This bugs me alot

I think the stock avatar skin is a lot better looking than this shit-brown fake white supermodel horseshit with the 60 gallons of body oil inducing more shine than SL's own stock "high shine" setting.

Oh, we mustn't forget the shoulders being twice as wide as the hips.

Honestly, Starling. I didn't mean to offend you earlier, but the way you present your posts doesn't come across very well. And, actually, it is about you as a person, or at least YOUR opinion. A lot of people have stated on here that looks aren't important to them, and you just keep telling them that they're lying and that, yes, looks are important. You're trying to force your opinion on them. And I don't think I'm better or smarter than ANYONE else on this forum, but I do think you can take some time to use punctuation and capitlization in your posts, it makes them much easier to read and understand, to be honest. It might also keep you from being taken the wrong way.
As for looks being important, maybe they are to some people in RL, but not in SL. Maybe the guy you are chatting with wearing a newb skin is actually movie star gorgeous in RL, and doesn't want to attract the same kind of attention in SL that they attract in RL for their looks. I know many gorgeous RL people who get really tired of someone only wanting to date them because they look good. If they wanted to just lie low in SL, they would probably prefer a plain newbie look. See.....even you wouldn't "fuck" them (as you so eloquently stated), so they get to avoid all of that kind of attention and drama.
I don't know that this is the case, but could be another explanation for why they choose to remain "newbie-ized". Before you assume that they are ignorant or stubborn, talk with them nicely, get to know them and eventually, they will probably reveal to you why they feel they look good as they are. Then, you can nicely offer to take them shopping if you can convince them to see things your way.
And, please remember......this is SL, the avatars are just cartoon figures. I can't quite see myself being attracted to a cartoon figure, but would be attracted to the person behind the keyboard, with their wit, charm and intelligence, sight unseen.

Well the newbies need to take advantage of the free options out there. A lot of the major skin makers have given up free skins on newbie islands and such....I have male x2 skins there and naughty skins for men also free. I am not sure about the females but these are $1850L skins at the stores.

Starling, My alt has a 'male items' folder that can be transferred to any male newbie. It has skins, a shape, clothes, a linden hairstyle (because I can't find a nice copy/transfer free male prim hair) and a prim penis. I think most guys ARE very visual (they looked at you didn't they?) and you'd be surprised at how many will gladly accept the folder instead of muting you. What's funny is once you get them going they start getting all fashion conscious on you.

Those skins were never meant to be free.

You are basically advertising on the forums that you participate in IP theft.

Heh! If you were really Einstein you would know better than to use lame lines. Now take off that fake AV and quit hitting on me.

hm, you know when you post something expect people to disagree with you..

I know.. I've posted before and alot of people disagreed with me.. so? Yeah we all have opionions and I knew by posting that I was opening myself up for whatever would come.. I had a giggle out of it myself and kept my cool and didn't flip out...

I also didn't use the F word or tell people what they want or don't want...

There is only one time to use the F word and its not on a public forum. ; X
IMHO

The last months there has been a lot of free skins of good quality. A quick search on "skins" in a freebie blog will give new options to free and 1L skins almost every week. Not so many for men, but a few decent ones. Not to forget new quality skin for avatars under 30 days old. The good thing is that none of these skins are stolen.

http://slfreestyle.blogspot.com/
http://fabfree.wordpress.com/

To come back to the topic....I was one of the girls who stood and played with the sliders and thought I looked good. I didn't know that the default skin was considered ugly. In fact, I became a bit sad when someone told me that I would find good skin and hair soon.... Well, brutally honest.

Not to mention the shocks I was in for when I tried on some freebie skins. How could a skin with the beautiful name: "A medieval princess skin" look so terrible? The HORROR! And I couldn't get back my default skin....or get on eyebrows. The Linden skin was much better than that skin! Ah yes, that was the good old days back in August '07....

People complaining about noob looks and talking about all the wonderful free and cheap skins out there always make me feel insecure. :-}

I fussed and tweaked everything while still on Help Island, and I thought (and still think) I looked pretty good right from the start. Once I had an apartment and thus a safe place to undress, I discovered that the Lindens' idea of an "average female" body had more in common with the body of a teenage boy, so I adjusted the shape to give myself actual breasts and hips, but that was still within my first week. I've made only very very minor tweaks to the skin and shape since. So it should definitely count as a newbie appearance, but I just don't see anything about it that I should be embarrassed about.

And, yes, I tried the freebie skins I could find, and demos of others. But as others have mentioned, their coloring tends to be limited to corpse-pale, melanoma-to-be-tan, or Tammy-Fae-is-my-idol makeup. And the shapes I could find were horribly unnatural. And I'm not talking about just the freebies, but also the commercial demos. Sure, I'd love to have a more realistic skin that looked more like a woman than a Barbie doll. But since I'm not here for the sex, I'd much rather use a default skin with the right skin tone and makeup that looks like me over a mass-produced so-called "sexy" skin that doesn't look like anyone I'd want to date, much less be.

So I'm quite happy with my newbie looks, thanks. Well, except when people are complaining about newbie looks. Then I start to wonder whether I have the SL equivalent of toilet paper stuck to my shoe, and I just can't see it because of my poor graphics card.

Is it safe to come out from behind the sofa? Are all the toys out of the pram yet??
I'll spend some sl downtime picking them up while ppl calm down a tad.

I make clothes n bits to sell in SL and the bane of my life are those max sliders down the board male avs with tiny heads invariably with an oil sheen skin 1. they are so extreme they ruin even the best drawn clothing and 2. fitting prims to them is a nightmare (personally I think these masters of the universe extras look hilarious but to each his own
my own av is a mix of skin I tried to do and realised its harder than it looks lol and whatever I happen to be working on but my basic av hasn't really changed in 2 yrs and ppl actually recognise it as me so I don't think I'd want to "upgrade" it now.

Ty I will pass that info on to Sorm, Raven, Cat, Windwalker, Atiya and Littlewing.

Welp. I spent about an hour on Orientation Island working on my skin and shape, and that's been me ever since. Don't hit me!

I have a friend who has been after me to get a skin for ages, but I can't find one that seems as right as the default thing.

For one thing, it has skin that is pale enough. (And not yellow - not sure where the yellow comes from?) And for another, I like to wear stage make-up in a game. (And I like to change it.)

In real life I have very dark hair and pale skin and dark eyes, eyebrows, etc. - so I want that in SL, too.

I did buy hair, though. Some, anyway. Well, four or five.

I still get people hitting on me. Just probably not very discerning people! haha Then again, I don't need or want to be hit on, so that works out fine.

But anyway, I pretty much like the way I look (except the way lipstick bleeds on Linden skins), and feel comfortable in it. And since I'm the one who mostly has to look at me, I figure that's all right.

I guess I might buy a skin if I ever found one that was close enough to the way I look now.

(I'd buy more hair, too, if I found more in more natural styles.)

Now clothes and shoes, that's an entirely different matter! And jewelry. I buy lots of those.

coco

Very well said. I've been reading this post all day and have been up and down with my opinion but Tarina said exactly what I was wanting to say! Don't post something if you can't handle people disagreeing with you. The differences we all have is what make us unique and that should be celebrated not flaming at people because you can't handle that they don't agree with you. Kind of spoiled don't you think? Not to mention - we have all been noobs at some point, if you don't like something about a noob, then mentor them and give them some pointers instead of forum bashing them!

Hi Coco!

If you haven't seen them, you might like to look at the Alabaster line of skins by Gala Phoenix.

I'm going to be teh devils advocate here but personally I find look in sl more important then looks in rl. In rl you get what you are born with and that is by in large the end of the story. But in sl where your looks aver a extension of yoru personality I'm going to judge you by how you present yoruself. If you are in a randomized male ava with a huge nose I'm going to assume you are a griefer. If you have a super perfect skin and lots of bling i'm going to assum you want to look good to people of the gender of your prefrence. If you are here for a year with the same ruth skin then I will assume you are either an alt or just not a social game kind of person (scripters and builders). Looks in sl are cheap and they are things that take seconds to change. There are exceptions as always but in sl you control your looks and I don't have to feel bad about judging you on them. But just like judging somone on how they write it is not some thing that is 100% corret. But if I have somone coming up to me going 'U wan 2 cum on me??' or coming up to me in a randomized male ava with giant guns on there back I'm going to make assumptions on you based on how you present yourself. Be it text wise or visualy since it is your choice as to how you present yourself.

((please not this is for SL. Rl looks is something I don't realy care much about since we don't actualy control alot of it))

Some people don't care. They are trying to make money for a project, perhaps its alt and they just don't care.
Some people are very focused on making enough to cash out so they can pay rent,etc.

I take your point Tasrill, but there are residents (such as myself) who do not see their avatar as representing themselves. I see my avatar as just a tool, an extension of my keyboard, if you like. I do have a skin and have made a little effort, but very very rarely do I change the clothes on my avatar, because to do so for me is not much different to giving a car a paint job - my avatar is just an object to me.

Huh? Or do you mean something like, "yet to meet the woman looking for SL nookie who is interested in my mind"? Because I've met you and I even found you interesting, and it certainly wasn't for anything other than your mind. I can't even remember what you looked like (no offense).

To the original poster: You are a little sensitive for someone who started a thread saying, essentially, that ugly avatars suck and people who have them are stupid and deluded.

Folks came on here trying to point out two basic facts - first, that ugly is in the eye of the beholder, and second, that people have different reasons for being in SL, and some of them aren't related to being attractive to you.

Somehow you have interpreted every disagreement with your premise as an attack. Why raise a provocative issue on a discussion board if you don't want people to discuss it? You certainly aren't going to make any friends by telling people to "deal or leave the forum" because they dare to have a different perspective from your own.

ETA: ah, I missed this:



Well, don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.

I dropped a solid oak table leaf on my fingers on Thanksgiving. I hope that was the right time to use the F-word, because let me tell you what! That one and several others came out in rapid succession.

Then there was the time a piece of wood blew up in my cabinet shop and I fed my thumb into the drill press. Used it that time. I used it again in the hospital when they were trying (successfully - YAY!!!) to save the end of the thumb.

Slammed the truck door on my hand, Seahawks lost to the Panthers, forgot to use a potholder when I pulled a pie out of the oven, Mom got cancer again, stubbed toe on bedframe at 2:00 am (frequently), Top flew off a bottle of ketchup and the Hells Angel at the table next to me got drenched in ketchup (bad times). Let's see...Donkey draws out with two outs on the bubble...AGAIN! (that makes sense to the poker players, but trust me - this happens two or three times, the F-word is ok).

There's more.

As a newbie, I would just like to give my 2 cents worth. When I first logged on to SL, it was an overwhelming experience, maybe I'm just not as quick to grasp things as others are. I had no idea how to adjust my look. I saw everyone else around me "editing" their appearances and I finally figured out how to play around with it. I do admit, I thought I looked good, but, I didnt know any better. No one was there to tell me to check out the freebies or that I could buy a skin and shape I liked better. About 3 days after being here, someone I had never met, did a wonderful thing. She took me to her shop and let me pick out any outfit I wanted and then she took me shopping for a skin and shape, paying for all of it. I wasnt offended at all by her generosity, she was very tactful in pointing out the orange tint to my skin, and how my hair didnt move at all. LOL I never saw her again but once I was settled and on my feet, I did the same thing she did for me. If I can ever afford it, I will do it again. Just watching the excitement in someones texting when it hits them that there is so much you can do with your appearance. The girl I helped out was so excited and it was great fun shopping with her. I still use a freebie shape tho that I have adjusted to what I like.

that's not quite true.

naughty's man's skin "damien", for one, has been stolen. it has been floating around both as a freebie and as a "for sale" skin by unscrupulous sellers. i know this because i bought the skin 2 summers ago and wore it for quite a long time. it has some distinctive mole placements.

i have been told that is the reason naughty has not released any new skin line in ages.

it's also the reason that more and more newbie men are beginning to look like close relatives.

You know what Madhu...I actually owe you a public apology for that public statement I made, we met the other evening and I can honestly say you are also an exception to the rule, I knew I should have gone back to edit that statement because you did come to mind...there was a voice in my head reminding me of you and your beautiful keen mind in that beautiful blue head of yours...Please forgive me Madhu (there are at least two women in SL who are interested in my mind).

Yep I know that well. Hell I used to be like that. My avatar was simply a fancy cursor that I could build with. And well I know many builders who still treat there avatar that way and think as much of changing there avatar as they do there them on there desktop. But That says something about you now does it not and judging you on how you show your avatar off is not something that is wrong. Newbies get a 'get out of jail' free card cause well they don't know any better but the longer you are here the more your looks say about you.

forgiven and forgotten GG.