Privacy Update? Please?

No I can't, but does it need a precedent? I also feel there's a "great call of people", and I am calling as well... but read Flipper's proposal, he's talking about more functionality than simply invisible or visible to all. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to be visible to my partner (and she lives in a different timezone, so our time is often limited, I don't want her to have to ask "are you there?" or anyone else they might choose, whilst not being visible to others. What about people with a business, who want their friends to know they're there, but want some downtime without having to deal with customers for a while? Do they have to IM twenty people to say, "hey I am here if you wanna hang or chat"?

I don't really understand your resistance. Wouldn't you like options? Is it more of a job to pull it apart and give it a few features, or is it more of a job to pull it apart twice? Is there a technical or economic imperative to do it half-baked that I'm not aware of?

SL social structure calls for something more sophisticated than simple MSN-type functionality I feel.

my .02$L

ICQ, for all its faults, has wonderful privacy controls. As an example, it has the standard modes of

Online
Offline
Busy
AFK
Do Not Disturb
Invisible - Appear offline to everyone (with exceptions, see below)

It also allows the user to set individual controls on a per contact basis such as

Always visible to contact
Always invisible to contact


That way you can be invisible globally, yet visible to persons "Foo" and "Bar"

I'd love to have the ability to appear offline to everyone except maybe four or five people. I always turn down friendships because people have a tendency to show up at random when you grant that, and there are times when I just don't feel like entertaining random company. Unfortunately a lot of people get butt-hurt if you turn them down, and there ARE times when I wouldn't mind them showing up unannounced.

It would be cool if we could move calling cards to different folders, and then right click the folders and set options. Also an option to individually set options regardless of whether someone was in a given folder or not. That's just about exactly how it works in Yahoo!, etc.

/bump

I think I'm coming across wrong, I'm not resisting such functions, I just think implementing them would slow downt he pipeline in getting even some basic privacy controls in. I would prefer they NOW implement basic on/off privacy then expand the functionality later. Rather than wait for the entire selective on/off controls which i think would be great but would probably stick with simple style myself. Don't have anyone special enough to want to always talk to

So in short, simple now, selective soon.

I agree, I get rather tired of the 'show up out of nowhere' thing myself.. sure somtimes I don't mind.. but other times I'd rather be left alone. And I'm nice too, so I can't just say 'STOP DOING THAT!!' So I wish there was a way we could appear offline to some people, and online to others, and a way to stop the 'show up out of nowhere' thing too. I mean, what if I was doing something I don't want others to see?

While I too would often welcome a certain additional amount of privacy, may I offer an alternative viewpoint? That being that the current system kicks up a non-trivial amount of "social churn" that adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the game. Ie, being stalked can be annoying as hell, yes -- but it's also *interesting*.

Whenever I see someone in the media write about SL and say that it "doesn't have a goal", ala WoW where you're supposed to kill ogres and level-up or whatever, I always know they haven't spent much time in-world -- else they'd be aware of the amazing, incredible, utterly astonishing amount of drama that takes place within the grid every minute of the day. It may not be the "game" LL intended, but it's for sure a major pastime and I could easily argue that it's a form of "entertainment". And what else is a game, anyway?

Jess

What if you are playing hide-the-sausage?

Subtle, but yeah it would allow "partners" to "cheat" more easily

Because getting an alt is so difficult?

Michi summed up my frustrations brilliantly. I hadn't seen the Luskwood gang in quite a while, and as you can see, there was really no point in me being there. I put my avatar into the Yatta animation and then simply wasn't there; I was swamped. Earlier in the evening, Hiro and I were trying to hang out with the gang in the Dublin sim at the music festival - we were both so swamped neither of us could participate in resident conversation.

Torley, while I hear what you're saying, I have seen many Lindens on the main grid - not a private island sim - that don't appear as a green dot on the map, appear offline in status, and don't show up on llSensor. I think its a by-product of god mode. If that code is already in there, why not give it to us? Not ALL of god mode, just the ability to hide a bit...although the idea of Taco Rubio with unlimited zoom & strafe camera controls is quite amusing to me!

Also, IM caps would seem easy enough to remove. Auto-decline of inventory while in busy would seem to be easy as well - like a 5 minute change - since its extra code that needs to be removed, not new code that needs to be written. These aren't huge, earth shattering changes that should take ages to implement, but continually seem to be ignored, despite how much they affect the content creators (who, incidentally, are problem some of the folks you want to try to keep happy, or it'd be a pretty bland world).

Regards,

-Flip

I'll quote myself as I think people might miss it as most of the time they do when it's the last post on the previous page.

As for linden hide, I know a way to see if a certain linden is actually online. I think Cyn and Torley know of my method already XD

Now is this really all that hard to do? >.> This is what i wan't!

If you think about the underlying database and server adjustments that would have to be made, it's a fair amount of work. Also a bit of a cleaner UI as that just looks scary to work with, too many buttons and I thinkt he average person might be a bit confused by that lot, right click menus for people might be better. With your status icons to show active perms.
I also like the online/offline groups, maybe even detecting folders in "Calling Cards" as groups for the friends window as an option. At the moment I use my IM window as my friends list so I clearly know who's online and who's not.

Nice visual aid there Yiffy: I like it!

I agree its a bit of work, but certainly no more than many of the things that have already been rolled out which aren't really all that useful; I have yet to see a single follow-cam implementation, for example. While I'm all for working on scalability, a few of these long standing issues really need to be addressed.

Regards,

-Flip

Flipper... you are such a cheerlogist.

Oh, and privacy in SL... wassat???

This post is brought to you by your friendly neighborhood troll.

I don't know if it's hard to do, but that is exactly what I want!

I've been turning down friendship cards too for the same reason and it makes for a VERY uncomfortable little situation and people are often hurt.

It's also really uncomfortable telling someone you'd rather they go away right now. It just seems completely uneccessary, I have no clue as to how difficult it would be to implement privacy features but they really do need to be there. It just makes you want to log out when you have to deal with awkward situations like this.

I'm hoping LL puts this on their to do list.

Exactly - not to mention just hurt feelings, its also REALLY bad for business. The one time I cancelled (what were then) a whole slew of calling cards, I had far too many conversations explaining that I didn't hate everyone who I had cancelled.

I don't think the problem is getting this project onto the to-do list - its there. The problem is getting it OFF the to-do list, making it a priority project, and getting it done!

Regards,

-Flip

Just a thought on how this has impacted my mentoring.

I enjoy helping and encouraging new residents and have spent a lot of time doing this. I frequently accept offers of friendship so that I can continue to help new players during their first weeks. Some of these friendships have become real and lasting. But by and large, I cull my friend list regularly and remove the bulk of new residents once I am no longer needed.

Over the last few months I have cut back dramatically on the time I spend mentoring new residents. I simply cannot deal with constant interruptions which range from IMs to having new players map me and drop in when I would prefer they not. This is why I have posted many times asking for more privacy controls.

Now clearly I have the choice not to accept offers of friendship. However, when I am trying to encourage a new resident ... having to explain why I am declining their friendship is awkward and despiriting. Also, I actually like to have new residents on my friends list so that I can proactively check in on them - when I have the time to offer a help.

A little control here would be helpful, and help me, to help them.

Good point and something I forgot to mention. It's really tough trying to do volunteer work and still be visible to everyone on your calling card list. I have an alt for live helping because of this. But it sort of blows having to be an alt just to get some helping in.

I think avatars will still have a physical presense int hw rold, just be able to not make themselves visable in friends list, find and not be able to found on the map.

No, green dots would stay, and avatars won't be invisible. If I'm within your sight, you'd see me. Lindens wouldn't let avatars be invisible, for exactly the sorts of reasons you are concerned about.

Great that means the chisai hentai will be overunning my land! I am going to have to set my defense level to "DEFCON 1" at all times to protect myself! Even then I am not sure it will work.

So the majority get to pay the price so the vocal minority get there privacy.

But as I have already posted, think there is a way it can be done now. This is going to make things worse! Remember Flipper wants more than just making the "friends" a worthless listing. (I admit to not understanding all of his words, it is confusing english!). He also wants to make it impossible to IM other residents without their permission. There is also other elements that are confusing to me.