Looking for answers

I joined second life and I really liked it so i decided to do my thesis on it and other online gaming. Im looking to ask a few basic questions to other players like why did you join, how long have you been a part of second life, what do you do in SL, etc.

If anyone is interested in answering my questions please let me know, it would be very helpful!

Hey at least you are asking nicely but do a search for "survey" here. EVERY student in the world had decided to survey SL and specifically the forums. What has it been, maybe 4 this week alone? It has gotten to the point of being nothing more then spam here and next time don't try to BS us. You have a join date of today, which means you have no idea if you like it or not. You received assignment, created an account and immediately came here to bug us.

You must seek out the Orical of Wisdom..For only she can show you the way to enlightenment
N stuff.

Not only have there been numerous surveys about SL use, but many of them pay subjects to participate. Where's my $L250?

LOL - The new folks have no clue about how easy it is for us to find out some basics about them.

Calling it a game is a clear indication you've scarcely been in world, if at all.

How long have you been in real life, and why did you join that? You will find the answers there.

Doesn't have to be that way. Could be he created this account to keep it for "studies" and separate from his main, to keep the main out of the line of fire.

{crickets chirping}

Did I really say that...?

Newbie ... check
1st post ... check
Generic purpose ... check

Except that the first thing anyone learns is to try to half way make themselves someone interesting to talk to, including putting some info in the profile.

Back to OP, since you were half way creative which demonstrates at least some intelligence........................

You already have an account and even a free account has no limits. IF you take the time to explore some you will find that there are literally no boundaries here. Explore(look through the forums here for interesting(sometimes mind blowing) places to see), maybe take a couple of classes which would give you an opportunity to talk to some people, read every post, in every thread here on the first page of RA, fill out your profile and let us know a little about YOU, maybe try building something, maybe pop into the forum cartel in world for a HUGE education After you do all of this, come back here and post what you have discovered and your request again and even I, who notoriously hates surveys in RL or SL will participate.

Only if you answer some questions first:

1) What school do you go to?
2) What was your GPA last semester?
3) Have you purchased a Skin or Hair yet?
4) How many groups in world have you joined so far?
5) Have you received a Linden Bear<tm> yet?
6) Which would you rather have chasing you
a) Neko Jail Bait with a demon background
b) Pixie with a pink chain saw
7) Why did you take this survey?

6a!

Ouch!!! Where's the love!!! I remember when we used to be nice to newbies. He should have to learn to dump an old account and setup a new one so soon because of one mistake.
Erin contact me and I'll help you out.

If I were to ever have to do a thesis on SL, with my current knowledge of how SL people behave and how SL works, I would do this.

1) Log into SL and experience it for at least a few weeks. Learn about how to look at people's profiles by right clicking on them. Learn how to change your appearance. Learn how to shop, dance, chat, build, skydive, etc. I think that people would appreciate it if you showed that you have a little bit of understanding in how SL works.

2) Fill in my own profile explaining that I am a student. What school. Etc. Not too specific that someone could find out who I am but enough that they might find some legitimacy in my questioning.

3) I would look for people to survey. Where? I would go to welcome areas like Ahern, Idu, Korea, Bear, etc. I'd also try sandboxes like Plum, Newcomb, Island, etc. Maybe even clubs, stores, hangouts. I'd also try going to the map and just blind teleport to places with lots of green dots. Having spent a few weeks in SL I would know to avoid bots and campers who won't answer questions.

4) At these locations I would first observe what they are doing and see if they are too busy. I'd also look at their profile which could give me clues as to how they spend their time in SL. I would introduce myself, tell them about my thesis and ask as politely as possible if they could spare a few minutes of time to answer some questions about SL. Make it short and snappy.

5) I would prepare a list of questions. I'd try to make maybe three questions that are most important to my thesis and ask those first. If a person is willing to answer more questions I'd have a few more prepared but if not then at least I have my first three questions done. My questions would be in IM and I would make sure my IM chat logs are set to be saved. This would get rid of any need to write down what they say as it's all saved already.

6) I'd thank them sincerely for helping. Even if they refuse to answer any questions I'd still thank them. I'd jot down their profile information like their SL join date, groups, etc.

7) Repeat until I get the required amount of responses.

Erin....IM me in-world and I'll try answer some of your questions. Answering them here will surely lead to the skeptics and miscreants putting in their 2 cents worth (and yes, 2 cents is all their worth imo).

Before the deluge of thesis/survey/class assignment posts I had a lot of empathy for those doing such as I wrote my Masters thesis on a cultural population subset via IRC. However, no one with whom I was interacting on IRC knew that.

To follow up on Bree's post/suggestion: I simply found an IRC channel that was involved in the population group I was studying, sat and listened for a long time as well as read their website (and a lot of outside reading on the subject as well), then began gradually joining in and actually experienced as much as I could via IRC (Internet Relay Chat for the 'younguns' *grins*) about my chosen topic of study.

It actually turned into me gaining an interest in something I had never really known much about.

To the OP, you can learn more within SL in the way of research than all of us combined could tell you - and experiencing it yourself is...priceless.

We really are not always so harsh to new folks -- ask many of the recent new ones here in the forums.

But we are constantly being hit up for educational related surveys by folks that do not seem to have a real clue about what they are surveying. Many have not even logged in to SL, nor done any prior reading or searching of the forums. Therefore, a large lack of preparation on the part of the student.

I'll do it, I've been in SL since 2003 so I can give you a lot of answers.

contact me inworld or be email, [email]lizziebarrett@gmail.com[/email]

lizzie

Actually, the one piece of info in Erin's profile is that her join date is not today. Only 3 or 4 days ago, but not today.

Does it really matter if there are 4 or 5 of these surveys a week? If people didn't keep posting about how much they dislike them they'd soon drop of the first page.

I deleted my initial answer because in retrospect I feel it was unfair and too snappish. After all, Erin asked nicely, even if a certain lack of preparation may be surmised.

If she is willing and engaged enough to meet in-world, I'll be glad to have a chat at the fireplace in my glade.

The point is that they come in here, want us to do their school work for them, and don't even offer the 2 cents! What happened to quietly studying the animals in their own environment, learning how they interact without the change introduced by the observer?

If you walk up to a lion and try to survey them about their eating habits, don't be surprised when you end up on the menu.

surveys of the relative minority representative population found on these forums aren't going to be very helpful for a thesis, or very accurate. there are heavy bias' represented here that would terminally skew any results (never mind selection bias, or question bias).

my suggestion to Erin and any other surveyor would be to take it inworld. Include samples from several areas in each major theme of 'play', as well as random samples of low traffic areas NOT associated with the major themes.

I realize academic standards are pretty low these days, but a thesis should be both well thought out, AND well researched. ignoring basic rules of research is just going to leave you with a very skewed and unreliable view of the topic, with conclusions to match. fortunately for you, odds say the reviewers probably know none of the subject matter, so won't notice the difference.

Clicking on users name in this forum provides this: Join Date: 02-22-2009

I did respond with info on how the OP can maximize their response. The real world analogue to people joining SL strictly to do surveys is telemarketers who call at dinnertime. Evidently there are some who do answer their questions or they would not call then. If the OP did put in a minimum amount of effort as suggested by a few of us then there should be an overwhelming response, instead of a trickle. The added benefit is that the OP may find another social and creative outlet that they did not have before.

If there was a "lack of love" as proposed by one, then I would not have responded with anything at all that could help the OP.

dang it, you just made me hungry!!

lol

Erin actually joined February 18th. What you see here is the time the user first set a foot into the forum.

The forum join date is different to the SL register date but, even if it wasn't, I don;t see anything odd about someone who is wondering what topic to use for a thesis, joining SL, looking at it a little bit, and realising that it might make a good topic for the thesis, and on the same day as registering.

I agree with the suggestions to actually use SL to gain some experience of it. Then some questions may come to mind, which can be asked specifically. Research can be done without experiencing it, but not nearly as well.

Erin. I suggest you get involved in SL for a while, as part of your research. In that way, you will get to hear of the different ways that different people use it, and you can try to find people who use it in the different ways, and question them if they are willing.