Socially|Mundane

Thunda Masala writes for his blog, which he calls "Twisted Second Life". An article he's written harps on the whole 'phenomenon' of hiding group listings from public view.

Group-watching is a favorite past-time for everyone in SL. When we encounter an interesting avatar, usually the first response is to look into the profile to find out about the person. Surprisingly, a large number of people do not write anything about themselves. They fear that there is not much interesting about them to write. This is simply not true. Someone once said that everyone’s story in his or her lifetime is always interesting to others.

[From My Groups Are NOT Hidden! « Twisted Second Life ]

Huh.

Well I can think of a few reasons why I want my groups hidden. Of course, there are some that are expressly made to be publicly viewable. But the main message I get from Thunda is that he is a "profile surfer".

Okay - there is nothing wrong with profile-surfing. But I suspect you're actually wasting a lot of time in profile surfing rather than just starting with a "Hello, how are you?".

I've done that. Back in my first few months of SL in 2006. I'd pop-up that profile of anyone and everyone I saw and for the same reasons: to "people-watch". Looking at peoples profiles in Second Life is the virtual equivalent of people-watching. Like sitting at the local mall in first life and just watching people go by. And don't you tend to judge them based on what you see?



The main reason I don't profile-surf any more probably has more to do with cost. The cost in time, effort... and bandwidth. The effort is that you have to actively right-click on someone and choose profile from the pie menu or, if they happen to speak in public chat, clicking on their name - after opening the chat-history window (if it's not already opened.)

They have to have a seriously interesting look before I'll bother making the 'effort' to peek at their profile. It usually goes downhill from there.

The time has to do with 'rezzing' the profile. This also contributes to bandwidth. It just slows things down. The problem is first (and I don't really mean to offend anyone here) people simply are crappy picture-takers. And then after that, they have no idea what an 'optimized' image file is.

So what they do is plop a horrendously and abusively large image file into their profile (and sometimes first life tab) - that takes forever to download so I can see it. And then after that long wait: it's crap. No really, it's crap. Either it's a terrible picture and you can't even see them as they (the subject of the picture) are so tiny in an already tiny picture, or they put some other silly thing. Like a picture of their house or pet cat whatever. No offense, but I couldn't care any less about your SL mansion or your first life pet cat or that his name is Felda Hortense.

And people who put an SL picture in their first life tab are just harassing you for some vindictive salt running through their veins or something. They do it on purpose, knowing that you'll wait for that waste-of-time picture to appear. For you people: if you don't want to share first life information then don't. I have my FL picture there (mostly because I keep forgetting to take it out as I am one ugly mug) and I do so because I'm not afraid to do it. Otherwise, I'd leave that area blank. Which says more than anything I (or you) could type in there.

On top of all this, there is rarely anything worth reading in a profile. Some silly poem or song lyrics, or chat quotes or the requisite "SL is SL and FL is FL, Neither the two shall meet". Or among my favorites: "I'm just exploring SL and love to meet people and make new friends" - then you IM them and it's like "what the hell do you want?" or something along that path. (No this doesn't happen very often - just making a point that those people are out there.)

First, people optimize your profile and picks pictures. A profile picture should be 256x190 (width x height) and it will not only look good (in terms of quality, can't say anything for photography skills) but it also will appear to profile surfers fast. For picks pictures, you should set a resolution to 256x150. It won't look squished and you won't look like a complete amateur. Again, I can't speak for your picture-taking skills. [Update: I wish to clarify that I am speaking of downloading the picture to your computer, then resizing and cropping the picture so it looks good at this size. Then upload into SL and away you go.]

As for hiding groups: the problem is there might be some groups you must be a member of - to use facilities (think market booth) or to participate in activities (to gain access) or whatever. And those groups have embarrassing names. No, not the tag that appears over your head, but the group name itself. I believe some of them will be 'banned' or tagged as Adult-Only-rated.

Besides, there are a lot of deviant-minded people who join deviant-themed groups and they don't want you to know how deviant they really are. What about "Bondage Ranch" and "Free BDSM Slutty Capture Slaves Playground" (or whatever)? Would you want those floating in your profile for anyone and everyone to see?

They don't want you to know what nasty dirty minds they have. And 90% of us have naughty minds whether we indulge in that stuff or not (or admit it or not - but I'm convinced.)

Another reason might be role play. In the Gorean community for example, people align themselves with a City. They are usually a member of the city group. However, when they travel, profile surfers will intentionally or unintentionally use that information instead of actually asking the question "what is your Home Stone?" (City name).

But the main reason why I don't show my groups publicly? The same reason a lot of people will put into their profile: "Please don't judge me by what you see here. How about actually trying to get to know me and not my profile?"