Frijolita Avalira has created a petition on Change.org : Allow Second life avatars to have a Facebook page. ow first things first, pedantry. Facebook do allow Second Life avatars to have a Facebook page. However the petition is really about allowing Second Life avatars to have full Facebook accounts, as the petition explains :
So we ask this of you to keep our Second Life names, as our names and STOP deleting our accounts. It’s a real life business, complete with real life tax payments. Yes. It may seem to some like a game, but as far as our government is concerned–be it the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the Canada Revenue Agency or any other–money you make as an entrepreneur in Second Life or any other virtual world or online game is fully taxable. If the US Government can recognize this as a legitimate business, then you can recognize our avatars and let us advertise using Facebook. With our Avatar names. It’s a huge community, of many walks of life. It isnt by any means a “game.”
We are clothing designers & we ask for rights to conduct our advertising in Facebook.
I advise reading the petition in full. This is of course an old complaint and one that I’ve discussed many times before. Facebook’s arguments are that real names lead to more civility. The flip side of this is that real names also lead to bullying and people being reluctant to share their opinion because of the sheer amount of information linked to a Facebook account.
Then there’s the issue of advertising. I’ve never quite understood Facebook’s reluctance to allow people to use pseudonyms from an advertising perspective because people’s locations, ages and interests are what advertisers really want.
There are ways and means that Facebook could ensure the quality of accounts as well as allowing Second Life avatars to utilise a Facebook account. One way would be working with Linden Lab to share information about residents. I know this would put many Second Life users off, but it would be a way of ensuring the person behind the avatar has a degree of accountability.
Other ways would be for Facebook to merely insist people sign up with their real details but allow them to use their Second Life name everywhere.
Obviously there are many Second Life users on Facebook who use the platform against their terms of service. Now if you get caught, it’s a fair cop as that’s the way things stand. I know people don’t like it but the only real way to have a Facebook presence as a Second Life account is to create a Facebook page. Pages are limited in what they can do. I have one, which can be seen here. That’s a legitimate use of Facebook.
This issue of course goes beyond Second Life. Kitely, Inworldz, OpenSim and forthcoming virtual worlds will run into the same brick wall. However it’s certainly worth raising the issue with Facebook. I really don’t understand why there can’t be some middle ground here, Facebook’s stubborn refusal to move is odd to say the least.