Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Main Forum Thread

You asked what businesses (real world businesses) paying more than minimum wage would accept an employee wearing bondage gear. That's got nothing to do with metaphorical anything. That's applying real life dress codes to SL. Not even virtual ones, let alone metaphorical ones. Real ones.

So.. Looking into making sure SL conforms to Sharia, one of (per wikipedia) the 3 most-widely used legal systems in the RL world, too? Or is that a silly question because most Americans don't follow it?

That would be where you're wrong. The entirety of SL is *nobody's* lobby. At best, one can equate the public grid as being part of the streets *outside* said business. If a business wants a lobby where it can enforce dress code on people entering within, that business can buy its own sim.

Come to think of it, most already do.

Part of the definition of violence

"avoidable insult to basic human needs":



Censorship and segregation of anykind is "avoidable insult to basic human needs":
Censorship and segregation is inpart slavery of the mind and spirt and somthing i find very offensive.

They can, and are, managing to do that right now, without any draconian measures to restrict adult content. Visit Rutgers University in second Life. RUCE 1, RUCE 2, RUCE 3 and RUCE 4 are the completed sims so far, with more to come. Students and faculty are expected to dress as appropriate to on-campus activities, while in those 4 PG-Rated sims. Visitors are expected to behave as appropriate according to the TOS and Community Standards for activity in a PG sim. The sims are push restricted and are not damage enabled. No one visiting that campus can see any inappropriate content on anyone else's land, because the sims are isolated from all other sims.

What Rutgers students and faculty do on their own time in SL is not regulated by Rutgers, nor do they care what other SL residents do in other sims.

That is the "Business appropriate" environment in SL. It will never exist on the mainland, nor should it.

Blondin...

while I for the moment ignore our resident troll for the day...

When are all residents, at login, going to be asked for the opinions of what will constitute adult content? This charade of asking in the forums has gone on long enough, too many residents are completely unaware of the changes being proposed and honestly, we're only seeing the extremes at either end taking place in this discussion.

I have seen very few non-extreme definitions of adult put forward, either too puritanical or too open. And we're all left guessing in the middle as to how we will be affected. What we are missing are the residents who are unaware, or who for privacy reasons are scared to speak their mind in a forum where our avatar names are seen beside our opinion.

Many of us have to know yesterday how our second lives and second life businesses will be affected, and right now we're in a bad state of limbo.

What I would like to see at this point:

1. A Survey, at login, and not that front page survey that you get every time you open the viewer. This survey needs to be the same as a first rez avatar tos agreement where it is set to the name (so as not to have abuse) and they can either answer or opt out, but have no chance to take the survey a second time on any avatar.

2. A sign up sheet for any business who feels that due to their content will have to be moved. Get data on land amount needed, if possible the age of the business (maybe the acquisition date of the land that the business is on if nothing else), and the manner of business. Check the people to sign up to make sure that there is a legitimate need so that landbarons and flippers are excluded early.

3. Determine from the survey how the residents see what is adult, not from the extreme discussions we see here. And then vet the business on the sign up sheet to see who will have to move FROM THE RESIDENT DEFINED SET OF CONDITIONS.

4. whatever method you use to move the business, then start the relocation process. Make sure that it is as fair as possible. My suggestion, rate by parcel size needed then business age, traffic, content etc. Older larger businesses should be able to establish themselves again first as they have the most to lose, businesses who sell original content have more to lose than the guy who goes around grabbing all the x-rated affiliate boxes and plunking them in a prefab. it's still going to upset somebody, but it's better IMHO than a lottery



Most of all, it's time to move this from a forum only discussion and really make sure that the residents are aware of these impending TOS changes, and if LL really wants input then they need to ask for it from everybody and not just those who read the blog or the forums. Cause right now, what I'm seeing, is a lot of missing voices.

The best way for Linden Lab to take this forward is to open the continent and invite applications from people to swap plots. If the adult continent is a success other adult business owners will soon be flocking there. That way it grows naturally.

They also do need to build this PG continent or at least a continent where all adult content is forbidden. This allows choice and lots of it and would surely make both sides of the argument happy.

tickle torture?
i was held down by my bigger sisters as a child and tickled all the time and they called it tickle torture. Was i being tortured? i dont think soo i think it was all family fun. now say you put word filters up saying torture is Adult what if its tickle toture that is totaly PG. this is a bad bad idea to many things are going to be classified as adult that has no need to be

Take slavery
what if on Martin Lutherkings birthday a group of Afro americans wanted to celibrate his birthday and show the struggles of their race can they now not do that in a pg sim?

I could be WAY far off here but isn't that..well.. about as likely as flying pigs? It seems to me that one of the most likely side-effects of this whole idea will be the painting of a big giant target on those sorts organizations for the griefers who will probably be delighted to think of the improved effect their flying penises will have.

Your kidding right??

Blondie, I assume by corporate Instructions, will not even comment to most of us here, so what good is bring this to the main membership going to do??

He or She hand picks which postings to answer, and if you notice they all have to do with defining the way this will get done, as per what the Lindens want in their orioginal annoucement.

State any disagreement with that objective and your ignored completely.

Even asking them to tell you if they are just going to ram this through and your ignored.

someone being lead by a leash though a store is that Slavery or a parent controlling there child?
would you ban all uses of Leashes in PG sims?

and how would the word filters accept that, for Search and land discriptions?

People can upload 'images' (you cannot upload a living, breathing human being) from RL into a virtual world, sure. Nothing will stop a griefer from using vulgar images in a particle spam attack, so then we are talking about people's use of 'porn' (define porn).

In continental Europe, it is common to flip through the television channels and come across 'pornographic' advertisements. Personally, I find them boring, but no one except American tourists finds them offensive. Topless women appear daily in British tabloid newspapers and Parisian bus shelter posters. Japanese men read graphic novels on the subway. Has anyone seen the TV series "Ebichu"? Hilarious. It would be banned in 0.026 seconds in the United States for both sex and violence. Yet it was a huge hit in Japan. Has anyone seen the Belgian film "Man Bites Dog"? Watch it with Belgian students. They fall over themselves laughing.

By contrast, many Saudi women swim fully dressed at the beaches of Taba, Egypt - and you just try walking down the streets of Tunis as a woman with your long, blond hair uncovered!

Folks, get the picture here. No one holds a wet T-shirt contest in Salt Lake City. No one wears a Hijab in the casinos of Las Vegas. I give 100 people from 100 countries 100 photographs of human beings in various poses in various stages of undress and good luck deciding what is prudish, silly, normal, acceptable or pornographic.

The same goes for violence. You want violence? Watch "Planet Earth" by David Attenborough. Who can forget the battle to the death between two birds - each trying to drown the other - interrupted suddenly my a mink that kills and eats one of them on the spot. Then there is chimp gang warfare, whereby the victors tear apart and eat one of the losers. The footage of killer whales 'torturing' seals is pretty dramatic as well. Should children be allowed to see the truth about animals and the natural world? Should a still photo from the show be banished to the 'Xtreme' continent?

No matter how you twist and turn, there is no way to set 'community standards' on a virtual world as complex and diverse as Second Life - at least not without alienating a significant proportion of the population, particularly entrepreneurs. As outlined in my post "Sanity, Not Sanitation", unorthodox players are often the most creative and productive members of any society.

I think Gambling online only efffects US residents.....i haven't heard it effect any others. The Chinese maybe?

and again how does the filters work for Search and land discriptions?

this is a major point that i feel needs to be fixed and settled before anything else

What makes Linden Labs think they will be so insightful as to reasonably define the issue of what is or is not adult, pornography, or anything other prattle terms. Certainly the United States Congress has tried such things only to have it struck down as unconstitutional. It will, of course, be a complete mess, alienate many people yet again; for marginal if any actual gain.

Enforcement will wind up to be arbitrary and inconsistent, many people will be inconvenienced for a silly issue, and the SL economy will suffer - let's not pretend that a HUGE amount of SL commerce is not sex based. Excite and Sexgen made SL take off in the first place. So why is so much effort and energy being spent on ghetto-izing adult activity?

1. SL dreams of corporate money.
2. The desire to get more people to submit payment information. and;
3. The repugnant habit of our times that if anyone is ever offended no matter how tiny the minority, the majority must have it's freedoms restricted to placate them.

I'd love them to test this theory - it would easy.

Do a login survey on how many think this is all a good and needed idea. Follow the results. They won't, because they know the answer would be a resounding NO!

nope.

cause either they already know what the standard is and they're not telling us, or they are really seeking input from the residents and aren't getting a clear view of the big picture because even after more than a week I'm still not seeing a huge influx of new names to these discussions. And what I am seeing, are extremes where a majority of content is safe just because it's so hard to define or the opposite extreme of where almost every person and business will be relocated cause the ankles are shown. I am really seeing almost no moderate voices.

I'll admit, the likelyhood of actually getting true resident input is about as likely as this actually working without it. but it needed stated again.

The sad fact is, a TON of residents still have no clue. And some of the ones I've spoken with who are aware, are staying out of these discussions for one or another personal reason but may be more inclined to speak up and actually help if they could do so without having their avatar name attached to a public opinion.

I am going to post this again because I do not want it lost in the masses of posts, and it is my opinion that it is something the lindens should consider along with the rest of the community
Remember this is just an opinion of one way this might be handled and the best i can come up with im not saying is perfect but it’s all I have at this time

I would venture to guess that any thing advertising the act of Sex, the act of war, and any and all acts of dismemberment; that are for random people, strangers and visitors to the sim; to partake in whether for pay or not, should be classified as adult.
Leaving Strip clubs, as they are you can find them on any corner in most towns big or small,
Most combat sims should be PG and Mature also, just like your typical karate studio or Loony tunes cartoon wit the Coyote and road runner blasting each other with Acme weapons; found in every town big or small.

Moreover, all uses of any words should be left PG and Mature, because frankly you can find any combinations of all words in your nearest public library.

Sorry Blondin, but this statement just has me LOLing still.

It reminds me of one of Obama's newly appointed that was on the news the other night proclaiming that her office would no longer be using the word "terriorism" to refer to acts of terriorism. From now on acts of terriorism will be referred to as "man created or man made disasters".

This whole new wave of political correctness is getting down right rediculus.

There is more freedom in china than in entire so called western world. Look what happens here. Private company is telling you what is right or wrong. It used to be church, then goverment, and now this. We are living in fascist times.

Me. Now screw the hell off you vile creature.

I wear a collar like you might wear a wedding ring, it is MY sign to the one I love that I am committed to him with my body, mind and soul. You want to patronize me and my friends because you don't share the sentiment of commitment? Fine; but do not expect a civil response from me.

I love my Master very deeply, he is to me as you would have a wife/husband. And that is where the misconceptions arise. See, people as ignorant and sheltered as you have it in their head that D/s is some whimsical grouping.

I'll share with you what I have in my profile picks:



If you still can't understand that wearing a collar isn't some horrible, disrespectful thing, then there is no hope for you; you are a lost cause to your own prejudices and I wash my hands of your ilk.

@Blondin: This is exactly what I find offensive! People discriminating against ME because I am different then THEM. LL as a company, people like Nany Kayo, acting in your ignorance of fact as if what I do and why I do it is for some disgusting or distasteful reason.

If you want to discriminate against me because I wear a collar (which btw isn't a play collar made of leather or anything big and fancy, mine is a simple metal band) instead of an engagement/wedding ring then it is you that I find offensive and you that I find to be an example of the vileness humans are capable of.

I'm a human being just like any other, and I deserve to be treated like one; destroying my work, destroying my home, destroying what I love simply because you fail to understand that what I do is only a different way of showing my love is what is offensive and what will destroy not only the world of SecondLife, but the world itself.

Nope, you are wrong. SL is Linden Lab's lobby, and they did buy their own sims.

Sorry, I'm not interested in your sexual preferences. I would rather you not advertise them to me.

But you're fine with somebody wearing a wedding ring?

Neva Mind I'm better then that and got out my troll spray instead