Deceit - "The act or practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating: Once she exposed their deceit, no one ever trusted them again."
We all know that there are Second Lifers, and really anyone that has access to the internet, that hide behind the anonymity that virtual worlds offer. Sometimes they hide for illegal activities. Sometimes out of fear or shame. Sometimes it's just out of need to harass and incite others.
Regardless, those that seek to deceive us do exist. My partner and I have a voice sex group. It's not open to the public, it's invite only. We have approximately 170 members and we are protective of them. Everyone that gets in the group gets an "in person" screening before they get in and get to have fun with us.
A few weeks ago we decided that we wanted to find a pet or sub for the two of us to play with, as well as provide to the group for additional fun and games. We met a sub who did trigger some red flags, we just got a sense that she wasn't being completely honest with us. We are also voice hence the very clever and subtle title Voice Sexhibitionists), so we do require members and the people that we happen to play with, to have voice. Surprising, I know!
She pretended that she couldn't get it to work, though we heard her television clearly in the background. We shrugged it off, had some text fun with her but didn't really let her in to the group or participate. We wondered if she was a man, which does tend to happen sometimes. She would say she'd want to be ours, but then run away. It was odd so we set her from our minds. Shortly after, a very vulgar and dominant man began contacting me to have voice sex with him. I had some red flags, but since we are in SL for fun, we tend to go along with what people like and enjoy... and those of us in our group do tend to be complete pervs or kinks or nymphos.
Anyway, he did not make the cut and did not get into the group and eventually, I ended up muting him... Now, the purpose of my verbose rambling. Yesterday I was contacted by the girl and she spilled the beans so to speak. The two of them were "action researchers". A professor and a PHD student doing an action research study into the sub groups of Second Life. Looking at virtual relationships and sexuality.
Now, I've been in virtual worlds for over ten years now. I'm an educated, business professional. I've done my fair share of research, as well as participating in social studies on the dynamics of virtual worlds. I'm an advocate for bridging the gap between RL and VW's. I'm also a strong believer in encouraging sexual exploration and sexual awareness. Had they come to me and let me know of their study and intention. I would have gladly shared information and let them see more of our dynamics.
However, I was left feeling deceived. Because they raised red flags, they didn't even get to see the true activities and dynamics, instead they got a show.
Now then, has something like this happened to you? Should we now let them into the fold of the group to observe activities for the benefit of "study"?
What are your thoughts?
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