Oh honey no: Professional begging

When I made my post about 30 things every newbie should know before starting Second Life, number 22 on the list was:

Don’t beg. It’s lame. There are few quicker ways to getting banned from groups and muted by large amounts of people, as asking them for “just 10L$ so I can upload a profile picture”.

The same person (not a newbie account) just popped up repeatedly in three large groups that I’m in, asking the same question each time. Now, I’ve not named-and-shamed since my money tree-hopping days, when I saw oldbie avatars taking money from glitchy trees: money that should have gone to newbies who needed it. But I’m going to do so now, and at the same time I’m going to warn you all about the Second Life Professional Panhandler.

Ravenglass Rentals Group (membership 630) – [2009/02/01 9:11]  Jordynn Bade: hey guys can anyone lend me 10l it would really help

Kurotsubaki Update Group (membership 1297) – [2009/02/01 9:28]  Jordynn Bade: hey guys can anyone lend me 10l it would really help

Ivalde, Embla & Ask Update Group (membership 4977) – [2009/02/01 9:29]  Jordynn Bade: hey guys can anyone lend me 10l it would really help

This avatar is a professional Second Life panhandler. The avi was created on July 18th 2007, so this is not a case of some poor newbie who really does need a few L$. Reloading her profile continually shows her with membership in different groups, and groups she was previously a member of just minutes before she is no longer a member of. The professional panhandler avatar joins several open-join groups (the larger the better) and asks for “just 10L” and says it’ll really help, or that they need to upload a photo for their profile.

It’s pretty much guaranteed that in such big groups, at least several people will fall for this. If the professional panhandler asks in enough groups with large memberships, they could easily ‘earn’ a couple of thousand L$ in a few minutes.

Easier than camping, non?

Don’t fall for it.

Oh honey no: You only need one

She can’t be using Windlight, right? She honestly must not be able to see the fact that, well, nobody can see. She could be wearing an astoundingly expensive skin but who could tell? (OK, her torso and face hadn’t rezzed, but believe me when it had it wasn’t much clearer.)

Ladies. If you’re not running Windlight, then don’t wear facelights, for the simple reason that you will not be able to SEE just how powerful the myriad balls attached to your person might be. And for heaven’s sake, the maximum number of local lights that the SL viewer can render is six.

You only need one. Two or three at most. Eight? That’s kind of… yeah.