Over at OpenSim City I have posted in the forums, a list of questions aimed at getting OpenSim fans’ thoughts about Second Life. Obviously many people in OpenSim started in Second Life and later left it behind, while some others made conscious decisions to start with OpenSim rather than Second Life. So, overall, you would expect most OpenSim fans to have a negative attitude about Second Life and, in my experience, you’d be right. Still, I know personally a number of loyal OpenSim users who use Second Life to varying degrees, so there is something they like about it, even if some don’t want to admit it.
As I was creating the questions for that forum, it occurred to me that I might present it to a wider audience as well. So I’m posting the questionaire here. 11 questions – basically, it’s 10 questions with an “anything else you’d like to add?” at the end.
Okay, cool. Now, where are you going to answer these questions?
You can go over to OpenSim City and sign up, if you’re not already a member, and answer in the forums over there on the thread I started.
Or…
How about a meme for OpenSim bloggers? Is there precedent for that? What the heck, let’s give it a shot!
Strawberry Singh is the Queen of the Meme. She posts a meme on her blog most every Monday and they generally focus on Second Life or they have an SL angle or hook. She gets loads of people responding to it by answering her questions on their own SL blogs and then putting links to their blogs in the Comments section of Berry’s OP.
Now, I admit it, I’m no Strawberry Singh. Her blog is way more popular than mine and I’m only half as cute. But I’m extending this invitation to OpenSim bloggers out there to take part in this meme. To do so, write a post on your blog in which you answer the questions below and then in the Comments section of my page, give us a link (and a comment if you like) to your blog post. That way, readers of my blog can look at the different responses on other blogs.
I tried one other meme before but as far as I know, nobody took up the challenge. Like I said, I’m no Strawberry Singh (I really like my line about “half as cute.” LOL). But maybe this time we might get a few responses. Maybe not. Whatever. Thanks in advance to any OpenSim bloggers who do give this a try. (Come on, I’m giving you something to blog about, grab it!)
Meme instructions for OpenSim bloggers… Copy & paste the list of questions below, write your answer after each question, post it all with your own introduction on your blog, put a link to your post here in this thread on my blog. Done!
Anyone else who would like to comment, is welcome to do so below.
One thing about Strawberry’s memes – she gets it started by answering the questions herself. The problem in this case is, I’m not really in the target audience for these questions. I’m not an OpenSimmer first, SLer second. I like ‘em both. And I was an SLer pretty much exclusively until just a year ago. However, in the spirit of getting the thing started and following Strawberry’s format since it has been so successful for her, I am going to answer the questions from my somewhat unusual position of having a foot firmly planted in each camp. But I’m not going to post my answers here, I’m going to put them on my personal blog – DankoWhitfield.net – where I have answered a couple of Strawberry’s memes in the past. Seems appropriate. When I complete that, I will follow my own instructions and post the link to it in the Comments below.
Ready?
OK, without further ado, here’s a few questions aimed at getting OpenSimmers views on Second Life.
Have at it…
1. Do you have a grid you consider as your virtual home? Please name it.
2. Do you have a home in SL?
3. Do you own land in SL or do you rent a spot?
4. How often do you visit SL?
5. What types of activities do you go into SL for?
6. What is the best thing about Second Life?
7. What is the worst thing about Second Life?
8. What is it about your home or favorite grid that makes it much better than Second Life.
9. What is it about your home or favorite grid that you wish was as good as that same element in Second Life? (in other words, what’s the thing about SL that you wish you had on your grid?)
10. Do you hope Second Life goes out of business?
11. Any additional comment you would like to make about Second Life from your vantage point as an OpenSim fan?
Just a thought. I think I’m going to amend my business card, adding one more line, so that it reads:
Danko Whitfield
Writer, Explorer, Diplomat, Musician, Pub Owner
Semi-retired Time Traveller
Half as Cute as Strawberry Singh
Journey To The Center Of The Metaverse 
Hello again!
Here are my answers to the meme questions…
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1. Do you have a grid you consider as your virtual home? Please name it. Excelsior Station. Its not online and its AurroaSim, but it is where I “hang my hat”.
2. Do you have a home in SL? No
3. Do you own land in SL or do you rent a spot? No
4. How often do you visit SL? I don’t. Not sure when was the last time I visited. 2 years ago? 3?
5. What types of activities do you go into SL for? I used to go driving around the continents, but then some idiot started running robo-trucks and such which run people off the road.
6. What is the best thing about Second Life? The Residents
7. What is the worst thing about Second Life? Linden Lab
8. What is it about your home or favorite grid that makes it much better than Second Life. Its mine. No prim limits and its a HUGE size (8,192m x 8,192m)
9. What is it about your home or favorite grid that you wish was as good as that same element in Second Life? (in other words, what’s the thing about SL that you wish you had on your grid?) Can’t think of anything
10. Do you hope Second Life goes out of business? No
11. Any additional comment you would like to make about Second Life from your vantage point as an OpenSim fan? Not really. From their ToS to customer service, many others have already said what I would say.
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1. Do you have a grid you consider as your virtual home? Please name it. – As much as I love OpenSim and have homes on Kitely and on Metropolis Grid (and used to have a home on OSGrid), sad to say that these days my home is probably back to Second Life, although I’d prefer otherwise.
2. Do you have a home in SL? – I have some rental skyspace above a friend’s region. It’s not large, but it is large enough for me to feel comfortable there and make it my own and populate it with my own creations.
3. Do you own land in SL or do you rent a spot? – I rent. There is NO WAY I could afford land in any real sense.
4. How often do you visit SL? – Sadly, right now, I visit it a LOT MORE than the various Open Sims, mostly just because I can find folk to interact with in Second Life and I have been building less and wanting to rp and socialize more of late. Open Sim is great for me to build, but I’ve been going through a dry spell.
5. What types of activities do you go into SL for? – Roleplay, roleplay, roleplay. A little general socializing, but I love to create and participate in stories and while I can build worlds in OpenSim (and do!) and get some “story” that way, it’s so darned hard to find people who are on concurrently to interact with that it is depressing sometimes.
6. What is the best thing about Second Life? – The concurrency.
7. What is the worst thing about Second Life? – The prices, the emphasis on profit over art, and the immaturity of some residents.
8. What is it about your home or favorite grid that makes it much better than Second Life. – The thing I adore about Open Sim is the emphasis on creativity and vision, rather than profit. And, of course, the fact that I can actually AFFORD the space to make visions reality, rather than be strangled by horrific tier payments. And in general, all the Open Sim users I have met have had a higher level of maturity and kindness than the population of Second Life (although there are, of course, many gems there too).
9. What is it about your home or favorite grid that you wish was as good as that same element in Second Life? (in other words, what’s the thing about SL that you wish you had on your grid?) – People. PEOPLE. Enough people to not make each wonderful region feel like a strange wasteland where civilization came and went when we were not looking.
10. Do you hope Second Life goes out of business? – Not per se. But I would love to see more people on Open Sim grids… of course, I am now someone who has gone “reverse diaspora” and returned to SL because I am discouraged by the loneliness…it’s a self-perpetuating problem.
11. Any additional comment you would like to make about Second Life from your vantage point as an OpenSim fan? I’d like to thank SL for at one point in its history being forward thinking enough to release its code and make Open Sim possible. And I wish more SL folks had the courage to step outside the closed sandbox into the larger virtual world.
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1. Do you have a grid you consider as your virtual home? Please name it.
Kitely
2. Do you have a home in SL?
Yes
3. Do you own land in SL or do you rent a spot?
I have a small spot on the mainland
4. How often do you visit SL?
Varies. I have some tools there I like to use occasionally (and yes the people who made them gave me permission to use the end results in OS).
5. What types of activities do you go into SL for?
Mostly building related.
6. What is the best thing about Second Life?
It started it all
7. What is the worst thing about Second Life?
Just not where I want to be anymore
8. What is it about your home or favorite grid that makes it much better than Second Life.
Costs less, more/better personal customer service, ability to have input, more land, more control over what goes on around me (don’t have to worry about ugly ban lines,signs, etc). I also like the market, and I’m excited about hyper-grid coming soon.
9. What is it about your home or favorite grid that you wish was as good as that same element in Second Life? (in other words, what’s the thing about SL that you wish you had on your grid?) More building tools and scripts.
10. Do you hope Second Life goes out of business?
I try not to wish bad things on others.
11. Any additional comment you would like to make about Second Life from your vantage point as an OpenSim fan?
No thank you.
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Hi 🙂 I thought I’d put my 2 cents in as a user of SL that has done some exploring in OpenSim. I loved OpenSim and the people I met. I was very excited by the potential of OpenSim and even claimed a piece of land at one world I visited. But it wasn’t feasible for me to stay as I’m not a builder and there isn’t much to do without that skill. I’m a writer and a consumer in SL and although I can often be found in my home alone, I couldn’t last without the option of being around people (I’m also in Australia and it’s hard enough to find ppl on SL in my timezone as it is).
I think the majority of SLers would love OpenSim but, like me, feel they don’t have the skills to be part of it. Perhaps there is a way that people could be placed together to populate some OpenSim areas?
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