A New Blow for Freedom of Speech?

No, that's just when Pep was born.

Well, that right there doesn't really count. It's not a Japanese word, and therefore it means nothing to them. Its inclusion on the shirt isn't to send any kind of message, it's just English letters used for decoration, the way someone might walk into S-Mart and buy a shirt with Japanese-looking characters on it, without having a clue what they represent.

Going back to the original subject about freedom of speech.

Linden Lab make the rules for Second Life - they can decide what they don't want us say in our profiles, exactly the same as they can set prim limits.

In real life, people might have a basic right to freedom of speech, but that doesn't mean that if you want to say something, you're certain to be given airtime to say it on TV or radio!

You are *entirely* wrong. SL is an artificial environment governed only by LL's rules, not those of so-called "civilisation". No-one is forcing you to be subjected to obscenities. No-one is forcing you to play in SL at all. No-one is forcing you to look at other players' profiles. LL's rules say that if you do, then you should expect that the profile should be PG. If it isn't, then it is against LL's rules and you might expect LL to take action. Except no-one is forcing LL to take action about non-PG profiles, nor is it likely that they could, since everyone is over 18.

But apart from your being absolutely wrong about the "forcing" bit and your entirely erroneous imputation to me of a liberal attitude to bad language (I don't swear much in either rl or sl, and feel less of a person when I or anyone else have failed to find alternative expressive vocabulary) I agree with you entirely, and you seem to have got the completely wrong end of the stick about where I stand on this.

Perhaps you didn't read the posts accurately.

Pep (You certainly didn't read the posts where I have said that no-one deserves respect; you have to *earn* it!)

AHA!!!! The truth emerges at last. YOU are the Puppetmaster!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, pay no attention to the respectable-looking woman behind the curtain!

Laurin, STOP IT already!!!!

Gosh have you been to a gag-writing class since you last posted?

Pep (No, probably not.)

Actually, I stopped taking instructions from females at the age of six, when the three kindergarten teachers cornered me at break and attempted to stop me from sucking cough sweets that my Dad had given me.

Pep (I discovered that "females" were irrational and emotional at that point, and that they therefore had no mechanism for convincing me of the rectitude of their opinions.)

This explains sooooooo much . . .




Ah, the infinite and nearly beautiful simplicity of the generalizing mind . . .

PG = parental guidance. PG does not = 100%-guaranteed, squeaky-clean environment. That is up to the user's discretion, or in the strict sense of the rating, the parent. If they want SL to be perfectly clean, absolutely free of profanity, nudity, etc., they'll need to slap a G rating on it for that to happen.

Well, the terms are nonsense anyway. The main grid is restricted to 18 and over, to whom "PG" wouldn't apply in any RL context. Can you imagine your average 18 year-old asking mum and dad for permission to view something?

The stupid and utterly inapplicable terms that LL chose for the content categories are just red herrings.

this is how LL looks at it..

As we've also often said, PG regions are areas where you'd feel free to say and do things that you'd be comfortable saying and doing in front of your grandmother, or a grade school class.

I just want to add some things

The F word was no directed at someone it was used indirectly to quote "Yeah F-ing Right", so please don't think I was using it AT someone.

My big problem is not even the PG thing, it's that it's been used an excuse for a Linden to go and do this to me for a friend, if they cared about this, they would go and stop 90% of profiles that contain sexual lated content(such as groups).

I also want to add, PG here is not really PG someone said "They wouldn't want their kids seeing it" well erm.......It's still an 18+ game even in those PG areas, there are not kids, and is "Yeah f-ing right" really not PG?

It's just bias BS done against me because a Linden wanted to show off to their friend. If they really cared, they would just have automate detection for swear words and not let you put them in the profile in the first place.

Governance in SL is not always a proactive thing. There is not, for example, any Linden out there policing profiles. As such, they rely on the end-users to report violations and (usually) act on ones with merit. This does set up situations where one person's profile can be ARed and actioned for something mild, while another far more offensive one could slide under the radar.

Also, if there was abuse on the part of a Linden Lab employee, there is a support ticket category for it. This is not the place for airing those grievances.

You acted like an ass and got spanked, get over it and quit being a drama queen.

Profiles are PG and have always been PG. People have always been disciplined if LL sees them with a non PG profile.

During all the hoopla over adult content and all of the double standards LL has in play we have consistently pointed out that profiles show in the secondlife.com search and all the nasty depraved stuff people put in their profile shows right up on the web site in search even though no nasty words are searched for so if LL is going after parcel descriptions and classifieds they need to go after all the profiles as well.

In addition, since profiles are PG only, why are we allowed to create picks for mature and adult locations? This has to end. And since that would be a legal liability because of search ranking they have to drop picks from factoring in search relevance too.

Oh darn maybe LL should have hired an expert to figure all this out first.

No. You violated PG guidelines, full stop. It was always this way. (^_^)y

The lab can't afford me. =^-^=

Why? This is an all-adult world. We really don't need parental guidance in here.

Because not all adults come here for sex, or enjoy being inundated with four-letter words. If I want those things, I should have the freedom to go where they can be found, but I shouldn't need to be exposed to them if I find them offensive.

You wouldn't (I hope) let forth a string of explicitly sexual or vulgar epithets in the middle of, say, a RL shopping mall, would you? Context is all.

I don't much care for "PG" myself, but it's not asking too much, surely, to do at least this much to accommodate those who do find explicit sex or vulgarity offensive?

Human beings need to evolve in (at least) two directions:

They need to become more considerate of others.

They need to become less emotionally insecure and, as a by-product, less sensitive to perceived slights.

Both of these things need to happen in equal measure. Society needs to find ways to reward progress, and censure backsliding, on both fronts.

As regards profanity: I find that it engages my personal prejudices pretty much immediately. I assume that people who engage in frequent profanity are immature and uncreative. I do this even though I know that frequent profanity is a growing social trend and therefore, purely on the basis of numbers, my prejudice cannot be grounded in reality.

As regards explicit sexual content: I'm not squeamish about sex. I'm fairly annoyed by excessive advertising though. Sex merchants seem to lack creativity--not to say subtlety--in this area. Hm..didn't I say something about creativity earlier? ....

But in neither case am I "offended". In my opinion, one can only be offended if one is attacked, either personally or because one is a member of a target group. Casual profanity not uttered in anger, and explicit sexuality, are not attacks, therefore they cannot offend.

As Thomas Jefferson said in a somewhat similar context, "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." It's not worth worrying about. (Though Jefferson was such a massive BS-artist of a hypocrite dilettante that it makes me cringe to quote him even when he has an apt turn of phrase.)

So: people who swear all the time annoy me. People who throw sex in my face all the time annoy me. People who cry that they are "offended" all the time annoy me. In none of these cases do I presume that my personal annoyance is sufficient reason to make rules to silence or banish these people.

reserved

Esquievel Easterwood.

But if someone swearing "anoys" you hit mute....problem solved.

I don't even know why they have ARs for most things, residents have mute, eject and ban.

It isn't a matter of "should". It is a matter of it is mandatory as in the policy has always been there.

So the correct way to say it is:
"Profiles are required to be PG"

As for adult and all that by the end of 2010 it won't matter since the main and teen grids will be gone and LL will only be supporting their "work" product. At least that appears to be where they are heading based on the commentary they are publishing that only mentions "Second Life Work" going forward. IMHO disclaimer applies.

I think you might be under the delusion that I started this thread. I made a few comments to the initial poster suggesting that he/she stays well away from PG territory. I've had my fingers burned there and hope I never land in one of those sims again. I fully accept there are many differences between people using sl.

I have NEVER visited a PG event in the many years I have used SL. I never "flash" peopel in PG areas. I have NEVER griefed anyone. In fact, I rarely travel beyond the confines of my lands that I own. I use profanity in reality; it is just who I am. You are probably right in assuming most of the slkids are older than me. But I stated in my post that I was NOT going to go "there". And what they do is not my bizwaz.

Hal and I have abandined or sold most of our land holdings in PG and mature sims. I have gladly and freely left PG land, I have also left mature land. And as Huck Finn put it "I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before."
Yrs sincerely Jiggy Chippewa