Second Life is not The Grid

The Second life web page is separated into 3 distinct parts, Secondlife.com, secondlifegrid.net and lindenlab.com. Second Life is hosted on The Grid and the Grid is run by Linden labs.

Second Life is not The Grid. Second Life is a complex organic society.

We are long past the days where anyone in LL, or any of it's residents for that matter, could fully understand Second Life, it's workings and it's interactions and it's future.

Tampering with The Grid, is harmful enough, it breaks content, causes financial loss and to a certain extent social upheavals. Tampering with Second Life its self is exponentially more harmful and ultimately destructive.

People talk of the Financial implications, the time and money invested, but the larger investment is Emotional, the friendships formed, the pain and Sorrow endured, the growth of character, of tolerance, of understanding people from different backgrounds, countries and cultures. I doubt that any longer term Resident of Second Life can say that they have not been emotionally effected by, or have not broadened their Real Life experience, tolerance and understanding as a result of Second Life.

What Linden labs is proposing here directly impacts that greater social order, it is not moving 2-5% of content to a new continent, it is surgically removing a large part of the social interaction of a complex society, an ecosystem that has grown beyond the wildest dreams of the platforms creators and, as this and many other recent discussions have shown, the Labs ability to understand and control it's creation.

What are Linden Labs in this view of Second Life? They are the owners of the grid and the developers of the platform, but can any one really own Second Life, the society as opposed to the web site?

Linden Labs have God like Powers in that society but do they have a God like Understanding of such a complex environment?

Decisions like this should not be made by Engineers, Accountants and Statisticians, they should be made by Sociologists, Psychologists and Philosophers.

Moving 2-5% of the mainland may look small on paper and I am sure has been cost justified on the balance sheets, but what of the social and emotional cost to the society as a whole? has that even been considered? I wager It is priceless and the longer term impact will effect far more than the Labs bottom line.

Maybe the latter groups can get on the job right after they have achieved (real) world peace

Pep (Dream on, or find a charitable foundation that agrees with you, willing to buy out LL )

PS I presume you mean appropriately certified and verified professionals
qv /327/54/312042/1.html

We are talking about not just 2-5% of the mainland, but quite a special part of it. Adult content, to be precise.

So how is that going to effect society as a whole? Let's get things straight: we are not talking about your average sexbed here. We are talking about sexually oriented places. They will be grouped together at one continent, and visitable by people who proved one way or another they are adult (as far as those systems can be trusted). Just as in real life, where you will not find your average sexually oriented place between your grocery store and your hardware store.

So again, how is this going to effect society as a whole? Why would we need Sociologists, Psychologists and Philosophers to make this decision? Educate me as I do not have a clue.

Of course, we never know what will happen in the future. Maybe SL will get disneyficated, who knows. But the current plans are not bad for the SL society as it is. People who want to go to these places still can, people who want to cater to this public still can. In the red light district of Second Life. Only one TP away.

OK, some very noble sentiments in there, Very, but commercial reality rears its ugly head to dash some of your worthy dreams.

LL are the Gods of SL and, whether we like it or not, can do whatever they like to it. The only thing that *we* have to say about it is whether we populate the world they build or not. Voting with our wallets. This isn't a democracy - not even close - it's a dictatorship. It doesn't take long once you start reading around for this to become very obvious. We have a say exactly when and how much LL want us to have a say.

So far, despite a lot of predictions to the contrary, they have been able to develop and build the largest and most consistently successful virtual world yet known to man or furry. There's no competition out there, no really viable place for disgruntled people to go (otherwise they would have already gone there). Until that changes, LL have no real incentive to change based on the will of the people, because the people that are addicted to Virtual Worlds have no other place to go - their only choice is to give up completely (which some do) or stick it out (which most do).

And LL are running a business. They are in business not as some philanthropic organisation but to make money. They are making business decisions about where they want to position their products (The Grid, and Second Life). Some may be less than wise in our opinion, but they are doing it based on their priorities, which will often not mesh with all residents.

A large amount of people on the grid that never come to the forums or check the blog don't even know they are setting up to merge the teen grid..
I don't think this will be the last thread where someone is wondering why they are doing things the way they are with this content move..

Not to mention a vast majority of SLers are not adult content creators or sex-themed sim owners. For the average resident, the changeover will simply inconvenience them slightly as they discover the LM to their favorite smut locale is invalid and they need to pop up the Search again to have a look see.

So who is going to make their fortune selling a "Mapping HUD" which means you don't have to update your lms?

Pep (is it possible?)

A few months ago during the whole OS thing a friend of mine summed it up pretty well:

"Second Life is made of people... but not in a creepy way like Soylent Green was."

I am a little concerned that minors will be entering Second Life. The fact of the matter is that all adult activities do not occur in X-rated areas that are clearly designed for them. Flirtations and romantic encounters happen all over Second Life, at dance clubs and art galleries, and stores. Probably the majority of residents who form a romantic relationship, meet, fall in love, and consummate their relationships outside of specifically adult areas, and possibly fully clothed, simply using text and imagination. Add multiple languages to that mix, the possibility that two individuals are only marginally understanding each other, and it seems to me you have a formula for some serious problems to develop. Will teens be identified as such? How will they be protected? And how will adults be protected from adventurous teens? This way be dragons, as the old maps used to say.

Judging from the reply's I obviously didn't get my point across correctly.
What I was trying to say is that regardless of if you use or create Adult content or not, this will effect you and it will shape society and life in SL as a whole, not just the 2-5%.

People arriving in SL after this change will be nether verified nor aware of the content, so the experience they initially have will shape their perceptions differently to the way ours was shaped. That is probably LL desire, but I question if it will ultimately be good for our society.

Non of us is qualified to say what the result will be, but we are qualified to say that it will cause segregation, and will fragment our delicate society and lose that cultural diversity that existed. It is a complex system, and a system that is emotionally based, it is not just a business.

... proposing where?

Ahh, you're talking about the Adult issue. Yeah, it's going to be a clusterf***. Enjoy!

Yes it's segregation in the true meaning of the word - "separation from others" - they are separating the Adult businesses from the others.

But they are not segregating the people - people who have businesses on the Adult continent are still welcome to have homes on Mature or PG-rated mainland. People aren't being banished in any way, just the businesses.

Segregation is usually assumed to be racial segregation with all of the historical implications of that. Call this process "zoning" and it just falls in line with with is done in many countries in RL, which most do not regard as "segregation".

All a matter of perspective, I know.

What qualification might that be?

Pep (It *is* just a business; the rest is inside your head)

I imagine it would work best to collaborate with business owners and have them supply an "old" and a "new" landmark. Put those all inside a HUD with a notecard to identify the mappings and then it would search your inventory for relevant landmarks, delete the old one, and give you a new (valid) one.

It's possible. The trick is gathering all that mapping information. I guess you could do the sleuth work yourself, but I doubt it'd be all that complete.

Maybe it wouldn't be all that hard to convince business owners though... I mean... they want people to find them after they move.

This actually sounds more like something that should be a free tool that everyone contributes to.

Scripts can't search your inventory.

You could drop all your LMs in the object, and it can then search them by name, and then present you with the new map destination (a map pops up), and you can save the LM from the map destination (IIRC). It could delete the old LM, and then you'd have in the object a list of cleansed LMs to add to the ones you just remade. Of course, you'd need to delete or refile all the original LMs, which get copied when you drop them in the object ...

I don't think this would be particularly popular. It's easier to try the old LM; if it fails, use Search.

i understood you completely..in the forums it's been in discussion for a few months now..
77 pages in just one topic alone lol
/327/e7/303396/1.html

i was mainly saying there will be a lot of threads like this with people wondering why things are going to be changing soon or are changing now..

the people i talk to on the grid..a lot still don't know there is going to be a merge..
we were just wondering what was going to be the first phase..
this was it..

it's gonna be a shock to a lot of people because they are or were unaware..

i don't think too many in here are going to be shocked..

with sl being 3 different sections..this one gets flooded when anything goes wrong with any of the 3..

the new people coming to sl won't know what they are missing ..the older ones will..
just as with gambling being gone and all other things in the past..

there is nothing we can do about it but adjust or leave..like always .we will adjust and some will leave..