About the "talk to" idea

One of the features I read about was the "talk to" idea, where you click on a person and select Talk To, and then it automatically changes your talk radius to be large enough to reach that person and no further. Talking to a group of nearby people would work the same.

I have a different idea. Instead of all that clicking on people and trying to get them to talk to me, let me change my talk radius with a slider in the HUD. When I move the slider it should draw a sphere with my talk radius, with me at the center. Any avatar that can hear at the current slider setting should be highlighted.

If I press Tab it should make me look at the "center" of the group, similar to current functionality.

In general I think this would be quicker than messing around with pie menus. I also think it would greatly simplify hosting events, particularly in any place larger than a Stage Four-style amphitheater.

(edit: I think this might be better in the "In Testing" forum but I can't delete the thread.)

I think this is a great idea and should be revisited.

me too. i wholly endorse and whatever this feature however that technical support phrase goes.

Perhaps you mean to say "I for one welcome our new Talk To overlords."

On a related topic, I'd like to see "Talk To" moved to a sub-menu. For some reason almost every newbie seems to think it's necessary to click this in order to chat.

Poor newbies.

Change the string to "Talk Only To" and keep current functionality -- that would help the newbies.

Actually, what we have here is an overabundance of terms for communicating between avatars.

-- Shout -- Sim-wide range, public
-- Chat -- Local area range, public
-- Talk To -- Focus on one AV only, public chat
-- IM -- Private AV to AV or groups of AVs, private chat

Please correct me if I'm wrong on the functionality of these options. I haven't used "Talk To", so I could very well be wrong as far as that functionality goes.

Point is, with all of these terms and communication modes, it's no wonder that newbies are getting confused.

The Lindens need to get a tech writer who's hot on the terminology skills, and make things more consistent. This greatly improves the end-user experience and decreases the incidence of issues. Said tech writer could also upgrade the integral documentation of the UI and LSL.

As Justice Monde and others in another thread said, good documentation is increasingly a necessity, and will only become more critical as time goes on.

Trust me. I do *exactly* this type of work at my day job.

I'm staying out of the functionality churn discussion, however. That's for the Lindens to decide.

(you can tell I've been at work too long and ingesting too much caffeine and sugar -- double tall soy mochas and Whoppers, baybee!)

Shout has a range of about 100 meters. Chat has a range of 20 meters. Talk to adjusts the range to the distance between you and the person you talk to. anyone within that distance can hear. I believe that's right.