Mixing Real Life with Second Life.

Not much more to add...I think you handled it very well, Becka. Sometimes when asked that same question, I look around to see what sim I am in, and that's what I say. Other times, I reply, "um...Second Life?"

If a person can't respect the fact you don't want to share any RL info,then they are really not worth talking to. I would lose that"friend" if I were you.

I've used that one before. It gets you within 60 miles of my home and several large cities & towns.

There's also:

http://www.whois.net/

which can be quite handy.

Not sure if Packet Sniffers would do any good?

And for the record- I'm from SW PA. Yinz figure the rest.

This is the scariest aspect of SL to me. You have RL family and friends in SL if I'm reading it right? There is no way of knowing the person you're having a relationship with isn't the creepy old uncle you visited on holidays when you were a kid -- or the sociopathic kid who tormented you in school, etc. I'm not saying it's likely, just an uncomfortable thought.

I used to want to completely separate RL and SL and I still think that's valid, but then I realized we can have alts. I have started letting a small amount of RL creep into Weston once in a while. Neither me (Weston) nor my alt has ever done anything that would't fit in a PG sim, but it's comforting to know I have at least one identity that I can always keep anonymous and one where I can relax my guard a little.

As for people who push too hard to make you fit in their little boxes, send them my way. I find them highly entertianing.

That sums it up nicely. How will they respect you as a 'friend' and be a real friend if they can't accept your wishes regarding your personal info?

I made what I thought was a nice friend in SL, then because I wouldn't share my email address they got pretty arsey with me about it and I haven't heard from them since. Don't need 'friends' like that...

When someone asks me where I am from in RL, I tell them that I do not exist in RL. I am an avatar who lives in SL, I've never been to RL, and I'm not even sure there is such a place. That blows people's minds.

I do not actively try to befriend other avatars. If someone offers friendship and they seem nice, I will accept, but friendships and relationships are not the main thing for me in SL. So I really don't care if my refusal to reveal info about my RL bothers people.

I quite agree. Not a one of 'em. Myself included.

It is just sooo frustrating.

To the OP:

This is exactly the type of conversation which first induced me to respond with JUST "Penguin". I've used this successfully for over 10 years, guaranteed to make them go away.

I've never looked for anything RL here and in the beginning nothing SL either so when it happened, it happened hard and fast. Even so, it grew from a normal convo. SL has always had it's share of "Wanna MSN/cam?" types. Lack of imagination, mute if needed : )

***edit Oh yeah the fetish hiding thing I can't really empathise with, personally I am pretty much the same online as off, kink wise, except I am sure I am dealing with a girl for sure if it is meant to be a girl. I'm far more kinky offline than on, and anyone close to me knows what I am doing in SL anyway : )

The more I read this guy's (?) responses, the more he appears to be a control freak. You would not be controlled, and he didn't like it. Mute the dood!

no means NO!

That was a freak.

I cant stand it when ppl ask personal info and they just happen to bump into me somewhere, how rude. The other night I went back to Apollo Gardens I was alone on SL so I thought relax do some Tia Chi. Then this guy starts out nice then to say "so whats your deal Morgaine what are you all about? Where do you live?" I said huh? I dont disclose my personal info no offense. It was very awkward. Then he leaves says your choice whatever....

For someone to push you into giving out information is a red flag. I dont think I could have been as nice as you where. My tolerance level is shorter everyday with this brassiness. You did the correct thing and dont sweat it really there are still plenty of nice ppl in SL.

PENGUIN

lol

Besides, nice people like penguins : )

The whole SL concept imposes no expectation that we should reveal anything about our RLs. Generally I only say I came here from Britain. I've led an active enough second life for long enough to find more than enough in-world stuff to chat about, with just the occasional snippets of RL stuff.

Your IP number is your computer’s address on the Internet. It is used by the computers you connect to, so they know where to send the answer.

IPs are, broadly speaking, assigned in a hierarchy of country -> organization -> whatever. But since organization is usually an ISP, and “whatever” is a fairly predictable system they use to assign numbers to their customers, an IP number can generally pinpoint you to a city, or even a specific part of a large city, though lots of deviations or even deliberate masking occurs.

As for somebody tracking you through SL, the answer is both yes and no.

Everything you do and say is sent to LL’s servers, and distributed from there to other players. They will only ever see Linden’s IP. It doesn’t matter if they claim to be using some l33t haxxord client; your computer is never communicating with theirs, and so they cannot see your IP.

HOWEVER, music and video streaming (and the associated HTML-on-a-prim) is done by your computer contacting the source directly, to avoid that LL’s servers have to use insane amounts of bandwidth by mirroring everybody’s music. So if you have the music or video stream turned on, the ones controlling the streaming servers can see your IP. Of course you still have to be on a parcel which is pointing you to such a logging server, so somebody randomly passing by cannot do it.

I think that being mysterious about your location draws MORE unwanted attention to yourself. It's like going to the mall wearing a hat, dark glasses and a trenchcoat. People will say 'who's that person?' By being evasive about your location you could be creating the very intense curiosity that you tried to avoid.

I am not bothered about giving away my location at least down to the city I live in. It's a big city, at least as far as British cities go, and the odds of anyone being able to link my SL identity with my RL one are small, unless they already know me in RL. I wouldn't be any more specific than that, and I'm absolutely determined never to show pictures of my RL self or reveal my RL name. For all I know, the next person I run into might be my boss.

As for that conversation the OP got into, the guy is clearly a creep.

It tells me I live 200 miles away from where I actually do live. I like that =^.^=

Is it..... France???

Once you've decided how much curiosity you're willing to satisfy it really is perfectly possible to satisfy no more than that amount and utterly refuse to care if more than than that amount of curiosity is aroused.

to me, it is just a personal decision with no right or wrong answer
i am me to a fault in sl
(except for the pink hair and the cute butt)
i have friends that are gameplayers and friends i have come to know in rl
it matters not to me, i take people as they come to me

i have to admit though that the people who most want me to follow their "rules" and not just let me be, are the gamplayers
to that i always reply "there are no rules in sl and if i want some i can make them myself"

did i mention that i am a little rebellious?

Thanks, 3Ring. I took your advice. Here's my chat log from an earlier conversation:

Anon: "Hi there!"
You: "NO!"
Anon: "So how are you today?"
You: "NO!!"
Anon: "I really like that thing you made."
You: "NO!"
Anon: "Well I'll catch ya later.. Bye!."
You: "NO!"

I'd say you've got it down.

NO!

Thanks for the replies. Makes me feel a little more comfortable with SL. I have been playing for almost a year now, it just seems Linden Lab wants to stray from a true "Second Life" to "First Life Extension" with many of their policy changes and some of the new features they added and plan to add.

If I want RL meet ups I have absolutely no problem doing that IN RL. SL is an escape from reality for me.

There's been a 1st life tab in our profile from the very beginning. Second Life is "your world, your imagination". I don't think that necessarily means living a totally seperate life.

It's the users of a program that will determine how it's used. Although you're right in that Linden Lab does have a very strong influence. For example, they could quite easily remove the 1st life tab.