Well second life is up to it’s old tricks of implementing new “improvements” to our sl experiences. What’s it this time? Have they decided to just dump all the adult triple X griders off the map into some alternate grid or universe like they do with youngsters on the teen grid? Nope! They’ve chosen to introduce to wonderful and creative world of Display Names. Can you just hear the sarcasm dripping like honey? I’m personally on the fence about this new “improvement” until i see how it would affect our lives so I’m cautious. Now if you’re scratching your head and wondering what the heck I’m talking about then you need to get better informed and I’m happy to help you out in that department. You can also view the video created by Torley Linden that goes on to explain how the Display Name feature can be used.

The Display Name feature basically allows you to change your name to anything that you wish up to 31 characters for whatever reason that you choose- whether it be to change or hyphenate your name after marriage, role playing, business purposes, or just on a whim. The only draw back- maybe they’re doing this to cut back on information overload- is that you can only change it once a week as I understand it. Now older residents are probably trying to pick their jaw off the floor and also wonder how that will work overall for the new and old. Well let me do a bit of explaining. The new residents will go about the registration and choose a username (which for older residents is the name that you signed on with (first name.last name)) and then when they log in they can create their display names. You won’t need your unique last name for your username so it’s entirely optional. Your display name will be shown in chat, IMs, build menus, overhead tag above your username, in the profile, during transactions, in Friends lists, and the CHOOSE RESIDENT window (also used when reporting abuse).

Some may be wondering why in the world the Lindens decided to go with this so called “improvement” now and some may already have their own thoughts on this particular subject. Their official reason was that “selecting a Second Life name is one of the biggest hurdles in the new Resident registration process” and is the most common reason that they abandon the entire registration. Long time residents are saying that this is Linden’s way of applying “correction tape” to the demand and request of being able to change your second life names. Maybe it’s a bit of both in the overall scheme of things- who knows? This nifty new feature will be implemented after careful and extensive testing on the test grid Aditi before it’s released and officially introduced to the Beta Grid for the 2.0 Beta Viewer. What does this mean for those that are running an older version of the official second life viewer or even the third party viewers? To put it simply nothing really changes and you won’t even see the display names so you may not even have to worry about it. Third party viewers are subject to change when the creators and scripters of that viewer decides to put that feature in so it has no bearing on the official 2.0 viewer and it’s changes. Also when logging into second life on the 2.0 viewer you can still use your second life name (user name) with the period or space. An expample would be if your name is Laura Lilibrook then you would enter Laura.Lilibrook or Laura Lilibrook to log in.

For business owners this could potentially be something great to use or something even more confusing depending on the way that you think and function. In the edit tab or the build menu when you click on your creations it will show both your display name and your username, which wouldn’t be visible if you used all 31 characters for your display name.

Now I personally have a few issues with this and I’m sure it’s probably been on the minds of a few others as well. Here’s what I’m thinking…

They say that it will be easier to find friends and recognize them with display names but I have to question them on this one. If you’re allowed to change it once per week after the launch- although while it’s still in beta you can change it multiple times- then what if they choose something entirely different from their user name- a username that you have identified with this person for all your time of knowing them? And what if they change it every single week to something different? How does that make it easier to find them or recognize them if you’re looking in your friends list? Sure you could scroll or hover your mouse over their name or check profiles to see their usernames but doesn’t it make it more troublesome, not less? I like being able to find my friends on my list at a simple glance with a hit of my tab button. Maybe you should think about this LL because I’m not sure where you got the idea it would be easier. Also what does this do for businesses or careers? If a model changes their name every week how do we identify her/him- with their username or their display names?

What if I find someone walking around with my exact name as their display name? They can chat with others, use that name for business purposes perhaps and even impersonate someone me or someone else! While it’s true that you can quickly find out of they are legitimately the person their display name claims them to be by checking their profile or inspecting them to find their usernames who wants to go through all this trouble and have to wonder all the time whether they are the real deal or not? This also makes me wonder about whether we will continue to keep and retain the unique identities that we have created and cultivated in second life.

Now there are some cool things that come with the name change that I can’t deny or overlook so I won’t even try.

You’ve probably seen so many people strutting their stuff with those huge titlers and sometimes it just made you go blind looking at them or confused you with all the text that blended in with the background or their bodies. Titlers are used for many purposes whether it’s just to be goofy and announce a preference, a nickname, or for business and advertising purposes. The display name feature eliminates titlers in a way and cuts down on some lag I suppose. So if you owned a business you could change your display name to Kookie Crumble of Kookie-Land Designs for example. Which is a nifty feature to have on hand although I wouldn’t say it was so dire in need that the display name feature should be created just for this.

Let’s say that when you first registered you thought it would be really cool to have a goofy and weird name but as you grew in second life you realized that it wasn’t so great to have a name with 20 characters or all numbers but you couldn’t change it. With the display name feature that is taken care of because while your username may remain all numbers you can quickly change it to whatever your heart desires.

What if you get married and want to take on the last name of your new beaux of the week like you would do in real life- for some people? The display name feature takes care of this as well and you’re quickly back in business with a new last name to reflect your new relationship and connections.

Linden Labs is working on putting in any feature that would make the display name feature convienient for the residents of second life to retain their current identities and to lose them if they so choose by not displaying them. While I’m not jumping for joy at this new feature and still have a few doubts on it I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it will effect my overall quality of SLife. I personally use Emerald Viewer and unless they decide to change with the times like the 2.0 viewer I doubt that anything will be changing for me since I won’t even see the display names. But it’s something to keep in mind the next time you log in.

Want to have your voice heard then maybe you should vote on this new impending improvement launch. You can add your voice Here.

I’ve also included the video tutorial and introduction to the Display Name feature created by Torley Linden. Enjoy and let us know what you think or feel about this!

Okay so I took a trip on down to the Dressing room yesterday and I have to say that I fell in love with nearly everything there- especially the skins. If you don’t know what the Dressing Room is, it’s a great little place that provides quality discounted items from top brand named designers. The skins I bought were around 70L or so and I couldn’t be happier. Who says you can’t look good without pinching your wallet until it whimpers??! Certainly not I! I also found this wonderful LeeZu Gown on the hunt as well as an awesome long coat that just made me feel like a queen. I can’t even forget to mention the goodies that I found at Vinyl Cafe which provides great discount items along with freebies for group members. You need to stop on by there to get a pair of these great shoes and other things!

First Outfit:

Skin: YS&YS Adranna Technicolor Cleavage (The Dressing Room – 70L)
Hair: KC – Hairpin – Cherry (not free)
Dress: [LeeZu!] Mirelle Gown (Platinum Hunt)
Shoes: Heart & Sole Sassy Platinum (Platinum Hunt)

Glam Affair Leona Natural Skin from The Dressing Room and Hair from Ploom – Platinum Hunt

I absolutely fell in love with this outfit the minute I put it on. It felt luxurious, sophisticated and just all around sexy. Definitely one of my new favorite outfits of the week!

Second Outfit:

Dress: SLink – Military Coat & Skirt Brown (w/necklace)
Skin: Tuli – The Dressing Room Gina 05
Hair: *MrS* Lulu – Short – Brown
Shoes: Vinyl Cafe Black Canvas Shoes

After such a hard day of shopping and hunting down gifts and awesome prizes I decided to chill out with some friends on the pier and take a load off. Say hello to my summer casual.

Third Outfit:

Dress: Vinyl Cafe – Stripped Dres (fatpack) (gift)
Skin: Tik Tok – Summer Queen (SOL fair)
Hair: Truth – Roxanne – Expresso (not free)
Shoes: N-Core – Ankle Multicolor Boots (group gift)

I found a ton of great goodies lately through the Platinum Hunt and also at the dressing room so you’ll be seeing a lot of posts coming up in rapid succession this week. Keep an eye out because I’ll also be posting a few great finds from the Shoe Fair 2010. Men, I truly truly haven’t forgotten about you. I have something great planned in the works that will allow you to gain exposure for your amazing styling abilities and help other men that need some help with styling as well. So stay tuned! Now if you haven’t heard about the Platinum Hunt, I’m here to get you informed! It’s a grid-wide hunt with some of the hottest brand name designers that have put an item up for the hunt that is over 400L! The hunt items aren’t free (10L) but that’s still something to get excited about. I found some amazing skins and you’ll see my absolute new favorite below. A tip to all you SL hunters out there for the PH: Items are usually within 40 meters of the landing point and unless they specify, it’s going to be on the same level that you land- so no stairs! I’ll have another tip coming up that may help although this hunt was so easy that even I could do it and I really do suck at figuring out hints.

This elf skin was found from Mynerva on the PH and it comes with ears, eyes, eyeliner and several versions of this skin that include the eye band and without. I love the cleavage because one of the things I always lamented about being a model was I lost some of my curves but nice cleavage enhancers bring it all back. Of course as long as it doesn’t look too cartoony.

Now this outfit I didn’t find on the hunt but it’s still blog worthy today because I found these outfits from Bare Rose- one of my all-time favorite stores in second life. I had these outfits for quite a while in my inventory but never got a chance to play with them until a few days ago. Boy I’m glad I found the time!

First Outfit:
Nose Piercing: [ skream! ] “Likes to modify: piercing (Platinum Hunt)
Dress: Son!a Cassandra Emerald (Platinum Hunt)
Skin: Mynerva Platinum Red Lips Black Eyeband (Platinum Hunt)
Eyes: Mynvera SoulHeart Eyes – Ceruleana (Platinum Hunt)
Ears: ~Platinum Drow Ear (Platinum Hunt)
Eyeliner: ~Platinum Drow Eyeliner (Platinum Hunt)
Hair: [Lelutka] Leah2 Hair – Pitch (Not free)
Shoes: [Lelutka] Saffron Pumps (old gift)

Second Outfit:
Skin: Tik Tok – Stella Medium Summer Queen (sol Fair)
Hair: booN – TWA310 Hair Chocolate
Shirt: Bare Rose – Chika (part of) – White
Skirt: Bare Rose – Emi (part of) – pink
Shoes: Miel – Flor Jane Light
Pose by [.DOLL] @ SOL Fair (free)

I’ve found second life can be many things to many people such as entertainment, a getaway, escape, business, a place to create a family and live, learn, laugh, love and make lasting relationships. Throughout all of this living and experiencing all that second life has to offer for those of us in the fashion industry we know that it’s essential to be able to set yourself apart, to be noticed and be different. If you looked like the next person around how could someone look at your avatar and say- there she is! There are several ways to help this along but I’m here to just give you a few tips that will hopefully change the quality of your life and how people recognize YOU!

One of the most important things you should do is set yourself away from the in-crowd. There are tons of great skin out there and top quality and poplar designers but if everyone is getting the same skin and look then how does that make you different? How does that make you unique? The quality of that skin just went down because you’ve conformed to some cookie cutter image that was set out for you. We see skins on ads and some of us try to look exactly like those models in those ads with the same skin and clothing. Bad idea here chickadees. The point is to do something different and make it your own so modify your shape to something where you can look at it and say- yes this is different, unique and beautiful. My advice would be to stay away from store bought shapes altogether because you never know who else could have that shape. If you are dead set on buying one then try to find one that is modifiable so that you can tweak parts of it to make it your own.

Lately designers are really into sets or giving outfits in their packages. While this is wildly convenient it can also work against you. I know I’ve probably said it a ton of times in my previous posts here and there or hinted toward this but it’s true and it bears repeating until it’s seared into your brains. Don’t try to copy a fashion icon or whatever you see that makes you think it’s the “it” thing. That will only make you a follower and to be like that person in the greatest sense of the term is to create a look and style all your own whether it be sophisticated, conservative, eclectic, casual, comfortable, sexy, quirky, or offbeat. Does it take more time and effort to do so? You bet your bottom dollar it does! But it’s going that extra step and really taking some time and effort that sets you apart. Do you think all those top named stylists are where they are and WHO they are because they copied a fashion icon? Nope! They worked their butts off to be different and seen as something apart from the millions of others that call themselves stylists. It’s not as effortless as they make it look and if they made it look like they worked at it they weren’t doing their jobs properly. When you can do something well and make it look like you’re not even trying then you’ve fooled the masses and succeeded in your goal!

Now do I know ALL there is to know about fashion? Heck no! Does anyone? Umm that would be a resounding NO. Fashion is always changing because the whim and opinion of the masses are always changing so the day that someone knows everything about fashion is the day that it’s no longer interesting and unique. This is why I didn’t give any set measurements and points but more of a general outlining that will help you become unique because you never know when those things will change. But I know through the years of what I observed and they seem to stay true no matter the decade. So if you don’t want to take my advice then look at fashion over the years and take a look at the well known stylists, models, or fashion icons and see what they’ve had to say on their style or how they dressed. Did they follow the parade or did they set out to the beat of their own drummer, confident in themselves and their skills? I’ll let you be the judge of that my friends!