Voice awareness for non-voice users

It would be nice for non-voice to be able to tell who is using voice. Sounds fair since they know who is using chat after all ^.~

As with who uses voice or why not *shrugs* I rarely run into anyone using voice. I know a few who have tried it, but most simply return to the standard chat. Less headaches I think.

I personally, won't ever use it. Due to physical injuries in RL, speaking is painful to me. Plus, I sound like Gene Simons on a white lightning binge when I do speak *smirks*. I also know two people in SL who enjoy their time here because they are deaf in RL. SL gives them a way to communicate with their friends.

The other MAIN reason I prefer chat is the ability to SEE what I'm saying BEFORE I say it. Re-reading as I'm typing has prevented me from putting my foot in my mouth on more than one occation.

~Jessy

As others have said: enable voice, mute it with your volume control, make sure you don't have a working microphone attached, but one more thing - get a friend (or an alt) and make a group so you can wear a custom title that says "Not On Voice Right Now" or something like that, so people won't make the wrong assumptions.

In fact, someone should make an open group for like-minded people who either want to see the dots or are just tired of being asked about it.

Yeah...sadly, the only way to see if someone is voice enabled is to enable it on your own client.

I tend to keep mine disabled - I personally do not like to use it for a number of reasons, ranging from the personal to the actuality that it does cause a huge number of crashes on my computer (regardless of which client I'm using...as soon as I enable voice, I crash within 15-20 minutes).

Most of the people I hang out with do not use voice, unless special circumstances call for it.

I had a group of SL friends that went the voice route...and quite honestly, they became boring to listen to - nothing but pathetic attempts at sexual humor (unless they thought it was verbal foreplay), or giggles or other innanities...I had to give up on them, as they decided voice was "it"...and I decided voice made them into dim-witted sycophants...

At least with text, people put some thought into what they have to say.


Of course, this is all coming from a text-based dim-witted sycophant...

I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone....

Srsly, I truly thought I was a lost cause when one of my loli friends was using voice. Until then, I had assumed that SL kids and particularly lolis would stay far away from voice. (O_o) I'm still a bit bummed about it... It's like I'm losing a chance to build a common bond with someone I get along with very well.

I haven't been on long enough to form any serious friendships yet, except one or two, so I have no idea what Winter is going through... But I can imagine.

Looking at the solutions.... (>_>

I think having the real voice dot and muting voice is a little too deceptive and confusing... **Says the lolicon ageplayer... **

My group name is my sick little joke that I'm gonna hold on to for a long time.(^_^)

Less and less people are reading profiles it seems... The ones that do tend to work out well anyway.

Ceera... You were able to talk to the developers? Could there be a way to form a petition? I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for them to set up. (^_^)y

Actually, there is a Jira feature request for non-voice users to be able to see who is using voice:

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1795

Jira is the best way to talk to the developers.

The issue was closed by Torley, but reopened by its creator. It only has 2 votes, so if you want this feature, better vote!

For instructions on how to vote in Jira, see this post:
/327/4a/234101/1.html#post1826980

Odd? I can't find anything that states Voice runs on the exact same servers as the sims. Most of it states it runs as a seperate entity on its own, like running Skype along with SL.

Now- if you mean overhead as in "your own personal system", then yea, there would be some. Not a heck of a lot from what I've seen, as I have yet to see it bog me down in the slightest. Bad builds, giant textures and excessive scripts seem to cause more bog downs than a simple voice chat. According to many networking/telephony books, as well as Wikipedia:

"The bandwidth allocated for a single voice-frequency transmission channel is usually 4 kHz, including guard bands, allowing a [sample rate of 8 kHz to be used as the basis of the pulse code modulation system used for the digital PSTN."

And all of it at an 8-bit sample over a simple phone line. Most sounds in SL are at a higher bit-rate (32 and higher).

If your DSL or Cable connection can't handle that, then SL is definitely not working for you either.

As for the OP:

Turn on Voice in Preferences. You can see the white dot then. And as someone else stated, it would be nice to have the option to Listen in even though one can not or will not participate.

Edit: Dont use the "I cant afford a microphone" excuse!! Who CAN'T afford a $5 headset at Wal-Mart???

Yeah, that. Yay for boring conversations about real life?

I have a number of quirks that keep me from using voice, myself. Wouldn't even use teamspeak with RL friends in another MMO, let alone let strangers hear me.

Yay, for mental quirks!

I voted... (^_^)

The issue looks like it got killed here once:
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1317

(T_T)

Isn't that rich? *shakes head*

That reminded me of Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie". I though it stuck, but one small aspect of it amused me. There was one word, and only one word spoken in "Silent Movie". That word was spoken by Marcel Marceau. I love it.

Sounds to me like friends I'd be happy to lose. Certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

What part of "Not everyone wants to use voice" are you missing here? I don't need any excuses not to use it, I've been saying it was a crap idea all along. One of those reasons was that it would be devisive of the comunity. Point proved wouldn't you say?

Actually- Point Proved Not At All. Sorry Hon. Try again.

I have it turned on. I just dont use it. Its there when I need it. If not, I dont bother. Cant talk/Won't Talk? I dont care!! I have REAL friends in REAL Life. As far as I know, you're just a bunch of pixels. No more than a cartoon with a sophisticated Chat program. 99% of the time I dont use Voice. BUT- its nice to know its there.
Nice to see you're all defensive about it though.

Can't say it was a crap idea any more than making L$ worth real money, banning banking & gambling, charging VAT, implementing up-to-date graphics, allowing people to build/script/create or using OpenGL.

Dont EVER try to tell me LL had a "Crap Idea'. Compared to stuff like WoW, LL is still far behind. Yet- we're all still here. If it was such a "crap idea" you wouldnt be here. Plain & simple. There's something to keep you here. Something NO other online activity holds. As far as I've seen in YEARS, SL offers MORE than any other Social Platform that I've seen. If it didnt, I'd be outta here quick.

If you're "Friends" can't understand your reasons for NOT using voice, then they're not really "friends" are they??

I said the same thing others said: Enable Voice in Preferences. Sorry to hear you can't afford the $5 Walmart Headset. Time to ask Mom & Dad for a bigger allowance.

Seems to be a standard on the Forums lately- disagree with someone, offer advice or try to answer a question & become an asshole. So fine- I shall be an asshole.

You can enable it, leave the mic off and set the voice volume to zero if you really want to know. However it won't help you per se as a lot of voice chat is in IM. To the world I am not using voice whilst actually I can still chat away with my sweetie without having to spend every logged in moment with him - or without stop-starting typing in the middle of building or whatever.

So you COULD do that but although the voice is carried seperately to SL, it still has an impact on your system resources (no more so than Skype in my opinion).

I doubt voice will be the norm. I don't think I am alone in only using it in a few choice locations with friends, or with my partner. Most of the voice chat around is so moronic you wouldn't ever want to hear it (unless you hang out with the more erudite amongst us anyway).

I think White is correct that it would be nice to just listen if you want, but the reason lies in the client not being part of the viewer. Thankfully ... even more things to bork! At least if SL crashes and you're enjoying your conversation you can sit and chatter away with a dead screen. Quite often I haven't even noticed that SL has crashed if I am on walkabout round my home rl or resting my poor aching bum by sitting on the sofa instead!

Joseph - voice does not make people into dim witted sycophants. Dim witted sycophants using voice makes you have that perception. There are, sadly, a lot of people who really shouldn't ever attempt to talk to anyone, let alone in public on voice.

Voice wasn't a crap idea.

I've always had concerns that non-voicers would be treated differently because of that choice.

I have experienced some of this, mainly friends who have their words "become too lazy" to text. Some others who play the whole "Why wont you voice?" nonsense.

It definitely isn't as bad as some of us (including me) feared it would be. If it catches on more then that could change.

From what best I can tell it actually was implemented well and surely doesnt seem to have hurt grid stability any. (its just as bad as it ever was)

If there are idiots who voice inane things in spots - that sounds normal - there are plenty of idiots who text inane things in likely the same spots.



So I think overall Voice has been all right.

Does voice on Linux sound different to voice on windows?

Its more penguiny.

When you quoted Tod69, you left out something very important:



Kind of a feisty response when he wasn't addressing you directly.

I don't use voice, I don't like voice, no one I know uses voice, I never see voice being used, yet I don't think voice is crap. If you don't like it don't use it. It's that simple. If my friends keep telling me they don't like the way I comb my hair I'm eventually going to tell them all to go tell hell and find new friends. Might be something for you to consider.

I would agree with all of this. I've tried it, but it shatters the immersive dream-like quality of SL for me. But that's my SL. Someone else's SL is theirs - and if that includes voice, all well and good. Far from being a crap thing, I think for some it has been a very good thing. Cool. SL has room for furries, Goreans, transgendered escorts, elves, kids, dragons, parrots and many more besides, so it also has room for those who choose to use the voice feature and those who do not.

I just want to be aware of who has voice activated to avoid uncomfortable situations. If I turn voice on with no mic and the volume down, it creates another uncomfortable situation. A voice user will try to speak to me, get annoyed by my no-reply, and maybe text chat asking me why I have voice on when I'm not using it. Then I'll have to dig up my bag of excuses until I finally have to reveal the heart of the matter.

I have anxiety problems... I often can't deal with the sound of live disembodied human voices. I get hypsersensitive in situations like phone calls and intercom/PA systems. I have to get over that hump before I even consider listening to voice. I'm working on it. I've attended live events in SL (Max Kleene) and have been able to stay the whole time twice without panicking.

I know I'm being unreasonable. But please bear with me in my unreasonable request. I would like to avoid being a bother to the people I'd consider as good SL friends someday. I would like to stay in text chat for now and indicate that this is the only way I communicate. I want to be in control of the level of deception I express in-world.

Please don't misunderstand. (^_^)

Hi. No I don't think you're being unreasonable. I have had voice activated since it began, so I can hear what people are saying and decide whether I want to be part of that. Now I very very rarely hear anyone using it openly. And when I do, it's always some kind of inane chatter that I can do without. In fact, I can't remember hearing anyone voice openly for weeks.

I doubt a voice user will get annoyed if you don't speak to them. If they do, just explain. This, by the way, has NEVER happened to me. I have never been asked to use voice at all.

While I can't absolutely guarantee that this kind of uncomfortable situation will not arise, I'm almost certain it won't. Really. And if someone does get annoyed, that's their problem, not yours.

By the way, you don't need a bag of excuses. It's your choice and you DO NOT have to justify that to anybody. It's your SL and you create it your way.

Go in-world with voice on and explore a little. I am sure you will soon forget about that little white glow and just carry on with enjoying your SL to the full.

K xxx

Actually, I quite understand.

My fiancee has anxiety issues too, and we deal with our problems through IM's on Yahoo as she can't handle face-to-face confrontations.

I myself really really really REALLY hate using telephones. I prefer email or voice chat where I can choose to not speak.

I really DO wish people who DON'T wish to speak could just "listen in" and type a response. It would help those with speech impairments, psychological disorders or just plain ol' shyness to be part of the conversation. I am all for EVERYONE being able to join in one way or another.

Heh- most of the time I dont speak cuz the vodka has done its magic & I'm incoherrant anyways!

My 2c then..... I haven't got voice enabled and don't plan to use it. Not been a problem in any form or fashion.
But it's been suggested to me that I should try just listening in, as a musician friend of mine sometimes plays impromptu gigs for his friends on voice and I'd be able to join those. That sounds pretty cool to me.

At the same time, I was actually asked to use voice for the very first time over the weekend, because I'm taking part in a contest and the producers wanted to do interviews and such, because the whole thing is being filmed and broadcast. The end result of the discussion was that a voice-over will be used for my parts (freakyyyyyyyy!!!!!).

I too would like to be able to know who's using voice without the confusion of having it activated without using it myself. Guess if I ever go into listening mode I'll wear a titler saying "speechless"

I have found being a friendless recluse a great way of avoiding awkward situations.

Yeah... Been there... Have the skin tone to prove it. (^_^)

SL is the first social -anything- I've ever done since school. (^_^)

Yeah, right now it's *much* quieter on Linux! Not only that: it works just as well without a microphone or speakers. But our days of peace and quiet are numbered: they're running out of ever-more-breathless ways to say "Real Soon Now."

I, too, don't think the voice *idea* is crap, but the few times I've heard it, the voice attenuation levels were so mismatched it was effectively unusable: one speaker would be way louder than the others. Not a problem for two-way conversations: just adjust the volume control, but that won't work if it's a multi-party discussion.

I can see it becoming very useful for streamless live performances and lectures, with the much-anticipated moderator controls.