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

At a minimum.

Issue: Teens having access to "mature" content. Solution: Shield off "mature" areas from the teens.

Issue: Creeps trying to contact teens anonymously online. Solution: Shield off teens from these creeps.

The current grid arrangements accomplish this. Why change it? (T_T)

Look this up:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bullet/36/158/31/

Then look for the same sim on your in-world map. Surprise, there is a hole!

It's not a teen grid sim, but an internal test sim, but the principle is the same. It is invisible to regular users.



Not necessarely. They are not split. The teen grid is on the same grid like the main. They just appear split to those who have access rights to only *one* part. If you have access to both they look like one grid. Just like Bullet does.

A separated "adult grid" would serve exactly that purpose: If you are an adult you wouldn't notice a split. If you are a teen, you wouldn't even know another part exists.

That implies that the only purpose of SL is mature content and how to shield it from various users. I strongly disagree. While mature content plays a major part in SL, it is not its purpose. Just like the purpose of a RL video store is not pron. They have a section in the back for that, shielded from kids.

The real question here is: Do you want SL to be an adult entertainment venue or a general platform for a large variety of content?

Look at the distribution of PG sims and tell me what kind of "PG Grid" you'd end up with. We're not talking about occasional holes, or even "chantilly lace", we're looking at a completely fragmented world.

The "adult back room" is "every second shelf, every third shelf, every fifth shelf...". The PG sims might as well be "every prime number from the top left".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question

Still doesn't seem to be anything that cannot be solved. PG and mature sims should be clustered together ANWAY, even if there are no kids around. It would make more sense, also from a business point of view.

Ha! A simple yes or no would be enough. My answer is no, I don't want SL to be an adult business. (Which doesn't mean I don't enjoy mature content from time to time).

Why not just open up the Teen Grid to adults?

Oh, so you agree with me that this would require an extensive redistribution of land ownership on the grid. I have to wonder what I said that you thought you were disagreeing with, now.

The point of a merger is probably to expand the economy and to unite the communities. So that wouldn't make any sense.

Mu.

Or shuffling of sims. Land is not real land, it is just addresses on a server.

Or just leave the holes as they are. The merged teen grid would still be much bigger than what it is now.

Another option would to only allow estates to be flagged as adult. Then you don't even need two grids.

It's obvious. Currently, there's a main grid, and a teen grid. The teen grid is expensive to maintain. So the goal is to merge the two grids, in order to unify the resources, and therefore cut operating costs. To do so, LL will have to make enough changes to effectively partition the teens from the naughty adults (that is, very many of the adults). After they're done, it will be just like there's a teen grid and a main grid. But there's a fundamental difference to the new approach, with the countless hours of R&D, deployment costs, as well as communications with their customers to explain what's going on: LL can put out a press release.

It makes perfect sense. It doesn't disrupt the main grid, the issues hampering current educational uses of the Teen Grid are solved.

I doubt the addition of the 600 or so concurrent users on the Teen Grid will be a significant expansion to the SL economy. Especially if their addition impacts businesses already here.

That comes to the same thing. The topography of the land would have to be completely redone, so people with builds near (let along spanning) M-PG boundaries would have to be dealt with.
That word, "merged", I don't think it means what you think it means.
You mean, turn all the "M" sims on the mainland into "PG"? That would be even more disruptive than reshuffling the sims.

May not be 'real land' but it's a plot in virtual space that a lot of people have the 'address' to, and the owners have spent hours of time building/terraforming upon.

There just is no defensible reason for doing this, imo. SL works just fine as it is. If the teens are bored, well, I'm sorry but when did being in SL become a right? LL can also address all those problems without reshuffling the existing world and its current, paying customers.

And how exactly would a merger expand the economy? With all the lindens the teens are going to be spending? Rather doubt it. Any real money spent in SL is coming from and will continue to come from adults, as they are the ones who have an entertainment budget. Teens will be after the freebies, and we'll have a big freebie and bling *on* explosion.

And finally serious businesses might think about setting up a presence in SL because you don't need to explain to them anymore why they should be part of an 18+ cybersex whorehouse.

I guess the main part of a merger would be press releases indeed.

And if someone really gets smart they might market "SL XXX" as a separate brand, with its own website, forums etc. We always wanted Gor Help Islands - this would be suddenly possible.

Oh goody. And SL becomes the same bland, mass marketed pap that RL has become.

Look around, they're already here. SL isn't just a cybersex whorehouse.

Who knows maybe the teens would enjoy spending money?

But I doubt that this is the motivation behind a merger. SL that is not strictly 18+ anymore is generally more appealing. That might be the point.

/me sees current SL as anything but a virtual 'whorehouse'. Straw men, straw men.

*I* know that because I live in SL. A company who has never heard about it does not. All they remember are some news stories on TV, and that SL is 18 plus.

There are plenty of serious businesses in SL already. Look at Showcase. Education and Non Profit (which my board, Virtual Ability is listed), Arts and Culture, etc. Haven't seen a cybersex whore all day. It's a choice to visit wherever one chooses to visit on SL, nobody is making anyone visit any cybersex whores, lol. (amusing name though, thanks for the giggle)