Serena Voxel

Prefacing this right off the starting line: this post isn't about or taking issue with anyone in specific or particular, nor is it going to bother focusing on the inherently and agreeably justifiable problems with "*****" or even those who practice it. The posts on those latter issues specifically are a haypenny-a-Linden-Dollar, and are already being handled. There're other issues needing addressing, or at least need considered addressing, as well. This may come as a shock to some, might not to others, but there's an underlying issue that's been present in SecondLife culture and design since it's inception it seems, and continuing to let it be a problem isn't helping matters. If you'd like a "Too Long, Didn't Read" synopsis, I'll put that at the bottom of this post, though I'd appreciate it if people read the post in full for context. Anyways, what's the issue? Is it avatar height in general? Is it how accentuated your avatar's bits and bobs are (or aren't)? Is it how the world's scaling is handled overall? Is there a stigma towards anything previously mentioned? In my opinion, and I'm sure others who feel the same, it's a mishmashed combination of a lot of these things. I'm not at all discriminating upon the former two items in that list (height and bitbob sizes), nor do I want to. There're ways to know when those are getting into problematic areas or not, so nothing needing defined here. Let people be people, within fairness and reason, of course. But the latter two (scaling and the stigma), let's look at those for now. For starters, default scaling of avatars and the environment they are put into. Before we get into this, know that we now have tools in-world that can accurately-enough measure the heights and sizes of both avatars and objects. Tools like this are useful, and people do use them... It's not a requirement to use them, but knowing they exist as an option is neat. They didn't have that stuff in the old days. Anyways... From a reasonable old timer or even a fresh newer user's perspective, avatars may preferably (in some cases) be sized with consideration of on-average, real-world measurements. A sort of reference to work from, if you will. (Yes, I know I said "scaling" and that the next paragraph is about "height" but patience is a virtue, as this bit helps tie into that later.) Realistic Humanoid Height (or RHH going forward), as far as the average adult is concerned, seems to run the gamut of 156 cm to 177 cm, or 5'1" to 5'9" . There are obviously real exceptions to these averages, an example usable here is a famous basketball player (no names dropped, big guy!) having being 216 cm, or 7'1" . The current (virtual) reality is that, surprisingly, most avatars are on average designed, shaped, and heighted at and beyond the given extreme realistic example. Most content and sizing is done with the "over-212.5 cm" avatars in mind. There are also groups of people using the aforementioned RHH to make their builds and avatars feel more comfortable to work with. Both are fine in my honest opinion. I'm not even saying this is a problem, either. If people want to be built tall or strong (or both!) like a big-time b-ball player, have at it. Same goes for your average-sized adventuring adult exploring locales of virtually (or artificially) ancient (or other thematic) varieties. Gotta get out there and experience the world, maybe even tussle with some virtual dinos, or go for a picturesque swimming session while you're at it. All in good fun! From a builder's perspective, and considering the former scenario of RHH scaling, most buildings and objects would tend to be sized realistically or at least with some resemblance to what they're depicting. At the very least, the build tools in-world make use of metric units, an actual global standard, meaning it'd be easy to size things appropriately to work with these numbers. The current (virtual) reality is that scaling of objects, more often than not, tend to be scaled up to 2x, 3x, or even more times their original size, in order to take into account for the non-RHH avatars that are a more common. This in turn puts some stress on builders and content creators as well as some end-users of said content, because depending on their use case, they may have to resize the objects in question, and sometimes that isn't easy or an option. The latter may involve objects that are no-copy and/or no-modify, which are stuck at their purchased / acquired size and shape no matter what. Again, I'm not saying this is a problem, because hey, maybe someone would like to have a comically-oversized everyday object (like a peach!) as a funny piece of furnishing, or maybe drive around their town in a vehicle of clown-car proportions. Have at that, too. Some people keep it real, as well. Nothing wrong with that, either. So, how is any of that possibly problematic? Think for a moment about what I said earlier, about stigma. When something is built up to and seen as "the believable and acceptable norm", some of those following this thinking sometimes go astray and also build up the stigmatic belief that all outside the supposedly defined norms isn't exactly how to go about things, and others within the astrayed group will (wrongfully) go out of their way to harass and harm those said non-conformants, regardless of the situational context. This occurs in many things, be it mental health, hobbies, interests, clothing and art styles, you get the idea. Others still would rather have the "norms" be broken entirely, or at least bent into a much different shape than they are already in, instead of getting themselves bent out of shape to conform to it. There are instigators on that side as well, but perhaps they're also doing some things wrong, as well... Not my place or desire to say. Now, to consider how this stigma is and has been built up into SL over the past decade or more. Most avatars and objects are sized up and built in such a way not only because Residents are afraid to be mistaken for childish behavior and appearance, but also because being over 212.5 cm and having matchingly sized furnishings and objects is often seen as a "rule of thumb" to go by. This in turn leads users (some old-timers having been here for ages, some fresh off the boat to the lands of opportunity composing Second Life), to believe "everyone's super-tall, all the objects are huge, anything below these numbers and sizes isn't right." There's those on the other side of the spectrum, too, where it's said, "Hark! There's much too many Amazons in this Jungle! We must retreat!", usually a sentiment seen from the people using RHH or other scalars for their builds. The latter sometimes involves people (or even a large group of people) reclusing themselves and/or their group further off the map, gatekeeping out those that they feel don't understand or would otherwise want to cause harm, all the while making more and more isolated pockets of people in-world... Now, put the content of these two paragraphs together, and consider another thing: the end-users who are using RHH as a common meter for their builds and avatars, instead of choosing to focus on what on the surface appears to be an established overall sizing bias that exists for some reason or another (yet isn't exactly the underlying issue in my opinion, more on that later). These Residents who use RHH to craft their content and create their avatars tend to get bullied because they are, for brevity's sake, "too short" compared to the average populace, even when using the the higher range of said height and scaling gamut. It's unfair on the formerly mentioned people just being people (again, within fair reasoning), and always wrong for anyone to bully or harass anyone. Sometimes even the inverse happens (the shorter folks pestering the taller folks), perhaps not as common, but also not morally or legitimately correct in the least. Truth is, Second Life takes all kinds, a variety of peoples, places, things.. It's a sum of its parts. An insurmountable, difficult-to-gauge amount of parts, of all shapes, sizes, forms, everything. Most come here, to Second Life, to have a sort of vacation, an escape from the troubles and fears they experience IRL, to have fun, to socialize, to dress up, to shop, to explore, to do all sorts of things. They come here to live and enjoy their biggest dreams. As long as the things are all done within legally-acceptable reasoning, we shouldn't be at eachother's throats, fighting eachother, disrupting people, or even making things difficult for ourselves or other Residents. We should get along and, if we can, help eachother where possible. We should show respect wherever and whenever possible, at all times even, and if someone isn't on board with that idea and causing trouble, handle them appropriately. Side-note: A theory as to why a sizing bias exists could be, given the span of time that SL has been a thing, things have changed and developed since it's conception. We have tools and things now that would have been heaps of use back in the day... Example, I've been around on SL long enough to remember the days when you had to script up a gadget to get an accurate-ish height reading on your avatar. Nowadays you can see a general amount of that info in the Avatar Shape editor. Might not be super-accurate for everyone's case, but it's appreciated. There's even things that aren't part of the program these days, which I don't mind missing out on (deformable ground-level terrain with objects and explosions in and out of combat sims, for example, that must have been a time and a half. Much older, longtime friends of mine told me about this one.) Anyways, back then, things were sized and handled differently all over the place, and because it was early on, things weren't as understood as they are now. Eventually the things evened out, mostly in the direction of "larger scales = better". Not exactly a proven truth, but that's beside the point. Point being in that last paragraph: We now have the tools and means to build and create and make things more accurate (or inaccurate) as we want (again, within reason!) than ever before. We have the ability to enjoy SL more than when I signed up nearly 17 years ago, and definitely more than how things were even further before then. Imagine a time where there was no animesh, no avatar body physics, no uploadable mesh, no sculpties, and the "Teen Grid" was an actual thing. Now imagine having been a member of Second Life at such a time, and being someone still wishing to enjoy it in the modern day. I want to see it continue to flourish and grow more, not become a bunch of deeply isolated communities afraid to interact with eachother out of fear that their otherwise reasonable and valid avatar design choices would upset people believing this or that about their appearance into saying, "you're doing it wrong!". What do I propose? Well, I'm definitely not saying or even suggesting anyone has to change their avatars or builds or how they create things. That's not my place to decide, nor my intention to say or do or even pursue, at all. What would be commendable is, instead of focusing soley and entirely on cleaning up the childish messes from earlier, maybe educate people even further. Not just on how that the aforementioned childish behavior is not and should not be allowed (mostly and especially in adult contexts), but also consider fostering and building understanding and respect between Residents using Realistic Humanoid Heights, those using the current "standardized" sizing of avatars and objects, pretty much EVERYONE at that rate. Perhaps in time, and with enough positive reinforcement and education, EVERYONE will have a better understanding of what's reasonable behavior, and what isn't acceptable. At least that way, those who refuse to be informed or understand (or furthermore chose be disrespectful and hurtful about it) will be in a clearer spot to learn from and adapt to things appropriately. It works many ways, honestly. Basically, people shouldn't have to be afraid to go out and about using realisticly-adult-heighted and/or realistically-adult-proportioned avatars and objects, nor should they discriminate and harass those outside their sizing brackets. Likewise, neither should people with unrealistically-heighted and/or unrealistically-proportioned avatars and object preferences be afraid to be what they want to be, nor should they discriminate and pick on anyone outside of their size, either. Be respectful, be considerate, let people be people (within fairness and reason, of course!). Get along, do things right, and we can all enjoy our Second Lives. That's the intention, and the goal! That last paragraph takes precedence over everything before it, pretty much. If anything said earlier seemed off-putting, said paragraph sets forth how I really feel. Now for the "Too Long, Didn't Read" blurb! "Average" Avatar and Object Scaling may seem to be skewed towards the "bigger is better" direction, having some basis in a variety of historical, technical, and in-world cultural factors. Regardless of the how's and why's... While it's not necessary to change our outwardly in-world appearance (so long as it's already within reason and adhering to the rules) or the size of our objects and creations (within same reasonings)... We could ALL do with being thoroughly educated and properly informed into better understanding and better respecting that using realisticly-based heights, proportions, and scaling is just as valid as having unrealisticly-based sizing and forming of the same stuff be a thing, as well, vice-versa withstanding. In turn, we could theoretically lessen the possibility of communities feeling fearful and isolating themselves further, while making it clearer for all what's appropriate and what's not. Be respectful, don't be a pain, and handle things appropriately if they don't work out right. Clearing up (or at least easing up) stigma that either/or is "wrong", for either direction, would work wonders. One more thing! Maybe, just maybe... Don't let a specific avatar styling be the sole-definer of a person or their intentions, either. Not just a thing for LL to consider, but the average SL Residents, too. Just my L$2 here... Anime folks, Furries, Elves, Default Avatars, Bodybuilders, Inanimate Objects, Airships.. Anything and Anyone! As long as they're presented within fair reasoning, aren't blowing holes in the ol' ToS ship, and don't literally and user-intentionally look like and/or behave like a youngster being used in wrongful contexts, things should be fine and dandy, in my honest opinion. It's all a lot to ask, a massive amount to hope for, but please, consider it. Most importantly, we must get along, do things right, enjoy our Second Lives, and of course, never harass, abuse, or even insult others. Sorry for the massive wall of text. I've been up since at least 2AM Eastern Time typing this up, so it's had a LOT of heart and thought put into it. Hopefully it makes some sense to somone out there. Even if it doesn't, at least I vented my thoughts somehow. Thank you for reading at any rate. Have an awesome weekend, everyone, and remember to do your best in all that you do! ♥~SV~♥

Theresa and Alwin are both right, next time I'll have to be more tactful. If people like that barge in again, I'll follow Alwin's advice first, then instead of stepping outside, I'll disable the the "see-in / see-out" function on the parcel so I can report them -without- stepping anywhere. Puzzling problems require a cool head, and clever, tactful solutions. Thank you all. ♥

The Truth, you do speak it. Thank you for being kind and helpful about the matter.

Thanks. Done did. Hopefully the reports I sent will do some justice... I don't see why anyone would go out of their way to bother me, though, honestly. I don't bother anyone. Anyways, what a way to close out Christmas day. I'll try to make it better by finding something else to do.

Thanks. I'll get right to it. Lemme just close this topic, maaaybe even delete it if I can figure out how.

Earlier today, I was relaxing at my Premium Linden Home, and was rudely interrupted by some very offensive people. First, they enter my home, then the repeatedly knocked on my doors, and then tried to harass me further when I stepped outside to confront them and warn them. I promptly blocked them, but they seem to have continued to harass me even after ejecting and banning them from my parcel. I am attaching a link of a video and of a picture of proof of their harassment. At the moment, they are camped around my home, as if they're targeting me. The users were... [REDACTED.] I would very much appreciate it if someone could direct me to where I could make a proper abuse report, and possibly take further action. Thank you for reading. And yes, I already reported them in-world.