Oh! For the Love of Ruth!

It's SLang (and that right there is a new one I just made up. Alyx, are you reading this? New Word Alert!)

SLang (slang) n. Any word made up to describe a facet of the popular game/virtual world, Second Life.

Anyway, "Ruth" is the default SL avatar. She's even got her own folder in your Library under Clothing/Other Outfits, I think. Whenever SL can't find your actual appearance, it assigns Ruth to you. The outcome is referred to as "Ruthing", or "Being Ruthed".

I've seen Ruthing of several varieties. The most common is the redhaired newbie girl with the purple sweater.. the classic Ruth. I've also seen "partial" Ruths, where a guy will have breasts, but also a beard and mustache. Lately, what I've been seeing is "AnonymRuth" (Another new one, Alyx!) This one is the appearance you often get just after you teleport somewhere...female shape, brown skin, short brown hair, blank white eyes)...but the Av who is AnonymRuthed can't put on a different shape or clothes.

"Forced Ruthing" fixes this. CTRL+ALT+D to activate the Client menu. Then Client/Character/Character Tests/Test Female (or Test Male), to give you the default avatar.

Which is all far more than you probably wanted to know, but now you are a smarter avatar. Welcome to SL, Eve! And do stop by the Forum Hangout on the shore of Allana, where a lot of the Forum Regulars here can be found when they're in-world.

Thanks Trout.

It's good to remember that everyone was a newbie at one time huh.

Pardon my ignorance (being a newbie), but what is a Ruth?

/me gives you a big hug.

Welcome to SL and the forums. You already got an answer, but welcome anyway. Don't worry about standing out as a newb. That fades with time. Don't hurry to collect all sorts of stuff, either. Just get some Lindens and shop around and think about how you really want to look, then get the good stuff. For now, go get a bunch of freebies to play with. They're free, so who cares if you don't like them later - just delete them.

Hehe don't? I've got so many freebie items I could build a castle (Though a lumpy one) with unique items... ill be doing an inventory cleaning this weekend lol

You sound a little like me, only I've been collecting crap for like 2 years instead of 2 month ;p
Delete, don't think
Delete, don't think

Yes. That brown golem is apparently the "clay" from which we are all made. Kinda makes you all philosophical, doesn't it?

lol..gotta think about some stuff.. I use the freebie hairs in various outfits.. and skins for various things... but glasses i've never worn on my main av..ever... and i gotta keep my newb creations for laughs a year down the road...lol.... I realized yesterday my larger fountain that I made two days in is missing the water in the trough part cause I didn't know how to link properly...

Anyone know how long the BB code is disabled in the forum, or am I missing something again?

Thanks, it's a pain in the butt.

Help for a noob please. I've just been logged into SL and someone propositioned me (wooo) and obviously being a good girl I politely declined. However he said I was naked........errr I wasn't, I was fully clothed and said so. He said it 'must be a glitch at my end'. Can this happen or is he slinging me a line?

Unfortunately, the view YOU see of yourself is not always what someone else sees.
I've seen some horrific things and found out that the person with them didn't even realize it. Alot of times when you are ruthed, you won't even know.

Heh.. My favorite case: Guy in Help Island Public walking around with a newbie dong sticking out. Got warning from a Help Island Mentor, ignored it. I sent him an IM. Turned out he was a Bulgarian with limited English who couldn't see his attachment was showing from the normal behind-the-back-over-the-shoulder view. He was VERY apologetic when he found out what the problem was.

However he said I was naked........errr I wasn't, I was fully clothed and said so. He said it 'must be a glitch at my end'. Can this happen or is he slinging me a line?

It's possible if you took everything off before getting dressed again, if something went wrong with uploading the new baked texture (you tp to a new sim too quickly for instance) you could look dressed to yourself, but naked to everyone else.

When you're changing clothes, it's also possible for the skin to show through the texture while it's rezzing in (changing into a halter top would show your breasts for a moment for instance), although that should pass as it rezzes for people.

The most disconcerting thing is that what you see on your screen isn't necessarily how other people see you . If someone points out that something is wrong, just rebake to be safe .

When I was new I had to spend half a day running around SL topless (to myself). Everyone ensured me I was properly dressed on their screen, I could only hope they were being truthful .

(I learned the "check what you're wearing before you go anywhere or log off" lesson on my second day when I logged on at Ahern and some thoughtul guy *shouted* "Kitty doesn't have any panties on under her skirt" )

I'm sure you were quite fetching either way. : )

Ahhh Damnit! I missed naked Brenda.

She sends me naked Ruths and I pimp them out to Anshe Chung to make 10L furniture in 3rd world sweatshops.


Actually, if I have time, I usually talk them through putting on some clothes, give them the newbie resource guide and a little advice on how SL works. Some people were really nice to me when I started and I'm just trying to pay it back a little. A lot of people don't remember what being a new resident is like. It's awful. You look like ass, you're broke. You don't know how to get money and camping is frustratingly slow, but you don't know how to build, script, texture, design or anything else and even if you did, you have no hope of setting anything for sale. You can't work the camera to even see what you look like. There's all sorts of weird sexual stuff going on. You walk like an idiot, but everyone else seems to walk normally. Then you hear "AO" and it means nothing to you. Once you get one, you can't make it work. Your hair is awful compared to everyone else's. Eventually, you get caged, orbitted, set on fire, and hit in the face with a supersonic watermelon.

SL is a bitch to newbs. I vote for being extra nice to them. They usually need a hug.

*sticks out her tongue at Har when he's not looking *

As a noob, I rented a place to live, and had several problems with the fixture and fittings. Fixing these required the attention of the landlord for a period of an hour or so. His computer kept crashing, and every time he logged in again, he appeared first as a Ruth, then morphed into a man. I thought it was a riot, and that he might normally have been a female Av, changing just for the purpose of dealing with me. When I asked about it, he was completely unaware of Ruthing. I saw it, he didn't.

Which leads to this question. Sometimes, when we log in, we get the message that our clothes are slow in rezzing, "But others will see you properly". I have found this to be a lie.

On occasion, I have two Avs active at the same time. When one has this delayed clothes problem, the other *does not* see a dressed Av, but a Ruth. Anyone else notice this?

As a noob, I rented a place to live, and had several problems with the fixture and fittings. Fixing these required the attention of the landlord for a period of an hour or so. His computer kept crashing, and every time he logged in again, he appeared first as a Ruth, then morphed into a man. I thought it was a riot, and that he might normally have been a female Av, changing just for the purpose of dealing with me. When I asked about it, he was completely unaware of Ruthing. I saw it, he didn't.

Which leads to this question. Sometimes, when we log in, we get the message that our clothes are slow in rezzing, "But others will see you properly". I have found this to be a lie.

On occasion, I have two Avs active at the same time. When one has this delayed clothes problem, the other *does not* see a dressed Av, but a Ruth. Anyone else notice this?