in their parent's basements. If lesbians want to have a place where they know they can let their hair down without the unrelenting objectification by men that they face all their lives, good for them. Go somewhere else and have fun.

This is the greatest news yet! I have NO sympathy for anyone who paid 4000 lindens for that spy product. Let them eat it. Most of them knew product was only good for one thing--identifying alts.