Frank Ziplon

I did debate whether to waste any more time on you, but do feel the need to point out, for other readers who may not notice, that you omitted the part where you go on to say " In other words, if you are a cheapskate like me, go premium " That's when you were suggesting I would save money and you made it about me and that is what I disagreed with for the stated reasons. Regardless of whether or not reading is my strong point, copying and pasting your own quotes is not yours, though I very much suspect it was a deliberate omission to make yourself look wronged. I wish you well Fritigern, however if you can't handle people disagreeing with you to the point you turn it into personal drama, I would suggest forums which offer differing opinions on various subjects is perhaps not the best place for you. I have nothing further to say on the matter, so any response to this post will be ignored.

Well I won't say I did not then, as you have formed your opinion regardless of whether it is accurate, but exactly what worst would there be in your comment anyway? So far as I read, you thought I would still save money and I disagreed. You are being over sensitive and reading too much into those volumes, you replied to my message and I responded in kind, this is the problem with written communication, there is no body language to go by and people end up getting upset over nothing.

Sorry Fauve, I had to get a few hours sleep. Well we shall see what happens. One thing I have to say about LLs is though, they do a bad job with the viewer, which is why, most of us, though not all, I am sure, use a third party viewer, so I can't see them creating a phone app that would be that great. I will follow things with interest though and I may be proved wrong.

Fair point, I am guessing they thought there would be though and they didn't accept that it differed too much to our usual Second Life experience and most of us are not happy to just wander around exploring experiences which offer little in terms of interaction. The graphics are superior though, that was about the only thing I was impressed with.

True, this is prevalant at the [Moderator Edit: Region Name Removed] sim too, it is actually against LL TOS to falsify traffic in this manner and they claim to have measures in place to prevent it, but [Moderator Edit: Region Name Removed], most definitely does this, I remember one time I went there, there were about 40 avatars just floating at 4000m all with the same creation date. Using alts to make venues look busy is counter productive though, it might get people in initially, but they will leave as soon as they recognize the avatars are unmanned. I guess noobs might fall for it though.

2 for me, actually 3, though the other was just a scripted agent for group invites, when I had my sim and no longer gets used, though my friends know them, as I do theirs. I thought after x amount there was a charge anyway? Over 100? I really cannot imagine how you keep up with 100 or why you would need one for "each important person" after all, unless you are signed into more than one at once, the other people are therefore deemed less important at one point or another, which you could argue, makes them not important at all.

Hmmm, I wonder which project you might mean? No but seriously you are right with that, it does seem like they are just throwing money down the toilet with that project, which could be put to better use, I think there was about 30 people there last time I had a look, but keep in mind, even with that project, the end goal would be to make some kind of profit, so the same would need to apply to a phone app and there would need to be signifant demand for it, before they would even give it consideration.

With the anonymity the internet offers, you could argue it is less naive to see people on the internet as not real in terms of who they may profess to be. I guess it depends how much as a person, you take things at face value. I have been on the internet since well before it was popular and have learned in all those years that one must be cautious in what personal information you share and with whom you share it, friendship is a process that takes time to grow, everything on the internet, is so instant. I don't consider anyone a friend unless I truly know them and when you take into account things like facebook, where people crave to have as many followers as possible, to be that, all popular person, can the people on that person's account really all be real friends? Not saying that is the case with your facebook btw, I have no idea how you use your facebook account. Second Life is much the same, I have lost count of the number of people who want to friend me after one sentence or for that matter without even a conversation, there seems to be a mentality where the internet is concerned by which people collect friends like others collect stamps. Friendship doesn't have to move out of the internet bubble to be real, that is for sure, but like I say, real friendship takes time and I have only a handful of internet only friends who I consider real, if not for that we were on opposite sides of the globe, we would actually meet in the real world. All others I consider acquaintances and nothing more.

Be careful what you wish for, a phone app would cost money to develop, not to mention the additional support costs, if they did develop one, they would have to recoup those costs somehow. In all honesty no phone is going to give a great SL experience, I've tried Lumyia and it was consigned to the digital bin, it's hard to navigate, takes forever for scenes to load etc. You really are missing nothing. Yes you could just use it to communicate, but in all honesty anyone from SL I choose to communicate with to that extent has other options, such as my skype or whatsapp.

Good to hear Catwa has finally released a BOM, I use that head on my alt account and will have to remember to log in and update. Don't put too much effort into worrying about complexity either way, in my experience, avatar clothing affects it more than the avatar itself and well this need to pander to people who don't use decent equipment to access SL is beyond me, which is essentially what it is about and something that will stifle progress in the long run. Don't ignore the other benefits of BOM, mesh was always limited compared to the system avi in terms of layers, BOM brings back the flexibility to add more detail and personalization to a mesh avatar without those onion layers, which in themselves had to be limited. Not to mention, I think I am right in saying that Catwa uses the same UV layout as the system avi, which means, you are no longer limited to skins which only come with catwa appliers. Please correct me if I am wrong on that as misinformation is the plague of the internet.

I see and does premium membership get you a full region?, nope, it's a Linden home. $14000 wasn't just spent on some small plot for a home. I have had full regions, I have had half regions, homesteads etc. You might save money if you only ever rent a little plot for a home, but even then I doubt it and there is no information on how much land impact you get to play with on this land. Unless the other premium benefits have any value though, it is still a false economy just for a linden home. I'm not actually a cheapscape, I don't mind contributing to the SL economy, I get pleasure from it, which is why I never complained about what I have spent and its future is always dependant on it being financially viable. The only difference between me and a premium member, is that I get to fully choose what that monthly cost is spent on in SL. I am glad that you are saving money though, if you get something out of premium membership, kudos to you, but never assume that everyone is using SL exactly the same, we all have different requirements, for some premium membership ticks all the right boxes, for others, it is a waste of money that could be put to better use in SL.

I don't expect the original asker is still around, however the topic came up and I peeked in and as a roleplayer do feel the need to say something. I have to say in terms of the original asker of this question, I do doubt his reasons for doing this, if you want to see what people are getting up to in SL, your first thought isn't going to be, oh let's try a virtual relationship to find out. There's certainly nothing wrong with a man roleplaying as a female, it wouldn't really interest me personally and I am an avid roleplayer. However, this is something that has to be done honestly. Many people take avatars at face value and have an expectation that most will be the same gender as the person sitting at the keyboard. It is naive, but there are a lot of naive people in the world. I personally think that what you did was wrong, this man you were playing with, was obviously looking for real life connection with a female and you were selfishly just thinking of your own fun and exploration. Honesty is the only policy when it comes to roleplay because not everybody in SL is roleplaying, I am and like you, I play something completely different to myself, however, I am clear about that in my profile. In terms of the report, I doubt he actually will, because he will have felt stupid and humiliated, but if he did report it, as others have said, nothing will really come of it. To those who applaud you for coming out, so to speak, after all that time, I disagree, it was left too late, your heart may well have been in the right place in doing so, however, you obviously gave him no doubt as to what you were in real life, at least if your avatar had just disappeared from the grid, he might have been able to convince himself that it was just some female who got spooked at the thought of voice. Yes that may be a contradiction to the honesty is the only policy statement, but I meant from the very start and not so far down the line where the damage is already done. All I can say to you, is that, if you decide to create an alt and do this all over again, be mindful, that some people invest their real life heart into SL relationships and not all are looking for fun and games.

Text most definitely, in terms of roleplay which I mostly do in Second Life, it is essential because you are writing a story with the other people in the scene, but I think even from a social aspect, text is better, I'm a touch typist so can definitely type quicker than I can speak, so more can be said, more quickly. The problem with voice, is you will get people talking over one another, especially if there is a group of people and the conversation will be harder to follow, the second problem is you may mishear something or have to get people to repeat things, if it is typed, it can be read carefully. Of course there is a downside to text communication, you don't get a real feel for the personality and can't determine how genuine a comment is. Anyone who has been on my friend list long enough and proven to be sane, will end up being offered my skype or whatsapp anyway, so friends do get to voice chat with me when not on SL.

Very well put, I've never been a premium member as I have never felt it would be of benefit to me, but recently I was curious just how much I had spent on SL over the years, so I downloaded all my account history and put things into a spreadsheet, it totted up to well over $17000 and yes that is dollars people and not lindens, though using MP purchase history, I determined only approximately $3000 was spent on the MP, the rest will have been my time renting regions and other land at various stages. The way premium members feel they are somehow special or contributing more, is a pet hate of mine in SL as we non premium members, spend as much and in many cases more.

You are exactly right, I think too many people take things at face value in Second Life. I'm just a roleplayer in Second Life, I'm gay in real life, but roleplay as a straight man (yeah everyone needs a hobby), though to be clear, I am honest about this on my profile. As a result, men playing women often reveal themselves to me and the vast majority are straight males, though I would take their names to my grave as I believe that people are free to be whatever they want in Second Life, but I do feel honesty would make them much better people. The female to male ratio in Second Life is such that it would be naive to take all females at face value.