Hi peeps! Here’s another in my ‘Those little questions’ series, where I try to give answers to the questions in search terms that lead people to the SL for Nowt blog. There are no silly questions in SL. We all started out as complete newbies, and we all wondered the same things, so here I hope to help you out with some answers :)

You can find the questions on the old blog archived here, and a special Those Little Questions all about skyboxes here.

Hop behind the cut for the questions and answers!

– How to find out if someone has more than one Second Life avi
– Can I tell how many avatars someone has on Second Life?

There is currently no way to tell if someone has more than one avatar in-world. If you own a full region and your ‘suspected friend’ (I phrase it that way because most of the time when someone asks this question it’s because they think someone is hiding from them/cheating on them by using another avatar) always has some form of media ‘on’ by default (music/video/HTML on a prim) and you know that no other person using your ‘suspected partner’s IP address is on Second Life, and your ‘suspected partner’ visits your region using the other avatar (already that’s a lot of ands, right?) then yes, you may be able to tell if they’re using another avatar after a bit of detailed IP address comparison.

The long and short of it is: the older a person’s main avatar, the more likely it is that they have an alt (alternate account), for many and varied reasons – none of which are probably nefarious ones! They may be a content creator who just wants a few hours away from a constant stream of business queries, or even just another avatar with a large friends list or list of groups who wants some peace and quiet to be in-world without constant IM/group chat interruptions.

– Can anyone else see my contacts list in SL?

Nope. The only way anyone else could see your contacts list is if they had access to the computer you log into Second Life with, especially when you’re logged in, OR if they have got hold of your password and can log in as you. Never check the ‘remember password’ button on the viewer startup screen, because this would enable anyone to be able to access your account (and thus your in-world L$ balance which, remember, has real world value!)

– Why can I click on names my Second Life friends list on the website?

The reason you can do this is because that friend has given you the ability to track their location in-world (residents tend to call this ‘giving map rights’ and ‘mapping’) and is currently logged into Second Life. It means that, at any time, you can know where they are and can teleport directly to them (although, to be polite, an IM to them before you do so is always a good idea, because you never know what you might be interrupting otherwise!) If you hover your cursor over the name and check the status bar of your browser you’ll see the region name that friend is logged into, plus two co-ordinates (although not the height) showing your friend’s location. A friend who hasn’t given you ‘map rights’ will still show in bold text when logged in, but their name won’t be clickable.

– Can you use male items on female avatars in Second Life?

Of course you can! Be aware that, obviously, using a male skin may look a little strange on a female avatar (especially with facial and body hair!) and that some clothing items for the torso have distinctive male shading (pectorals, and maybe a six pack) but there’s nothing to stop you from wearing male items on your female avatar. Mar does it all the time! Short male hair can look especially cute on a female avatar. Oh, and boys? You can often get away with girls’ stuff, too – especially pants – so keep an eye out for freebies and cheapies that you could wear, too. Don’t be afraid of wearing girls’ pants; nobody will know!

– How do you remove “no entry” lines in Second Life?

This rather depends on why you’re asking. If you’re trying to get into a parcel of land that isn’t your own and the No Entry lines (often called ‘banlines’) are stopping you, then there’s not a lot you can do. The owner of the land has probably set accessibility to just their friends, or maybe to a specific group. You may also be on a named banlist (as in: you’ve been banned by name). If you simply need to get past the land, try flying over it above 80m. That will let you clear the land if it’s simply a case of general ‘only my friends allowed’ access. If, however, you still see the banlines, keep flying up and up until you get above 800m. If they stop around there, then you’ve been banned by name.

If however, the banlines are on the parcel next door to your home and you simply don’t want to have to look at them (they are pretty ugly, after all!) then you can disable showing them in your Second Life viewer.

In Viewer 2 you’ll find this option in World > Show > Banlines. Just uncheck it:

In older (and some third party) viewers you’ll find it in View > Banlines. Again, just uncheck it:

– Second Life my avatar keeps being bent in half.

This is a common glitch that’s fondly referred to as ‘head-up-butt’. It goes away for months at a time, and then suddenly it starts to appear again. There isn’t much you can do about it, although relogging (logging out of Second Life and then back in again), possibly combined with a restart of your computer, might help clear the issue. You’re the only person seeing your avatar doing it, if that’s any consolation! (I know this because it’s happened to me on many an occasion and those around me haven’t even seen it happening.) Second Life has these little glitches now and then. Probably the best (and scariest!) one was called ‘Shredded Jesus’, mainly because it looked like this.