Common Misconceptions in Second Life

1. A stipend you pay US$6.00/month to get is the same as welfare. (It is a good deal though)

2. The auction minimum bids are $L1/meter. (The minimum bid in auctions is right now higher than $L4/meter)

3. A job for fifty cents an hour in Second Life is a great job. (It is a waste of time).

4. More $L in your pocket means you will be able to buy more. (Only if everyone else didn't get more $L.)

5. The Linden exchange will make me instantly go broke. (It is around the same price as the stipend.)

6. Being talentless in Second Life skills means I have to become a prostitute, DJ, or model. (You can simply spend US$10 to get $L2532, which is more than many of these jobs pay for an entire month. If you have found a good paying job, then good for you. If you haven't, it is better to spend the real life cash.)

Feel free to add your own misconceptions.

Misconceptions:

- houses have to look "real".

- avatars have to look "real".

- there is a need for an economy.

- money is the prime incentive for creating good content.

More Misconceptions:

Second Life is a game.

The Lindens can do whatever they want.

You must build on the ground, or at sea level.

You have the right to complain about ugly builds.

Negative ratings are not used as a grieving tool.

Nice one Dark

Other misconceptions:

- if someone criticizes my clothes/build/pose then I must stink and I'd better quit, or else throw a holy fit (A: There will always be critics. Believe in yourself and always work on improving)

- because lots of others in SL steal real world trademarks, it is acceptable for me to do so (A: morality has nothing to do with what others do)

- SL has bugs, so Linden Lab is not working hard enough given how much I pay (A: Second Life is a huge and new system so bugs are inevitable; the LL team is busting their butt to move things as fast as possible. The debate as to whether they can work smarter rather than harder is a separate issue that I'll let other back seat drivers engage in )

- I am indispensable to Second Life (A: no matter what you build, do or say, Second Life is now big enough to survive the exit of ANY member, or even group of members -- you, me, anyone)

- A neg rating is something to be upset about if you didn't do anything wrong (A: the ratings system is broken, so don't fret about it. If you're a good person, people will recognize it and a neg rate won't change anything)

- If you CAN do it, it's ok *(ie hacking, or shooting people)

- You have to take OFF clothes before putting more on

- Things are expensive

- Really great products where made with "special tools" (not including animations and textures)

- That I want to talk to you

- That I don't want to talk to you

-If NO ONE replies to your post on the SL Forums, then NO ONE is interested.


I find this to be a point of frustration with new Resis when I recommend they come and ask here for info, or hawk their products, or look for a job. Chances are someone does know and does care, but they may have not seen your post yet, or perhaps they prefer to lurk. Maybe it's just a slow day.

I dove right into these forums, having considerable Internet experience on a number of message boards, but I really didn't feel I hit my stride until around post 3,000 or so. And I have a lot of growing left to do. Even some of my threads get unreplied to!* That's okeydoke.

What do I do? I just smile and keep posting, displaying my interests and showing interest in the interests of others that I am interested in.


*I did ask a number of my friends if they saw that thread on Videogame Aesthetics, BTW, and I had a general consensus that the article was enjoyed but no one felt like replying. Totally understandable. And it teaches me a valuable thing in asking so often—so even if I don't get answers all of the time, I will get answers some (as opposed to none) of the time.

A common misconception is that people with the last name of Midnight are nice. We are in fact all completely evil and corrupt. Well except for Daysleeper Midnight. Otherwise, yeah, pure evil.

Sorry to steal this thread but Im glad someone else has noticed this as well and is bothered by it. I've noticed a lot of trademark theft, is this not illegal?? Shouldn't LL be doing something about this. In fact it's bothering me so much that I'm almost at the point of emailing the companies and telling them that their trademarks are being freely distributed for profit. If this isn't illegal or players got the companies permission then I'll shut up but otherwise I can't stand around and allow something illegal continue in front of my eyes. It's a gross irresponsibility on my part if I ignore it.

So can someone tell me if it is illegal or not?

Some of it is complicated with international laws as well. A good example is tarot cards. There is a set of tarot cards I see being used in Second Life that have an expired copyright from the original creator in England. U.S. Game Systems copyrighted the same cards in the U.S. after buying the rights from the English creator, and their copyright has not run out. You add in the fact that a person living in Russia may be hard to prosecute for breaking a U.S. copyright on an English product.

Linden Labs has started doing something about these infringements by stating in their TOS that they will respond to reports of copyright infingements. Linden Labs itself really has no power beyond reporting abuse and banning accounts however. Beyond that, it is up to the legal systems within countries to decide how copyright infingements should be dealt with.

This is true; Day is only evil but not really corrupt. Fates are that way too. I suppose that's why people blame the Fates when things go all pearshaped.

- Lindens are unapproachable or don't care (they are and they do)

- LL is building a 3D web platform/metaverse (they are building a world & community)

- Scripting is magic (it's not EASY; but it's not prohibitively hard to learn)

- Particles are endless (a client can render max 4096 particles at a time) - I've seen blingers, fountains and lighting effects that produce over a hundred-thousand particles a second. We can't see most of that AND our flooded cards can't render other, smaller particle effects in the same area; so we don't see those either. Particles are cute, but too many rank up there with builds that incorporate dozens of 1024x1024 textures.

- All lag is caused by server problems (most lag is caused by your video card not being able to render the scene as quickly as you, or the scenery, are moving) The next most common cause is your connection not keeping up with the necessary downloads. There are some things people can do to slow the sims down considerably; but if you're lagging everywhere you go, that's your end, sorry, but it is.

- Jarod Godel is my alt (Fate Garden is my alt) Jarod is most highly offended by this notion because he prides himself on his ability to think and argue points in a straightforward and honest manner. I wouldn't mind claiming him, for the record; but he would never ever in a million years settle for my subtle passive agressive technique. He thinks I'm a sissy.

A common misconception in Second Life is that Godels are real. This is false. Godels are, in fact, sentient halucinations created by the aggregate hatred of software developers around the world.

This one always burns me. Nearly all of the tools I use (including those for textures, 3D, etc), are happily listed in my sig. All of them are free to try; the few that are not completely free are very inexpensive.

As for the "expensive programs," most don't realize there are free derivative tools. Photoshop has The GIMP, Corel's Painter has Deep Paint, and there are free (if slightly more difficult) tools for creating animations and sounds too!


I get this often, if not as a daily occurance. The way you set this up, though, is kinda a misnomer.

Yes, scripting (as in LSL) isn't that hard to learn. Heck, LSL101 and a few other tutorials/articles on the wiki can get the lowliest of coders up and running in a day.


However.

Learning the logic behind coding, not to mention some of the maths people like me throw around (eg. vectors and matrices concepts, calculus, physics equations, etc), can be extremely difficult for some. While math isn't *always* required in a script, due to Second Life's nature, chances are it will be.

Fortunately, the day-to-day script only needs gradeschool math, but for those really advanced scripts, the learning curve is a bit more steep. It might not be "magic," but it's certainly a bit more difficult than posited here.

Which is why so much of LSL is built around simplifying these concepts, why the wiki is up there in the first place, and why many of us lowly scripters double as mentors.

---------------------


A few I'd like to add:

- Content in Second Life isn't important, because it's all a game (similar to the above)

This one grates me. While the system set in place works fairly well, the fact most "software" (in the form of animations, 3D models, etc) carries so little implicit value in the minds of residents scares me.

Fact is, content in SL is very real content. This leads into (1) people selling their work for well below what it's worth and (2) people thinking stealing a brand name is "okay," since "hey it's a game."

Granted, I make what I do freely available (since I can afford to do so), and this still grates on me.



- You have a "Second Life?"

The title alone makes it hard to bring SL up in a conversation with *ahem* "nonbelievers."



- Lindens know everything. If they can't fix my problem, it must be their fault!

This one... just... just....

Well.

Despite having limited god powers in Second Life, in the real world they're human beings. Appropriately, how the Linden interprets your problem, based on what they know, can lead to problems.


Specifically:

Most liasons do NOT know a lot about the inner workings of Second Life.

They, instead, seem to follow a list of procedures to solving a problem.


A Linden cannot "erase" a mistake you have made, as if by magic.

Though they can try. The only ways this can really happen are sim rollbacks, inventory (database) fixes, and any problem that can be otherwise solved by a resident (with slightly more jurisdiction).

Do not ask a Linden to use their god powers without significant proof that such an action is necessary, because they likely can be fired or put under review for abusing them (see here).


Lindens can magically fix your lag problems.

Only if it's a database issue that they have enough knowledge to resolve. Problems with content (ie. objects) are commonly our problem.


- Scripters can break (into) the system! Help!

Not true. We're bound by the same rules, permissions, and code as any other resident. If a resident can abuse the scripting system, this falls under the jurisdiction of the ToS to enforce. If the oversight is large enough (eg. permissions discrepancies), LL should take steps to fix the problem for all residents.

edit: blah, I'm being mean this week, so I changed my entry to be not so mean.

Misconception: Fetted Inner Core

I actually think Jeffrey is right on the money there. For a lot of people it IS hard. Personally, I might be able to build the most complex excel/VBA business model you've ever seen, but LSL totally flummoxes me half the time. Having someone to answer questions makes a huge difference, but we can't be bugging you guys all the time now, can we?

I know it's a focus/attention deficit on my part that keeps me from learning LSL better, so my own fault, but I just wanted to reiterate that it's not that intuitive to a liberal arts person like me.

Awww you blew up my trying to be nice post. I wouldn't of argued with Jeffrey if he said "things people like Strife was doing"... but tooting his own horn was not in the spirit of community There is always someone you can ask for help when the math gets intense. Yea, I guess I have the unfair advantage of just bugging my wife So allow me to (not so) gracefully bow out of the scripting discussion now...

lol sorry satch - i think i posted as you were deleting...

No biggie If I had a dollar for everything I should of never posted to the forums I would be a rich boy... Jeffrey knows I love him though... I forgot to filter my sarcasm through the "they don't know what's in my head" filter.

Misconception #2: People mean what they say on the forums

Ehm...

Fact is - coding logic is hard for a lot of people. As is math. If I can get away with some shameless self-promotion in the process, so much the better.

The misconception that I'm trying to clear up in SL, as well as RL, is the one about fatness being ugly. I know a lot of people in RL who like their girls well-padded... strangely enough, everyone in SL is so kind and nonabusive that I've never had any negative comments about my size, except for one person who asked, "Why are you fat?" LOL.

Trademark infringement and copyright infringement are different. Linden Lab have said they remove all examples of _trademarks_ that they see. Copyright infringement needs to have the copyright holder apply.



Deep paint 3D isn't free. Deep paint itself isn't that interesting. I strongly recommend Audacity for audio.

You sure? The Cnet page speaks otherwise, as does the copy I have installed from them. There's no purchase link in the Help bar... etc.


I think you're confusing this version of DP with Deep Paint 3D, which is purchase-only software. The "free" DP no longer appears on their site it seems.

Personally I use Painter IX and FruityLoops, even if the latter does kinda suck. But this is very, very tangential at this point.

I'm happy Kex brings so much love to the dinner table. ^_^

I think you meant "If no one replies to Torley's post, then no one is interested". Crikey, you trapped me with you watermelony logic, again!

BTW, how does one pronounce "Resies"?

True it is true I was wrong to say what I said. In fact, scripting is hard; math is harder. Most people should just give up and go home. In an hour, I'm facing a room full of young Logic and Programming students that still cring when I say "branch" or "divide."

Being relaxed and out-ot-town when listing caused me to forget reality and dream of a world in which people could learn to easily apply their everyday problem solving skills and math ability to a structured programming technique. Dream on Khamon; I stand deeply and humbly corrected.

On the initial topic:

- There is privacy in Second Life.

The Secondlife client disagrees with this, unless you're living on a closed off private island. Alt-Ctrl-Shift-D and you get a debug menu. Shut off rendering of various things like ground, volume (prims), clouds, etc. Roam about with the alt-cam. Zoom the view with ctrl-8, ctrl-9, ctrl-0. Folks aren't usually this obsessed about spying on random strangers, unless...

- If I install a device that kicks local bypassers sims away and forces them to relog, I will be left alone.

Quite the contrary. Griefing innocent traffic will instill a sense of revenge and they will use the above mentioned built-in debugging features to look at everything on your land and/or watch you fuck.

- I need to buy an expensive shielding device to prevent myself from being griefed.

That depends. Unless you're trying to prevent yourself from being damaged in a combat sim, all you need to do to is sit on a prim and completely ignore the griefer. My favorite tactic is to sit on a posing stand and play a stock standing animation, then hide the posing stand prim underground. I look like I can be push-griefed, but nothing but a sim crash is gonna make me move.