Voice awareness for non-voice users

You need better friends. You're right some things do fall apart because of voice sometimes but in the end, if they were that good they'd have endured.

I know a fair few people who don't use voice or don't want to and tbh I text nearly all the time anyway. The voice people I care for tend to be special to me, but including my best friend here and RL the ones who don't voice are no less special unless some other factors make it so.

If it's ANY consolation, hardly anyone is voicing either. SL feels empty cos it was just getting to a decent sized concentration when the new continenent opened and the population spread out again.

***edit*** Actually Imnot ... I always text to everyone regardless of whether there is a little white dot over their head or not. If anything, I think "ah crap if I can see that then maybe someone just heard me CENSORED" ... lol.

Ironic. I hate using the phone - in my case it's not nerves, I use it all the time at work. If voice required me to use a physical handset rather than the headphones I use to listen to music/hear the soundtrack of DVDs/play other games then I'd never use it. And yet in one person's case I use it pretty much AS a phone.

A handset would make it a phone, would make it too much like work.

I'm the other way round. Because I spend so much time reasoning with people over the phone, I have an inbuilt filter. However, words often fly at 90wpm out of my hands, bypassing the filter, and I hit enter before I even know it.

Luckily most people know me and understand instead of getting into a huff. And those who do go off and get into a huff can stay in the huff

I wouldn't have have made the comment about controlling deception, it gives asshats more reason to harass you. You are not being unreasonable. Don't let anyone intimidate you or bully you into thinking otherwise. It's a feature of the game, you choose to use it or not at your discretion. It has many uses, it is not the devil's work. But you don't have to use it. yes, you may be excluded from certain situations, but that's the way it goes. You weigh the pros and cons and decide. If someone can't accept that, tell them to piss off. Or send them to me. I'll be happy to tell them for you. And as long as I can use an Old School Viewer, it won't even be on my machine. Thank You Nicholaz.

I've come straight here from the first page so probably just going to repeat someone else.
I reluctantly tried Voice when it looked like it was going to really take off. I got it working with an RL friend but failed to get it with my fiancee. We don't miss it. Anything we need voice for, we need the privacy anyway so use the phone (despite the fact I hate phones).
On a subsequent occasion I heard my RL friend's voice come through. Maybe it's because I already knew her voice. Maybe I'm still thinking of how much I hate the phone but it just seems totally unnatural. Our conversations seem 'contrived' .. no flow .. even more difficult to get an atmosphere going.
Sorry, not an anti-voice rant really. I know the newer generation love it. Just not for me. Graphic enhancements yes, Windlight, next generation avatar maybe but not even struck with that really. Voice? I can't say I've noticed its use growing really. If I go to a club it's usually with Morgaine so we're not after a busy chat. If I'm by myself, I'm just looking and heck, as long as the music's going, fine.
I've certainly never met any kind of eletism in a group using voice. Does anyone use it at the hangout? I've not noticed.

Newer generation? It's my second rezday next month!

I used it when I used to go to the hangout - more precisely I used it with Ciaran and Marty, but then I'd talked to Ciaran on voice before anyway.

Don't tend to really see elitism in world anyway. Maybe I am simply too busy doing my own thing to notice.

I resisted Windlight for a while, mainly cos I was being too distracted by other people. It is BEAUTIFUL - actually if I had to choose one or the other between voice and Windlight being removed I'd want to keep Windlight since there's always Skype or whatever (which people were using LONG before voice came into SL).

Me bad again LOL I meant the RL younger generation with their camera phones and SMS texting one handed while blogging on their laptops with the other

and yes, before anyone has a go at me for being ageist, I was a 'boring old fart' when most of you were mere twinkles in your fathers eyes. I'm still recoiling at the speed of which technology has advanced.

Hands up those who remember telephones made out of Bakelite with dials on them? Oh, and telephone numbers that were letters and numbers?

I have never spoken over voice. I have listened, but turned it off because someone tried to ruin a live music thingie with voice. i spose i would use it if i knew someone well enough, but I would need to be pretty comfortable with them. I get very nervy if i am actually speaking rather than typing. Shaking and everything, yet I too work with phones all day. Puzzling lol.
And I find phones very rude! I am sure I have said this before but it is like running in front of someone and shouting 'look at me! look at me!!'. If someone rings me I will answer if i can, but if it is important they will ring back - thats my view anyway
But I would welcome a feature where I could listen without giving the impression I wanted to talk.


And hey! I am of the 'younger generation'. I have texted one handed since I was 10, now on my camera phone, but i never blog lol.
I was never a twinkle in anyone's eye, least of all my father lol.
I remember those phones! my Gran had one right up until I was about 5, than we used it in our wendy house! lol. Not a clue about the letters and numbers thing though.

I don't see much elitism either. Most grief comes from the would be lotharios, who have paranoia issues to work, otherwise most I've encountered go with the flow. I had on Priceless Fellow at KRP who said, "I use voice because it's easier for me to masturbate" and that he would make an exception in my case so I could see how good he is, and that he is really choosey in who he RP's with. He prefaced with a step by step tutorial on how to download and set it up, and even recommended several headsets. he wasn't as good as he thought, and when he TOLD me to let him know when I was set up for voice he was TOLD he could go Talk Dirty to Himself.

I don't think you were at all pushy. It sounds like you are around people who use voice a lot and since there isn't a way to tell if they are on voice if you don't turn yours on, you may have to find a way to let them know when you greet them. Voice is new and people who are chatting on it don't mean to be rude but may be so involved in their conversation they don't realize they are leaving you out. When I am in a group of mixed voice and non voice, the first question asked is usually who is using voice and who isn't and if we have someone who isn't, then I will type into chat what is being said so the people using chat can respond and be included. There are some people who only use voice and there are some people who only use chat and some use both. I am fluent in both so I translate a lot.
I do think the onus is on the voice users to ask though you can also ask as well. The reason I think that is the responsibility of the voice users is that they can see that you don't have the dot over your head.

I like the mix of voice and chat myself because I find that it is a well rounded mix of communication..like listening to a radio show and typing a letter at the same time.

people accually use voice wow spooky!

Thanx for clearing that up for me, Claire. I thought Bilbo said "a twinkie in your father's eye" and thought, 'Now, that's about the cutest expression I've ever heard!' I guess a twinkLe makes more sense...

5$ headsets? I was shopping the other day (not at Walmart), and the cheapest, good quality ones, started at about 45$. Since I only wanted to try to see what all the fuss was about, I didn't purchase one. I'll have to go to Walmart and have a look. I have a built in mic and the few times I've used it (not in SL), I've been told the sound was great, no background sounds, but I haven't tried in SL just in case.

Why would any distributer go to all the trouble of built-in mics and not include a 5$ headset. I would have gladly traded in my remote control that came with my mac for a headset. Seems more useful.

I *wish* I'd said twinkie .. <sigh>

/me very grudgingly raises my hand ... and pulse dialling, yes, tho I was very small at the time. Remember when birds imitated Trimphones?

Yes a good headset makes all the difference to voice and also to general other things on my PC. Mine was a bargain at £30.

Well, I guess the point here for me is, I don't WANT to hear the voices. I'm not against the use of voice in any way. I just choose, for my own reasons, not to partake. I simply have no desire to hear the live voices, at all. Therefore, I will NOT turn voice on in preferences. But I still would like to be able to know who IS on voice so I have an idea how to interact with them.

I do have friends who are on voice all the time. When I'm around, they text chat with me but I know I am missing the bulk of the conversation. So be it.

I also have a friend who obviously has a problem with typing. He prefers to use voice which is understandable. But, somehow, we do manage to communicate with each other and get our points across. So, it can be done.

I haven't encountered any elitism either. Nor have I had the experience of having someone demand that I set up voice. If someone does make that demand then I will simply walk away while pressing the Mute button.

And, no, I'll not make excuses for not buying a $5 microphone at Wal*Mart. Other than I refuse to ever set foot inside a Wal*Mart but that's another story

My computer and cable connection are more than capable of supporting voice. I, however, have chosen not to go there.

My world, My imagination. 'Nuff said.

EDIT to add... Oh, and bilbo, you aren't the only "old fart" around.

Well EXACTLY. I feel much the same when people are making a big razzle about group this and organised that ... and I am on my beach or wherever making stuff, listening to music I like and getting annoyed by those little boxes popping up demanding my attention mid-alignment

Dnali, of course you can do two things at once there, my talented friend Maybe you'd like to chat sometime in IM so we can actually get in touch and still keep doing whatever

Imnotgoing, if you don't mind the dot, just enable Voice Chat. If someone asks you why you're still typing instead of speaking, just tell them "I don't have a mic at this computer". I've had several conversations where the other side voiced and I typed...which is my preferred method of communicating.

I don't understand why you don't "want to hear a live human voice" or "mislead someone into thinking you're listening"...with the dot over your head, they WILL assume you can hear them. But if you're set on NOT hearing them, you can turn down the Voice volume slider, and then you won't.

And Gordon, Voice does not cause lag.

Maybe they could make it so the dot can be a selectable color for Listen/Speak/ and Listen/Only.

There is one group that I sometimes actually remember to visit that always seems to have voice on, but there was only one occasion when people actually talked. I had wondered that one occasion why people seemed so quiet, or at least much more quiet than normal. So I turned on voice. To hear someone mentioning how I'm refusing to use voice. Ah . . yes, helps to know if that is where everyone went to talk.

And yes, I kept typing that I didn't want to use my voice and they were ok with it and . . still making some comments about me not using voice.

They were doing readings, so it wasn't the kind of situation where I could turn off voice and stick around.

It was neat to hear people's actual voices, but also painful. My or their technology really isn't up to it I have a great deal of trouble with sound in ranges people are not supposed to hear, and voice seems to have a lot of it slamming me when I have voice on (an example of "sounds not supposed to hear" involves a "deer away" sound product that is used to keep deer away from your plants by emitting a high sound that only animals are supposed to hear. I appear to be an animal).

But, I'm not even listening. I just want to see the dot for those who are enabled.

Rather a live human voice than people using voice changers in the attempt to sound female!!!!! Sorry ... pet peeve - you can be male in a dress all you like but I hate voice changers.

That being said there's also the very useful benefit for people who can't talk using text to speech software.

I can't empathise personally with the issue of hearing other people talk - for me, the little nuances in someone's speech, hearing them smiling sometimes, hearing when your jokes have made them crack up laughing, and especially hearing the way voices change with emotion etc ... it's a wonderful thing. Now, if they could find a way to selectively mute rl I would be REALLY happy.

This is true and shouldn't be dismissed so out of hand as has happened on many threads.

Since the friendships formed before voice, it really shouldn't be a "your friends weren't really friends" stock answer.

The solution isn't "get rid of voice" , but the fact that it has happened and is still happening deserves some sympathy.

I use Voice quite a lot when I'm hanging out with one particular group of friends. Mostly because they started it Seriously though, it works for us because when we hang out together we're almost all building or working on something that makes typing tricky.

As soon as a friend turns up who isn't using/can't use Voice we switch to text. That seems to be the social rule with SL Voice and not doing it is rude imho. As someone said earlier in this thread, it's up to the Voice users to take the lead because they CAN see if you're not on Voice.

My two cents is that walking around with Voice turned on but your mic turned off is totally acceptable. I've never had anyone be funny because I'm typing rather than talking. In fact when there's lots of noise in my home they are very glad that I turn my mic off

My suggestion to the OP would be to try the solution suggested of turning on Voice but turning everything down. If anyone is an ass about it then they are not worth knowing. I totally understand Voice anxiety, I have it with phones, but I feel a lot of the concern surrounding Voice is because of expectations that it would create a divide between players and grief. In my experience it really hasn't and, as above, I often listen in but talk in text.

*raises hand, raises bet and calls*

First phone in house when I was a wee babe was one where you lifted the mouthpiece only, and had to crank the handle to get enough power to ring the operator to connect you. *grins* Dialing a number was something I helped teach my parents how to do because THAT tech was baffling them.

But no, I'm not THAT old *giggles* Grew up in the sticks. Though I was there for the first colored TV, and thinking that "Computers will never catch on.". ROFL Ooops. My bad

I do think that Voice should have more options for use. Someone who has lost the ability to speak in RL could listen but type responses. Seeing who is talking would help them communicate, but putting that white dot over thier avatar would mean constant explanations of their disability.

Though Voice users talking should know who's listening. Maybe a White dot for full Voice use, and a Blue dot for Listen-Only.

~Jessy

I don't think you have to make up an excuse for not using voice. A simple 'I prefer chat' should suffice. If someone insists on typing a lengthy explanation as to why it's so much better, simply reply 'Thanx for your input. I'll take that into consideration.' If they continue to insist, stay away from them. There's nothing worse in my eyes than those who 'insist' you be or think exactly like them. I'm serious, that's not friendship.