Otenth Paderborn's virtual existence
If you want to get a bad opinion of your fellow residents in Second Life, check out the impassioned comments on the official blog entry Removal of Ratings in Beta. What Linden Lab has to say is pretty straightforward, it seems to me:
As Second Life has grown, the ratings system has become less and less useful.
All I can say is “Amen” to that. Well, I could also ask “Was it ever useful? What on earth for?”
In the war against cancer, Caledon’s troops will need warm socks and mufflers, so I will be hosting a fundraising knitting circle on Friday, April 13, 6-9 pm SLT/PDT in Caledon Tamrannoch. Ida Keen has very graciously created knitting needles that will, upon sustained use, produce wearable, transferable clothing. Put it on your calendars or come by later and pick up a set of needles for yourself.
Very nice article in USA Today about how “Faithful build a Second Life for religion online.” There’s a quote from Bizarre Berry/George Byrd of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life, and this very nice statement near the end:
Indeed, says Internet expert Julian Dibbell, “virtual reality is in some ways an essentially spiritual experience.”
Longer excerpts of interviews with members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life that I conducted for my article on the church have been published. The excerpts include one interview that was cut from the final article.
Joe Linden has a post on the official Linden blog: Bringing Voice to Second Life «
For me, Second Life has always been more about human communication, collaboration, and spirit than about technology. When I talk to Residents about their experiences, one of the recurring themes is improving our communication methods. For so many, Second Life is a place to make and meet new friends and collaborate with others, whether that’s in a business, educational or purely social context.
Blah. Blah. Blah. Talk to the hand. I do not consider this a feature in my typical use of SL. The improvements in live entertainment do seem attractive, and I can see the usefulness for group events (like church services). But I don’t want to have to hear people blabbing when I’m in SL. The sound effects some bozos run are bad enough. I strongly disapprove of a new voice capacity being automatically enabled on the mainland.
I’m also very concerned about the effect on communication between people who do not share a first language. Written communication in a second language is often far superior to vocal communication. And then there are the deaf and hard of hearing. What happens when someone tries to use voice communication with them?
I guess someone will have to create a group that will provide a title “I can’t hear you.”
Although the official blog says problems from earlier today have let up, I’ve had repeated problems getting into SL this evening: long (10 minute) logins, hung logins, crashes in SL, buggy behavior.
You may remember a post on blog.secondlife.com a while back: We’re developing my.secondlife.com…your feedback needed! «
In an effort to make our Website more useful and easier to use, we will be undergoing a major redesign of www.secondlife.com in the coming months.
I was lucky enough to get into one of the feedback groups. Go take a look at the Linden blog post, and if you have anything you’d like me to suggest to my group, let me know in the comments here.
I use an RSS aggregator (Bloglines) to track quite a few SL blogs and websites. One of my favorites is Natalia’s Second Life Diary Blog. Natalia combines step-by-step tutorials (mostly female fashion), site-seeing, and delightfully low-key role-playing narrative. I encourage you to check it out.
And if you’re so inclined, vote for her in the Miss Second Life contest:
The Miss Second Life Finals is this Sun Feb 25, from 9:00am-11:00am SL/PST. If you are around a computer, please vote for me! The website is www.MissSL.com/gallery (The voting will be between 09:30am-10:30am SL/PST). Just select Rank 1st under my picture and click the Vote button. That’s it! You dont need to be in Second Life or even have a Second Life account to vote. But the votes *MUST* be cast between 9:30am-10:30am SL/PST to be counted! Thank you so much in advance! 🙂
Official Linden Blog: Network routing issues being worked on.
No. Really? Dudes, get a grip.
And the Avastar reports that:
In an interview with PC Advisor, Joe Miller, vice president of LL, revealed the company is close to providing an integrated voice communcation system.
Let me just say, I do not want to hear the voices of crowds of people, and I don’t particularly want to use voice to communicate myself.
There was a fun first meeting for our new Boston SL meetup tonight in Cambridge, hosted by Tuan and Chris of Useful Technology. Stay tuned for more activities! You can check it out at meetup.com