Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

If you don't remove the word the LL search system will view your parcel as adult and only those with the adult content flag ticked will be able to see items in search for your parcel is my understanding.

Same for your classified.

So it looks like yes, you will need to remove that word for your ad and be unable to market to the people you want to market to, even though your content and parcel is not adult.

Maybe Blondin can clarify.

I think I've asked for that at least 5-6 times in this thread alone.. That and to include a list of pending/unresolved questions there too, so we don't keep having to ask the same stuff over and over.

you won't get a chance to ask if they really are locking the thread tomorrow

Hey, maybe it's me that read it differently. Suffice it to say, it wasn't clear quite what Linden had quoted and it looked like a Linden had specifically said that they were going to do that, where that is conjecture, not a quote from a Linden.

I'm not saying one way or the other. I am merely trying to separate what statements HAVE been made officially from the opinions of residents so that we can make our own conclusions based on the available facts.

So those are word-for-word transcripts, complete and unedited? Apparently not.

Blondin,

Regarding the skin vendors and photos, there is a contradiction of what you are saying here and what was said on the brown bag meeting.

- You said here that nude skins or non erect genitals are *not* adult but mature.

- From the brown bag: "If you have adult products in your store, it's going to be adult. So if you have a *single genital product* in your store, the store is adult".

Which of the above is correct? -considering that the majority of the skins and related products show the genital area while many popular male skins clearly depict genitals.

I think this is a good question. Isn't the dependent phrase there "if they have not upgraded, they will no longer be able to search for adult content." but, excuse my confusion, upgraded what exactly-the viewer?

I'll include the full original for ease of access:

I just hope people don't turn it on thinking that they actually need to just because they've flagged their land as "Adult". I'm really worried about the sort of stuff Aristotle were asking me for, because -- in my rl -- I sometimes have to deal with identity theft and the problems that arise from it, and the potential mischief a greedy employee of a company on another continent, outside the scope of EU data protection laws, could do with scanned copies of the documents Aristotle want from me scares me a lot.

Since it seems the thread will be closed shortly, and Blondin seems to be answering posts (though not the backlog of questions from posts pages and pages back) I'll post this yet again - since he hasn't seen fit to answer me thus far.

Blondin - I want *your* answers on this. Everything else is just idle speculation, since only your answers count as "official". I'd like to be able to report back to my Boss that you actually considered our questions - not that you totally blew them off.

[EDIT: after reading here for a few days, I'm pretty sure I know the answers to the questions below, but I'd still like that "official" confirmation.]

*********************************************

Dear Lindens,

Thank you so much for the publishing of the new guidelines on the Knowledge Base (https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6010) but I hate to tell you, they are still too vague to know where one stands.

I have two major concerns and several minor ones regarding the new rules and region designations. Let's start with the 1st major one:

I am the Estate Manager for a group of 4 non-mainland sims - on these sims, we allow *non-sexual* toplessness and nudity, for both women and men (including non-erect prim "bits" for men). How does this fall under the new guidelines - adult or mature? Your guidelines state no "Photo-realistic nudity". Does this also apply to realistically drawn skins? (E.g. skins with realistically detailed *drawn* nipples and "kitties"?) If so, then you might as well say nudity is "Adult", and not allowed in Mature areas, since I cannot judge what sort of skins our visitors might choose to wear. And what about prim gentialia attachments? Is it still "Adult" if our sim rules do not allow them to be in an erect state? What about the activities naked avatars are engaged in? If a group of avatars is dancing naked in a field, but not engaging in sexual acts, is *that* "Adult"? Where is the line drawn?

Another concern regarding our sim and it's activities is this: while we allow non-sexual nudity in "public" (nothing in SL is really private anyway, but we define public as anywhere one should not normally expect sexual activity - shops, taverns, the street, the main square, etc.) we do have an underground region equipt with sex-gen beds for those who wish to engage in such activities in "private". Your new guidelines state - "Dance clubs that feature "burlesque" acts can also generally reside in Mature Regions so long as they don't promote sexual conduct such as through pose balls (whether in "backrooms" or more visible spaces)." While our underground private rooms are not a dance club, this would still seem to apply to them in that they "promote sexual conduct such as through pose balls (whether in "backrooms" or more visible spaces)".

We have taken great care to keep all sexual activity out of the eyes of those who might not wish to see it, while still allowing those who wish to engage in it the freedom to do so. But it seems that under your new guidelines, this would brand our sim "Adult", rather than Mature. Why are we being penalised for being *responsible* folk? If I am mistaken, and this does *not* define our sim as "Adult", please explain why it isn't and whether or not as an Estate Manager I will have to worry about fraudulant ARs from the small minority that might be offended anyway. For me, as a manager, that would be a *major* concern, because often, ARs are handled in haste and repaired after the fact. I cannot afford to be banned for "running adult activities in a mature sim", even if it were rectified later. I am part of the law and order in our sim, and need to be availible to maintain that order, as well as all my other duties as a manager.

Which brings us to our sims rental residents. Will they be forced to remove any sex-gen or similar items from their homes because of this "promote sexual conduct such as through pose balls (whether in "backrooms" or more visible spaces)" clause? Will they have to remove nude art (including artistic nude photographs, since these are certainly "photo-realistic"? How far does this "no sex poseballs in public" thing go? We will lose a *lot* of rental residents if they are forced to remove all things of a sexual nature from their homes.

And before you suggest "Well then, just re-zone your sim Adult", I will explain to you why we do not want to do this: We do not consider ourselves an "Adult" sim. We do not want to be re-zoned "Adult", and then have to argue with visitors who come in about not sex-scening in the street or removing erect attachments. We do not want to be ARed because we banned them from our land after they would not comply, having them tell us "This is an Adult region and I can do that here!" Even if the AR was not enforced, it makes more work for us, and we do not have a huge management staff. We also do not want to attract the sorts of visitors an Adult rating *would* attract - not because of their interests/desires/behaviours - but because they will come in assuming we offer entertainments we do not actually allow. This will hurt our reputation in the manner of "false advertising". (EDIT: Resulting in further arguements, ARs, and general ill-will between visitors and management) Not to mention the severe downturn of traffic we will see since only the age verified will be able to enter. (And would also result in banning some of our rental residents from their land, as they are Europeans who are having difficulty verifying.)

These new guidelines were obviously *not* meant to work with people who try hard to maintain a balance on their sims between sexual freedom and orgiastic licentiousness. You seem to have a assumed that if we allow any adult activity, then we are by definition an "Adult" sim, which is not always the case. Please clarify for me how these new rules will affect those of us who allow certain adult behaviours in a *controlled* and private manner. It seems as if these new rules, if implemented as I fear they will be, will end up punishing those of us who are trying to maintain a balance that will please almost everyone.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, I started working on that, and it would certainly help if the critical answers (including the ones collected in the "Adult Content" wiki page[1]) were given a bit more permanence and gravitas... particularly where they clarify and correct the contents of the knowledge base. Better would be if the FAQs and other articles in the Knowledge Base were modified to remove the apparent conflicts between what they describe and what you have written.

[1] http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Adult_Content

Actually, people in SL do make trains.

refer to the knowledge base https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=6010%20.



and you'll notice that the definition of mature doesn't mention skins, only sexy clothes

Mind answering the question that was asked Blondin?

I'm in so much trouble. I think Tuxedos are sexy as hell. e.e;

For Private Estate land, most likely the answer will be that an Adult sim cannot be directly connected to either a PG rated sim or a Mature rated sim & must be either stand alone or connected to other Adult rated sims. Even if this is not mentioned at first, I am fairly certain that this will be the policy, as otherwise you could land on the edge of a mature sim and see all kinds of objectionable content on the sim right beside you and this would negate the premise of providing a predictable experience and keeping Public Adult content reserved for those that have verified their age in some way and have chosen to opt in to viewing adult content.

Making the sim separate can be as simple as putting it corner to corner with another sim as then no view is visible and you must TP in to the island in order to access or view the island. In addition if you are purchasing a sim either from LL or from another party, LL will put the sim on any free space you wish (that is not reserved or otherwise protected) and will move a sim at no extra charge as part of the sale (full transfer) from one resident to another. If you do have to move an existing private region (or several) to make an Adult region, I would suggest contacting the Concierge support team and ask them about it, as they are some of the nicest, most helpful people you will ever meet & I have always been highly impressed with their support and help with any problems that come up or help needed.

I would suggest Estate owners do plan to for Adult rated private regions needing to be separate from regions of other ratings as it is fairly certain that this will be required.

I'm running out of gray matter trying to READ all the gray matter.
Time for aspirin

"This document is undergoing a round of edits. The final version may be different"According to the Lindens, not me)

Also Blondin said earlier that by "photo-realistic nudity" they *only* mean pictures of RL nudity. I know that it is an interesting interpretation of the term "photorealistic" but trust the Lindens to give new meanings to old terms (just like Adult, Mature etc)

I did not quote two words out of context. I quoted the whole last paragraph. I take a different meaning from Blondin's statement. I believe he is saying that this whole change to the treatment of adult content is the "huge change", and that it is merely the "first step".




Yes, this is my opinion. I infer their intentions from their actions and their words. I have said it before, and I will restate my opinion here:

IN MY OPINION...

Linden Lab is lying to us. They have lied to us before, many times, on other issues. Just look back at how they handled the sexual ageplay issue, the gambling issue, and the banking issue. First they say, "we have no plans to" do something. Then they say, "we're going to do so and so, but if you are just careful, we'll look the other way". They they bring down the hammer.

The same pattern is glaringly evident here. The Knowledge Base says one thing. The Search filters and results say one thing. The Release Candidate viewer says one thing. The size of the Ursula continent says one thing. The thing that these all say is: We are against adult content. We are going to make it hard to find, expensive to make, hard to sell, easy to AR. We are going to push it out of sight, underground, and ultimately off the grid.

Blondin and the blogs say otherwise. They are lying. They are saying "oh, you will be fine. We are all for choice. We serve everyone." It is a smokescreen. LL has done as little as possible to publicize these upcoming changes...just enough to be able to bat their eyes innocently and say, "why are you all so surprised? We published this in the blog, we made a press release, we listened to your input on the forums."

LL says "We have no plans at this time to merge the Teen Grid with the main grid." Note the wording carefully, please. "At this time"...this is corporate speak for "but we by damn are going to do it pretty soon, maybe next quarter." And, "no plans to MERGE". That leaves a pretty wide range of options open. Like simply closing the Teen Grid and opening main grid registration to all ages.

They have lied from start to finish. They know damn well that their "2 to 4%" of affected content is ludicrous on its face. They know that Ursula is far too small to accommodate all of the people who want the land permissions and zoning they paid for when they bought Mature land.

They have never discussed numbers with us. How many people actually objected to the current zoning? How many people suggested something like what LL is implementing, rather than any of the more reasonable solutions that Residents have proposed? How was "2-4%" determined? What is the expected failure rate of the age verification system? (by the way, a resident survey shows that about half of SL residents either can't age verify, choose not to, or verify but still can't access age restricted parcels. Pretty good system, huh?) How high will they allow speculators to bid up Adult land prices?

They fully intend to marginalize "questionable" communities. BDSM and Gor are only the first two. Furries were given a preliminary slap, the word "yiff" is on the adult filter list. I am quite convinced that gays, lesbians, and transgenders are on the hit list for future efforts. Ultimately, LL's goal is to drive ALL adult content off the grid, to make it squeaky clean for Corporate Whitebread Culture. To implement a morality that almost no person with any actual humanity actually believes in.

Yes, this is all my opinion. Looking at the events of the past, and of the last six weeks, the evidence seems crystal clear to me. You may draw a different, rosier conclusion from them. That's your privilege. But when they come for your poseballs, I hope you will remember: I Told You So, I Told You So, I Fucking Told You So.

OK, the way I read it it seemed fairly straightforward - at some stage LL will ship the 1.23 viewer. From that date, regardless of when people upgrade, the grace period will begin. After that time has elapsed, anyone NOT upgrading the viewer will no have access to Adult search results.

Why? How is the situation of a private Mature Sim being next to an Adult Sim any different than Mature Mainland being accessable to all? Blondin has already said I can do what I want on my Mature Mainland parcel in the privacy of my own home. So what difference does it make if someone stands on the parcel next to mine and stares through the walls at my AV doing the nasty in every sense of the word, or whether that same person stands on a Mature private sim staring at what is happening on the Adult sim next to it watching other AV's doing the nasty in every sense of the word? Sex is sex, regardless of WHERE it is happening.

well LL is legalizing what used to be banned all along so you might want to just stop with the vitriol and help make it all work as best it can. The alternative is not acceptable.

How do I get in to Ursula anyway? I thought I was verified but it just says "access to this area is denied"

Do I have to wear a gold star or something?

lol, a scarlet letter "A" might be better...

Its not open yet, The infocenter next to it is open

The infocenter at Arapaima is a beautiful build, minus the really scary NO YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING AT ALL signs. I do kinda not feel good about the gay pride windsocks. In a place where nothing is allowed, the rainbow freedom is out of place.

Fine. Why is the Adult Category being renamed to Other?