Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

NPIOF, no xstreet, no aristotle -- No access to ursula adult land (the LL intended result)

PIOF & PIU -- can access ursula (been there, done that)

aristotle verified & NPIOF -- can access ursula (2 friends did this today)

xstreet & NPIOF -- No access to ursula (1 friend tried this today)

The xstreet verify may not be working yet. Can anyone add to this?

They could call the series "Norm"

The Indentured Servants of Norm? Might work.

This was my plan, too. Thanks everyone for getting this issue straightened out.

"They came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

First - thank you for your reply. If you did reply before, I did not see it. (And I was keeping my eyes peeled, you can be sure!)

Now before I comment on your suggestions, I'd like a clarification on this comment:



So that means even *nude photography* can be in our residents homes, and we won't have to flag the rental sim as adult? It's important to clarify this, because some of our renters *do* have that. And does this include outdoor spaces such as gardens? (Hat tip to CouldBe Yue)

Let me now address your suggestions. Your suggestion might have been viable except for the fact the layout of our sims will not allow it. Currently, the main sim (TP landing point and infohub for all our sims) is where the adult space resides. Why? Because the second sim is all residential, the third sim is wilderness, and the fourth sim is water.

The main sim is full of Re-creations of Roman buildings (and one of these is an above ground re-creation of a Roman brothel from Pompeii, the Lupanar of Africanus and Victor - the adult space is directly underground below that) sim information, our marketplace, and our public tavern (gathering space) - so flagging *that* adult would result in major traffic loss, ban unverifieds from that sim, and some of our unverified renters as well. It would also be disaster for our merchants, as half their customer base would now be banned.

Our wilderness sim holds the rental properties of many of our groups HQs, so can't be flagged adult for the same reasons. And I *know* my Boss won't put one under/on the water sim. (The water sim is a Homestead, so high traffic isn't desirable there anyway.) He's also not going to convert lucrative rental space in the rental sim. We don't charge for use of the adult space for the very reason that it's provided for those who have no "home" to go to (so people *can* do what they want in the sim, in privacy) - and converting a plot or two in our residential sim would either cost us money or force us to charge visitors. (Sims have to pay for themselves yanno, unless you have money growing on trees in *your* backyard.)

And the biggest thing is - we don't *WANT* to flag as adult. (You might have missed where I said this in my original post.) It's not the sort of entertainments we offer on a large scale, and it would be wrong to imply that we do. Flagging as adult will only irritate visitors who come seeking adult entertainment, only to be told we only have a *very* small space set aside for that. It will harm our reputation as an honest and forthright sim & management staff. And it *will* result in greifing, ARs (from us and from visitors about us), and general ill-will - because people don't like feeling lied to. They will have a certain expectation of adult sims that we are not going to provide.

So I guess under the new rules we will be forced to remove the adult space. Which - if I might go on record saying so - is blatantly unfair, since we are not (except if you accept a *very* broad definition) an adult sim. I imagine you're going to find that under these new rules, *a lot* of (let's use a Linden-favoured term here) "edge cases" like ours exist - and that's going to affect far more than your estimated 2-4% of residents.

[EDIT: if we could flag *BY PARCEL*, all of this would be a moot point and you'd end up satisfying a lot of customers. Parcel flagging and the new client-side maturity level controls *should* be all you need to "control" adult content. And it would make moving to the new continent an *optional* choice for those who cannot/will not flag by parcel. Unless, of course, it is your *goal* to shuffle everyone even moderately adult where they can't even be *known* to exist and paint a nice coat of whitewash over Second Life. If preventing unverified access is the goal, prevent it. You don't need to *hide* it as well - we are all *supposed to be* adults here - give us the tools to see (or not see) what we want and that should suffice. And you don't even need to brass off the majority of your customer base to prevent that unverified access. Those safeguards (age verification, parcel flagging, the *huge* notice before you ever make an avatar that SL is 18 & over) in place are enough, legally, to protect your collective arses when children sneak in. Why does LL always enact new policies with all the grace of a bull in a china shop?]

Well, I guess that leaves me out..

Oh.. Wait.. You mean SL verification maturity level? Never mind..

What worries me is who's next on the undesirable list? This could be only the beggining, if we don't at least try and make a stink about this anyone could be next. Already weve got a few groups effected, Dommes, BDSM, GOR, Role Players, roman sims, cowboy sims, vampire sims, horror sims, and cinemas. Who will be next, Vamps? Because of the whole blood letting and sharing thing? Goths? Because their sub culture is based on a lot of horror and darker music influances and their dress sense can be revealing. Horror fans? because I dont know maybe someone likes to dress as a zombie could zombies be banned if their avators are too graphic. Could punks be banished because they are seen as a agressive minority? Could wrestling sims be banned for skimpy dressed female wrestlers? Could realistic avator creators be banned? things like that, as someone I think has said before. this is the start of a slip down a slippery slope.

Yes I know I post here too much so I am going to have a lie down again in a quiet place.

Care to explain how they got into a locked region? Ursula isn't open to residents yet.

All I know is that Linden Lab is clearly succeeding in turning everything in and around Second Life into a depressing morass of anger, fear, and loathing. It is everywhere.

but star wars is safe.. isn't that the most important thing??

star wars is safe.. yeah right. Just walk into a Hutts palace in your underwear and see how long you last without becoming "adult content" (and containing much of that content too)

If he's not joking, then why can't someone who owns a whole sim on the mainland request it be converted to "adult" in situ?

Blondin has already been reported as mentioning that minors camming into adult builds was a concern. Why is that OK on estates, and not mainland?

Indeed I'd back this idea, and to differentiate with adult sims and Ursula there could be other restrictions such as no extreme keywords allowed even on an adult flagged parcel on a mature sim, so "BDSM" would be fine but "F*cking" wouldn't be, that would only be an allowed keyword on an adult sim.

An interesting bit of trivia: Godwin's Law was actually invented by Richard Sexton. Mike Godwin just popularized it.

So, in your mind this policy by the Lindens rates up there with global genocide?

And here I thought this was just a sort of online rezoning of primarily businesses selling pornography, to a place the Lindens saw as suitable for that sort of thing on a website that they do actually own. You know, businesses that take risks - sometimes those risks don't go so well.

I completely apologize ... I had no idea all of you were actually going to be killed! I think I will put a giant red A on my land ... that'll fix 'em.

I asked a similar question a day or so ago, and got a reply from Blondin that might help -- /352/11/314444/247.html#post2407558/352/11/314444/247.html#post2407558

And the general principle, as endorsed by Blondin here /352/11/314444/273.html#post2409998 seems to be that you will have to decide whether you think can sensibly advertise your slave papers without using words like "slave" or "Gor" in the description.

If you can thus describe them, then I would think you're OK on Mature land, same as I would be with my slave pillows, but the question is whether you think that staying on mature land and having your somewhat cryptic adverts visible to everyone, or moving to Adult-flagged land (which, it seems from Blondin's reply to me, the whole of Gor will have to be) and being able to describe the devices any way you want, to a restricted audience.

Halloween. Duh.

*whips off her pants a waves them in salute

Here. wear this paper triangle.

In otherwords, they are corporatizing it.

I concur about the keywords.

There is a right way and a wrong way to go about doing this - too bad LL thus far having been choosing the *wrong* way.

Why the love of zoning? Zoning is evil on it's face.

"I'm sorry, son, there's nothing we can do about the stigmata. Your face has been zoned 'evil'."

I want to repeat one question that was left unanswered in the office hour:

First, a list of facts we know so far ...

1) there will be a keyword list; words on that list are considered "adult", and classifieds or parcels using these words in their description must lead to adult land or will not be visible in search for anyone.

2) this keyword list is (quoting Blondin here) "very flexible", and will probably not be made public.

This basically means that at a moment's notice, the keyword list could change, and a previously perfectly PG or mature parcel or classified could be totally invisible in search.

Now the question:

If (when) that happens, will the parcel owner / the one who runs the classified be notified in any way?

Yes they'll be notified....by the lack of traffic and sales.