Forming an opinion is a delicate bussiness. At least that's what I've always thaught. To form an opinon, you need to know the facts, thats my opinion!
There are a few different ways to form an opinion; you can go with your emotions; you can go by your friends or your parents opinion; you can go with your first impression; you can go on a hunch or you can make sure you have as many facts as possible before you even decide what to think in the sucject.
I've learned, growing up, that making a hasty decision and forming an opinion about a thing or person will in best case make you look like a fool, and in worst case hurt someone innocent. (I guess it comes from my fear of conflicts, really, lol. And as my dad use to say: "Since day one, you've always tried to make sure everybody are happy. If someone isn't, then you aren't either.")
I still do it sometimes, though, I'm only human. But I really try not to express -or even form- an opinion in matters I don't know anything about. In SL this is really really important. You only see a glipse of a person, you share a few words, you look at their avatars and think that is ALL they are. You can NEVER know the whole story behind an avatar. NEVER! It doesn't matter how well you think you get to know someone in here, you will never know enough to judge them.
I try to always have an open mind. If someone tells me they get turned on by an avatar/object/furry/dragon/whatever, I don't think "what a wacko" and walk away. Because I have no ideah how they are feeling, or why they said exactly those words. What I do know, is that this is only ONE thing about them, one part of the complex being they are. The one thing they can explore in SL, but never whould even WANT to do in RL.
People are interesting. Everybody has something to tell you, to enrich your life.On the other end of it, I really try not to get offended by something someone sais to me. Because, again, you never know enough about the person to know why they said that. Many people in here are depressed, terminally ill, on heavy medz, drinking, doing drugs, or just not smart enough to know what can hurt a person (including me and my big mouth) or people that has less empathy because of a disorder.
BUT, I do listen when someone sais something nice to me ;o) That's important too! :D
I explore SL as much as I can. I challenge people's minds by doing the opposit. It is interesting to see how they change when I tell them I am paper-white and blond in RL. It is also very interesting to see how many DON'T change. I love people in SL. So open, so sharing, so thaughtful. Yes, I'm talking about you! ;o)
I could go on forever about this subject, but I won't. I have to leave something for you to think about. Form an opinion about opinions, yourself ;) And see how many times you can get the word "opinion" in to a blogpost ;)