sl community full of deviants?

Heh, this is definitely a fun thread now

On the orginal subject... kinda... sorta...

WAAAAY back in the dawn of the internet and BBS, I went online as 'myself.' This led to tons of RL problems and drama even though I never sought such things out. I learned that the way for me to enjoy the internet was to remember that things are always VIRTUAL and to interact with it in an unreal manner, expecting that others do the same. If people wanted to meet in real life and so on, that's great for them, but that is by definition no longer online or virtual. Get the distinction?

90% of all serious online drama comes from confusing online with offline reality. I've been happily online for many years now using whatever masks/avatars/impressions that suited each game or venue. I expect that no one is what they appear to be. I avoid RL drama with ease.

In my opinion, people who come to a place like Second Life demanding RL veritas at all times and taking everything literally are the deviants, albeit unintentionally so for the most part. They're not getting the point of the medium at ALL, and superimpose an incompatible set of values on the situation and everyone else.

It doesn't surprise me that the OP's SO is no longer on SecondLife. Sounds like 'he' wasn't compatible with the medium, and neither is 'she'.

Luckily, it's a built-in filter.

Ah, but I saw you at the hang out hitting on that 13 year old kitten!

I'm 10 Nya~~!!! (>_<

s'cool. Debunking illusions is something I love to do also!

/me sneaks into thread from The Other Forum, looks around to see all the deviants and giggles and runs out

I have not seen many gender neutral avatars. If someone is representing them self in SL as a F or M, if they are expecting to have sl sex, its a courtesy to identify in the profile, what they really are and what their orientation is (and if they are 18+).

Others can get all huffy about it if they want, but when I see avs that are 6+ month old and the profiles are blank, I generally don't chat with them.. too bad for me, too bad for them..but you know I have plenty of friends.

Being coy about what you are is just a way to lie by omission. Its your business, and its certainly my business if I don't want to deal with it..

WHATEVER.

OMG for some reason this post brought to my mind a line in WOW..... "Me not that kinda Orc!"

I just assume they're bots.

So if they lie to you and get away with it, that's better than not telling at all? Interesting. If they give a RL gender, orientation and age, what level of proof do you expect?

When I was into SL sex (not so much these days) I was only interested in the other person's imagination. How they presented in SL was a consideration, but who they were in RL wasn't (assuming they and their av are a legal age). But then I am a deviant

Scare them off? Are you nuts?

/me prepares for a new tidal wave of new residents...

Now, children. Let's all get along and play nice.

<------ Deviant.

I was going to deny it, but then I did a quick self-assessment and realized that all the stuff I do for fun, the way I try to make people happy and laugh, the nutty jobs I invent, letters from the Lindens, Trout Ratings, Biplane strafings, skeleton bird chicken dances, and everything else is, if not completely deviant, at least a little weird. Plus, you should hear some of the things that I say after a few bourbons on a Saturday night.

I'm also a complete liar. I don't look much like Trout. I'm heavier, uglier, and my hair isn't nearly as good. I can't fly. I don't have a pilot's license, and the laws of physics seem to have a firm grasp on me. When I point my arm at a weird angle, I can't make plywood boxes appear out of thin air. In RL, I don't own any aircraft. Sigh...worst of all, I can't dance worth a damn.

So there you go. I'm living a horrid, deviant lie. The only thing that's real about me in SL is me. When you talk to me, you get me, as I truly am. Forget the physical stuff like looks and gravity. That's really my personality. It's me cracking jokes, dropping cheesy one-liners, complaining about my sore back, or whatever. In RL, I have to watch how I speak, wear a suit, and behave professionally. In SL, I can actually be ME. It turns out, I sort of like me. I value my friends here as much as I value my friends in RL, and I feel like I get to see theM as they truly are as well, not how they are when they are constrained by RL rules.

I guess I'm a deviant. Is there room on the bus for one more?

About time you showed up. I couldn't save this seat forever you know.

/me straps herself to the top of the bus and plays "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n Roses on her boombox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRC4H64EFk

Hey! If Trout gets to sit next to Brenda, where am I supposed to sit?

No it's not. I find it highly discourteous for people to expect ANYTHING from me in my RL profile tab. It's none of their business, even if I were having SL sex with them, because they're never going to meet me in RL.

Ever.

So why do they need to know again....? Oh, right, because they can't separate RL and online, which is as I said, where 90% of the drama and angst comes from.

Not my problem. Keeps people away who can't separate online and offline? AWESOME! It's a built-in drama filter.

Courtesy online, to me, is to not be asked about anything in RL or pestered for me to 'prove' who I am. But then, I don't go around stating that this is standard courtesy for everyone online because such a thing does not exist.

Brenda's lap?

OK, I guess that'll work.

And a profile is just words on a page, just like an Avatar it is the creation of the user. You can make yourself look like anything you want, and you can also say whatever you want in a profile, or in a chat or IM for that matter. But in the end you don't know for sure who is at the keyboard. Voices can be faked, you can even do the Cyrano thing when using web cam. That's all a bit too much to worry about for me.

I take the avatars as they are presented to me in SL, that's it. How i relate to you is predicated on what you do in SL. We aren't going to meet in RL, so who or what you are is immaterial to me. I have no problem with those that want to intermix their RL and SL, but it's not what I'm interested in. People I meet in SL are just as deserving of respect and kindness as any in RL, but SL is a world unto itself, and I prefer it that way.

/me glomps Dakota before he can get to Brenda and pins him down. (=_=)

Only if you promise not to be so fidgety this time. Not like when we took you to the Zoo...

I have a feeling our boy Dakota might be in more trouble than he realizes.

Ya bunch of deviants.

Where are the torches and pitchforks?

/me flings a waterballoon at Immy

(Eh, who am I kidding. I'm really just typing in a message board. Oh, what a deviant liar I am!)