Voice yourself: The future of Second Life Profiles

So I was kickin' back a cup of coco and had been thinking, Second Life Profiles haven't fundamentally changed in a long time. I'd also been going on a buncha social networking sites like MySpace and LiveJournal and I even have a "superprofile" at SL.Me.com.

I've heard numerous things come up as to what Resis want to be added to their Profiles:

1. Show last logged in date
   
2. Tagging
   
3. Mini photo gallery to share with friends
   
4. Profile quote randomizer
   
5. Music player (e.g. if you're in a band)
   
6. Customizable skins, themes, and colors
   
7. Ability to link to other people's profiles as your "Picks"
   
8. etc.
   

Feel free to brainstorm and be wild and creative--there isn't room here for technical constraints but I just want to hear it, pure and simple:



Yes, this matters, because it influences future feature development. Even if something can't be done yet, having the ideas and options open to us, and hearing the community out, is uberimportant.

Wouldn't want to miss you!

Thanxies. =^_^=

What I'd love would be something that told me, when I look at someone else's profile, if they are a customer of mine and maybe what they have spent buying stuff from me; maybe even /what/ they bought and when

I'd also like something more than a single empty box for my notes about someone else. If it were searchable, for example, I would have more reason to be diligent about putting information there.

Profiles are more than social tools, they are also our only CRM tool, unless we build something completely separate and maintain it manually.

The ability to create links to URLs that can be clicked on to launch without people having to cut and paste them into the browser, and that's it. This isn't myspace after all (thank goodness).

I don't really have an opinion, but I was sure from the thread title you were gonna suggest a little audio quote button...ie "voice yourself".

An in-world blog (extra tab in the profile?) to record and read the adventures of me, my friends, others--OR, alternately, unlimited writing space in one of the tabs, like, 1st life tab, so you could keep a blog there.

Ability to change the names of the tabs and the layout of the pages on profiles--put in two pics on one tab, or just photos or just writing or whatever.

A list of partners you've had over the lifetime of your account, sort of to give new/prospective partners an idea of your staying ability (heh, kidding!)

The ability to zoom on a picture in the profile.

The ability to make the profile larger or smaller so it takes up more or less space in the window, like the map.

A history of your profiles--so instead of your calling card changing every time you change it, you have the original calling card someone gave you. (Profiles Archive?)

Multiple profiles--one that's personal that you give to your friends, one that's professional like a business card you give to your customers.

[1] Instant Message information for off-SL IM's.
Like 'AIM Identity: Psyradragon'

[2] Guestbook sort of thing - That goes back to the "remove ratings" threads from ages ago. Instead of a random +1/+3, you get, say, 128-512 characters to say something about the person. Best of all, if a butthead writes up something lame, others will know.

[3] Add more space to the single lines under the button list for What you want to do/what your skills are.

[4] Include easy-find links to your online shop in SLEX/SLB etc. if applicable.

[5] Ingame "SL resume" for commissionwork and such.

^_^

Just look at what people use the "Picks" section for and you'll get a bunch of good ideas:

(1) Photo album as mentioned
(2) SECTION FOR BUSINESS POLICIES!
(3) Renewable classifieds

How about location for clickable webpage url for bloggers and personal webpages?

For people running bussinesses, something similar to "picks" for your shops etc would be very useful..

Last log in I'd DEFINATLY like to see..

If anyone knows it, I like how "My MSN Space" works, which I think if part of MSN messenger.

Zap

I don't have much desire for "HTML on a prim", but HTML in profiles and notecards would be useful.

A definate second, tho I am looking forward to HTML on a prim too..

Also as others have mentioned, hyper links would be good

I'd like a message box where people can leave a message longer than and less ephemeral than an IM in such a way that it won't distract like a series of IMs or a notecard that pops up in the way. People can't just give you a notecard while you're marked Busy, because it won't be accepted. Maybe it could be a special sort of notecard collection thing that works around that, and doesn't require a quest to see if it's an object or a landmark or a notecard or whatever upon login if it was sent while you were offline. A designated way to leave a message like this would be so cool for when I'm trying to work or in a meeting. With this built into the interface, I wouldn't have to explain it to people or have them feel they were being blown off when I hurriedly tell them to send it (whatever it is) to me on a notecard.

I'm with Gabe. Saw the title and thought this was about voice chat, which is something we *need*, whether you license something like Ventrillo on a massive scale or BYO, it would make the experience so much more immersive. I know the bandwidth is higher, but not that much higher.

About the Notes ... this feature currently isn't very useful. If there were a way for me to link to the other profiles where I have written Notes (a list, searchable) ... I think Jim is on the right track here!

Truely, I love this. No matter how I phrase it, creativity comes out of the woodwork. AND I AM HUNGRY FOR MORE!

A lot of this is likely to realistically connect depending on future technology. Obviously, having HTML inworld--that very principle could also be applied to profiles, to make them customizable and extensible. And in addition, we want to have some very SL-centric (SLentric?) features that make the best of... Second Life!

So, I read carefully, and see common thoughtlines emerging...

For one, clearly, more than just social--it extends into business as well. To have better access to your records, or your business policies... to state vital info that isn't clearly provided elsewhere. (I know some Resis who own private islands also have been leaving authorization instructions in profiles. Estate Managers will be in 1.9, which helps alleviate that.)

This connects in with a more useable MY NOTES feature. I've complained too, that it is a PITA because once you forget who you made a note for, you can't just search for it! D'oh!

And speaking of connections, being able to put WEBLINKS... I know I have my URL in my profile and it pains me someone can't just click it, they have to copy-'n'-paste. I understand this. Simple weblinks, like we can do with a prim already. Heck, weblinks in IMs would be nice, if someone types in something. Yes, like most Instant Messengers on the market today.

Mini-guestbook is also something I think would be funful, including if you're into MySpace and other sites where people leave comments and say I JUST ADDED YOU or EPROPS or whateva.

"Message box" sounds tied into better privacy options, or generally speaking, "status control". Definitely related tho.

Voice chat--like that tangent! That one's still divisive and unclear because of people who don't want to use it (e.g. are a female av in SL and male offline) and at the same time, it has many uses. I'm sure Pathfinder has a lot to weigh in on that, he's been doing research. But that goes beyond profiles, altho it could conceivably be connected, like including your Skype ID or a SL "call me" button and soforth.

Aye...

Think it's time to kill ratings too?

I don't think a very full-featured built-in SL weblog is very likely (among other things, it'd lean on Linden's storage demands) but a built-in RSS aggregator could serve a similar purpose by bringing the content from existing services into SL (and would likely be easier to write).

So you could pull in weblog entries from each of the members of your group, for example. Or include a list of favorites. Or whatever.

Oh, here's one that came up the other day: Why on Earth can't you save a landmark from someone's picks?

Pleeeeease... can I have a way to search the [Notes] tab... So often I add data to someone.. and then forget their name

Maybe our profile could be a little web site. LL give us a little bit of disk space we could load up with our own pages. With a default set to start off with.

This was nuked in 1.6... I never quite found out why but I've heard it resurface ever since. And it was very useful, "Add Landmark" button. I want it back too!



Searchable notes--noted!



I'm thinking that becomes sort of eventual when we get HTML inworld, like having one of those pages for social sites (i.e. MySpace), and SL-specific. And perhaps you've been thinking of changing colors too? Not everyone wants a gray profile.

Instead of all the pansy social stuff. I'd like to see some totally useful hard raw data and stats regarding our avatars with examples listed below.

- Number of prims rezzed
- Number of scripts created
- Maximum avatar speed attained
- Maximum avatar altitude attained
- Total disk size of all assets ever uploaded
- Total disk size of all assets created inworld (prim objects, notecards, scripts, etc)
- Ammount of Linden dollars spent in lifetime
- Total times changed clothing
- Total times attached item to avatar
- Total bug reports reported
- Total abuse reports reported
- Number of times sent to the cornfield
- Total number of days banned
- Number of screenshots taken
- Number of times crashed SL client
- Distance walked in miles/km
- Distance flown in miles/km
- Total hours panzoom camera spent below another avatar crotch upskirting
- Number of hours spent with another avatar in close proximity (less than 1m apart)
- Number of times mentioned the word OMG, ROFL, LOL, AO ON, etc.
- Number of times sweared publicly using words like FUCK, SHIT, CUNT, FAGGOT, etc.

and so on and so forth

I'd like a diary so people will know when you'll next be in for certain. Also a clock that tells people My Time - Your Time, so they know what's a sensible time to contact you.

A spell checker would be nice.

Customizability.

I think you have your finger on this already, Torley-san. And I think the key to accomplishing this is if Linden Lab sets a certain amount of hard drive space aside and gives us file space.

Think about it - Google Mail, AOL, Hotmail, and others already gives significant space - hundreds of megs, even gigs of space. Myspace provides a good chunk of space. Sites like flickR provide space.

And Second Life does - but only for 3-D objects. But why? Why not just let users have webspace to host:
- images
- blogs
- websites

And I want to emphasize that last one, because once HTML is integrated to SL, letting people have HTML files stored and served by Linden Lab will mean streamlined, fast delivery of content, will allow text to be served in HTML format from Linden Lab instead of relying on a 3rd party, will allow storage of larger, non-base2 sized files, etc etc.

It would totally reinvent Second Life, Torley, to be super-charged for the common user.

Torley!

And the ability to OPT-In to having my profile conecct directly to my Real Life net involvements - business and personal.

If LL won't take user-account integration with the RL internet/web seriously - give users the ability to choose to do so.

Personally, I have some co-workers that I forget to add as friend at times. It's bothersome to try and have them TP to where they're at or anything, especially if they don't wish to be visited at the time, because later I'll just forget to add them. That being stated, I'd personally like to have an "Add Friend" button somewhere.

Thanks,
Guido
Club Temptations...Can you resist the temptation? (IM me for landmark, at least three events each night, each event has a prize of L$150 to the best male and the same to best female dressed for the ocassion)