What is "Offensive Material"?

Could someone please elaborate "Offensive Material" in terms of Second Life please?

*wonders who will give the clear and to not misunderstood answer to that question*

Morwen.

I would need visual aids, venn diagrams and statistical surveys... oh, and telepathic abilities.

not volunteering

imogen

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it." - Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (1964)

Bling. Female avatars with enormous breasts on stick thin bodies. Oh, and slutwear.

Define when breasts are to big...
Define thin body compared to earlier mentioned breasts
Define slutware

Please all definitions so that no error can be made about them...

Morwen.

Things that kill kittens.

Actually, what they said was pretty accurate, to themselves.

"Offensive Material" is different to every person.

Bingo... we have a price winner. That was exactly what I was pointing at..... There is no way to put down clearly what is "Offensive material", because it can differ from person to person...
If LL would determine for us what "Offensive material" is, I am sure that many people will disagree with their definitions.


Morwen.

So we're ruled by a few peoples' view on 'Offensive Material'.

As long as what you're doing is seen as offensive to the view of a Linden, you're under that classification.

What an idiotic system, since this is an international and very diverse product, which intends and even inspires diversity, and at the same time, be absolutely blind and mono-perspective.


Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Nope, that sounds pretty accurate. And ultimately, unless LL formally establishes some boundaries, what's considered "offensive" will be based entirely on who can yell the loudest. So we'd all better hope the Taliban doesn't get broadband and join SL, or half the population will have to wear burqas and the other half will need prim beards.

Well it depends on what you think about the Lindens. Some people imagine them as a group of axe-weilding moral crusaders led by Carrie Nation Linden, running around this world they've created attempting to stamp out every vestige of anything that is not Disney-fied family-friendly wholesome goodness.

Others see them as a group trying to keep the SL world as free as possible, making rules that restrict things only when necessary (primarily for adherence to the law), and that only after first trying less restrictive measures and having them not work.

The difficulty in specifying ahead of time what falls under the definition is that all it does is create loopholes for literalists to try to exploit. For example, if they say "depictions of sex acts involving an adult and a minor" are not permitted, someone will respond "aha! Well that says nothing about depictions of minors engaged in sex acts if the adults are just watching and not taking part." Then LL has to come back and say that's also forbidden, and then this forum fills up with threads in which people whine "They didn't say that to start with. They're just harassing me!"

Those prim beards can be scratchy.

Anything you would be ashamed to show your mother.

So unless your mother is a drug addicted kiddy porn selling whore, that should give you a good yardstick to evaluate what is offensive or not.

Um, why that test? That seems to lock things generationally in a very inappropriate way.

Ok, pick the one that seem most appropriate to you:

case #1
Anything you would be ashamed to show your daughter.

So unless your daughter is a drug addicted kiddy porn selling whore, that should give you a good yardstick to evaluate what is offensive or not.

Case #2
Anything you would be ashamed to show your best friend.

So unless your best friend is a drug addicted kiddy porn selling whore, that should give you a good yardstick to evaluate what is offensive or not.

Case #3
Anything you would be ashamed to show your role model.

So unless your role model is a drug addicted kiddy porn selling whore, that should give you a good yardstick to evaluate what is offensive or not.

Or if those cases don't fit into your moral standards, then ask yourself this: do you really want to peddle offensive material? Why?

I guess the seriousness of the conversation just died.

The problem with all of these is that they are very context-driven, and therefore ultimately unhelpful. We can throw the "daughter" scenario out right away because in my case ( and I suspect many others) she would be a minor, and therefore thats not the right comparison for what is intended to be mature content. As far as friends and role models -- there's a world of difference between someone who lives in San Francisco's Castro District, on the one hand, and someone who lives in Karachi, on the other. That issue makes these "what your friend would find offensive" type guildelines basically useless for setting a common standard.

Why ask resident answer a question only LL can answer correctly?

Sl is as public as any public space in RL. Base your estimate of offensiveness with that in mind.

No one knows.

You're off-topic to say the least, as you're pointing towards a generality rather then the specific mentioned. Read the first post again, and please post something related.

LoL quality.

Sorry, that just puts the judgement call on Mom instead of on, say, the Lindens.

My mom-in-law would allow everything up to child porn. My momma would have us living in G rated sims.

Hmmm.... there are lot of things I dare to show or tell my mother, but which she will call without any doubt very offensive.... And yes, my relation with my mother is not the best one.

Morwen.