how do you see people in SL?

Judgment is human nature and how we evaluate possible friends and how we protect ourselves (if you see a dangerous looking character walking down the FL street, I don't think most people would try to befriend him.

Anyway, yes, I do judge some people based on their appearance. I am always curious about furries, some more than others. Normal furries don't perplex me as much as someone floating around as a turtle. I just don't get it. So, I don't make as much of an effort. If I see someone as a child, I absolutely steer clear. Totally freaks me out. I don't socialize with escorts, strippers, orgy fans, etc. because that is not my scene and there is no point wasting my time (or theirs).

As a general rule, I judge people based on their profile. I am a Profile Junky.

I am not a judgmental person, but I cannot get to know everyone...so I am selective through judgment.

I judge in an instant just from looks. This is an adult game and If a kid comes near on my land I will eject.If I see one when I am traveling I tp elsewhere.Tatoos do my head in.Furries make me roar with f...g laughter.I like ladies of all descriptions,nuff said

So, what are you saying here, Astray? That these guys judge you on your appearance, or that you judge them on theirs?

Seriously, I have a couple of observations.

1. Your own appearance, as you describe it, is provocative. You should expect to get strong reactions, whether they are verbalized to you or not. I'm not saying that you are wrong in doing this, mind you. Your appearance is your choice, always! But you can't show up as Cthulhu and expect everyone to say, "wow, nice legs".

2. The pinheads who DO verbalize their negative reactions to you are asshats. In fact, your appearance seems to be a very good asshat-detector.

3. There are a lot of asshats in the world. Do you really give a flip what a single one of them thinks of you? Be yourself, and throw THEM off the bridge.

*Note to self... Seek out Colette Forster inworld... Keep /slapfight activated...* (=_=)

I've said it before, that I'll hang around just about anyone willing to tolerate me. I do have judgmental tendencies, but I keep them to myself and make a real effort to meet and greet the person chatting with me. (^_^)

I have friends of just about every kind now, including people who are admittedly disturbed by my own choice of avatar. But, they're not willing to distance themselves from me simply because the conversations we have really are fun and engaging. (^_^)

For me, it's all about attitude. Even people who act stupid, mean, or flirt to start wind up being nice people after responding to them nicely enough. (^_^)y

I HAVE noticed that a lotta folks start talkin different or act difference when I come around in the Grid, so I figure the 1st impression is pretty damned important in SL.

Im used to bein able to read ppl IRL, so SL is always a fun challenge. Without seein the body language & facial expressions, it's REAL hard to read other ppl.

I DO judge folks by what they say on the Forums, IRL and on the Grid. That's the only way ta gauge who's who.

Avatars are avatars to me, I dont care if it's an eyeball or a dragon. Avatars are like "Buddy Icons" or Forum Avatars to me. I dont understand when folks hate a whole group because if how they "dress" thier "cartoon".

Really! I am a part-time shape-shifter and my feeling about this is, why *not* be a turtle? If the avatar is cute, or pretty, or interesting-looking, I'll try wearing it. Why not?

I'm surprised to hear that there might be people out there who will make less of an effort to talk to me if I'm not shaped like a person. I'm react quite the opposite way - most of us look like people in real life, so I am attracted to folks who enjoy trying out different forms in SL. It's not the only way to enjoy SL, but it's one way to enjoy SL that I find very fun and entertaining.



I used to be irritated by child avatars - not freaked out, but irritated - because I can't stand the "baby talk" most of them use. It doesn't sound like kid-typing to me; it sounds like an adult intentionally making their typing annoying and hard-to-read. I also didn't like it when kid avatars come to grown-up parties and interject their baby-talking into grown-up conversation, or worse, bully partygoers into tempering their conversation because there is a kid in the room.

That's very judgmental of me, but it's how I felt for most of my time in SL.

Only recently has this started to change - I met a kid avatar that I liked a lot. She didn't impose her kid-ness on others; she sat quietly if the conversation wasn't kid friendly, and she interacted in a way that was believably kid-like without being cloying. She's given me a new look at kid avatars, and I actually like having her around, in much the same way I like having a cute real kid around.

Having said all of that - even though I haven't always enjoyed interacting with kid avatars - it doesn't freak me out or bother me that there are people who want to be kid avatars - I think it's very reasonable, and I can imagine many reasons why one might enjoy it.



That, I totally agree with. I am a shameless profile-reader, and sometimes what one finds there is - interesting, to say the least.

I have to admit, that crosses the line for me too. I still use some of the kid laugh and giggle gestures. I do say "okies" and "thankies" and most of the time I'm a major brat. But, I can't spend more than a minute around most busy adoption agencies after seeing the stuff that shows up in chat there. (>_<

Of course... Almost every single chat line that comes from me ends with a smiley, so who am I to say anything? (^_^)y

Yeah, I almost ALWAYS read profiles. Usually they tell u more about the person behind the av than they realize, so u kinda know who you're talkin to.

Like certain folks get married in SL & plan to do it in RL even though they live half a world away from each other...or you meet a furry who repeats over & over in the profile that they are "Non-Yiffy!", which I have seen since thier reputation is so bad.

Also that musclebound bouncer at the big Nightclub you go to is a Gorean slave and in 3 BDSM groups. Pretty much all u usually can get outta Profiles is:

1. a "tone of voice"/attitude of the RL person

2. What they're interested in (that they might not admit to IRL)

3. How seriously they take SL as a platform or a game.

Exhibit A.

I just made a judgment about someone based on one post.

Funny... I judged him based on his profile. (=_=)

I'm with ya here! I've only just started shapeshifting on occasion and probably won't be a full time shapeshifter but it's loads of fun. I find people who shapeshift to be very creative and makes SL so much more fun and interesting! Oh, and I got my first tiny the other night and oh wow.....what a blast!!

I'm not much of profile reader, mainly because I'm not much of a profile writer. I put a little bit in mine, but I don't really give anyone much to go on as to my likes/dislikes or what not.

what is a non-yiffy? what is a yiffy?

QFT! Some people don't start off too good in communication (me for one ), but given a chance, you can find that they are really good people...and sometimes not. Prejudgement is normal and natural, but to repeat myself.....it's all about what you do with that judgement that makes a difference. Either allow your prejudgement to keep you from getting to know a person as who they truly are, or give yourself the opportunity to look deeper, past the face value and make a judgement on who a person is. We don't always portray ourselves accurately in RL or in SL from the outside. It's a mere glimpse or a little part of us, it doesn't make up the whole!

A neutered furry?

I'm not trying to derail here - but hey! I have a Resident Question that this thread sparked.

What exactly is a shapeshifter in SL? I have an avatar that I really like that shifts shape depending on what he's doing - he's like several avatars in one. Hovering, flying, sitting, falling, etc. (he turns into an anvil when he falls, which I love). Is that a shape shifter? It seems like there are plenty of anthropomorphic animal avatars, but they aren't really linked to a specific human avatar. If you call them shapeshifters, then pretty much any non-human avatar falls into that class.

*confused*

i thot it was a hud that keeps your avatar from going ruthed.

Trout, since I introduced the word "shape-shifter" into this conversation (I think), I'll tell you what it means to me.

There are people who are always human in SL, or always furry, or always tiny. Someone who always (or virtually always) wears the same avatar is not someone I'd call a shape-shifter.

However, someone who wears a different avatar every time you see him or her - or at least who has several different forms that he or she cycles through regularly - is what I would call a shape-shifter.

I call myself a part-time shape-shifter. 70% of the time or so, I am found in human-shaped blue form. I change clothes and hair styles, but I am usually the blue Madhu you see in my forum avatar to the left here.

The other 30% of the time, though, I am playing with the growing collection of fun and interesting avatars in my inventory. I might be a tiny warthog, or a tiny tentacle monster, or a full-size tentacle monster, or a robot made of cardboard boxes, or a tiny dinosaur, or a snail, or a nautilus, or walking mushroom, or a shiny metallic sphere.

None of these forms is my identity - they are, to me, costumes worn by the familiar blue Madhu. To others who don't have a default form in which they spend most of their time, shape-shifting may *be* their identity.

That's my use of the term "shape-shifter" - others may interpret it differently.

oh. that. yeah. LOL

i thought Trout meant the hud that is selling about to keeo your avatar from going all goofy.
Edit: i thought you meant this:


P.S. i love to wear my Boxer avatar. cute when it walks. i'll have to steal that back from my alt.

Got it. That makes perfect sense to me.

I cycle through a lot of avatars for fun, but I identify with my normal Trout shape, skin, wardrobe, etc. Different avatars are a blast, though. I've never felt that anyone was judging me differently based on them. I figured they were judging me on what I said or did, which is ok by me.

Nope - I have an avatar that is basically several avatars in one, and the avatars are very different from one another. It instantly pops from one to the other based on what you are doing. So if I hit fly, it instantly becomes the hover avatar. If I move forward, it grows wings and a propeller and becomes a totally different animation, Hit "stop flying" and it is instantly an anvil plummeting to the ground, etc. It's a lot of fun. I think of it as a "shapeshifter" because it automatically shifts based on what it's doing. That's where the confusion came in. Actually, I was sort of hoping that this was some sort of recognized thing in SL and that there were a bunch of avatars that did this sort of thing. I'd dig out my wallet tonight if there were and load up on shapeshifting avatars.

that sounds cool! so, tell us who makes this avatar so we can all go buy one!

It's called something like "the original mimic" or "the mimic" and they have it at Grendels. I'm not in world or I'd check on its creator, but I'm pretty sure a search will find it. Like most things at Grendels, the price was outstanding and the workmanship is excellent.

I would say I'm 50% in my regular human and/or elf form, and the rest of the time I'm playing around with silly avatars - the more 'different', the better. No more strange than Halloween or masquerade balls in RL.

I have a question, too.
I'm still not too sure about what furries are. I have a anthropoid Collie av, does that mean when I wear it I'm a furry? That I automatically am into 'yiffing'? I just got it because it looked nice.

yiffing sounds like a sexual act. it probably is. i still don't know for certain what it means since 2K had a question mark after his guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeTBG9PU5Js

Maybe this will lend a helpful resolution to your question