Escorts...Raising the Bar

It was just my wild guess at explaining why, even though there's a huge fuss made about it now, back before voice came in there was still a lot of sex going on but nobody was worrying about it.

Well back in the day people did seem a lot less worried about it, that is true. Course back then SL was a little niche market program with a small quirky following. The more mainstream it is, the more pedestrian attitudes will become.

It did change the expectations of many as to whether people should voice though. Not everyone but many. Since its "built in."

To many the question changed from "Do you voice?" to "Why don't you voice?"

And just as you said that likely has effects on escorts in SL (as well as non-escorts)

Just because someone isn't bi or gay doesn't make them "pedestrian."

Who said that? I certainly didn't say anything about people being bi or gay. Nothing in Yumi's post where she quoted me said anything about people being bi or gay.

Holy Glory!!

Faster than a premature ejaculation!!

Cristalle, Colette...please let's not snipe at each other, or turn this into another voice debate.

Colette has a valid point, I think...as more people join SL, the community values will become more and more mainstream. Nobody said anything about bi or gay, or whether such people were somehow "less pedestrian" than the masses. But I think it's true that the early adopters of SL (whatever their sexual orientation) tend to be more open minded and tolerant of others' differences than your run-of-the-mill average person.

That's what I was trying to say about the changes in the escort business...it's becoming more like "standard" internet or phone sex. And I think I have an answer to the person who scoffed at my regret over its passing: I felt safe, experimenting with it, shielded by my avatar and the chat box. I had a marvelous time in my very brief period as an SL escort. I learned a great deal about people, and about myself. I would never, ever have considered trying the voice/photo/webcam style of escorting, and so I would have missed an important learning experience, and missed meeting some of my closest SL friends.

Oh yes, is very true.. but then it's not really escorting. It's basically hooking up, especially if it's between friends. You also lose a lot of the decadent factor.
No worries, the "arts" are alive and well here

It is really sad that these girls would webcam to a complete stranger, especially for the equivalent of $4 usd. At least the girls had anonymity in the old model, but with web cams, their images are one small step away from being recorded and distributed all over the web without their consent, and unfortunately once the damage is done, it can't be reversed.

Be careful out there.

I wonder why someone would be willing to charge so much less for the same service offered over the internet (webcam sex). Is it expensive to maintain a website to solicit this type of business? That's the only reason I can think people would charge less.

As Lindal suggested, I am using the word "pedestrian" meaning people whose opinions and attitudes are more mainstream.


By pedestrian I mean this -

More people in SL seem to see SL dating more like Eharmony than they used to. The trend is moving from "Virtual World" definitely to "Internet Chat room"

This wasn't the case in 2005.

By pedestrian I also mean this-

More people are less tolerant of certain things like gays and lesbians than they used to be. I've even been to clubs where people tell gay jokes now.

More on topic, by pedestrian I also mean this -

Some people don't see SL escorts as being a fun little SL diversion, they are beginning to see them as an extension of Internet Cam/ Voice/ Phone services.

If you go to one of these places, at most there is far less virtual world atmosphere. The Walls are all covered with ads with pictures of escorts, including RL pictures. "Click for Info". It seems more like a Porn site than a virtual brothel.

I am guessing ignorance combined with not having come to terms with what they are actually doing.

A SL escort doing voice sex might not have made the internal realization she is basically a phone sex worker now.

Mea culpa, was focused on the genderbending issue.

This is something thats so common in sl and also done among non-escorts. Some of your typical "I'm not here for sex" types are in this mix too. The only difference is they don't publicly announce it nor do they charge for it as escorts do.


This is no big deal. Only to those who aren't aware of it.

But don't tell some that, they think it's a curse of some sort.

/me pops in to derail her own thread.

OT: I discovered another reason to create an alt, too. I did my redlight district tour as myself (I don't like having to invest the time and money to create alts). Even though I was wearing an appropriate group tag (Celebretaunts' "Party Girl", I got a lot of odd looks and a few comments, along the lines of "what's a Second Life Mentor and landowner doing on that dance pole, dressed in thigh boots and a tattoo?"

People thought I was lost, or slumming, or looking to issue citations or something. Nobody seemed to credit the fact that I was simply horny.

Next time I'll use an alt or hide all my respectable groups.

What a strange strange (second) world when you have to do that...

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed most of the responces to the OP are females?

Just a thought...

"CX"

It is, isn't it? We were having a discussion on this, over in the Mentor forum. Frankly, I think hiding groups in order to do any specific thing is a form of lying. Whether I hide my membership in (for example) No Limits Escorts while I'm helping newbies on Orientation Island, or hide my Mentor tag while trolling for johns in New Amsterdam.

People are multifaceted. The more interests a person has, the more interesting I find them. But a lot of people only want to see what fits in with their expectations, and seeing something else confuses them.

I don't like it. For better or worse, I'm me...and all the parts that go into me. I don't want to have to hide some of those parts for different groups of people. But we do it...with alts, or with "customized" profiles, or whatever.

I'm open to suggestions.

No thought required. The male part of this particular trade isn't especially difficult to figure out.

Just from reading your posts on this and other subjects you should stay true to yourself as you have always done.

"CX"

Venturing even further off topic here, but in RL we think nothing of keeping different sectors of our lives separate. I'm a lawyer by profession; my clients don't know anything about my hobbies unless I feel like telling them. It doesn't strike me as any different to keep the sectors of one's second life separate either.

For example, if I were a land-baron with a penchant for BDSM club-hopping, I don't think it would be odd to hide my BDSM club groups when I was interacting with my tenants.

I don't think it's odd not to hide them either; it's a matter of personal preference. It's just kind of strong, I think, to equate this kind of separation with lying, when it is done ordinarily in RL without a second thought.

I am so glad I am retired.

Oh is that so? How very dismissive of you...

I hide most of my groups. Why? Because stalkers walk amongst us!