Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

Has anyone heard the story about LL losing six years' worth of computer code from the sexgen bed makers strokerz?

is this related to the clamp down on adult content?

/me thinks it's time for us to start creating a forum independent of LL

if anyone wants my RL email address let me know: i will let individuals know through the game while it's still running. I want a way to stay in touch with all the lovely people i have met here in case i am thrown out too, like strokerz.

I have a strange premonition that we have only a matter of months before this game gets shut down.

And you are seriously trying to make the case that there is (a) both a strong enough market for those particular species that they warrant specific advertizing and (b) that there is no intent to use the obvious link to other meanings of 'tit' to bring in customers not looking for birds at all? (Or at least not that interpretation of the word 'bird?).

I do believe LL has some major holes in their plan which still need to be overcome, but they are not insurmountable. I only hope they can do so in a way that satisfies (and note I didn't say pleases) everyone. So in closing I say I support this because I want it to work. Everyone deserves a better SL, the lascivious Adults, and the buttoned down Adults; the Teacher Adults, and the Subbie Adults; and every Adult in between.

Thank you for asking. I have actually stated my viewpoint a few times, but I have no problem repeating it and adding to it here.

I think that Linden Labs have a vision on where they want SL to go. They were visionaries who built the infrastructure for this world, visionary enough that everyone posting here and a whole lot more have come and terraformed and primmed up their little corner of the world. LL did it so well that the "residents" have felt a sense of ownership of their creations (not just IP stuff, but they feel it's "home" to them). In these cynical days that is quite an achievement.

But it's still LL's product, and they have the say on which direction it is going to go. Like any monarchy/dictatorship, we residents have the right to petition to ask for our points of view to be taken into consideration, but we have no RIGHT to have our views implemented.

LL have stated what their goal is - to build a separate continent for Adult-rated material. They asked us for advice on how best to go about doing it. It seems like 90% of the answers were "don't do it", and then those answering like this have been surprised that LL didn't listen to them. The question wasn't "should we do this?" it was "We're going to do this - how can we make this work best?". Discussions about "why" aren't something they are going to get into with us, either - they don't owe us any reasons, in my opinion.

Have LL handled this well? No, not at all, in my opinion. They should have framed these discussions much better, provided summaries of points made, and made sure that questions answered were documented in an easy-to-reach place. Not only that, but any clarifications provided in threads like this should be appended as examples to the official documents (which are going to be used to decide on policy down the road) - this ensures that the various members of the Linden team don't talk at cross-purposes and that the people in charge of policing it are going to be reading from the same page.

Also, I think they should have been a lot more transparent about the process they planned to use from the start - a Roadmap if you like - it has taken a LONG while to get this established, and it's still not finalized yet.

What will this move do to SL? I don't think anybody can know for sure (and I am skeptical of those that think they do). I am personally glad that they are not banning Adult content completely, which would be completely within their rights, and would fall in line with some other so-called "Virtual Worlds" (and I'm not going to get into a fight about that one Argent ) - instead they are actually talking about concentrating it into a set of areas, not with the purpose of dropping a nuke, but instead, apparently, to actually promote it. If I want my dose of Adult Content, the idea of being able to go to a place that I know is adult-oriented and just walk the streets, exposing myself (!) to some stuff that I may not have seen before is thrilling to me. Search is boring because of all the botting and other gaming of the system - I don't even like to shop that way - I like to go to a place and walk around a bit....

There is going to be a LOT of dust generated by this - and I think that's unavoidable - but I do think there is actually potential here to make SL better - not from the point of view of creating "Prude World" but instead concentrating all the "good stuff" in easy-to-access places - like a Red Light District in a city. I think that could be good for business owners and clients, if it is done well.

So I see short-term turmoil and upset people, but I also see a potential for things to be better after all the dust clears.

And the bottom line, for me, when it comes to my opinion (which doesn't matter much, in the grand scheme of things) - LL decides what direction SL is going in - that's their right as owners of this world. I have the right to decide whether I am going to "play" in it, and spend my hard-earned money here. I would like to see what LL can do with this, and help guide them into doing it as well as they can... then see what the world looks like afterwards and decide whether I am going to stay and play or not.

OK, just a couple of comments about the rest of your post:
They've been doing that since the first reply of the first thread...

Or they don't feel it's important enough to post about, or they feel intimidated by what they perceive as the dynamic on this forum. There could be many reasons. Just because people don't post doesn't mean you can infer anything they are thinking from that.

Wow, that was long.

and I suggest to you that 99% of the majority in here don't come in here to analyse things, like the rest of the world they believe the pr spin because it means they don't have to think.

Because a complete stranger will probably beat their snot nosed punk ass, where momma will just blow it off as "Little Johnny having fun"

Calling me cruel AND FIC in the same day?

Day ain't over yet..

Blondin: In this case, we need clarification. Notecards, IMs and transferred prim invitations are single person-to-person communication. Sure, such one-on-one modes can be used for advertising, but we cannot have _any_ of SL's one-to-one modes of communication become labeled _arbitrarily_ as advertising subject to the "Adult Land" rules. Only mass communication (land ads, classified ads, event ads) should be considered public advertising 100% of the time.

Oh, and P.S., communication within Groups cannot be considered "public" 100% of the time, either, since a Group does not communicate to the random masses.

That's kind of the crux of the problem. There are still huge problems that have to be addressed. That doesn't appear to be happening.

I can support changes to Adult Content in SL, just not these as they stand now.

And the allegation that I'm only making tits to bring in customers who really meant to buy other kinds of tits is, frankly, uncalled for. Tits are the most frequent songbirds where I live IRL, and I make what I know in RL. Nowhere in my advertising do I have any kind of innuendo or misleading information, and what good would that do me anyway?

You aren't by any chance an American School Administrator are you? Your take on this seems suspiciously like that of a school superintendent that believe that scheduling 20 "practice tests" over the course of the school year *isnt* cheating on the standardized tests.

"Of course we don't advocate cheating! But here are many of the ways that people can cheat on the test, so don't do that!"


-V-

No, I am trying to underline the opinion that broad, automated word filters are stupid because those who want to get around them to advertise the very things the filters are supposed to filter easily can, while those who get filtered as "false positives" possibly can't.

And the allegation that I'm only making tits to bring in customers who really meant to buy other kinds of tits is, frankly, uncalled for. Tits are the most frequent songbirds where I live IRL, and I make what I know in RL. Nowhere in my advertising do I have any kind of innuendo or misleading information, and what good would that do me anyway?

(For the record, more than half of my songbirds are tits, and songbirds are my main product, and I certainly want to be able now and in the future to mention my tits in my parcel description, in my classifieds, and to have them marked as "Show in search" without being classified as adult or having to move out of my PG mainland. You certainly don't mean to tell me that I should advertise like "I'm selling songbirds, but I'm not telling you which ones", or that I should not be allowed to list all my products in search?)

There's a guy posted on the Xstreet forums who thinks that all this will prevent a situation where a business meeting can be interrupted by an avatar handing out hard-core porn.

Yup! You're absolutely right there.
You can't argue with that at all.

...

And the allegation that I'm only making tits to bring in customers who really meant to buy other kinds of tits is, frankly, uncalled for. Tits are the most frequent songbirds where I live IRL, and I make what I know in RL. Nowhere in my advertising do I have any kind of innuendo or misleading information, and what good would that do me anyway?

Why I Support the Adult Changes

an essay by Darien Caldwell

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Darien... let me summarize if I understand you, since it's also how I feel.....

"We don't necessarily object to WHAT is being done, it's HOW it's being done is obscene.."

or to use a rather famous movie quote...

"Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining." - The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 (RatedG)

If large adult content creators/suppliers have their own islands then they could, had they so chosen, restricted access to their locations by simply checking PIOF or AV only before now. They chose not to do so. These changes offer them nothing.

As to the point of the segregation, I feel LL is making their best compromise under the circumstances.

Respect is a two way street. We as Adults demand our lifestyles and viewpoints be respected, but we must do the same for those who's viewpoints are different from ours. We must respect their desire to not be inundated with what to them is uncomfortable or even immoral.

I do believe LL has some major holes in their plan which still need to be overcome, but they are not insurmountable.

QFT

I wouldn't even mind the Adultland.

At Jack's office hours yesterday he said Ursula was the project name and the name of the continent and sims will be different.