The Voices in My Head

This is the first in a series of articles I plan to post in this blog, detailing some of the things a new avatar can do to make their Second Life more fulfilling.

Today’s topic: the profile.

Right-click on one of the mentors in Orientation Island. You can tell who the mentors are, because they have the title “Second Life Mentor” hovering above their name. Look at the profile. There’s usually quite a lot of text, telling you when that avatar started SL (yes, we are SL addicts), what groups they are in, a little bit about them, and so on. Click on the tabs at the top of that profile window, and you can see even more information about that person. Do the same thing on a non-mentor in orientation island, and you will see a comparatively empty profile.

People like to fill these spaces out because it helps to find people with similar interests, and if you have ridiculously large friends lists like I do, it helps to remind them who you are. Many people all but refuse to talk to newbies who have an empty profile, simply because they have no idea what that person is like. After all, woudl you spend a lot of time and emotional energy on a new person you know nothing about, or a new person who is willing to say something about themselves up front? In that context, although SL is NOT a dating site, similar social networking rules apply - a person with an empty profile will get passed over.

So, what is to be done?

First, right-click on yourself. Actually, right-click on your avatar :p But I’m sure you knwo what I meant. A circular menu appears. Choose “Profile…”. This will open up your own profile. You’ll notice that, unlike on other peoples’ profiles, some of the sections have a white background instead of a grey background. Any section with a white background can be edited by you. For the first tab (”2nd Life”), that is just your “About” box. Here, you can type whatever you like. Most people use it to give a brief introduction about their character. This isn’t necessarily true. People lie about themselves as much, if not more, here as there.

One point here. In Second Life, there is often (but not always) a strong distinction between a person’s SL (Second Life) and their RL (Real Life). Those who maintain this distinction will usually still maintain a consistent character. For them, it is a role-playing game, and in that context, it isn’t really a lie to say something that is at odds with RL. But everyone frowns on inconsistency. If you are on this side of the fence, and you say something about your character in your profile, keep to it. Saying your character is like this when you generally act like that instead… it’s kind of like embellishing a resume for a job interview (except no real money or career is involved of course).

Now that you’ve added a basic “about” section, click on the second tab at the top of your profile window. This one is marked “Web”. if you have a personal home page you’d like to share, paste it’s URL in there. For me, that links to this blog.

The next tab is marked “Interests”. It is a series of check boxes, plus 3 short spaces to say a bit more about youself. Very important point: One of these spaces is marked “Languages”. If you speak English (or some other language), say so. SL is a multi-national community. English is the most common language by afar, but it is a bad to assume that everyone here speaks it. And why should they after all? they are probably as offended by your refusal to speak their language as you are by their refusal to speak yours. A statement to say what language(s) you actually know can safe a lot of frustration. Many people won’t even try to start a conversation if they don’t know you can speak their language.

The “Picks” and the “Classifieds” tabs are for advanced stuff, and not really needed or expected of a new person. Many older avatars don’t use them either. basically, “Picks” is where you can create a link to a location you like, attach a picture of it, and have a short text description. Some actually use them as a favourites list. Others use it as extra space to say more about themselves or their friends. Classified is where your paid-for advertisements will apepar (as well as in the SL classified search list). You won’t want this until you start trying to sell stuf in SL, which is a long time from now (at least a week).

The next tab is marked “1st Life”. here, you can type stuff about your RL. or, if you consider that private, you can just type in something else. I know I do.

The final tab is marked “My Notes”. This section is private - only you can see it. It is not public. You can type whatever you like here, because no one else can see it. So why have it? Simple. There is a “My Notes” tab on everyone’s profile, and you can edit that tab on everyone. It’s where you can make notes about your friends (in the tab on their profile) where they can’t see.

hth

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Positive, SL 101, Warda. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.