Grace looks back, Mera Pixel ponders.

It's a lot to consider, and it's all well worth reading, but a few items caught my attention:

This was reinforced somewhat by the feature set because then your friends could not only see if you were online, they could also map you by default.

By default, I give map rights to everyone on my friends list.

It saves time when someone wants to hop to some event I am at. They don't need to wait for me to teleport them.

I am never anywhere that people would think I shouldn't be seen, and if I am, well, folks know I'm probably analyzing that build to pick up on some ideas for my own building.

If I'm off somewhere talking to someone, I switch from public to private chat when it's something important, sensitive or shouldn't waft through the air for sudden arrivals to hear.

Well, usually.

I may have mentioned before that the best source of learning new web-design tricks was to reverse engineer porn sites. Maximum efficiency for maximum attraction for maximum commercial impact. Not a single wasted line of code there, because code meant bandwidth cost when downloaded a million times.

Some goes for the smut-peddlers and dirty toys in SL, folks. "Don't be a dick - reverse engineer one and learn."

If someone still doesn't understand that, well... POOF gone from the list.

(Damn, I wish that thing had folders so I could organize it. Or at least a way to park Edloeans, Nowherevilleans, Five Islanders, and the folks I'd take a bullet for.)

We begin to see more and more of the "hey, look at me!" types, and miss out on the quiet and talented individuals.

I would rather be seen as a "Look at them!" person, whether it's music or podcasting.

As for the posts about my builds or the stupid-insane crap that I do, my goal is to inspire others to not just roll up their sleeves... take off your damn shirt, smear peanut butter and jelly on your chest, scream I AM A SANDWICH! and dive headfirst into whatever task that's been scaring you.

Try it. The worst that can happen is that you loop-and-delete it... so you can try again later.

Okay, so someone might laugh. Fine.

There's all kinds of laughter.

• They point and laugh at you: eff 'em.

• They snigger behind your back: eff 'em too.

• They put their arm around your shoulder, laugh, and tell you how they screwed up the same exact way until someone taught them X, and here's how to do it...: YES! YES! YES! OH YES! YESSSSSSSSS! ("Miss - I'll have what he's having")

As for the Building Shelter thing Mera does, Dolmere introduced me to that Building Shelter thing Saturday. Had a blast with it. Posted about it, and I hope others give it a shot, because it's great fun.

Now, would you classify my post and the Flickr snapshots as "Look at me!" or "Look at this - try it for yourself!"

Maybe a mix of both, sure, but I'm hoping people got the "try it for yourself!" message through loud and clear. (And whatever whiskey I won, well, it went back into the jarrrrr-oh!)

As someone that has an avatar that is of the opposite gender, I can understand those that don't want certain details known. While I don't support misleading others and getting into a deceptive online relationship, there is a certain amount of freedom that Second Life provides, which is taken away when people want to know all about your real life.

The reason I am currently using at this time is: "You spend 99% of the time in SL staring at your avatar's ass. Why would I want to stare at some guy's ass?"

Which, of course, explains the windup key... OOOOH PREEEEETTY SHINY WINDUP KEEEEEEY! HEEEE HEEE HEEE IT TURNS! IT TURNS!

I'm such a moron, eh.

Of course, this is all a crock, since I picked up the SpaceNavigator and can quickly cam around... and stare at my avatar's cold, dead, metal face, smoking like a circus chimp puff puff puff.

Hrm... what if there was a way for people to see one avatar but you saw another? They see Mistah Macho with 100% shoulders and tattoos that would make Picasso scream in horror while you see

HAH! Already happening - when folks see you Ruthed or half-rezzed due to lag!

If only all new folks coming in were Nikas and Scottlo and Colettes and Michelle/Paper Scotts and such eh? Or maybe... they're that way because they looked for folks to learn from, found the right people to learn from, and they learned?

Don't you?