Avatars United: A safe haven from Facebook's "Avatar Hit Squads"

A few hours ago I read the announcement that the Lab has acquired a social networking site that is specifically geared for MMO game avatars. While this could be seen as a distraction from the Lab's recent controversial policy changes, this can also be seen as something of a godsend for SL Residents who try to use social networking sites, but attempt to keep their RL information totally private.

In particular, there's been a recent rash of SL-related avatar account deletions on Facebook, as reported by the Alphaville Herald. This has caused many Facebook users to search for an avatar-friendly alternative, lest their accounts get silently zapped.

Cue Avatars United, which not only caters to SL Residents, but for players of a huge number of MMO worlds and games(even OpenSim surprisingly) who would like to keep their RL private. It's very Facebook-like, but without the insane jungle of apps that currently plague Facebook. It's still in Beta, but the Lab is planning some nifty things for it and hopefully a developer community will spring up to add more goodies to the mix(think apps that integrate AU with SL in various ways).

I've already set up my account and page, so feel free to friend me on AU. I don't bite... much. ;)