Gopi Passiflora

Yeah, I confess I was trying to troll him. But like Persephone said, it was also somewhat of an experiment too. I guess I'm just too vindictive, I admit....

Just wanted to share this exchange (and rebuttal) with a person I had today while we're on the subject of unsolicited IMs. I hope posting this is acceptable in the forum, but if not please remove. Names are taken out to respect privacy. Posted it here instead of making a new topic on it. I'm personally proud of it. Context: My Woman avatar was at Social Island 10. This guy out of nowhere IMs me with a "wassup". I politely try to ask him what he needs help with, and he says he just wants a convo. I tell him I (or at least while I'm in my woman avi) prefer chatting in local. He then says alright and then I don't hear from him anymore. Trying to confirm his true intentions, I log in as my male character and IM him.

(This follows directly from my topic about frustration with strangers' IMs. But this is NOT a complaint topic, but rather a retelling of a positive emotional surge I got after playing Second Life.) A few days ago I was playing as one of my woman characters at Social Island 10 and a small non-human animal monster avatar came in the region. There was not much conversation going on except between another woman avi and a suspected bot (who was a little robot). The small avi started chatting in local asking random questions, presumably in a joking manner. I made a small quip about the female avi's little test to determine if the bot was really human or not. I then hear a familiar "ding ding" and found an IM from the animal monster that came in. He started asking me a random question about golf and how it made me feel. Naturally, I got frustrated because he opted to IM me when he was clearly capable of talking to me in local chat. I asked he why he IMed me and he basically said that he wanted to. He then asked me how it made me feel. At that point I realized he was just trolling me and so I ended the conversation after saying a few words. I then decided that I would teach him a lesson about IMing people like that and trolling me. I logged in as one of my man characters , looked up the animal avi's name, and sent him an IM. I opened up with a "Hi", and to my surprise he answered back. He said "what's up?" I told him that I heard about him from social island 10. He immediately knew what I was talking about and first said "not to listen to the people there" because of his history with them. I answer with a simple OK, then followed up by asking "are people really toxic there?" He said that people are just annoying, but nothing more. He "ruffled a few feathers" there but assured me that it was just in good fun. I decided to let him go afterwards. Later on, as I logged into the original woman character I played as earlier, I saw she got another IM from the animal avi that came while the woman character was logged off. He basically said he "sincerely apologizes" from any undue emotional distress I suffered because of his actions. At first I thought he was being sarcastic, but I decide to reply and accept his apology, but also telling him just to chat with me in local next time. After I logged off from Second Life, I talked to my mom and discussed my feelings about life in general. I then recounted the experience to my mom. As I did...I got an emotional surge and started crying for some reason. I realized that the Second Life user's apology could be indeed sincere, and it made me feel...rather sentimental. (Can't think of the right word as I type this.) I asked myself, why would I be feeling like this? Why would I cry tears...tears of happiness? Tears of...gratitude? I guess it's because I rarely encounter sincere apologies in my life, especially from bullies and other mean people. I also think that sincere apologies are just rare in the world in general. Maybe at that moment, it felt special to me. I could've worded my experiences about my positive emotional surge better, but I just wanted to share. And I assure you I'm not trolling, I really felt this.

A few recent responses in this topic are enlightening, and while it's cliche for me to say this, I apologize for complaining about the IMs. While I find it is still frustrating to get them out of the blue, I also sometimes don't think about what the other person feels and care only about my self-interest. Again, I was selfish without thinking about it.

I totally agree. I guess it's not just a matter of being a woman avatar. there are indeed other factors. That is quite a thorough way to test it! And you're right about the second part, I shouldn't have labeled it as "bait". Again, I said it impulsively.

I guess I am, based on your and others' responses . I apologize. I guess when I get frustrated I can say stuff impulsively....

Yeah, I totally agree. I'm not placing any fault on the woman avis, I apologize if my OP seems like that. Your second part is a good answer!

On some money droppers, they're basically portrayed as green paper money of some kind.

Yes, it's me again, with the topics that everyone hates. But try to forgive me, because it came to my mind again after recent experiences that happen time and time again. And I just want to vent, is all. I will just say this: Woman avatars are basically "IM bait". If you have a woman avatar, you'll get way more IMs from strangers than other kinds of avatars will. I'm not saying this to disparage anyone who has a woman avatar; I have one too and I like them. But this is just an observation I see time and time again while I'm playing as those avatars.

I think it helped me see more clearly on things in real life. I think it helped me to be somewhat more compassionate toward girls and women and some (admittedly, not all) of the struggles they go through in life. I was able to learn some of this playing as a female human avatar. Aside from learning things, I think my female human avatars somewhat make up for the lack of female companionship in my life, so I don't feel as pressured to find a date as before I joined SL and other virtual worlds. But in turn they also helped me to learn about women's struggles.

Those can be possibilities, I agree. I apologize if I posted this topic again, it juts came to mind again and there seems to be more limits on what we can talk about....

Then that's good!

I'm a straight male in real life but I often use female avatars. I don't act that different as my female avis or even try to do so. However, if people want to know my real gender I do not reveal it, I just say my avi's gender - female. People usually don't suspect I'm male in real life (or they don't comment), so I guess I'm good at it?

This is what I got so far in one of my parcels - I'll add more stuff and fix the scene as the month progresses:

What are some peculiar "characters" you've seen in Second Life? By "characters" I mean other users. (Don't name the exact people of course, just describe them and what's odd about them.) I sometimes visit Ahern, and there's quite a few wacky characters there. One is this guy that stays afloat and never seems to move or disappear - although he does chat from time to time. Another is this little penguin dude who appears from time to time and just hides behind the railing thing, seeming unnoticeable and never contributing to chat. And on this area and Social Island 10, you see some people that are always there and never leave. Interesting characters, I must say.

That's a great tune, too! I also liked your ZZ Top songs as well!

@Scylla Rhiadra That's a pretty good tune! Thanks everyone for your input!

Hehe...of course!

Thanks for the offer...I appreciate it! I guess what I'm looking for is upbeat rock music. There are some guitar riffs that remind me of the "glamorous" lifestyle I hinted at in the original post.

Just like exploring themes I guess...that's fine, though.

LMFAO does sound Dudebro-ish I suppose. I'll look into Betty.

I'm thinking something that reminds you of hot girls, fast cars, sports, and other things guys like....

I answered the survey, although my answers can be a bit half-hearted. I hope they are appropriate for your study and above all else, good luck with the paper!

Things like balloons popping, thunder, dog barking, fireworks, etc.? I'll admit I don't like loud noises very much and I'm sensitive to them. I love music, though.

Horny men. (Myself included.)