ok. The end is nigh

Aww LOL... I know... I feel obligated to accept people's friendships on there because I know them and they are friends of friends or they are relatives or spouses and kids of relatives etc etc etc... when in reality I would rather just have my actual friends know where to find me (One reason I liked MySpace is that I could make it harder for people to find me...but now all my friends have abandoned MySpace). I am also receiving the weird farming/mafia game requests... I don't understand what passes for fun for some people I am considering deleting FB all together.

hugz

awwww ty -- I want one of the kitties



I need a new kitty, but our husky seems to think that kitties are chew toys.

The trailer trash comment was partly meant as a snide quote from some guy who not too long ago stated that SL was trailer trash compared to the level of sophistication that Blue Mars supposedly has to offer.

And no, I will not be answering your calls because that was a while ago and you will most likely not be calling the German support hotline.

There might be a difference in user demographics between the US and German customers. Every single (German) AOL chat room supports my theory, though.

Yeh, it is. It's also the generalization that every tech support person in the world is going to make about their customers, whether they say it or not. It's like traffic cops are going to talk about stupid drivers, even though most drivers aren't stupid, they're the ones they have to deal with.

I'm not saying the generalization's right, I'm saying... ignore it, it's going to be everywhere.

Yah. How much I talk about depends on who I'm talking to.

Some people know exactly who I am and where I live.

Other people don't need to.

Similarly, in RL, I don't wear my company nametag all the time.

ok.....I just get riled up about generalizations like that....particularly in a venue like SL.....where it would be nice to limit those, and keep an open mind. And in all those years....I've never had to request help from AOL.

But I might for the following reason:

I don't use Facebook - but had to register to check out some information on a profile there, for business.

I guess I didn't read the rules correctly, and registered an SL name. I'm not sure if this is a Facebook function or an AOL function....but when I registered....every single AOL email address that I had ever used, and that was tied to another Facebook user's AOL address.....made a whole list of those people appear on my screen.....with RL photo and RL name.

Some of these people were from SL....who had never given me a RL name.....but had simply given me an AOL email address to use for correspondence.....some of it was SL store related. Same thing with some RL business contacts, who had simply used my email to request info from one of my web sites....and they requested it with a first name or anonymously. I had no idea who any of those RL photos were staring at me on the screen.....until I looked at the email addresses.

In the same vein.....now a zillion people had me show up on their screen as well.....with an SL name, connected to my email address. I DO NOT WANT those people to know my SL name, and if they put two and two together....now they do. OMG!
And there are some photos of men there with their shirts off! (and they aren't pretty).....OMG! Who the heck are THEY?

So yes.....I understand people's concerns about that aspect of Facebook.....and would not wish to repeat that here.

Part of the confusion is that when people say they don't talk about RL in SL, much of the time that doesn't mean absolutely nothing about real life. Typically it means they just don't discuss their own personal details. Everything else in RL is fair game for an immersionist so there's no lack of depth or substance at all. What you describe sounds more like a shortcoming of context-bound roleplay, where it IS fairly common to have people who actually do not discuss any RL at all, and you can run out of things to talk about.




One of the classic excuses given by RLers to pressure others for RL info is to say that if they don't openly share RL info, they must be hiding something, or trying to deceive people. Obviously that line of thinking tends to offend and piss off someone who's NOT doing any of those things.

I'm the same. I'm happy to share all sorts of non-identifying RL info with people, once I feel I know them a bit - in fact, for me, it's part of getting to know somebody. That's very different from having all that info there in the profile so that anybody can trawl through it before they even say "hi".

I have a spaceface account just in my avatar name, no RL details. I only started it to grab a couple of images somebody had put up which they said I could have. I wish they'd hurry up and ban my account for not being a real person. One thing that frightens me about them is that even if you delete your account, they keep all your info.


Yup, that too ... terrifying, and I don't want it here.

On the contrary, I would much rather know that someone does not want to share RL info than have them totally fabricate it (and there is probably an equal chance that a random person revealing "RL" information is making it up or telling the truth). I don't pressure people for RL info but I do tend to seek out authentic friendships which spill over into RL and I don't apologize for that.

And for the record, I did NOT state that anyone not sharing RL info is hiding anything. Someone would have to read a LOT into what I said to arrive at that conclusion.

I don't see what all the fuss is about, as long as it's opt in then it will only be for those who want to opt in and the rest can go around unhindered.

Put it another way, if E-Harm decided to setup some dating sims, and you registered via their API gateway via their website and access to said sims was restricted to E-harm group members, would anyone be bothered?

E-Harm would use the personal info as they do now on their website, but only E-Harm members would be able to search said info.

This is my view. I am not adverse to learning and sharing RL info, but if someone tells me something, I just want the truth. Every avatar is controlled by a real person and I will think of them that way regardless of how the other person views things. I will not press my RL info on them if they do not want to know and I will not require it of others, but I do enjoy the chance at making real lasting friendships.

That would be ideal....but what if one of the eHarm members put up a prefab home on their sim....and needed the prefab maker to come help them set it up for them?

You're probably just not like that. Sadly many are though.



Duly noted
Just trying to clarify what you said you didn't get.

I was thinking more of the E-Harm sims being a social and entertainment district but if things progressed and people wanted to use land for homes within SL as a whole there are plenty of places for that, or maybe E-Harm would setup residential sims which would have standard access controls.

Well-said.

As an aside, recently I unfriended all the alts that I knew of on my friend's list. I don't like to talk to more than one avatar per person, even if they don't try to hide the fact that they are the same person. I am anxious to see what kind of fall-out this will cause, if any.

That would work, as long as the eHarm member had an extra profile tab hidden from view for non-eHarm members, or some kind of separate access to that.

But I don't really see a problem with tossing them into the whole mix with some kind of promotion. They can share their information, as they see fit....just like everyone else here does. Maybe they are sick of the blasted dating scene, and want to tool about as a neko or a furry or something.....you have a new user.

This is exactly the same argument that was used when voice was introduced. Voice has changed the culture of SL. Whether it was a good or bad change depends on which side of the divide you are, but the divide is there.

I didn't get the part about being called a member of "the faceplacesplurktwit crowd" which I am clearly not, the reference to some kind of duck sauce, nor the entire next paragraph (neither the argument nor what seemed to be some kind of vague insults).

Yes, this. I prefer the truth always even if it means 'negative' for me. I'll deal with it. I'd rather have the truth any day.

Or maybe you could only search the details whilst logged into the E-Harm website or some inworld device. I'm sure there's a way of being able to restrict the information, there should be anyway.



Absolutely we have a new user, we have users who went beyond CSI and Gossip Girl. For merchants extending the reach of SL is a good thing.

I don't see this voice divide. If people want to use voice they do, if people don't want to use voice, they don't. Those who don't want to use voice are excluded from some discussions, no big deal, there are plenty of other discussions.

I'm in total agreement. I dont come here for a real date. I dont wanna have some creepy personality hovering at my gate, and I dont want everyone to know the real me and what I hold dear to myself. I dont even let real peopel know the real me.My persona or what I present to the world is what they get.
Why do Lindens think this should be a "fun thing"? Why does anyone find the thought that a Global "wadge" of complete strangers knowing YOu or ME and all we trust and cherish is a good thing?
Let's just maintain the status quote around here and be glad we dont know all of us and our realities.
(And keep away from online sites that share friends)

Same here. I voice with only a few people on my friend's list.

Even within this response, there is evidence of a divide. You're right, though, it's not a big deal until somebody accuses you of hiding things because you are unwilling to use it. People who use voice are, in my experience, generally unaware of this as a problem.