om Piers

QFT

Hello Phoebe I am well acquainted with real life facts and consequently, my thoughts are in line with yours. LL is taking a gamble and I think there is a very good chance that they are wrong, at least with SL and current viewers (even viewer 2) as they exist now. But they ARE taking the gamble ... they ARE going to try to reach that 500+ million audience of Facebook users (or users like them), the ones that like updating their statuses 50 times a day through their iPhone or iPad, the ones that are addicted to Farmville mindless games, the ones that friend everything that moves. They may even have a stripped down phone app viewer thing in development behind closed doors ... now ... as we speak. I think that it is quite possible that LL may find themselves in the same situation that your old ISP found itself. But LL obviously does not see it the same way. And, that is what matters ... how LL sees it.

I agree. Voting isn't on the table. My "It would be interesting ... " comment was not meant to imply that I believe otherwise. I also agree with the the basics of the rest of your comments, though I do not have the financial and emotional investment in the outcome that others do. I have my preferences (no confusion, no clutter, no imposter issues, etc.) and have voiced them. If the changes take away the fun I have, I won't experience a loss, I won't be angry or upset, I just won't play.

It would be interesting to see the result of such a vote. Come on LL, lets take a real vote and see if your customers really want this feature. But ... which customers? The 1 to 2 million current SL users? Or the potentional 500+ million typical facebook users LL is gearing up to court? I doubt that LL wants to loose it's current users, but if it comes down to 2 million versus 500+ million ...

Agreed. Aside from that, premium membership is about 70 USD a year. Out of that, the premium member gets back all but about 5 USD in perks (512 m parcel, 1000 L bonus, 300 L per week). What should really be expected in return for 5 USD? For FAR less complicated software than SL it is common to pay in excess of 100 USD for 'premium' type subscriptions. As long as products always include the user name, as long as payments can always be tracked back to the user name, and as long as ARs will NOT result in banning until evidence tied to the user name is investigated, then the security issue is fully addressed, even for merchants. I am concerned about that last one and whether LL has any intention of being that thorough. I do agree with others that display names that are CHANGEABLE will increase the level of confusion, especially for new residents but for me too. I'm too old to remember that Harry was George was Tom was joey312334. With the introduction of a separate changeable display name, I'm going to have to remember both a user name and a string of everchanging display names. I would much prefer the display name for a given avatar not be changeable. I would be less concerned about whether they have the same name as me, if the first display name they choose is the only one I have to remember over the long-term. As others have suggested, a titler attachment seems more appropriate for those that want to change names frequently ... or an alt for that matter.

I am also wondering why. If the user name is still going to be the only valid id that is used for tracking ... what you build, what you say ... What additional value do the Display Names provide that you couldn't get from one of those titler objects? If I am in a class and want to display my real name along with the other students ... why do you need more than a titler object?

Just curious about something. What will conversations be like once this feature is implemented across the board? People who hate the whole idea will have the feature disabled, some people will have it disabled by mistake, and people who love the idea may not wish to answer to their user name. Say, for example you have 10 avatars at a cafe. Of those, 5 have the feature disabled. The other five keep talking about the crazy things that "Joan" is saying. The first five, looking around and seeing no "Joan", figure she's not rezzed in yet, or there's a crazy chat lag going on. The possibilities of how this will change SL culture reminds me of the continuing discussions and strong opposing emotions that revolve around voice chat.