Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Main Forum Thread

I have to agree, to a point. There really is no valid reason for a private residence to be listed, at least none that I can think of.

But, that only goes for parcels that are purely residential. What about mixed-use parcels, where the owner lives above his or her store, for example?

I am a healthy, sane, well of age male and I have been drawn to the adult side of SL since my first days here years ago. Sure, I have tp'd to amusement parks, and I have seen the NASA island, but what I do with 99.999% of my time inworld is spent in the depraved, sexual, sometimes violent (but never harmful) fantasy world of SL. This is the same content that is possibly being threatened by changes in LL policies and that has been carefully constructed by talented people who have put their time and hard currency into providing these services to me and to ALL the people who come to Secondlife PRIMARILY if not WHOLY for that purpose.

Hope this wasn't too much of a rant, but if I ever login and find that my landmarks do not work anymore because the sims do not exist anymore and not just moved to another area (of equal or greater value and performance), I will join the many who will stop loging on all together.

I hope that day never comes. I enjoy what I do here, and yes, I AM ADULT CONTENT.

Regrettably, Katheryne, part of being an objective participant is that I must also account for the fact that there will be a negative viewpoint opposed to the majority in any situation. Nany is opposed to the majority, genuinely, even if she does put it across in poor fashion. The best academic treatment for an opposing viewpoint, is to refute it. Concisely, eloquently, and without regard for the person presenting the viewpoint. Or, in plain english, "Stay on target".

Sheesh.. It's 1/2 about adult/teen grid merge.. That's one of the very few questions they've actually answered. Can we stop asking about it now?


And you didn't come up with some of the basic questions we've started asking almost immediately after the blog post on this stuff??? This, once again, sounds like you started with the solution of "we should have an adult continent" then worked to come up with things to support that solution. Please, LL, stop making that mistake. Really. Please. Your existing customers have spoken very, very clearly about this and you're moving in the exact opposite direction.

Nany you might note that yesterday I gave you due for your view, so you know that I respect your right to your beliefs and feelings.

Allow me to just enlighten you a little. I will no doubt be one of those forced to relocate. You would most certainly be offended by my work.

That work that would so greatly offend you has allowed me in my relatively short time here in SL to speak at a media event and also be interviewed in an high quaility SL magazine where I was able to talk about sexual abuse and domestic violence and the recovery process. I was able to EDUCATE "because of" my work.

For some of us it is not about having sex in public. Darlin' you are making very broad assumptions.

You claim to care about the poor. Nany, I am poor. One of those very very poor. SL is providing me a way to attempt to make my own way in this world without being a looter - by giving me a way to both sell my art here and also promote my online gallery.

There are a lot of people here who are going to suffer financial & other loses because of a few inconsiderate and selfish jerks. Those of us who have been considerate neigbors and residents are going to suffer because of others who are not. In essence we are paying for crimes commited by others.

I applaude your personal good intentions and wish you much success in your goal of helping those in need. But don't just assume if we create Adult content that we are not also worthy of respect and fair treatment. I am no less an educator than you are simply because your work is one thing and mine is another. My work has just as much value as yours. Though you have made it clear you would disagree.

The reason you have angered and offended so many is that you come across so very self-righteous. You act as if we are beneath you. We are not Nany. As Lord Sullivan suggested to you eariler, a little tolerance of others would go a long way.

DAMMIT!

Okay, I'll bite.

Please explain how Second Life can be used as a platform for facilitating a real-world economic recovery of your constituents. In other words, how can Second Life be used as a means of meeting one's real-life three basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter?

Now, please explain how Second Life can be used to those ends once "your world" has been purged of 90% of its economic base?

For about the 100th time.. Just ignore her - the volume of replies are worse than what she herself is posting.

There are people here who actually want to talk about the topic of this thread.

Can you please send me an LM in-world?

The main and the teen grid WILL merge. After they have the separation of content and it is "safe" to do so. No merger can take place as long as "adult" content freely intermingles.

Once this set of changes is done, the next will come. And the next and the mnext until one day the thing they say is not happening, does.

And I look forward to checking out and trying out those odd wares. I like odd. Makes life more interesting.

One thing has become clear to me as the threads have gone along. This "ghetto" is going to be filled with some amazingly creative & friendly people.

As Katheryne asks How can SL be used to meet basic needs. Well in just over a year I've built up an in world business that succefully gives me enough Lindens every month in progfit to enable me to cash it out and not meet every need but to actually allow me a better standard of living which as I have medical problems which means I have to survive on Government hand out. Because of SL and my business I can now afford to pay my bills AND eat healthily which before I had to choose between one or the other. Of which with time I am hoping to gro enough in order that I do not have to rely on government subsidies. This goal is within my grasp. meager though it is.

As to your second point...Though these new rules May not overtly effect my own business. Those that it does affect and in such large numbers will mean that my own customer base will dissapear. What I have been able to build and garner for myself and my hard work will be as for naught. There IS no way for my business to survive IF the worst happens. BUT I still have hope that if we band together we can make it work. There is always a way to make it work.

Hi, Im Tsevorak Romano, Captain, 39th MHTF..and Im sure this issue has been brought up several times during the course of this forum. I however would like to finish it off/bring it up if it hasnt been brought up by saying this:

I am part of the SL Military community on SL. Basically we get together in groups and shoot each other for fun. The community is made up of about a thousand people, and that is a safe estimate. This does -not- Include vampire sims, DCS, RCS, SCS, or any other combat systems. This is just the Linden Damage Combat. This is also Only including the people who are actually part of the groups within the community. There may be an estimated 10,000 people affected by merely lumping Combat and weaponry into what the bible thumping PTA parents deem as "Adult".

I have been a member of SL for over a year and a half, I am not Age verified and I do not have a credit card. If I need credits I generally buy through friends or sell my own creations. I have no credit cards or paypal, which means I would be banned form the very sims I enjoy combat in. At least 5/6ths of the SL grid is -not- age verified. Which means that anyone who doesnt want to tie down an account to a credit card or monetary account, or is too poor to do so, will be unable to participate.
This means :
Groups dwindle and Die out.
Sims get abandoned because the lack of players.
People stop buying Lindens (the currency) meaning less money gets put into the game.
People LEAVE.

I love and enjoy my sl experience. I found a home with good people on sl in an army, as well as fun during the day. I have put time, money, and effort into this grid, sl combat, and sl itself. We all have. Everyone in every Military on the grid that you plan on kicking and destroying completely if you decide to save time and lump us in the "adult mature" category.

Even if you dont care about us. About our comraderie and fellowship in all these roleplay and combat sims. The communities of people who can get together and enjoy starwars or space ships or dune or vampires. You lose all of us. That means we stop putting money in. that means we llUninstallSecondlife. You lose, we lose. Its that simple. I can garuntee that at this moment Weaponry is a huge cash crop for you, so are the sims that run and allow their uses. If you dont want or care to do it for us, think about how much you will lose, at least.

I like my sl experience. This game taught us that we can do whatever we want when we want. we can have fun and not worry about people judging us, calling us names, whining because we are too violent or gory or grotesque for them. If you give in to these demands then you just ruin what makes SL so great. If they dont want to see it, they can log off, or stay out of those places. No one forces them to play. No one forces them at gunpoint to log on. Why are we paying for their closed mindedness?

I actually have a mixed use parcel, though there's no funny business going on there. If the parcel itself contains and is advertised as a business, but there's a skybox or something off in the corner that's a private residence, and those items aren't set to show in search, and there's nothing about it in the land description, I don't see how it could be a problem.

Once again, a means of expression and escape from RL is being yanked out from under us thanks to the hand full of "do gooders" complaining about things that can easily be avoided without the huge disruption of everybody elses lives. The linden that stated "Based on our research, we estimate that around 2-4% of content on the mainland would be considered Adult according to our current thinking on defining that." is living in fantasy land (no pun intended), and apparently hasn't stepped foot in the real SL world. Or if it is in fact that low of a percentage, then why would all this mess even be necessary? 2-4% of "omg thats offensive" content should be fairly easy to avoid. Adult content takes up a VAST majority of SL which is one of the major reasons it is so popular. Instead of forcing the huge number of people/businesses that make up the "dark side" of SL to uproot their lives and basically start from scratch after the changes in search, profile picks, etc., why not make this new continent for the people that want to make SL into "Pleasantville" and let them bask in their innocence. I understand the educational & business companies that come here and don't want their clients to be next door to a BDSM club, or whatever ...but again, why not move those people to the new continent so they don't have to deal with it. Most of the people that are in SL are here to express themselves, and to be able to do things that they can't do in RL. They don't want to have to go to the outskirts of nowhere to do things, nor provide personal information to be able to go to places in a "game" that is supposedly geared for this sort of freedom in the privacy of their own homes. And also, on that topic, can we say "identity theft"? A LOT of people are not comfortable with providing personal information over the internet.

If this were RL, and Mary Jane was walking down the sidewalk in New York and she found a porn shop right beside her favorite dress store, would she go next door and tell them their store was offensive and they had to move? Yeah, she might do that but I'm quite sure we all know where she would get told to go. Whereas SL isn't RL, it should be no different here as far as the subject goes. If you don't want to see something? DON'T LOOK AT IT. If you don't like the content here? DON'T LOG IN, or go to the teen grid. Nobody is forcing anybody into an offensive situation. Why is it that the "offended" people are always the ones complaining about everything, but the people that mind their own business and know that there will always be something that offends somebody somewhere never complain and simply look the other direction from things they don't want to be a part of. What would be done if a group of people in here started harping about churches being offensive to them. Would all the church related places get shut down, or moved to the outskirts of nowhere? I'd say not likely. The people that take SL for what it was meant to be shouldn't have to suffer because of the people that want to block out all things that aren't "socially accepted". Just like the people that constantly complain in RL about their little Nellie going to smut sites on the net, and wanting them all shut down ...how about exerting a little effort on the home front and monitoring what Nellie is viewing if you don't want her seeing that sort of thing.

As for the business side of this mess, as bad as the economy is already this could very possibly be the end of adult businesses in SL. A lot of people will not come here if they have to provide personal info & get verified to be able to buy adult items. I hope the Linden's have thoroughly thought this out before they drive most of their income out of town.

Instead of making people move their businesses, and forcing people to divulge their personal information to be able to roam freely on the grid, why not fix the search features and call it a day. If you don't want to see anything to do with sex, the search window won't pull it up, unless you type it in. If you do, its your fault and free will in doing so. If you are not of age to be seeing such things, you aren't supposed to be on the adult grid in the first place. If you are, then your caregiver isn't doing their job from keeping you off of it. Granted, I'm aware its not as easy as waving a magic wand and all sex will be blocked out of search, but fixing that aspect versus moving businesses and half the grid to a whole other continent will be much harder to implement. It's like moving the entire world, minus Austrailia, (merely an example) to another planet because they don't want to hear anybody that doesn't have their accent speak.

Bah, anyway, off my soap box. It's not like anything we say is going to matter anyway. It's already been done.

TLMars Bookmite, It seems I must use very plain language to communicate in this forum. It is almost as though many of the participants barely speak English. Points must be hard and sharp to penetrate the fog.

It doesn't seem clear to many in this discussion that there is any stigma against the sex trade. But in fact, there is. That is a hard, sharp reality, and it is the key motivation for this policy change.

Any pain that point of reality causes you is not intended personally. It is simply the point of this particular discussion.

I don't believe SL will be purged of 90% of its economic base. It may be purged of 90% of your economic base if you are engaged in sex trade.

There are astonishing opportunities to use this technology for real world business and education - so many it is difficult to begin to narrow the scope down to something that can be said in 10 minutes, I am discovering.

There are many, many kinds of businesses on the internet besides sex. Evidently, some of us here haven't noticed that.

...and by doing my best to avoid eye contact with the above - has anyone got any idea about the many, many non-English speaking folk in SL, as to whether the information has carried across the language barrier. As far as I see, there's been no attempt by LL to display this information in another language other than English (I may be wrong, maybe I just can't find it) - are any of the non-English threads picking up on this? (Italian, Japanese, German, Korean - p.s. that seems a small list, where's French?)

P.P.S. I'm the owner of a non-adult RL business and have been for 15 years - and yes, I enjoy SL for a range of activities, including nasty, dirty sex with all manner of species.

2000!

would be great if LL would put it in more language, because i got no clue still what is going to happen.

together with my partner i got a sex place (20k of a sim) bought from Dreamland (on a mature sim of course).

do we have to move (again) also? (last time was the openspace prices that went sky high)
i got no clue yet..maybe someone can tell me in simple english (or dutch!)

thank you

Bumped for awnsers!

The upcoming adult changes blog has now appeared to have dropped off the main list of blog posts due to a new post, ''Inside the Lab' Podcast: Meet Long-Time Linden Andrew Meadows in Press'

/me sighs

I would suggest, again, that, since one has to open an account and log in to Second Life, the whole place is private. There is no 'public' in the sense that network television or a RL park is public. What am I missing here?

And of course because you are so much better then us we deserve to be put out of business so that you can thrive. Next in our dictionary game you can look up arrogance.

I do have to agree somewhat, there are astonishing opportunities for real world business and education, however: (!) you do not determine what type of real business and/or education should be allowed to benefit.

If we continue to use Xcite! as an example they have a new(ish) line of products called Xcite Touch which allows users to purchase an item in game and in the real world and have them interact, now in this case yes it is a sex toy seeing as it is from Xcite!. But what makes them less worthy then say, IBM or Microsoft from making money?

Because you say so? Because your personal opinion and the opinion of your like minded constituents say so?

Xcite! has employees, they have production costs, they run stores, they have a bottom line to look after and a customer base to serve. Is Microsoft or any other RL company any different in the criteria that makes them a company?

What defines who deserves to make money and who doesn't? If you think it's you then your arrogance is truly unmatched.

The adult/sex/porn/bdsm (etc) businesses deserve to make money as much as the next guy.

Logging in via the French portal (http://fr.secondlife.com/) and following the link to 'Communaute' results in - guess what? - the English version of the blog (http://secondlife.com/community/) and links to the English language forums. Only the account information pages are in the native language, and it seems that other non-English portals are the same.

Unless you are a competent English speaker, therefore, you don't have access to any of the information or discussion being disseminated in the blog or forums.