Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

The OSS stuff is a mess for other reasons too, they work on a different texture system with lots of crashes included, some build system changes and this silly adult stuff all mixed up a bit. Guess they should focus on things that work, which would mean shelve 1.23 and fix some of the real problems instead of silly adult witch hunting.

I've heard a few people say they know people who have already tiered down or closed up shop due to all this hassle.

Lord Sullivan, maybe it would be worth having a section on the wiki that keeps track of who has left (i.e. businesses, sims, groups)

The SLURL is in my sig line

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hamchorom/31/226/803

Its all full perms BTW

Very good. Let's boycott xstreet.

here are the number of posts:

open sim scam : total posts: 2,648
adult content scam: total posts: 18,632

No comment.

Now just because i run a business from home doesn't mean i can spend all day here lol

send me an email and i will start a page from the main page or you better start learning and you can help admin it

PS: I am just off to bed but have created the link on the main wiki page - Night all and play nice

the biggest concern i have is that LL could pull the rug at any time,
remember openspaces?

So when its all done and we are settled in their new world, try not to blink.. you could just lose your land overnight.

ok so angry I said a lota things I really meant BUT I deleted them cause I'm a wooose
the vast majority of ppl don't read the blogs-they came here to play! you gonna have to do better than put it into blogs and think that covers it-or informs the large number of ppl as to what is happening

I just read 30 or more pages of posts and cannot tell you why this is being done, or what the motive is at all>this didn't grow in a vacuum , there's a belief system behind this somewhere
i hear a figure of how many sims are on this adult continent- I seriously think someone is dreaming if they think they can get all the adult sims on there
If the adult classification is painted with a wide brush it'll sink the thing-if it isn't-it wont do what the goal is-I'm reasonably sure I'm rite about that

I think a much better solution is make a continent for pg ppl and confine them there-it would be much easier the easily offended ppl -keep them in one place -it's simpler-give them a special name tag-so when you meet one you'll know it's them.

I think ll must think everyone reads blogs-they don't- they in world playin if a club owner hadn't sent me this link I wouldn't have even looked for it-it would never occur to me at all. ppl in my groups don't know anything about this at all when they first hear of this they are all goin "WHAT? --WHY?" I just read thirty pages and cannot give any answer to either question

we going to have to give very sensitive personal information to get age verified? does ll have a large liability bond to cover the potential consequences -what are the security guarantees? I want to know-dont you? and I want to know why- if i'm being asked to give my most personal details-I want to know why

I went and looked @ the new continent -OMG if I have to move there from where I'm @ now-I think everyone thats posting outa just stop typing and go look @ where you are gonna end up then come back here and say what you think

How did you get into the new continent Axtel?

LL's statement about requests to move can be refused is blatantly flawed...we bought into mature land where 'almost' anything goes...whether we had it there or not...we *COULD* ...therefore all requests for relocation to Ursula must be accepted surely?

Did the millions of potential customers baulk at using SL because of the hard drive hungry, graphic card killing performance requirements? like every John and Jane Doe owns a top of the range computer.

****
Quote Lasher Oh

We made sure that we bought land in the same sim even though it wasn't always right next to our central location, because this gave us the chance to add more prim heavy furniture and features for our group members to use.
I now have a genuine fear that when this purge gets underway LL will tell us that we can only relocate half our territory because the other half doesn't seem to be Adult.
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EXACTLY...how much land is owned but nearly empty to provide the prims for the hungry sex store/club/whatever? the venue might cover 512 sqm but packed with the prim allowance of 4 times that+ maybe? I can hear it now....heres the 512...here's your relocated store tough you dont have enough prims left to actually stock it..........


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Spread the word in your groups but be careful how...one brief alert post got me banned from a group regardless of the fact i had a STORE in said group..needless to say i packed it up and left them to their NIM(B)GroupY igrorance.

Would huge prims hovering over our plots with a prim 'say no' type message be against the TOS? we could turn the map a colour of our choice?

How do I get one of these prtest card thingys?

OK.. one protest toy coming up. It's called.. "have you been shafted by Linden Labs?"

I've designed this primarily as an attention seeking notecard giver. The notecard gives an overview and links to the various resources.

I'm going to put it up on XSL so everyone can grab it..

I have two choices: I can either give it away free or I can sell it for 10L. If I sell it and enough people buy it then it should go scooting up to the top of the popular products listing - despite the fact I'll have to put it in the mature area.. This means it will get more drive-by eyeballs on it

so, which way do you suggest?

I've also set up a flickr group, so people can post pictures of them on the toy and their affected businesses and/or homes. This is the public face of the protest. If it's a quiet day for a media outlet, you just never know - it may attract attention. It also allows us to show LL just how many people are affected by this.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/we_are_adult_content/ I've already put mine up there.

Here's the text of the notecard that I was planning on having it dispense. If anyone wants to suggest changes then all are gratefully accepted - I wrote it very quickly.




Thanks to the generosity of Ayla Holt for the animation and Da5id Weatherwax for the *ahem* male member sculptie.

and it's in the doorway of my shop if you want to seeit.. or you can drop me an IM and I'll drop you a copy over.

My summary version. Copy and spread as necessary:

Linden Labs is planning on separating "Adult Content" from people who are not verified to see it. This is a summary of the plans coming from reading their blog and forum posts about it.

(1) What is this all about?

Separating what they define as "adult content" from SL people who are not verified to see it.
The Blog post is here:

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/04/21/update--upcoming-changes-for-adult-content

The definitions are on this page:

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6010

There have been thousands of forum comments on the subject already, with a few answers from Blondin Linden on this thread:

/352/11/314444/1.html


(2) How will they do this?

Right now, land has two categories, Mature, and PG, and there are no limits to anyone to visit them. They will add a new category, Adult, and only people who have been verified will be able to visit/TP, or see search results for adult places.

They are creating a new mainland continent, Ursula, which will be all adult rated sims. Adult rated estates/islands will stay where they are. Some clubs and businesses will have to move to the Ursula, if Linden Labs decides they have to. You can see the Ursula sims on the in-world map if you search for that sim name, but you cant visit it yet.

(3) What is verified?

https://secure-web7.secondlife.com/account/verification.php?lang=en

go to the SL website, log in to your account, then use either the "Age Verification" or "Update Billing Information" links on the left in the blue area. Either one will work. They are accepting government ID, or valid credit card/paypal to prove you are adult.

If you spent outside money on XStreet that will also verify you. Transferring L$ from second life does not.

(4) What is the timing?

It is planned to be announced generally to SL in a few weeks, and the actual changes in June/July.

(5) How does this affect you?

If you have an adult club or business, it will have to be located on an adult rated sim. If you work at or visit such a place, you will have to be verified to reach it. The definition of "adult" is pretty broad - if its advertised in search, it is restricted to only verified people.

(6) Any chance of it not happening?

They already have decided to do this whether we like it or not. The changes to the sim/server software to enable the adult category have already been rolled out in version 1.26.2.
The changes to the client software (what runs on your home computer) will be coming in the next version (1.23).

(7) Does this mean I cant use my sex bed at home/other adult stuff in private?

Comments from the Linden staff have been on both sides of this issue. In general, if its in private then it can stay in a mature region, but at times the following has been said to make it public: Ad or event listed in search, sending out notecards, advertising on the web outside of SL.

Thats it for the known facts, the rest of this is my personal opinions:
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( Problems with this change/workarounds/unanswered issues

(a) It does not really verify you are over 18.
It only proves you could get the right information to put in the website, or spent money with Linden Labs. Even then, if an adult verifies an account, an underage person could later log in on that account. Fake ID info has worked for some people.

(b) It will lose business for adult places in many ways:
Newbies who have not verified yet will not be able to visit or search for them. Even if a newbie wants to find adult stuff, if nobody can let him know how to verify, he wont find out. Any place that has to move will make its old landmarks obsolete and probably lose rank in search

(c) Not everyone will verify
People might not want to link their adult fetishes with their real identity by verifying, or trust the third party site that does the verifying, and so not everyone will do it

(d) Mainland Mature and PG regions will not be adult free after this:
Freelance escorts can still hang around non-adult areas and solicit customers, even if the landowner doesn't directly encourage it. Newbies can still wander around naked with their cock attached. People on private land can still do their thing, and everyone else can still ppek via camera controls, or just see it if its outdoors

Search will be gamed:
Whatever naughty adult words are excluded from search, people will use another word that will become known as meaning "sex" or "prostitute". The word "escort" is itself a substitute used in real life for "prostitute" because advertising for that directly is illegal. An example from red light areas in real life would be "Live Girls".

Words often have more than one meaning... breast cancer, and pussy cats are innocent meanings. The Dictionary of Sexual Terms - contains 24150 terms and expressions, 47000 synonyms. Banning all of them would be about the same as banning the english language entirely, not to mention other languages.

(f) The actual details of moving people suck.
They are wanting to do it first come, first served, only exchanging land for equal area land, not identical land. 9 days is not enough time to move a complex build. Under a first come system, a small landowner can take a key spot in a sim, blocking larger landowners. If your new parcel is a different shape, or on different terrain, you would have to rebuild to accomodate, its not a simple take to inventory, and drop on a new location. Older and larger builds often have items from many people, not all of which still log in.

(g) Its all or nothing by sim:
Private island sims with only *one* adult item, will have to flag the *whole* sim as adult, meaning other users will be shut out, even if they live there.

All the announcements and discussion so far have been in english only, shutting out non-english speakers from even knowing what's up.

(9) Good things about this change

Really, there are good things? Maybe.....

(a) It will reduce griefing by unverified players (they will not be able to visit adult areas, so restricting them to only parts of the grid) and reduce the number of underage players on the main grid. The present system of asking birth date when creating an account barely prevents anyone from getting in.

(b) It will open up land on the mainland and probably drop land prices.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I just pasted it into a notecard and sent it to my group members in world.

Thanks DanielRavenNest Noe for the great summary. I posted it to my groups just now. You explained it so much better than I could have.

Use a credit card + ask date of birth (on account registration page) will filter out more minors than just date of birth (what happens now). The actual percentage filtered out, I dont know, maybe someone who runs an outside adult business would know.

As I pointed out in my summary, there will still be lots of adult activity on the non-adult mainland after this plan is put in place. It will be a little harder to find, but still there.

Take a guess, please.

Do you think it'll filter out 25%? 50%? 90%??

I think it'll be around 25% max, mostly because prepaid cards are so easy to get and we're talking about sneaky little buggers who already lied to get on the adult grid.

Not worth the pain, IMO.

Thanks Couldbe Yue and Ayla Holt, I'll get it and display as soon as it's available (thinks L10 is money well spent). Meanwhile I have prepared 'Ursala Sucks!' protest posters available for liberal circulation which I will attempt to make available through xstreet as well (uncensored of course) or IM me for a copy folks and a huge thx to DanielRavenNest Noe for his superbly laid out explanation of where things are at

OK

The protest toy is out on XSL as a freebie:

https://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1416611

buy, set it out and give it a rating.. high ratings add to the popularity sort for items which means it will end up being eyeballed by more people..

Please post the link to all your groups and encourage them to take a picture of themselves with it and post it to the flickr group. The flickr group is the one place we can show our numbers, both to LL and to any passing media.

if there's any obvious errors it would be good to tell me, it's 2.30am here now so I'm off to bed and will sort it out in the morning when I put the homepage listing up (very generously sponsored by Ayla Holt).

If someone could post to the I *am* adult content group that would be good. I'm not inworld atm..

Oh! I know! I know!

2-4%!

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The Junior Achievement (JA) organization and The Allstate Foundation recently conducted a poll of 1,065 teenagers and found that teens are establishing credit at an early age.

Eleven percent of teens have credit cards in their names. The percentage increases with age, with 6.2 percent owning credit cards at ages 13-14 and 21 percent at age 18 and up.

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So, thats a *minimum* of the number of teens with access to credit card info. Add those who "borrow" their parents' cards, legally, or not, and prepaid cards, their best friend's card, etc. If I had to guess, I would say 50%.

You might add a link to the wiki page on Adult Content in the description.

In europe we say always "americans dont know what they do" and this newest asskick from you LindenLab confirms this phrase! Since just two years are you tinkering around and with the age verification. Its basically a good idea to prevents childs from abuse BUT have you ever thinked that the most of this perverted people are adults who offer themself as kids?
Tell me how you want to keep out this people from second life! It would be a very interesting answer!
Im still shaking my head and scratching my forehead how you are so shure that the collected informations about anyone of us are:
1. Secure. Especially in the usa is stealing of secured informations a just daily thing. No one here who can think a bit healthy likes to give a us based company more informations about us self then necessary! And that includes our moneys also!

Never ever give a us-company your moneys or your personal informations! The moneys you never get back and about the informations nobody knows what they are doing with it!!
The usa never has a data protection like germany, sweden or many other european countries does have it!

2. Collectable. Any country of this world has their own systems how they handle and store personal informations like passport numbers or social security records. In partial countries passing or publication of such records is under sentence. Either you like or you dont like it!
Im STILL scratching my forehead when i think about how linden lab likes to handle such difficile informations. Or does we unwilling spend lots of personal informations to care a aggressive and resource hungry nation from their selfmaded anti-terrorist fight? I think partially yes.
3. Useable. Rethink your doing and reflect how easy its to give you stolen informations - or for kids - to give you the social security number from his daddy! So good as you try to keep perverted peoples out from second life in the same manner you keep out this who simply dont get into debt.
I dont think this age verification makes much sense and isnt in the planned manner realizable.

Solutions:
The way to find the right solution is to split the kids grid complete from the adults grid and ignore your own double faced morality. Yes, US does have a double faced morality.
But dont try to take our moneys for things we have no doubt about. For me its a reason to leave sl definitively and to give my attention to companies who run a more back-thinked and for "strangers" outside of the usa fairer virtual world. Us standards arent standards for the rest of the world! My best wishes to a undergoing company.

This is who LL is changing for:

/341/f2/311697/1.html#post2404236