Should I be Mature

It may be that no one is able to answer this yet, but because some of you have good relations with some Linden folks, I thought I'd give it a try.

I recently purchased about 1/4 of land on an estate. The estate is labeled mature. Nothing I sell would be considered for adults only. Hell, my avs can only cuddle on the hammocks and sofa's..

Am I going to be hurt by being on a Mature area? Would it be best to move to a PG sim, or whatever they'll call the lowest mature level? Will people avoid a PG Sim because they assume there's not anything worth looking at there?

Does anyone have any ideas?

I can't imagine that it would hurt your business, being on a mature sim. They are supposed to be for most normal stuff.

Personally, I pay absolutely no attention to a sim's rating when I am shopping.

Once upon a time lots of people forgot to check the 'mature' checkbox on search and PG mattered more; this was 2005 or so.

Nowadays I think anyone spending money here will learn about mature search before they actually buy $L and certainly before they earn any.

I think you'll do just fine.

I haven't used the most recent viewer with the added filtering.

But my hunch is that the real dividing line will be between M and AO, and not M and PG.

In other words, the stores most affected will have content in both the M and AO worlds, and be faced with a choice of how to market themselves going forward.

But having a normal store on M land? I still think you'll be just fine.

If a potential customer checks the Mature box, you won't be dropped from the search results. But, there are chances that Mature places with a higher search rating will turn up above you in the list.
This has nothing to do with the other results being classed as mature, but only with whatever method the engine uses to find results. I.E., they may have more hammocks, more traffic, have 10 advertisements up at 200k each, have lots of people add them to their picks. That kind of stuff, their maturity setting doesn't matter.

If someone wants to buy a hammock or a sofa, he generally won't look at the classification.
If they want a hammock with sex poses, they should enter that in their search query, which should leave you out of the results, or put you very low in the results at least. If they just enter "Hammock" or "Sofa". Well, then you should appear higher in the results, if they're actually looking for a sex sofa, they should be more specific in the first place.

The only time I look is AFTER I buy something to see if it is safe to change there (mature)or if I need to take it home first (PG). I will hop to where ever for live events, shopping or just exploring without looking to see if it is mature or not. The odds are I will be on a mature sim at any given time. Given the few responses so far I am willing to bet this is the average way of thinking. In other words I look to see if what I am about to do is allowed in the sim, rather than looking to see if the sim allows things I do not want to see.


BTW, if there is a sim that allows things *I* do not want to see it is a sure bet to be Adult++

Thank you everyone. I'm happy most think I'll be fine where I am. I'm convinced I will have no probs either.

You heard it here first. LL is planning on releasing an Adult++ continent soon!

I had a completely different interpretation of this topic line.

It depends.

If what you sell can very safely fit within the PG rules, I think your best bet would be to be on PG land. Many of the companies and non-profits whom Linden Lab is attempting to woo will probably have their agents in Second Life using PG filters. I don't know how much of the overall population they will be in Second Life; but they will have disproportionately more money to spend. Being on PG land could help you get the sales bonanza of your products decorating their new sims.

Many more people will be filtering out and avoiding Mature and Adult land than will be filtering (not possible anyway?) or avoiding PG land. So for the most part, you have something to gain, but nothing to lose, by going to PG- as long as your content is safe within the PG guidelines.

If your products are close enough to the line between PG and Mature, you might be setting yourself up for needless AR report misery. Every AR that a resident files presents a Linden Lab employee an opportunity to misapply the ratings policy to your detriment. That's a headache you probably want to avoid.

So did I. I thought for sure it would be Bradley and Brenda talking about Bradley's firm shapely rear..

And I want to see them.

BTW, Bradley, as far as I am concerned, the only rating for you is XXX baby!

Give me time, I can't be everywhere at once.

Will you be hurt by being on a mature area? No more so than being in a PG area probably, you just have to hope people have set their preferences to PG and Mature (or they won't be able to teleport to the sim at all) and have PG content ticked in search. If they untick PG, your parcel won't show up, although the region will.

This !! Show us those chaps, boy.

Don't worry, just give me time. Eventually you'll find me in my assless chaps swinging on a dance pole at the hangout.

Bradley, I've been in this situation before, about 1,5 years ago. Search was borked and I was on Mature land (not my own sim, bought land there). Although I didn't sell sex stuff my shop couldn't be found by people who didn't tick the Mature checkbox in their search window. Because the mature checkbox was unchecked by default at that time, with that viewer (mistake LL), my shop couldn't be found by most residents. I didn't sell shit for a few days.

Now I have my own sim and I made pretty damn sure that it is a PG sim. Don't underestimate the lazyness of SL residents. They will almost always NOT change the default settings.

I am not exactly sure what the difference is between Mature and Adult as far as Search is concerned. I didn't examine this yet, although I follow search changes very closely. But if you don't sell sex items and you don't want to do that in the future, I'd go for the safe side and settle your shop in a PG region.

You touched all of my concerns. Something I may need to think about.

sex + hammock = pain

I had some tier so I bought some land in PG and opened a second 'mainstore' (not as big but it works). The store on PG land is advertised as PG, and shows in search as PG. Visa Versa for the store on Mature. In my crystal ball I see a time when there will be those who join us that will not wish/be allowed to venture off of PG.

Oh yes, and a classified PG listing as well...that has almost twice as many TP's as the mature classified.

It has been a worry for me too. I've decided for the time being to leave my PG sim as is. Even though I know to check preferences after a new client upgrade... I still forget and leave it at the default.

At xmas I do sell a kissing under the mistletoe build...if that is not allowed under PG then I will just not sell it.... although I was surprised how many of them did sell. Does anyone know if kissing is allowed on PG sims?

Kissing is fine and perfectly PG

I also have my store split onto both PG and Mature land. You just never know what the person searching has selected in their checkboxes, so I like to be safe in the knowledge of being found either way. If you have enough tier to keep a 512 in PG land (use vendors on the PG land and provide a landmark to the main store with demo versions where your prim count is higher) that might be something to consider.

Although, a whole lot of successful businesses are located strictly mature -- so your mileage may vary.