Blog #15

Avoiding Certain Places
Second Life is home to creators from around the world. There are many different places to visit in this vast and growing online world. From any type of museum you can think, to rock venues, social gathering, and even shopping islands. But what you should know is many of the users do not share the same views as other users so it would be safe to say that users should be careful and avoid certain places at all costs.
Some islands will not even let the user on and will automatically pop up with a notification saying that the user must leave the island immediately or will be forced out. If that does not get the user to get out a huge red banner will pop up around the island and the avatar cannot pass the banner no matter how hard the avatar tries. Another way to get kicked off the island is if the organization does not like the user for some reason they can kick you out by reporting you and Second Life will remove the user from the island.
There are also many political or extremist islands that are created to promote what they are trying to come across. Groups trying to overthrow the so called government of Second Life which is probably Second Life’s Board of trustees or something also have islands in Second Life. This Second Life Liberation Army as they like to call themselves has created havoc in Second Life and have done damage to people and property. In the end it would be safe to avoid these places all together.

Blog #14

How to act in Second Life
Knowing how to act in Second Life is an important thing to know if you are going to be participating in Second Life. Second Life is full of people from around the world creating islands to either keep contact with friends, in a political party, or simply a business trying to advertise their merchandise through Second Life. No matter what knowing how to act around these places is something to know. Each creator of an island can create rules to their island. These rules must be followed or you may get kicked out and have consequences to deal with.
When hanging around friends, users can usually do or say something inappropriate. When around friends people usually tend to act more casual and use slang. Knowing how to dress is also important because users casually wear whatever they want, but if you are at a political function or debate the avatar may have to dress up and have to watch what they say because if someone gets offended right away they may kick you off the island and can never go back.
Traveling around islands is fun and interesting way of meeting new people. You can find free merchandise such as clothes, drum sticks, or even weapons. It may look fun and cool to have weapons such as bats or swords but knowing where you can openly carry around these weapons is also something to worry about. For now just try using proper courtesy and a little common sense. Oh and do not forget to watch what you say.