Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Main Forum Thread

"We are not afraid to entrust the (American) people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." ~John F. Kennedy


Having read the blog announcement and FAQs (which left me saddened, confused and disappointed), posted to the forum (somewhere in the depths of the older threads, which were only open from Thursday evening until Monday evening)... After reading ALL the posts in said threads AND having been inworld to discuss the issues with 'numerous' (ironic use of the word) Residents - I still stand by my original feeling that the changes planned by Linden Lab are NOT the way to proceed and that they should halt the changes, because:

1. I do not believe Linden Lab can successfully implement a better system (however flawed) than they have now for managing said content. User experience in poorly enforced PG zones and from inappropriate placing/flagging of advertising is having an unfair, negative impact on those many who responsibly create, deliver and use said content in clearly defined adult Mature zones;

2. I feel strongly that forced geographic separation (and only initially, will it be ill-defined 'adult content', IMHO) of content/users only restricts Residents' freedom and opportunities (fiscal, creative and social) and will do nothing but engender a sense of difference, intolerance and ghetto-isation in Second Life. Along with the serious financial and technical problems it will lead to, this policy will foster a culture of segregation that will not stop until Second Life becomes a collection of nothing more than 'predictable' and homogenised content;

3. I do not believe the statistic that '2-4%' of content on the mainland can be considered “Adult” and believe a very large percentage of the user base will be affected negatively by these changes. The LACK of clear, detailed and transparent data provided (and also, answers in this forum), suggest to many Residents that Linden Lab either does not care about our views or has poorly designed systems of gathering such data, on which this policy depends. I believe that this has stopped being just about the (in)appropriateness of 'content experience' and/or 'user choice', but has become an issue about Linden Lab's inability to be aware of it's customers views and it's reluctance to stand by it's claims to "support and preserve" creativity and openness;

4. Account verification systems are not foolproof and there isn't a guaranteed system that works adequately worldwide, therefore Linden Lab's changes DO NOT assure me about access. I would support a system that could achieve this, but so far nothing has convinced me that anything more than leaving the responsibility and liability in the hands of the individual user, parent/guardian (if a minor accessing 18+ content), their ISPs or the government where that user resides - plus the combined efforts of other Residents to spot and Abuse Report inappropriate access - works in the case of Second Life;

And,

5. I feel that Linden Lab should be focussing it's limited resources on fixing the technical (client/server) issues it currently has, regarding user experience, and furthermore should be positive and pro-active about the current nature and content of Second Life, targeting/marketing it's virtual world for responsible, sane, open-minded ADULTS.



Facebook Listened; You Should, Too
by Mark Kingdon Sep 12, 2006
aka M Linden, CEO of Linden Lab

"The takeaways for marketers?
Listen carefully
Be ready to act
Respect the community...

...These people want answers and action -- now. You have hours. Not weeks."

http://www.clickz.com/3623393

Actually, I think the instant any individual is allowed to resell land there to other residents, that the asking price on the Adult continent will soon be at least 10 times higher than the worst atrocities of land scalping Bay City or Nautilus City.

Why? Because those who HAVE to go there, but who LL doesn't offer a free land swap to, like those cast out from private sims whose landlords refuse to tag their entire land holdings as Adult, will have no choice, other than ceasing to exist.

A man in an airlock asks you if you'd like to keep breathing after they open the outer door. You scream YES! He tells you that the cost to fill your space suit's air tanks is one thousand dollars per cubic liter of air. Will you pay? Or suffocate?

That was completely unnecessary, Argent. I know who said what and my point still stands that unless an official announcement is made that there are plans for a merger, it is still not going to happen.

An official statement has already been posted that this Adult Continent change is NOT about minors in the first place.




And my question about changing the rating (not any continent change) is in favour of clarification. PG denotes an expectation of minors needing consent of a parent in order to view something. G just seems more apt to what we are dealing with. I've never understood LL's nomenclature much, but I know a contradiction when I see it.

Question being, will a simple change of nomenclature (terms) at least be considered? I know it isn't entirely along the lines of the issue at hand, but I felt this thread to be the place to present it.

I'd certainly expect land prices there to be higher than average mainland, when you have limited choice prices tend to be higher.

I have to agree. I didn't kniow there was any naughty stuff when I signed up, but once I saw there was, my curiosity demanded I check it out.

It's probably not even that, not because of minority people that are offended with Adult content (there are too few of them if you go by all the related threads on this subject)....its about the current CEO & top brass having their own vision where SL should be heading.

Hell, i bet heart of hearts that if all the Linden employees monitoring these forums were honest with themselves...most would have certain reservations and beliefs. At the end of day, they're only the messengers and the enforcers of official company policy regardless of their own personal beliefs. Unfortunately they're on the front line taking all the flak, that's what they're paid to do!

If you get a chance to pop to a Linden office hour in the next week or two you'll find that official statement isn't 100% correct. The merging of the grids is being denied, but kids on the grid being part of the thinking behind this isn't being denied.

There is nothing vague about it at all. "Adult" is an ESTATE LEVEL FLAG. It will affect every sim in your Estate, or none, no in-between. No sim-by sim choices, no parcel-level choices. It's flag the whole Estate, or don't.

If you own 20 sims, you can flag all 20 at once as Adult, or none, but not just one, unless you sell that sim to an alt and set up a new Estate owned by the alt, with all the hundreds of dollars in fees that requires.

If there is any other way to split an Estate if two or more sims into two or more estates, without incurring any LL fees, I haven't been able to find it.

"Warning, don't read things which may cause you to laugh when drinking soda."

In all seriousness, that could very well be the very reason why LL is doing this. There are many people out there who would run to their lawyers at the first chance they have at accusing LL of condoning some damaging behaviour.

Well, that ceased being relevant the minute he left Organic.

I really don't see the point in continuing to speculate about this merger. Now it looks like it is heading into the "conspiracy theory arena."

The "government" denies the existence of Area51 Aliens. But has anyone who is not labeled as crazy ever seen such a thing, AND live to tell the world about it with photos and all? Of course not.

I think so too. It may not be the immediate plan, but I do think it is on the white board in M and M's war room as a" to do". It's been done by the other worlds, with less than stellar results, but I think LL believes they can pull it off, and that the creation of Pornsylvania is the magic bullet.

I have one thing that hasn't been touched here.

Over two years ago available land was PG and Mature. Mature was the "adult". I buy up land and built me an empire with an adult theme. So now that LL's wants to change what is considered adult from what was considered adult and ok two years ago isn't. Is LL now going to refund me all my invested lindens for land that isn't adult. And are they going to re-emburse me for all my time as well in building, as well in money advertising? Am I grandfathered? If not, then I say I have a major law suit. Thousands of dollars later and time invested.

I best be re-embursed. We are talking here of real time money they swindled from me if not and even want to swindle future money by charging me a "discounted" transfer fee and charging me more in teirs for adult land to boot. Law suit time I am thinking. Time to call out a favors from the real life legal friends and get a class A law suit going.

Then you really need to get yourself to the naughty sim, quick!

how much....can you deliver to my home?

Well, as a single example, it looks like some possible financial 'instability' with land pricing is starting to happen - only today an adult club owner friend who rents a large amount of land from a mainland landowner - and therefore asked to purchase said land as the landowner wasn't interested in having it relocated to the new continent - had to pay L$15 per sqm for it, when 5-8 may have been more realistic. They pay rent a number of months up front and it was due, so their only other option was to close, relocate in mainland and wait for the LL 'offer' for replacement land.

A sign of things to come for those who rent in Mature Mainland?

Looks like someone got Eff'ed even before moving to Pornopolis.

You have a good point....especially if there is limited land supply and LL are not prepared to expand it. It's a dangerous game....as you well know, LL have a habit of contolling Mainland prices by dumping more sims........no reason why it shouldn't happen on the Adult continent too at some point in time. De javu

Kids on the grid and the merger are not the same thing.

Thinking out of the box, I think that's the main goal here...

LL makes more money on land transfers and relocation, better policing on mainland, mainland more "Teen friendly" (smells a Michael Jackson clue here), and ultimately, Adults to the back of the bus!

Can someone prove to me that Teens spend more $L on SL than Adults? Because if that isn't the case, this is corporate suicide.

I'm sitting here wondering why a Mature rating is so unjustified all of a sudden.

That was me for a long time, I only added PIOF because I wasn't aware I could cash out on SLEX without it. And I bought plenty of adult toys in the day, let me tell you.

Unfortunately I never got an answer to my question. If the reason for this is people that broke the TOS by saying they were above 18 when not why are the legit adults the ones being punished?

LL's biggest scam... Open up Adult only lands..and force all those business that are adult themes to move over ..pay for relocation fees to boot. Can you imagine the millions they will make from this? Biggest scam yet. Sorry Lindens, .this is the most stupidest move yet. What will be next year..xxx themed, any inserted into the body from another has to move to the triple x adult? when does it stop?

Blondin Linden was particularly worried about *unverified* avatars being able to cam anywhere and see something naughty, which does sound like there is some underlying worry about teens sneaking onto the grid. But he didn't answer when I asked specifically.

Hmmh, not sure if this corrrect....all my sims are stand alone...bordering no other sims. I would imagine i could flag each sim individually as there is no way of accessing them other than an outside TP.