SL5B - No Kid Avatars, please!

Oh, I'd hope he'd say it out in front of Winter's, or some of the others. Mine is pretty tame, really. I think Winter's makes some great great impact. Loki's is awesome, too, one of the best in the whole show.

"...and I woulda gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those pesky kids!"

Mari

meddling kids

Them too

Are you doing right-click > Appearance on your av? There are two radio buttons there which determine your avatar's gender. Change to the correct one and click the Save button.

Well, true, you could substitute any kid av's build here. I just picked your name because (as far as I know - could be wrong) you're the only one with a build that's posting here at the moment.

I'm also jealous that you get to see all the other builds and we can't yet!

He could stand in fronta my sandcastle, and I can turn my "Worry cannons" to point at him. Of course, they just have flags that pop outa the muzzle. But it would be funny for him ta complain, an then a cannon pops a flag out at him that says "Politicians!".

And yes, there are some really fascinating builds going up at SL5B. Controversy or no, it's gonna be really interesting to see it all. But I think I'll have more fun at Kids5B. That train ride is a hoot, and I can't wait ta try the ferris wheel.

Oh, I just looooooved this dandy little bit of spin by everett:

even more telling is the fact they resubmitted the exact same submissions and were accepted...

Yes, Loki has done a great job with his build, I have taken a sneak peek. Skippy Beresford is doing a FANTASTIC job for our kids 5b display!

On another note, I see that they have closed comments on the last Blog regarding the events, I assume that Kat and Everett have given up trying to convince us that lying CAN be the truth if you twist the words enough. How carefully they defended the rights for kids to participate NOW , meanwhile diluting the truth of their past refusal to allow us to participate. They are simply choosing the easier battle rather than face the fact us residents aren't as stupid as they wish we were.

Is it really so shameful to admit to a mistake? To take for one moment to say ' thanks residents, we really messed up!" They should have NEVER have taken that low road and insult the very intelligence of this community through a series of calculated flip flops. It is so much easier to deal with a company that can own up to its misjudgments than one that simply refuses to accept their own mistakes and faults. I sincerely hope Linden Lab uses better judgment in the future when they hire new staff to oversee projects. This entire SLB5 was mismanaged, full of Linden-infused lies and chaos, and easily the worst case of public relations I have ever witnessed. To those of you volunteering, I am sure you didn't ask for this nightmare of a project, I truly sympathize with you.

"If You Don’t Look Good, We Don’t Look Good"™

Well Said Adz

And they have of course now managed to bump the embarrassing blog posts off the radar...

...but then again, isn't that what they always do?

Another crazy western anti obsession makes for stupid decisions I see... when will this silly behaviour stop... so in order to 'protect' children, it is now necessary to ban child avatars from being seen or attending events... such twisted logic...

how long before the 1st world copies this and makes child a protected species locked up away from adults out of sight for 18 years ( then released to make all the same mistakes)

Whatever did happen to the 'brave new world' of virtual life.. other than it became a 'big new shop' Wasn't the idea way back in 2003 to make a new world without the stupidities and rules of the 1st world... and wasn't it for everyone rather than being a copy of american neuroses and rules of life? I think protecting share value and profit now much more important than freeing people's minds in the virtual world.

I love the V for Vendetta Idea... thousands of identical small AVs all silently priotesting by their just being there.

Once again, I'll maintain that this is a problem with one or two individuals who just happen to be the ones put in charge. Everett Linden was put in charge of SL5B. I liken the position to being like a country's ambassador to a foreign nation: within certain guidelines, you can make statements and promises that, by extension, become your country's official policy even though your country doesn't immediately know about it yet.

Everett Linden just does not like kid avs. If you don't believe that, put on a kid av, find him somewhere on the grid, and ask for his Linden bear. Go ahead - try it and see what happens. Of course, he has all the right in the world not to like kid avs, just like anyone else; I don't begrudge him that. I won't even dislike him just for that. But I believe the "respectfully declined" statement was an "Everett policy" that necessarily -became- a LL policy, because he was a Linden when he announced it. I believe his prejudice against kid avs led him to use the RL "delicate political climate", real as that climate might be, as a pretense by which he could "legitimately" act on his prejudice without reprisal. I highly, highly doubt that he was repeating guidelines he'd been given from "above". Why do I believe this?

Think about it. As reported on the SLC blog and other places, LL as a company has released numerous statements to the effect that there's not a darn thing wrong with kid avs in their eyes. They've even demonstrated resistance to potential "outside pressure". I seem to remember Mari asked them about the recent Sky News thing, and I believe LL's response was basically "we don't care about Sky News and what they're saying, you're still fine". Given that, does the Respectful Declination, citing a delicate "political climate", even make that much sense? It's a complete contradiction of everything LL had been saying before that point. I DO believe that once the Lindens-Who-Really-Are-Higher-Ups got word of the outcry, that they did issue some guidelines "from above"; to wit: kid avs are allowed. Guys, I don't see that as a "reversal" of LL policy. I see it as an overruling of Everett policy, and a -reaffirmation- of LL policy regarding kid avs.

The fact is, I've seen more Lindens being friendly and helpful to kids. I was at the Governance team meeting on Wednesday. Trinity Linden and Zara Linden were there. After the meeting was over, and they were getting ready to leave, a couple of the other attendees asked about me. "What's with the child avatar? Aren't they illegal?" Zara and Trinity both immediately responded (faster, I daresay, than they'd responded to any other question during the meeting), explaining that there was nothing wrong with kid avs. They actually stayed a couple minutes longer so they could explain this. I drop in at Torley's office now and again, along with Mari (and Immy this last time, too). Torley loves having us there. Of course, he loves having everyone there, but still. As long as I run into more Lindens that like me than not, I have trouble talking about this SL5B/kid avs problem as a "LL" problem.

That's just me; others doubtless have their own reasons for their own conclusions.

I wonder too if any other kid could get his bear, or if he was specifically not giving to to me. After all, I have been a bit of a thorn in the side of his event. Otherwise, I like the cut of your jib. That said, Robin was also clear about the policy, and she far outranks Everett



As well as Trinity, Zara, and Torley, add Dusty to that list. She and I have worked together on stuff in the past, and she's fond of us rugrats. Mia has been a friend for ages. May as well at Meta in there, too, as she's pro kid. Beast once was the father to a child avvie. In fact, the majority of current Lindens I have met have been at least positive to kid avvies.

Mari

Going back and reading the blogs and the statements by Everett, Katt and the reported statement by Robin, it dawned me that the whole episode may have been a PR gimmick.

There are some PR techniques that seem to fit.

The artificial, contrived, engineered, fabricated, or manufactured controversy used to attract attention. Which the SL5B/Child AV controversy certainly did.

Followed by the NON-DENIAL DENIAL technique which is an apparent denial that appears to be direct, clear-cut and unambiguous when heard, but on further examination is not a denial at all. A non-denial denial is not a lie per se, because what is said is literally true. The backtracking statements by Katt and much later by Everett could be construed to fit this technique.

I'm not saying that this was what took place, but imo does seem to fit.

It's possible, but the problem is that those are same things that would happen if the situation was a genuine slip-up and backpedal. I wouldn't take the situation at any more than face value unless I found something else suggestive.

A similar situation was the "New Coke" thing in the 80's. That was a genuine mistake by Coca-Cola, a total bomb. Yet nowadays, there's people who absolutely swear that the whole point was to boost sales when they brought back "Classic" Coke. But at the expense of a whole year of sales? I think not.

Same thing here. As a way to boost interest in SL5B, yeah it certainly worked. But at what cost? In a whole lot of peoples' eyes, LL's rep has been severely damaged, and nearly every attempt the Lindens make to correct the situation makes it worse. That's not the kind of hit a business would take just to boost attendance at an event like SL5B.

Ok Coby I HAVE to make a point about the New Coke Gimmick.

The entire point of New Coke was a ploy to adjust to modifying the original formula from Cane Sugar to High Frucose Corn Syrup. During that time Coca cola was under immense pressure from their bottlers to switch to the lower priced corn syrup. I truly believe the entire thing was a distraction to switch to a cheaper formula. New Coke, or Coke II was last available in the USA as late as 2002 and is still sold as Coke II in Micronesia.

Not that Tomas doesn't make a point, but I am legendary in my Soda Hobby and love to throw my 2 cents into anything soda related

Holy smoke, WHERE was it hiding? It's been a long, long time - but my memory seems to be telling me that I didn't mind the taste of New Coke a single bit.

Well i am considered one of the worlds best Soda Experts you could google my name to prove it

If u want a bottle i MIGHT be able to hook ya up

Crystal Pepsi... booya.

Yay! Bagdad Bob!

The first I heard about the SL5B was about the child avatars' creations being turned down.

Otherwise without that controversy it may have come and gone without me knowing.

I'll take a Dublin Dr. Pepper, please.

I'll have the cherry coke, laced with catnip, purrrrrrr