Sio’s post brought to mind the dilemma’s I’ve faced in SL several times. Twice in the space of the last few months I’ve had people I’ve become close to just up and disappear from SL. Unlike Sio I was told they faced a tragedy in RL that they must deal with. All communication was lost. No IMs, G-Talk, or G-Mail. They could have been dead, homeless or in some other dire situation. There’s not much you can do in those cases unless you were close enough to know more of their RL details such as a phone number. In my case both persons recovered from their tragedy to a degree but they failed to contact me with the news.
Honestly I don’t know what’s worse, not knowing and never finding out or finding out they are OK but didn’t feel compelled to let you know they are fine. I’d never begrudge anyone taking time to attend to RL. I’d even understand if you had to take a break from SL or *gasp* were done with me. What I hate is being in the dark and not knowing if you are in trouble and hurting. But dammit, if you’re well enough to use a computer you owe it to your friends and loved ones to let them know you’re OK. I am a real person with real feelings, NOT an NPC or bot. One simple message is all it takes and you owe me no more than that.
I would hope my readers out there keep this in mind if the worst happens some day. Your friends here in the virtual world do matter and we do care about you. Talk to us, let us know you’re OK. It’s the least you can do.
GoSpeed Racer a Virtual World Avatar 
Well said! The Big Quiet (see my blog from last year, http://moonletters.com/?p=1851) really does have an effect on the people behind the avatars.
Your link to Sio’s post got me reading some of her past posts, which mentioned the whole Rheta Shan thing, which then brought back all these angry feelings because I am one of the (brave? scorned? hated?) cynical few who believe that tragic death story was probably bullsh*t . . . at which point I came to the conclusion that maybe some people simply and selfishly run screaming away from Second Life because they’re sick of all the extreme bullsh*t that can go down there.
*bows and accepts the award for most rambling-ass sentence of the week*
But yeah, it sucks. My friend Asha vanished a couple of years ago — she was one of my first SL friends and she up and left – left her land and everything. If she just needed to leave, well, I can totally relate to that 100 percent. But I spent months imagining that something horrible had happened to her and feeling helpless about it.
And see: I still think of her even now. I hope that wherever she is, she’s happy and OK.
On that note, to all my SL friends, if I ever try to pry some type of RL contact info from you – an e-mail, a FB page, whatever – it’s just because I care, not because I’m nosy or a stalker. I don’t ever want something like that to happen again.