Daniel Voyager noticed a new opt-in feature is coming to Second Life soon: Post to Facebook, which will let users automatically share their SL screenshots, location, account, and general status info on their Facebook account. "The official Second Life Facebook page now has 320,414 Likes/fans," as Mr. Voyager succinctly puts it, "so perhaps its time to go more mainstream into the SL viewer." 6 years ago was actually the time to do this, but better late than etc. Should do a lot to boost activity in Second Life, at least among people who already have the client installed, but probably boost total user growth a bit too.
Of course, not everyone wants to connect their SL activity with their real life Facebook account, so now's a good time to review how to use Facebook using your Second Life avatar name.
Please share this post with people you like:
Tweet
I heard Rodvik bought Linden Lab their first microwave too recently.
Posted by: Metacam Oh | Friday, September 13, 2013 at 01:50 PM
Wow, I was already worried that the NSA can't protect us in SL. Now we are all save again. Terrorism on Mainland SL will be defeated.
Posted by: Eric | Friday, September 13, 2013 at 02:45 PM
I thought Facebook doesn't like SL Avatar accounts. Isn't this like jumping up and down in front of the firing squad, waving your arms and shouting "Here I am! Nonny nonny boo boo!"
Posted by: Rose Mackie | Friday, September 13, 2013 at 03:03 PM
The way FB has been harassing SL profiles lately (ask Strawberry--oh wait, they locked her out of her account and made her change her name again, or anyone else who is taking crap from them if FB has any tolerance for SL profiles), I'm sure this is just as intelligent an idea as turning the LL ToS into a Nazi confession form.
Posted by: Dee Wells | Friday, September 13, 2013 at 09:28 PM
I can only say 1 thing, if i was on LL board i already had fired Rod, period!
Posted by: ZZ Bottom | Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 03:17 AM
I'm glad you are not in the board then ZZ. ;)
And as Hamlet points out, to stay on FB's good side, make a page for your avatar, category fictional character. Problem solved.
https://www.facebook.com/FransCharming
I guess I will be updating my page more when this update comes out.
Posted by: Frans Charming | Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 04:43 AM
Creating a Facebook Page for your SL avatar will not solve the issue of integration for people who wish to maintain a separation between their SL & RL. The blog post says specifically "Second Life Share is an opt-in feature that requires you to connect your Second Life account to your Facebook account." When I am on a third-party site, and attempt to "like" or "share" to Facebook, I am never given the choice to do so as my SL avatar's Page, or my real life business's Facebook Page for that matter, because those are Pages and not Accounts.
Posted by: Pie Psaltery | Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 06:26 AM
How to on sharing this blog post in your FB page as your page:
1. Go to facebook
2. Set use facebook as: 'Your Page name' Under the gear at the top right.
3. Go back to this page and click on the facebook share button. The window that opens says "posting on your timeline" with underneath your pages Icon and name.
4. Make your post. It will now appear on your page post as your page. As showed here:
https://www.facebook.com/FransCharming
On other webpages/sites the Like/recommend buttons will now actually change and say you need to switch to your main account. But the facebook Send and Share buttons will allow you to post to your page as your page. Sometimes those buttons are under the more options for social sharing.
caveat: I don't know if this will work with the SL client, because I have not had the opportunity yet to test which sharing capabilities they are using.
Posted by: Frans Charming | Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 07:03 AM
Sounds like a ploy by FB to delete avatar accounts since FB has made it clear lately they don't want them. I have a SL Facebook account, and I see the complaints daily about accounts being suspended/deleted by FB.
Posted by: 2013 | Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 07:27 AM
How does Facebook know your SL name isn't your real name unless they are already violating your privacy? I get "pre-approved" credit cards for Ajax Manatiso and I even got an email from a local car dealer that all I had to do was go into their place, pick out a car, and sign Ajax Manatiso on the dotted line.
Posted by: Ajax Manatiso | Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 11:34 AM
Some people post Second Life content to their real identity Facebook pages. This is for them obviously if it's coming.
Posted by: Ezra | Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 11:44 PM
I have had a Facebook account for years and I am completely open about it being linked to a fictional character created and developed in Second Life, and in no way associated with any real life identity and have not once seen any signs of Facebook wanting to boot me. I know they could, but then, Linden Lab could close my account at any moment, too.
Posted by: Extropia DaSilva | Sunday, September 15, 2013 at 02:02 AM
There has been recent speculation, for obvious reasons, that social media sites with real-name rules are working under instruction from the NSA. More realistically, anyone who thinks that their SL name is somehow "secure" is whistling in the dark. The US Government has probably got access to all the personal data you have given to every US-based internet service you have ever used. Facebook, Twitter, SL, Google, all the same.
That, at least, is the way to bet.
Since the NSA, by its own admission, has been flaunting the laws intended to limit its activities, and applying novel interpretations of such laws, we can expect to be wide open. All of these sites have users outside the USA, and we can all be taken to be in communication with foreign persons, and so a valid subject of NSA attention.
I can, at least, choose not to have an account with Facebook. A couple of months ago, I could have thought I had a choice about how I risked my personal data.
Now I have to accept that all my personal data, at least that which has passed through the USA, in in the hands of a demonstrably insecure organisation, that cannot even reliably keep track of what its own staff are doing with the data.
At least you folks can vote for the bastards, though I am not sure that it does any good.
Posted by: Wolf Baginski | Monday, September 16, 2013 at 05:10 PM