Using Second Life - a guide for learners/Appropriate behaviour - "SLetiquette"

Like all social situations etiquette helps us determine our behaviour. For the mst part if you follow normal social rules you will get along very well. Here are a few notes that might help guide you.

How and when it is acceptable to approach others
All friends began as strangers at some point, so it’s generally ok to start a friendly conversation. If the other person doesn’t respond or doesn’t want to hold a conversation it is not considered acceptable to carry on trying to involve them.

Recording other people's conversations or taking photographs
It is considered very impolite to record conversations or take ‘photographs’ without the subjects permission (just as in RL), so you should ask them if it’s ok first.

Asking for personal information
It is considered rude to ask a stranger for details of their real life, typically if they wanted it to be generally known it would be in their profile. After getting to know someone and becoming friends it’s generally quite acceptable to ask about things that you have a genuine interest – like in real life if someone mentions something that interests us, we would ask questions to get more detail.

The international environment
While SL is used internationally, it tends to follow the same pattern as other virtual worlds and RL. While there is plenty of mingling of cultural groups, language barriers remain and this tends to cause divides along these lines. There are translators available that can help, but typically they are atrocious at producing correct grammar and translating correctly for the context (not to mention typically unable to deal with slang) which means most people simply stay where the predominant language is one they are fluent in.

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Communicating in learning groups.