Idling more common on SL?

As well as using SL, I did (and still do) play some other VWs, MUSHes and MUXes. And I've noticed an odd trend: idling is far more common on SL than on any of them.

And I don't mean bots or campers. I mean people I can see, or people I personally know. On the typical MUSH generally, a page (their version of an IM) to someone who's active will get a reply within a few minutes (even if it's just to say "I'm busy". On Second Life, it's not unusual to wait for half-an-hour or more for a reply.

Partly this is the IM interface of SL, where an arriving IM may be heralded by nothing but a plaintive feep that's impossible to tell from another spammy group chat opening. Also, partly, it's infectious. If you're going to have to wait half-an-hour for a reply, it's a good idea to go do something else while you wait, and so you'll be idle for the next person to IM you.. and so on.

So - is this just a social trend on SL? Certainly the IM interface could be improved, but could any other changes improve the situation, or is it just natural?

In my case, I am just really bad about keeping SL up but being AFK a lot to take care of RL chores and such. Especially near dinner time while cooking and such, or on weekends with laundry and cleaning, I can be AFK for long periods.

I'm not an AFKer, except for brief things, answer the phone, let out the dog, etc. If I'm not able to be active inworld, I just don't log on.

I think it's also partly caused by the amount of content creation that goes on in Second Life. Most of my friends, half the time they're working on textures, models, scripts, or customer support, and are just not aware of IMs in an old convo (Since there is no sound after an IM tab is open), or are truly too busy to properly respond.

Myself, I often go for 15-20 minutes without responding if I'm working on a sculpt, but I try to make sure I check in every few minutes, because my computer allows me to do so without graphics lag or much wait between switching program focus.

I set Busy .But if i am on, I am there, but on photoshop,but with an eye to help as quickly as I can.
Does that make sense ? probably not ,Been super busy RL this weekend it's Easter LOL.

Hmm, I'd say the opposite is true for me. I used to play MUDs and idling was far more common, waiting for specific people to login or events to happen. With SL there's very little of that, if there's nothing going on I usually just logout entirely. The SL viewer is too resource intensive on my system to just let it run idle when I have other things to do.

Agree with the content creation assessment. I would bet that accounts for a good percentage.

I close my IM window when I teach. So all that time I am not aware of IM's, and this can be for hours. Or I am AFK. Or busy doing something in SL with a screen full of scripts, prim editors, note cards, whatever, and then I also often ám not even aware of IM's.

When I do look at my IM's I often have so many at the same time that keeping up all those conversations can be hard. I normally start in replying to all of them, but I do loose some of them after a while.

One reason why I made a teaching alt, is because of all the IM's. Before that time I would have friends IMming me while I was teaching, and I would not respond, or students I'Mming when I was not teaching, and too busy with other things to see them.

At least now my friends can be sure that if Zuleika is online she won't be teaching, and that if Professor Plutonian is online she is probably teaching.
It helps, but I am still guilty of not always replying quickly.

On the other side of the coin, I will sometimes get an IM question about one of my products that I reply to immediately, usually with a question back to the customer and then often wait 10 or 15 minutes for their reply.

I do idle a fair amount in SL at times. Usually when I'm afk it's taking care of something RL, but there has been a few times where I'm at a club or something like that and I just crank the tunes and step away, take my drink and go sit out on the deck for a few.

This

Sometimes I'll go and dance in a not-very-busy club, set myself at 'busy' and then leave myself and go AFK. The club benefits by having an extra person there and I get exposure to my public

In a way I'm occasionally a voluntary freelance dancebot!