Question about the new registration system

The acceptance of cell phones turned the difficulties LL faced with age verification into a joke. They have long since abandoned any claim to having shown due care in their attempt to restrict access from minors.

Margaret, my lovely younger sister at an age below 18 was able to obtain a Mastercard or Visa, not sure which, during a promotion where they "pre approved after graduating high school (she did at 17.)" My mom found the card out when she "found the statement" while "dusting." They also found out she had run it up to the max limit and spent money that was loaned for her to go to a dental assistant training school. I could go on about the clever "reasons" she had about how she aquired some lovely expensive jewelry but that would be another thread.

That was quite some time ago, so I have no doubt this was a loop hole that was most likely changed. However, that said, There are many teens that own credit cards either in their parent's name or legimately co-signed as in the case of a bank debit card or pre paid debit card. I could have gotten one such card for my then 12 year old when he was going to Australia on a school trip. I also am not so convinced they "screen the social security numbers" and compare for ages that closely. I should have my son apply for one to test this out as right now I'm speaking from my perception of my own sister as well as stories from teens themselves of getting a card easily.

Edited, if you meant they would need to have a social security number to get the card, that is definately not a problem as a social security number has been required to be obtained within a few weeks of birth now for quite some time. I'm certain though you meant as age verification on the card application.

I do not know if Linden Labs permit debit card transactions the way many companies do by running them as credit cards.

The fact is, minors get in here on credit cards. It's any guess if they are legitmate, a parent's or stolen. All the more reason, this new policy is about as dumb as selling those sims on Ebay was.

My perception and opinion of course.

Check and cash cards, as far as the internet is concerned, is just another visa. There's no way to tell the difference, and unfortunately, no way to tell the age of the account holder. Usually you can go down to any bank at the age of 13 and get an account (with your guardian co-signing the account for you), and get one of these visa check cards that will let you shop online.

That was the major draw to HAVING a checking account when i first got mine.

Same here. This move has left me confused and oddly curious. I know Linden Lab isn't daft, despite some decisions in the past. What is THIS about? Really, the curiosity is killing me!

Well Robin Linden has answered:

/139/00/112228/1.html

And, being frank, I think she's living in cloud-cuckoo land. Obviously reality isn't something Linden Lab deal with much.

Saying something is one way (the teen grid for teens), whilst allowing it to be the other (by allowing anyone to register for the main grid quickly and easily regardless of age), would seem to be a paradox to me.

And whilst being more worried about adults gaining access to the teen grid, they've just opened the floodgates by effectively allowing teens on the adult grid.

What a bunch of bunkum.

I for one welcome our teenage overlords.

Call me!

/me cleans monitor

Damn you Soleil xD

Maxx's forum avatar does a good job of summing up this thread. Only there's a pretzel instead of pie. Whazzup with that?

That avatar has 4 frames... 5 sorry.

1 frame has Jay, of Clerks, Jay and silent bob strike back, mallrats, etc.

the next one has Brody, i think that's his name, and the pretzel, well, if you've seen Mallrats, there's a pretty awesome quote "chocolate covered pretzel?" :3

I find Kevin Smith stuff awesome, he's a brilliant comedy writer, and i love his ability of doing interaction with characters, specially conversations.

then its my avatar, and things go... wtf!!!1

I find that stuff amusing/funny. That's about the only reason for the avatar itself.

hope that helps

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! Speak NOT that name!!! For it is an UnHoly Name and the bane of all that is Video Game Entertainment!!!!

Aside from the whole "kids running around the adult grid putting us all in serious legal jeopardy"....

Will we see Stipend Farming? If they're not limiting accounts with credit cards, will we see some people signing up with many accounts in order to sell the stipend?

Doubt it. It's my understanding that these accounts get no stipend. IN fact, they get no L$ at all.

What is a gray goo attack? Cause last night something really weird happened and I logged off, thinking I was losing connectivity or something, but it may have been this what you speak of here.

coco

Well, if that were done, I would have to move, because my shop is on Mature land. I never considered that a problem because I figured the number of people who have their access to mature land turned off is probably about .0002% of the population.

This whole thing gets curiouser and curiouser. It just occured to me that all these people will not only be on the game, they will also be . . . on the forums!

I would like to know why on earth they are doing this - just to get more numbers doesn't seem like enough reason.

coco

So, we'll have 14-year old SL strippers earning their lindens. If they want media coverage, wait till that story hits Cnet.

This is stupid on so many levels, I don't know what to say.

The underage griefers will probably get their lindens from other underage griefers with a credit card or something. They ALWAYS find a way. And they don't have to be underage, either, if it's easy to get multiple accounts, now.

Did LL wake up and think: Let's make SL more frustrating for existing members and while we are at it, open ourselves up to accusations of exposing minors to porn?


I'm new so I can wait and see and just leave if this goes downhill. I will not tolerate being griefed for one thing. One of the reasons I came to SL is because I am NOT interested in playing an FPS. The day I need to buy a gun or a shield or something, is the day I leave. I feel for those who invested a lot in SL though.

Just for the record, we're going to be doing a full panel on "Sex in SL" at SLCC, with some very interesting panelists. It should be one of the more fun panels of the day!

I understand credit card verification isn't perfect, but its a lot better than nothing (at least the parent has already co-signed on a credit card if its in the minor's name); perhaps, the new user can use Second Life for a week (the trial period, as Katykiwi mentioned above) without entering CC info, then requiring it to continue further? This would help address the problem of minors in SL while also limiting the time a griefer can use an "anonymous" account to a week. I'd be all for giving them the L$250 as an incentive to continue after the initial "anonymous" week is done if they enter CC info.

Regards,

-Flip

I'm not sure why the verification was removed. To play an online game you need a credit card, period. I think that's a valid restriction.

Now, if LL wants to increase their population numbers and please a bunch of users at the same time, they need to implement a Alternative Basic Account. Essentially an official alt type account .

What it should do is allow existing users to create alts given the login from their main account, with a legal agreement stating that by creating this alt, you are creating it for personal use, Allowing someone else to us it is a violation of the TOS, and you accept any liablity for 3rd parties you may allow to use said account.

As for anonymity, I'm open to suggestions. Currently an alt is a perfect griefing tool. If figure out how to create as many alts as you want, you're untouchable. An alt type account could allow alternate accounts to be associated with their main via a page on sl's web site. For instance, I can type in someones name and query and it will return the main accounts name.

Another reason alts are limited is to let new users have first crack at the witty and catchy name sets. So when a new last name makes an appearance, it should not be selectable as an alt account last name imediately. In 2-4 weeks it would become an option in the alt account last name selection field.

LL is currently not profitable according to a few articles I've read. So charge the 9.95 for alt account creation. It probably wouldn't be a major source of income, but it would be something. Currently if you know how to create more then you're share of alt accounts, you can get them for free.

As a bonus and I realize this is harder than it sounds, so don't get your hopes up . Alt accounts could have access to the main's inventory via a folder in their inventory. No special permissions, if the object has resell only set for the next owner in the main accounts inventory, then the alt account would have resell only permissions on an object that copy from the main accounts inventory folder.

Currently group membership is limited and while LL is promising to have it unlimited eventually, I'm not holding my breath. A lot of people need to be members of several groups for business or other purposes. This wouldn't exactly solve the problem, but it would get you an official and non-underhanded method for working around the limitation.

I can hear one of the protests being voiced already . "But more users means more inventory and more resource load on the asset server!" Not so. If it really were more users then yes they would create new content and it would increase the load. but an alt and a main are run by one person, and even the best multitasker isn't going to create much more than the main by itself. Anyway, inventory is already not limited. Having two not limited inventories shouldn't be any worse. Having the Main Account folder available to the alt would also make this an even tinier concern.

Economically it's a sound idea. While an alt my not allow the main to create more content it would allow and give them a reason, to consume more . And the more healthy consumers you have the stronger your economy. For instance, I have a Gigantic Viking Alt, a female alt, a tiny alt, and my main who is a male that looks a lot like me irl. I know how to create more alts but it's more trouble than I'm willing to go through most days. If I could pay 9.95 for a few more I'd have a robot, a dinosaur, and I'm sure I could think of more. All of them require clothing, and accessories and if I buy something that's copy only, I now have a reason to buy a few more for other alts I might want to use it with.

hehe, probably nobody at LL is looking at this, so I'm going to say a magic word and hope one is listening. Torley .

As someone that has wandered through more anonymous internet chat rooms than she'd like to admit I think kiddie griefers and general Beavis and Butthead-ish chatter coming from 10 year olds in female avs with maxxed boobs will be a secondary issue here.

I think the real effect of this change is that there will be a race between how fast LL can respond to abuse reports vs how fast spammers can create throw away avs, park them in popular spots in SL and run the "Buy Vi_a_gra at my web site" scripts with shout on.

Anyone want to bet who will win?

*puts that in her to do list* >.> heh i wish... i wont contribute to that...

From now on i guess Teen Sl would just be a OPTION for kids? As long as their able to keep a lie going, they will have unlimited access to adult content...

Sadly, soon ah so soon the American Government will want to regulate the content of Second Life. OMG the kiddies and adults are doing the nasty with each other online which will lead to them doing it in RL. A law will need to be passed to put a stop to this and make the internet "safe" for the little brats.



I agree that the free accounts should be limited to a small area around the welcome centers. The Basic account should be brought back for access to PG Sims and Premium members can access both PG and Mature Sims.

Unless you want to completely re-organize the grid, moving the PG sims to the Northern continent and the Mature ones to the Southern, there is absolutely no way one could enforce movement restrictions based on sim rating and account type. There is no rhyme or reason to how it's laid out now! You'd turn the landscape into a maze of ban lines. And there would still be nothing preventing the suspected kiddies of standing at the edge of a mature sim, while remaining in a PG one, and looking to their heart's content.

And as for restricting Mature sims to only Premium members? Pifft! What about the thousands of properly age-verified Basic members, like me, who are already in SL? What about the new Players who can verify their age, but just don't want to buy a Premium account? Both of my homes are in Mature rated sims, as are the majority of my business ventures and customers. Don't you go locking me out just because LL decided to fire the bouncer at the door who was checking ID's!

And don't say you're going to force me to go Premium, either! I've looked at that option time and time again, and still it makes no economic sense for me. The small amount of land that I own is in a private sim, and was paid for entirely with my hard work as a Builder and texture artist. I don't need to be Premium to own my home. I don't WANT to own additional mainland property, and the only thing I would do with a tiny 512 M2 plot of 'first land' on the mainland would be to sell it as fast as I possibly could. It is MUCH more cost effective for me to just buy Lindens when I need extra, and for the most part, I earn more than enough in-world now to never have to buy Lindens at all. I have a very marginal system for accessing SL. There is no way I am going to invest in a year's worth of Premium account dues that I don't need, when the next Update might lock me out anyway. Until I can afford better hardware to access SL on, I'm not about to consider upgrading to Premium.

At lunch time today, in the span of less than 15 minutes, I had two completely unrelated newbies come walking into my home without invitation. Fortunately, both were quite polite and were no problem. I Greeted them politely, talked with them for a few minutes about SL, and they left. But I can see that the floodgates are already opening.

I'm not terribly worried about kiddies posing as adults. I'm very selective in terms of who I would consider becoming intimate with. But that is going to be a huge problem for some people, I am sure!

What worries me a lot more is the potential flood of troublemakers, riding in on disposable accounts. Given the Linden's past record for not doing much about Griefers, I can't see how they can hope to police matters in this new situation.

Void sims anyone?




SL as it stands is an unsustainable economic model, based on the ratio of paying accounts v freebies. Is a $10 one-off fee such a problem to unlock the whole potential of SL?


What about the new Players who can verify their age, but just don't want to buy a Premium account? Both of my homes are in Mature rated sims, as are the majority of my business ventures and customers. Don't you go locking me out just because LL decided to fire the bouncer at the door who was checking ID's!



$10 one off payment. Next.



I'm not selective at all about intimacy in SL. I reserve that for real life, and offer nothing more than a hug to friends.



Yes, I caught a self-duplicating griefer thing bouncing around earlier - thankfully it had been badly scripted and didn't replicate, AR'd it having been told a Linden was already on it, and deleted it.

I'm not sure whether disposable accounts are worse than killing stipends. Both reduce the game's fun factor.

Lewis

*wipes a tear from his eye* That was beautiful Moopf... *sniffles*

Moopf has such a tender soul, doesn't he?

*gasps* Uh oh! I thought that was steak! So sorry!