Siwan Sandalwood

" I have an account there but I haven't logged on for about a year (maybe longer)." If you haven't logged in in a year maybe longer, maybe you should before talking about what InWorldz is like now. I find them very responsive to customer service, and I like that they still use Viewer 1 technology, which I felt wasn't broke in the first place. Most of the people I've met there are friendly. More and more stores have been opening there over the past year, and prices are low since sim costs are low and prim counts are high, resulting in low overhead. Also, $75/month (plus only $75 start-up fee) is the maximum price for a sim. It goes down the more you own so that many groups who previously had only a couple of sims are creating whole continents. Lag has improved, and I find that sim crossings are much smoother than in SL. Not bad for a small company run by just a few hard-working people. Keep in mind, it only started up just over a year ago when you last logged in, and I've seen it grow by leaps and bounds in that time!

Since we all come here for different reasons ("Your world, your imagination," as they used to say), some for social networking, I wouldn't say get rid of the option to provide RL info, but I agree strongly with previous posters that any RL info should not be mixed in with SL info. And it should be up to the user's discretion what, if any, RL info is provided, including, for people like Charisma, none at all. PS: I think AU was conceived as a social networking site for avatars to connect, the virtual world's answer to RL social networking. It should be available for those who want it, and those who don't, don't have to use it. Or they didn't until LL came up with this idea of combining it with our profiles.

So, um, at the risk of getting "censored" here ... assuming LL continues down this path (despite their recent promise not to) of waiting till things are already a done deal before getting "input," what alternative grids are out there that are closing in on SL? (I've already visited Open Sim and found it pretty, um, empty, at least for my goals of exploring and shopping and joining groups, etc. I couldn't even find an RP group that had supposedly moved from the SL grid to there. And I'm not into gaming or warcraft, so WoW wouldn't be for me either. Any recommendations? I stumbled on SL by accident in the first place, so it's my only exposure to the whole idea of virtual online worlds.) Thanks in advance.

Sookie, thanks for defusing the situation. I'm sorry things got so heated, and I still feel I've been a bit misunderstood and so do some of you probably, but I'm happy just to drop the subject. Getting back to a more productive/relevant note, though ... What about these new profiles SL is working on? Is this a place to give feedback on what we would like to see in them, or is there another forum topic for that? Or do the Lindens have it already mapped out like they did with Viewer 2 and not want our input? In the event this is the place, what would you like the new profiles to be like? As for me, I like the basic format from Viewer 1.23, except with the following improvements: Limits taken off the number of characters that can be typed in any one field ... within reason, of course, but some of us just find 500 characters far too confining to say anything meaningful--this being the main reason I decided to "expand" my profile using (pardon me for mentioning the name of specific examples) SLProfiles, AU, Blogger, etc. Limits taken off or at least raised significantly as to the number of picks you can have. And have them actually be favorite SL places. A separate area to write about your BFFs, RP limits, etc. Limits removed from the number of groups you can belong to. (I think they will be self-limiting, in fact, as there are only so many groups anyone can reasonably keep up with ... but please let us decide that number for ourselves.) The RL and SL tabs kept completely separate, as someone already stated. Continuation of SL's anonymity policy and no integration with Facebook (as long as Facebook continues its own policy of not permitting avatars to create profiles). Continuation of the Web tab to allow links to other social networking or blog or personal/business sites as the user sees fit. (Linden should not choose/limit those sites for us as I read some people above predicting that we're going to start seeing Facebook and Twitter buttons on our profiles! I trust the Lindens with my private info far more than I trust Facebook; I just hope that trust is as well-placed as they make it seem in the TOS.) Larger-sized pictures (or expandable-sized ones like Emerald gave us) so that you can actually see some detail in them! A standard size for pictures in all the different sections (2nd Life, 1st Life, Picks) so we won't have to go through all those mathematical gyrations in Photoshop or Gimp to get them to show up clearly depending on which tab they're for. A complete overhaul Viewer 2--or should I say underhaul?--to make it more like Viewer 1, with the only "improvements" being things that users actually find useful such as the ones Emerald gave us. But that's not directly related to profiles, so I'd better stop here. What does everyone else think? What's your ideal profile look like?

Would you Mason Kingston worshippers please stop listening to his completely baseless accusations against me and read what I actually said and what he actually said back to me in response? I did NOT call anyone here a loser. I said (prior to trying the site because I was apprehensive) that in my own personal friend's experience, the only people she met on AvMatch turned out to be losers. Are you one of them? I don't think so ... unless you have a male alt who dates women? As a result, after several bad encounters, she inactivated and probably deleted her AvMatch profile. Second, I did not "bash" anybody! Mason, in a very unprofessional tone reminiscent of a troll (to which I'm obviously falling prey), complained that I was "bashing" and "insulting" him when, in fact, I had never even heard of him before or knew that he was the creator of 2ndHub. If I had found these clear instructions you're talking about (perhaps they were clearer back when you signed up?), I probably would have stuck around. I belong to at least a dozen other social networks, which allow for far more information to be included and are much easier to navigate--I'm far from a newbie at this--and personally, I did not find 2ndHub a useful site for my purposes. Am I not permitted to give my opinion? How is giving my opinion of a product "bashing" anyone? Why would I want to bash anyone when I was looking in earnest for an alternative to AU that was not connected to Viewer 2 and everyone was telling me how great this site was? All I said was that it did not meet my needs as well as "that other site" (with which I have no affiliation whatsoever and therefore no reason whatsoever to advertise it except to share something I like with other people). If "no one wants my opinion," then why does this forum exist? Whose opinion do they want? Only Mason and people who think Mason is a great guy and therefore everything he does can be nothing but a masterpiece? And who is they (a.k.a. Ashlynn's "no one") anyway? It was his irrational accusations that I was "bashing" and "insulting" him and "advertising" for someone he appears to hold a grudge against--to the point that he went out of his way to make sure his competitor's name could not appear on his site--and didn't even warn his clients said site was "taboo" and would be removed from the URL field--that made me feel attacked and mistrusting of Mason with my personal information. And he then proceeded to solidify my mistrust by reposting my personal info from there to here without my permission. Therefore, I decided it was in my best interest not to continue to use his site, based on his bizarre behavior and reporting what happened to me back to the community, which again has been construed as some kind of attack when I am the one being slandered! I'm normally very open-minded, but with that kind of "customer service," I'm not the least bit interested in testing out Mason's site any further, especially in light of the absurd remarks about my supposed attacks against him (not his product but him!) he continued to post on my profile that either display extreme paranoia on his part or were intended to provoke and upset me, which they have! Edit: That "other site" actually provides space for any number of URLs to other social networking sites, so obviously they are not holding any grudges ... but then, I didn't get as far as trying to link it to 2ndHub, which I would have done if 2ndHub had proved superior in some way to AU or any of the other sites I use (again, for my purposes, which are to expand on my profile--remember, I don't have a business group or anything else to advertise).

Thank you, Ann. At least I'm not the only one who finds this hostile territory. Funny how I started out feeling livid with LL and ended up looking forward to whatever it is they're about to unleash on us next! Whatever their faults may be, at least they don't resort to ad hominem attacks on their customers, and I feel I can trust them (to the extent you can trust anyone on the Internet). I did, in fact, try to report that last flame against me and kept getting an error report, so nothing will come of it unless a Linden actually comes back to this forum and sees what is going on here. And if I am "advertising" another website, which is, let me repeat for the umpteenth time, not my intent, then so are all of Mason's followers. I was not the first to mention that other site (suppose I say I like rock music--or let's get more specific ... The Rollling Stones? Does that constitute an advertisement for The Rolling Stones??), but I do, for my own particular purposes find the first site mentioned more useful than the one we have been arguing about here. (To my knowledge, "advertising" is usually done by someone affiliated with the thing being advertised, as in the way Mason is directly affiliated with 2ndHub, and usually for some kind of monetary compensation. I am not in any way whatsoever affiliated with the ownership or management of any social networking site. I am an unbiased consumer.) Oh, and, BTW, Raznay, my very first experience with SL was, in fact, very negative, with lagging and rubberbanding and having no idea where I was or what I was doing, while every male av I ran into kept trying to pick me up. But its potential was clear even then, once I learned my way around the pitfalls, and have been here for two years now. I simply don't see the potential in that website that you do. So please don't accuse me of not giving things a chance.

BTW, isn't this kind of flaming (calling people "ridiculous" and "retarded," telling them that no one cares about their opinion) prohibited by some kind of LL policy? I never personally attacked anyone; I was merely giving honest, impartial feedback about a PRODUCT, and now I'm the subject of ad hominem attacks! Well, congratulations, Mason and Ashlynn, you've won. I will never ever visit or post to a Linden forum again. Now go grief someone else.

So if you have a life too, why are YOU wasting your time telling me what a "ridiculous" "retard" I am? You're obviously a friend of Mason's. This is the first time I ever posted on LL's forums, and it will certainly be the last since I have a life to get back to. You're all taking this as an attack on Mason when it was he who first attacked me, telling me I was bashing him. I tried giving him a fair chance if you'll read back, but I guess you don't have time because of your Very Important Real Life (which is why you're so busy using Mason's site and SL). As you put it, Ashlynn, "No one honestly cares about your opinion." And why don't you all stop "advertising" Mason's site, as he accused me of doing with a certain other site I won't even bother to mention because I really don't care about any of this anymore. You go, Lindens! Looking forward to the new SL inworld profiles. At least you are reputable, unlike Mason and Ashlynn.

Since Mr. Kingsford has seen fit to quote to you my profile in almost its entirety, I have deleted it (don't worry, I have a screen capture of that page and this one to remind me of all the immature statements he made about my personal opinions and feedback). BTW, I don't see any Lindens whining and crying about how many of us seem to be "bashing" and "insulting" them. They may have made some poor business decisions, but at the moment in this forum, they are acting like professionals.

I think you need to look up the definitions of the words "bashing," "insult," and "advertisement"! How is my saying I like SL Profiles any more of an advertisement than all the people who said it before I did? Did you even read the previous posts in this topic? Even LL so far has allowed us to speak openly of it; it is YOU who is censoring any mention of it from your site. I don't know what other terms people may have for your behavior, but in my OPINION, since you are the founder of the site and should be promoting it, not arguing with and accusing your potential customers (yes, I DID give it an equally fair trial as I gave to AU and SL Profile and looked forward to seeing something of a similar caliber) of bashing and insulting you when they are simply sharing their own personal experiences, THAT is unprofessional.

Mr. Kingsford shows us his utter lack of professionalism here by stating that the profile I created at his site was an "ad for slprofiles." Since AU will now be gone, I was looking for an alternative, and several people here (especially his partner Taliesin) advertised how much better their site is and how well developed it is. Yes, go look at my profile right now (before I delete it) and see how many advantages it has over AU. If you find any, let me know, cuz I don't see them, and I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how to input what little information is permitted on the site (much much less than SL's very own inworld profiles) only to have the URL I was prompted by the "service" to input automatically censored without even being informed that certain competitors' URLs were forbidden (just in case you happened to see how much superior SLProfiles is; if it's not superior, why remove it? What are you afraid of). So if you've had all these wonderful improvements planned for so long, why didn't you and all your friends roll them out before advertising your site here as The Answer to the loss of AU?

OK, I signed up for 2ndHub, and I don't mean to bash anyone's hard work, but I don't see how it is in the slightest way an improvement over inworld, AU, or even SL Profiles. (???????) The background is not customizable in any way whatsoever, I can't figure out how to search for groups (not that anyone I know is even using 2ndHub, and I don't see any reason to invite them at the moment), I'm supposed to tell you "all about me" in "500 characters max," and only ONE favorite SL location is allowed??? I uploaded a picture, but it didn't go into my profile; I have no idea where it went, but I got a message it had been successfully uploaded. Plus the site navigation is even less intuitive than SL's Viewer 2. Apparently those who've been using it and like it are using it for a completely different reason from why I was using AU; can you please enlighten us? Meanwhile, I'll stick with SL Profiles, thanks. BTW, if you try to put your SLProfiles URL (http://www.slprofiles.com) into the "Related website" field, it is automatically censored. If 2ndHub is as wonderful as you say it is, why won't you let people post the address to another profile site?

Thanks to all who shared their experience with 2ndHub, and I will take your advice and try it since you certainly don't sound like losers; sounds like it's just what I'm looking for. If it's all you say it is, I will also set my friend straight. (Just hope LL doesn't decide to buy and kill that now!) Edit: Mason, I didn't mean to "bash" your work. I only meant to share my experience with SLProfiles, which was a bit negative in the beginning because any Web surfer could access your profile and try to pick you up. So I was perhaps a bit too hasty in believing my friend (who really did have a bad experience with AvMatch) that 2ndHub was another similar site. And even if people use the sites for the wrong reasons (I mean, even SL has its griefers--and being out in the open on the Internet, sites like SLProfiles are statistically bound to draw even more trolls and spammers), that's not your fault, and I appreciate your work in developing such sites.

Bryant, your comment made me laugh out loud. "Avatars Reunited"? I love it and agree with everything you said up till the last sentence. Although maybe, considering the result, the best answer would have been for LL not to have aquired AU in the first place. If only there were a world where we could go back in time and make that happen. A virtual one perhaps? Eightdwarf, it's precisely because SL can't be pigeonholed as a "game" versus a "virtual world" versus a "social networking" site versus a user-created "your world, your imagination" whatever you want it to be that I thought AU was a good idea ... for those who wanted such a thing and found the inworld profiles lacking/restrictive. Of course, it would be nicer to have something like AU attached to your inworld profile instead. But in the wake of crazy decisions like the closing of the teen grid and the release of the utterly unsuable (for me) 2.* viewer, I dread to see how LL is going to screw up that great idea. Prokofy: "So...what's the reason for diverting from the obvious, making profiles on the website, and going off to AU? It seems like a side rail. Why?" The reason I went to the Net to make a profile (and was happy to find one sanctioned by LL at last) is because SL doesn't allow enough room to put anything relevant in your inworld profile, and I came to SL from the old (non-Facebook/Twitter-inspired) MySpace where I got used to filling in all those favorites and such, and, being painfully shy, browsing profiles for people I thought might make good friends without having to strike up an awkward "nice weather we're having" conversation just to find out if we had anything in common. (I too have griefer-phobia and thus avoid people with empty or meaningless profiles or whom I at least don't know through an inworld group with a shared interest). It would be nice if LL fixed that shortcoming in the profiles (and increased the number of groups and picks we can have while they're at it!), but, based on past experience here, I'm not holding my breath for that. Besides, there was always the Web tab on Viewer 1.*.* (at least since I was first rezzed) where you could link your AU or any other profile to your inworld profile if you wanted--even if it was clunky to navigate inworld. (As compared to AU, I find the non-LL-administered SLprofiles to be much more like a hook-up site ... exactly the kind you don't like ... and got a lot of casual passersby from the Internet trying to friend me when I meant it to be an extension of my SL profile. But at the moment, that seems to be all we have. I just asked a friend about her experience with that 2ndHub site, and she told me it's just like the AvMatch site, where all she met was losers, so if you're looking for friends instead of dates, that doesn't seem to be the right solution either.)

I thought AU was a good idea; I'd have used it more if it had been better developed. Although it wouldn't have been necessary in the first place if our inworld profiles weren't so severely limited and IMs constantly capped or simply lost in the virtual ether instead of going to e-mail. I am 100 percent AGAINST linking SL to Facebook. I cherish my anonymity here, as do most other users (ever notice the percentage of people who actually ever filled out their first-life profile in the first place?), and HATE Facebook exactly because you can't be anonymous like you could in MySpace. Our SL profiles should be linked to SL and only SL; I don't even want my SL profile to be searchable on the Web. So are these expanded profiles going to be available only on the 2.* platform? Because if they are, I for one won't be able to use them as I hate 2.*. But LL's mission statement appears to be, "if it ain't broke, break it." As for their promise to get more input from users, what a joke. I was asked to fill out a survey just the other day and stated in the comments that I liked the AU concept and thought they should invest more time into it while putting the viewer back the way it was in version 1.23.* along with the good features from Emerald and Imprudence gave us. So, judging by their response (either I'm in a very small minority or LL wants all of us "oldbies" outta here!), expect the exact opposite to happen. BTW, this is my first post ever in an SL forum because this is the angriest they've ever made me ... within a week or two after Philip Linden assured us they were going to start getting us, the loyal users, more involved in decision making and keeping us apprised of new developments. Thank goodness I didn't waste any money on AU coins to customize my profile, and anyone who did should get a full refund! (I'm now rethinking ALL of my past inworld spending decisions along with my SL premium membership and interest in building any kind of content. One thing's for sure; I won't be doing any more shopping till LL finally stops all this retooling.) I'm with Criss Rexen and will be sticking with externally-owned SL profiles. So go ahead and waste more money buying that out so you can shut it down too, LL.