Stranger Greetings

Yeah I noticed it too... just added it to the list of reasons I don't use telehubs anymore.

A point to note is that after a teleport you have to wait and rez, work out where your going, you usually have a bunch of things on your mind.. maybe they just didn't notice.

Siggy.

Once in a while you show up at a telehub where someone you know is, and that is a nice suprise. More so, however, I think telehubs are useful in helping stores (that don't build 300m walls) recieve more traffic by fly by traffic. I can't tell you how many stores that I now love, were discovered by flying to a different location... usually another store found via search actually. So, to me, I think telehubs are a good thing. For most people I think the flight from the telehub to their destination is between 300-800m, less than a minute of flight. I think having telehubs is good for reminding me to slow down once in a while, no need for all the rush.

I always try to respond to greetings, but I rarely initiate them myself. Not because I'm unfriendly, but rather because I usually assume that, like me, people are probably doing something or heading somewhere.

Social gatherings are another matter, of course. There, I usually assume that people are out to be social. That's the only time I really consider it rude not to return a greeting or respond to a comment.

I make a similar argument for group limits. Being restricted to fifteen groups at a time keeps me from wildly overextending myself by joining dozens of groups then trying to particpate in all that they do. You wouldn't believe the reponses I get. I didn't even know they made virtual eggs til they started flying in my general direction.

Well, they're be well shaken if we could script a netted item to catch them... Scambled eggs in the shell! We're gonna be rich! Rich I tell you! Rich!

/goes back to being vagely normal again..

As SL grows, we may get more into the "unfocused interaction" mode common in crowded city streets, shifting our focus to make sure we don't catch anyone's eyes, shifting our path to avoid a possibly unsavory sort who might snatch our ROAM off our back or try to give us one of THOSE pamphlets, and opening the chat history and moving it to where we can't see any of the text on it, just to make sure.

When was the last time you actually said hi to someone?

SL Changed, it is not the same as before when you knew at least 70% of the population. I used to do the same and always say hello at hubs and at stores.

Now, I land at a hub and people just fly quick. Actually the hub was the best place to rate people. I used to meet people at hubs, was a cool way to meet friends. If you do that now people think you are crazy. What a shame.

I am so glad I came to SL back then.

We always sat around TSO wishing we had more players. When people harkened back to the fun of beta days, it wasn't because there were fewer players, but because it was all so new and fun and exciting.

coco

(Hits nail on head. Nail yells "ouch"

Growth is ideal. I'm hoping they'll keep the free "tourist" (as AW calls them) accounts available and make it possible for them to "browse" directly to a parcel from a web link without having to fly from the nearest hub. We'll be so integrated into the real world then we can actually use this software to advertise, entertain and diseminate information. People will see how wonderful it is and want to upgrade so they can build a site and invite their people. Before you know it, we'll have a real 3D web thing going on.

It's the "their people" thing that seems to stick though. LL really push for a global happy working together one for all community. It's so prevalent in thier management that they've refused to update the group code for two years because it would accomodate niche groups splintering into their own world and inviting dozens of "their people" to join them. I honestly thought Prokofy was Philip for a while because he preached against the growth of diversity so vehemently. I'm still not wholly convinced otherwise.

I find them dehumanising in the same sense that the train or the bus is, which is I think what Catherine meant, but a part of the effect I tink is due to the nature of the teleport process.

To effectively get to ones destination, one has to shoot straight up from the hub to the 250 metre ceiling and proceed from there to the giant red tube thingie. This means that even before the res is finished, you are flying up and away from any possible social interaction. The tempation, even if you see someone you know, to continue blithely onwards is great.

If it was point to point teleporting, the first thing one would do apon arrival is to stand around and wait for the res, since one woud already be where one wants to be. Therefore it *would* be more social. I would expect each store for instance, would have a "landing area" like they do now (although better placed for actual landing), and that a certain amount of socialising would take place in these "mini-hub" type areas.

Overall however, I dont think one can expect a lot of social interaction at a transportation centre and hi's and hello's are not really to be expected in general (IMO).

.

Don't Talk To Strangers!!! didn't your mom teach you anything?

I am happy to say the past few days since I started this thread have proved to be quite friendly in SL. I was out sailing and saw a player working on a build.. sailed right under him in my path, I waved and said hello...just when i thought.. * sigh this is the norm* I received a PM from the player saying hello back. A small effort but made for a big smile.

I have bumped into a few new players and found it quite nice that in some cases they were the one to greet first !! I still found many that were rushing here and there, or lost in task at hand, but its nice that where the world has grown, and continues to do so I am
happy to say with a little effort its still possible to meet some wonderful players in SL

*steps off soapbox*


Rosa

I think we have some dehumanizing processes going on in SL that are dehumanizing in the virtually literal sense of making humans into non humans; how else does one account for the people who change into such things as giant tomatoes, monstrous robots, squidlike wriggly things, or the creature from the black lagoon?

I have always said hi when I see someone shopping or just walking around or if they fly next to me but I don't say hi at the hubs I always fly off real fast. I have seen though that it has changed many don't say hi back anymore like they use to. When I use to go out to clubs all the time everyone said hi when you came in and I would know a handful there, if I go to a club witch is not often now I don't see anyone I know hardly ever and the hello's are not like they use to be, I will always keep saying hi to all I see but it sure is nice to have one back.

Well, my fruit bowl is a very personable and jolly AV, if I do say so myself! (The one Azazul Cukador gave me.)

SL does have something going for it that actually makes it more friendly than TSO. And that is, people are there even when they are not at your house!

I have an old friend living next door to me, and I just LOVE it when he's home and puttering around on something, and I'm home and puttering around on something. We don't talk all that much normally, but it is so companionable! So nice! When he lived next door to me in TSO, we couldn't see each other, or talk over the back fence or anything. We had to actually go over to each other's house. We couldn't just SEE if they were busy at something or whatever.

Or like tonight, three neighbors dropped by while I was working on something in the yard. Walked by, dropped in - just what you might expect in a real neighborhood.

Now of course, by the same token, privacy is kind of hard to come by, I suppose, in that you can't REALLY lock up your house like you could in TSO. But the actual walking around in the world, with other people in the world with you, makes for some very companionable feelings, even if you don't really know them, and/or even if you are working intensely on some solo project. And when they do drop by, you don't have to completely stop what you're doing, rush to feed them, and all that. It's not at all rude here to talk while maybe you are still working on the thing, more or less, and nobody has to be fed!

One of my roomies often just stays at the property, hanging out, or working on something of his own. And again, there's no need to keep up constant chit-chat, and yet I enjoy his company and having him there. I wonder if others experience the same comfortable, if often silent, companionship with their friends and neighbors?

coco