Friday, March 6, 2009

Privacy

I realised last night that I'm still struggling with the issue of privacy in SL. Just how private is it?

Let me give you an example. At one point last night I was leaping from island to island, just looking round, exploring a bit. And then I landed somewhere and some note came up about being in a private area and to leave in ten seconds or be ejected. OK, thinks me. Fair enough.

I bring the map up, choose my next random place and tp in. And the same thing happens again. Leave in ten seconds or be ejected.

I shrug and bring up the map once more. Choose my next tp spot, somewhere with some green dots this time, and whoosh, off I go.

I land and begin to wander over towards three people I can see off in front of me. I get halfway there and suddenly some notice comes up about being frozen. And then I am notified I've been ejected and also banned from that sim. Come on, what's that all about?

I guess I am still learning just what in SL is public domain. So much is designed and offered by its creator for the public to enjoy, (perhaps in some way showing vanity in seeking approval and acknowledgement?) so it comes as a surprise when a place is LOCKED and PRIVATE. And when you're forcibly removed. And when you pick three private sims IN A ROW.

It probably comes back to my noob naivety again, believing that SL could be different to RL. I still blush when I think back to my first few days. This one time (on band camp) I landed on an island and saw that two green green dots were off in the house in front of me. There I go, wandering along, hammering open the door and wandering in without even a thought. Thankfully the occupants were understanding of noobness and not too unamused but I made my apologies for my rudeness and left.

Why would I do that in SL when I'd never consider such a thing in RL?

7 comments:

  1. Don't worry about it too much, I think everyone has done stuff like this as a noob, lol. The security thing happens a lot too. I got mine after coming home and the poseballs on some of my naughtier furniture was out..not just one time, but several times, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My island is free for people to come and explore on the ground, but I have things that tell me when someone has shown up and how long they're staying. I do have security orbs around my personal skybox that'll slam someone home fast. Although privacy is a bit odd in SL as anyone can cam into your home, it is just polite not to. What I usually tell any of the new residents I help is that if you are somewhere that is not Linden sponsored, then someone else has paid for that land, and they have the right to do what they wish with it, so don't be offended if you find yourself sailing across the sim for stumbling in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Felicity - you should set up a motion-detector video capture thing. If people are going to have fun at your place without you there, you might as well get to enjoy a bit of voyeurism, eh?

    Alicia - yeah, I'd discovered the camming through walls stuff in SL. As you say, it's polite not to pry though. I can see that. A useful reminder there that non-Linden land is private land and it is up to the owner who they have there and then. Thankyou

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL...or at least something that snapped a pic for me to post and blog about! :p

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah, Felicity, that'd work.
    Actually that could be a whole section of your blog right there. Or even a whole new blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You just discovered an annoying the about the mainland...

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails