TSL Verified Memberships show your trustworthy

http://www.talksecondlife.com/announcements/1177-presale-special-verified-memberships.html#post3052

Talk Second Life's new "Verified Memberships" distinguish you from the competition and show your customers that you are a trusted merchant.

Get your Verified Member badge today for only $1US per month and start earning more!

Benefits include:
*50% Discount on website advertisements
*Member Only Contests
*Free Verified Member Badge
*25% a RL TSL T-Shirt

For more information - http://www.talksecondlife.com/announcements/1177-presale-special-verified-memberships.html#post3052

Or to register directly with TSL: www.talksecondlife.com/payments.php.

Paypal and Lindens accepted.

TSL is going to be moot soon since it is essentially a service that is going to be integrated into the client and server... doubly so when it comes to paying TSL money for a badge to be a verified customer especially if the number of TSL users drops to 0.

How can someone prove they are trustworthy, and how can you check that?

Broccoli

Yeah, that'll work. Not.

This is not a verification service, it's at most a listing service.
Those forums have 610 members, and look a mess, this is not going to "improve your reputation throughout SL".
Nor can it be claimed that it proves you are a "trustworthy and honest member of the Second Life Community" as that forum holds no valid claim on being the second life community, just 0.037% of it.

Nobody who types "your" when they should've typed "you're" is in any position to be accrediting anybody.

Thanks for your replies.

I wrote this post late last night so pardon my spelling but thank you for pointing it out.

As for our method, if you have followed the link to read the post you will see that we do in fact verify our Verified members.

Verified Members are required to provide valid RL information (if you followed the link, would have known that already).

Upon verification our members are permitted to use their badge inworld and link back to their profile which displays basic user information and lets others know that Talk Second Life has verified the member's identity, thereby providing an extra layer of authenticity and reputability. As a result, our service provides increases buyers faith in sellers.

The membership of Talk Second Life is irrelevant in this regard. By basing your conclusion that our verifications are inneffective on the fact that we have only 600 members you have entirely misunderstood the system. Our membership does not verify other members credentials - the admins do.

Once again, thanks for your comments.
www.talksecondlife.com

What guarantees do members have that you wont release that RL information? The say so of the highly reputable and well known www.talksecondlife.com?

Interesting.

And how do you prove they are trustworthy? Interveiw their Ex Boy Freinds / Girl Freinds and find out if they lied to them?

Or perhaps just verify Identity with their Former Girl/Boy Scout Troop?

Upon verification how - do you call them on the telephone to interview them. Do you mean their pay service is verified. How is this any more verifiable than Linden's own account information on file?

Our information is verified on an individual basis. It provides an extra layer of security to members, just as sites like TrustE.com, and Paypal's verification service provide.

The guarantee that your RL information will not be given out is inherent in the reputation of Second Life. Giving out RL info is assured destruction for our program. If we gave out information, then the program would fail because of lack of trust (which the program is designed to create).

If you want further information on TSL and member opinions of it, please do diligence and read through the forums here (our response has been overwhelmingly positive), and take a look at the metaverse messenger article that was written about us.

Thank you for your time. I'm glad I can answer your questions although it may be more effective for many of you to ask questions with less of an aggressive tone.

Good luck with that.

And stuff.

No way Id trust a website to tell me people were trustworthy. I dont trust most people I know in real life. Including relatives - Especially my inlaws. And Im pretty sure of their Identity. Mostly.

I did read the entire post, and it makes no mention of how anyone is verified. I quote again:

IE, all that is required is that you put a name and address in your profile, then pay some money to be instantly allowed to use the badge.

So, do you phone each and every individual and send them a letter before they can be verified? Obviously not if you give out the badges immediately on purchase.

And your forums are relevant. Your service is specifically linked to those forums. Badges appear next to your forum posts on purchase, you are advertising through those forums and it is the forum admins who will carry out "verification".
Unlike paypal, or any secure certificate provider however, all your members information is stored as part of a vbulletin board. That puts you in a position where you cannot guarantee your members posts are actually their own or your admins are still the same people let alone that your members info will never be released. VB is not a trusted method of storing sensitive information.
Don't take my word for it, just ask anyone who ever had their VB hacked.

Soooo, we'll be able to trust TSL that the user is verified....what makes us trust TSL? Paypal and eTrust are somewhat trustable because of regulations, legal committments, etc. So what's TSL got that makes it trustworthy?

- Newfie

*bump* This thread is sinking. =P

I'm also interested in how "TSL Verified Member" = "Trustworthy Trader" and how you (Jacob) corroborate a member's RL name and address.

(Verified email addresses are irrelevant. You can generate throwaway email addresses as easily as you can fabricate a RL name and address.)

No Comment.

I'm rather afraid that this may break the Disclosure section of the CS..

Yumi,

How so?

Disclosure
Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Lives. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident --including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident's privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.


I'm not sure that I see your point.

*bump*


Again (and with respect), how do you corroborate that RL information?

Whilst I welcome the idea of 'additional' layers of 'trustworthyness' of people we deal with over the internet, I would see this falling foul of the Data Protection Act relevant in the UK which prevents anyone without a legal reason to hold any information about anyone, even with their consent, unless approved by Government bodies. I dare say the UK isn't the only country to have these laws.

We have all seen and heard of people who appear to be accredited and verified still acting like sharks and scammers, proof of who they are becomes irrelevant, unless you wish to persue legal actions against them. Perfectly 'legit companies' in SL sell copyright materials in virtually every corner of SL, and for some reason these are seen as perfectly respectable and accepted people, whether they are verified or not. In fact the vast majority have 'passed' the verification of account details through the Premium accounts at LL. I have to wonder how they intend to wriggle out of any potential legal action that may strike them, when (and it will happen) those rightful owners of that material discover what they are doing.

I applaud your ingenuity to provide a comfort zone for people, but unless the proof goes much further, I see it as no more than another 'internet sourced accreditation' based on the connection of nodes that make up the internet. Even crime has its public face, whereby they window dress that view with 'legit' frontage, no one can prove they also don't have access to the same verification process. For my money, a solid and consistant reputation (good or bad) is as good as it gets.

I'm closing this thread, it's crossed the line between into advertising for a RW product/service (and thus falling under the SPAM guidelines). Just to be on the safe side I'm sending to Linden Review.