Blake Sea Code of Conduct (pre-publication)

Linden Lab has been experimenting in collaborative ventures with groups of residents involving public spaces, with the Blake Sea/United Sailing Sims being one of the first and most visible projects in Second Life. A pre-publication Blake Sea Code of Conduct has been written and will involve a public consultation in a a townhall meeting with Jack and Blondin Linden at the Balloon Observation in Blake Sea - Haggerty (81,88,71) on Sunday August 23rd at 8:00am SLT. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Blake%20Sea%20-%20Haggerty/81/88/71

UPDATE: An edited transcript of the meeting can be found here: http://slsailing.com/archives/1419

What are you thoughts on how the Blake Sea public space will be managed and administered?


http://slsailing.com/blake-sea-code-of-conduct-pre-publication
Blake Sea Code of Conduct (pre-publication version)
Transmitted by Blondin Linden
August 20-2009

1.) The Terms of Service and Community Standards (TOS and CS) are the foundation for all conduct in Second Life. All residents must abide by these wherever they are in-world
2.) Abuse Reports are the fundamental tool for reporting abuses of the TOS or CS
3.) Residents will not be able to ban other residents from public or shared spaces.
4.) The Blake Sea program is a partnership between Linden Lab and The United Sailing Sims. However, all residents are welcome and encouraged to enjoy and explore the Blake Sea
5.) Linden Lab has the right to amend the terms of the governance document and the Code Conduct at its discretion but will always consult and work with the community group ahead of any changes.

6.) Except as noted in item 7, advertising will not be permitted in public or shared areas. Advertisements are understood as personal objects used to advocate personal businesses or regions.This includes chat or notecard spam, floating ads, and scripted agent piloted vehicles. Graphics on sails should conform to the Mature standard. Ads for the event should not interfere with the event itself and must be removed immediately after the event has finished.
7.) Advertisements that are part of a boat’s textures (sails, hull) are acceptable for personal boats skippered by active avatars.

Promotions are understood to be objects used to inform all residents of a current event. Event promotions should conform to the following rules and restrictions:

* Promotions should be grounded to the terrain or floating on the water, not raised up above.
* Promotions should extend no higher than 8m from the ground or water.
* No rotating, no flashing content and no particles.
* No unsolicited dispensing of IMs, notecards, landmarks, or content.
* No light sources or glow (full bright is acceptable however).
* Promotion prims should be Phantom.
* Promotions must be clearly PG in nature.
* No sound and no temp-on-rez content.

* Any promotion on a robo-vehicle is not permitted, including those piloted by scripted agents.

* Any and all promotion must conform to all trademark regulations
* Signage for the event (directional signs, informational signs, and notices to spectators) in general will follow these same guidelines.

8.) If a person or object threatens to disturb an event or race, event staff should follow the steps below:

* 1. Notify by shout or IM that the resident is disrupting the event
* 1a. In the situation where it is clear that the resident and his boat will not be able to sail clear of the fleet, ask the skipper to
* moor/anchor/stop moving until the fleet passes.
* 2. If the resident does not comply and there is time, move to the boat and repeat the message above. If moving to the resident is not possible, repeat the warning in IM or by shout.
* 3. If the Resident still does not reply or take evasive action, you are allowed to freeze the avatar in place until the fleet passes.
* 4. If you are unable to freeze the avatar and the avatar has ignored multiple requests you may eject the avatar.
* 5. Whenever you freeze or eject a resident you should follow up as soon as practical with A) a note to the avatar explaining why the action was taken, and B) you should make a note in the avatar’s profile “My Notes” with the details of the incident in case you are abuse reported by the resident in question.

*6. In the case of a CLEAR griefing episode, Abuse Report (AR) the avatar immediately clearly noting that the griefing incident is in the Blake Sea, and eject the avatar. Please note that the AR’s should and can be submitted by anyone in a Blake Sea Region.

9.) Vehicle Right of Way
While all are welcome, residents must observe certain rights of way. The purpose of the Blake Sea is to provide an open space for the residents of Second Life to enjoy sailing, and therefore other vehicle types should allow sailboats to have the right of way.

This all sounds pretty much reasonable. Especially the last bit about allowing sailboats the right of way. Just like in RL they're not as maneuverable as other vehicle types.

For the most part, it sounds pretty reasonable to me as well, although I think section 8 might be a somewhat controversial one with respect to residents having limited management ability in public spaces. I don't really sail that much any more but from my experience, the USS group is quite well organized and I'm glad explicit guidelines are being developed for these types of new collaborations. However, I do think the public consultation process involving the development of such guidelines for a public space should have been given a bit more press than just in the sailing blogs.

fic

*difficult moden*

I actually have a real issue with this, its public space? ie no resident or group actually owns and pays for the sims?

If that is the case, then I see no reason why there should be any resident that has the ability to do more than any other resident there. it's _PUBLIC_ space. You want to hold event/race then put your money up and buy your own sim.

There are lots of us who would love to do more for their own little community of interest, and the only way we can do it is by spending our own hard earned cash. Yes I know, apply for my own group of LL supported sims for my community. (Like thats going to happen, LL will never grant sims to adult orientated communities like I believe they did with the Blake Sea)

Oh, and if the cost of running these sims is covered by LL, then that means *I* am paying for them, as is anyone else who gives LL money, in which case, my speedboat, jetski, etc have just as much right to be there as your sailboats.

*difficult mode: off*

Yes I know LL can and will do whatever they want, but in reality I bet 90% of land holders would rather see a tiny reduction in their tier payments instead of them effectively sponsoring this playground for sailboats. (again an assumption that your group is not paying for them)

p.s. sorry to the OP, I just noticed he's not that involved in it, replay, you/your with the sailing people

No worries . Just to be clear, I don't have anything to do with it at all. Personally, I don't have too many objections to the guidelines with perhaps some additional tweaking to section 8. However, I did post this here because I know many people do have issues with this new style of public space collaboration with select residents and/or groups, and I think it's important that the process is as transparent as possible.

qft

Heh. I knew someone would come along and say it better than me.

Here's what "I" recall.

SL releases "Open Space" sims. they prove to be a popular product, a One of the big customers is the SSF.

Allegedly there's some abuse of the product which, reportedly causes gridwide issues. LL announces price increases and restrictions

Among other unhappy customers in the SSF. I heard rumors to the effect that the SSF considers abandoning their open space (renamed homestead) sims and possibly pulling out of SL altogether and creating a saling grid through one or the other of the third party grid projects. Just rumors--but they come from several sources close to the SSF.

Suddenly, there's a blog announcement about a new collaborative effort between LL and the SSF to promote sailing. The first time privately owned land becomes part of the grid.

Hmm.

SO. . .

Just what WAS the deal? Who's paying what? Why is it when I look at the members of the group that owns the Blake sims I see Lindens and "good old boys" from the sailing establishment?

How can "I" work out one of those deals? I've always wanted to create a group of sims devoted to large spacecraft.

Frankly, giving a resident group special power over what is CLAIMED to be public land sets a bad precedent IMO.

Me too.

I just think it's great that this type of thing is taking place, that's all I wanted to say.

I think that diving down to the level of a regular land baron, while leaving other areas pretty much "wild west" is going to be the long, ugly, intractable Vietnam War of nightmares for everyone concerned.

I'm quite cool with the Blake Sea and all that. Yea, it's fine, whatever, even though Caledon's Navy can't have friendly consensual battles with its "opponents" in it.

Overall though... this is gonna get messy fast. Rules need teeth or they are a waste of time.

Those teeth are called estate managers, and you better believe it will take Resident A having the ability to do something to Resident B, that Resident B won't like, for all this to really stick.

There's no way that the sailing events will get prompt, active, dedicated Linden Research security coverage indefinitely ~ not with another 25,000 regions out there to deal with at the same time.

For an idea of what it's like, for both Linden and land baron, gently turn on your sound and try this: http://frontierlinden.com/bad_dream/

Where I believe it will get particularly sticky is that most racing events won't be staffed by LL security but will be by resident controlled event security with a limited set of land powers on Linden owned public space. Section 8 is what I think really needs the most clarification with respect to what defines a sanctioned event, which residents will have the ability to freeze & eject on the Blake Sea and how potential disputes will be arbitrated.

Thanks for posting this Joshooah, very interesting and it will be interesting to see how it all works out. Strange that LL are doing this now when some mentors (Not myself as I am a strong believer in that on public land that LL owns it's their responsibility) have been asking for these powers to help on the HI's etc. but my take is if you give some residents these powers on public land it has imho the potential to cause more problems than it will solve.

I also agree with Mitzy on their take on this matter:

The following is a question I raised on 01-31-2009 in /327/6d/304097/1.html and again I wonder why some need to be able to control an open FREE sailing area. Again I would like to know why none of the pirate groups have been asked for their input as the area of Blake Sea could be used for battles as well as trading RP.

Why do we need this in a so called free sailing area

Notice of 1/26/2009 from SL Sailing Association

"I know that everyone is anxious for us to announce the Blake Sea Security issues and assign folks the tools they need to hold regattas in the Blake Sea in terms of security. I would LOVE to give that info out and get people assigned. But we are waiting to hear from LL on final issues in that regard. Just as soon as I can. I can only pass along at this time JP Linden's word of the week: "patience"."

I have been watching this thread and it seems some are or think they are more equal than others. I just hope LL stands by their words this time. Where will the area be for people that like to battle in sailing ships i.e. pirates? Maybe this is why Blake Sea Security issues are a problem with some in the USS. If they have 130 sims why do they need control over the Blake Sea as well which I understand is a FREE area for all to use and I would think free to use at anytime.

So much of the base note is standard stuff that it really obscures what's new and different about this. Is it simply that some non-Linden residents will be given a limited set of powers over some Linden-owned spaces?

/me nods. I would like to see that the use of the Blake Sea is given equal opportunity to all, which is why I think they need to flesh out the definition of an event a bit more in the guidelines and a bit on the process of how you would hold one. The sailing community is full of some great people, but they also can be somewhat insular in nature.

PS. Were you thinking of the phrase "déjà vu"

Yes - which I personally don't necessarily have a problem with, although I'm sure many will.

I just think the process needs to be open and transparent. Often times I think residents can do a much better job than a Linden staffer could in specific circumstances when given a set of limited powers eg. resident forum moderator vs the PR Linden woman that didn't last very long. I believe there has also been a history of limited resident powers given on public Linden spaces for events such as Burning Life.

If anything, it's only good that LL finally started outsourcing the management of part of the grid. Ofcourse, this is a rather controversial step within SL, but rather standard practice for many real life companies and organisations.
And of course, in a community based platform like SL, it creates a lot of jealousy and paranoia. However, it is clear that this is an EXPERIMENT. If it doesn't work out, one way or another, LL will pull the plug. That's what experiments are for. For those interrested in better overall content maintenance or who'd like to get involved in similar schemes, it's only beneficial if this experiment works out.

I agree with your post, but I'd just like to say a few words about this choice of words.

What was described as "abuse" was in most cases less load than the regattas held on the Hollywood Insiders' OpenSpace sims. It's not fair to people who were following the lead of the sailors AND working in full cooperation with Linden Labs concierge and governance teams to use the word abuse.

Yes, the load was higher than Linden Lab expected, but the majority of that higher load was not in any sense of the word "abuse".

I understand that you said "allegedly", but even with that caveat I don't think it's a fair description of the events.

OK. . .I really didn't mean to imply that the regatta's caused the problem, and I should have pointed that out. My issue is with the definition of "public" land, and the lack of transparency in whatever that deal was.

Also, I was paraphrasing LL. They were the ones who implied "abuse of the product." And that horse was beaten into dust a year ago.

Oh no, the regattas were definitely part of the problem. And there was almost certainly some activity that could easily be called abuse, but the main problem was NOT the people who put big clubs and busy stores and bot farms in OpenSpaces, it was the people who followed the lead of the Hollywood Insiders and Linden Lab, in numbers they didn't expect.

I know. That's the spin they put on it, because they weren't able to say "we screwed up, sorry".

Just an FYI... Jack Linden held that Town Hall meeting on Sunday morning...it had very good attendance and I think got great reviews from those attending. Sailors were not the only ones in attendance (although they were MOST of the attendees). People from the aviation and pirate communities were in attendance as well. I believe that MarkTwain White intends to post a transcript of that meeting over at SLSailing.com.

As some of you may know, MarkTwain White and I own a number of the sims in the Blake Sea area and are the founding members of the USS. MarkTwain and I recommended what was to become the Openspace product to LL and I was the first purchaser of that product (Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Santa Rosa). The sims that are referenced in posts above as belonging to Hollywood Insiders are in fact owned by either MarkTwain or me.

To be sure, groups can't own sims, the sims used by the Hollywood group (or groups) had to be owned by individuals.

Any comment over whether holding physics-intensive events in OpenSpace sims should be considered abuse, as Linden Lab claimed?

While conditions certainly varied from one time to another depending on the number of sail boats that were involved, "lag" which I would consider a sign of "abuse" was not a major issue. We were very careful not to put a lot of scripts (other than those in the sailboats) into the openspace sims. Our startline at that time was in Hollywood, the full sim. Over time the boat builders got better and better at scripting the script time used in the sims went down. We carefully monitored script time to try to ensure a pleasurable experience. In addition, the number of prims in the sims was kept well below the maximum allowed. I remember going to an OpenSpace that had a mall...full of vendors and virtually prim full. I suspect that was much more a matter of "abuse" than our usage. Of course, others may disagree

ALSO, I would point out that MOST of the Blake Sea is composed of what are now called Homestead Sims and while lag is an issue sometimes, the sims are intended by LL to be used for sailing.

I didn't say there was no abuse, just that the majority of what was being referred to as abuse by Linden Lab weren't that kind of thing, but rather things that had less impact on the sims or grid than a regatta. Like, putting houses on OpenSpaces... no physics, hardly any avatars, but outside the loose description of what OS were for...

The very first comment to my proposal to reduce the number of avatars per openspace to reduce lag was from someone who was worried about the effect on races.

With Caledon and several major friendly estates available, plus Max Case's tools to determine which regions were on what servers, a team of Caledon residents decided to find out last year. This was done carefully, in a manner not to affect anyone else or cause the grid problems overall. Openspaces and standard regions both were checked out.

The question was: what does it take, for one region to measurably affect another?

I'm not going to waste time with details, but the bottom line is that before region A was observed to affect region B (or any other region on the same server) *even slightly*, region A was utterly paralysed and completely useless for any activity whatsoever.

In fact, it's typically the case that region A can ostensibly be rendered useless with physics and server~sharing regions still don't feel a thing.

Scripts are another matter but again generally not serious. Regarding this I suggest a rather lengthy but highly informative presentation by Babbage Linden for those interested (one of his recorded 'real life' presentations of the last year or so, I am not sure where to find it now). This lecture is at a level such that if you haven't personally developed real time operating systems at a minimum, you are going to have trouble following it.

Your average script abuser won't have any hope to harm region instances in a manner that would truly cause server trouble, intentionally or otherwise. The region instances are remarkably resilient in that regard; even image cache overflow problems are waaaay down, or just plain gone, compared to 2006. And the script management will, 99.9% of the time, merely timeslice the affected region appropriately, running only it slower and slower as it is loaded down.

Babbage at one point in his lectures discusses some exceptions, but a bunch of sailboats or script~laggy HUD's certainly aren't going to be making any such impact. You'll just lag the region you are in, and nothing else, 99.9% of the time.

Note that this was last year's data, but I for one had seen enough, with regard to what might constitute 'abuse.' And I leave the definition of abuse to everyone else, to draw their own (painfully obvious, to my mind) conclusion.