one thousand umbrellas opened to spoil the view

[Insert from the Editrix: After this published, I heard from a friend that {smallroyalty} actually argued with a Doomed ship moderator, over whether or not she knew what roleplay was. Conclusion: she knew what roleplay was, at the time she said she didn't on the ship. Yeah. So that's annoying...]

More from the Doomed controversy; an explanation, I think, of...sorts? All identifying names have, again, been changed per request of avatar.

[16:42] [smallroyalty]: (Saved Mon Jul 18 14:25:44 2011)hi
[16:42] [smallroyalty]: (Saved Mon Jul 18 14:33:20 2011)sorry that day
[16:45] Emilly Orr: I'm sorry, I have no reference. Sorry for what day?
[16:46] [smallroyalty]: on domed
[16:46] [smallroyalty]: i read u blog
[16:46] Emilly Orr: Oh. Well, you do understand what you did wrong, right?
[16:47] [smallroyalty]: a croos rl
[16:47] [smallroyalty]: mine RL croosed domed
[16:47] Emilly Orr: Croosed? I don't understand
[16:48] [smallroyalty]: mine RL is : a 12 old girl curious and likes to explore places
[16:48] Emilly Orr: Wait. You're 12 RL? Seriously?
[16:49] [smallroyalty]: RL = role play
[16:49] [smallroyalty]: in real life i an 25 yrs old
[16:49] Emilly Orr: Generally speaking, that's referred to as RP
[16:49] Emilly Orr: RP = Role Play
[16:49] Emilly Orr: Because of the R and the P, see
[16:50] Emilly Orr: RL hits most people as Real Life

Okay, so it's a difference in terms, and keeping in mind that [smallroyalty] is new to SL, sometimes these things slip through the cracks. She seems to basically be saying that her roleplay would have included questions about what roleplay is, because her roleplay is that she doesn't understand roleplay.

....Yeah, I have no words. But that's her concept.

[16:50] [smallroyalty]: yes i not talk very good english
[16:50] [smallroyalty]: so may im now
[16:50] Emilly Orr: But here's the thing. If you UNDERSTAND the concept of roleplay, why did you say you didn't?
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Because *that* is what got you booted from Doomed that day.
[16:51] [smallroyalty]: because i was roleplaying that the avi not understand it
[16:51] Emilly Orr: ....
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Okay, apart from being almost incomprehensibly dumb, the avatar would understand RP
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Because she was existing in RP
[16:51] Emilly Orr: It would be all around her, that would be her reality
[16:51] [smallroyalty]: whell
[16:52] Emilly Orr: ASKING 'what's OOC' or 'what's RP' means you're breaking OUT of the RP
[16:52] [smallroyalty]: s othis what hapened whe both was breaking each other roleplays xD

This, I still don't understand. But she seems kind of fixated on the topic, that her roleplay is that she doesn't roleplay, or rather, that her roleplay is that of a 12-year-old who doesn't understand roleplay, and...bwuh.

I mean, okay, sure, someone tosses those terms into open conversation--and I have no verification that they did or didn't either way--maybe her character would react, and ask. But if not, she was....I don't even know. How does that even come up?

"I don't understand roleplay. What's roleplay?"
"((OOC: you're in one.))"
"What's OOC?"

I mean, I can, sort of, wrap my mind around how the conversation took place, but...I still don't get it. Plus, there's that rules card, which EVERYONE is handed upon entering the sim.

[16:53] [smallroyalty]: i read the rules after ..
[16:53] [smallroyalty]: and get what u said
[16:53] Emilly Orr: How did they break your roleplay? Because again, saying you don't get it is demonstrating you really don't understand how to play a character
[16:53] Emilly Orr: ....
[16:53] Emilly Orr: you read the rules after?

Oh. I, err...Oh. What?

[16:53] Emilly Orr: why?
[16:53] Emilly Orr: why not before?
[16:54] [smallroyalty]: i an new on sl
[16:54] Emilly Orr: Right.
[16:54] [smallroyalty]: all places i go sent me a messgae

And if I'm understanding that correctly, this is the fault of Viewer 2, because they take each incoming thing, pop it down in the lower-right-hand corner, and new people ignore it.

I know I harp on Viewer 2 a lot, but this one seems entirely deserved. It is harder to figure out when you've been given a message at all, and place that on top of not distinguishing between important messages to read RIGHT NOW and hey, you came by our sim, neat messages, makes the entire incoming-message-system profoundly pointless.

[16:54] Emilly Orr: Okay, so...the card came in, you saved it, but you didn't understand you were supposed to read it beforehand?
[16:55] [smallroyalty]: yea ... i an doing this now
[16:55] Emilly Orr: Ah.
[16:55] [smallroyalty]: for not broke any more a RP
[16:55] Emilly Orr: Well, as far as it goes, I don't think you're banned from Doomed, but they'll likely be wary if you return.
[16:56] Emilly Orr: Because, again, survival horror sim. Space-based. If you're not dressed for the sim, they're going to be trying to figure out where you fit.
[16:56] [smallroyalty]: ok

Okay. So, good, we're done here. Understanding was achieved. I feel relatively comfortable that accord has been reached, and--

Wait. She's typing.

[16:56] [smallroyalty]: well i came to u to aske to change names on u blog
[16:56] Emilly Orr: Why?
[16:56] [smallroyalty]: i an not a alt of [someone else mentioned on the earlier blog entry which has since been redacted]
[16:56] [smallroyalty]: i an age verified
[16:57] Emilly Orr: Okay.
[16:57] [smallroyalty]: i rp a family
[16:57] Emilly Orr ponders briefly why all the people playing kids in SL are age verified, but lets it go.

Yeah, because there really aren't enough hours in the day to figure out why people playing kids on SL, age verify so they can get into Adult sims. I mean, sure, player behind the screen, not a kid, I get that, but it still just strikes me as...creepy.

[16:58] Emilly Orr: If you're just upset that your name's out there, all right. But that also means a rewrite of that entry.
[16:58] Emilly Orr: I can do that, it just makes it odd.
[16:58] [smallroyalty]: yes .. i think was a kind confusing what u writed
[16:59] Emilly Orr: I don't think so, but all right.
[16:59] Emilly Orr: I'll change it.
[16:59] [smallroyalty]: thanks

And for the second time, I thought that was the end of everything. All names changed, no identifying linkage--even assumed--retained, the prior entry was edited and republished at this point, and I went about my day. Most of which, at this point, consisted of answering emails, so as far as SL was concerned, I was just standing on the build platform above my Winterfell parcel, not moving.

And then this came in.

[17:09] [smallroyalty]: can add u as friend to tell me about nice steampunk places?
[17:09] [smallroyalty]: stores
[17:09] [smallroyalty]: and markets
[17:10] Emilly Orr: Well, your best bet is to go to Oxbridge Village--I think you can still get to it here: Caledon Oxbridge Village (128,128,2)
[17:10] Emilly Orr: and ask around. I know they also have free outfits that are more steampunk/Victorian aligned.
[17:11] Emilly Orr: I generally don't friend on the first meeting, but if you really want to, sure.

I used to have this staunch policy about not friending people unless I knew them really well. Because I wanted to know everyone on my friendslist in Second Life.

At this point, I must get three friend offers a day, though, just from people who want an EM in their callbox, so to speak, and it's just enervating to try to parse through everything. Plus the fact that currently, I'm not even talking that often to people I do know that well, and mostly, it creates a situation where I just don't even care, anymore. Sure, friend me, what the hell.

[17:11] Quer ser meu amigo?

And now we know she's Portuguese, so yes, her English fluency is not that high (because her native tongue is Portuguese, not English). Though to be absolutely fair, here, she's choosing to communicate in English throughout this entire conversation. She may be bad at the language, but she's trying to improve her comprehension. I support that wholly; I can't say anything negative about trying to learn a new language. That, and English is hard; if you're not born a native speaker of it, it's confusing as hell.

[17:14] Friendship offer accepted.
[17:14] [smallroyalty] is Online

And that's that, then. Apart from accepting any and all suggestions for "steampunk" stores--beyond the ones I know (and please leave them in the comments)--I think we've tied things up in a confusing, but acceptable place. She didn't understand the rules (because she didn't read them); she didn't understand that rp containing the concept of no rp would not be understood--or even accepted very well; and English is not her first language, so she's struggling to communicate all these concepts in the first place.

I'm going to set the language thing aside for the moment, because there are bigger questions here. How do roleplay sims communicate their rules and prohibitions effectively post-viewer 2? Generally, most sims (that I've been to, at least; I haven't been to ALL of them) have a drop-down when you enter the sim that offers a copy of the rules, or at least tells you that there are rules and expectations for visitors to that sim.

But if the resident in question just brushes past that--yet another notification in an endlessly-seeming stream of notifications--how does that RP sim grab their attention?

Some have a secondary prim rezzed out with hovertext saying Touch me for a copy of the rules, but that doesn't always work, either. And RP sims in general can't afford to hire specifically-trained 'helper' avatars to staff the entry zones twenty-four hours a day.

Is there any setting that will give an actual blue-text drop-down anymore? Because I still see them in Viewer 1; is the code still there in Viewer 2? For that matter, is any "legacy" coding still available in Viewer 2? Because maybe, just maybe, there's a coding work-around that could be found, that would force the drop-down for all viewers?

Or is that too much to ask? And there's no guarantee that would work, either, people being people. It's hard to know what's the best way to move forward, because as I've learned, most residents don't read notecards anyway...