SL5B - No Kid Avatars, please!

Well dang this means I'll HAVE to go... wasnt planing on going this year either its just a 2xL PR thing anyway.

but I'll go as a kitten av instead of a human child... anyone shorter then 4' want a tp?

Wow, as a Canadian Vampire who's into bdsm I'm really screwed .....

Political crusades against made up threats are harder to defend against than crusades against actual threats. It looks like LL has decided it's easier to just make child avies invisible. What a shame.

To protest, I'm going to make my avatar a bit taller, then seriously over-size some attachments. Really big glasses and boots. Maybe even a huge hat.

Well, maybe do that. Gonna wait for now to see what happens.

I'm amazed at the short-sightedness of this action.

I'm not. SOP it seems.

Oooohhhh...Oh wait...you said Subversive, didn't you?

Shrubversive?

*tinkle tinkle tinkle*

Damn now your going to make me look like a newbie, what's SOP?

Standard Operating Procedure

I had little interest in this "Celebration" anyway, seeing it as nothing but more whitewashed Corporate pimping, but now I definitely will not be anywhere near it.

Standard operating procedure.

Ok ok don't rub it in

If I go I will definitely attach a placard saying how discriminatory this action is, or at least a t-shirt maybe saying something like "Lindens screwed the Kids"

That's the impression I had from the two blog posts... "represent or promote our community at SL5B" doesn't disclude attending. The title of the first blog post doesn't really seem to fit the contents.

If they're under "scrunity" (in the loose sense of the word) already, it's better for everyone in the end if they're "better safe than sorry" now. Not that that makes it something anyone should be happy about .

Any of you that know me know that I'm usually a quite soft spoken guy.

BUT THIS REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the screaming but this just strikes a nerve with me. I have never been a child AV, never even considered being one, I don't even know any child AV's and never have any contact with any other than those who post here.

I can understand LL's reasoning, but I certainly don't agree with it. It's the US politicians and media to blame and in my opinion they do more harm than good.

People are being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan on a daily basis and it might get mentioned if it's a slow "news" day. Britney or Lindsey show their ass in public and that's the big headline of the day.

The people we elect to public office are even worse. Right now we have a myriad of problems in the US; a war based on deceit and greed, a home loan crisis, an energy crisis,
corporate greed and corruption, etc. So what do our elected offcials do? Hold hearings on steroids in baseball, possible cheating in football, and things like SL.

Before now I would mostly likely only attend SLB5 if it occurred when I just happened to be online. Now I'm considering going as a child AV just to see what happens.

I'll stop now. Thanks for letting me rant and rave a bit.

The thing is, some people DO feel like kid avvies are detrimental and offensive to the platform. Illegal? No. Offensive to some? Perhaps. *shrug* It's all in the point of view.

This is, IMO, the heart of the matter. The issue breaks down like this: LL is taking an active role in SL5B this year, being more the host of the event, rather than simply the landholder such as in previous years.Because of this, any builds presented could be construed as being "sanctioned" by LL (in much the same way as the trademark policy: use of term could be viewed as official sanction or even company ownership). Because of this, LL is being very (overly) cautious about the nature of content presented.

Add to this some boogerhead representative who has a bee in his bonnet about kids getting access to adult materials on the Inernet, including Second Life. Because of this, while also moving the event to an all-PG presentation, builds depicting or representing child avatars are being denied to prevent even the slightest whiff of "zOMG kids are being preyed on and LL allows it!"

The whole situation is pretty darn dumb, really.

Mari

hmm LL has never had any issue with collecting tier from the child avie community
they have never had any issues with those child avies who taught classes and are/were mentors.
But, when it comes down to them standing up for their customers they seem to be unwilling to do much of that.

i am very saddened by this, and will not be supporting their official party in any way

Sorry.


QFT QFT

PREACH on, brother!

Just say you're a person of small stature, a little person, or a dwarf. LL cannot discriminate against height.

If kids aren't allowed to come to the birthday party, I'm not going either.

hhrrmm there seems to be a disconnect somewhere this url has the rules for the party

http://forums.slopenid.net/topic/sl5b-draft-policy?replies=3

That is outdated, and the author of that post is no longer affiliated with SL5B.

Well, my email to the new CEO this morning was forwarded to Robin Linden, and she answered me that kid avatars will be welcome as visitors but not as contributors to the celebrations. It wouldn't be in the best interest of the event and Linden Lab.

In my reply I pointed Robin to this thread here to see what their paying customers in- and outside of the kids community think about this approach.