Insight Homewood

I have not visited Midsomer in quite some time. Now that I know there is a coffee house there, I am going to, the next time I log in, give it a visit. I enjoy these forums for learning what is new in the world.

While technically I have not started over I have however changed my attitude about SL. I think it happens to all of us to some degree that at first we are filled with wonder in this new world and become emotionally attached to the people of the opposite sex with whom we have become close to by sharing out lives with each other. When chatting becomes boring I visit and explore new sims. There are so many mind-blowing places in Second Life that fill me with wonder that someone has the skill and artistry to create something virtual that has a visceral impact on me. I try to stay connected with friends. I talk of things, SL, that we all can relate to. Other friendships encompass sharing of our real lives; they are and can be the most special relationships we can have in SL. For what it is worth, when I do send a hello to someone I have already been struck by something; their avatar, their title, some animation they went through or something caught my eye in their profile. Complimenting someone or saying I also agree with something they have said in their profile is one way I engage someone. I say hello in passing nearly every avatar I meet in Second Life. I do so because my first impressions of Second Life where that there were many beautiful places, but the avatars never said anything to me as they walked by. I remember the kindness of seasoned citizens when I was new. I pass it on to new citizens, sharing something with them that may make their Second Life expereince more enjoyable. I went through a phase of being a creator of things using the standard built in tools. I went through a decorating and customizing phase. Sometimes revisiting those phases will re energize me. Letting go of expectations I used to have helped me enjoy other aspects of Second Life. Good luck in your journey; Second Life, for me, is an integral part of my life; it has been a part of my life for so many years. I experience the world with the brain I have. I've become comfortable with the world as it is.

Contrary to what some have said about me, I am not against business owners in Second Life. For what it is worth business owners resist change to Second Life. For a business to survive, there has to be a thriving economy. If the sign up rate begins to be less than the drop out rate in SL, business owners will suffer do to the lack of new consumers of their products. Contrary to belief of these conservative business leaders, I believe the ability to have Display Names will tend to vitalize the consumer base which is so important to the success of business. For business owners to oppose change to SL, such as Display Names based on highly exaggerated fears, then the current sign up rate into SL will remain flat, and the drop out rate will begin to rise. So to oppose change based on unfounded fears is counter intuitive. Consider this point of view; in spite of the ability to change Display Names, this will not increase the incidence of impostors taking away or ruining the reputation of established business owners. If you fear being attacked so much, you must take your own measures to protect your products and continue to push on Lindens to implement better content protection schemes. Business competition is very alive in Second Life. There are hundreds of folks who imitate the latest clothing styles, for example. All us more-seasoned citizens remember when Bits and Bobs were the only couples dance animations around. Now there are dozens if not hundreds of dance and other animation creators in Second Life, due to the development of better creation tools to create them with and imagination of so many folks.The ambitions of others who wish the same success in selling products in Second Life as established vendors is part and parcel of of the economy in Second Life. Still do not put the cart before the horse. There are a lot of want-to-be creators and vendors starting businesses in SL, but if the economy falters, then it will be more businesses competing for a smaller consumer base. This will hurt business owners. The economy is driven by supply and demand. Keep the demand high, if you wish business success. Do not fear the changes that Display Names will wrought, but watch carefully for the effects, both positive and negative. If things turn out dour as so many of you predict, then there is a valid argument for an increase in valid AR and complaints to LL. If the effects are more positive than negative, then all business owners stand to benefit. Lastly, I do not stand alone in wanting change. I am willing to voice my opinions, as mine are as valid as anyone else's. Let us try to debate the pros and cons rather than impeaching the character of those who you don't agree with. Most people in SL are not even aware of these message boards. It only takes a cursory look at the number of unique posters on this topic versus the average population in Second Life on a typical day. I may very well represent a silent majority of folks who are interested in seeing this change implemented.

I do not discount that such things happen already. I do not discount that an impersonation can take place. I do say, it is an unfair world we live in. Those of us who get it, accept what we can, change what we can. Fro those those who can't, the world is always unfair, and what Linden Labs will roll out is unfair, only because of the potential. What I dislike is this potential problem being exaggerated as if it is going to be a major problem If you swim with sharks, you have to know how to bite and feed with them. As far as making real life money in SL, yes, a small minority depend on that income. If your income in SL is marginal for living purposes, I would say you might want to look into something with a bit more security. If you depend on SL for your life's necessities, I can understand your attitude, but I still can think that is a foolish to put your eggs into such a fragile basket. Remember the dot.com bust? Whose to say Linden Labs doesn't go belly up someday in the not too far distant future? It could happen, since there was a major corporate downsizing recently. It is the economy after all; its bad all over. You realize you can't get away from bad people. Second Life is not a shot at utopia that some folks think it is. There are few problems in SL that are not duplicated in real life. I think if you want as much protection as laws enable for real life businesses, then you have no business trying to succeed in Second Life. Life just isn't as fair as you want it to be.

Axi, I agree with most of what you say. Your arguement in the end, is a presumption I find hard to take. As I understand Second Life, very, very few people are famous grid-wide. While any sim owner with high traffic can number thousands of unique visitors weekly, of those visitors, only small percentage actually know who owns the sim, so that sim owner isn't as famous as they might think. Second Life is so vast that as I see it, there are many big fish in small ponds in Second Life. One person I can say is grid-wide famous is Craig Altman. I bet a majority of people here would not know who he is. Bits and Bobs animations is who he is. I think it is ego-bound for someone who feels well-known because they have a few hundred friends in their circles in Second Life. Since smartness and observational are characteristics that vary among a continuum in the population I would not be so concerned of that small minority at the one edge of the bell curve as so many seem to be so urgently afraid of. Another observation I have made from when I was a mentor, there are a minority of people who caused a lot of issues at welcome centers. Many experienced citizens were there to bait new folks and cause problems. It was a case of a small minority causing a very large problem. I have noticed the most griefiing occurrs where there are a lot of new folks and on sims where a lot of young (in rl age) folks congregate. I think it has something to do with all those hormones and such.

Ok, something is confusing me. New folks when they sign up, will they be able to choose a duplicate USER NAME as someone already in SL? According to one of the LL wikis I read, our user name is our account name; I assume that they will continue to be unique based on LL naming rules. Since Display Name will be distinct, what is all the ruckus about people duplicating a user name with their display name? I still think it will be quickly obvious to most citizens who have at least a few weeks in SL, that a person's display name can be anything, and won't be conned into thinking they are impersonating someone. Can someone clarify the facts here? So much of the discussion is talk about display name duplicating a user name being able to cause more griefing. Murphy's law can take affect here, as I see it, if you are taken in by a display name versus a user name, then you are not using too many brain cells.

Anita, you said this: By giving the opportunity to frequently change the name, shipholders clubowners and managers will get problems and will be griefed. If get tired of that they will leave SL..then what???? If they loose confidence in LL because of namegrieving??? I believe it will be obviously different; your User Name, will be different than the identical Display Name. For arguments sake, too many, "ifs," used dilutes your position. It is all supposition after all. I disagree that just because of having Display Names will cause more grief. I can understand the problems you have with griefers. I visited Dance Island once. It appeals to a younger, wilder crowd. I am sure griefing is more common there; it is the nature of the beat. But you cannot successfully connect Display Names with more griefing. The reason I say this is that there is a statistical minority of folks in Sl who for a myriad reasons will lash out to cause problems for others. I conclude that Display Names will do more good than harm. That is also a suppositional statement. Either one , without evidence, is valid.

Frankly, I think Display Names will make many citizens have more fun in Second Life. I do not think the vast majority will pick a name to impersonate someone. Now business owners in Second Life are the ones that are most afraid of the coming of Display Names. Most folks in Second Life are consumers, so when it gets down to it, the minority here are business owners are the ones that are most afraid of change. Change, however, is a constant, and in spite of the doom and gloom of the suppositions that many people are going to deliberately impersonate someone to ruin their name or business, I do not believe this will come true. I an hardly wait to see all the names people will start using as their Display Names. For example, at holidays in particular, say, Halloween, I bet there will be a lot of Count Drakulas walking around. Those are the positive aspects of Display Names. While there are role players who would want specific Display Names, I do think the percentage of role players is a minority in Second Life. These are my thoughts and I believe they are more likely to be the true outcome of Display Names than the predictions that it will ruin the life of a minority of people in Second Life.

Why did you give your Alt your real life name? OH, wait, you gave it the same Second Life user name. Oh dear, so does this mean your alt is going to go grief your real name? Wait, wait.. don't tell me, you think I am being sarcastic. Until the world functions for a few months with Display Names in the wild, none of us KNOW how it will be. Actually, if you do, I think Linden Labs would love to have you in their employ. I think Linden Labs experiments with changes. I would advise you to go about your business in SL and not worry so much. Worry can cause your blood pressure to rise, making Second Life less fun, and possibly shortening your real life.

Ok, folks, you are making this up. Having a DISPLAY NAME that happens to be the same as someone's USER NAME, is not, in any way, shape or form, IMPERSONATION of that avatar who has that user name. It is an assumption that someone is going to malaciously choose an existing vendor's name with the intent to ruin that person's reputation. If you are so paranoid to think this is going to be widespread and the destruction of Second Life as we know it, then get out of the game. Let's use some common sense. A new person in SL isn't going to know the reputation of someone who has been in SL a long time and is a respected vendor. Any experienced citizen of SL who may have a malacious intent will not fool anyone who knows the vendor. There are too many things going against it. The profiles will be different enough since the person with the fake Display Name, will not have the same USER NAME of that vendor. The imposter won't have the same groups, rezz date, picks and profile statements that the user has. In IM, local chat and notecard, any communication by this imposter will be obvious because their USER NAME will be different than the respected vendor's USER NAME. The argument against DISPLAY NAMES using such a scenario is so weak as to be useless. Do you people think the rest of us are so stupid that we could not tell the difference? Either you are so arrogant to dismiss the intelligence of the rest of us or are so introverted, you only see the trees in front of you and don't know you are in a forest.

@ Jack Linden Tell us please why Linden Labs doesn't just post a survey with all the citizens of SL to find out if they want a particular feature or not? This Display Names feature has created a strong negative reaction with a lot of folks. I think most people will go with the majority. Is there fear that the majority of citizenry are wrong? Is this the reason why there won't be a survey? As I see it, many citizens have voted with their feet to go to TPV for the reason that they find the added options make their Second Life more enjoyable. Most of the TPV developers added those features that they knew residents wanted. They way I see it, Viewer 2 could not have been developed with the eye toward what most people wanted in their viewer. I wonder why this is. Did the closed beta process fail? Or is this a case of, "we know what we want to do because our internal decision making process dictates it." It has been shown over and over again throughout history, that companies that lose sight of their customer base are doomed to fail. There are competitive grids out there and one may get traction based on being better-focused on what citizens want. Consider that.

@ Coby, since the load on a simulator is proportional to the number of avatars, and the amount of data that can be sent to each user quickly enough is limited, there is a natural limit that only can be fixed by a faster internet, when it gets down to it and every user having a very fast computer. Think about it this way, digital movies have much higher resolution graphics; it takes many hours to render a movie on very high end hardware. To make this world realistic as possible, with real time updates to every avatar motion, transaction, active script and clothing change to every avatar within visual range and you can get an idea that this is a difficult problem and can't be fixed on the server end or with some "better," software.

@insight I don't know about you, but i haven't met anybody in-world that actually liked the idea... maybe you just hang out with a different kind of people i dont know... I don't know what people think. That is why I think there should be a poll that Linden labs puts out. I mean if the Linden Labs people really want to know what we think, wouldn't that be the logical way to find out? Put a poll on the login page.

Why don't we vote on it, via the log on screen popup LL some times do?? Then we will see who wants what!!! This is an outstanding idea. I would add that the poll rules should be posted as well, and that it run long enough that we do get a large enough sample of the entire population. To make it fair, though, first everyone would have to be directed to a page with just the facts of the proposed change because it is my experience a lot of folks have no idea there are even blogs and web boards related to SL and don't care. If you ask around, it amazes me how many people click through the login and don't even see a notice on the login screen. When it gets down to it, no one who cares about the consensus will rely on posting on a blog or web board as it is not scientific. With further thought, Linden Labs should post a link to the facts page that a resident then has to click, "I have read the rules," then is allowed to vote. I think this would be the most impartial and reliable way to find out just what the overall citizen base thinks about the idea.

Is it not an assumption that a majority do not want this? If one bases the number of negative posts here, it is missing the fact that there are quite a few people with multiple posts. If you take the number of people who post negatively here, compared to the average number of people inworld every day, this is such a tiny percentage it is far from being even called a minority of people. It is clear to most people that those who dislike something are the most vociferous about it. Those who don't care don't post and those who are passionately for it, will post in opposition. One can't take these blog posts to be indicate that this is a majority. There is the birds of a feather affect here. People of the same mind tend to reinforce each other.

"And my anonymity and privacy are being compromised." -- Sirius Selona Um.... how? Exactly.. no one is going to be able access your account just because they have a display name. The crowd that dislike the idea are going farther and farther left to make up excuses why its a bad idea. Those who have been in SL and have their names as "important identifiers," in the bigger scheme of things you are just a big fish in a small pond. I would be shocked if most residents who have at least a few months under their belt couldn't see through a display name being such in an instant. This worry over the possibility of imposters is absolutely ludicrous. You people who seem to be so afraid that someone can make their display name the same as you and successfully ruin your reputation are so unlikely it is laughable. Are you all so paranoid to think people are out to get you? To thine own self be true. Why are you so concerned about what others think about you? Having a reputation is a very slippery slope and a fragile playing field. I do think you all should step back and think about the big picture here. Sign ups to Second Life are flat. If the population is not growing, what can be done to increase it? You people in here are often blaming Linden labs for not taking care of you. Get over it. Instead of it being all about me and my reputation to maintain, and my abject fear that some imposter is going to walk around with my name and ruin my reputation, think about how we can make this a better community for new folks. For when it gets down to the bottom line, the best way to grow a business is to have a lot of new folks coming in who see all of the seasoned residents so well skinned, haired, AO'd and dressed. Those new folks will want to fit in and they will be buying your stuff. It is pretty sad if your ego is so bound up with success in Second Life that you fear for it.

I suspect display names are a compromise that allows existing citizens a choice to use the name they wanted to in the first place, and it will allow new folks to just put in the name they want to. I see no reason why it should be a complete revamp of allowing citizens to just change their names. But just allowing people to change their names would be easier to implement and less disruptive, and would actually allow people to use the name they want - Display names won't do that, because the old user name will always be there. But to change user name would cause the same confusion, open up opportunities for griefing and break so many scripts in a more direct way than using a Dispaly Name. How would you handle objects created with your old name when you find out that with your new name, you no longer own it? The very arguments so many here use against Display Names applies even more so to User Name changes. Think about that.

daft sod And this contributed in what way? A simple derogatory comment? No commentary in opposition. It is a reflection that this whole thread is dominated by lack of critical thinking and is saturated with emotionally-driven posts.

But just allowing people to change their names would be easier to implement and less disruptive, and would actually allow people to use the name they want - Display names won't do that, because the old user name will always be there. User Name is a legacy way of doing things, once Display Name is implemented. You are missing the point altogether. The vast majority of posts I am reading here do not want to see this change. Of that vast majority, they are all seasoned residents who don't give a darn about growing the world. It is, as I see it, selfish self-interest in protecting your "business," and a myopic view that SL should cater toward your needs because you "drive the economy." If it weren't for consumers buying the content, there would be no economy and there are a large percentage of SL being users, not content creators or business people. Display Names will also encourage new people to take the plunge. I am sure you don't know the statistics of the number of poeple who bail out of the registration process. I sure would like to know the facts. I would like to know a lot of facts. What I don't like to see is all the knee jerk, emotionally-driven commentary that the sky is falling due to this change. It is amazing to me that so many creators are so narrow minded and self interested that they can't see for the life of them, the big picture. Looking from the top down, in any organization is different than looking from the bottom up. Those few times in history when a little guy has been able to do thing they way he wanted (because being in the trenches, he knew how things really ran, we had a world war). So try to understand that I can have a different point of view, and am not stupid, or blind, or ignoring your concerns. Your way is not the only way. I am speaking in general here, not to you in particular. If the shoe fits, however. You have no idea if implementing this idea will be disruptive; admit it to yourself, it is only your opinion.

As I read these responses, I get a distinct impression that those who don't want change is because they think it will change the "identity," of the citizen using it. I remember, when I first signed up, I thought it was stupid that I had to choose from a list of last names when for every other web presence I have I was free to choose a complete first name/last name title. I chose a last name without going through the entire list of choices as I was eager to get the sign up stage over with so I could see what this "Second Life," was about. Having a name does not create my identity. It is a label that identifies an avatar that represents me. I think display names will give me the opportunity to display a name that I would have chosen in the first place, if I had had the choice. I also see Unicode giving other folks from around the world that do not use the simple alphabet Americans use. Whether it be German, or Chinese or any other regional name, it gives more freedom to Second Life Citizens to choose the label they wish. Those who do not like the idea find justifications for their stance and use dire predictions of chaos and failure if the system is implemented against their wishes. I do not see Display Names causing confusion. Plain statement. I suspect display names are a compromise that allows existing citizens a choice to use the name they wanted to in the first place, and it will allow new folks to just put in the name they want to. I see no reason why it should be a complete revamp of allowing citizens to just change their names. I disagree with, "too little, too late philosophy because it is, as I see it, a change that has been desired for a long time and a lot of people tried to come up with some solution that would work. Display Names became that solution. I think it is worth giving it a try. Especially if you don't think it is a good idea. All the theorizing in the world means little; The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I do not concern myself with privacy issues, ala, someone culling names and such from Facebook. Our registration information is not on a web page accessible like Facebook is.It comparing apples to oranges; it doesn't fit. As far as someone wanting to use their real name in Second Life, that is a personal choice.

Zorin, your opinion is your own, but please don't generalize it as we are all different. For those who do not like to choose from a last name list, this in no way, shape or form, means they are lazy; and I dislike that generalization. You have your valid point of view; you do not want to see things change, for your reasons. I have my point of view and I do want to see things change; I am certainly not lazy for wanting it so.