Comments on: It’s All in a Name: Display Names in Second Life

By: HeidiHo Halberstadt

HeidiHo Halberstadt — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:41:57 +0000

I have a serious problem with the display names concept that has nto been addressed yet. It seems they intend to allow multiple uses of the same name by multipel parties. So, there is nothing to stop someone from misappropriating an identity, for a display name, of an avatar that has been carefully crafted as a tradename, trademark or servicemark by a designer, merchant or other SL resident. Misidentification, confusion and fraud could multiply when you allow people to pretend to have someone else’s name, even if there is a way to check true SL identity. I speak with some experience, having had to spend two years as an SL resident with a name that is only two letters different from another active SL resident, only the “Ho” is different. If they allow anyone to assume anyone else’s name for screen identity purposes it will totally undermine the creative rights people have developed for their SL idfentity.

By: That Which We Call a Rose… « Ahuva’s Blog

That Which We Call a Rose… « Ahuva’s Blog — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:39:06 +0000

[...] official announcement from the labs by Jack Linden Of course Torley has a video Dusan Writer has thoughts on this as well Tateru Nino doesn’t seem all that impressed Ordinal Malaprop sees some good in [...]

By: Infiniview Merit

Infiniview Merit — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:40:26 +0000

I am thinking it was an M program as well. But I think it is a completely bad decision to try to push it through. Unless it is all a ruse to take attention off of the grid merge.
But on the chance they are serious about this, they are risking the complete destruction of what is left of the prior SL culture.

Blizzard backed off when the post count got so high that major news sites were picking it up.
Dusan can you tell your writer buddies to weigh in on this also? Maybe the people of SL can do something to protect their unique identities. Especially if this was M’s idea and the current leadership may not be as emotionally attached to it.
In my opinion datamining is a business model that is diametrically opposed to what SL should be offering its users. Who wants to Pay to be a resident in virtual world that wants to sell your privacy?

By: Dusan

Dusan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:23:09 +0000

Prok – this feature was definitely an M hold-over – all the NDAs were pre-Philip, the feature was developed months ago by Hamilton and his team, and the messaging was done by the marketing folks under the ‘old regime’.

I’ll give them a pass (barely) because they’re just rolling out something they had in the pipeline and yet….well, and yet I still think they should have spiked it, but maybe that would mean a new Scrum team on identity or whatever and there’s only so many scrums to go around LOL

By: Prokofy

Prokofy — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:52:35 +0000

The TOS enables third-parties to scrape data and LL says they’ll do nothing about it. That’s always bothered me, because it set up scenarios like the Grid Shepherd and Electric Sheep Company, where they scraped the grid on demand, populated their database, then when there was screaming, put in an opt-out function only — they were a precursor of the Googlization of search we see now with the Lindens scraping every damn thing; there is the Emerald business, where there are many allegations of their data-mining, and the Lindens simply never commenting.

They need to change that, especially now, especially if they plan to link activity in SL more to external social media sites.

But…they won’t, because like every other company driven by the California Business Model, they need to monetarize and then worry about putting back privacy later when customers howl.

If educators and business people are now leaving for Open Sim (so we’re told), why are we having this now? We socializers haven’t asked for it. There isn’t some significant RP group that needs this that didn’t already solve their needs with inworld titling gadgets. So it’s all fake. There isn’t a demand. It’s a platformistic affectation with fake projection as a societal demand that only angers people when they are told “they asked for it”.

Lots of things are going to get messed up. Griefing. Confusion. Creator provenance. And in Voice, will the list show the displayed names or the user names or both? And so on. Lots and lots of questions, enormous amounts of messes potentially to clean up.

So…why?

As for messaging, I have to boggle, Dusan. They said they were no longer going to develop in a black box and no longer be unaccountable, so we’d see what was coming and discuss it (presumably). But they seem to be saying “except for some stuff we were working on we think we should inflict on the grid and have you shut up”.

So only hours after their apologies and promises to be better at SLCC, you feel like Lucy and the football again. Once again, a feature changing the world, impacting our lives and our businesses, about which we had no say, no control, no input, unless we were among the selected FIC who get the NDA offer.

By: Eris

Eris — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:15:48 +0000

Have to agree with Daniel – the right idea implemented in the entirely wrong way AGAIN. The username you sign up with should be yours and yours alone, to use as your own display name or not. But NO-ONE else should be able to set your username as their display name, it should be verboten. Anyone who still tries to take your name will have to make some minor variation on it, putting a double space in the middle for example, but that will be visible to all and easily checked. Making display names a free-for-all is just dumb.

By: Daniel Regenbogen

Daniel Regenbogen — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:53:25 +0000

LL once again wanting to install something nice and new – and once again chosing the most stupid and complicated version of doing it.

When I signed up, I was told “chose your name, it is your unique identifier in the world of second life”. Now this unique identifier is taken away from me, and instead of one “Daniel Regenbogen”, there can be:

Daniel Regenbogen
daniel.regenbogen –> me

Daniel Regenbogen
isooowant.tobehim –> not me

Daniel Regenbogen
isan.idiot –> i might be an idiot, but not that one

and so on.

When a “Daniel Regenbogen” sends out a message: how many people will check if it was sent out by the real “Daniel Regenbogen”? Do you check the senders email addy when you receive a mail with the name of a friend as sender?

Our good old unique user names are of great value in SL, especially for those who are deeply involved in business or communities.

Display names are not was many asked LL to work on. People wanted to be able to change their name in case of partnering/marriage to have the same last name as their partner. They asked for a way to change their 1st day name of “sEXyCHiCK1234 Whatever” when realizing that this wasn’t really a smart choice. And they asked for the ability to sign up with names that are not on a pre-chosen list.

Display names destroy identities. I know one thing already: anybody with a display name of “Daniel Regenbogen” will be kicked out and banned from all groups and places that I have control over. I will not even ask for his reason to chose this display name – I see it as very serious attack an me.

By: SL Blog: Display Names: Bringing Greater Self-Expression to Second Life - Page 14 - SLUniverse Forums

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:48:59 +0000

[...] Lovenkraft posted this link at the sl blog. Dusan Writer’s Metaverse It’s All in a Name: Display Names in Second Life [...]

By: Tweets that mention Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » It’s All in a Name: Display Names in Second Life -- Topsy.com

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:58:39 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dusan Writer and Ziki Questi, Beverly G. McCarter. Beverly G. McCarter said: RT @Dusanwriter: Posted It’s All in a Name: Display Names in Second Life: Linden Lab announced the addition of display names to Sec… http://bit.ly/9r0M1U [...]