Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

Thank you very much

Keep up the good work then!

-V-

Any chance of Linden Lab addressing the estate issue? Mainland is their continent, they're offering help to mainland owners but why are they not offering help to estate owners or renters? The silence from LL on this issue is deafening but they are creating a problem via their policy, estate owners and renters deserve respect.

Hmmm?

Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Old Giggleswickian
Old Gower
Old Gregorian
Old Greshamian
Old Gold
Outpost Gallifrey
Own Goal,
Optimized Gaia
Original Gangster
Objective Glass
Original Gravity
Offensive Guard
Olympic Games
the IATA airline code for One-Two-GO Airlines.
Olive Garden
Opera Ghost

Presuming we accept a new 'Adult'/'Xtreme' continent as a given, Linden Lab has to overcome two major problems: 1) defining 'Adult'/'Xtreme' and 2) getting people to move there. Unfortunately, Linden Lab is taking a brute force approach to the problems. I believe there is a better way of doing things.

Give Ursula an 'Xtreme' rating. Don't use the term 'adult' because it is impossible to define 'adult' objectively. The only clear and objective definition of 'adult' throughout most of the world is legal age, usually 18+. All other definitions of 'adult' are subjective, arbitrary and problematic. While 'Xtreme' can't be defined objectively either, one intuitively understands it better as a subset of 'adult'. To use a fancy expression from Philosophy, the definition of 'Xtreme' has higher 'Intersubjective Agreement' than 'adult'.

With that in mind:

Offer land in Ursula to existing mainland residents who DEFINE THEMSELVES or their businesses as 'Xtreme'. Odds are high that most residents whom Linden Lab wants to move will do so voluntarily based on their own self-definition of 'Xtreme'. This saves a world of pain for everyone.

With that in mind:

Use the carrot instead of the stick. Offer incentives (fee tier for a year, an escrow service for internal parcel swaps should businesses conflict etc.). Market Ursula as a garden instead of a ghetto.

With that in mind:

Sell the remaining land via auction (full sims, various sized parcels) to all residents who are account verified (CC/PayPal/Aristotle/alternatives).

While this strategy is not perfect, I believe the desire for perfection thwarts most strategies. Far better, in my opinion, for Linden Lab to encourage 70% of the target group to move cheerfully than force 100% to move begrudgingly. With patience and a generous incentive structure, Linden Lab may see 95% of the target group move voluntarily within one year.

Really? Do you have some verifiable source that this is the case, or are you guessing?

No, that is where Blondin said it would be done, somewhere a few eons ago in this thread.

*****
A while back i did try posting in some groups about proposed changes and the need for views to be expressed....as a result i was even banned from one lol.... some people you just can't help...hopefully more will now understand the implications and have a desire to get their views counted.

As a further 'aside' without backreading has the situation been aired where someone owns AND ALSO rents land for 'adult' purposes? Whilst the land exchange would cover ownership what of the possible prim losses from the rental portion? especially if the landlord doesn't want to transfer to adult or may not be aware their land is used for the purpose.

The complaint is pretty simple here. LL says "We want your opinion about this idea we have"

They get a chorus of "This is the wrong thing to do! don't do this!"
They get a bunch of alternatives and explanations about the flaws in their plan
They say "We're doing it anyway- it's a done deal"
We say "What about X,Y, and Z, without which nothing more than a vague notion is possible?"
They say "We're still deciding that"
We say "What? How can you be this far along in your process without having considered *vital* factors like, oh... *WHAT CONSTITUTES "ADULT" CONTENT???"
They say "that's why we're talking to you, to get your opinion about what constitutes adult content."
We say "well, give us some guidelines"
They say "Only the most extreme stuff! crunchy decapitations, dismemberment, and strip clubs and hookers!"

We scratch out heads and say, "maybe you better decide on a definition first"


LL has done everything bass-ackwards.
They decided to "clean things up" and put all the pervs off on their own island so the rest of SL could be a nice place to bring your business or your kids.
Rather than deciding where they thought the lines should be and then negotiating them, they instead started re-writing the viewer code, and building Pornotopia.

At some point about 6 months later, they put out a blog post about "changes to adult content" to try and get some idea of how people would react-
I don't doubt for a second that the Blog post was anything more than a trial balloon
floated by a concerned marketing department, or as a sign of good faith to some business that's waiting in the wings to either buy into SL or Buy Linden Research Inc. outright.

The reason that conversation is so disorganized was that they weren't ready to *have* a conversation about it. This conversation should have been at the *beginning* of the process. They went and skipped the "planning" stage, and went directly to an on the fly execution of a vague notion.


Hell, if LL had said something like "Hey guys, we really would like to clean up the mainland and start verifying all accounts, but we want to do it without dropping the anonymous freebie account. You see, we're trying to attract some business elements and they're kinda straight-laced, and well, we can't have flying penises everywhere. "

Do you think that they would have gotten much of an argument from any of us here? We would have made the same suggestions that we're making now- for *effective* non-disruptive ways to accomplish their goals.
Contrary to what some might believe, just because you want to get your freak on once in a while doesn't mean that you're a fan of flying penises.

LL is the one who said that they wanted our our opinion. we're giving it to them. One of our opinions is that they haven't thought this through carefully enough, and they need to go back a few steps, gather more and better information, and try again with a fresh plan.


-V-

I fully expect that someone other than Blondin will be in charge of final decisions! But LL has left *way* too much undecided and undefined to be as far along in the process as they are.
To expect them to handle the moving of the laughable "2%-4%" of mainland parcels to Ursula without pain, agony and angst, Sturm und Drang, Donner und Blitzen, and above all *drama*...

Well that just goes against the historical record of the last couple of years, doesn't it?

I'm really trying to participate in the discussion here, but there's really not enough info from LL's side of the table- that leaves us planning for the worst case- because that is what we have learned to expect around here.

I firmly believe that if LL does things on a "first come first served" basis, then the lot of us will either pay through the nose for land or have to settle for unsuitable locations, because some freakin' *bot* will have bought everything before we can get there.

LL has a metaphorical *gun* to our collective heads. we're simply trying to decide *when* they will pull the trigger, not *if*. Either way, SL as we know it will be over.
This is an *unforced* change made at the whim of someone in the organization, and it flies in the face of the Linden Tao. They have abandoned their principles and now we are seeing it.

I didn't get into SL for philosophical reasons- I'm not one of the new frontier, I am here to have fun and maybe make a few bucks along the way. But LL *did* do this for philosophical reasons. SL has been up to it's eyeballs in "magical mystery tour" jargon and attitudes since I first heard about it years ago. In fact, one of the reasons I didn't come here at first was because I couldn't see the utility of a virtual world where I coulg go and just "be".

Obviously, I changed my mind, but LL has no excuses here.

They founded their company on a philosophy, and sold their product to their customers with that corporate philosophy as a part of the product. They sold people a big box of electronic tinker-toys and said "Go play! No limits!"

The real world intruded a couple of times over the years- no age play, no unchartered banks, no gambling, restrictions on the currency, but those were all from *outside*.

There were screw-ups too- Openspace for one.

But this is the first time that LL simply *decided* to make a change this big without consultation with the residents over whether it *should be done, isn't it? I mean, they poll residents about which *bugs in the viewer to fix first* for crying out loud!

Don't you think that there should have been one tiny little poll? One little splash screen notice? maybe a blue drop-down card that says "Hey gang, we had a thought-..."

I mean, *something*?

Why should I have any confidence in LL these days? different people are running the railroad, and the Tao has been revised and redacted.

-V-

Or a sexually active eggplant in Ursula

"Opulent Garniture"

-V-

This was a generic answer posted at 04-14-2009, 03:31 PM. it is post #2394

In answering the question about "how do we know when to sign up to get moved?", Blondin gave an answer that applies to the whole program. Notice that there's nothing in there about "in-world" announcements.

I suspect that if we make enough noise, they'll add an in-world announcement. but from answers like this one, I don't think that they *plan* to.

-V-

V, you just have a way with words. For those that missed it... i had to go back like 10+ pages to find it......



This was in response to his... First come first served theory of how to get Ursula populated from people they are FORCING to move.

my response was.....



I post it again.... simply because i honestly don't think Blondin actually goes back and reads all this. Did i mention anywhere here that JUST from looking at the Map.. I want Ursula # 149?
I'm JUST sayin.....*I* am ADULT CONTENT! Following the rules is not equal to LIKING them.

~Brie

Funny you should mention that...

-V-

and this ladies and gentlemen is the essence of the 20,000ish forum responses.

I wanted to ask a (possibly stupid) question:

What will be the difference between the new (cleansed) Mature sims and PG sims....or will the 'Mature' & 'PG' categories now be merged?

A clearly adult content club currently operates on the mainland from a parcel owned by the club group. The club does not own a region, and obviously not an Estate. It seems VERY likely that the club will have to move to Ursala, and I suppose be traded a parcel there of equal size (and shape?) as its mainland parcel.

Question 1: Who then will control access settings for the Estate and Region in which the club's new parcel on Ursala is located? I would suppose that would be LL.

Question 2: If the answer to question 1 is as I suppose, then what will be the LL default Estate and Region access settings on Ursala? Since the estate and region access settings are applied first and are not under control of parcel owners, the answers to these questions will obviously have great impact on the viability of the move for a parcel-based business.

Please try to clarify this... we are not all large corporations owning islands, estates, regions, etc. Some of us just operate from a fair sized mainland parcel, and I have not seen this simple situation addressed at all though there has been voluminous discussion of how to set estate and region access controls.

Thanks in advance for any clarification you can give.

The existing "PG" sims are being downgraded to a "G" rating. No more "sex beds in skyboxes" unless you're just using them as furniture.

The existing "M" sims are going to allow full frontal nudity, but no explicit sexual activity except in private.

You'll be able to shoot people with scripted weapons in both places, though.

Have to love the accuracy and consistency of age verification working.

Just the other day one of my characters could get on the age-verified parcel next door, but the other could not. Neither are verified.

Now the one it worked for can not get on it. I have yet to test it with the other one. I asked another neighbor who walked right on it and aristotle has never worked for her anyways, so she is not verified but on the parcel!

Well, that opens up another whole area...I for one had not heard about a tightening or changing of the PG definition.

Is this official and does this mean that not only is there going to be an exodus from Mature to Adult sims...

But that those who currently reside in PG sims and have been known to change outfits within the privacy of their own homes without ensuring they put on underwear layers before removing outer layers (so now would be in voilation of the absolutely no full frontal nudity rules) will need to sell up and move to Mature areas or fear the wrath of the LL enforcers?

The estate/Region will be JUST like living on current mainland that LL controls, except, by Default, it will be Flagged ADULT, requiring age verification and/or payment info on file/used

This means... Your Group owned land, will stil be group owned land, BUT... none of your employees will be able to access it unless they are age verified and/or payment info on file/used...We are still waiting for them to clairfy this.

Even if the scripted weapon is the penis gun?

Just as long as it shoots blanks.

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