ok. The end is nigh

Do you never talk about RL in SL?

No, I don't.

My point was and is: it's better left separate.

Jesus. If that's the sort of customer they want to attract, we are indeed trailer trash not that far down the road...

Hey! No need to get personal!!!

See - even supermodels belong to SL.

No wonder people are eager to meld it with Face Space Plurk.

Good Grief. It's not like people using the dating sites post their telephone numbers and addresses. Many have less information than what people give in forum every day or post in their SL profiles already.

Why in the world would you jump to the conclusion that tapping into that market would require you to post RL information in your profile? That makes no sense at all.

And if you don't talk about RL in SL....what the hell is left to talk about?

And what the heck does this mean?

Over in the Other Place, someone was comparing SL to facebook and noted (with approval) that FB requires you list yourself under your real name. So obviously some people think forced revelations are a good idea, and we know LL has the f***-up fairy on speed-dial.

(When I noted that I thought that aspect of FB was creepy I got totally piled on by said FB fan. Sheesh.)

I've worked AOL tech support for a year. The average AOL customer has only two goals on his/her mind - screw everything that moves and spend two thirds of the day blabbering dimwit philosophy very similar to the teenage youtube crowd. (There are some bright exceptions, but these are kinda accidental.)

What I meant by that is that since I came here, SL has already been "prettified" and "mainstreamed". If they want to attract the average AOL customer now, expect the lolz level to rise a whole fuckin lot.

That's very interesting. I've been using AOL for a decade, and I'm looking at my AOL contact list....and they are professionals with rather lucrative businesses...people who travel extensively, and most have graduate degrees. Regardless of "their" resumes....since when does living in a trailer demote you to the scum of the earth class?

Nice to know that you will be answering my call when I need help with AOL.

ETA: scanning through the list now.....and it appears that the majority are using Facebook now, to promote their businesses.

I suspect that the professionals you're talking about, Mickey, aren't the ones who are calling tech support all the time. When you do tech support, you very quickly get a pretty jaded view of the customers, because you get to deal with all the prizes.

I was commenting on this generalization:



I find that offensive, and way off base.

And as far as the generalizations and stereotypes and misconceptions about the people who are using social networking sites and dating sites.....I think that some are really missing the boat on what type of people use these.

For any business that relies on the Internet population for it's existence, and for any business that has the perfect setting and the tools already in place to accommodate that market......to not tap into that market would be negligent and foolish.

Everywhere I go? Of course not but I do talk about it. It's not some horrible secret I have. Most people would not know what I am talking about if I just started talking about it randomly to everyone I meet everywhere I go in RL (conversely, everyone in SL knows what RL is... Oops, well, I have met a few people who don't seem to )

I just joined FB like a week ago and I hate it. Although I have found a few long lost friends, 10 million relatives and ex-coworkers who I don't want to talk to have already found me You are correct that I wouldn't want THAT level of RL detail to be publicly accessible. I don't want to talk to my cousin's wife or my mother in SL

Everything else.

Smith, must you insult those who disagree with you?



Because everyone who isn't like you must have some 'horrible secret' - that's why they don't mix RL and SL.

This is exactly the attitude people dislike about the faceplacesplurktwit crowd.

^ sauce for the goose ^

& btw my point in 'everywhere you go' was: that's what people expect about RL in SL. You made the analogy an equal one - I don't think the flip (reverse) really applies, but I'm using your own metre. But then I'm not surprised you flippantly ignore what you began.

(It isn't QUITE the same thing, talking at times about SL in your RL, presumably with those who'd know what you're on about - and to people you know in person - as talking about one's RL in SL, to heaven knows who.)

That's why it should be optional. (Some of us have trouble weeding out the people who are not interested in reality.)

Ya know...that's another huge slam for those who don't want to sit in SL and talk about laundry, or what they had for dinner, or on and on. Or be socially engineered and stalked, or another 100 reasons not to share RL details.

I prefer to call it HAVING AN IMAGINATION. Since when is that proof of psychosis? Give over already.

I fail to see the insult in my words there. If you mean because I said it is NOT a horrible secret that I have, that's my answer to you on why I do NOT have a problem with talking about SL in RL.



I did not say anybody else sees SL as a horrible secret. Although I suspect some people feel that way. Especially those that do it behind a spouse's back or things like that.



I have no idea what you mean there.



Can you rephrase that? Cause I really have no idea what you mean.



I talk about RL to my SL friends and SL to my RL friends... Some of my SL friends have become my RL friends. Some of my RL friends have become my SL friends. Does that answer your question?

I'm not sure why you are taking my own viewpoint so personally. I doubt there is any way to reconcile these two viewpoints neither. Your crowd wishes to avoid my crowd and vice versa in most cases (or at least be aware of the other's hugely differing viewpoint). Is that not a perfect argument FOR the optional expanded RL details?

(PS I never talk about laundry with anyone RL or SL... dinner, sure. Italians love to eat... Oops, darn RL details )

QFT! This is the big problem with immersionism. Unless you're heavily involved in the creative side of SL - which is great, but many users aren't interested - then there just isn't enough depth to any of the immersed roles to provide social topics (unless you like drama!)

I agree though that augmentationism isn't the same as mandatory disclosure of RL info.

It was basically pondering the possibility that LL might try to emulate parts of some site like facebook, which *does* require an account to be tied, and identified with RL info. Like Argent said.. that sort of thing is not unheard of, and LL can screw up anything.




Absolutely it should. Even if LL took peoples RL info and indexed it totally behind the scenes for some kind of meet-up/dating/whatever search, it could cause a real sh*tstorm for people if it's not opt-in only. There's not even a marital status box on account signup, and every other portal asks for less info than LL's does
Yep, THAT'll make for an effective dating service..lol.

Melita....I asked that question because I think that you talk about RL, and don't realize it. You've told people that you are a woman, correct? That's RL. You're mentioning that you don't want to use SL to share RL. Even that is RL. That is your RL thought. You're insulted that Smith questioned you on this. That is from your RL persona......right?

There is no way....that you could stay on SL for more than a few weeks.....and not share your RL persona and thoughts in some way. No way.

Hmm... I guess I'm an immersionist but I don't think I've ever had a problem finding something to talk about.

I don't know whether conversation is an art or a disease, but there is always material for it.

One thing I *have* done - even though this turns out to be a problem sometimes - is that I've found a way to talk about my RL without giving away any RL details that could identify me.
.

I figured since I did not get the survey, they knew I had no chance in hell of conning someone into hooking up with me.

Yeah, that would be an unmitigated disaster.

I am president of a deaf online support group. Our board decided that social media was the wave of the future and that we should start a FB group. So I belong to FB, but only for that reason. My personal page there (which I was forced to have, in order to join at all) is shut down lock and key. I have no friends. I ignore all requests for friends. When I had it open, I started getting a ton of crap, farm animals, games, just (in my opinion) junk clogging up my online time. So I locked the page down, and the friend requests and such ar finallly slowing down. My husband's cousin told me that it's 'wrong' to lock out family from FB.