How to Fix Your Secondlife.Com Profile (If It's Worth Fixing)

Cajsa Lilliehook has very good and detailed advice on improving and customizing your web-based SL profile at my.secondlife.com, especially if you're a content creator who wants to use it as a way to market your SL wares, and are already using the profile/social network system. However, I have to ask: How many people are actually using my.secondlife.com on a regular basis? I have a profile there, but it attracts little engagement, especially compared with SL interactions I get via Facebook, Twitter, or Plurk (where activity is still greatest). However, maybe that's just me -- how's it been for you?

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Comments

[Gidge Uriza]

I find the entire thing to be unusable. I usually only use Firestorm - however, which crashes every single time I attempt to look at my profile or add a picture to it.

I can't take pictures on the Linden viewer without crashing, so this feature isn't meaningful to me as a resident.

However, I did use her tutorial to make it so no one could leave me messages there since I will never see it!

[Nalates Urriah]

I get some use out of my web profile. Plurk and Face book are more active. Twitter seems to scroll too fast.

[Cajsa Lilliehook]

I think the most important advice for creators is to block messages if they are not going to use the profile. In the LL and Exodus viewers, when you open someone's profile, the feed is what they see first. To IM or NC they have to take an extra step, but to post their request, query or complaint to the feed, they don't have to do anything but start typing.

If you're a creator and not watching your feed or blocking it, you risk some negative comments that you won't see.

[shockwave yareach]

I have one, but I don't use it for anything that the previous profile system didn't have. it's a basic bit of data about me.

As a messenging system, it sucks tar through a straw -- why the messages left on the webpage can't forward to Virtualspace so I can see I got a message (and forwarded to my cellphone) is beyond me. Sure, people can leave me messages IF they know the exact spelling of my name. But the only way I know I have a message is by sticking my nose in from time to time. Not exactly conducive for communications, and galling that a communication company put this together.

A better solution is to have all web messages forward inworld. Thus if you are inworld, you see them immediately. If you are outworld, you can see emails notify you that you got messages. But having a wall that I can't see unless I perch and stare at my wall all day? Maybe some people have that much free time, but I have to work all day to pay the real dollars that the tier takes.

[shockwave yareach]

@Cajsa -- anyone who would dare to tell me that I have to use the comm system THEY prescribe, or they'll say nasty things about my mother or my wares or the color of my eyes, is absolutely not someone I would have as a client in the first place.

Inworld messages forward to my cellphone. I can then instantly jump inworld via Pocket Metaverse and try to assist as best I can with text only. But profile messages? The only way I know I get them is when I stumble upon them once every 6 months. No forwarding to emails or instant assistance is possible with it. And not to mention the fact that everyone in my friend list can see all the other conversations -- conversations that are none of their business and really shouldn't be so open.

If you like profiles, good for you. As a builder I find they possess the usual LL scent of halibut on a warm summer day (why'd they do it? For the Halibut.) So I don't use it because it cannot get help requests to me faster than the speed of smell. And that simply won't do for me. And anyone daring to order me obey them or else, can find someone else to assist them.

[Alexandra Rucker]

@ Shockwave:

Set your notifications preferences here:
https://my.secondlife.com/settings/notifications

That way you can at least get notified, even if you have to log in to the wall after you get the notifications.

[Indigo Mertel]

I used to think the profile was useless but it has some value, though limited. There is an increasing number of people who follow my profile stream, as well as some exchanges of messages. Traffic could increase considerably by dedicating some time. And an informative stream is a good presentation for the profile.

The problem I see with it is that it is a half-baked product, more to follow the social web trend than to provide real value. The social streaming needs more features, such as image display.

Unfortunately, communication tools within SL are seriously lacking and no longer up to the task.

[Indigo Mertel]

And talking about better communication tools, that is an opportunity to increase the number of premium members that LL is entirely missing. Instead of offering 'meh' gifts, LL should provide real value with enhanced tools such as:

- a better member profile with more space for bio and and an additional box for news (good for promoting business)
- improved social streaming
- an email address (i.e. [email protected])
- web-enabled groups with a mini-forum, file libraries, wiki. Or, at least a web page slot which could be filled with external resources.

There is enough here for an interesting blog post. Any taker?

[Corcosman Voom]

I check into mysecondlife.com infrequently. When it was new, I did limit the ability of others to post comments for just that reason. I miss the ability to create Lists like Twitter or even FB. Some friends, like Indigo Mertel, post a lot every day, most not very much....I would like the ability to get to those infrequent posts by clicking a list. Search for a name within mysecondlife.com to follow someone not on my Friends list.....I can't seem to find that, does it exist?

[Indigo Mertel]

@Corcosman, you can follow someone even if not in your friend list. There is a separate button for that on the web profile.

[Cajsa Lilliehook]

@Shockwave, I agree that the profile could be much better and find the feed frustrating. You cannot upload a photo to it other than taking raw snapshots!! However, it's because it has so many problems that I wrote the tutorial.

If you're using Firestorm, for example, you will see the old style profile - you might not even know how your customers see your profile in-world. And they access this feed and can comment on the feed in-world in the Linden and Exodus viewers - so it's worthwhile to spend 10 minutes setting your preferences so that its deficiencies don't misrepresent your business.

[Pussycat Catnap]

There's a whole crowd of people who live in the feeds and profiles - and make insane amounts of use out of them. Unfortunately among them are a number who ended up there from being banned on the official forums.

That said, I profile surf all the time, and check the profile of nearly anyone I meet. Its very telling what's in there, and kind of disappointing when I find someone who has a profile that is not complete - which includes adding in your searchable interests.

[Missy Restless]

I have email notification turned on for everything. That way I am aware of postings etc even if I do not use the service much. It seems better, to me, to allow people to communicate with me in the venue they prefer rather than blocking them and forcing them to use another service.

[shockwave yareach]

@Pussycat - what you call incomplete, I call maintaining a healthy distance between my private and public lives.

[Pussycat Catnap]

"Completing" your profile doesn't mean you need to fill in your zip code and social security number.

It means putting in details:
Words in the about panels. You can write anything in them, so do so.

Pictures in the places you can - I have SL pics in both.

Interests so I can see if a person and I have anything in common. Especially as these are searchable - its a great way to locate communities.

Picks so I know of places to go - I will rarely buy from anyone who's shop is not in their picks. And I look through the others to see if a person likes the kinds of things I like, or has something that is distasteful to me (places like bukake anything, or BDSM spots, and I'm doing that person a favor by not talking to them).

Some groups, for reasons a lot like the Picks. Plus I can find groups I might want to join. Again any merchant should keep any inworld group they have listed publicly there. RP types as well. The majority of groups I've joined in SL came from profile surfing.

If you "complete" your profile with the right style of information; you're not breaking down a wall between SL and RL - you're putting your avatar further into SL.

Every benefit I gain from profile surfing someone, is a benefit they too gain from profile surfing me.

But... I too gain a benefit from people profile surfing me. If I'm lucky - someone will look at my info, decide they like it or are curious about something in it, and IM me.

[shockwave yareach]

@Pussycat - I do understand what you mean. And I know that adding all these bits of datum like pictures and likes and where my store is are things of interest for some people.

I, however, am not in SL to a) make a business, b) entertain others or c) be noticed by folks looking to form a new community or what have you. I am already in a funloving communtity. My few clientele seek me out solely by word of mouth, which suits my limited amount of inworld time quite nicely. I don't want to be popular. I don't want to attract attention. I just want to socialize with my friends scattered across the globe and have a good time. This is recreation for me.

I am sorry that my use of SL seems strange to you, and that I dislike having people I don't know probing to see what stores I visit and who my friends are. If you want to know so badly, try getting to know me and ask. Friends I generally share with -- people out of the blue, far less so.