Category: News-Opinion

Display Names cometh

Posted on by Inara Pey

Jessica Lyon over at Phoenix posts a blog article of Display Names and new SL account names. This isn’t precisely a new topic – I commented on Display Name in particular a while back myself.

Like Jessica, I think that one the whole, the concept of Display Names is good – why shouldn’t people be allowed to adopt an alias for roleplay? What I have had – and still have – is concerns about the actual execution of the new system – particularly that:

  • Anyone can adopt any name they like – including the name of any other avatar (unless said avatar has a name ending in “Linden”, it now seems). Sorry, but I don’t particularly care how many other people share me name in real life; within the virtual environment I *am* ‘Inara Pey’  – I’ve invested time and effort in developing this avatar, and defining exactly what of me I’d like to reveal through her. I’ve done this for Second Life, for a number OS Grids I jump about to and for Blue Mars; in all but the latter, I’ve even gone to the extent of ensuring Inara appears consistently (save for the available fashions) in each world. What’s more, I’ve also spent money in SL in helping her to mature over the years to her current appearance. That someone else can arbitrarily grab her name and use it as they please, does tick me off I have to admit
  • Display Names take precedence over actual avatar names. This means that anyone grabbing my name will be seen by others using Display Name capable Viewers as “Inara Pey” first. They’ll also show up on Contacts and on people’s SL “dashboard” as their chosen Display Name. While there are means to reveal the actual avatar name – and leaving aside any opportunities for mischief-making on the part of those “borrowing” another avatar’s name, this is something of an open door for confusion, angst and annoyance.

While not absolute show-stoppers, it would have been better if LL had ring-fenced existing avatar names as they have now apparently done with the name “Linden” – if only to prevent the cries of outrage when people do find their name re-used.

The one good that that seems to have been implemented since Display Names was announced is that both the Display Name and the avatar name are now displayed in-world by default, rather than just the Display Name with the option of displaying both. While people can still opt to hide the avatar name from their view, this simple step removes some of the confusion.

Although the risk of confusion / angst does still exist elsewhere – such as only seeing Display Names in Contacts, and the chat and IM windows. I’ve experienced this first hand myself when I’ve logged in on the Beta Viewer to find the likes of “The Lord of the Flies”, and “Belinda’s Babe” sitting in my Contacts list and thinking, “Who the devil is THAT?” Do I IM them and ask “ER, ‘suse, me but who are you?” with the risk that a) I feel two inches short of a complete twit for having to ask; and b) they actually get miffed at me for not simply knowing who they are without the need to ask. Granted, both are little niggles, but such storms-in-teacups have been known to ruin friendships.

Display Name capabilities are coming to TPVs as well – Phoenix will have it soon, and doubtless others will, while the Viewer 2.x variants may already support it. It’s good to read from Jessica that Phoenix will provide options to see people’s actual avatar names in chat and IMs.

There has been much scaremongering around the subject of Display Names – such as they will invalidate the use of things likes security tools, and that Display Names are “yet another tool” for griefing. As such, and as Jessica comments in her blog, scripts are already doing the rounds that can ban avatars on the basis of them using Display Names: and this is akin to people who ban people on the strength (literally and figuratively) on the basis of their Avatar Rendering Cost. Such scripts are simply unwarranted and are one thing related to Display Names I’d personally see nipped in the bud before we see two many pairs of jackboots sitting in people’s closets alongside the ones that have labelled “ARC Police”.

As far as security tools are concerned – I can state without hesitation that Display Name do not circumvent them – at least, not the decent ones. These utilise the Avatar Key which remains constant, no matter what Display Name an individual chooses to use. The same goes for the sim  / parcel ban options. True, it would have been helpful if LL themselves had responded to the questions raised on this matter when first raised in their own blog (however obvious the answer appears) – but that’s just par for the course where they are concerned.

As to the idea that Display Names will be the next “big thing” for griefers – no, I don’t see it. Yes, I’m sure some will find their names used by others – but I think in the vast majority of instances, this will be for fun, not malice. Should anyone discover that their name is being used maliciously – then the Abuse Report form is there to be used.

While not absolutely perfect, Display Names could be a lot of fun for many people, allowing them to assume names more suited to their role-play characters – and they should really be treated as such, not as “yet another LL evil” as some out there are portraying them.

Lowering the (age) boom

Posted on by Inara Pey

I’m a couple of days late, largely through inattention but also because of things being rather busy in-world, but I finally caught up with this announcement from Terrance Linden regarding the advent of teens on the Main Grid from the start of 2011.

And my, what a lot of controversy it has caused!

I’m already on record as not being overly impressed with the arrival of 16 and 17 year-olds into MY playground (emphasis deliberate).  The Main Grid has always been promoted as an ADULT playground, suited for ADULT interests and pursuits. Now LL are reneging on that promotion – despite their repeated claims it was “not” going to happen, and we’re all up in arms. And in some ways, rightly so. Once again LL are presenting their user base with a dramatic shift in focus for Second Life without anything approaching any kind of cultivation of the idea within the community or engaging in real dialogue over the change. So in that respect, despite the various management changes over the years, (from Rosedale to Kingdon to Rosedale to Komin) nothing has really changed in their overall attitude towards us. Pity.

Terrance recently went some way to allaying fears concerning the arrival of 13-15 year-olds, and the measures overall, it should be said, are good. And, if I’m brutally honest, I don’t think the arrival of 16-17 year-olds onto the main grid is actually going to be the disaster people feared, or result in a massive upheaval some are predicting.

Let’s look at it pragmatically:

  • They will be restricted to PG / G rated sims. These are in the minority; while this may be a concern to those with PG / G private sims, there is a potential solution: change the sim rating to Mature.
  • Adults visiting PG / G rated sims should already demonstrate restraint in their mode of dress and communications. We do so in real life (where, ironically, those in their mid-teens are generally a darn sight ruder and lewder in their use of language than most of “us” adults), so where’s the problem with exercising self-restraint in-world?
  • How many of those touting fears about adults and minors interacting actually spend enough time in PG /G sims for this to become a worry? Not that many, I’ll wager. Sure, there is the issue of shopping and “accidental” interaction – but again the rules relating to PG / G sims kick-in. And if someone is worried about accidentally communicating with a minor – moderate your language and be circumspect in your approach and act responsibly at first contact. Just because we’re in a virtual world doesn’t mean common sense should be checked at the login screen, for crying out loud!

Of course, there are issues – for adults and minors alike.

In the case of the latter, and as many point out in comments after Terrance’s post, Mainland is a hotchpotch of PG / G sims scattered among a multitude of Mature sims – sims legally registered minors will not be able to access. This means that the supposed “continuous” experience of travelling across Mainland by road or rail or flying (sim boundary issues accepted) will simply not be available to them. The only means they’ll have for inter-sim travelling is teleport. Worse, for them, is the fact that they won’t even know the rating for the sims surrounding the one they are in…until they collide with the boundary. Hardly friendly.

Beyond this is a deeper concern for adults – as raised in the forums. Just because minors are confined to PG / G sims doesn’t mean they cannot cam to neighbouring Mature sims, or that they cannot make purchases from neighbouring Mature sims. Thus, they can “legally” see / buy things and items that  – frankly – might open a can of worms.

Let’s be honest here; while he had other things of late to occupy himself (such as getting re-elected), Senator Mark Kirk (US, Illinois, R) is now back in office, and he has long campaigned against SL and its “influence” in “corrupting” minors  – indeed, while LL deny it, their rapid push-through of the Adult Policy and Zindra did come hard on the heels of a Senate investigation into the question of adult activities and minors on the Internet that was in part kick-off by the likes of Mark Kirk. And that was back in the days when the Main Grid (and its users) were reasonably safeguarded by the overall access policy of “over 18s only”.

Now LL are removing that security wrapper – and there is something of a risk that all it could take is one or two incidents of X seeing  / buying Y, and someone noticing (parents of a less-than-liberal / tolerant nature, for example) and then clanging on the alarm bells – and we might see the likes of Kirk and his over-zealous friends swinging into action again.

Internet legislation is also changing to point the finger at the likes of you and me, as well as service providers when it comes to safeguarding minors. Again, some have argued that the Internet is rife with porn (well, duh!) but minors can access it anyway, even if it means “borrowing” a parent’s credit card – so where is the problem with LL opening the door to minors?

Well, the comparison with porn sites is true – but irrelevant. The point is, that whether the credit card is borrowed to sign-up to a porn site or SL, both have been flagged as adult environments – so the wrongful use of a card (or entering false data in the sign-up) has acted as a “security wrapper” inasmuch as you and I could not be held responsible for the actions of a “naughty” minor. Unlike porn site, LL is now removing that wrapper  – and shifting a good portion of the onus therein onto the shoulders of their residents.

Argent Stonecutter has suggested a perfectly reasonable solution to the particular concern of Mature sim visibility for PG /G sims: simply tweak the server settings so that this is no longer the case. While this may ruin the contiguous look of the mainland to minors, it’s really not impacting on their experience at all beyond this – after all, they can’t actually travel to the neighbouring lands if they are Mature.

“Hiding” Mature sims might even benefit minors inasmuch as the boundaries to their current movement are obviously visible in the form of the surrounding “water”; this to me is a far better means of telling them “Sorry, you can go no further,” in advance of them simply hitting a sim boundary and getting violent bounced to who-knows-where, particularly if driving a car or flying at speed…

That said, and having had time to reflect on matters, I don’t hold with all the cries of concern over IMs that some adults are raising. Suella Ember actually raises a very valid point – one that is far to casually dismissed in generic references to “the Internet” – and this is that anyone using any Instant messaging service may well find themselves talking to a minor – and thus circumspection is the key. Profiles are available to peruse, and we have a certain little ability called intuition. Is it so hard for us not to employ both it and common sense when approaching others / being approached by others? How many of those screaming about this don’t actually do so already?

I still have concerns over teens entering the main grid, but these come down, again, to other matters, including worries, real or otherwise, around Copybotting – or the perceived threat thereof, frankly.

The Teen grid is renowned for the amount of ripped items there – the excuse being that this is because commerce has been so limited within its confines. This may be true; but nevertheless Copybotting has been an accepted way of life there, so there is an understandable worry that it will be ported into the main grid along with everything else. And there is certainly a lot more temptation for it to continue on the main grid. And even if this doesn’t prove to be the case – lord knows we’ve had enough hysteria among adults over the entire subject of content ripping to led to major controversy such as CDS Gemini and other edge-case tools. The last thing we need, again, is to have people going off half-cocked.

Overall, I’m personally less-than-sanguine over the arrival of teens here in SL; my interests here – as anyone reading my Peysworld blog will know – revolve around “adult” activities as well as more general pursuits. However, it is now a fact of life that they are coming, and with one or two caveats, I really don’t think it is anything the majority of people in SL are going to be impacted by – so long as common sense is applied to both sides of the equation. And therein lies the rub: as it has to be said, we, as residents are as capable of demonstrating an abject lack of common sense as much as anyone at Linden Lab.

Mesh and ARC – Angst in the offing?

Posted on by Inara Pey

An interesting post popped up in the official blogrum today concerning confusion about Mesh objects and prims counts.

While the technical ins-and-outs of the main discussion largely go right over my head, Lightscribe Infinity raises a point that, if accurate, could lead to a lot of additional angst in-world in the coming months:

ARC is high for any av mesh. The default av, simply smoothed and brought inworld, increases ARC dramatically. 91938 versus the 0 of a present av, with everything detached.

ARC – or Avatar Rendering Cost – is a misleading “measure” introduced by Linden Lab some time ago that was designed to provide a loose – one might say entirely arbitrary – measure of the “cost” to the SL Viewer in rendering your avatar, based on the number of textures and primitives (or indeed, sculpties and (soon) Meshes worn by your avatar. The basic value for an unadorned avatar is 100 (and not the 0 mentioned by Ligtscribe, in fairness), but the more prims /textures your avatar wears – and the higher the resolution of those textures – then the higher the ARC count generated.

ARC itself appears as a number floating above avatars’ heads once the option is enabled from Advanced > Rendering > Info Displays > Avatar Render Cost, and it is perhaps one of the most misunderstood information displays available in Second Life, and one of the biggest causes of unnecessary drama. This is for two reasons:

  1. People look upon ARC is absolute terms. That is, a) the look at it in isolation of other factors; and b) they treat it as if it is an entirely accurate measurement in and of itself.
  2. People believe ARC lags the simulator, and thus directly impacts everything.

In fairness, the first item – ARC being viewed as an absolute measure – could be said to be partially LL’s fault inasmuch as the ARC count is “colour-coded” when displayed, with “low” lag counts (approximately up to 1,000) being shown in green, “medium” lag counts (between around 1,000-2,000) appearing in yellow and those above 2,048 appearing in red. These colours alone send out entirely the wrong message to the uninformed, given that most us of automatically associate green with “good” and “acceptable” but red with “bad” and “dangerous”  – and something that “must” be avoided.  However, as the SL wiki entry on the subject itself states:

ARC isn’t the end-all for pinpointing Viewer lag. It’s a useful estimate which should be used in conjunction with other tools

The second point is completely and utterly wrong. ARC is a factor – as the name states – of rendering. Rendering is a function of the Viewer, not the simulator. As such, rendering is dependent wholly on the client end of the equation – what computer you are using, what graphics card / system, the amount of memory it can utilise and so on, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the the simulator itself.

These basic misconceptions have resulted in a wide range of myths sprouting up around high ARC counts – such as:

  • a high ARC count is indicative of an avatar carrying a high script load.
    • No, it isn’t. Scripts are not, and cannot be, rendered ergo they have absolutely no impact on an overall ARC count
  • a high ARC count directly affects your ability to teleport.
    • No, it doesn’t. Teleport failures are largely related to how many scripts your avatar is carrying and/or server-side issues entirely unrelated to ARC)

While it is true that ARC can provide a measure of the overall cost of rendering an avatar by every single Viewer that can “see” that avatar, the point that people forget is that it is not, nor has it ever been – and the SL wiki states – the only measure. More importantly, its not even an accurate measure in any way, shape size or form; it is simply an estimate. If only those who bow down before the Great God ARC would actually understand this!

The fact that LL openly admitted it to be a subjective measure, entirely dependent on a wide range of factors entirely outside of their control, at the time it was introduced went almost entirely unnoticed by those who use now use ARC as a club to batter people with, and who have reached a point where no amount of reasoned argument will sway them from their entrenched view that those displaying a high ARC count deserve to be shouted at, badgered, and / or banned from sims. Not even perfectly obvious demonstrations of the ineffectiveness of ARC as an accurate and reliable measure can break many of these so-called “ARC Police” from their misguided views.

For example, if ARC were truly an accurate measure of an avatar’s impact on things, then one would expect all ARC counts to be constant for any given combination of clothing and attachments worn by an avatar.

But it is not. For proof of this, simply get a group of friend together, or go to a shop or mall where there are a number of avatars and turn on ARC. You’ll get a range of counts appearing above people’s heads – but if you cam around, zoom in or out – the counts will change! Simply teleporting from sim to sim can increase / decrease an individual’s ARC, simply because the need for the client to render everything else in the view is impacting on the count ascribed to the avatar itself; and before anyone starts telling me the error of my way, yes, every single object you see in your world view also has it’s own rendering cost as well.

So how does this relate to worn Meshes? Well, if Lightscribe is right, and Mesh attachments end up sending ARC skyrocketing, then doubtless the ARC Police (which is perhaps the politest name for them compared to others I’ve seen) are going to be bludgeoning a lot more people with there ignorance and creating even more unnecessary drama and angst.

Which is a shame, because one gets the feeling that Mesh is going to have more than its share of drama, upset and misunderstandings once it arrives on the main grid, without anyone stirring the pot even more.

How do *you* define stability?

Posted on by Inara Pey

In my last piece, I questioned who, exactly, is minding the store. While my question was primarily aimed at SL Marketplace, which continues to acquire JIRAs and unanswered pleas for help, it also applied more widely to the grid in general.

Recently, LL introduced a slew of ideas in order to “enhance” our SL pleasure and promise “greater” stability. All of these initiatives were launched under Philip Rosedale’s brief “return” as the CEO. Outside of Snowstorm, which is enjoying moderate success, few seem to have actually worked.

The new policy of small fixes rolled out weekly? Nope. Not from where I’m standing at least. Rather the reverse. Now, as well as putting up with the weekly irritation of Second Life’s weekend performance gradually degrading between Friday and Sunday, I’m now finding my Tuesdays and Wednesdays routinely buggered up by rolling restarts for Magum, le Tigre, Blue Cheese, White Knuckles – or whatever the heck the latest codename for a “fix” is called – to the point where no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I’m experiencing inventory errors, failed teleports and other issues.

Similarly, even the big roll-outs continue to irritate, with teleports continuing to fail some 24 hours after the “all clear” has been given. We’re also again hearing about things like the Mono freeze-up still being “fixed”. Excuse me, wasn’t this sorted out a few months ago, among some fanfare, and wasn’t there a posting about it having been sorted?

So why is it, in the last week or so, many people are reporting the sim they are on routinely freezing up again when someone teleports in? Has a new “fix” now broken something again? Wasn’t the new strategy supposed to stop this?

Mark Kingdon was guilty of several faults during his tenure at LL as CEO – but once thing he did stand watch over was a drive to improve performance and stability.

So what on Earth is going on now?

Dicing with Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Let me say right away that Karsten Rutledge rocks (as much as I hate that term). His builds within Second Life are divine, and his fabulous Neuspa (which for some reason isn’t on his website) is something a male friend introduced me to a long way back in time, and which is something I’ve had huge amounts of fun with barrelling around the mainland roads both exploring and bouncing off sim boundaries, or jetting around water sims and being catapulted into the middle of next week when hitting sim boundaries there…

But Karsten is probably most famous for his board games. These were really popular a few years ago, and now are enjoying a massive resurgence across SL. It seems that it is impossible to go anywhere on the grid without tripping over one in particular I’ve taken to calling “Addictive, Addictive” purely because so many are playing it constantly.

And this has got me wondering if we’re not seeing, in a very minor way something of a social commentary on the state of Second Life with so many logging on simply to play a game-in-a-game? Now, before you start campaigning for my head – this a) isn’t a rant against games in SL; b) nor do I miss the fact that playing board games anywhere can be an immensely social activity full of fun, chiding, teasing and general getting-to-know-one-another. I get that. Really.

But let’s be honest here a moment, and look at the other aspect of board games in modern life. The reality is, they are something comes out on three occasions: at family get-togethers, perhaps a couple of times a month (if we have kids, etc.), when we’re having a small social gathering of like minds (which is about the closest equivalent to SL, in fairness), or when we’re fed up with the rubbish on television and there is really nothing else to do…

Second Life is supposedly a rich, immersive experience offering a rich diversity of entertainment, distractions, opportunities and the like. Yet it seems that across the grid, even in sims that have been purpose-built to provide unique role play and other experiences  – experiences one might have thought would naturally attract those wanting to available themselves of the facilities – it seems that the one guaranteed activity one will find in them is … people sitting playing a board game involving green baize and dice – frequently while the rest of the sim stands ignored and empty.

Could it be that, to paraphrase (or possibly update) Bruce Springsteen, Second Life is feeling to many like television – that while there may well be 357 channels, there is actually nothing on that appeals? I mean, again in fairness it’s not even as if something like Greed….”Addictive, Addictive” actually encourages direct interaction; unless Voice is used, conversations are hard to hold when focused on pointing at the game table, clicking, calculating and so on. Do is it really the case that playing a humble game with dice has usurped shopping, exploring, roleplay, dancing, skydiving, and so on?

Or are we all just a digital nation of closet gamblers?

Conversational consent and the CS

Posted on by Inara Pey

There has been an increasing trend within SL for people to post comments in their Profile and / or Picks along the lines of:

“TOS Disclaimer: My IM’s are logged and might be distributed if i wish…”

Or

“Since Linden Lab demands this notification you are by this informed that all my IMs as well as Local Chat are logged to harddisc and that I will use the logs in any way I feel suitable. If you are uncomfortable with this you are free to avoid interacting with me.”

So how much weight do such comments actually carry? Do they actually conform to the Community Standards (and not the ToS, as many with such comments in their Profiles wrongly refer to)?

These questions can be answered simply and in the order given:

1. None whatsoever.

2. No.

Let’s see what the Community standards actually states (Section 4, Disclosure):

Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Life experience. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident –including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident’s privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums. [emphasis mine]

The very clear implication here is that informed consent is required before such conversations are distributed. Informed consent is a two-way agreement. As such, posting a unilateral declaration of intent within one’s Profile does not absolve oneself of adherence to the Community Standards.

Note also, that at no point in the section is any caveat given that allows people to bypass it. There is no “unless otherwise indicated in an individual’s Profile” or “except where the individual monitoring and distributing conversations states XYZ in their Profile”.

Rather, all these comments actually achieve in the first instance, is to demonstrate the poster’s own woefully inadequate understanding of the Community Standards for the reasons stated.

Of course, there are exceptions to Section 4: as stated elsewhere in the CS, open chat is not regarded as a private conversational area. Similarly, where outright abuse is concerned, Section 4 does not mean a person cannot use a transcript of an IM conversation when filing an Abuse Report.

But really, that’s not what these disclaimers are about; rather they lean towards the individual posting them as being at the least insecure – if not potentially malicious in their intent – by posting such comments. Certainly for me, encountering someone for the first time who has such a statement in their profile leaves me feeling they are somewhat less than trustworthy and thus I pass on communicating with them.

I have to admit as well that the sheer hubris of people putting such comments in their Profiles – particularly those who have been in SL long enough to know better – does, to use the vernacular,  get right up my nose.

I’m not alone in this feeling, as friends have pointed out. To this end, a number of us have started posting the following (sometimes amended to suit our personal style) in our picks (with thanks to Yasmin Heartsdale for the original wording). If you feel the same way, I invite you to add it to your own Picks.

To those with comments about their “right” to distribute conversations logs, etc:

Linden Lab’s Community Standards state (Section 4: Disclosure): “Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs WITHOUT consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.”  (Emphasis mine)

The key here is MY *informed* verbal / written consent, *not* your own misguided attempt to waive consent on my part.

Therefore, in the correct spirit of the CS, you are hereby informed that *UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES* do I give you consent to monitor, post, or share any private conversation involving me, *regardless* of any misguided language to the contrary contained in your Profile. ARs can and may follow should you choose to deem yourself above the CS.

Consider yourself forewarned and informed.

http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php