Black beautiful avatar?

What?! Thanks for the laugh. I receive a bad product and bad service and I'm not to reveal the name?! Capitalism doesn't work that way. Ask Adam Smith. This is what he termed the "invisible hand."

Specifically, "...Smith demonstrated that, in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to also promote the good of his community as a whole through a principle that he called 'the invisible hand'." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_hand)

So, instead of policing and regulating the market themselves, you are saying to let vendors do as they please and not inform others of a potential pitfall? Sorry, but I entirely disagree with that approach. I've been burned by it too many times now in SL--including the purchase of the aforementioned skin.

Funny that you find it okay to mention names when only something positive is stated. I think it works both ways--both positive and negative feedback--and not just letting people fend for themselves by not providing very needed and specific information. So, if we are to mention no names, then delete the entire thread. That would be the only fair thing to do.

It is a violation of the forum rules to name people negatively. Waaaay too much potential for abuse. We usually only hear one side of the story. What if the skinmaker came on here and tried to say that you were a thief trying to scam him out of money? What then should we believe? Edit the name out.

Zen, there are other venues where you can mention names without getting yourself banned/warned for violating the TOS. Skin vendors hardly make the rules in this forum. Linden Lab does.

A few years ago I and a few other people looked into starting a seal program. What became quickly apparent is that administering it would be a full time job, and an incredibly thankless one at that. Unless any kind of BBB is run independently of the industry it's supposed to be keeping an eye on there would be no reason for consumers to trust that it was anything but a marketing ploy. It would also run a high risk of becoming an anti-competitive old boys network, and being easily manipulated as competitors used it as a weapon against each other.

The only way I can see a BBB ever getting a foothold in SL is if it was something people paid dues for so that those doing all the legwork, investigation, dispute resolution, and all the other rather unfun things it would require were being adequately compensated for it, and even then it would be extremely difficult to keep it staffed. SL is a hobby for the vast majority of participants (and that includes merchants). Most people have other things they'd much rather be doing.

I am not sure if they are still there. But a badly named dark skin is at Aloha for free! It is maybe not the best but is photo sourced and that is sometimes undesired. There was also another, it was 1L. But I can't remember where it was at and the folder is difficult to find as I lost it and never go to put it on the av much. I sort of agree on the lightness issue. But it is like in RL, many magazines and movies have skin tones different than that model or actress has in RL! It is a common thing to lighten skin or at least even the contrast with many main stream music vids, movies, magazines etc. OR darken to change the tones cold or warm features to make things more stylized regardless of color of the skin. I think also with the way monitors work and media heavily based on TV's and monitors these days, the black is created by not firing color rays at the screen so you want to add definition that is clear etc. with less aliasing in a game, then aim for lighter shades to mimic the details you would see in RL at the cost of accurate color? just a thought.For photography it is due to the way film worked, it does not cover the light and dark range our eyes do. Photography of dark dark skin tones worked weird, as did the lightest of skin tones sometimes.

i too noticed a lack of realistic looking African Americian Av Shapes and skins

i found a great skin over at pixel dolls called
(SdR II) Classic . G Tone
which is a medium dark shade there is a tone darker and a tone lighter
but i liked this inbetween one on the shape i made

which i think is hot!!!



shes thick in alll the right ways and still sexy with i think features that are clearly african american so it doesnt just look like a caucasian in dark skin like you see so often

the hair in the pic is dollarbie hair from etd called ETD Phoebe - Ebony (this hair comes in every color under the sun for 1L i loves it!


if you are intrested in the shape itself you can find her both on onrez and sl exchange
or you can get her in world at the following:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Reykjanes/103/137/732

she is mod/copy so make a copy and then adjust her as you like to get your own look as well!

I love the way my av's turned out, but as to whether it's "authentic" or "realistic" is in the eye of the beholder. I just wanted a quality skin that would, without question, allow me to be identified as not white...The skin is from Naughty Designs.

http://flickr.com/photos/rubianneellison/2587970919/
http://flickr.com/photos/rubianneellison/2317416951/in/set-72157603698562067/
http://flickr.com/photos/rubianneellison/2209122064/in/set-72157604066634702/
http://flickr.com/photos/rubianneellison/2861272447/

I like how mine came together
I dunno how authentic it is either. I am a white girl in RL so this was a bit of challenge and fun.
I totally love my new look and will be using it in upcoming future ads in my store!

See the images here...

http://rhadesigns.blogspot.com/

Zen Warrior thanks for the feedback - although I think your blue box that you were talking about is more likely to have been the Lindens IM everyone to tell them there was an issue at that particular time. We don't have anything at platinum africa like you describe.

All the Platinum Africa products, including the skins and shapes have been made from scratch as black skins and shapes and was built to cater for the black SL market, something that we are passionate about and believe all RL people in SL should have a choice of all skin colours and shapes.

But thank you for your feedback x

I think it's sad that black avatars are so rare in SL and I believe that people who do wear them are often subject to racism. That the default starting avatars aren't anything other than pale white people doesn't help. It forces newbies who might have otherwise used black avatars to present themselves as white from the start.

I also see examples of stereotyping in skin and clothing shops, things like having no dark skinned avatars as models until it comes to the 'jungle' or 'tribal' themes which depict them in leopoard skins.

This is an obvious point, but for women's skins I recommend Eloh Elliot's 'another shop' freebie skins, available in a range of skin tones with different makeups. You can even download the PSD skins and customise the make up and add your own. There is a male freebie version available but it's not very good.

Skyshop do a freebie avatar kit called Aisha which gives you a good shape to wear with the suppled darker skinned another shop skins and a good freebie hair. I like the look.

This picture shows another shop's 'fe' skin without makeup on a slightly modified Aisha shape, with the freebie hair and eyes. Also wearing prim lashes which I got seperately.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25681704@N04/2945210732/

secondlife://heaton/80/195/296 (skyshop)

As for non-free skins, chip midnight does some photosourced ones which are actually creepy in their realism.