Does hearing RL stories in SL weird u out?

I see the whole thing as a balancing act.

RL is fine to a point. I wouldnt come into a group of strangers and say "HEY! My Girlfriend has cancer" and expect a conversation.

I can see it also depends on whether you are a "regular" to that place.

With friends, its easy. But I wouldnt be talking too much about RL with a Total Stranger. Just the usual- State/Country, weather, time, witty comment or whatever.

I had a girl tell me that she had two deaths in her family that week within two minutes of meeting me. It totally weirded me out. I felt for her and all and I wish I could have made her feel better, but I didn't know her at all. How do you console someone who just had that happen when you don't know them? I'm certain I said the wrong thing.

Thank God Almightly Oryx logged in about ten seconds later. It didn't matter that it was her. Anyone on my friends list would have done nicely. OMG - my friend _____ logged in! I haven't seen him/her for ages! I need to go flag him/her down. So sorry for your loss and terribly sorry I have to run. Please feel free to look me up later. We'll talk.

Poor Oryx. I'm sure she was wondering - why is Trout so clingy? He won't leave me alone tonight. (/me says, Oh God, please talk to me and tp me to wherever you are quickly. RESCUE ME!)

I see what you are saying. I don't think I've had many SL relationships where our conversations never involved anything unrelated to SL ... but at the same time, there are things that are unrelated to SL that can be discussed in depth that are nevertheless not personal things relating to your personal RL. So, for example, I can have a deep conversation about politics or philosophy or BDSM or what-have-you with someone in SL and have most of the discussion if not all of it relate to RL things, but at the same time not share much of what I would consider "personal RL info". There are very few people in my SL who have any access to my personal info (I don't mean identifiable info -- noone has that as it relates to me -- I mean sanitized but nevertheless personal info), but there are many more with whom I have discussed this or that RL topic. It really has to do with comfort zones, personal needs for privacy and the like, I think.

I don't come to SL to hear about people's RL stories. Of course, we can't ignore RL completely - for one thing that's where most of the music we hear in clubs comes from. So unless we want to stop talking about Niclkelback, Type-O Negative or Evanescence, RL will come into conversations from time to time.

I don't talk much about RL - I've been here long enough to find plenty to say about my in-world adventures. But occasionally RL generalities creep in, like when I have to explain that not all of us Brits have yellow teeth or that England is not an island!

The closest friend I've had on SL (she vanished without a trace, or a word in July last year) told me practically nothing about her RL... aside from age and location... teh latter to within a US state radius...

To be honest, I'd rather people kept RL to themselves... it's not an essential, but to me at least it's a desirable. That said; one thing i cannot abide is being told RL information about a third party by another resident. now that's REALLY breaking the fourth wall and I do not hold any truck with that.

I dont mind hearing about RL from a select few of my friends on SL.
However I cannot stand drama RL or SL. The ppl behind these avatars are going to bleed through at some point and it unfortunately will bring out the bad and good social skills. It is amazing how much someone can be wrapped up in their world that they keep talking about what they are experiencing so much so they become draining to you. A big pet peeve of mine. Maybe someone will read this thread and get a wake up call?

Its very tacky to just dump your baggage on some one else you kinda know but then to someone you just met on SL. Freaks imo.

People who start up chats with "I'm from X, where are you from," annoy me the most. The only discussion I have about RL is to let friends know when I am not going to be on for a few days due to other commitments. If someone can't talk about what they do/want in SL they aren't of interest to me since I'm never going to meet them except in SL.

I feel the same about voice, the only time I use it is to shame the people who play "not on voice, must be a guy" with me. For the most part voice is only used by people who spend hours going on about their 'real' selves.