If You Had to Disclose Your True Identity in SL...

I don't hide the RL me. I'm happy to reveal myself, as I have done many times to SL friends. In fact, I prefer it. What I won't do is use a system like SL that requires me to reveal the RL me to all who use it, but that will never be a requirement for all users. LL have my RL info, of course, but that's necessary.

Nope I wouldn't. Those close to me in SL know roughly in the UK where I live and what I do for a living and thats it.

One of the things I have found from previous groups is you can get on so well when online and then you meet a person in RL and it's like "OMG I just don't like that person"! LOL. I'm a member of an online craft group. Bunch of ladies swopping crafting tips one of the members lives litterally just down the hill from me and we do not want to meet. She seems lovely and we get on really well but what happens if we meet face to face and it's hate at first sight? We will still be in the same group but it will never be the same.

I have plently of RL friends and my SL friends seem to have plently of people in RL not to need to meet up with SL friends. I prefer this.

Pie

They should have your ID because it's a necessary part of the business relationship you have with Linden Lab. Nothing more, nothing less than that. I also trust Linden Lab a whole lot more than I trust Aristotle/No-Integrity with my personal information.

Premium or not, landowners or not, tenants of estates or not, we are all Linden Lab customers, and enough information for them to know who they're doing business with is not a luxury. It's essential to preserve the business relationship you have with Linden Lab. Provided that information is only used to preserve that relationship and is not slated to be shared will-he, nil-he with the likes of MyFaceTwitteringSpaceBook and their users.

I don't much care. I don't actively try to hide it, or care if someone knows who I am in RL. But I understand that there are many reasons, for others, why this would not be the case. I suppose I should care more from a physical safety viewpoint, than I do. Other than that, I can't get any personal drama worked up over someone knowing my rl identity, probably because so many already do. It really is a shrug to me.

*SHAME!* /me feels your mother's pain.......

There are a couple of reasons.

1. Businesses need to have your ID to do business with you, at least to the extent of giving them a credit card number.

2. They need to know who you are in case the police come after you with a warrant.

To LL and/or online friends....absolutely no problem, to the viewing public in general, no. This is only because of security concerns...the world is just TOO crazy

I come here to escape the real world -flat out, end of story. If I was forced to disclose my RL information, I'd simply buy back my lindens and then stop coming.

FUCK that noise!

I take the poll to be about mandatory *public* disclosure of RL identity for every account, so I voted no.

LL should require verifiable RL identity of every account, but that information should be subject to release only with a court order.

Also, in some possible universe, I could imagine having one account publicly associated with my RL identity, but that would never be my "main"... it would just be another whiz-bang social noise network thing like LinkedIn that might plausibly be useful for some RL business purpose someday.

Now, I don't think LL is actually proposing anything like what I take this poll to be asking. Nonetheless, I'm quite astonished at the folks who posted to the blog about how their SL and RL are inseparable. It seems so sadly limiting, such an utterly unimaginative squandering of what virtual worlds have to offer. Like some cargo cult that takes washed-ashore avionics to be a manioc masher from the gods.

Would I give my RL info to LL for legitimate purposes? I've already DONE that, they have my credit card info and my flamin' passport info, they already have more than they need.

Give out anything about me to anyone in SL who cares to browse my profile? HELL NO.

Like many, I come here to escape. I work with disabled people, am frequently on call, and have elderly parents with more and more health concerns. I never know from one day to the next who's gonna call me or where I'm gonna need to be - right now, my life is really not my own (by my choice, I admit, but it's still stressful).

My Second Life is the ONE THING, right now, that's mine, for me alone and whoever in SL I choose to share it with. It's the one place I'm NOT subject to being at the beck and call of a zillion people all needing me to do or be something, and it's very precious to me. And I will NOT share that with the general public, under any circumstances. If LL requires me to do so, I will be gone like THAT. *fingersnap*

In general, I prefer not to link RL and SL very closely. There are a handful of close friends in SL who know who I am . . . and I'm reasonably free with RL information, I suppose. But I would definitely NOT want my RL name publicly associated with Scylla: I've just received too many nasty, invasive, or threatening communications in SL or on the blogs.

Another avi, not associated with Scylla? Yeah, maybe. But it wouldn't be as much fun.

But what about those who have free accounts?



Again, with the above query re point 1., why would the police need to track down someone behind a free-account virtual character?

Yeah but, if everyone's identity was 'real' would you ever receive those, people are cowards knowing there is no recourse just because their info is hidden from you.

Everyone has a right to decide whether their real life details in SL remains private or not, myself I have no problems with others knowing who I am in the real world and through this I have met friends on SL in the real world too and every meeting has been a joy.

Because they're copybotting child-porn and using it to assault Anshe Chung in an interview with Fox News?

Some of the most profitable businesses in SL are owned by 'free account' avatars. You do not have to be Premium to own an island, be a merchant, or cash out Lindens.

If a virtual character engages in any sort of fraud (say, money laundering through Lindens) or RL harassment of others who HAVE disclosed RL info, the police will be interested.
.

Ah, the lessons of Usenet have been lost like tears in the rain. If someone attacks you via your RL identity they don't need to reveal their own in the process.

If they committed some sort of crime.

In any case, they don't need to have RL details on file to track someone down.

well I can't argue with my ignorance

I am not into giving up my real identity in SL, I have a facebook but I dont know how to use it... I do occasionally use myspace though I do not tweet or blog either... and I do not own an iphone.... but I do own a cell phone, but I forgot where I left it...

Well, if you put it all out there for the world dont be upset when everyone sees it,,,

so to recap, no.. my answer is no

give me your number I'll call you and then you'll find it.

Lol!

"Free account" does not equal "No Payment Info on File". If you want to buy $L, you have to give LL a real identity. If you want to access adult content, you have to give LL a real identity.

Note 1. Yes, I know you can spoof Aristotle with Elvis' social security number. That's fraud. But it's not germane to this discussion.

Note 2. Yes, I'm aware that there are people with Free Basic accounts and NPOIF. I'm also aware that some of them gave false information at signup. That's fraud, and paranoia, and an abuse of the system.



If the person behind said character commits a crime, of course. Either in RL or SL. Stalking, for example. Or fraud. Or theft. There was a story recently about a criminal being tracked to Canada through his participation in WoW.

If you want to buy L$ from LL, you have to provide them with some payment information, however there are other sources to purchase L$.

The information provided for age verification is not supposed to be retained, so while you are providing it, they aren't keeping it on file. At least they say they aren't.