Broadly offending content ~ what is it for *you*?

For the record... Pep and I have never been involved and are yet to have ever met inworld. =^-^=

There is a lot of bad taste and stupidity demonstrated, mind you.

For the record... Pep and I have never been involved and are yet to have ever met inworld. =^-^=

Trust me Immy, she made you look well-balanced.

Pep (But the story has a sad ending so I won't dwell on it. )

Based upon Linden Lab's track record, what they have shared about the process, what has been notably absent from what they have shared, and continuing vagueness in the policy, I can say it with a high degree of confidence.

If there is some degree of work Linden Lab has done to determine what is "broadly offensive," that they just have not shared with us for whatever reason, I would be very surprised. It's possible; I have no knowledge about the internal workings of Linden Lab; I just guess based on what I see. But I would be very surprised.

... the context of the question is SL and the separation of certain types of content. This is effectively a form of banning, although not outright banning.

A balanced person might come across something and go "eww", then leave - or not go there in there first place.
Someone who demands a "predictable experience" might take a less understanding position.

You're never going to find out what is "broadly" offensive then, since your sample is of a tiny minority of the population, those who use the forums, can conjure up enough English to make themselves half-understood, and care a little about this. It would be difficult to justify any such feedback as representative of even the active participants in sl.

Pep (And what would you find? Probably that billions of flies like the taste of cowpats. Doesn't make it yummy for the gourmets among us. )

Sim crossings.

There might be reasons other than 'demand[ing] a predictable experience' for being in favor of SL taking something other than an 'anything goes and if you don't like it you can leave' position.

First and foremost(and, yes, obvious): the continued existence of SL. A business cannot exist if it acts in defiance of the laws of the nations in which it needs to operate. If any such nations indicate an intention to enforce laws against child pornography against SL, the....SL has to make efforts to ban the depiction of child sex. Simple as that.

Second: 'Broadly offensive' depictions in SL can be offensive in two very different ways. They may offend an individual as an individual---and the remedy for that is to TP away and not return. But if they offend an individual as a member of a demographic class---if SL implicitly endorses such depictions, by default, by permitting them to continue---then you have a whole different situation.


For example: recently I was searching for some full-perms alpha textures of flowers or plants, to be used for making arbor-hangings. One shop I visited had some textures that would have suited my purpose. But they also had, prominently displayed, a very realistic mallard duck and a poster depicting the Wonderful Fun Animation of Your Avatar Consuming The Duck With Lots of Blood and Gore Flying Everywhere! (Or words to that effect.)

I chose not to purchase the textures, even though I'd been having a lot of trouble finding what I needed and these would have been ideal. And I'll never go back to that shop.

I did not AR this duck thing nor would I call for it to be banned.

I simply made the personal decision that I don't care to have any contact or provide any support to the kind of person who finds the duck thing funny or exciting (or whatever).

Crucial point, though: the duck thing did NOT make me feel unwelcome; it did not send a message 'this is what your kind deserves and will get, here' or anything of the kind.


Contrast the duck thing with this situation:

SL sells 12 islands to a group that wants to RP the antebellum South (of the USA). A major focus of activity is centered around avatars depicting Africans and descendants of Africans---they are whipped, raped, auctioned off, etc. This initial set of 12 islands grows to over a hundred, with many outposts of the Antebellum movement increasingly moving to Mainland sims.

A person of African ancestry hears that SL is amazing and registers. As he explores, he sees constant references to this Antebellum role-play phenomenon--the sims themselves, shops in Search and Classified that cater to the players, blogs and websites that are filled with posts about 'how to tame a buck' and 'it's not gay to _____ a buck in the _____ because he's not a person, he's property' and 'how can it be rape if they're subhuman anyway?' and the like.

And though the new registrant doesn't go to those sims, or patronize those shops...he can't help feeling that SL's default/implicit endorsement of this phenomenon...leads him to feel rather...unwelcome.



My point: the sense that 'this is offensive' is different in kind for the black guy who encounters the hypothetical Antebellum phenomenon, than it is for the person who comes across the Consumable Duck.

And this is because the one is based on generalizations about a demographic class of people (e.g. '_______ are natural-born slaves' or '_______really like it, it's the way God made them' or '_____________don't deserve any better because they are all ____________ and ___________ and ____________').

And the other one isn't.

...a weekly running total of 3462361524 false accusations against Immy...

butt-head fever

But what if you were rping a duck?

Okay, I have to ask. What exactly is butt-head fever?

Okay, I have to ask. What exactly is butt-head fever?

...and yes, my hypothetical example (from a post just above) can't exist in SL. Because SL's rules would prohibit it.

SL rules DO prohibit certain types of acts---those listed in the post---being committed against some demographic classes of human beings.

But they're okay with those acts being committed against other demographic classes of human beings.


(Which does seem a tad hypocritical.)

Okay, I have to ask. What exactly is butt-head fever?

Okay, I have to ask. What exactly is butt-head fever?

this would be I think lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrSCjSRMY64

Ummm. I didn't read the rest of this thread, so I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned but "What is 'broadly offending to me'?" is an oxymoron. "Broadly Offensive" means that "it is offensive to a large number (broad range) of people". So you (or any other one person) cannot define what is broadly offensive. Only asking a large sampling of people and finding out what offends a substantial number of people can you define it.