An Open Letter to Philip Rosedale and the Entire Linden Lab team

A point that has been a bit lost in this thread is she was not unsupervised. She and her father were browsing the forums of SL together when she saw the big bad swear words that Regnar still has never pointed out (most likely because he cannot).

The other thing I find so funny about this thread are the contradictions in it. At one point, his friend is going to handle it when he gets back from vacation and it is not Regnar's problem. Later on, Regnar is going to be lighting up the phone lines tomorrow at Linden Labs to handle this issue, along with reporting those which "abused" him in this thread.

My god, are you that soft skinned Regnar? You put something like this out there attacking Linden Labs and Phillip personally, along with maligning the ENTIRE SL community, and expect there to be no response. I honestly do not know what is wrong with you. Respect is something that is earned, and easily squandered, and you have blown whatever shred of respect you had on a series of increasingly strange posts leading up to this swan song.

Feel free to report everyone in this thread who spoke out against you like some little tattle tale, I am sure you will have Linden Labs jumping to your defense after attacking them. I would gladly have you report me for standing up to your insanity. Maturity wise, you have nothing on that 8 year old girl.

Cristiano

Regnar, why not just go blaming videogames the rise in violence? Or better yet, blame TV and the media for corruption and making our kids fat.


........Crap now I gave him MORE insane ideas for the blaming game

----------------------------------------------------------------------
END FLAME
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that I have THAT out of my system *shakes self off followed by a semi-loud "WOO"* Let me get down to the point as has everyone else. I skipped all but the first page in order to save time, so im going to ignore all but your first post, because it seems nothing has changed in your opinion.

Regnar, first of all why did you ALLOW an eight year old girl access to your computer if these sites could be found? Your placing blame where blame does not belong. Blame rests entirly on you, philip didnt do anything to cause this eight year old to have a swearing problem, have you ever asked her father how much he swears around their home(If they are anything like the place I grew up in ALOT, I said my first curse at the ripe age of 4)?

Now regnar, I think im going to blame YOU for making me waste my time writing this post and reading this thread, does that allow me to write letters to linden labs and call them over and over? Sure, its legally allowed, but morally you have become just as bad as all the soccer momssueing the video game companies when their child commits an act of violence.

-Ryen (Whish my last name wasnt) Jade

Very, very bad analogy.

SL isn't an adult bookstore. It's just a book store. Like borders, or anything else. Nice and glitzy and with the coffee bar.

Yes, there is adult content here. There is at ANY bookstore. If you let little sally read any book off any shelf, she's gonna come across some shocking stuff. I dont know of many "family friendly" bookstores.

The game is over-18 for legal reasons. But lets not kid ourselves into think the game isa analogos to an adult bookstore. It's not.

Sorry, but just finished reading the thread and all I can say is we might as well open the floodgates to minors, because noone (not even a 10 year old) is as immature as THIS guy.

[I* have asked linden lab to delete my account and have contacted a lawyer.

Apparently, no one has better reading comprehension, either.

Right now, i think it would be appropriate to quote Julian's drawing teacher from China "This so bad...make me want to kill myself" as it probably sums up most of our attitudes towards this situation. Regnar, you seemed like a pretty decent guy, but this is over the top. You attack Linden Lab for that child's father's mistake. Why would he even be browsing the SecondLife forums, i dont think that he would find anything that he would understand without playing the 'game'.... The whole thing sounds bogus to me, and you are trying to make a point by making this story up, instead of just saying "you know, gee, if someone's kid stumbled across this website, there are some innapropriate words that they should not be exposed to,ergo, there should not be public forums" and making everyone hostile towards you.

Goodness knows I certainly have a reputation for being Miss Prude of SL and even trying to curb language "in world" As I say, a Mature area might also mean behaving in a mature fashion, as well as an open area for so called "Mature" silliness. (Which adults are entitiled to)

That being said, this must be SOME smart kid. For years I hear being talking about all these sex chat rooms and I have NEVER even stumbled on one. Perhaps I don't look hard enough, or perhaps I am too stupid, but it seems to me that SOMETHING pointed that child to SL. It didn't just happen.

SL as a whole is the most decent , clean, and well run of online experiences. I agree with everyone else that Regnar should get off the soapbox and stop blaming Philip. Children take nuturing and monitoring, not dumping in front of a TV or computer. And as a Mother of a lovely 23 year old, I feel qualified to say that. It wasn't easy...

And by the by, somehow MY system is set up that it automatically logs me out of SL and I constantly have to relog into the forums which suits me just fine. So it can be done. SL is my world, I don't need visitors inside...

Wow, I insult regnar and he takes it as a compliment, boy do I feel silly

Must ... control ... fist ... of ... death ...

If I need to feel sorry for the child, I will. If I see a child who needs help, I'll do it -- doesn't matter if he/she isn't mine. Sorry -- kids (real kids, not adults and almost-adults who won't grow up) are always the priority.

That said, life is unexpectedly dangerous. So is the internet, and SL, in certain circumstances. It's the primary responsibility of any parent to act responsibly. There's nothing on the SL splash page to indicate that this is kids-only terrain. Quite the opposite. And anyone who thinks that adult forums can be effectively moderated for children is -- likely -- already smoking something in front of their kids.

Make a responsible suggestion to the Lindens if you like, bring the issue up in the forums calmly, but stop the chest-thumping drama. It doesn't do the child any good.

Regnar really.. you're a nice chap and all, but this thread is nonsense. Anyone who allows kids onto the net unsupervised is clearly a loony. That aside, the SL forums are utterly harmless for 99 percent of posts.

..oh and all those kiddies out there.. father christmas isn't real, and neither is the tooth fairy.


oop.. now i've done it. lol.


...

Jai

Your not supposed to curse on the forums, except for the one adult forum. So its not even an issue. But I dislike the idea or closing the forum to members only. I think its good that people who might be thinking of coming to second life can read what its users say. I believe its best to leave is as it is.. Otherwise it would just be kind of sneaky to hide its users until they join.

Regnar,

<<I simply can not believe that no one gets it.>>

Well, perhaps the reason is that the message that came over from your posting was certainly not that one. Your postings were an attack on the Lindens and SL generally, and a complaint about the residents.

Let me suggest a format for your next open letter:-

<<Dear Lindens,

I feel that it's possible for young people entering these forums to have access to inappropriate material. Would it be possible to have a statement on the home page that the site is not suitable for people under 18?

Thank you.

Yours,
Regnar Bell>>

If you wish you may copy that verbatim.

If LL were to explicitly state on its homepage that SL is a Mature, or 18+ game, I think this would give the connotation that SL is a sex game, which is far from what LL wants to project and far from what SL is.

Regnar, they already completely restructured the webpages to shuffle off offensive materials to passworded forums.

At this point, if someone posts something offensive, they are breaking the new rules. The only thing LL could do more now is to review every post before it is allowed to be posted.

Locking down the forums entirely is not an option, as the forums are some of the best advertising for the game.

I mean, you're gonna come to the website before you get the game. You HAVE to. They'd lose tons of needed customers if the website were just a splash page with an 18+ warning, and would end up gaining more of the exact kind of customer you, Regnar, don't want in game.

The 18+ warning would just act to filter in people who wanted porn and nothing more, giving you the opposite effect to what you want.

As far as why people are attacking you Regnar, it's fairly obvious. It isn't your suggestion to put a warning on the page, it's the way you presented your suggestion.

Since you can't step outside of yourself, not seeing how you come across is forgivable. But for future reference, your "open letter" came across as extremely condescending, manipulative, and rife with ulterior motives. Basically what I read was:

"I've told you guys again and again what sick twisted perverts you are, and you wouldn't listen. Now look what happened. JUST LOOK! I bet you feel bad now"

We'd feel bad Regnar if we in anyway agreed.

If, and that is a big IF, I were websurfing with a child at my side, you can be sure I would only go to sites I had been to before and new the content of. The web is an infinitely surprising place.

It's unfortunate that the event happened, but it isn't LL's fault, nor is it yours. The blame is solely the parent of the childs. If he is any kind of parent at all, this kind of faux pas should be easily handled though - without involving the courts

I found the post that ruined the nonexistent kid!



S/he obviously had never heard of the words crack whore before and went to images.google.com. There she saw these pictures of women with terrible distorted faces. She can't sleep at night. She is too young to understand if it will happen to her.


Jeez, the terrible harm a word or two can bring to an eight year old. Better keep them away from school too. I hear those words are all over the playground.

Oh, was that the offending thread? Uh... oh.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/kittycat.php

click here for free neekie kitty pr0n.

That cat seriously needs a diet

This isnt your fault Regnar, nor is it LL's, or the forum posters'. Consider this scenerio:

At the get-together:

A friend asks if he and his daughter can surf the internet together. You say sure, and he boots up your computer.

He opens up IE, and navagates to the google.com search page, to look something up.

He types in "online games" in the search box, then clicks the "I'm feeling lucky" button.

And... GASP! An online gambling page pops up on the screen. The webpage opens up thousands of porn popup ads on top of the window. Daddy gasps, little girl looks over and asks what's on the screen.

Daddy disconnects computer from wall, and does not answer his daughter's request.

Daddy storms over to your conversation, butts in, and yells at the top of his lungs "WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE PORN ON YOUR COMPUTER?? YOU HAVE DAMAGED MY LITTLE GIRL!"

Is this your fault? No.

Is this the gaming website's fault? No, it had a description that the page was meant for gamblers and people over 18 posted to google.

Is this google's fault? No, the I'm feeling lucky button navagates to the first listed result, this changes often, possibly every time a new website is submitted.

Is this the father's fault? Yes. Being the person he is, he clicked the Im feeling lucky button of his own accord, knowing what it would do.

==Chris

..so you see, THIS is why you've been called, among other things, a "loon" . First off, the SL website is ANYthing but inviting to children...right up until you put warning saying "The content on this site is restricted to those 18 years of age and older"...

..at which time , within 3 hours, you'll have a deluge of people 17 and younger flocking to the site to check out the 5w3aRZ & b00bz0rz!...

...only to find that this place is really quite harmless, and very informative for those who are both playing the game and considering playing it. There is no merit to your suggestion...things are fine the way they are..hit the road...cry someplace else.

...Finally, your analogy with the adult bookstore is just so utterly retarded I won't even dignify it by responding any further.

It's THAT simple...

Hmmmm.... this seems all too familiar to me..

0.o...

Maybe this doesn't make any sense to anyone but myself, but if this game is meant for 18+, why would you direct a child to this site to browse at all?

In fact, why let a child play with such an expensive piece of equiptment unsupervised at all?

There are HUNDREDS of forums a child could be exposed to that they should not be that are not password protected.

Give her something more age appropriate to do unsupervised.

It was the parent surfing with the child, Bak.

And the parent was the clever one who said, "Hey, I know. I'll take my kid to a site meant for adults!"

ummm ok.