This was the discussion yesterday!

Thursday, the weekly discussion group met at LnL to discuss the topic “Are we rude or are we RUDE??? – Behaviour in SL”. The topic promised to be an interesting ground for debate and we had a full house! The co-owner of LnL London Junkers, in his new role of moderator of Thursday’s discussions, started by stating that SL(Second Life) was a jungle, no rules whatsoever existed and everyone did whichever they wanted. Most agreed although some said they had not encountered that many rude people. The moderator asked then whether the rules of RL (Real Life) also applied in SL and if they were the same in one world and the other. Some thought they were, others were a bit more skeptical about it. The fact that people in SL come from different cultures also creates a few difficulties in establishing rules applicable to all, though there are the ToS (Terms of Service) which are the “rules” of SL. The fact that SL is in so many ways an illusion, makes it a bit more complex to judge vulgarity as everything is relative and subject to interpretations. The moderator then asked everyone about common rules of conduct in SL and everyone agreed it did depend on personal ethics, perhaps a little less constrained, and in some cases the influence those around us have on us, especially when sim or inworld communities’ rules are concerned. A few rude behaviours were put forward, things like giving away personal information about RL and alts, leaving mics open while only typing or talking in RL, random TPs, pregnancy talkers even. Many thought that these were examples of rudeness as they were an imposition of others’ SL experiences onto you. The group then moved on to discuss anonymity in SL. All agreed that it did open the door to a more “liberal”, to say the least, behaviour as there seem to be no consequences, despite the possibility of filing an AR (Abuse Report) in cases going against the ToS. Finally, the group talked about griefers, the classical example of anti-social behaviour in SL and how to deal with them like TPing away, muting, banning, ejecting. Self-regulation seems to be the key to minimizing this problem. Our time was up, and London concluded the discussion stating that there seemed to be a trend in SL regarding rudeness, whether imported from RL or generated and enhanced in SL, and that it was up to us to change things. Some didn’t agree! But that is the fun of these discussions, different opinions being shared! Join us next week for another discussion, Thursday at 2pm SLT in LnL’s Lounge with a new topic!