Annonymity

and then Linden Lab will flee in their flying saucer, taking the Loch Ness monster with them?.

Verification is not a big deal - provided we can control the amount of info we actually disclose. Verifying myself to LL is not any big deal to me at all.

However, I really do wish to control WHO has access to information about me. That means, I don't want to give out willynilly my info on my profile page. Yes there are people who make it available in SL - I also notice they are folks who want to become famous.

Ask the famous about how it is once they get there, and deal with the stalkers who haunt them in their daily lives. They know better than anyone really.

I've gone through dealing with a weird stalker online so I know how it can be. I think this is more of an issue for women than for men. So I read posts from weird men who want to know who the genetic girls are as opposed to the guys playing girls (some go even further, and want info about how they look, how old they are... yeah, creepy dudes), and many of us GG's want to tell the weird creepy dudes to get the hell away from us and not have that info.

And it should be like that.

There are too many people out there that will use your personal information for less than honerable things.

You should never give out your personal information to anyone except a reputable service provider that can prove they can keep your information private for the the purposes that you authorized.

I've been using the internet since way before it was even named the "Internet". Way back in the late '70s when all there was were government and college owned private networks and horrible 300bps dial up, all we had was FTP and a primitive excuse for bulletin boards called UseNet.

Even back then there were "trouble makers" that you didn't want having your private information.

When in doubt, keep it to yourself.

That line in the email sounds like a rather-more-desperate-than-usual attempt to "spin" the concept, to attach a positive connotation to something that is overwhelmingly negative for many users.

Coming soon:

"We see periodic inventory loss as a critical tool to support Residents in shedding the drudgery of inventory organization and cleanup."

etc (I'm not feeling terribly witty this morning)

If LL are trying to pin avatars to real people to satisfy the corporations then they are sadly mistaken.
I work in that world and did an evaluation of SL for business purposes. My conclusion - NO WAY! Not because of any avatar appearance problems, adult content or anything else. Simply because the system is to unstable to be of any real use. Long periods of downtime, crashing sims, no TP (unable to get to a meetings), sever lag etc. The biggest problem is the high bandwidth issue. It's not possible to have more than a couple of people online if they are sharing an internet connection.

For businesses, there are way better solutions out there.

Oh yes and its called SECOND Life. Not Life 1.1

Displaying your 1st life photo isn't always about fame. It's sometimes the opposite.

I display my first life picture to scare people away.

It's nice to have people in SL like me, but I want people to like me for who I really am. Not for who they imagine me to be.

I honestly think that some people don't show their 1st life picture in their profile because they fear they wont be liked.

So I suggest that if people fear being stalked, then showing their fat old wrinkly ass in their profile will solve all their problems.

I think you look quite delicious, especially done very rare.

Putting my first life pic into my profile is exactly how I end up with problem stalkers. *shrug*

Oooh!, then you clearly have a nice ass.



Catch ya later!


But seriously, if somebody is attractive then I can see how showing their photo could lead to problems and unwanted IM's from *anonymous* people.

lol

This is just my forum avatar!

Aristotle isn't storing the information you submit to LL. They are comparing the information you submit to LL against the information they are already storing about you. They already have the information, and they are already doing anything they want with it. If you verify, you will not be putting new information into the Aristotle database except maybe the fact that you are on SL.

My big issue with this is the way they are talking about the public policing itself and the public knowing what should or shouldn't count as restricted by using common sense. This is setting up to be similar to the "broadly offensive" and gambling restrictions where LL expects everyone to magically know what the rules are, but the LL employees responsible for enforcement will not be able to have any consistant guidelines. Some people will get busted for something they thought was ok while others get away with things that are in clear violation.

Most successful pose makers will probably make their non-adult content available in non-adult areas. I also wonder how many will continue selling their adult items responsibly, once they have to hand over their info to a third party site, to do so.

<<blog quote<<I want to reiterate that identity verification is voluntary for both Residents and estate owners. Residents who value their anonymity may continue to remain anonymous and will continue to have access to all Mature and PG areas of the Grid. Land owners are strongly encouraged to flag adult content as Restricted to safeguard themselves from publishing inappropriate content to minors, as well as protecting any minors themselves.>>

When I consider how very much mature content is placed in PG areas by the greedy and/or clueless, I foresee much adult content & activity not being "safeguarded" until they are forced to do so. And given LL's monitoring of such, thus far...

I've no need to get verified & if people want to arbitrarily ban me from their property... well so many already do.. I doubt I would notice! lol

Some people expect you to use voice.
Some people will expect you to share your verified identity using the new feature.

So whats the difference?

LOL, that is just so much better.

The difference is..... that to verify your identity with LL doesnt require you to give your telephone number. The poster that I responded to was under the impression that they required your phone number, they dont. I verified earlier today using my passport number which was accepted in the click of a mouse....none of the options required a telephone number. So she didnt need to be concerned about that

Please excuse this cross-posting, but it seems relevant here too.

It is true LL is doing this for CYA reasons. That German TV station with its lurid ageplay "expose" a few months ago must have been a near-death experience for LL. It seems pretty clear LL is doing what it must to show it is making good-faith efforts to get minors off the grid before some pedo manages to find a kid via SL and create a tragedy in RL and a full-death experience for LL. So, an age check, though they don't call it that.

What they are doing has little or no effect on the identity status of anyone who is "payment info verified" or "-used." For those folks, there is already a trail back from their avatar through LL to their credit card or Paypal account or whatever way the money flows that is available to anyone with subpoena power. So, the identity problem really applies to the unverified accounts.

Among the unverified accounts, there will be some who don't really care, and some that SL is well rid of.

There are surely others who have strong reasons to want to remain anonymous. People who fear scandal in RL if their lives in SL became known are probably the biggest category. They have a genuine problem.

That problem is in two parts: 1. LL knowing who they are, and 2. the outside verifying agency, be it "Aristotle" or the KGB or anyone else, knowing who they are. The outside agency part could be handled merely by LL not informing them (or anyone else) the avatar names the customers they identify are using in RL - such outside agencies would have no need to know that, only LL does. It would be helpful if LL can provide assurances that this is and will be the case.

There remains people who, for whatever reason (and some of them may be very good reasons), do not want even LL to know who they are. For their sake, I think LL needs some way to guarantee RL privacy to them. Their declaration that LL will only retain a record saying the person was verified as over 18 would seem to take care of that - provided the customers feel they can trust the declaration. Such people may have to decide for themselves whether remaining in SL is worth whatever risk they perceive from doing so. No-one wants to lose good people from SL; one hopes their concerns can be fully provided for as well.

Seems to me LL has whittled the problem down pretty far, and that they still have a way to go. Also seems to me they are acting in good faith.

Are you sure about that? That's even worse than having to submit that info to them... how do they get that information in the first place?

I also agree about their "common sense" theory. It seems like this verification will be "optional" but pretty much pushed on people. Expecting people to report land owners with mature content that don't flag their areas as adult only, and on top of that only providing verification for free for the first little while, and then charging a fee for it.

No, he was able to identify where I was within less than two miles. And that from just a comment aqbout a lightning strike nearby. Do not underestimate the danger from even a little information.

Two things here, the people caught by the German TV station were well over 18 weren't they?

The other point being that some feel this is a forerunner to merging the teen and adult grids, which would mean the paedos would have easier contact with them.

true and true.

You and me. Were talking about two totally different things.

This kind of thing should set off major alarm bells for people. But they cant see past their immediate little concerns.

Actually she seemed to be under the impression that you have to "display" your phone number. I don't even know where that idea comes from.

People can expect whatever they like. Doesn't mean they're going to get it.

Call it a moronic conspiracy theory all you want,
why else would LL intentionally attempt to sabotage it's own product?
After months and months of nothing but negative feedback, they go ahead anyways?
Sounds suicidal to me.