Making New friends
Practical tips to help you build real connections in Second Life
How to Socialize in Second Life
Now that you’ve set up your account, customized your avatar, and explored a bit, it’s time for the most important part: socializing. Second Life is a massive 3D social network. To make the most of it, it helps to understand the community culture, respect diversity, and know how to interact with others.
Making First Contact
Whether you strike up a conversation or someone reaches out to you via local chat or private message, keep these core tips in mind:
Remember the Person Behind the Avatar: No matter what an avatar looks like—whether it’s a realistic human, a cartoon, an animal, a robot, a vampire, or an furry—there is a real person behind the screen. Treat them with the same respect you’d want.
Follow the Rules: When you joined, you agreed to the Community Standards. Keeping Second Life a fun, safe space depends on everyone following these rules.
Start with a Good Greeting: When talking to someone new, say hello and introduce yourself or ask a friendly question to break the ice.
Check Their Profile First: Before messaging someone, glance at their profile. It can give you helpful clues about their interests and what language they speak.
Be Patient: Don’t expect instant replies. The other person might be juggling multiple chats, busy in the real world, dealing with a language barrier, or living with a disability that makes typing slower.
Handling Disagreements
Because Second Life is full of real people, like in the real world, arguments will occasionally happen. If a conversation turns sour:
Stay Calm: Avoid insults, swearing, or drama.
Walk Away: Getting into fights in a virtual world is a waste of your time. If a conversation isn't working out, simply end it politely and move on. There are plenty of other people to meet!
Sending a friendship request
We understand that being new to Second Life might make you anxious or eager to make new friends, but above all, we recommend that you don't send friend requests randomly or to people you've never had any contact with before. Keep in mind that just as in real life you wouldn't consider any stranger your friend, the same applies here. Therefore, such behavior, even without bad intentions, can be misinterpreted as invasive.
Having clarified this, sending a friendship request in Second Life is quick and easy. You can do it in two different ways depending on whether the person is standing right next to you or far away.
Method 1: If the Person is Nearby
Right-click on the person's avatar.
Select Add Friend from the pie menu or context menu that pops up.
(Optional) Type a brief, friendly note explaining who you are.
Click Offer or Send.
Method 2: If the Person is Far Away (Using Search)
Open the Search tool (usually a magnifying glass icon or
Ctrl + F).Type the resident's exact username into the search bar and hit Enter.
Click on the People tab to find their name in the results.
Click on their name to open their Profile.
Click the Add Friend button inside their profile window and send the request.
What Happens Next? The other resident will receive a notification. Once they click Accept, you will both appear on each other's Friends Lists, allowing you to see when the other is online and quickly send instant messages!
Dealing with Harassment and Abuse
If someone is harassing or bullying you, do not fight back or seek revenge—doing so might get your own account in trouble. Instead, use these built-in tools:
Ignore Them: If it's a minor annoyance, just stop replying.
Block Them: If they keep bothering you, use the Block/Mute feature. They will no longer be able to contact you.
Report Them: If the behavior is serious (like hate speech or breaking Community Standards), file an Abuse Report before you block them.
Important: Let Linden Lab (the creators of Second Life) handle the situation. They are the ultimate mediators, and it is their job to keep the grid safe.
What's Next? In the next chapter we'll explain what an Abuse Report is and how it works.
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