Stories about Second Life in the media are burgeoning. A few things keep coming up that grate on your nerves, though, time after time. Things that are just plain false, or so much of a non sequitur that you blink and grumble at your screen.

Maybe they're drawing too much on each-other's material. After all, they say "Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery." They must, because I stole that quote.

So, after scouring some of the media efforts, we've compiled a list of seven common, recent media myths about Second Life.

• Everyone starts naked.

Honestly, I don't know where this one keeps coming from, but it's turned up in a few lately. Nobody starts naked. Perhaps they mean it as a metaphor for 'not having an inventory full of freebie junk you'll never use'. Maybe everyone has the urge to take their clothes off first, just to see if they can. In the last two or three weeks, several entirely separate journalists have documented their first steps in Second Life with 'everyone starts naked'. This suggests either some deep flaw in the new resident experience....or perhaps it's just some some deep flaw in journalists.

• Second Life is a benighted place full of backward people who have yet to discover the luxuries of stores, advertising, radio stations, live music, newspapers and toilet paper.

Definitely not the case. Avatars may have no need of toilet-paper, but that doesn't mean we don't have it. Most of the things you can think of, we've got - or we've had. Cinemas? Check. Churches? Check. Bars, clubs, businesses, newspapers, shopping malls, racetracks, beaches, museums, art galleries. We've got all that, and plenty of stuff that you probably haven't thought of. Give us some credit.

• Second life is easy money.

No. SL money takes the same amount of work to amass as the equivalent in US Dollars out in the world of bricks and meat. Your startup costs are lower, is all. If you don't put in the sweat, you don't get the sweet. Sure there are money trees and the like, but they're like finding a coin on the sidewalk. Second Life money is like regular money. You have to convince someone to part with it.

• Second Life is rather like Sim City.

Wow. I just can't wrap my head around that one. I just can't reconcile the mechanics between the scenario driven/open-ended city building game, and the personalized 3d spaces of Second Life. This one keeps popping up though. Perhaps there are aspects that are common to both, but so rare that I can't imagine this being an effective metaphor under the most ideal circumstances.

• Congress is looking into taxing digital assets in Second Life, et al.

No. Their very first statement about it was that it just didn't make sense, economically, technologically or legally. Tax, of course, is still payable when L$ become your local currency again, but we should all be declaring that income, where the local laws require.

However, Australia does have laws that allow resident transactions of 'non-liquid/non-value' currencies or objects to be taxed. Until they figure out how we should be reporting that, we'll just have to keep on reporting our income at the time of conversion into a non-virtual currency.

• Second Life is a haven for gambling homosexual furry vampire gorean nazi lesbian child pornographers.

Second Life is all about people. All kinds of people. Second Life has become home to a population of adults who can practice lifestyles with relative consensuality and safety. Certain things, however, are illegal, and Linden Lab deals with those when they are brought to their attention. Certain other things are not against the law, and people wish that they were. Nonetheless, Second Life is not all about sex and gambling. There's plenty more going on across the grid.

• To enjoy Second Life, you need to pay, and pay, and pay.

Well, you can make plenty stuff yourself, if you want to learn. Many of the classes are still free, despite the recent cut to instructor subsidies, and they're always plenty busy. Of course many people don't want to learn. That's fine too.

You can live off the range of freebies that people make available - some are crap, others are excellent. Some people have fun scouring Second Life for interesting free things, like you might search through an op-shop or bazaar, looking for that special treasure.

Some people seem to need nothing at all, other than good friends and good conversation, rather like epicureans, without the need for food. There's a lot of ways to be happy in Second Life. Reaching into your credit card to afford something that you want is just as valid as lounging around the scenic spots with a few close friends from the other side of the planet.