The Profile is the Message in the Medium

So True.

I have an alt who has an entirely blank profile, and she has the most exciting life.

The more you give someone to judge.....the less likely you'll get a chance to have a REAL talk with them....one that starts without judgment. Of course, with a blank profile, you will get the ones who will judge based on that fact....but I've found that those who start off that way in a conversation, finding issues with your lack of up front info.....aren't risk takers and adventurers....which would mean not much common ground, anyway.

A profile that is full of business ads will get you this:

"It's all about the commerce, baby!" .....with a lecture to follow on how you are a capitalist pig set out to destroy SL. Not really a good conversation starter, prior to dancing.

Oh good idea!!! We should all do that

Not sure that works. I stated in my profile that I don't fancy men with shaved heads and I ended up with tons of men with shaved heads IMing me saying things like, "I bet I could change your mind" or "Stroke my head, baby!"

Yeah, well I have a friend/business associate done the same thing in HER part of the world and now I am stuck waiting for her reply to an email. Sit down! lol!

I have all these emails to answer now I 've got back and I don't wanna get down to opening them. 96 of them. 96!!!

Probably they are just less of an extrovert than you are. They may find you just as tricky to deal with. I am an introvert by nature and if I am around a few extroverts at a social gathering I quickly become exhausted.

You know that idea about writers needing to write before they know what they think? Well, extroverts tend do that with speaking: say stuff and then see what they have said and whether they agree with it or not. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's not the way we all operate. Introverts tend to be conversational minimalists, doing all their thinking in their heads before they open their mouths. Because of this, if you put an introvert together with a few extroverts, they can come across as a bit cold and unresponsive, or even a bit socially crippled On the other hand, an extrovert in a room full of introverts can come across as a little boorish and over-the-top.

Jig, you have had lots of lovely feedback on these forums over the last few days, about who you are and how you contribute. Please try to remember that people have different ways of operating and that if somebody is quiet, it doesn't mean they are cold, or judging you, or that they a bad person. They are probably just ... quiet

I'm kind of like Bush when it comes to reading profiles..

I ignore most of whats said and just look at the pictures now days..

i'll start to read some and be like..Oh they are at the family stage or oh they are at the tell everyone about all the kinkies i am into phase or they are at the omg i wish i would have never said a damn thing about myself phase Ect..

It's kind of like evolution.

Me i'm at the who gives a crap what anyone thinks and just put random things in mostly for light giggles because it's not as serious as it used to be phase.. lol

LOL...well, you can't blame a guy for trying

Yeah, I agree here, spinster. Jig, you might wanna consider this... In real life, I really like extroverts but I really have to curb my first instinct which is to run away from them at worst or back away slowly at best

I really don't get mistaken for an extrovert unless I'm in a room full of people I know really well.

Ok..I don't get the "The mind-bleeper" part? Is it an inside forum thing?

Anyway...I have only changed my profile twice in my 2 1/2 years in SL. Truthfully I forget all about it. I'm sure by the standards of most people here it is pretty boring. Actually by my own standards it is pretty boring

I have never figured out what a profile is really for. I know several people whom I first came to SL with that change their profile with every single little thing that happens to them in SL..be it drama or giving a sermon on lessons THEY learned in SL or their newest love of the month. It just seems like too much work for me..so I just leave mine alone except to update my classifieds once in a while. I never get comments from anyone about it....one way or the other.

LOLz... Most profiles don't have pics of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" though.



LOLz... I must be stuck at the kinkies phase

Mind-f###er... Does that help? You are fortunate if you have never met any of these in world.



Well it doesn't have a die-hard purpose. Either to help meet people or to attract business or both or neither or something else I haven't thought of.

Perhaps I should change mine to read "Boo!".

It does help lol.....I guess I don't get out much

No you will just get kinkyer

That's OK... I like the word BLEEP cuz it's so ambiguous

That does seem to be the trend... lolz

I read profiles often. Some people have put a lot of thought and effort into them and it would a shame for that effort to go unnoticed.

I have read some very funny snip-its, some beautiful poetry, some brilliantly worded insights and volumes of the same mediocre few lines slightly reworded. My own profile has the same few lines I threw in there on the day I was ressed just so I could have something there.

I suppose that all of you who don't read profiles or think that they are important buy books without looking at the blurb, without checking who the author was, and not worrying in what genre they might be classified.

Pep (I presume you read the book until you reach the point where you realise you have wasted your - apparently not very precious - time. )

PS And if you wanted to sell something you wouldn't package it - just make it a nice surprise for the customer that washing powder is in the box rather than breakfast cereal!

Or, you open the book and find a treasure that you had not anticipated....a treasure much more rewarding than your initial expectation.

People aren't books. A book can't have an active 2 way conversation. I don't walk down the street asking people I meet for a dossier if they interest me. I talk to them. I know that is falling out of fashion with the techno crowd, but it still works for me.

I don't like the odds on that.

Pep (And my time is precious)

PS EVERY TIME that someone with no profile has insisted on contacting me, I have had to waste time discovering that they have little to offer me, and my time would certainly have been better spent pursuing a dialogue with someone whose profile indicated promise.

Are you having trouble distinguishing between rl and sl Brenda?

Pep (doesn't give anyone an interview for a job without seeing their CV, anyway.)

ok....so your system works....you've got all your treasures in hand....then you don't need anything in your profile, and you don't need to read any other profiles....done deal with your odds on system....so your precious time should not be a concern.

I'm not. I can't speak for you though. I see no reason why there has to be a difference in this case. 5 minutes of conversation can be a lot more informative that a profile. If you can't spare 5 minutes to say hello then I might as well have a blank profile, because you probably aren't worth my time, and it will save us both the trouble.

Good day, sir.

But it won't finish that way. The idea that no information is good, and any information is bad, is just smokescreening the inevitable truth: you won't get on with everybody. A profile helps you to work out at least a sentence or two to say to these guys - and where is the harm in that?

I've been astonished, by the way, by the venomous tone here from people who don't like erudition, wither in the forum or in a profile. Seems kind of masochistic of them to parade their jealousy here in quite such an epic and sulky manner. But; that's judgements for you!