Avatars United Adds Official Verification System -- Will You Use It More Now?

Daniel Voyager notes that the Lindens recently added an official verification system to Avatars United, the virtual world social network the company acquired a few months ago. Now you click a "Verify This Identity" button on your profile, which takes you to an official Second Life log-in page, and if you enter in the correct avatar name/password, you get a nice Verified badge. This was a badly needed feature when the network became part of Second Life, and many Residents have resisted using Avatars United precisely because of that lack. Now that it's there, it'll be interesting to see if usage rates go up. Anecdotally, I've noticed an activity dropoff, though that might just reflect my own personal network.

Comments

[Doubledown Tandino]

I like that there's a avatar verification system now. I like that Linden Lab owns Avatars United...

However, I will continue to NOT use it.
a) there's no point
b) a social network site and online community consists of people... no people, no point, no purpose
c) AU still has the scam ads to gain coins = no credibility.

Until there's millions on Avatars United, constantly using it with purpose, there's no point to it...

[Frans]

It still lacks the capability to have easy conversations like Facebook. Which is key if Avatars United wants to have a modicum of success.

In FB you can comment on what other people's status message. This lacks in AU, the only quick way to say something to a other, is to shout. But there is nothing that ties shouts together as a thread or conversation. It is just a list of shout and status updates. No conversation that you can follow and join in.

The only place where you can have a conversation is in the group forums. But those seem to lack any notification ability. Thus you have no idea if there was a update.

So yes, the Avatar verification is great. But to really have success they now have to work on ways to easily talk to each other. Not just shouting at random in the dark.

-Frans Charming.

[brinda Allen]

I can't say I like it since I see no reason for it.
What's that line from Groucho Marx? "I wouldn't want to be a part of any group that would have me."
{I know..I know...just Google the name}.

The part that frightens me... I'm wondering if the reason for all these machinations is to make Secondlife a 3D chat room. A giant Farmville...If that happens some day,it's off to OS-grid I go.

[Frans]

You can't chat in Farmville. ;)

Farmville is just a stupid app ontop of facebook. Farmville is like Sion Chickens or Ozimals, pointless but entertaining to some. You can totally ignore both.

[Ann Otoole]

I verified like a week ago when it was released. That way I got that defamatory red warning flag off my profile.

And that is the only reason I have had to go back there lately. That web site has no relevance to SL at all. If M can find a way to use it to get the non SL people on that site interested in SL then it will not be a very questionable acquisition.

[Frans]

Another important feature imo, is that inworld groups should be able to easily create avatar united group and those be linked.

This will create the opportunity to have notices and group event listings on a dedicated group page, which people can point too.

For bonus point a life chat option that hooks into the inworld group chat.

Of course this would need to respect private group rules, and privacy settings. Like a private groups AU page would only be seen by verified group members.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I think everyone here has made good points. At the moment, AU is neither fish nor fowl: it's not nearly as powerful or useful for social networking as Facebook, and it has, as Ann notes, no real relevance to SL because (the new and very welcome verification system notwithstanding) there is simply not enough direct linkage between AU and SL in-world.

I hope that this continues to develop: it does have real potential as a communications tool. But for this to happen, SL and AU have to be engineered so that they can "talk" to each much more effectively than is now the case.

[Delinda Dyrssen]

I went ahead and verified..Using it mostly to get in touch with people I don't often see in world or on twitter or plurk or facebook and who I don't have their email address..comes in handy.

[Jura Shepherd]

Despite all the howling a while back, I have doubts that verification was/is a huge enough issue to keep people away.

For SL users, some interoperability as Frans has suggested would make AU more compelling. Allowing "coins" to be purchased with L$s would also be a hit.

[Harper Ganesvoort]

Myself, though I'm on both AU and (in RL) Facebook, I see little point to them. "Social networks" like this have utility in tying people together to create communities; and I've dug up bunches of people from my high-school class that will keep me in touch when reunion time comes around next year. Beyond that, I'm not that into constantly advertising my activities, and I almost never use chat. Even my participation on Plurk is irregular, depending on work schedules more than having anything to say.

[Loki]

i'll be happy once they intergrate AU with the viewer 2.0 experience, untill then i find it pointless.

[Arcadian Vanalten]

Yup; same here. I'm on AU, but only as a kind of afterthought. It really doesn't meet any needs of mine or fill any niches. It would have to have a substantial increase in utility and content before that would happen.

I could see it repurposing as a repository for inworld offline messages one wants to leave and not get lost to IM caps or notecards that might never be found; that would actually be handy. Or more apps to provide that utility. But as it stands, it's kinda pointless.

I'm also in a Guild Wars group that formed from a bunch of us who were buddies in SL, so I could even see then promo-ing that whole cross-worlds linkage they want to do, but that's also pretty weak in AU's current incarnation. My GW characters (I have 8 of 'em) all have different names which are all different from my SL name, and I can't figure out how it would associate w/ my SL account on AU. Or why we'd bother. We all have each other's skype info; we just leave notes w/ each other via skype if we need to.

Bottom line: AU does nothing particularly well, and certainly not better than other services do.

[Bryon Ruxton]

AU helps me track friend collecting simpletons (some Lindens among them) and spammers... which is pretty much the only activity worth noticing.