New World Notes

SL Fashion Fit for a First Lady's Second Inaugural Ball!

 

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Election day has come and gone, and now it's time to look forward -- and fashion-minded folks who love the First Lady's style can look forward to the Inaugural Ball. It may still be a couple months away, but I'm still curious to see what fashionable gem Michelle Obama will be wearing. In the meantime, I can always do a little virtual speculating...

We've covered the First Lady's fashion here on New World Notes before, including photorealistic avatars based on the first couple and my own take on Michelle Obama's sense of style (from way back in 2009), but in celebration of Obama's win on Tuesday night I thought I'd put together a Second Life ensemble fit for an Inaugural Ball in the metaverse, and worthy of one of the most chic FLOTUS' in history. Here's how I did it:

Seraphim SL: A Fun SL Shopping Blog (NWN Readers Choice)

Seraphim SL is a popular fashion/shopping/events blog that's number 8 in the Top 10 Second Life blogs, as nominated by NWN readers. Written by many authors, I like how often Seraphim is updated, how picture-heavy the posts are, and all the cool social media sharing tools each post comes with. Seraphim could grow its readership by making it clearer that it's a blog for Second Life users (that's not immediately obvious), and improve retention by making the SLurl/Marketplace links much clearer (those are pretty difficult to find). When I post SLurls on NWN, I generally try to make them as obvious and as large as possible, such as: [Click here to teleport to location in SL]. (That SLurl will take you to the closing sale mentioned on Seraphim above.)

Last Chance to Nominate Your Favorite Second Life Brands!

Click here to nominate your favorite Second Life brands, because the ones which get the most nominations will be featured on New World Notes, just like we're doing with NWN Readers' Choice blogs right now. Unless we see a groundswell of new nominations, the deadline to make them is the end of this week. So click here and be sure to carefully read the guidelines first.

Second Life Users Support Obama by 73%, More Than Even Hawaii -- Here's Why

The Presidential election results are in, and the support for Obama is overwhelming. No, I don't mean the popular election, I mean my survey of Second Life opinion on the Presidential race -- with nearly 300 NWN readers registering their opinion, a massive 73% said they preferred President Obama over Romney, who attracted a paltry 13% (which is just a little more than those who chose Neither/Don't Know/Don't Care).  Notably, this means Second Life users support Obama more than even the voters of Hawaii, Obama's home state (and mine!), only 71% of whom went for for Obama. (And unsurprisingly, Hawaii is more pro-Obama than any other state -- see screencapture above.)

Why so much support for Obama in Second Life?

Strawberry Singh: Great SL Fashion Blog With Tutorials & Culture (NWN Readers Choice)

Strawberry Singh is an SL fashion blog and that's one of the Top Ten Second Life blogs nominated by NWN readers, and it's one of my personal favorites too. A talented and avid blogger with a distinct fashion style and SL photography skills to match, Ms. Strawberry Singh doesn't just blog fashion, but writes important opinions related to the SL economy, reports on social media promotion, and produces SL technical tutorials which incorporate YouTube videos featuring the dulcet, lilting voice of the girl behind Strawberry's avatar:

But those aren't the only reasons I love the blog of Strawberry Singh. I admire just as much that she incorporates aspects of her culture into virtual fashion, such as in this SL fashion tribute to Ramadan. (In real life, Ms. Singh is Muslim.) Second Life fashion is a great way to express someone's personal values and culture in a visually fun way, so it's not just pretty clothes, but something more transcendent. Strawberry is doing that, and I'd love to see more SL fashion bloggers follow her example.

If Strawberry was to ask me (and I know she didn't), I might suggest a few things that'd likely attract many more readers to her blog:

Poll: Who Do You Want to Win Today's Presidential Election?

Online Surveys & Market Research

I've always been curious about the real world politics of virtual world users, so this Election Day, let's talk Presidential candidates: Which US Presidential candidate do you want to win? I ask the question this way, so anyone anywhere in the world can answer, whether or not they can even vote in the race. (Though if you are eligible to vote, for God's sake please do.) After the race is decided, we'll tally up the all-important virtual world voting bloc.

Symposium of Fashionista: Beautiful Blog for Second Life Fashion & Interior Design (NWN Readers' Choice)

Babychampagne Sass's Symposium of Fashionista is an SL fashion and interior design blog that's one of the Top Ten Second Life blogs nominated by NWN readers, and it's really great. Created by Babychampagne Sass, it's full of fantastic layouts like this, artfully arranged and photographed, and dramatic, gorgeously composed, dynamically lit fashion spreads like this one. If you don't follow Ms. Sass's symposium, I agree with my readers that you really should.

If she was to ask me (and I know she didn't), I might suggest a few things that'd likely improve Symposium of Fashionista for readers, while attracting many more of them:

Doxxing: Only Right To Save Real Lives -- But Even Then, It's Hard to Know When You Should (Comment of the Week)

My post on the ethics of publicizing an pseudonymous Internet user's real life details (or "doxxing") provoked a really interesting reader conversation, perhaps most provocatively in this comment by longtime SLer Shockwave Yareach, who lays out a clear rule on when to dox -- and examples (some funny, some dark) where following that principle are difficult:

"In my humble opinion, the only justification for doxxing (I'm used to calling it outing, but I guess that was a different era) is to a) prevent a suicide, murder or other heinous bodily crime, and b) expose real life child molesters/rapists to the authorities.

"This is the only time I'll cross that line -- to save lives. If someone is bragging about stealing a car, how do I know he isn't talking about playing Grand Theft Auto? But someone has pics of naked children in their SL home, yeah, I'll call the cops and tell them anything I know.

"The difficulty comes in knowing whether or not someone is honestly suicidal or not. You have to actually know the person well to make this judgement call. Likewise with the question of murder -- I'm sure my wife has said she's gonna kill me when I get home countless times. That's not enough to summon the long arm of the law. Someone talking about X or Y property crime may just be talking about some game they play, just like someone overhearing you talking about AD&D game and the woman you slowly slaughtered with a glaive to get the information you needed ("Hello? Police? Listen, there's a couple of nerds talking about mutilating some poor girl...")

Top Six New World Notes Posts from Last Week

 

• Five Ways to Make Second Life Machinima So Good It's Scary
• Is It Ever Right to Dox a Pseudonymous Internet User?
• The Anatomy of a Second Life Fashion Photo
• Here's 14 of Your Favorite SL Blogs (NWN Readers' Choice)
• SL Store Directory Now Lists 1400 Stores, 450+ Store Blogs
• When It Comes to Fashion, Virtual & Real Are Just About Equal (Comment of Week)

What Are Your Favorite Second Life Brands? Help Create NWN's Readers' Choice List! (Bumped, Updated)

11/2: Bumped this post to the top for the weekend, and added additional nomination guidelines below -- please read carefully before nominating!

There's lots of stores supporting Second Life brands, but which brands are your personal favorites? Iris Ophelia and I want to create a New World Notes Reader's Choice List for Second Life-based brands of all kinds, so please post your favorites in Comments. We will prominently blog those with the most total nominations during the holiday shopping season. Here's some guidelines:

• List your favorite five or less Brands in Comments, but no more than five!
• Can be any kind of SL-based brand -- fashion, housewares, weapons, vehicles, etc.
• Brand must have a Marketplace listing
• Must have one of the following: blog, Flickr, Twitter, Faceobook, my.secondlife.com, or Plurk account
• Must have new content from this year
• No brands with blatant knock-offs of other brands, RL or SL
• When nominating, post 1) brand's Marketplace listing, 2) the brand's blog, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, my.secondlife.com, or Plurk link and 3) the brand owner's avatar name.

Please follow the guidelines very carefully, or your nomination may be discarded. Nominations end after the first week of November, so we can compile the Readers Choice list in time for holiday shopping! Please feel free to discuss your selections below, and be sure to share this post with other fans of SL brands, so they can nominate their favorites too!