riaroswell

I've tried to create a thread in the forums several times, but as soon as I navigate away from the initial page after posting it immediately disappears. I don't see it in my "latest posts" or anywhere else, except that my non-public stats show I've started one more topic. What can I do to fix this? Can other people see my posts? Edit: I didn't get any notification that my post was deleted and as far as I know there's nothing that violates the forum guidelines. The post contained a link to an unrelated website but when I tried removing it and re-posting, the same thing happened. Otherwise it seems consistent with BUG-7298. So I guess there is no solution.... Edit 2: I tried posting from a different browser, and this time I "edited" the post (just adding a space somewhere) before navigating away from the initial page. I don't know which of those things made it work, but it's up there now. Thank you for your help :)

Thank you for your helpful response! And I'm sorry that mine is so late. 'I know someone who is also doing research on here and got kicked out of the forums. I realize that many people are tired of pesky anthropologists intruding on their community, but I will try my best to be respectful. The last thing I want is for people to think that I am using them as lab rats. My intention with this project is to give voice to the individual lived experiences of fluid SL/RL gender expressions. I’ve been looking at the other great stuff on here about gender expression and they’ve given me a good starting point for my research. Your posts are also fantastic. Other than providing an additional dialogue, I was hoping that this thread would also serve as a place for me to find people willing to do an interview with me. I didn’t want to ‘advertise’ my project on other threads and I felt like it deserved a post of its own anyway. J As for my own history with SL, I used to have an account 2-3 years ago which I used on and off for maybe about a year. I never really developed any sustaining friendships but it was really fun. I started using this avatar for my project. My research isn’t specifically about the community spaces within SL, but rather the individual experiences of people (who may identify as transgender). The transgender community in SL would be a great are of study but my project won’t focus on it unless it is significant in the experience of someone I interview. I will probably gather minimal RL information on the participants because it’s largely irrelevant. I’m studying the subjective experience of expressing gender in certain ways, rather than gathering RL or SL information. In any research involving people you just have to take what your participants give you as the truth, and that’s what I’ll be doing with this project. I forgot to mention that, yes, everyone who contributes will be able to see a draft of the paper and request any changes/omissions before I turn in the final paper or it is made public in any way.

Hi Everyone! My name is Maria Bodwell and I'm an undergraduate student of anthropology at the University of Redlands. I'm doing research on the way people in virtual communities portray gender through their avatars and I'm particularly interested in learning about the way people use SL avatars to express genders different from their RL gender. My research has 2 components: This thread - I will use these group discussions to get a sense of how residents feel about gender expression in SL, both for themselves and for others. If I plan to use something you say in this thread (by quoting, for example) in my paper, I will contact you personally to ask for permission.In-world interviews with users who claim to present a different gender in RL - these interviews will last 30-60 minutes and I will ask you more in depth about your personal experiences. You may be asked about some intimate topics, although whether you actually share this information with me is up to you.You can choose to participate in one or both of the two components. If you know anybody who may be interested in taking part in this thread or the interview, please let me know or tell them to contact me. All of the names of the participants will be changed for the final paper presenting my research, and only I will know your screen name or real name. Other identifiable information will be altered as well to protect participants' identities. All of the information I gather will be stored on a password-protected hard drive. At any point during your participation you can choose to stop and/or have the information you gave withdrawn from the study without any consequences. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me through my SL account or at maria_bodwell@redlands.edu. Now that I have the formalities out of the way, what are your thoughts on expressing gender in SL? Do you do this or know anybody who does? Has it changed the way you think about gender or other aspects of identity for yourself or for others? This doesn't have to be a very directed discussion; I'm happy for anyone to bring up new topics related to the subject to enrich my research!