Innula Zenovka

No, and I don't think anyone is suggesting it is, or should be a chatroom or Facebook3D.

Nevertheless, one of the key elements, to my mind, of many people's SL is group chat, and what is that if it's not a form of chatroom? But the fact that people chat or ask questions in Building or Scripting or Viewer Support groups doesn't in the least bit detract from SL as a whole. SL isn't Skype, either, but that doesn't make the facility to IM people a bad thing.

/me waits for eighthdwarf to explain that, in an ideal world, people with questions about Firestorm or Phoenix would either look out one of the helpers to ask them stuff in in local chat or post their questions in an external forum.

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Brenda Connolly

That's a bit harsh if you ask me. The old system wasn't perfect, a lot of times the list for that period left much to be desired. I was lucky when I signed up, I planned on using my real first name and was lucky to find a last name that had some meaning for me, but there were plenty of times that the available list of last names was absoulutely awful. It's part of the reason why I never created any alts.

eighthdwarf Checchinato

I agree, but nonetheless this was no valid reason at all for getting rid of it entirely.
A better choice of last names (or a longer list of last names) would have fixed the problem much easier.

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Brenda Connolly

And as my Dad used to gently say.."If my Aunt had balls she'd be my Uncle". Of course that would have been the best way, but Linden Logic (tm) dictates otherwise.But the past is the past and you can't undo stupid. But getting all verklempt over it does no good and just ruins your enjoyment of SL.

Don't worry, be happy.

Andromeda Rage

How to turn web profiles and their social walls into an in-world experience: web on a prim! Rez a little rectangle block, set a side to web content, and turn it into a little tablet/iPad/etc. (I'm 100% positive this has been done a billion times already in fact.)

There ya go, now it's like your avatar is posting stuff on his/her friends' wall via their handheld prim iPad... all in-world!

Brenda Connolly

I don't have to. I use CoolVL which still has the old search and profiles.

Besides, in solidarity with eighthdwarf on this one, if I want to browse the web, I'll do it in my browser, when I'm not in SL, TYVM.

Quiplash

It would appear that Prim Perfect is part of a campaign to bring back last names. I spotted this cute sign in their headquarters during a hunt:



If you click the sign you get the following notecard:

Inhandra

Yup, that's been around for a while, and I do think it's part of the reason why their return is being considered. Rodvik has been listening to feedback on his social wall about the matter, and has gotten everything from bring them back to "please don't change my name." He's got quite the balancing act ahead of him.

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pancake

The real reason I read SLU is to increase my vocabulary and pick up new sayings.

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My pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/renoobed/
My blog http://renoobed.wordpress.com/

Quote:

"It's one thing to have a difference of opinion, it is quite another to be a consistently toxic ass" ~ Cristiano

Khamon

If my ball had ants ow ow ow ow ow

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I'd rather be playing Minecraft.

"Not only should you learn to be more precise in your choice of words, you should learn to pay attention to others words too. That way you can reply to actual posts and not the fictional ones in your head" - Myf

Eris

If you wanted a common name instead of a freak name, yes, it could be a pain in the ass depending on when you registered. If it was very long after the last new names day, you either got stuck with a crap last name or couldn't get the first name you wanted AT ALL. If you wanted one of the good last names, you ended up with a first name like "Spork".

Brenda Connolly

Yeah, the combination being taken sucked too. I may be in the minority, but I never felt that every name combo had to be unique. In most cases, our RL names or not solely ours alone, so I wouldn't care if there were 50 Brenda Connoly's in SL. I understand that the ability to impersonate someone in SL is easy, so I guess this made it a technical necessity.

Brenda Connolly

If you'd grown up in my house, you'd have a language all your own to choose from.

pancake

I'm not so worried about duplicates either, though I sort of liked that no one could have my exact first.last. I think it would be important for content creators though, so customers weren't contacting the wrong one.

The problem with the current set up though isn't so much that residents want to be unique, it's that they HAVE to be unique.

With every new account sharing the same last name, displayed or not, it doesn't allow duplicates.

Making a new account now takes quite a while to come up with a name that isn't already taken. I can see why people just chose nonsense, or quite frankly if they are only curious about SL maybe give up entirely after 15 tries to create an account.

John ( you must chose a last name that isn't taken even if it isn't your preference)

vs

John (sorry you can't ever be John, ever, so spell it crazy or add numbers please)

Penny Patton

Actually, it's more difficult to impersonate someone in SL than in RL.

In RL you don't have a unique government name/ID number everyone else can see just by hovering an invisible mouse cursor over you. Or that we see every time you message us. Or whenever we're trying to pay you.

On the other hand, in an online environment like SL people kind of expect their names to be unique. SL is going against the popular expectations and that there is a point of confusion.

Honestly, I think the best option for LL right now would be to reset everyone's display names, change the way they work so that they must be unique, then hide usernames altogether. You never see a username. You can change your display name, but either it comes with a cost ($5usd a name change!) or a more substantial period of time between name changes (ie: once a month)

LL should also rename "Display Names" as "avatar names" and rename "user names" to "account names" or something like that, have new users set their "Avatar Name" when they create their account and give them one free name change they can use any time after their first log in.

Viewers that do not show avatar names properly should be prevented from connecting from the grid, or at least removed from the approved TPV list. At the same time, the code should be made available to help V1 TPVs display avatar names properly and a grace period provided. If only because there are poeple who seem to be having technical issues logging in with 2.x or 3.x viewers.

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The Digital Pasture - SL from a cow's point of view. When the cow is also a designer.

Penny Patton

There's a reason for this. LL was attempting to phase out usernames as avatar names. They just, in true Linden fashion, botched it horribly and now Rodvik has to try and clean up the mess.

Having to use a nonsense username shouldn't matter because you have complete freedom to choose any avatar name you please with the Display Name feature. Of course, making usernames visible by default and failing to explain to new users that the Display Name feature even exists kinda defeats the whole point.

http://youtu.be/-mUCLHzWiJo?t=3m10s

eighthdwarf Checchinato

As I said: That was one of their WORST. MISTAKES. EVER.

What's wrong with avatar names in the form of Firstname Surname anyways? And what's the advantage of those chatroom-like usernames? Even of names idiotically displayed as firstname.surname, all in lower case?

They should return to displaying them as Firstname Surname only - case sensitive of course. AND so that everyone has a surname.

And those who want to change their surname to something else than Resident should get the opportunity asap and for free.


ETA: And no, I wouldn't want to have display names exchanged for reasonable user names (reasonable as in, Firstname Surname) either. Display names should remain, for RP character names, for nicknames, etc. They basically have replaced the titlers.

I'm as proud of my user name eighthdwarf Checchinato as I am of my displayname Gem. Both have their meaning to me. And I don't want to lose any of them.

Inhandra

Bold, text size changes, underlines. Tell us how you really feel.

Eris

What about people who don't want a surname?

Andromeda Rage

Obviously, they are unclean heathens who belong in a chatroom and are unfit to be citizens of a virtual world.

Inhandra

Conform, or be deported to AOL.

uzif

and this is something that concerns me. in 2006 'stepford' had a very different meaning in sl. next time youre in world go search 'stepford'. it will then be pretty clear why anyone using the stepford name wouldnt want it reopened. the current association is bad enough. having the name search returning a thousand willing cannibal victims isnt something i am too eager to see as it would appear as though i was into that crap. after all, a name says a lot about a person...

Void

key2name and detecdName are the only functions that return correct capitalization, so I find that suggestion to be ridiculous... "Resident" can easily be stripped from the end with a string replace.

Why? because some people don't like it? don't use it then.

This is entirely wrong. many people made use of these names with supported viewers, and LL set it up this way because of how their database is structured. I'm fine with people wanting only one name, or two. I am not fine with forcing an unchosen name on someone, and not fine with people having a name taken that was chosen, that includes people who purposely intended having the surname resident.

That doesn't change the understanding at the time the policy was implemented.

this is the only portion I strongly agree with, it's been an issue since the initial implementation.

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- These eyes can do more than see

eighthdwarf Checchinato

Why the heck should they?
What's so wrong with the concept of user name == account name == avatar name?

And what's so wrong with avatar names in the format of Firstname Surname?

And what's so wrong with keeping the (no matter how fancy) display names just for RP characters, aliases, partnerships etc -- situations that can make you want to change the name you display for as long as this situation exists (like as long as you're partnered, as long as you play this character, as long as you like this alias etc)?

Hm… Same argument like: "Oh you don't like [ <insert any wrong or bad thing here that could easily be corrected by those doing/implementing/introducing it> ]? Why don't you just ignore it and look away?"

Again: What was wrong with it in the first place?

eighthdwarf Checchinato

Why shouldn't they? What's so wrong with having a surname?