You all know about Snapchat, yes? The photos appear briefly and then disappear?

Except that they don’t always disappear…apparently.

I was able to source numerous Snapchat images from Google images.

I’ve never used the app, or even been particularly aware of it until recently, when an acquaintance in SL told me about three weeks ago of fairly basic ‘thing’ going on in SL which is going by the name of SLapchat.

Quite how widespread this is, I’m not sure, but the way it was explained to me is as follows :-

You upload some RL images to your SL avatar’s inventory (an upload costs L$10). These are, typically, within the ‘style’ of wherever you’re visiting, and people are pixelating their faces in some, but not all, instances, or replicating actual Snapchat type filters and overlays to disguise their face and thus provide some level of anonymity.

So if you’re visiting, say, Frank’s Jazz Place, you might want to load up a photograph of yourself in an evening gown, working out in the gym in real life if you’re visiting a SL gym and so on…

But where it becomes ‘interesting’, from a naturist perspective, is that if you’re visiting a naturist sim…

I’ve pixelated information on the screen grab, but you get the idea. Viewing profiles means you can see an image of the person behind the avatar. Our model shall remain anonymous but yes, she uploaded a photo to her SL ‘1st Life’ info box, complete with a snapchat styled face overlay.  The RL image can’t be downloaded, but while experimenting we found that a screen grab, as viewed from the perspective of someone viewing your profile, could be saved, i.e. see the pic above. I’ve no idea how widespread this SLapchat thing is on the grid, or how many people are briefly uploading RL photos, but I’d certainly countenance that you proceed with extreme caution regarding real life images.

I’ve been sitting on this post for quite a while now, because quite frankly I thought the entire concept was quite frankly far-fetched, but the same SL acquaintance pointed me at a thing on Tumblr…

 

Now I’m wondering if this SLapchat thing is following on from some sort of meme on Tumblr.

The jury’s still out on this regarding it being a hoax or an actual thing within SL. Currently, my money is on the idea of it being a hoax, but…do you know different? And if you’re an SL user, and SL naturist, is it something you’d even consider doing? Or does SL and RL remain separate at all times?

Ella