Facebook has never been a good fit for Second Life users, whereas other social networks such as Twitter and now Google + have no objection to people having accounts with their Second Life names, Facebook has stuck rigidly to it’s real name policy. Obviously this policy is somewhat flawed in as much as there’s no real authentication of those real names, but it remains a poor fit.
Yes there are plenty of people who are happy to use their real name Facebook accounts and link them to their Second Life accounts, but it remains a Second Life unfriendly domain. Now comes news that Facebook have donated $10,000 to a politician who is fighting gay marriage.
Facebook made the donation in May to Utah attorney general Sean Reyes and have defended their decision, in a statement to the Huffington Post they said :
Facebook has a strong record on LGBT issues and that will not change, but we make decisions about which candidates to support based on the entire portfolio of issues important to our business, not just one. A contribution to a candidate does not mean that we agree with every policy or position that candidate takes. We made this donation for the same reason we’ve donated to Attorneys General on the opposite side of this issue — because they are committed to fostering innovation and an open Internet.
There is some merit in that statement, many of us will vote for political parties with whom we disagree with on certain issues. However gay marriage is quite a big ticket item to be overlooking in favour of a so called open internet. Facebook’s defence of their support is extremely mealy mouthed and does them very little credit.
However the wider point is that Linden Lab should be promoting Second Life on networks that are more Second Life friendly than Facebook. Indeed Linden Lab have their own outlets such as the blog and Second Life profiles in which they should be communicating with Second Life users.
Promoting Second Life on other social networks is no bad thing, it’s a means of reaching a wider audience, a way to try and reach people who are not currently Second Life users. I get that, I get that Facebook has bloody marvellous reach but as we can see with issues such as their support of Sean Reyes, Facebook also comes with a lot of additional baggage.
Linden Lab should really be asking themselves if it’s a good idea to be in bed with a company who will shamelessly make decisions like this.
Facebook has never been a good fit for Second Life and that’s not going to change anytime soon. We’ve seen this when Linden Lab have ran Second Life related competitions on Facebook and by doing so, excluded large swathes of Second Life users. Linden Lab’s embrace of Facebook also encourages Second Life users to think it’s ok to create Facebook accounts with their Second Life names. However it’s not ok and people should make themselves aware of the Facebook TOS. This will help to avoid disappointment when Facebook engage in a cull of accounts with Second Life names. I don’t object to Facebook doing that, it’s their decision and their policy. I don’t think it’s a sensible policy as it’s people’s interests, rather than names, that are more important, but those are the terms.
Cutting the Facebook cord may initially hurt Linden Lab, but long term it’s absolutely the right thing to do. Linden Lab can utilise social networks that are Second Life friendly to promote their platform, especially when it comes to competitions. Facebook simply does not make for a happy relationship with Second Life and it probably never will.
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