What's that white little light above my avatar?

Starting to feel like this is an episode of Seinfeld but ever since the latest release was downloaded there is a small laser-like white spot ( light ) that is located just above my group tag/name tag and goes where ever I go - anyone else having this ??????

White dot = voice enabled.

You can turn it off in the preferences options, if you do not want to use voice.

As the vast majority of the playerbase do not want to use voice, Linden Lab were getting concerned because of the statistics not showing the introduction of the feature that very few wanted as actually being popular at all.

So, in their infinite wisdom, they decided somewhere along the lines that they would take away the choice as to whether we use it or not, and simply make it "on as default" unless a user knows how to turn it off.

Then, in their figures, they can show that 30,000 users have voice chat activated at any given time. The fact that only 6 of those 30,000 might be actively using it is somehow irrelevant.

"Type NO to voice"

Its there, use it or not. Its called 'choice'.

Unless you've taken an accurate poll of every single user?

/fixed a la Wikipedia.

LOL!! Good one!

Exaggerate much? The choice is still there, one click in preferences and the voice features are deactivated.

Thanks to all who responsed !

Things like voice should be "opt in", not "opt out". I shouldn't have to make the effort to turn off an unwanted feature that very few people asked for, very few people actually use, every time there's a patch.

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I thought there was a popup when I uploaded the latest client, asking if I wanted Voice enabled or not.

Leaving aside how many people use it or not, it probably should default to off, simply because people really ought to know how to use voice before activating. And there's the possibility of people having it on and not knowing it. It would be potentially embarrassing for those who might have an integral microphone on their monitor....

Someone I know once brought up the subject of toilet seats - leave up or down? Why must it be the men who always have to make sure it's down, etc. I thought the question was valid and gave him my opinion (which I won't get into, lol). This debate on voice being activated automatically or not kind of reminds me of that. Should it be on by default for voice users, or off for non-users? Since it only takes 2 seconds to turn on or off, is it really, really that important? Are we going to be jealous because WE are the ones that will have to take that 2 seconds to change a setting? Seems silly and petty IMO.

Good point. Add the info on OI (communication).

that little white light is actually the chip activation mechanism for the chip that was put in our heads when we were all very very little..i never thought they would actually use it..i suspect there will be some major event that happens in sl that attracts everyone to be online at that moment ..once everyone is in place they activate the chip and we stay in a hypnotic trance just playing out the rest of our lives in sl never to return to the real world ever again..
damit ..all those conspiracy theorists were right!!!

they only want you to think it's for VOICE!!!

I thought it meant that those people were thinking, which is why mine is never on!

I dunno Izzie, 2 seconds can be an eternity, especially in the Digital Age.

...but will it be one of the "features" that needs to be turned off every time you relog?

It's an automatic win for LL. All the bots and the newbies who don't know what button does what will have voice enabled, and LL's voice use statistics will soar...without a single additional person CHOOSING to use voice.

Nice little bit of corporate-think, gentlemen.

All I know is


"Don't go into the light...."



Inc

It defaults to 'push to talk', so those accidents should be minimal.

And my 2 cents. It's better to have it on by default, as people only have a choice if they actually know an option exists. People formerly oblivious of the whole voice thing will now see the white dot, wonder what it's for, figure it out, and either decide to keep voice active or disable it.

As voice is handled by different servers, so having a lot of extra voice enabled residents shouldn't have a negative impact on performance either.

Quoted for Truth.

Personally, I shouldn't care, since the SL client doesn't work on my four and a half year old notebook with mobile broadband, but even when I was playing, I did ever so much prefer to choose to turn ON a new feature, that if they were so worried about no one knowing about, could be prominently posted on the newfangled login screen as well, so they can see it.




But that makes too much sense. ¬.¬

People really use voice??????..Shocked HAHhahah

I've used it mostly for friends who can't type fast. For quite detailed teaching (Maya, Photoshop, GIMP, etc). And for chatting with some Vets from Iraq.

It has uses, but not always. I understand the whole RP aspect of not using it. Same with Escorts.

Its just one of those tools thats there if/when I need it.