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

Why? Do you wanna meet for coffee?
hahahahah.
I meant "etc" - meaning all over coz I couldnt think for a minute of a specific. But I regularly visit UK. For my work. I dont "reside" in UK. Err... why am I telling you all this?

Oh, and if you know my posts Askandi, you'll know I am NOT a teenager and am not a parent. Single. Not even a goldfish in my reality to feed, clothe and educate. But well up on English boarding schools and other stuff liek that.

Your not ... no, you can't be HIM. A regular on this forum who ... no, not possible. (Nice punning on your name though)

HOnestly.. ALL I care about with this merger is that they don't come into mature places.... that they are CLEARLY identified AS Teens..... and that I don't accidentally Date one.LOL

thats ALL

The only way to prevent that is to have no mature areas, and nobody but teens on the grid.

Think about it. You're much more likely to accidentally date a teen the way things are now. This merger would eliminate the need for teens to sneak onto the main grid. Teens are going to be on the main grid either way, this way teens on the main grid would have a huge "I'M A TEEN" sign over their head.

oh there is a way alright..i'll need some dental floss a monkey wrench 3 glasses of milk,plastc wrap a clock.digital preferred 7oz of mercy and some cookies!!

What time can you be at my house? Kid needs help concentrating on his homework! figure if it works for the Grid, you can branch out- think of it as Tutoring with Attitude!

... I once knew someone who would PAY for that feature... And, probably ask for webcam at the same time. (T_T)

There fixed that for you MortVent, what would compel teens to stay in an environment like that?

nothing, just like all the paying residents like myself would have nothing left to keep us around.


To be honest a merge of the grid would be a death knell for SL

It would then be no better on accounts then the other one with corporate oversight on everything.

All content would have to be vetted, and the manhours would be insane. It would stifle a lot of the building culture in SL as it is now. Some of the best builders may not be doing adult oriented crafting (some furry avatars are pure pg designs, but scripted, sculpted, and textured to insane levels in some cases beyond what some of the weapon makers in thier ocd dreams even consider) but having to get every little tweak vetted by LL before upload would be bad and drive most away

You would have so many issues trying to keep things seperated from the underaged that it wouldn't be possible to really have mature and pg on the same grid.

That's assuming that every teen on teh grid admits they ARE a teen. Most prolly wont. When I was a teen I was always trying to look 19. Oh, that still IS a teen. See what I mean? Teens are precocious - but I think we are underestimating their maturity and maybe, just maybe, there is a culture clash going on here. 'Scuse me for saying this but American teens do seem more ... naive? immature? less worldly? ... than teens from many other cultures. Could it be taht europarents are less concerned?
One thing I would watch out for is an increase in grades and marks and cold hard cash from YOUR teen as tehy inveigle someone else to help them with their homework or buy their goods and services. Teens will really cut into the general run of teh mill fashions here - teens are fashionistas and sl is in for a shock (hopefully in this regard).

if a teen can hack the white house what chance does SL have of keeping teens where teens are suppose to be?
i have faith in there being a way around anything
i lack faith in Anything stopping Anyone wanting to get from point A to point B if they want to be there bad enough..
Especially when it comes to kids and their obsessions of just seeing if it can be done.
i'll bet on the determined kids every single time and win every single time.

Agreed, ergo they will drive SL into oblivion trying it (a serious possibility) or they will go down another track.

One idea that occurred to me is that perhaps LL will do something like this:

*) Require the parents of all teens to sign up for a teen account for the main grid. The sign-up will have all sorts of legal disclaimers, grants of permission, waivers for things outside normal control, etc. A real watertight contract that the parent is expected to sign. Possibly something akin to the existing vetting for the teen grid account but stronger.
*) Adult residents will have an option that can be changed only via support ticket that says whether they want to interact with teens. If they choose no then it will not be possible to see or interact with any teen account in anyway. No chat or voice would be sent to viewers running a teen account, you would not be able to IM or even see that there is a teen avatar around. The teen avatar would be completely invisible.
*) Make it visually obvious in the name tag that the resident is a teen for those adult residents who opt to interact with teens.
*) Maybe they will add a "teen friendly" parcel flag.
You will be able to apply for eligibility to gain "teen friendly" status for your parcel in order to allow teens to go there. Your parcel and the surrounding area will be Linden vetted in order to be granted this.
*) Any adult found guilty engaging in non-teen friendly activities on a teen friendly parcel would be perma-banned immediately.
*) Parents will be able to flag the teens account as being restricted to only teen friendly areas or allow them to visit the "PG" areas that exist today also.
*) There might even be a white-list allowed for each teen account so that parent vetted mature sites (such as PG content shops on mature mainland) can be added to the list of places a teen can visit.

Now this idea is not perfect and I am sure many can point out flaws and things I have not thought of but these things occurred to me about such a plan for integration:

*) None of the above would change SL very much for the majority of people today.
*) It would provide an incremental approach to having "teen friendly" areas on the grid.
*) Adults not wanting to interact with teens would not have to.
*) It would not require that adults give up their anonymity or have to verify for age.
*) The parent has to choose what options are available to the teen in the account settings and effectively signs an iron-clad contract to take responsibility for the teen which should absolve LL of most of the liabilities.

Like I said it would not be perfect, the question is...would it be enough? Possibly.

Wah... Just found a little news article that makes linking the grids a bit easier politically.... (O.o)

Uh.... COPA just got killed. (O_O)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/158131/copa_killed.html?loomia_ow=t0:a16:g4:r2:c0:b0

I don't think it would necessarily send SL into oblivion, quite the opposite could be the case. It would open SL to the world at large, the unwashed masses. it would become AOL. Flashy, banal,unoriginal,overly marketed, a cash machine. And utterly worthless to most of it's current users. But we would be replaced 10 fold.

exactly..the ones that were not here don't know so it's not gonna hurt them..

just like the ones that were not here when other things that went away before they got here..

they don't care about what is not here now..

and if they clean the grid those people won't care what was here in the past ..only what they can do in the current times.

"There was blood from a single gunshot, but just who shot who? AT the COPA........Copacabana........"

She will be here for as long as it takes to get a replacement folks

It seems pretty open to them now.

I always wanted to play the Copa.

Most of them don't know about it, or they have the impression it's for wierdos. Letting the kids in is the best way to spread the word. Things become hip and trendy when they latch onto it. You will then draw in not only some concerned parents but other adults, the vapid lemmings who watch reality TV and don't know their State Capitol, who will join so they can be part of the In crowd. "Hey, look behind the label on the bottle of Coke. Every 5th bottle has a secret code for a free SL goodies."

I think you would do well too

Okay...so the teens are caught in a golden cage with little content?...Who's fault is that? Now most of the adults on the adult side respect the PG sims that we find outselves on....would the teens have enough sense to do the same? That is what i think this all boils down too....teens do need direction and do need control. Letting them run wild on the adult side is a bad idea. Soon it would be us adults that would have to modify our behaviour and I dont think that is what any of us want. And it has less to do with sex than being able to enjoy ourselves without have to deal with unknown consequences. Most live music is held on mature rated sims and the artists do swear and make risque comments. Would everything have to become PG to accomodate the teen population? I dont think anyone has thought this through very well and like i said....a bad idea at a bad time!!

I didn't read your post, er, wellhung, but I think your name won't survive the merge...

hmm.. That would make it a teen grid right?

Nudity is prohibited in profile pics, yet I see it all the day, and know people who have have nude pictures in their profile picks for years now.

Linden Lab needs to figure out how to enforce that simple rule before tackling the more complex problem of having one grid where teens cannot access mature content.