General News

Who’s number is on the bathroom wall?

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For some time a few of the Second Life™ related blogs have been on about Second Life’s reputation and whether it s a bad or good girl rep and if bad, what has to be done about it. But, Canary Beck posits Second Life has little if any reputation outside the user community.  Canary and I both recently looked at the search engines to see what they might show people searching for Second Life and I virtual worlds. The results are pretty much sexless. But, today Hamlet is still on about how bad the reputation is because of a post on Reddit… really!?!

Baby, when you finally get to love somebody, guess what, it's gonna be me..
Baby, when you finally get to love somebody, guess what, it’s gonna be me..

Admittedly Reddit gets a lot of use. But, what is a lot of use? How do we compare that to other services and social sites? First, there is a Redditmetrics.com that tells us something about which sub-reddits have the most subscribers.  There is a way to see how many of those subscribers are actually reading a Reddit page. (Traffic) One can also look to see how many are reading a given sub at the time you look. (Notice in the right column of a sub-reddit.) 

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Second Life: Too Little Sex?

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Canary Beck has done a great research piece on whether or not Second Life’s reputation is that of a home for sexual perverts or not. Her research provides objective data on how Second Life™ is perceived by the Google Search Engine, which is about as objective a source as one can find.

See: Should We Worry That Outsiders Associate Second Life With Adult Content?

Girls with attitude
Girls with attitude by Cherry mood, on Flickr

The short answer is, no. The research and proof is rather convincing, but not totally definitive. It is the best I’ve seen to date. I think it is worth a read and it got me thinking. As you read you’ll be exposed to the concepts of confirmation bias and illusory correlation as a possible explanation for why some believe Second Life has a reputation problem.

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SL Bits Week 27

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Second Life: Basilique Pride

Second Life™ resident Canary Beck notes in her blog that the Basilique region is featured in 4 of the ‘What SL Means to me…’ videos. That is pretty neat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqdodqHJ-AA

More videos showing Basilique are included in Canary’s article.

Oz Linden Interview

Ciaran Laval has a summary of the video of Jessica Lyons, Oz Linden and Saffia Widdershins. See: Oz Linden Talks Second Life At SL12B.

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Pete and Xiola Linden Interview

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Canary Beck has an article: Pete Linden Shares Linden Lab’s Sophisticated Approach To Marketing Second Life At SL12B. It is based on a video of Pete and Xiola at SL12B’s Meet the Lindens. She is making the point that the communities idea of the Lab not marketing Second Life is simply wrong. But, she makes no comment on how well, or not, they are marketing SL.

Cozey Contemporary in monotone
Cozey Contemporary in monotone by Wendz Tempest, on Flickr

I suggest reading Canary’s article. I think it gives a good idea of what the Lab says it is doing. But, like many things what we think we are accomplishing and what we are accomplishing are often different. Looking in the search engines on ‘fashion’… it just ain’t happening. 

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Second Life: The Meaning of…

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The Lindens made a post in the Second Life™ blog asking residents to make videos about the meaning of SL. To get answers rolling, they have included some videos:

Xiola Linden is also the author of the post requesting the videos.

There are 6 videos on the blog page. See: The “What Second Life Means to Me” Video Share Project.

I think Torley wins hands down on use of color.

You may have already seen Draxtor’s video, if you follow him.

Kaya Angel is new to me. The manor is awesome.

Gentle Heron is about helping people with disabilities.

What will you say SL means to you?

Making Video

If you have not been into making video in SL, look at the two pieces of software Xiola mentions; Camtasia or Fraps. Both are retail versions with free trials. Camasia is US$299, but that includes video editing. FRAPS is US$37, but it is only an image/video capture tool. One could use Adobe’s Premiere Elements (US$120) for video editing.

There are free capture and editing tools. To learn more Google on: second Life machinima tutorial.

Second Life: Eclipse Magazine

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Second Life™ has a collection of publishers with some interesting magazines. These tend to be online magazines. Eclipse Magazine is one. It is an interesting collection of information and opinions. The June issues is here: ECLIPSE Magazine June 2015.

Eclipse Magazine - June 2015
Eclipse Magazine – June 2015

This issue features Draxtor Despres as a Second Life evangelist… well, that is accurate use of the word, but I hadn’t thought of using the word with the name Drax. The article is kind to Drax, deservedly so, and I think may give one a new take on Drax. See page 42.

A section of the magazine is named Voices from the Grid. The section is described as a monthly survey of the ideas and opinions of SL residents on salient issues. Page 57.

Phoenix Welles, Tymmerie Throne, me: Nalates Urriah, Sands Leavitt, and Gorgeous Yongho (Juicy Bomb). We talk about what we hope and think Project SANSAR will produce. And did you know SANSAR is the Sanskrit word for LIFE? 

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