Hymn Celestia

I don't like that there are pictures of avatars with names clearly visible in this thread. At least one of those avatars has a business title; and they are all clothed; how exactly are they hurting anybody in this world? In one of the pictures, it is perfectly easy to verify their purpose and/or passion (alt and/or regular account) is Tiny Empires, a HUD game that a person pays good money to play and which requires the recruitment of and daily conversations with real people in order to get anywhere in the game. This is not to advocate for TE but to advocate, rather, for the legit human social activity behind these avatars represented (without their consent or the consent of the humans-in-charge) in at least one of these pictures. This bot-or-NPC-apartheid discussion has already dehumanized the person-or-people behind the accounts of those avatars represented in those photos. No good can come of that.

This alone COULD POSSIBLY cause a large majority of people who deploy NPCs in world... It is possible, not absolute.

I miss my friend Patience from so, so, so, so long ago

It is possible -- it is not out of the realm of possibility -- that at different times of day this result changes considerably. It is possible that your experience at one time on one day is not the only way this plays out. I do take your point; I think I arrive at it with a different set of expectations though. If I go to Dullahan Manor it's not to see the dots; it's to see the Manor. I agree with you that it's possibly a dots game; I suppose I just fail to see the emergency of it. This isn't a thing that is going to make or break user retention, in my opinion.

This is the kind of condition that invites "gaming the system," though.

says who? Gross generalization.

Right off the bat, argument invalid. Gross generalization.

The Waze driving app has that feature. You can be whoever you want as you drive along, your own emoji clearly different from the others on the road. That could be an adorable perq for the Premium Plus Plus Double-Ploos subscription maybe.

People want wanted emojis I was referring only to the unwanted emojis from the OP.

THIS made me swap to a Fantasy Home ❤️

Whether or not there is any merit to the idea, the argument has been invalidated by so much gross generalization. Chapter 1, inaccurate presentation of the product -- I disagree, because my experience of the product is actually exactly as advertised, and if there's me there will be others. Chapter 2, again, I disagree, because my experience has nothing in common with "grady vukovic" or whoever else complains "there are no people, it's boring, there's nothing to do, everything is fake." My experience is there are a great many people in a great many places wanting a great variety of different experiences in a great variety of different languages, and because I know that, I think "it's not us, it's you who can't find the party." In Chapter 3, an idea for a different colour on the map makes me think this entire post can be reduced to a one sentence suggestion with a one sentence proposed benefit up for debate. That would be a good debate, imho. Because when you generalize, otherwise, about the experience of Second Life users in the way you did in chapters 1 and 2, you lose a lot of support and gain a lot of unwanted emojis.

I really miss Slink and being able to wear my Physique body as effortlessly as other newers.

oh jeepers yes please.

for me it's by creator, then by area, then by little bits. i spend 60% of my online time sorting inventory, 30% decorating or landscaping, and 10% taking pictures of it all to feel all warm and happy about the new "virtual happy place"

To add to your peeve without augmenting the peeve: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. used "Wrang Wrang" as the terminology for those who steered one in the opposite direction of the bad example presented to one, in the book "Cat's Cradle." I'd have been peeved if I'd have let the opportunity to invoke "Cat's Cradle" pass me by, so now I don't have to be peeved, and for that (hopefully small) indulgence I thank you.

Definitely contact the creator directly explaining that you've been in touch with the CSR for over a month with no satisfaction. There are creators in SL that are super friendly and eager to help, even the really big famous ones, when things go wrong. Sometimes that's why they're so big and famous; they do things right and make good on their promises. Whenever I have been in this situation (and it is very common; things go wrong in the world) I've received more than I bargained for in thanks for my patience. Also if the brand has a group-chat you can ask if anybody else has had this problem in the group chat to see just how big the problem really is; and if the owner of the group chat is paying attention then that might help things move along a little faster. Respectfully of course, always.

It would be too much realism -- and I hope hair creators never get to a point where they do this -- to offer hair that grows.

Area search by creator-name or by objects a certain distance from you would be the way I'd go, but only after I'd tried to edit-drag the cursor all around me to capture as many rezzed objects as possible for me to zoom in and examine properly. I would also go to a sandbox quite likely, if it were me, because I'm curious this way, and do the same thing all over again; rez the full object and then unlink it, and then capture it all in a click-drag edit screen to see exactly how many discrete objects there are to the thing in total and if they all have the same creator name. It would give me a better indication of what to look for in the Area Search back home.

My Second Life today, birdwatching over the water

Intellectually I find the idea irritating; and emotionally I find the idea confusing. Ultimately I don't like the idea. That said, I probably wouldn't give it more than a moment's thought, and then I'd forget about it entirely.

Probably as you'd expect, yeah.

" If a viewer is not MFA Capable yet, then those accounts will no longer be able to log into Second Life using that viewer. " It sounds like this is a compliance requirement for 3rd party viewers, rather than a requirement for the user to activate MFA. Is that still "oh crap"?

The "I Survived the Cornfield" support group. The first rule of ISC is we never ask "What cornfield?" whenever Patch is around.

The thing I like about attending a virtual support group is that it is always an "opt-in" experience. The opt-in philosophy is something I believe in strongly; it means you can participate or not, and it is always your choice to do so, never forced upon you or required. Sharing as much or as little as one wishes to is part of recovering one's feeling of personal power. Without yucking anybody else's yum, there are some good support groups in SL; of course there are also shady places -- just like there are shady places in First Life and shady practitioners with fake certificates and who knows what else. But the idea is for a person to opt-in to where they feel comfortable and get the support they need, whatever that looks like -- even if it's just sitting quietly in the corner and listening for an hour while other people farther along the path share their experiences with such-and-such and reveal "hey this didn't kill me, after all, and I'm better for it; maybe also you'll be fine." Sharing an experience of gallbladder operation recovery or grief over a pet dying or PTSD after a plane crash or whatever else... doesn't have to involve names and social security numbers. It just has to be about people talking to people about something they know a little something about. Making the world a less-scary place for another human being. It's a nice thing to do to contribute to a support group and make the world a little less scary for someone else. Especially if nobody's ever done it for you in the past. Lighting the way for others is something to feel good about, at the end of the day.

Exactly. I'm surprised -- but actually relieved and delighted too -- that nobody thinks of chemotherapy and cancer patients immediately when the idea of "support groups" comes up, especially given the prevalence of RFL in Second Life. When a person takes chemo, or radiation, or is treated for the sundry cancers generally, in my country one of the first things a doctor will recommend is to join a support group of other people going through it too. It doesn't (necessarily) require psychotherapy; but it does require support. "We're going through it too, you can come talk with us." And the support groups I have found most helpful have been in fact the ones that were virtual; the ones that were type-chat, or message-board chat, or Second Life chat. It seems like a no-brainer for me to cheer for virtual support groups but perhaps (and I really hope) that's indicative of the general good health of the rest of this thread, which is fantastic