Bad news of the day: They're thinking of merging the Teen Grid into the main one

Who are they going to attract? schools, universities, companies that sell to teens etc.
I think that is fairly obvious, it is all part of changing SL to a commercail platform, I am sorry, but that is LL plan, and we will have to accept that.

I am afraid I really dont see what all these posts are about, ok so kids will be allowed to access the 3d web,

This is true. And it will be filled with the same inane , insipid mass market drivel that RL and the Internet is, thereby making it redundant and of no use. to me.

From what I hear, TSL is in a very bad state of Disrepair - and my source is very reliable indeed. This sounds to me like Linden Labs can't be bothered to fix TSL and have just found quick fix solution. While I don't think a grid merger means that we'll have tonnes of kiddie winkles with watermelon guns or worse trotting about and causing us grief (as kids do) because there will probably be a partition in place, I do maintain that this is one of the WORST ideas ever.

Linden Lab, please stop being lazy and just fix the teen grid. I know you wasted all your money on a homepage nobody wanted and nobody likes, but a grid merger is not the way forward.

They will run wild on the grid, stop people working, cause havock by ARing everyone in sight.

SL is not "the 3d web". SL is not any kind of web. It's a 3d world, with a very strong and deliberate set of cues that make it behave like a place, not a web. There's no portals, no hotlinks you can send a fork of your avatar off to visit, even with unlimited teleporting and flight it doesn't behave at all like the Internet, and it's designed from the ground up NOT to behave like the Internet.

The web is not an "environment". People talk about "visiting a website" but it doesn't behave like you're visiting a place, the way SL does. Being here at the forums doesn't mean I'm not at the same time "at google" and "at twitter" and "at linkedin". Not shuttling back and forth between them, but just as "at" any of these "places", because on the web you're really not "at" any place at all.

If SL was like the 3d web I could, with one account, have a window open at Ahern, and one open at DaBoom, and one at Bare Rose, and one at the Ivory Tower, and I'd be just as "at" any of them. And nobody else would ever know. If SL was a "3d web" I could "walk through a door" in Ahern and be at Bare Rose. Or I could send a copy of myself there without ever leaving. Or I could cam there without being visible to anyone at all.

The hyperlinking, the multi-window multi-tab deep-nesting page-framing everything-cross-references mashup-enhanced web is fundamentally different in every possible way from SL. Calling SL a "3d web" is trivializing both SL and the web.

You could build a 3d web and nobody would worry about kids being on it, because you'd never see them, they'd never see you, even if you were "in the same place", unless you wanted to be and you were in a place where it was possible to BE there. Bot that's not what SL is.

Yes, that will be the mainland, but private islands still go on

There is no reason not to improve Teen SL and create areas for Adults to interact, perhaps even call it something other than Teen SL. Make it the family friendly world. Put the educational areas there. Let Disney, the Gap, and Reebok run amok there.

OK so you set your parcel to adult content, and kids are not allowed in.

There is no reason not to improve Teen SL and create areas for Adults to interact, perhaps even call it something other than Teen SL. Make it the family friendly world. Put the educational areas there. Let Disney, the Gap, and Reebok run amok there.

If I set my parcel to require age verification I won't be allowed in. Because I'm not verified, and I'm not GOING to be verified under the current regime. For all that I'm nearly 50.

I think you will find that is what will happen, but it will be what is now the mainland, private islands will still go on as they are, with people able to do what they wish, just locked to kids.

Who are they going to attract? schools, universities, companies that sell to teens etc.
I think that is fairly obvious, it is all part of changing SL to a commercail platform, I am sorry, but that is LL plan, and we will have to accept that.

That is obvious, but as I explain to people who ask me where it is all going, one day not far in the future, you will walk into your bank in a virtual world and talk to someone there about your issue not have to drive 20 miles to town and wait in line, that is where the 3d web is heading, not a deserted 3d window, but a world where you interact as in RL, hence SL ( or similar ) will be the 3d web.

No, it won't go that way, because that's not a workable model. My bank has millions of customers. Am I going to stand around in a lobby with millions of avatars waiting for a virtual teller to become available? Or even teleport to a virtual parking lot with millions of virtual tellers in a virtual grid where each virtual customer gets a virtual slot so they can talk to whatever random virtual neighbors they have for the few minutes it takes to perform a transaction?

You can't use a 3d world the way you can use the web. You can't use the web the way you can use a 3d world. Snow Crash was science fiction, not a practical future.

Please tell me what is stopping an underage person from saying they are 18 and joining the main grid now, and doing exactly the same camming trick?

Nothing, like there's nothing keeping a kid from sneaking his dad's credit card to visit an adult web cam. But in neither case will the person who the kid cammed onto get charged with anything as a result, for not being able to keep out someone who shouldn't have been allowed there. If kids can officially be on the grid than LL will HAVE TO:

* Fix the whole age verification muddle, which includes
* Fixing the whole "alt" muddle.
* Fix the mainland privacy problems, so people can create areas that can't be cammed into... enforced at the server

And that's just the beginning. If they don't take care of these issues, and dozens of others, they MUST NOT merge the grids.

Yes, that will be the mainland, but private islands still go on

I didnt say age verified,

So you're an elitist who thinks nobody should be able to own private land if they can't afford $300 a month for a private island.

OK, I understand your point there, the same can happen in RL, but, if someone propositions a child they deserve all they get, and the same rules will apply, if they say they are over 18, then they are commiting an offence for which they can be banned.

It still comes down to parental control, as I said I would love to have real kids in my SL family, and with the parents consent.

Maybe it will mean that adults on the grid will have to act like adults when it happens

How many times have you been in your bank and seen millions waiting?

I am not talking about normal transactions,

Man cannot fly, so we made a technical solution

nothing is impossible

If they merge the grid, the catch is all adult oriented stuff will no longer be viable from a legal standpoint: too great of a risk.

Look at WoW due to the age mix, simply using a curse word in local is grounds for an account suspension. Due to the fact it is not assumed that all in range are 18 or more in age. Even if the game is covered under the online play may change the experince.

The thing is you don't have to proposition a child to be banned and ruined, they simply have to say you did in voice chat.

Reread the above, and stop and reread it again till you understand. That is why merging the grids would be bad.

Not in the least, there are plenty of private estates that cost around the same to rent as mainland.