[Should I put my real-life gender in my woman avatars' profiles?]

Live your Second Life Gopi 🙂

I also take every avatar I meet as the typists expression of their aspirational self and not as something that has to match their RL genetic lottery.

”Your World, Your Imagination”

 

[Voice Cloning Scams]

The machine voice service I am familiar with needs about 90 seconds of “clean” Subject Sample to begin modeling with. The bigger the sample, the better the result will be.

This is useful for adding a variety of Voices to games, or to add narration to training videos or create radio spots (I use this for the latter two).

This service could well be used for nefarious purposes, but I have an example of one non-nefarious one 🙂

My voicemail responder message has not changed in some years, since a stroke impaired my ability to speak. About a month ago, I had the brilliant idea to upload an old sample of my pre-stroke voice ( from a training program I narrated ) and run a new “answer” message with my machine re-generated voice.

I’m BACK to having frequently-updated (snarky) voicemail messages and I would be lying if I said that this did not make me happy 🙂

I trust Human Nature to abuse any useful thing it can, but in the interim I am enjoying having that little bit of *me* back.

 

[Voice-verified]

On 3/20/2023 at 4:58 AM, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Ask them for a dick pic next time , but face included and preferably full home address.  You want to make sure the girth is there at the very least before you get freaky.

I *tried* to be diplomatic and explained that I was a strict Vagatarian……..he didn’t get it……. (And no amount of begging on his part helped)

[Voice-verified]

13 hours ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Nope not phobic , just a sexual preference. Everybody has them whether straight , gay  bi. Nothing phobic about that. 

Personally, I agree 🙂 I was addressing the unfortunate minority that feels compelled to try and brow-beat others into their way of thinking/acting :-)

One such fellow hit me up while I was spinning tunes at an event and demanded “mic-sex” as proof otherwise I was probably headed to Hell.

I only worry about my SL Partners romantic ideas, so his went unfulfilled 🙂

I manage to live a fulfilling life despite a speech “deficit” :-)

 

[Voice-verified]

On 8/24/2019 at 2:30 PM, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

Not that I even care whether people are Voice-verified or not, but to what advantage do people put this in their profiles? And even if it mattered somehow, how can one tell it's even true? To me, it seems totally meaningless, like putting in your profile that you are a certified billionaire. But maybe I'm somehow missing the point here. Maybe they mean to say: "willing to talk on Voice"? Then why not say so? Or does it simply mean: "I won't talk to you on voice, but you'll have to take my word for it that my avatar represents my RL gender"? To me, it just doesn't make any sense at all. Can someone explain it?

My initial reaction to seeing “voice verified” in a profile is generally negative, but I try to keep an open mind.

Occasionally, this comes from people who consider SL to mainly be a sex site (and are phobic about their playmates RL status), are in the “Voice escort” business or are sincerely looking for a RL mate here in SL.

Other times its a matter of convenience or personal taste.

There are Residents who have issues Typing and prefer voice as an easier way to socialize.

I’ve encountered *some* in SL who are fairly snarky if you can’t Voice  - but thankfully that’s getting rarer.

Those of you who know me from my years on this forum and in world might recall that I had a stroke some years back and m speech was affected, so the ones who scorn people for not voicing in SL are a tender subject for me 🙂

Still, it takes all kinds to make a(virtual) world 🙂

 

[Humans complaining about heights]

I spent a few years as a moderator / Admin in Roleplay sims and had to Moderate height issues

The “Height Race” has been a thing for years, be it “alpha” male avatars competing to the “tallest in the room” or creeping height up to be taller than a partner who is wearing Heels.

This became a moderation issue when a Giant (relatively) avatar asked us to “size” every door in the sim to allow people of his height.

Every….door…in…the…sim…..

The admin response was that  the sim was built using Linden Lab “new rezz” avatars as scale and rebuilding the City would disrupt ongoing RP, be expensive and take a long time……so “no”.

I support “Your World/Your Imagination” completely, but if someone decides to go at an extreme - they should be aware that now everyone CAN accommodate their choice. Not out of meanness but simply due to limited resources.

My partner and I solved any size issues by being size-appropriate with each other, so I never have to figure out how to dance while looking at someone’s belly button 🙂

I don’t need everyone to be “my” height, but it helps if my dance partner and close enough for someone’s feet not to be off the ground…..

 

 

[What are you listening to?]

David Bowie……….

 

[How Does Your SL Look Today?]

 

[My avatar stays a cloud]

I encountered this after having logged Amanda on using a 3rd party Text-Client for SL while I was traveling.

Evidently something in that text client's last update broke my avatar and ultimately Linden Lab had to fix things on their end for me and a lot of other avatars.

[What prompts' you to]

Like - Funny, cute/sexy,  informative or builds up the community as opposed to tearing it down

Add Friends - same as for "like"

Follow - consistently earns "likes"

[PSYCHONAUTS FOR SL CREATIVITY]

My “zone” aka Home Office is centered on a glass-and steel desk that’s shaped like a “U” w one leg shorter than the other and is set up very minimally. Everything on the desktop has a specific home and I *will* notice if the cat moved anything. When I need to go outside the box, the room is indirectly lit by green neon-ish LED strips, my ceiling fan is spinning on “medium”,  the temp is 72 degrees Fahrenheit, an Lemon/Vanilla scented candle is burning and I have Moby’s “Hotel” ambient playing low.

It works for me and I have evicted someone from my life for messing with that 🙂

 

[Peculiar "characters" in Second Life]

I spent a lot of time in a dystopian RP sim at one point. While there I met someone who had at least three alts in the sim and was perfectly happy to have the alts RP with……each other.

It was none of my business so nothing negative to say about that part of it…

But when she kept trying to set me up w one of the alts; that felt a bit strange 🙂

 

 

[What Would Make Items Mysteriously Disappear From My Land?]

All the above is valid!  Check that first.

If still a problem, suspect Gremlins….

[You know you've spent too long in SL (or the Forum) when you...]

I am disappointed when I can’t mute and de-render obnoxious Rl people….

 

[The USA is not necessarily a reflection of the world]

Also, another nation-state that would have also been seen as Nameless would have been the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics…

…..was it a trend ?

[The USA is not necessarily a reflection of the world]

1 hour ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

@Amanda Crisp

The thirteen colonies were not mini-countries, they were English commercial settlements set up to harvest and ship goods from the America's back to England. They were there only for business, not to build new countries.

As businesses, they were not eligible for representation in the English parliament as they were not part of England proper, they were initially only privately owned overseas business enterprises instead.

To have give these trading colonies represented in England's parliament would have been as weird and ridiculous as giving McDonalds and Disney their own representatives in todays US Congress.

The thirteen colonies were also used as penal colonies which gave English prisoners the choice of starting a useful new life elsewhere, rather than being executed or rotting in an English prison.

The thirteen colonies were managed by trading companies based in the City of London which had special licences from the Crown which guaranteed trading exclusivity and military protection. They later became Crown Colonies after companies failed and were liquidated.

Other such British trading companies include the East India Company, whose flag the United States "borrowed" (stole) to become the first US flag in 1777.

And the US also stole the tune for their national anthem from a London-based private gentleman's club called the Anacreon Society who had a song called "Anacreon In Heaven", which they sang at their meetings.

True enough at first, but they rebelled to BECOME mini countries in a larger organization, as established by the non-federalized government that was initially created.

Things have evolved since then in a different direction, but that was the thinking behind the use of the “United States” as initially birthed.

[The USA is not necessarily a reflection of the world]

13 hours ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Your country doesn't even have an actual real name, the "United States of America" is just a description of what it is and where it is on the planet. 😜

Actually our “country” was organized out  of 13 mini-countries (Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia), which all have names.  “United States” is a description, not actually a name.

[Gender in SL repost from reddit]

I think that expecting avatars to match RL demographics says more about the phobias and biases of the person with those expectations than it does about SL.

Facebook, Tinder and other applications are the perview of “RL Meetings”. SL is “Your world, your imagination” with no implicit RL connection.

Also, I’m wondering what people who expect demographic SL/RL alignment make of furries?

 

[Do Religious Cults and "Secret Societies" Exist in SL?]

Yes, depending on what you consider a “cult” 🙂

My definition is pretty broad and would include any belief system (including political ideology) that requires one to “suspend disbelief” and accept an ideaology. Its all about how you “feel” as opposed to what you can prove.

I know of one such SL “cult” that believes that Chiropactic can cure almost anything (including cancer) and another that espouses the notion that our RL existence is just another immersive virtual world.

 

[Annoying drop down on Search!!]

On 4/12/2022 at 10:50 AM, Wallace Wirefly said:

Since Firestorm has switched to LL search I noticed that when one types in search bar one gets a constant BLUE drop down box.This blue box a supposedly helpful tips is a nuisance. Can LL please have  a setting menu that allows one to turn off this box??  If one does not know how to do a search have a button that opens a window so one can read to understand how to write in search NOT a blue drop down that blocks the first item in search! Hopefully someone in LL will read and pass along.Thanks

I HATE that thing. BAD Devs !!!

https://media1.giphy.com/media/PamyJcqFtKmN9rXC9q/giphy.gif?cid=5e2148868877879a92d1d1ed27e609a77e9c83eb95510955&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

 

[What's eating you today?]

Dealing with the emotional damage after a RL friend decided to burn her whole life down as a means of “showing her ex how bad he hurt her”.

I can’t “not care” - but I’m just stunned that an otherwise smart, successful lady would decide that this was an option.

Her Ex is accepting zero blame of course.

 

[Someone recently said that people glorify the past too much.]

My take on this is simple; “Situational Awareness = Awesome”.

Over-emphasis on history, precedent and tradition can produce stagnation and feed a lack of cultural initiative.

Ignorance or disregard of history, precedent and tradition in the name of “new thinking”  can lead to repeats of the same old mistakes in shiny new wrappers.

Its important to maintain a base of “Institutional Cultural Knowledge” so we can avoid the pitfalls of both while reaping the benefits of each.

MAINTAINING that knowledge-base and linking it to a pragmatic view of “what’s happening in the world around us” gives us situational awareness and access to the wisdom of our ancestors, while keeping it in an ever-evolving context.

History is not Destiny, but learning from it can improve our odds of creating a better one.

[Residence: Do you live on the ground or in the sky?]

Both, depending on how decent I’m being at the moment…..

[Preferred methods of communication in Second Life?]

01..Local Chat

02..IM

03..AdHoc Group IM

04..SL formal Group IM (these fail a lot)

05..Discord (for when the SL IMs fail)

 

[Most embarrassing SL moment]

15 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

I am so sorry this happened to you! There is absolutely no way to recover from this. If you try to explain to your friend that you meant that text for someone else in a game you were playing, they will

• Be hurt because you didn't, after all, want them, in the amorous sense, and
• Even if they didn't reciprocate, they will be hurt because you didn't care enough about them to give them your full attention, but played games with others on the side.

(I hope your friend forgave you, though!)

(This is why I try not to multitask. I am so prone to this sort of mixup.)

The “…and what happened next” on this was quite life changing 🙂