Groups do matter, so hide them.

/me takes a queue from Immy.

I hid all my groups becuase of a psychopathic stalking ex and her few cronies. All still hidden but my friends group that is invite only ^_^

The rest of my profile is quite loquacious though.

Most of my groups are on view. If, at any time, I belong to more than one 'clothing-optional' group, I usually only display one such group publicly. Other than that I just hide my administrative group that owns the land my home is on because people might wrongly think I'm a shady land dealer!

I'm the same person in SL as RL with the same values and basically participate in the same type of activities. I don't hide my groups because I want them to be an indicator of who I am so if someone else chooses not to associate with me due to the groups, it saves time.

I have noticed that the more time has gone by as a resident of SL, my groups have also changed and moved significantly closer to who the "me" one would meet RL.

When I began, I had mainly Gorean groups because that is why I came to SL. Then as I transitioned out of that, the groups were more club-oriented since I worked in one and my main activity was dancing with my partner. Last year a majority of my groups were business-oriented (ways to advertise my shop), and now my groups are a spectrum of my main interests and pursuits. (Still need a few more than 25, though. )

I just simply hide them all. And the "I hide my groups" group is just a waste of group space.

For me, it simply prevents stupid questions, when I am in groups from clients that I build for at times.

I guess if you want to lie about who you are, then hiding your groups would be the thing to do. But if you live an authentic life, meaning you are who you are with no apologies, then hiding them wouldn't fit with your life philosophy. Just because you think they are weird doesn't mean others do. And because you think they are weird, why would that person want to befriend you anymore than you would want to befriend them? Remember that it works both ways.

I think you are taking it pretty far when you say people are lying by hiding whatever fetish/sex groups they are involved in.

Your definition of "authentic life" seems extreme limited. Oh wait, unless you are one of those people that feel the need to declare to everyone your sexual preferences, since according to you such declarations are part of being 'who you are with no apologies"... Which is fine if you think one's sexual preferences defines them as a person...which evidently you do.

And regarding your last sentence about weirdness...I would not want to make friends solely on criteria such as sexual fetish/preferences so if someone thinks what i am into is weird, that is fine, but it does not define me as a person or declares me as a person living an authentic life, it simply reveals an aspect of me, and since i don't want to be judged completely based on just a single aspect of my persona, i would hide the groups that could cause such reactions in most who saw them.

Hahaha, funny post though.

I so wanna look these groups up! lol

Basically, to each their own. My groups are pretty boring...surfing groups mostly. Hide your groups if you wanna, don't hide if you wanna. I do admit tho, the "My groups are hidden" thing is a bit annoying as it's like rubbing someone's nose in it but who really cares? I am a massive profile ho and love reading profiles. I look thru groups as well b/c sometimes you find some interesting stuff there. I don't necessarily judge an av but groups unless you belong to the F u all group and then your entire profile shows you want to be viewed that way.

Live and let live

Walk a mile in ~MY~ shoes. I had your way of thinking once. Blogs happen. (^_^)y

Sometimes we join groups almost unwittingly. At clubs I often get a group invite and I accept it out of politeness, but leave the group later - except sometimes I forget to do that!

I started hiding groups the other day, however not to "hide" something, but i consider there is no point in showing groups i keep for administrative purposes and wich i actually am not sharing the ideology, examples that comes to me:

-vendor groups
-private sims build right groups
-mainling lists

however, the rest, well i've no shame in being who i am and i don't mind peoples judging me on my interests.

I'm judging you now.

Actually, I'm not taking it pretty far. And I never said that you had to openly declare your sexuality. You stated that you believed people should hide their fetish groups because you believed that most people judged them, as you yourself do, when seeing them displayed. Whenever you keep hidden parts of you in order to be judged less harshly, you are lying about who you are and NOT living an authentic life. Living an authentic life is about living who you are without having the need to hide parts of yourself in order to be accepted by people. I've lived quite a long time, have grown children. Believe me, I know all about hiding parts of yourself in order to not be judged. Been there, done that, burned the t-shirt 15 years ago.

It's not about fetishes and sexual preferences, although if those are things that are important to who you are, then of course you could include them. And it's not about making friends based on one aspect of who you are. I think that you view this much too limiting. We are all made up of parts and roles and are the sum total of our experiences. By hiding a part of who you are because others will not accept you, you are not fully living. You're pretending to live. If you want to be judged by who you truly are, then you wouldn't hide anything. Because if someone is going to pick that one aspect and judge you solely on it - as you say YOU do - then frankly, why would you want to associate with someone so judgmental and closed minded?

I'm glad you got a laugh out of my post. After reading everything you've written, I'm guessing that I live my life a bit more openly and honestly than you do. And the people I count as close to me are in my life because they accept ALL of me, even if they don't necessarily agree with my choices. I'd much prefer them over people I must hide my true self from because of fear of judgment.


I'm guessing since I've held this view for the last 15 years of my more than 40 years, I'm probably doing okay with it without walking in your shoes.

Ohh I do remember that so well and still chuckle, as I took the opportunity of checking an exes profile, and all he had was a fan club to the hugest most obese and disgusting virtual stripper I think I've seen. It explained a LOT.