Resident

From SLuserguide

"Resident" is the official name for a user of Second Life. Each Resident has one Account, so that "Resident" and "Account" are more or less synonymous. Each Resident also has only one Avatar Name, but may have many different Avatars which can be put on and taken off at will.

The three-dimensional Inworld representation of the Resident is called the Avatar. One Resident can have many Avatars, which are stored in Inventory, and which can changed as easily as if one were taking off or putting on clothing.

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Origin of the term "Resident"

The origin of the term "Resident" was described by Robin Linden in the Second Life forums as follows:

When it came to what to call the people in the world, we knew we didn't want to call them 'users', although that would be the most typical thing for software. However, the word 'users' doesn't do a very good job of describing the two-way nature of Second Life, where the people involved are providing content and contributing to the experience.

We also thought about 'members' (boring!), 'citizens' (too political!), and 'players' (too game-y).

'Residents', however, seems most descriptive of people who have a stake in the world and how it grows.

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