Orwar

Hiding your groups is no protection against that particular aspect of it, though. Firstly because, if they IM you, they're already on your profile, so hiding your groups at that point is moot. Secondly because whether or not you hide a group on your profile, you can still be found in the group's roster.

Meh. I did try to be reasonable and stay on topic. Oh well. 𝕴 𝕭 𝕿 𝕷

To whoever tipped the A on its head: thanks for everything.

Si?

This is going to be a rather cynical opinion, and it's not an opinion that I have because I want to, but because it's an opinion I base on reason rather than desire. Racism in mankind is unlikely to ever entirely disappear within this century, and it is unlikely that if it were to disappear, it would be permanently gone. Prejudice is deeply rooted in human nature, and it is perpetuated in ways beyond any law. Prejudice is older than our understanding of it, and even things that might appear insignificant today has been important tools of self preservation - we are wired to be less trusting of people whose accents differ from ours, because an accent is part of a communal identity; it hasn't been until the 20th century and the advent of radios, televisions and telephones that we even fully realized that it was a 'thing', and whilst we now compartmentalise people by nationality such as 'Oh the Canadians are all nice people' or 'Ah the Aussies are fun-loving and adventurous', it remains based on the fact that we simply can't process more than around 200 or so individual identities on average, after that we begin to generalise - for better or worse, and racism certainly is one of those things that are for the worse. And not only is this compartmentalisation a part of our own perception, it's also a part of our projection; we identify as 'American' or 'British' or 'Londoner' or 'Texan', and in doing so often adopt and imitate what we perceive that to be, to fit in. The globalist perspective is extremely young, and whilst the rate of technological advancement has been throttled up immensely under the past century, human evolution is lagging behind. What exactly this will amount to is hard to say, but it will probably take generations to catch up, and where will technology be by then? What are our future challenges of adaption going to be? That isn't to say that we should just give up; we need to grapple with the issues that we are faced with, but the ideal of a world where everyone is kind and generous to each other is going to struggle against some other very deep-rooted aspects of human nature; greed, aggression, grief, vengefulness, opportunism - things displayed by the protesters in this very moment.

Not as such, no. We don't really have that kind of thing here as, well, our law enforcement seldom gun down people - and whilst I obviously do not condone of it, I'm hesitant to give my 'official' (i.e. 'personal') support to any movement which I don't fully grasp. No one should have to live in fear of violence or prejudice from one's own nations law enforcement, and that this is happening in a supposedly modern nation appears rather absurd. I do however, for once, agree with Trump's sentiment of calling Antifa a terrorist organisation. Whilst I understand that they aren't really a very organized organization, anyone who willingly join a group which through violence seek to disturb the democratic process should be viewed as a potential threat, especially as they often recruit very young teens who don't understand what they are getting themselves into. Here, they've been responsible from everything from invading the homes of right-wing politicians, attacking their families, stalking their spouses and children, even putting out 'bounties' on people promising cash and knuckledusters (illegal weapons, by our laws) to anyone who 'teach them a lesson'. Protesting is one thing, and one thing that I can fully get behind. But the rioting and looting, attacking random police officers in retribution? That's simply not constructive, it's opportunistic and destructive, greedy and disrespectful of the real issue and its victims.

Saunters up to Beth with a mischievous smirk. Mm, did I ever ask you 'what in the seven Hells is wrong with you'? Anyway - another way to quickly terminate a potential friendship is to flip off one's ability to see your online status; it sort of defeats the whole purpose of having you on that list to begin with and really just is a form of ghosting, and it's so easy to spot. If you don't want to talk to me, that's entirely fine, I don't demand your full and complete attention at all times when we are both online simultaneously. Two people summarily ejected from my contact list in the last week alone for doing that. One of them I didn't speak much to to begin with. Sighs.

I don't think there is a way to do that. If they're bento you should be able to use other AOs for them though, assuming they're rigged using the wing bones properly.

... ... 😈

I used to do a lot of 'um'-ing and 'err'-ing, I'm a terrible orator and used to get really stressed out about it. Now when I speak I'm more likely to just take random pauses to compose my thoughts or find the word I'm looking for - which some people apparently find extremely annoying. Shrugs. I may have forgotten to put up the 'may contain traces of sarcasm and a weird sense of humour' sign. Sorry!

Flips you a quarter. Give me two dozen, and keep the change.

People continuously seem to misunderstand the purpose of this board; it's not about posting personal adverts, it's about sharing experiences and asking questions on the topic of how to make friends. The questions and answers are, however, spread thin across the multitude of threads that this board has, and continues, to spawn. So I thought, as an introverted, prejudiced misanthrope who, magically, has a contact list which in spite of regular grooming always has plenty of people on it, let's approach it from the other end and discuss how not to make friends. See it a bit as 'the pet peeve' thread, but focusing on socialising. Now I shouldn't have to point out that this thread, just as any other thread, is not the place for personal disputes and flaming as this is true for the entire forums - but I'll go ahead and say it anyway; if you're incapable of being in the same space as people with whom you may not fully agree with in all aspects of life, beat it. I'll start off with a peeve of mine which regards what I just mentioned, the 'personal adverts' that appear here. I have contacted quite a few people who made such threads over the years, but in the vast majority of the times I did, I found the person to be utterly unwilling to uphold even the most elementary essentials of social exchange, leaving conversational dead-ends at every response which mounts to more and more resistance to break through to connect with someone. For example: Hello there! I saw your thread on the 'Make Friends' section of the forums and thought I'd reach out. How are you doing? Hi. Everything going okay? Yeah, fine. What are you up to? Nothing much. This isn't even an exaggeration, this is how a fair amount of people actually respond to being contacted - usually even without the use of punctuation (which, to me, is a severe turn-off!). Could it be because I'm a scary man and a 'potential creep'? Perhaps in some cases, but I've tried it with Neph too and, granted, she may be scary as well, but then I don't tend to reach out to the sparkly unicorn fan club types either. Friendship, whether in Second Life or real life, isn't something you're entitled to; it's nothing people should have to serve you on a silver platter. For two people to get to know each other, there must be a mutual exchange of interest or curiosity. If you're unprepared to engage with people, advertising your wish to make friends is utterly pointless, and a waste of your time as well as that of all who respond to you. If you're feeling 'shy' when approached through a textual conversation, then I honestly couldn't tell you what's wrong with you - but rest assured, something needs looking into. P.S. This isn't a response to any recent event, thread, or any one person in particular - if you feel 'hit', don't worry; I've likely already forgotten all about you. So, what are some other ways not to make friends?

Same thing also applies the other way around, so if you want to hang a picture on the wall that's .5 x .5 meters in size and use a 1024 x 1024 image, that image will be severely compressed when viewed at a distance.