[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Dear all,

May I recommend reading http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2010/09/13/changes-to-display-names-based-on-your-feedback shown at the start of this page as Display Name FAQs as this does acknowledge many of the complaints and causes of concern/anger being raised and expressed here.

I see a flaw in one of the remedies suggested. One must look at the original idea... This was to separate the login information from the displayed name to make it a lot easier for new residents to sign up (apparently some are put off by having to decide on or find a name that is not taken at the initial sign up stage, which is understandable). It was also to allow resident's names to be in the language of the resident as SL is used world-wide, I'm in the UK and my partner in Israel for instance, and those in France and Germany for instance will under this new scheme be able to use accented characters where they were not in the login name (yes, like me you are probably wondering "why didn't LL allow unicode characters in the login to solve this original problem" but then spotting an accent on a character in a person's name means you've got to type it if you want to talk to them, so there are practical reasons for not doing this).

The proposed fix for the main concerns of impersonation in commerce, and impersonation in resident interaction, will be to display the login name alongside the display name (if the two are different) in all the places that it matters, e.g. commerce, chat, reporting etc.

I think we appear to be having more of a reaction to our names not being unique in-world, but anyone who has searched for their own name on Google will be amazed at how many people on the planet (that Google is aware of) have the same name. We cope with it in RL because there is no choice. We can't be the only one with that "display name" no matter how inventive our parents are so we have other means to identify us individually such as National Insurance/Social Security number etc.

I think that having unique display names was very "comfortable" but it was ultimately to the detriment of SL and its newcomers (who would lose out to the "best" names being used by older residents) so one can see -why- this idea of display names occurred. As to how successful it is, well that's another issue of course. In RL one has to apply to change one's name officially, but anyone can take any alias they like, and like the ones in SL the "griefers" in RL will take whatever name suits their nefarious needs without the permission of those that they impersonate. Griefers are my main concern (in RL as well as SL) as they make SL unpleasant for everyone. Ensuring that the login name is seen when needed (without having to look in profiles etc) would address most comments here.

SL is still miles ahead (kilometers if you are metric) of the rivals in what it has achieved. Like many here I really cringe sometimes at the bugs in Viewer 2 (ever tried creating a landmark? Nice that the save button is disabled!) but they'll be fixed eventually. I can't imagine LL not wanting to make it great for everyone but I do think they have different ideas of what is important so we'll have to keep nagging to get things done in the right order.

My appended nags: I find the colours don't suit my eyes (the contrast is too great between text and the background as I have eyes that are very colour and luminance sensitive, i.e they work properly!). I have asked from day 1 for skinning in Viewer 2 and I'm asking again because this is the only thing that continually spoils SL for me. Oh yes, and can you please stop the local chat window going semi-transparent when focus is lost. Focus is lost whenever one types in the text box for local chat rendering the chat unreadable if against a bright background!!! It's because LL have treated local chat differently from IM. A bad move.

I hope that my comments are helpful/interesting/reasoned.

[Viewer 2.3 Launches with Display Names]

Comes with a whole new set of bugs... like the wrong and completely different resident name showing up in the IM window, but when copy pasting the conversation it shows the real name, and I have not set my name to be Grumpity either LL although I could be pursuaded providing the resident that owns this name doesn't mind me using it in a negative context....

Grrrrrr...

 

lol