This past July I wrote a post about about a personal experience that made me think about what happens to my virtual self if my real self is injured or dies abruptly.
Here is the original post...
http://sladventures.sougent.com/2008/07/absent-friends.html
Recently, ArminasX Saiman did a blog post entitled Your Second Will @ http://www.secondeffects.com/2008/09/your-second-will_22.html where he proposed a template to use for leaving instructions for your real life survivors outlining who to contact and how to take care of your virtual affairs. It made me realize that if you are more than just casually involved in Second Life, you have more to take care of than notifying your friends. Things like land, stuff you've created, any stores or events you are involved with, virtual assets with real world value. This is a must read blog post for anyone involved in Second Life on a more than casual basis, and even if it is only a casual thing for you, it's still thought provoking.
I'm ashamed to say that I haven't followed through on my original post other than to get a fireproof safe in which to store important papers and the instructions I need to write, but ArminasX has brought back to the forefront the need to leave some sort of instructions.
It's hard to think about something happening to you, even harder to sit yourself down and actually think it through and write it all down. So many people don't even have wills to take care of their real lives, much less a virtual one.
But I know this is something I need to do.
Because you never know.
My friend mentioned in the previous blog post, logged in on July 10, 2008 and we talked for a bit but she was tired and "fuzzy", so she logged off to rest, the last thing she said was that she'd try to log in tomorrow. That's the last time she logged in to Second Life, I don't know if I'll ever see her again.
Update: Sept 29, 2008 - Heard from her today, she's ok, just without access to the computer for the past few months.
