What does "strong violence" and "broadly offensive" mean?

Is an avatar that is posed and otherwise made to appear as a corpse with a knife sticking out it's back a depiction of "strong violence" as is forbidden in PG areas?

Is such an avatar "broadly offensive" as is forbidden in PG areas?

Well... "strong violence" would be violence that is strong, and "broadly offensive" would describe something that is offensive in a broad fashion...

But seriously, I imagine that a corpse with a knife sticking out its back does qualify as "strong violence", although I wouldn't call it "broadly offensive". I know that seeing such an AV wouldn't offend me.

- Ace

I pretty much agree with Ace - yes a knife stabbing with a person down is strong violence. Serious harm has been inflicted.

I would not on the face of it be offended. But my feelings would also be directly related to the context of how the corpse was posed, what the "message & purpose" of the enactment are, etc. etc.

These days violence has been trivialized and sanitized and too many people have no actual experience of the direct effects of violence - not knowing the pain and suffering that accompany violent acts.

And no, i don't believe this would belong in a PG sim - without knowing more information.

I'm going to bet that the image in question - a "corpse with a knife stickingout of its back" in a PG sim/area - refers to a relatively common occurence in the Ahern Welcome Area.

I have only been a SLer since early June of this year and I have to say that not only have I seen this in the Welcome Area, I have seen it there quite often. While not personally offended, and while occasionally amused by it, I don't think that it (such imagery) belongs in the Welcome Area though it might pass muster in other PG areas.

Consider this - the Welcome Area is the first/introductory area for all new players. Now magine yourself as a brand spanking noob materializing on the mainland in the Welcome Area for the first time and you spot not one, not two, but three such "bodies" and everyone else present just standing around shooting the breeze.

What is the message being sent by those in the area? Obviously that this is "the norm" and to be expected....

Is this the issue that is being addressed in this thread or is it something else?

Korg,

I think I would leave and never come back.

Perhaps the Lindens might like to look at this in view of the fact that it's obviously losing them money.

Well, its not quite as crazy as when I logged in to the welcome area and found a full size rended galleon, floating above the area, a large yellow cartoon anime monster thing dancing, and one of those dead bodies conversing quite happily despite its slight impalement with a space marine playing prim attack. I'd say its shows the amusing diversity we have.

When I, a mere stripling who has yet seen only five days of SL, first fell off the TP platform and landed beside a crowd containing a talking corpse, several fallen angels and an alien, it made me feel that SL was truly an escape from mundanity.

Don't water down the entrance for wowsers! Wowsers must be cheerfully ignored, lest they gain teeth.

There was nothing violent about the galleon, I'm a non-violent Pirate, I just bore my victims to death by shouting "Avast" and "Shiver me timbers" at them.

Is a corpse Strongly Violent? I would consider a corpse to be a rather passive thing, Perhaps how it became a corpse Might be considered "Strongly Violent", However, since the corpse is already a corpse, and we did not witness the actualy process of creating it, I would consider it more "Suggestive of Violence".
No, Not prohibited byt TOS.

As to "Broadly Offensive". I find it interesting to read how many people read "Broadly" as meaning "Offensive to me". I have been in the PG areas when a "Dead" person shows up. Far from being offended, the crowds present tend to launch into a littany of Graveside Humor. In one welcome area, a Dead person appeared, and with over 20 people present Not One said "That's Sick" or any other statement that would indicate Offence.

"Broadly Offensive" translates into "Offensive to the greater majority of persons" NOT "I don't like this so Nobody should be allowed to do it"

Again, It "Broadly offensive" does not apply, therefore again, Not prohibited by TOS.

I am about as broad minded a person as you could find, and yet, there are things that offend me. When that happens, I quietly excuse myself. No scenes, no complaints, no preaching. I just go. If you have found something "Personally Offensive" Do what I do, what any reasonable person does, Absent yourself from the area. Leave. Go to another sim. I am not saying you don't have the right to stay, but Why stay somewhere that you are uncomfortable?
But Please,, Stop trying to mold everyone elses play to suit your own sensabilities, because what is fine to you MAY just be offensive to others. We are, None of us, Perfect, we are all different. Learn to live with it. It isn't going to change.

Angelique.

This "seedy" aspect of SL is what bothers me. It's bad enough to find this stuff in the Mature areas, but that's fine -- they're there for that reason. But PG areas, IMHO, should be reasonably clean, friendly, and wholesome. A walking corpse with a knife in its back isn't clean, friendly, nor wholesome.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing LL create a few G-rated sims. The notion that because SL people have to be over 18, they therefore don't care about enjoying themselves in a family-friendly environment is severely flawed. I'm starting to get tired of the "shock" avis, sex talk, adult clubs, gambling, blah blah blah, pervading the entire scope of SL. Again, all that stuff is fine -- in moderation and contained within the appropriate areas.

The new, improved events windows in SL 1.5 seems like a good step in the right direction. Now maybe they should start enforcing the PG rules a bit more stringently.

Cheers,

Jared

Sounds fine to me! There are WAYYYYYYYYY too many people who are too 'sensitive' ... "Oh my, comedic cartoon imagry of violence! I am harmed by this!!"

Bleh

I wonder if they were scarred watching the coyote plummet into the canyon while the roadrunner meep meeped his way into the sunset.

When I was a kid, my parents made me stop watching Road Runner cartoons.


No kidding!!!





What's funny, is I was going to say the same thing. To have violence, you need to have action. Since the corpse is already dead, can't have action, can you?

Technicalities aside, I do have a problem when newbs sit at the welcome sign and play sexual moaning sounds over and over... That and some peopleS choice of music has put the stopper on my actually listenting to what's going on. I have a young daughter, and when I fly through a plot and hear "DIE M*** F***ERS".. well, it means the sound goes off when kids are around.

There are ways to fix the problem, but all of them entail work.

Maybe the SL PG Police aught to start posting guards to 'protect' the newbie landing area from inappropriate actions, objects, and Avs. Would certainly be a more productive use of their time than the mock assaults on Mature area parties.

While the attack on Sunday (er, I think it was Sunday.. the weekend was a blurr ) was funny at first, I was getting kinda mad when they started hitting me with their censorship paddles. Lucky I had the presence of mind to fight back with my riding crop instead of my pistols, as was my first reaction. I guess it was all 'good, clean fun' though... and actually, the paddling was a little bit fun. :-}

Anyway I'm rambling... my point is, there's a group of folks out there already who are more than willing to police the content (so it would seem). Hire them to watch the newbie areas.

-Ghoti
-Club Laura Dancer
-Artist/Graphic Designer

The first time I ever lit up Second Life and exited the newbie area I saw someone lying there with a knife in their back. I thought it was simply fantastic. That experience was one of the many that convinced me to allow my credit card to be billed so I could continue playing.

A dead body avatar doesn't offend me.

When a person tries to stop another from using a dead body avatar, that does offend me. I suspect the outrage that I feel upon reading this thread is similar to the outrage felt by those who posted here in support of moderating such a thing. So much so it drove me to make my first post on these forums.

The quest to be non-offensive becomes a conundrum when it requires efforts that in themselves are offensive to some. A minority to be sure, but minority rights are among those most vaunted by anti-offensiveness campaigns. Point being, there is no such thing as perfectly non-offensive. There is a very large range within which things work 'okay' though, and I suspect that it lies somewhat short of ejecting dead body avatars from PG sims.

Well Daria, I think the point many of us were trying to make is that there are *tons* of areas in SL where you can be just about as far out and potentially offensive as is legally possible. However, the PG sims are there to provide areas where things are a lot tamer and "safer", whether you're a newbie or not. Just as you wouldn't want people policing what you can do in an M sim, some of us feel that we wouldn't want people doing whatever they darn well please, regardless of offensive or tasteless behavior, in a PG sim. Seems reasonable to me.

With respect,

Jared

Still seems offensive to me to take it to that extent.

Like when someone says damn or bastard in a PG sim, someone else yells out "PG!" Well the term PG is being borrowed from movie standards right? Those words don't warrant a rating beyond PG for a movie, neither does a dead body here and there. Enforcing a no dead-body policy seems to lack precedent and consistency.

In a general sense I agree with you Jared. Broadly offensive things shouldn't be allowed in PG sims. What is offensive of course is subjective, but a few cross references to popular culture and a healthy sense of perspective will rule out the dead body avatar being classified as 'broadly offensive.'

Perhaps instead of trying to restrict others, those that find anything stronger than 'darn' or a stubbed toe should try to get LL to make G rated sims where everything is sparkly wonderful, rosy pink with teddy bear trees and candy bushes and diet decaffenated soda streams are the strictly enforced rules.

That way the more reasonable people can have PG and M sims.

Actually, that's not a bad idea Jellin.

Better yet, lets take all the PG sims, and have them textured to a pale beige, allow absolutely no sound, and do not allow us to see other AVs nor talk to them. That way, there is absolutely NO CHANCE of someone getting offended. That'd do the trick. Ojh oh, and sign a waiver and forced to read a warning before you can enter a mature sim where they must just let you see anotherAV or say hello.

Now that my sarcasm spurt is over, to see a bunch of pixels that appear as a knife in someone's back is offensive?!? Really?!? So how do these individuals deal with RL? TV must be hell! Movies, OMG, better go see a disney flick... Eh, I dunno... Maybe I'm just too used to seeing all the offensive stuff in the real world, so I have become desensatized to it all. Hmm, that must be it....

Maybe "broadly offensive" means "offensive to women (broads)"?

If so, does that mean that the PG sims are Overtly Sexist?