WEEKEND OPEN FORUM (Updated)

If there's an SL-based topic you want to talk about, grassroots content/event you want to promote, a gripe you want to air or praise you want to publicize, post here. Early Monday, I'll mention noteworthy Comments and discussions in a front page update.

Update, 2/5: 

- DrugiZane Something is an academic "conducting a social study within second life on identity and social relationships within the metaverse", and is searching for volunteers to take his questionnaire-- details here.

- Vincent wonders how other Residents debate the merits of SL in the real world-- continue that conversation in Comments.

- Onder Skall (and I) bring  word of his new blog, devoted to SL games, well-written and definitely worth a visit for gamers-- check it out here.

Comments

[DrugiZane Something]

Hi,

Hello

I am currently conducting a social study within second life on identity and social relationships within the metaverse. Second Life is an evolving community which challenges many current social theories. I am looking for respondents for a questionnaire and perhaps if willing participants in some interviews. These will cover some themes I feel are prominent within SL.

If you would like to carry out the questionnaire I have posted it up on the SL forum at:

http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=164115

It is the attachment please post responses to my email address: [email protected]

Respondent’s anonymity is of utmost important to me and I take my responsibility to ensure their privacy very seriously. I will not email respondents back unless specifically requested for questions and offers of interview participation.

I am in world everyday if you feel more comfortable approaching me there.

Thank you for your time

AJ Hill (DrugiZane Something)

[Vincent]

My issue of the week is the fact that Second Life doesn't have a logout function. You know, something that takes you out of the world but keeps you still in the application? You have to completely close the application to log out. Incidentally, I have found myself in many situations where I wish I could just log out of Second Life without actually closing the application.

Oh, and I wish there was a keyboard shortcut to access the groups menu - if any of you out there are working with the Open Sourced client code. ;D

[Vincent]

I have a question for the open forum. I've actually been experiencing the whole Shirky-Hype debate concerning SL in the real world. I'm in a design class. I think some people are hostile to SL for very Shirky-esque reasons (numbers, and also, "Where's my experience points"). I also think they haven't actually been in SL, which extends the analogy.

Do you guys ever find yourself in real life forums debating the merits of Second Life? In school, at work? You know, if you work at a business or at a development or programming company or are in a class related to the subject.

It's a different forum than the internet.

[Cyn Vandeverre]

I'm curious if you think SL will switch to real-world currency at some point. I've read some of the articles you've written for Gigagamez about money issues in virtual worlds, and it seems like a reasonable progression for SL.

[johnny]

is this for real?
anyone seen anything
http://sldare.blogspot.com/

[Hamlet Au]

> You have to completely close
> the application to log out

What, you're not able to minimize? (Though doing that has its own drawbacks.)

> I'm curious if you think SL will switch
> to real-world currency at some point.

I think that won't happen until the servers go open source, and some server owners will surely do that. Maybe it'll be like in Europe, where you can spend Euros anywhere in the EU, or the country's money when you're in their borders.

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

Would that I had sufficient RAM and CPU cycles to be able to just minimize the SL client window!

[Hamlet Au]

Yeah, I take my life (or my PC) in my hands when I minimize SL. 25% percent change everything crashes when I un-minimize.

[Onder Skall]

I think you should just tell everybody how glorious my blog is. :)

Seriously though, thank you for your kind comment over at SLG. I'm a big fan!

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

I figured I was not the only academic exploring SL.

DrugiZane, good luck with your study! The in-world experience is unlike any "game" I've played.

I'm just waiting for an in-world MLA convention. The participants will look MUCH better as avatars.

[WarKirby Magojiro]

I have 4Gb of ram, and a 2.2 Ghz Dual core athlon. I camn minimise and resize Sl as much as i want without any ill effects ^_^

I did DrugiZane's study too, haven't sent off the results yet though..

do it tomorrow..

WarKirby