Positives and Negatives of Second Life

In any community, positive and negative situations or experiences are always present.  For any community, I think most social issues arise through harsh language, or when someone is rude to others.  In my Second Life community specifically, I have noticed that the largest problem is the way in which people speak to each other. Because Second Life is a virtual world, I think some users justify the action of being rude through chat, because they are anonymous, and it seems as if people do it because they think it is funny.  In my opinion, being mean to anybody is simply not okay, even if you are anonymous in a virtual world.  I was even put down for kindly asking someone to teach me how to dance.  One other negative thing I have noticed about my community is that women are sexual objects.  Most of the clothing that the virtual women wear is incredibly skimpy and is barely even there!  Women need to be brought up in society, not put down.  Although I have noticed these negatives about Second Life, I have also seen some positives.  The positive moments I have observed have been fun or nice conversations between "virtual friends", and also traveling the world.  Even though virtual travel seems ridiculous, I think its kind of fun to see so many different places that are animated to look quite a lot like the real thing.  In general, all communities have good and bad elements, but as community members, people must try to bring out the best in what is offered in their communities.  Being in any community is a learning experience.