Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

I do not like your proposed definition. Sorry, but I live on mature mainland and will not qualify for the free move to Ursula, yet you are still proposing to remove my freedoms as to what I do in the privacy of my own home within SL? So then this will effect even more people under this definition, and I'd definitely be moving to the Adult Continent. Lindens have already stated that they will do nothing to help those of us not forced to move, but simply wanting the same amount of freedoms they currently enjoy on their mature parcels. I don't think we should be trying to include more people into a this move, but screwing them over even harder in the deal. Why make the targeted audience for land extortion larger?

In the Educators' Brown Bag meeting, JP Linden said this (I've transcribed verbatim from the audio transcript):

“...and we’re also going to create a separate PG designation which is going to be an option for anyone that wants what you’d think of as a truly clean somewhat more maybe isolated experience so that they don’t have to associate if they don’t want to with any other sort of y’know gameplay that goes on that might not be adult but might appear in that sort of mid-range category of region designations.”

followed by:

“it’ll create a healthy layer of assurance that kids - minors - are not going to get into regions and parcels that have real adult activity y’know going on in them, and you’ve probably read about some of the stuff we’re seeing already; that stuff that we don’t want kids to get into and they’re places that frankly, the owners of that land and the operators of those businesses don’t want kids to be in so we think that’s a win/win. And finally, by creating this PG designation, we - we pave the way to other potential use cases, other ways to um y’know set educators or other y’know groupings of PG activity apart, whether y’know that means in search, or conceptually, or some other way. We don’t know exactly where that’s going to head, but we think it’s a good idea to begin that discussion where we see PG clean experience that may have y’know special uses in Second Life and - and ah, y’know, of particular interest to some people."

When questioned at a subsequent meeting, LL said that there are no plans at this stage to introduce a new super-clean PG rating on top of what we already have, but that a PG continent would be considered if there was enough demand.

Making existing PG 'cleaner' is full of holes, given that Mature and PG parcels exist side by side. I think LL has a very clear plan of its ultimate intention, but doesn't plan to share that with us anytime soon - hence the continued muddying of the waters.

Thank you Brieanne, the answer as you describe is just as I expected, but I would like to see a statement to this effect by a Linden. Can you refer me to one? That is, that Linden controlled settings on Ursala will be public access with Age Verification (either by Aristotle or Payment Info) required at the estate and region levels??

We are all waiting on concrete answers form the Lindens... what i told you is quoted from Blondin's posts earlier in this thread

U have to be kidding....Mr Blondin is in hiding.....only thing they have is paper thin...everyone needs to wake up! money talks and shit walks...they could care less about what we say

Will it be possible to trade single-primmed Mainland for double-primmed in "Ursula City"?

As described below, I think it would be best if this were the case, although I honestly don't know what ratio of trade is "fair" here. On the surface it would seem that 2-for-1 would be fair, but that may be short-changing LL of tier, so maybe it should be 1-for-1 to require the same monthly fee from the owner. But that ignores the (probable) value of the double-primmed land, so maybe 2-for-1 or even some higher ratio would be more appropriate.

Anyway, whatever is fair, I think it's important that this be possible. Ursula is getting pretty large now, and unless there's some way to encourage existing Adult content to settle in the "urban" center from the start, that part of the continent is going to fall prey to the same market forces that have made Bay City and Nautilus City such dismal failures: a sparsely settled "city" that looks like a futuristic "For Sale" sign adfarm on steroids.

It's not that all nor even most of the Adult landowners will want an urban setting with a futuristic theme. I expect many of the larger landowners will want the space and thematic latitude of a full or half-sim of Gothic grandeur. That's cool. But unless that city area is pretty much filled from the start, it's going to be just another expensive eyesore--and another lost opportunity for making the Mainland competitive.

Renting was covered at the brown bag and basically if you rent it is up to the landowner to decide how they want to go, adult or mature. Basically LL said that they will not help renters. The exact wording i cannot remember, i just wish they would hurry up and make the dam recording available to everyone.

As they always do



That i think is pretty close to the mark based on LL history with this sort of thing although this is one of the biggest cock ups to date imho

Totally agree with you its the crazy figures they have put forward as i would say maybe in the extreme corner yes it maybe close, however in the overall adult content picture i would imagine its a number much higher than LL supposes or even we as customers imagine.



I agree it is hard to participate in any discussion or debate when you do not have all the facts on the table to discuss also the last brown bag which i attended has a lot of answers to questions here, yet still as of posting this reply it is not available for everyone to listen to and that is what makes me cross.



Jack said at the meeting that they would not let the land speculators in until everyone was moved that had to be forced move, now how true that pans out to be is another matter, but i hope for everyones sake it is correct. We own a sim and do not particularly mind where we go except we would like flat green, so we are easily pleased and we are also in a position to rebuild in a fairly short time as we run a business from home so we do have the time and could easily re-build in the 9 days, but many are not that lucky thats for certain. Again Jack said that the 9 days were not decided for sure and they would judge things on a case by case situation.

Again they need to make this and other facts clear as i am just another customer like everyone else here and shouldn't be having to impart information from a meeting 5 days ago to my fellow customers. LL should have taken care of it especially when it was said that the audio would be available in a couple of days after the meeting. Although as i attended the meeting i feel responsible to say what was said that i can remember, but to still be doing it 5 days later is crazy lol



I cannot disagree with this statement at all and SL will be a totally different place after the changes, but good or bad well imo that is still to be seen. But i do not believe the sky is falling in as yet.



Haha i am becoming an oldie now after trying it out in 03 then re joining in 05 after RL took me away with work for 2 years, but that is not the point. It matters not if someone has been here for 6 years or 6 weeks, this affects us all directly or indirectly and that is what matters and as i have stated over and over i am for the separate adult content, but NOT this forced move situation, but this should have been done a long time ago and not now the way they are doing it with no honest thought for those affected imho and certainly LL should be more Honest with us as customers.



I agree they should have polled everyone from the start and started these brown bag meetings long ago, in fact as i have said a while back, resident feedback could have been sought from those of us that run adult content and those that would have been affected. I would have signed an NDA if it meant that i would have had better input on these changes before they happened as i am sure would many others. LL has at its disposal the best bunch of brains and skill sets at their disposal who are passionate about this crazy world and who i am sure would gladly donate their time for free to issues such as this but do they want to take advantage of this fact...... No they sure don't seem to want to, so go figure

Governor Linden



The existing estate controls will be as for all mainland - i.e. allow everyone regardless of PIU/PIOF or Aristotle verification.

The matuiry rating of a region, which can currently be set to PG or Mature will include a new rating of Adult. All land on Ursula will be set to Adult (rather than Mature or PG). The new server code will prevent access to any region (mainland or private) which has a maturity rating of Adult, unless the user has set a checkbox in the viewer to say that they wish to see Adult content. When access is denied in this fashion, a message explaining way will be displayed by the viewer. Only those who are PIU/PIOF or Aristotle verified will be able to change this setting to allow access to adult content.

Matthew

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.[/QUOTE]

This was how Blondin answered that question



However, in practice:

Anyone running a nude beach outside of Ursula will find themselves ARed frequently enough to want to move anyway.

A dance club with (fake) "alcohol" and dancing, I thought was currently PG. (I'm sure I've seen even G rated films where someone drinks in a bar or dances). Certainly I'd have no problem drinking alcohol in front of my grandmother or even with my grandmother (the current PG test).

Combat sims covers a wide ground. Most of the discussion on Adult content has concentrated on sexual content, so it is even less clear what the intention for violence and combat is. I would have thought that a combat sim might be deemed PG or Adult (as well as mature) depending on the level of violence - e.g. a paintball or snowball combat sim would probably be PG (again throwing snowballs passes the grandmother test for PG), whereas a combat sim with particle effect blood letting and strewn with dismembered bodies would probably be Adult.

I wasn't aware that lingerie shops were not allowed on PG land - unless the vendor images were particularly explicit (but in that case, those images might push it into Adult). Again you'll sometimes see lingerie shops in G rated movies.

And private builds, we then have the problem of what constitutes private versus public. If you remain on mature land and have adult content up in a skybox, then you can't advertise events or locations on that land, even if they are in places on that land where there is no adult content. Again most people with adult content will consider Ursula just to be on the safe side.

Matthew

This post is now crazy long and nothing concrete is happening. Is it possible that LL have realized their adult continent plan is unworkable and have quietly dropped it? And just letting us rant while they are getting on with something completely different?

just a thought

K

I have edited it heavily, but this is possibly one of the most sane posts I have seen on how this could work better. Deltango, thank you for posting this idea.

nope, their aims are twofold, to clean up second life and to make more cash, when LL are quiet it just means they have stopped communicating with its residents.
As someone pointed out, one solitary linden cannot be trusted to speak for LL, "blondin" is just PR giving lip service and he's not good at it.

Will the Moles distribute a content pack corresponding to the Linden infrastructure on Ursula, most especially including as many as possible of the textures used in their builds?

A common palette of textures available for use in new builds on the continent can go a long way in reducing download delays and making rendering more efficient, as well as encouraging some thematic coherence.

This was done in Bay City and Nautilus City, and should be done for Ursula, too.

In fact, it would be helpful to have that content in advance of the moves if it can be ready, so that it can be incorporated in some builds from day one.

Why are they themeing Ursula? From what I've read here it's supposed to be a futuristic theme? Not everyone who is being told to move has their place in such a setting, do they?
Isn't making people move and then putting theme in a setting they may not want adding insult to injury?

....That one of the consequences of making the new 'Adult' areas only accessible to 'age/identity verified', will be that the new PG & 'cleaned up' Mature areas will the hangout for any who don't wish their identity traceable.

Yes, it will make the new 'Adult' areas safer, but will not offer any real safeguards about who is roaming the rest of the grid.

Those whose intent is not benign will be only able to operate within the areas that supposedly being 'cleaned up' by this move.

If the long term intention (or wish) of LL is actually to open the main grid to non-adults (teens) and offer a 'healthy level of reassurance' about what those teens may encounter...

Then...
- either LL will be looking to also monitor ALL Voice, IM and Media content
or
- it will be an inevitable necessary step to require age/identity verification of ALL residents throughout the grid and this is probably something residents should be aware will be in the pipeline.


[A radical alternative would be to require identity verification of those allowed onto the new PG & Mature sims (so they can be held accountable for keeping their behavior 'decent') and let those who wish 'to walk in cloaks of mystery' only to access the crimson lit streets of Ursula - caveat emptor.]

I just thought I'd add this to the mix. It's the LL ToS for XSL.



so there you have their definition of pg. The question arises as to what out of the exclusions are mature vs adult.

Now THAT I'd like to see!

umm... not a lot, by the look of it...

I came to the conclusion a while back that the only direction in which LL could ultimately be heading was to make existing mainland fully PG.

What will be the new slogan on the website-header, since Your World. Your Imagination is not true?

This is exactly what they have been saying all along... It will be impossible to access the entire Ursula continent unless the av attempting to do so is considered a "known" adult - PIOF/PIU or Aristotle age-verified. Parcel flags restricting access will be applied as they are now, so parcel owners can fine-tune who in that larger set may access their land - age verified only or payment info on file only - but there will be no unverified and NPIOF users on the continent, because those folks will be prohibited from travelling there.

If they dont verify or get payment into in before this happens theres going to be a lot of dancers, hosts/hostesses and escorts suddenly out of work, because they wont be able to access the new location of their place of employment or anywhere else that their trade is permitted inworld.

i suggest "our world, our rules and we can change them whenever we like so stfu"

This whole thing is insult to injury. They give us nothing to go on, sit & let rumors run rampant, all while saying...."We care what you have to say" Yeah... I am calling BULLSHIT. They want the cash... it doesn't matter what we say. 5 years in SL is enough for me, and there's a lot that agree, and have realized as well, this is nothing more than them handing us a new $2 toy to play with while they go about their original plan, regardless of what we say or do. It amazes me that there are so many protest groups about this... yet when anyone offers up something concrete to hand LL as a united front, very few people are willing to add their name to it.

Blondin drew the short stick, and got stuck being lip service here... and Sorry Blondin, i know its a lot, but seriously dude, you could act like you at least care. If you take the time to read from the beginning to here, the story has changed, out of LL's own mouth, a few times. Its a clear case of the left hand is doing exactly what it wants while the right hand pats us on the head and pretends to give a shit.

There have been numerous GREAT ideas posted here, and as of yet, Blondin has sidestepped every single one of them to and done nothing but give vague answers to the questions He HAS answered.



and also...



~Brie

And the fact that LL has not made any type of INWORLD announcement...nothing more than the blogs/forums... start visiting the Escort Agencies, The Strip clubs, the *pure adult venues* and simply ask... "So you have an opinion on the upcoming changes in SL about adult content and the new continent?" and see how many blank stares you get, and how many people brush you off, cause they simply do not believe its coming.

~Brie