When I started idoleo.com, I knew the day would come when someone would take issue with my web site and my blog postings. That day has come and this person has branded me a cyberstalker. This person has even listed two Wikipedia sources for 1) cyberstalking and 2) stalking. For your reading pleasure, those links are as follows:

• Cyberstalking
• Stalking

All together now and with feeling… LMAO!!

Okay… Reality check time. I have never used anyone’s avatar name or real name in a derogatory fashion. I have never given out detailed 1st or 2nd Life information about anyone. I have never posted Chat or IM conversation logs. I do not follow people around the grid screwing with their 2nd Life. I do not contact people in 1st Life unless they wish me to and have expressly told me that I may do so.

What I do do (I always love saying this…lol) is… Observe and express my opinions in a blog web site that people have to explicitly and deliberately choose to read. Yes, I do have a few places I enjoy hanging out at in 2nd Life. Yes, I express my opinions, some of which may not be popular to certain people or groups of people. Yes, I am more serious about my existence in 2nd Life than most.

This brings me to profiles, interactions and chat in public locations, and photos.

First, profiles… Linden Labs generally considers all information, including text and graphics, in profiles as public. If you do not wish others to have have access to this information, you should not post it in your profile. The exception, of course, is copyrighted or trademarked information that you can show you hold either the copyright or trademark on.

As for reading profiles, that is why they exist. If you do not wish people to read your profile, you should not have one. Keep it blank. If you use your profile to post updates about yourself or your business, or to voice opinions and thoughts, or to vent and rant… Your profile is a 2nd life, in-world blog and, as such, public because you wish to share that information openly.

Second, interactions and chat in public locations… Linden Labs considers all interactions and chat in public locations public. Period. You are responsible for your own conduct and how others perceive you. Any public location in 2nd Life, as well as 2nd Life itself is a social venue and network. If you have issues with the social aspect of 2nd Life or interacting, for better or worse, in public areas, you need to get over it and yourself.

Third, photos… To the best of my knowledge, there are no restrictions on taking or using photos in 2nd Life and certainly not in public locations. Just as in 1st Life, being at a public venue means you implicitly understand that you are being observed and possibly photographed or recorded in some fashion. Displaying photos in your profile makes them public in nature. 

For further information on the above, I will point you to a post I did a few weeks ago. That post is here: Freedom of Speech and 2nd Life.

So… Am I a Blogger or a Cyberstalker? I think the former, rather than the latter. Either way, though, I am responsible for my own words, actions, and conduct in 2nd Life and elsewhere on the Internet and in 1st Life. I know I am not perfect and have stated so on this site and in my 2nd Life profile. I have a clear conscious about idoleo.com along with who and what I am in 1st and 2nd Life. I am, in fact, the same in both places. And… that is a statement most people in 2nd Life cannot make.

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For the background story on this blog post, please see the earlier post here.