Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Main Forum Thread

I know and I know how this is a hot topic. I promised an answer to this shortly but I don't have one yet. Still working on it.

Yes. Perhaps with a dialog to make it easy the first time.

"You have asked to teleport to The Floating World. This is an Adult Rated community. You can enable or disable Adult access from the World->Content Rating submenu at any time. Click CONTINUE to enter The Floating World."...(CANCEL)...(CONTINUE)

Annabella, the purpose is, as Blondin has stated, to clean up the mainland. I have expressed my view that the scheme that is is proposed appears to be designed deliberately with a view to separating adult businesses from a large part of their user base (ie. that which is no PIOF and non-age verified). Many such businesses will fold as consequence and the amount of "sex" content in SL will be significantly reduced.

If we are talking "clean up" in an aesthetic sense, then this ought really to be a mainland estate management issue. It only arises due to a complete lack of earlier estate control by LL. I think directions could already be given to remove/conceal items on grounds of offence likely to be caused under the present ToS without any policy change. Approaching matters in this way would leave well-managed private islands/estates untouched. However, it seems to me that these are caught by the proposed policy in the hope that many adult businesses carried on there will be asked to leave to avoid island/estate reclassification and that many of those adult businesses which do attempt to carry on on privates estates/islands will again eventually fold as a consequence of a a significant reduction in customer base.

The proposed changes (as presently drawn) are, therefore, in my opinion, not about increasing choice at all. They are, it seems to me, designed to force a large amount of "sex" content off the grid.

Blondin has, however, indicated that the impact of the proposals on private islands/estates is under review, and it may be that following such review, it will appear that the views I have just expressed will no longer have a sound foundation.

Agreed. setup this as something to gradually take place, "moving forwrard". Encourage Adult oriented businesses and such to voluntarily relocate, make them want to go, and as they vacate the mainland, then you can change the standrds as you go. There are benefits to all this, IF it is handled properly, and LL is upfront and honest about it. It may take a bit longer to get the grid properly sanitized, but it will , in the long run I think, be to everyone's advantage than the cattle car-ing that is being proposed.

In the meantime, make better use of the already in place content guidelines, faithfully investigate complaints and keep the residents informed of any developments.

I own private sim and I "clean up" on regular basis. I have nothing to do with mainland, so why do i still must flag my content as adult.

It won't. What it will do is make a safe place for those who CARE if they can see adult content and would be offended by it (the PG-only continent, which is where you direct newbies and corporate clients that you think are easily offended); a safe place for those who believe in personal freedom to do as they please, and are not offended by adult content (The XXX Continent); and the remainder of the mainland will be *perfectly happy* to remain where they are, in a mixed-use area.

So, what is wrong with that? WHY is it imperitive that you "remove Adult content from the mature mainland"? And if the actual goal is to "remove Adult content from the mature mainland", how is that achieved if it is still possible for any Resident on Mature mainland to keep owning and using the same adult content on parcels that they are not using as a "Commercial Business" or "Public sex place"? There is NO difference between a sex club with 4 sexgen beds and a BDSM sex furniture item, and a private 4-bedroom residence with a sexgen bed in each bedroom and the same bondage furniture item in the basement. Someone who walks in without knowing what the place is will see the same thing. I used to live on the mainland, near the newbie store in an adjacent sim. I was ALWAYS getting brand new noobs walking into the bedroom of my private home, asking if they could "join in"! I wasn't advertizing, and wasn't running a sex business. They were walking right in to what was clearly decorated as a tasteful residential home, and asking for sex. Forcing the "Business of sex" to move while leaving the exact same pose balls and props in private residences changes NOTHING. Can't you understand that? And if the same pose balls in private residences are an issue, then just reclassify the whole mainland as XXX, and make your PG continent for those who dislike what SL is really like to move to.

I left the mainland to get away from those clueless, sex-seeking noobs, and to live on a sim where access could be fully controlled. We tried ban lines, but then you nerfed them so badly that much of our usable airspace over our land was unusable.

Give people a choice, and you MAY even find that people will be pretty polarized about this, and that, given a free choice, some mainland continents may become so deserted that it will be quite easy to reclassify what is left as all XXX or all PG, wth no complaints or forced dislocations from those who chose to remain there.

But you'll never know if that easier, less disruptive course of action would work, because you refuse to listen and consider that option.

That is a good idea. I like it.

I wouldn't change the existing mainland PG/Mature settings.

Was removing Adult content from the mainland a goal LL stated for this? I thought it was more about giving people more choices, protecting kids and all that..

By having both a PG-only continent and an adult continent, you're allowing people to really choose what they want their SL to contain.

If you let your customers choose what to do, you give yourself a lot more breathing room and you get rid of this nasty disconnect between LL and residents on that 2-4% stat. Let it run itself for a year, expanding both continents as needed, and what your mainland customers really want will be obvious to everybody: If nobody moves to these new continents, it's obvious that nobody really cares about this stuff; if you end up with a huge adult continent and a 10-sim PG one, or the other way around, it'll be clear to everybody that there's a huge perv (or puritan) majority.

You also give youself a better 'in' to a potential future teen/main grid merge by starting with a clean slate PG-only area, if LL decides it wants to go that direction.

The gteam will still have to best-guess the existing mainland but should find the new lands a lot easier to enforce content disputes, since they're also starting with a clean slate on either extreme.

The biggest problem I see on this idea is that LL needs to make a larger investment in sims, especially if you end up with big chunks of existing mainland that are depopulated. I think you could probably end up taking advantage of this by sinking the existing mainland some and turning totally empty regions into openspace/homestead water/grasslands or polling residents of mostly-empty sims to see if they'd like it dropped down within teraforming distance of water. You'll lose some history and piss off people who already have land near water but sunken land will definitely sell (ie: auction) at a premium. Let the moles go to town on redoing these areas and you'll get a far better price...

I have to get going, but I'll be back later! Thanks everyone

This could also extend to a "G Rated" continent as well, by the way.

What happens when you run out of Adult Land and have masses of PG and Mature land empty on the mainland? you don't have to answer that and probably can't just wondering out loud.

I would even add the sentence about risk of account suspension if you are not of legal age.

so a bloody big blue pop up that comes on screen, or maybe RED!!!

EXACTLY!!!
Excellent post!

No, I think you are exactly right Ian. As I am one of the people who will not connect my private information to my avatar, I will not have access to adult content and will stop spending. There are many, many like me.

I do not understand the intent of this change. To prevent under age residents from viewing pornographic material? Please. Right this second I can quickly google thousands upon thousands of much more pornographic images, videos, text, and chat available on the net with absolutely no age verification other than clicking on a check box where I promise I am 18 or older.

The only intent could be as you stated, to put these business' out of business.

/me waves hand. "direct me to the singup sheet please. I'm not moving everything but I do have some stuff needs moved"

I note that Blondin says "But to be fair, priority should most likely go to those who will be asked to move" not "those who ask to move".

I have erotic art under this avvie, and a relatively new BDSM store under another... I don't think I'm safe.

EDIT: and as somebody else pointed out so aptly earlier in this thread... how are they going to find those of us who need to move? Either we tell them or they land search. I'm just being clear that I'm fairly sure I'm affected.

..it appears to have lots of layers....

Blondin (or another Linden) - you have heard lots of opinions on this matter on the forums - you asked for what you got.

You have also heard criticism about your end of the "dialog" - people criticising you for not listening and not answering questions, or "cherry-picking" the questions that you answer. I also see repeated fears about something being done that you have said will not happen, but it is buried in a forum post somewhere (like the idea of sex beds in private houses, or the PIOF = Verified decision).

One of the things I learned a while back about effective communication was about feeding back to the person talking to you what you think they are telling you, both to make sure that you hear correctly, and also to check that the person telling you something has been heard correctly.

Could I respectfully suggest, therefore, that you come out with some sort of "here's where we are at" statement. This should reflect the current state of thinking with the AO project team and include decisions that are made, plus issues brought up by Forum members (or others) that you are discussing that are "open". It would also be very useful if you could give us a view of your future plans in terms of how this is going to go ahead, if at all. If you are going to continue with the AO initiative, what sort of timetable are we looking at? End of March? End of the Summer? Sometime this year? 2010?

Are you planning on doing some sort of grid-wide referendum on this issue? It has been pointed out before that forum posters are a small minority of the active SL residents, so it's very difficult to know whether this is representative of the total population or not.

I think you would go a long way to easing some of the fears by putting out a very visible status report.

Hey, I said that in #767!*sort of* You stole my idea...and my socks...you weasel.

I notice with some amusement that many are concerned about what will be considered 'Adult' enough to warrant relocation/reclassification. etc..and I think I know why the claimed percentage (2-4% was it?) is being touted...and why it is so low.
It's not about sex furniture, selling in shops....its about, as was stated, the MOST extreme sex and violence.
This should worry everyone.
In fact, the lower that % estimate, the more you should worry.

Because that means a very specific moral standard will be applied to truly segregate very specific businesses. And you may not agree with that standard. And you may be one of the 'targeted few'. And who will speak up for you?
Many people, when these sorts of moral police come by, think that they can 'clean up' and be safe. But if even ONE BUSINESS is discriminated against in a supposedly 'Mature' area where imagination is given free (including sexual) expression, then EVERYONE should be worried.

And I will add one more specific example of fuel to a fire (sorry):
As a sometimes Female Supremacist (the loving kind, believe me) and hard-working promoter of Femdom ideals, businesses and organisations, if it turns out something like the 'World Of Gor' is exempt from Adult Content reclassification and many femdom establishments are NOt exempt....I will start talking about old-fashioned sexism in a new light. Simply if an entire 'world' based on savage, barbaric practices towards Women is exempt, yet places of Femdom are 'targeted'.....this discussion's focus will be a lot more about discrimination than ever before.

Neva Mind

the age verify is bull ppl use others id or ppl will just quite sl i know sevral ppl that dont have cards to verify.and like one said in another post ppl have alts for diff forms of rp. so there they have to verify all so there is your card number in more places.i have on acct verified so i can put money on other. the problem is the parents not ppl that want adult content once again ppl are getting punished because some worthless parents that dont watch or control there kids.i love playing on here but can give it up like alot more but dont want to but cause of stupid ppl we all lose.

/me loves it. Those little monsters love socks. They will take them right off your feet and your toes with them. They love *silkies* too along with a myriad of other things.