Reasoning behind your partnership status

A few weeks ago, New World Notes reported on some partnerships statistics gathered from data mining bots run by Metaverse Business. Of the 698,997 analysed profiles, 40,967 listed a partner resulting in a partnership rate of approximately 5.86% for the sample size, with a higher proportion of older residents being partnered when broken down by age. I've always found demographic data interesting for Second Life even though there are many obvious flaws and unknowns regarding its study design and how these metrics should actually be interpreted, if at all, without further insight on their processes. Things like bots, alts, sampled regions etc, may all skew the data and some feel that the partnership rate is much higher in reality. My question isn't to discuss the validity of the study, but you can read the full article here for some more details: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/05/single-sl.html

After reading this article, I thought of how discussion of SL partnerships often revolve around its romantic aspects but I think there are many other variations of how the term partnership is interpreted, with even LL leaving the term open for interpretation. So, I thought I'd do a little unscientific poll with some options I came up with. There is a ten answer limitation, so feel free to expand your thoughts in the thread.

Are you partnered and what's the *primary* reasoning behind your partnership status?

But - you forgot the poll part

Patience!

Until I met my recent (now deceased in RL) lover I would not have thought I'd ever be interested in partnering officially. Now I know that I (did and) could meet someone to whom I'd commit like that in SL.

I noted down "It's Romantic", BUT, I will qualify that with "between the fictional avatars".

I have three avatars that are Partnered. In each case, that avatar has a romantic relationship with another avatar. AND in each case, my PLAYER has a strictly Platonic relationship with the other avatar's Player.

My avatars are not "Me", and I never make any claims that they are.

But I have an alt- who do you want to hear from
I know- I am complicated that way

Personally,I think LL should get rid of it entirely. But I am a miserable,anti marriage,cynical wanna be crazy cat lady. So they probably shouldn't listen to me.

I've only got one partner, and that's in RL.

I think "partner" should be either replaced by - or expanded into - a more general set of account attributes.

Which brings me to my personal bitch. If you are really married in RL, why the hell are you partnering with someone in SL?(With the exceptions of spouses who know about it..) I never understood that. If you have a bad marriage,get a divorce. But sit and think for a minute how you would feel if you knew your RL spouse was "married" to someone else in a game. Anyway, off my soapbox now. Carry on and ignore me.


* You is general, not aimed at you Argent.

In my case, it is because it is the AVATARS that are having a fictional romance. The _Players_ on both sides are just the co-authors and audience for the scenes.

When your favorite actor or actress portrays a husband or wife in a movie or TV show, should they only be limited to playing opposite their real-life wife or Husband?

When an author writes a romantic scene in a book, is he cheating on his wife because the male character and the female character in the story make out? Does that change of he has a co-author, and both understand the relationship between the fictional characters in the book is only fiction?

You left out the part about how the RL married person will give you a lecture on "commitment"....

No,I would say your case is different if all it is to you is a scene you are acting out. But does your spouse know about this fictional play? And if they did, how would they feel about it?

Except for the cat part, I think I love you.

Ha yes,that is my favorite part of it all. I stay clear of married men. I was involved with one for two weeks before he told me he was married. Dropped his ass right then and there. And the kicker was, his wife knew all about me... Still, not right in my mind for ME. I am friends with both of them now, but I was a little pissed at the time to say the least.


Anyway, I shouldn't have brought it up,just a sore spot for me. SO please ignore my posts, I don't mean to come off as a judgmental bitch.

I can be a crazy dog lady too. I might need a bigger yard though...

You two should get partnered.

Yes, they do. And once they were assured that both sides are always in agreement that there is nothing more between the real people than Platonic friendship, my spouse was OK with it.

Now I will agree that for people who see their avatar as a direct extension of themseleves, they should consider "avatar romance" the same as any other form of dating, since in such situations the on-screen romance might well lead to expectations of RL encounters. For such people, if they are married in RL they certainly should not date in SL either.

I make sure, before it goes beyond a friendly hug or a kiss, that they are very clear on my limits and expectations. If they have any aspiration of "making it real", then it's a no-go for me, and I tell them to seek someone else who feels as they do about their avatar.

Why set your sights low... be a crazy tiger lady.

If I were to "partner" in SL, I would tell SWMBO and she would be OK with it. I just don't happen to be interested in that kind of relationship, or playing at that relationship, with anyone else.

Brenda has a doggie. Shhhh.(I'll move tigers,cats and farm animals in afterwards)

What does SWMBO mean?

She Who Must Be Obeyed

I have a pretty big yard, but I don't know if it is that big. There is a county park nearby, though.

Some relationships are very complicated and not so cut and dried. But people who preach like you just did do the same to women in abusive relationships, always with the "its so easy to leavel", "JUST get a divorce", etc..etc..

Oh my I like that. Hmm maybe I will get partnered just so I can be referred to as that.