How to Save Your Second Life ® Conversations (to send to Marco, LOL)

by Marcophoto Upshaw
AKA: Mark E Lodge, USA

People often IM me to ask how to find their past conversations from Second Life ®.

Yes, Virginia, SL DOES automatically record all your conversations (convos) to your desktop. You just have to know where to find them. Well, almost....first you have to take a few preliminary steps. Let me tell you how to do it.

First you have to go to Edit, then Preferences, then COMMUNICATIONS, then place checks in the Save IMs and Save Chat boxes. Whether you save them with time stamps or not is up to you. I prefer not to. They are monotonous to remove from my blogs. So rather than deal with that, I just save all convos without them.

Next, go to the bottom of the window, where it says CHANGE PATH. First, take a look at the wording in the box next to it. This tells you where sl is CURRENTLY saving your convos. Take a look on your desktop. At first, by default, SL will save them to a Library folder inside your System Folder. Chances are you can't read them even if you want to, they are often saved in code. They have to be converted to a text file so you can read them. Here is what you have to do:

Make a new folder on your desktop, and name it something like this: Raw Conversations Saved by SL. Now go back to that Change Path button in sl. Push it. It will open up your computer directory. Find that folder you just created. Click ok, or save, or whatever. Your SL path, next to the Change Path button will now look something like this:

/Users/your computer user name/Documents/Raw Conversations Saved by SL/your avie name.

It may vary slightly in format, depending on what type of computer you use. I have a mac system (Yay Macs!) But, essentially it will look like that.

If you play in different alts (alternate avies), then SL will save your convos according to the name of your alt. How neat is that? But remember, you must CHANGE PATH for each alt/avie. Open the Preferences for each, and change it as noted above.
For Example...let's say you have three avies that you use every day...

Queen Bee
King Bee
Furry Bee

When set up correctly, they will look something like this:

/Users/your computer user name/Documents/Raw Conversations Saved by SL/Queen Bee

/Users/your computer user name/Documents/Raw Conversations Saved by SL/King Bee

/Users/your computer user name/Documents/Raw Conversations Saved by SL/Furry Bee

You are almost done. Now, the crucial thing to remember is that the folder you just created is a CACHE file. Once it is "full," SL will start to write over the convos in it. So here is what you do now. Create ANOTHER folder, and name it something like ORIGINAL SL Convo's 2009. Every day, transfer all the convos from the first folder you created to this new one. Doing that "clears your caches" so that sl can refill that folder.

Almost done. You can often go a couple of days without transferring your convos, but I do it every day. I make a separate folder and name it by date, like this: March 30, 2009 or 3/30/09. I then transfer all the files in the ORIGINAL folder to their corresponding dated folder. You may prefer another method.

If you have alts (alternative avies),then you can put all the convos into a master file by the name of your avie.
First, make a folder by date, 3/30/09. Now, inside it, make three folders, with the initials of your avies attached, like this...

3/30/09QB
3/30/09KB
3/30/09FB

Now, transfer the conversations from the ORIGINAL, DATED folders to the appropriate alt avie file.

To sum up, create a series of folders like this, and move or copy the files as needed:

Raw Conversations Saved by SL> ORIGINAL SL Convo's 2009> Dated Folder> alt avies by date

It may seem confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it very fast.

Now, why would you go to all this bother, some would ask. Well very simply, so you can feed juicy tidbits to Marco, why else? LOL.

But seriously, there can be many reasons. Personally, I have saved virtually 95% of all convos since I have been on sl. It gives me a wealth of material to "mine" for my blogs. But I take one further step before I do:

I have another folder titled "SL Convos to Mine." Every day I copy the main DATED folder, like the 3/30/09 folder to this one. NOW, I can go through them, reread them, cut them up, delete sections.....and STILL have the intact convos in the ORIGINAL file.

There is just one important thing to remember. NEVER publish them without changing the names. If you do, you can get into a lot of trouble with the Lindens. You can lose your account. If someone complains to LL, you can find your account shut down. This is because it is against the Second Life ® TOS (Terms of Service) to publish someone else's conversation. Many people have lost their accounts by publishing nasty conversations from former lovers, inside their profile picks. Don't do that, unless you change their names. This is the primary reason I "change all names to protect the guilty."

It is very easy to change all the names, using a simple text-editing program, one that has a "Find and Replace" feature. Simply, in a pop up window, you type in the name you want to change. Then on another line you type in the made-up name you want to replace it with. Push the "replace" button, and "TA DAAAA" ALLLLL the names have been changed. However, if you are going to send your conversations in to me, I will change them for you.

Try it. If you get stuck, IM me inworld, or email me at marco_photo@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading my blogs! (Pssst, be sure to vote in the poll at the bottom of the page.)

--Marco
Would you take a moment and leave a COMMENT?

And if you like my blog, would you tell a friend...or two...about it? Just copy/paste this and send it to your buddies:

"Check it out: How To Save Your SL Conversations, found in Marco's SL Humor Blog, at http://marcosslhumorblog.blogspot.com/ "

Thanks a bunch!

--Marco