Voice chat...I refuse to use it...am I a terrible person?

Yep. Given out plenty of freebie kits - once I have my place running ok I will be down there again.

I've personally never had any hassles with voice tho ... maybe chat in world about your experiences some time? (As opposed to maybe inspiring griefers by doing it here LOL).

Personally I don't even talk to anyone who isn't using voice.

I was illustrating the use of voice with those quotes, but since I can't insert sound into text on this forum, you can see the literal limitation, literally. In SL, with the voice chat feature, I COULD have inserted voice there, timed right.

My point was that you can use voice with emotes, just like using emotes with animations, scripted effects from attachments and props, etc. You have more than one media dimension to express yourself in, why not use them all in combination?

How could you? - You have to type with the people who dont use voice.

Because I don't want your voice (and any background noise or static) interrupting my SL immersion, or my voice interrupting both my privacy and the RL experiences of those around me in RL when I am logged into SL.

For general introductions, explanations, good-byes, sayings, jokes, laughs, ect...I have recorded my own voice, along with combinations of specific gestures.

That way, even if a citizen doesn't have voice enabled, they will hear me nonetheless.

For example, I simply press F7, and the citizen hears, "Hello, my name is Michael Bigwig, welcome to Glowbox Designs. If you have any questions, just let me know."

And as you are hearing my RL voice, a fitting set of gestures is animating my AV. It's really quite cool if you actually take the time to set it up.

Exactly how does comprimise work in this situation?

I thought on it, And cant see how voicers who wont talk to texters and texters who wont talk to voicers can really "compromise"

The closest compromise I can come up with is someone who is voicing listening to the texter while the voice reads what the texter is typing.

I guess using or not using voice is liek a light switch on or off - theres not really a "Sorta on"

I agree its not the tools that are at fault. Voice has its place now. And its gonna stay.

And I definitely agree texters giving voicers a hard time and vice versa is not a good thing.

Bingo. And this occurs all the time. I find that the majority of texters are more than happy to listen to a person, and then reply via text. And I find those that like to voice, are more than willing to do the opposite.

That is a compromise.

It is NOT a compromise when an anti-voicer refuses to enable voice on principal, and only accepts communication via text.

And it is NOT a compromise for a voicer to only acknowledge a citizen unless they use voice.

And ruining my wonderful streaming music? I love the hear the music on the places I visit... and places without music I find are often missing something in my opinion (of course the kind of music must fit the area). And I think that "that kind" of noises can be rather irritating.. no matter if it your own voice, hooowlllzzzz, baby laughter or what.

And with my mix of Amsterdam/Twents dialect speaking English... it won't be "cool".

Morwen.

/me makes popcorn, feeds her penguin some pie, proposes sex to everyone, and puts on her panties. Here we go again......

I am sophisticated and tactful--you would not be annoyed by these voice-gestures.

If you think your streaming 'music' is more important than genuine citizen communication and creativity...then I fear there is a lot about SL you will either miss, or misunderstand.

Why so angry?

I'd like to hear your accent

But yes, I tend to prefer music to voice myself.

Brenda, stop popping the penguin with ice cream in your panties, you naughty girl.

I've done this, too. I'm an experienced actor who's done voice, I've got good recording hardware and sound processing software. The headset isn't as good, so I wouldn't guarantee no white noise creeps in, but there are ambient sound generators around the sim, to make the setting sound like what it is, and covers up the technical flaws.

But I also like to stream my music, too, and don't always feel like shutting it down to voice act.

Oh hey Moleculor! My first inworld friend encounter on the board. I guess you can understand where I was coming from when I started this thread, having been to the rp sim I am talking about. A wonderful and fun place to be, except for the "us and them" culture that voice chat has created. The main issue I am finding also is the fact that voice chat (at this sim anyways) is always used for ooc chat. You end up having a big group of avies just standing around doing nothing but ooc chatting, while a handful of people try to carry on a storyline. Worse though is when the voice chatters find their way over to the rpers and start to interrupt with their ooc chat.

Thanks everyone in the thread for all the responses!

So there you go... those that don't like voice or prefer music over voice, we will not experience SL that well... Figures and typical. Let me assure that those that don't use voice experience SL just as good as you do.

BTW I would never claim about myself that I am sophisticated or what. That is for others to judge.

And good music in SL? Anytime over your voice.

Morwen.

Guys guys guys ...

Why does this issue bring out the bile so much?

I don't get it.

If you don't want to use voice it's a personal decision which people should respect and not belittle.

If you do ... great ... you enjoy it.

If it is causing issues aside from that well those issues have been mentioned.

BUT

Using voice doesn't make people any 'better' than people who don't. And tbh I hate public voice a lot of the time. Feedback whistles, typing ...

Nonsense.

That said, I will still use it cos I want to.

What's the big deal?

It's *MY* land, so please explain why I have to compromise on *anything*?

Text good, music good, voice bad.

Ding! Ding! You're correct.

Hmmmm....hope I'm not treading into too awfully messy a thread here, but I think you ought know that many people, myself very much included, find gestures with vocalizations attached annoying. The "looking gooooood!" gesture comes to mind, as well as more than a few others.

Really, no offense, but if someone wishes to hear your voice, they will download the voice client and voice chat with you. I suspect that those who do have voice activated would prefer you just to speak to them, vice using a canned gesture.

I totally agree that there is nothing wrong with voice for the most part. It's probably really fun if it's your thing.

The ONLY time I would have to say voice is not as good as text is for role play. The reasons have been mentioned through out this thread, so I won't type them out again.

I would never judge anyone for using voice, because that is their choice, and I know most voicers don't judge us texters either.

Smiles ... wasn't you I meant hon

In an effort to get more women to talk to them using voice, Some voice advocates want to play on the stereotype that those who arent voicing must be men.

Thus ensuring grudging submission from the non-confident and desperate, and eventual raising the ire of the more confident women.

After a few cycles of this. Women resent the implications enough to be angry over the accusations, While Men feel they must be on to something to have cuased such a backlash.

Men of course are by nature and further conditioned by society to be confrontational - And they feel if they meet a woman who will stand up to them, shes "probably a man."

Online chat rooms have been around a long time, Voice pressure is no different than the old 90's chat room "Why wont you give me your phone number?", and the accompanying resentment by those who didnt want that level of intrusion.


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Of course not all men are like this. Just some. But I beleive it is the kernal of why angers flare on this topic.

Of course many confident women voice - Its just confident women are not being Swayed to voice by accusationary and pressure tactics.

I also believe the argument is so old it is deep seeded. It is far older than SL.

I fully agree with you Cherry. There is no big deal.... It is all to person who is behind the keyboard...

But yes, it annoys me when I am told that because I don't use voice I am less creative as those that do.... or because I like music a lot more then voice shows me as some kind of wierdo... and that my SL experience is less because no voice.

Each there own... simple as that. But if someone hits in my direction I dodge a few times, then I show my opinion very clearly.

Give room to move, get room to move...

Morwen.

Correct on both points. The main issue has always been insecure men who are worried that the "babe" they are chatting with is actually a boy in RL. That's the main issue for all of the bile, angst, anger, name calling, intensity, passion, hatred and ill-will over this issue -- it's based on the incredibly powerful force of male homophobia, in my view.

It is much older than SL, I agree, and impacts across the board, regardless of platform, and very much has its precedents in the behaviors some of us saw years ago in chatrooms.

I will continue to not use voice because I do not like to use it. Luckily, I do not hang around much with men in SL, so I have yet to have it become an issue, but my perspective on the voice/non-voice issue is very much to each their own.