I like to keep informed as to what’s going on over at the Land of the Hand. In part it’s because I’m curious, but mostly it’s for my own smug sense of satisfaction at making the right choice in dumping that bastard. Yeah. I’m in that phase of the breakup I guess.
Well the latest reminder of the bullet I dodged comes in the form of a “conversation” initiated by new Conversation Guy, Wallace “Herald? What Herald?” Linden. In a post at the blog/forum/wtfever they’re calling it now, Wallace asks, “Will the Real You Please Stand Up?”. It opens with what sounds an awful lot to me like a threat: the story of Friendster dumping user accounts suspected of being less than 100% genuine. It’s almost like he’s saying without saying that LL could just as easily do the same in the future. He then talks about Facebook and Twitter (cause that’s what all the cool kids are using don’tchaknow) and spends paragraph after paragraph rambling in a way that “Doc” describes as a kid answering an essay question on his exam, who has no idea what the answer to the question really is.
Hey, I got nothing against verbose. Hello, it’s ME. But I like to think at least that when I’m verbose, I’m making clear what it is I’m saying.
I think what he’s asking, is what residents think about integrating their very RL personal ID information into their SL profiles. Well, they don’t like it. Least most don’t.
Now, you probably know my feelings on identity. I’m not too concerned who knows my SL, OL, or even RL name (especially since the latter is shared by at least 643 other people just in this country). I’ve said before that I’m much more likely to take seriously the sentiments of commenters in this blog if I have some idea who they are (and not necessarily who they are in RL; but rather who they are in the virtual/digital sense). After all, if they’re actually someone from another grid, for example, it’s plain to see a likely agenda. I like to see if someone’s an alt, but as long as there’s no drama/manipulation/deceit, I can live without knowing. I surely don’t need to know your home address, occupation, phone number, or mother’s maiden name in order to think you’re worth talking or listening to.
Second Life already has a way for you to divulge your RL information to other people, right in your own Profile. You can put as much or as little info as you wish into it. On the Web tab, you can put links to your blog or website or whatever you wish. Or, you can leave it blank.
So knowing such a thing already exists, one has to ask: Wallace, what are you talking about?
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