Amanda Crisp

“You are SO like everybody’s favorite aunt....”

I’d use that “Hug Button” on Tari if we had one. I always enjoy reading her thoughts even when we might not agree :-) I’ll come back to this thread by saying that “communication in SL” is hard. Recently I’ve had some experience at HOW hard when I had a reason to “accept applications” for something related to my SL personal life and a community I participate in. It was truly amazing at how many different meanings people can put on the same words based on culture, RL gender, previous life-experiences and our various passions. That role remains unfilled, but I have to say that the Social Tourist in me has enjoyed talking to all these people :-) ...and we wonder why Global Peace & Understanding elude us ? My .02 cents is that the commit to TRY to understand each other is more important than the success-rate. The insight I get from even “problematic” conversations makes *me* more insightful, and the situation is only a failure if I stop trying. *hugs*

Tipping will always be controversial within SL, because SL is made up of residents from vastly different “tipping cultures”. Still, many places in SL tend to over-do tip-spams or have too many staffers on the floor each independently tip-spamming. I look at tipping as a reward for service; people who stay active and involved get tipped. A.F.K. “Hosts” or staffers who bring drama to their own events; not so much.

If I pay 11K, I expect to be made VERY happy....... ...in every exotic way I can imagine 🙂

I like this idea, we *should* have a Linden embassy 🙂

Until recently I DJ’d and did “club work”, so that gives perspective on my comments. When Skype & voice clients like Discord became a “thing”, I noticed an odd phenomenon.... People (whom I knew not to be Bots) dancing or sitting in a club, completely oblivious to local chat and the IMs from other people. (I’d get IM’s from guests asking if resident X was a bot). What was happening was that the tuned-out Guests were paying attention to their circle of friends on the voice client, and people outside their “bubble” had a hard time making contact. Additionally (speaking as a 15 year resident who has seen “generations” of SL users come and go) I do think that talking to “strangers” has become so fraught these days, that this gives certain people anxiety about even trying. When “Saying the wrong thing” leads to consequences, it breeds reluctance. Thats a “Life” issue, not a Second Life issue; I see that play out professionally in RL as well as here.

I may be the outlier here. I was VERY extraverted for the first half of my life (ENFJ if you use Meyers-Briggs). Then an injury, followed by a stroke changed some things for me. When you have difficulty speaking clearly, appearance-conscious business starts slotting you into fewer “out front” roles - which was semi-OK with me because I was embarrassed by how I sounded and the other smaller side effects of my situation. I was a natural extrovert who was learning to operate as an introvert; this led to any number of “issues” including a dance with depression. The great thing about SL for me (mostly) is that my avatar looks “whole”, walks normally and when I peck on the keyboard; I don’t “slurr” my speech. I frequently get mistaken for “normal” here (which I like) and as a result I can be my old extraverted self here in SL. I like it here 🙂

Cold brew coffee and fig newtons...

I would call it “Donor” or “Legacy” level. Some museums or zoos use those terms. This is not a popular observation, but people who pay-in Premium are the “stable” income that keeps LL functioning. People who pay more are also paying to help maintain the backbone systems of SL for everyone. Second Life has meant a lot to me since 2005, if I can chip in a little more to keep it around I am willing to do that. Actually, I need to add that as a provision in my will :-)

Generally, alt-spotting is a great time-waster. I have several people in my social circle who have “work” alts and “social” alts because they run SL businesses and occasionally like a break from customers who need their attention “NAOW” I have alts because I used to help manage something in SL and occasionally I just wanted to be quiet so I could build. More recently I get pinged by people who see me on Flickr, so its nice to drop to an alt and talk to my friends. I think one good rule of alting is to never be creepy by having an alt and a main “unannounced” in the same social circle.

/me hunts Belinda down and starts following her.....

I misread this, I thought it was “Vintage SL PORNO vid”.... I was just making sure I was’t in it......

You’ve hit upon the dark secret of SL, there ARE no male avatars in SL, only some faux males with aftermarket equipment.

Thank you for caring. Legally, possible interventions may be limited; but good on you for taking up the concern.

I say “nay”........ that would lead to the Xcite eggplant.....

Checking online resellers might be a good idea. Posted as an example; www.discountcomputerdepot.com Horsepower may vary.....

I had good luck with Asus “Republic of Gamers” PCs. My last was a G75 that ran very fast and refused to die. I finally retired it when I went iMac and when I log it on for monthly updates, it’s still fast 🙂 SSD, Dedicated GPU and I maxed the RAM however... wasn’t inexpensive

“Your world, your Imagination” does not imply “What you See is what you Get”.

I think I haz to much Terminator.

What if we had a “General Disgust” section instead of General Discussion? ..or do we have that ready?

I use punctuation, voodoo and lots of .gif images.....

I’ll offer another take on that 🙂 SL has residents (like me) who gravitate here because RL injuries or illness make us appear “not normal” out there in the Real World. Disabilities can be coped with (I had an early-life stroke which affects my manual dexterity on one side and makes me talk like I’m sloshed (when I’m tired) but has not stopped me from being active or living my life. But the *painful* thing is how you get treated as “different”, “fragile” or less intellectually capable just because of how you look or sound. Here in SL I can 6-finger type so fast that people assume I’m typing normally and my *ideas* shape people’s opinions of me; not my visible differences. SL is a huge relief for me and others like me and if we tend to overdo “pretty”, maybe thats how we see ourselves ? Its nice to be forever under-30 and look like a fashion model in SL; but its even better not to be quietly pitied. We need to be tough enough to handle life as it is; but SL is a nice break 🙂