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lucagrabacr
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In a way that veered from, or even against your subjective POV and appeal of it in certain aspects, while still being technically honest, if you know it might gives you a better chance to get someone into SL?

I've had to slightly appeal and cater to the worldviews / opinions of some people when I knew it would put SL in a better light to their eyes when presenting it to them. Not lying, just avoiding saying and showing things that I know, from my knowledge of those people, would put them off a little, if not more, from trying SL out, even though I would normally want to say or show those things when presenting SL. Which I think is okay, because let's say if irl I know that someone is a racist, I won't tell that person that the mall we're going to is popular amongst the kind of people that they unreasonably hate, and so on.

Have you ever been in this kinda situation? What do you think of it?

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lucagrabacr wrote:

In a way that veered from, or even against your subjective POV and appeal of it in certain aspects, while still being technically honest, if you know it might gives you a better chance to get someone into SL?

 

I've had to slightly appeal and cater to the worldviews / opinions of some people when I knew it would put SL in a better light to their eyes when presenting it to them. Not lying, just avoiding saying and showing things that I know, from my knowledge of those people, would put them off a little, if not more, from trying SL out, even though I would normally want to say or show those things when presenting SL. Which I think is okay, because let's say if irl I know that someone is a racist, I won't tell that person that the mall we're going to is popular amongst the kind of people that they unreasonably hate, and so on.

 

Have you ever been in this kinda situation? What do you think of it?

I've probably mentioned Second Life to only about twenty people in my real life, and none of them had even heard of it.  Two of my friends showed an interest in what it was about and created avatars to log in with, and we met up inworld and went exploring. 

My friends were put off by the technical aspects of the game long before they had chance to encounter anything that might have offended them.  

I'm just curious why you feel you have to 

"put SL in a better light to their eyes when presenting it to them"

What on earth are you showing them that they could be offended about?

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Marigold Devin wrote:

I'm just curious why you feel you have to 

"put SL in a better light to their eyes when presenting it to them"

What on earth are you showing them that they could be offended about?

Well, not so many years ago, the group of people I mainly hang and interact with is, while not necessarily bad people, might have certain unwarranted negative preconceptions about things that might seem a bit off from the norms that they are used to. Ironically, I know this because I was like that, I had unwarranted prejudices about certain things and things that people do that I now no longer have because I've matured, but the knowledge about them and why they exist stays. 

I'm a bit ashamed of it now, but I had this phase in my life where I almost completely avoid SL because of how many "absurdities" I've seen in SL around the time when I first started using SL, and I don't know if I would've ever come back had my perception of things didn't mature in time. So I think, maybe that was because my experience of SL was so raw, no one really told me about its positive aspects and benefits, or speak of SL directly to me in a way that the appeals would overcome what I considered "absurd", but no, I had to learn about them myself throughout the years, or maybe I was just deafened by my ignorance.

So I think if I speak of SL to this group of people as someone they know and can relate with, or people like them, in a way that the appeals would overweigh any unwarranted negative preconceptions that they have about certain things, there might be a bigger chance that they might have more reason to stay and are more tolerant to the things they consider "bad" or "absurd" while hopefully learning to be more understanding in the process, one way or another.  

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lucagrabacr wrote:


Marigold Devin wrote:

I'm just curious why you feel you have to 

"put SL in a better light to their eyes when presenting it to them"

What on earth are you showing them that they could be offended about?

Well, not so many years ago, the group of people I mainly hang and interact with is, while not necessarily bad people, might have certain unwarranted negative preconceptions about things that might seem a bit off from the norms that they are used to. Ironically, I know this because I was like that, I had unwarranted prejudices about certain things and things that people do that I now no longer have because I've matured, but the knowledge about them and why they exist stays. 

I'm a bit ashamed of it now, but I had this phase in my life where I almost completely avoid SL because of how many "absurdities" I've seen in SL around the time when I first started using SL, and I don't know if I would've ever come back had my perception of things didn't mature in time. So I think, maybe that was because my experience of SL was so raw, no one really told me about its positive aspects and benefits, or speak of SL directly to me in a way that the appeals would overcome what I considered "absurd", but no, I had to learn about them myself throughout the years, or maybe I was just deafened by my ignorance.

So I think if I speak of SL to this group of people as someone they know and can relate with, or people like them, in a way that the appeals would overweigh any unwarranted negative preconceptions that they have about certain things, there might be a bigger chance that they might have more reason to stay and are more tolerant to the things they consider "bad" or "absurd" while hopefully learning to be more understanding in the process, one way or another.  

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Your post, while lengthy, is very vague.

The "many "absurdities"" you speak of seeing in Second Life when you first started logging in, might still be absurdities to the majority, and rather than your "perception of things" maturing in time, you could have just got desensitized to the things that your people in real life would still find absurd (or even abhorrent). 

There are still - to me - many activities that I would class as "absurdities" (as we're being polite), and if my first few months in Second Life had been different, I probably would not have remained a resident for as long as I did.  Luckily for me, my first few months laid positive foundations containing butterflies and rainbows and mainly G-rated stress-relieving things. Even when I was griefed, I did not see it as being griefed, because I was fascinated at the sheer brilliance of the things that people could create inworld to use to interact with another avatar (although being deformed was definitely a low point). 

 

 

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Marigold Devin wrote:


 

Your post, while lengthy, is very vague.

The "many "absurdities"" you speak of seeing in Second Life when you first started logging in, might still be absurdities to the majority, and rather than your "perception of things" maturing in time, you could have just got desensitized to the things that your people in real life would still find absurd (or even abhorrent). 


Hmm, maybe. In which, if that's the case, I guess the right way to put it is perhaps I hope I can flood my friends with all sort of positivities of SL that they would overlook the "absurdities" if they ever encounter any while simulatenously being desensitized to it :D it works either way I suppose

I'm not sure how to make myself less vague about my point however, since I was referring to a lot of things. Sort of things that you get from a lot of indiscriminate sim hopping and get full exposure of whatever it is in them. 


Marigold Devin wrote:

There are still - to me - many activities that I would class as "absurdities" (as we're being polite), and if my first few months in Second Life had been different, I probably would not have remained a resident for as long as I did.  Luckily for me, my first few months laid positive foundations containing butterflies and rainbows and mainly G-rated stress-relieving things. Even when I was griefed, I did not see it as being griefed, because I was fascinated at the sheer brilliance of the things that people could create inworld to use to interact with another avatar (although being deformed was definitely a low point)

Rainbows ♥. And I see, I was mostly going around in G-rated areas too, but that's because I was a minor when I first joined and I couldn't visit M/A (or was it only A that was restricted to minors?, I forgot)    

Geez I never fully get how multiquoting and dividing a quote work in this forum.

 

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The ones I have mentioned SL to, first thing I've heard from them is "isn't that the place you can have sex?" since those were the aspects that the press has emphasized. 

I told them that sex was actually a very small part of SL and went on to tell them about the building, the interactive art that is done by people like Bryn Oh, the cosplay you can do for just about anything you want and it cost you a lot less than in R, etc. Seemed to work with some since they came and played some.

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All my friends and family know I'm in SL work here and have been here for a long time. 

When I talk to them about SL, I don't dodge the facts.  I've told them that although there is some things they may object to going on in here that they are easy to avoid if you want to, which is the truth. I tell them that the press has emphasized the what many people feel are negatives because that's what sells.  I think that's a better approach then not mentioning them at all and then some of them coming in to try it and stumbling on them. 

I also am honest about the long learning curve, but since most of them are smart people I tell them that it's not too difficult to learn the basics and be able to explore and get around pretty well early on and they can learn the rest as they go along.  Some things they don't need to learn at all if they aren't interested in it, such as content creation.

On the other hand, I do emphasize the good things about it.  I tell them that many people have discovered the creativity they didn't know they had and that even thought they may not create anything to sell, that many people just create things as a hobby and use them personally and give them to friends.  Meeting and making friends of people from all over the world is another thing I say and how it is so interesting to learn about their cultures and countries first hand.  That I have friends from all over the world that are long term friends that I'd have never met otherwise.  I say they can take classes on a wide variety of things that teach things for both RL and SL, and about things they can do that are just fun and entertaining if that's all they want out of it.  There are a lot of other positives I mention, these are just a few.  I've even given some of them an 'over the shoulder' tour of SL. 

Unfortunately, no one I know has taken me up on the offer of joining me, probably because I'm the biggest 'geek' in the group, lol.  But that's OK.  SL isn't for everybody.  There are things that they are involved in that don't appeal to me at all.  The world would be a dull place if everyone's interests and talents were the same.

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SL is a multi-faceted jewel where held one way it ilooks like dull glass and held another way it looks like glittering diamond. I think there are more facets of SL that are brilliant than not. You don't need to bring up everything about SL when you discuss it. Acknowledge any bad points if brought but put those points into perspective compared to the whole of SL. Looking at just bad points is like being in a palace in the dark and only shining your flashlight on the toilet.

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I have a strong suspicion of what it is that you don't want your friends to encounter too soon (two things, actually) and, if my suspicion is correct, there's a lot about, and, if your friends are likely to either be offended, or cause problems, then it's probably best not to encourage them into SL at all.

But I may be way off the mark.

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The ones that I've gotten to come in were interested in the art instillations to start with. For instance, Bryn Oh does post You Tube intros to her work. Those intrigued a few to log in. We set the them up with basics then they went to the installation.  They loved the interactive nature of it. One or two still come in when there's a new release.

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