Gwen Ghostly

Thanks again to all the participants! I just finished up some graphs summarizing data, but the raw results are public. I'm still thinking over a lot of the individual responses, but an example of a takeaway I had was that Flickr makes you log in to view Moderate or Restricted images, so some people prefer an Instagram preview option as well in things like group notices. These are the sorts of convenience and accessibility things I'm glad were pointed out, and I hope the info is beneficial to others.

Wanted to answer Yes and No to "Do you view or interact with SL content on at least one external site or app?" I'm not sure I have ideas on when a "both yes and no" answer would apply to this question, but it's also one or the other to send people to different pages depending on their responses. I'll try to think of examples when both yes and no might apply when I write a summary and analysis. That's a really good point. Gyazo is a great tool. I'd love to see a collection of tools and resources like that, especially for new users.

Another of several subjects that have sparked this sort of conversion is the in-world new shopping HUD, though I very much regret that it became one more recently after this form was created (and editing the form now wouldn't work the way I wish it would). New information and perspectives are what I gain. A friend recently joined SL and benefitted from certain resources with gallery-style images to aid shopping and exploration, especially while getting used to movement and camera controls. Some ways she interacted with and opinions she had on third-party sites were not things I'd considered. Another new user brought up YouTube videos as an invaluable resource but wished for videos about certain content that they'd thus far been unable to locate. These sorts of conversations are also inspirations for the survey. There's not any singular conversation that sparked the survey. I have a background in SEO, video, digital media, social media, and marketing. In those fields, tons of research is done and information is available. Some social sites, for example, can tell you peak times to post and other analytics. Is that information generally universal, or does it vary for specific communities like Second Life? It's already clear SL does vary in some ways because the most generally popular sites for RL are not the same as the most popular for SL users. The survey can't answer everything, but it was made in hopes of being a start to more analysis of the ways we interact with one another. What is learned from it depends on the responses given and the interpretation of those responses by various individuals. Speaking for myself, it's the start of satisfying curiosities and forming more informed opinions. Maybe more people will ask and discuss. I'm one brain with limitations, though some others weighed in with suggesting questions, answer options, and formatting. Others may have even better ideas for questions and topics or be better suited to ask them. For example, it'd be fascinating to see how much certain opinions and preferences vary depending on subcommunities within the SL community. Or I'd love to read more about ways users with disabilities use additional tools or sources to benefit their SL experiences. It's easy enough to research and read about these sorts of topics and general internet usage, but it's less often analyzed and presented within SL. As another example, we have an entire economy with far less readily available information, tips, and analytics than RL counterparts. I've often heard people in marketing surprised at how different practices are in SL compared to RL. If someone wants to open an art gallery in real life they can easily research tips and insights for that subject. People doing the same in SL may not be able to find similar information, think to "share notes," or realize why it may be helpful. All the possibilities that grow in SL make it a platform that isn't just for one type of person or activity, but competitive thinking can limit the growth of others and the availability of helpful information. I love hearing perspectives outside of my own and outside of my social circles. I also don't want to hoard the information from others who may feel the same, thus responses being anonymous and public. That's at the heart of the survey, vague as that may be. I also want to thank everyone for their comments so far in this topic, because they too offer perspectives. Even by posting this and looking around more, I've been gaining information about these forums I didn't have before, such as finding handy topics and discussions I, and I'm sure others, didn't expect.

They have updated regarding content moderation levels. They haven't updated anything regarding commercial activity but have unstated rules they've recently begun enforcing that they don't seem to have fully decided upon and discussed, but they are acting upon them to varying degrees. And, of course, people are getting mixed and contradicting responses regarding it all. Other topics have also included Pinterest's moderation and false flagging of content incorrectly as not family-friendly. DeviantArt with practices artists don't agree with such as everything from AI to the removal of features. X being...well...X. Bluesky's lack of video and gif support. A desire to ask for my.secondlife to be revamped and gauge SL user interest in that (those questions were requested by someone curious about and contemplating ways to push for that). Folks who took this time to point out how they use external sites as assistive tools for their Second Life experience and they have opinions about things like being limited to certain platforms they hate, especially on sites that require they sign up to view.

Flickr is only one piece of the whole picture, but you're absolutely right that it's about other things, too. Also correct. The Flickr part of this is not about the rules that started being enforced years ago. Flickr has actively been terminating some accounts without notification, time, or any contact for reasons that directly conflict with their own stated rules. There has been shifting, imbalanced enforcement of vague, shifting, or unstated expectations regarding moderation levels. To give a very simplified idea, here are just a select few examples that I've been made aware of: Users warned, moderated, or deleted due to error and variance in moderation, suggesting that Flickr may not have clear enough standards and guidelines by which they enforce this. Users with no-contact removals of their accounts due to sharing links to free music alongside their art. Users with no activity or contributed content other than favoriting the work of others losing their accounts without contact. Users with no-contact deletion of their accounts due to plain text underneath. The rules state "Only Flickr Pro members are permitted to link directly to a shopping cart, checkout page, or pricing pages on other sites. Flickr Pros may also list prices for their products in their Flickr photo descriptions." Plain text descriptions do none of that. Whether people agree with some of these enforcements or not, the issue is that they are unstated or are entirely not what is specifically stated. It's hard to know to stand in the blue square when the floor is painted green. I've been in contact with Flickr and one such example was asking about how they intend to handle links that direct to exploration or photography spots versus links to commercial locations such as stores and shopping events. The response was, "Links or any call to action to SecondLife events, mainstores, marketplaces, etc. are all considered commercial activity since real money is used to obtain in-game currency." This could imply that all of Second Life is considered a commercial platform and all SLurls are an offense, though unstated. I asked the lines between a RL photographer crediting locations and gear or tools used versus and virtual photographer crediting non-commercial locations and content used in the spirit of Flickr's Community Guidelines' goals to be a place to "to inspire and assist the photography and art of others." The response was "Thank you so much for your feedback and time. I have shared your comments with the policy team and we will discuss further." Only time will tell on that front, as they mentioned creating new policies to state these matters that are still being enforced ahead of any further communication to users. In the meantime, debates about this subject and other platforms are still ongoing and people aren't always aware of other points of view or information. For example, people were discussing SL use of DeviantArt and many were completely surprised to learn that DeviantArt now has policies regarding more adult content. Even those who do not post adult content had something to think about because they previously had believed DeviantArt to be a great place for all sorts of SL users to view or contribute certain content like art. Restrictions on adult content can mean more hesitance to join and less views for even someone like a G-rated SL machinima creator. That's something to consider. And plenty weren't aware of DeviantArt and matters of debate such as AI.

I intend creator to mean anyone who creates content for Second Life. This includes scripters, modelers, and texture artists. Some people have written in "Scripter," as well. Initially, the goal was to focus on third-part social media and the SL community's presence on them and use of them. Obviously, this forum is made for SL users and I don't think there's a question of whether people want reasons to use it or not. However, all opinions are welcome and I feel that diversity of opinions can be really eye-opening, which is why most questions have spaces to write in additional answers. Responses and results are open to differences in opinion and interpretation. "Engage with" encompasses looking at, reading, or interacting with in some way from the standpoint of a "reader" or "viewer." Someone presents something and you engage with that something. This is to imply a desire to hear from the very people you mention. The only thing that wouldn't fall under engaging with content would be solely contributing content or entirely ignoring content with none glanced at or read. "Share" encompasses contributing as well as things like reposting or otherwise generating original content or passing content of others along. The word "view" in the answers was used in place of "just read the information on the sites," but in a way to apply to images without text. So the options are basically: "You contribute or look at advertising" "You contribute, pass on, or look at creative things" "You socialize with people" I'm not sure how those could change to clarify that the survey isn't just for contributors of content. Contributing is intended to be just one means of possible interaction with such sites, with "viewing" also specified. A person can view art on the sites independently of using sites as a tool for shopping. This particular question was inspired by a number of individuals who voiced that they use specific sites as a tool to better organize or otherwise enhance their shopping experiences. The assumption prior is not contribution, but specifically asks about contributing or viewing, and contributing or viewing or both does not indicate that the purpose includes viewing content as an organizational, visual, etc. aid. Also, a person can contribute or just view content to a site and also view commercial content as an aid. People who answer that they do not use SL social media get sent to a different page to ignore all of the questions that involve using SL social media. The way Forms handles it jumps around pages.

Flickr is one part of the spark that began more discussion, but it isn't the only part, and not really about the commercial activity on free accounts part because that's a 2 year old matter. DeviantArt, X, Discord, and Pinterest (to name a few but again not all) have also played into things due to policy changes or matters like AI.

Sorry for the vagueness. Not going into detail was done to avoid seeming I was promoting or condemning any particular platform. There are great arguments on all sides for many social media sites, and I believe that people should use whatever works best for them. However, people often wish for more people to "switch to such and such site" and don't realize why others don't want to or haven't. I'll go into more detail in my responses to comments, but I wanted to make sure I also addressed yours. As for how this survey will help, the truthful answer is that I don't know for certain. What actually happens and what I hope could happen are two different things, but I can say that I think varying perspectives on matters are rarely a bad thing. I, for one, have gotten insight I didn't previously consider that has already impacted how I use SL social media.

Some questions may have lacked an N/A option due to being not required, so they can just be skipped.

As in you wanted to change your answer? There should be a means to edit your response. Apologies for the design. In an ideal world, I'd have liked something more customizable. Many people share your sentiments about external social media, duplication, and falling off (myself included). I did, however, find people who shared that view but valued links in group notices and large, clear visuals on external sites alongside in-world content, and other such tools. When I say "accessibility," it does apply to people finding what they want where they prefer, but it's mostly about people with particular preferences for content. Some have expressed wants for and from an external site to aid their activities in SL. Those preferences can be brought on by differences in information processing, neurodivergence, and more that aren't always considered. Blogs can be a great solution, but some people prefer exposure to various topics in one source, whereas sites like blogs are often more limited in content to specific subjects.

Any SL users who can open a Google Form Responses tab. The responses have been public from the start. I think it's valuable to seek external opinions. There have been recent complications regarding SL users and social media. It has been especially hard on virtual photographers. Many people of various sorts (if anything, excluding spammers and advertisers because policies on external platforms remain the same regarding them) have been concerned, which has led to plenty of general discussion that the survey was inspired by. Questions specifically ask about commercial activity separately to provide information for those who do seek to use social media that way, because things like shopping or finding events using social media advertisements are popular for various reasons. A survey on preferences won't increase anyone's exposure to opt-in marketing that must be opted into via things like following/subscribing. A commercial entity—let's say a dance club—knowing that people prefer a specific social media site to see marketing content also won't influence the amount of spam or advertisements received in Second Life. I don't think I quite get this point, but I'm happy to try with a bit more elaboration. The survey is optional and unpaid. It's been floating around SL social media, and someone suggested I post it on the forums to offer a more diverse array of SL users the chance to weigh in. No one is expected to respond, but the option is there for those who want to.

Some people wrote the forums here as an "other" response, so that's a way to do it!

I'm not sure what you mean by a furry option. Can you elaborate? The questions are meant to be about Second Life users of all sorts and their preferences regarding external social, commercial, and artistic SL content. Furries in the SL community would fall under SL users. The avatars an SL user has don't factor into this particular subject, but there are other surveys for body/form/avatar polling. If you mean the first question, asking what someone does in SL may offer insight into correlations between certain SL activities and social media. For example, do store owners prefer one platform while artists prefer another? Furries and other varying avatar types can fall under any category for what they do in SL, so the response to this particular survey should focus on a user's activity and use, not details of their identity. There are spots where people are welcome to leave information if they find any platform less or more welcoming to their identity, subculture, etc. though! My survey is focused on all SL users as a demographic, but if anyone surveys about social media and more specific demographics within the SL user base, that'd be interesting.

The Second Life community's presence on various social media platforms has been a topic of conversation lately with discussions about which platforms are most welcoming to and user-friendly for SL users. I thought it could benefit various SL users (such as but not limited to virtual photographers, machinima artists, musicians, communities, organizations, sim builders, explorers, bloggers, creators, business owners, shoppers, and external socializers) to have and/or voice input and opinions about how users like to interact, share, connect, and get information about the Second Life community. The following is a user-created survey regarding the Second Life community on social media and other external sites/apps. The goal is to gain and share insight into accessibility and preferences surrounding social, commercial, artistic/creative, and general SL content outside of SL itself. The "Other" option can be used to submit additional responses. https://forms.gle/5g1pQDcL2ddX24eK6

I'm trying out 3D painting in Photoshop CS6 for skin creation. I made 3 base textures and got them "close enough" as far as coloring. I wanted to try out 3D painting to match up the seams and finish up the highlighting and shading. The snapshots contain nips and bits on the skins. In this first screenshot, You can see that most seams are just a solid color and the legs don't match the torso because they lack the carryover of the shading and highlights. This is just my starting point, and the textures upload to SL as shown: https://gyazo.com/e74a857ade11ce747f4ea8b684aab124 Here, I roughly covered the seams and added blue dots on layers above the model just to show what is going on: https://gyazo.com/c7465b287dcb8ef6d7462831aa63e1ca The merge result: https://gyazo.com/febca092d6542d857b32967d726b13a7 What you can't see from the above shot is that painting on any area adds weird lines to other areas: https://gyazo.com/422e5fc7896776f4ff9ad0e3c8dc80db And if I paint directly onto the model without additional layers, it still makes random markings. This is the result of trying to make the upper and lower seamless by painting directly on the model: https://gyazo.com/a8d3b4b1aff86a2bbd378877247885b6