Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

Originally Posted by Sheva John






lol I'm certain that Jack is now

Is it? Devastating them, I mean? It's a nice freebie starter collar, sure -- a lot better than the stuff that was around a couple of years ago -- and my Master tells new girls who want to experiment to with BDSM to wear one for a bit to see how they actually like wearing a collar in practice. But I really don't see that people like Amethyst or Dari need to lose much sleep over the competition it poses.

Well, that's something. Care to share with us whether there is any change in the general thought processes as a consequence of this awareness?

or is it more "Oh this is going to tick a lot of people off, but we need to do it anyway - FULL STEAM AHEAD!"?

ETA: I mean at the very best you're getting the feedback that this is too far away from being "ready for prime time" that you can't meet the deadline with any sort of real resident satisfaction, and at the other extreme you have residents who just don't want you to do it at all, and would rather you enforce the current standards and work on other things. Even the big adult producers seem to be saying "yes, but...".

At least a month, month and a half. We've been listening and have realized just how hard this move is going to be. We're trying to come up with solutions / alternatives to the idea of 'Pick up your Prims and Move'. The tickets will be created when we know exactly how this process will work.

------------------------------------------------
Seems pretty obvious, Blondin, each object has a location on the grid, do a database script that edits the location to the new sim. The owner may have to do rotation and adjustment once its there to fit the new location better, but at least it will be there in the first place, and in the right relative location to all the other parts.

This solves the problem of items owned by multiple owners, some of whom may not be active any longer. It also solves the problem of linking beyond the current link distance limits for any large builds ( over about 30-40 m in size).

Not only that but my friends "in the know" say that you can save away the teraforming of a sim to a file. Then you could take that and essentially terraform the new sim (or a part of it) the same way, and rez the items on it so that they "fit". Ye,s there may have to be some teraforming of the adjoining territory, but at least stuff would "fit" without a lot of effort, and it would avoid the residents doing a load of work to move. You could achieve your goal a LOT quicker in my opinion, if you spent some up-front time to develop some tools to automate this....

This was sorta discussed in one of the early threads though, IIRC, it was more like taking the simstate file, copying it to the new region then deleting all the stuff owned by people not moving.

The big issue that I see doing this (or what you said) is that no-copy items would get copied if LL worked back-end magic. It's not really an issue for me - I've got about L$100k of no-copy Light Waves stuff lying around and various no-copy naughty stuff that I wouldn't mind having extra copies of - but I think content creators might have a problem with LL doing that..



Yep. The simstate file basically contains everything they need to totally recreate a region. All sims automatically save this off once an hour so the region can come back on a different server if the sim it's running on crashes..

I have to double check as I want to be 100% sure. I'll come back to this before the end of the day.

Avatar Names are not being flagged.

The large german speaking community including the austrians and switzerland people on slinfo.de heard very much belated about the changes, but they started some days before a similar active thread like this here on their website/forum.

This german website/forum is not a small thing. It is multi-themed about all aspects of SL.

17.233 themes, 352.110 posts, 22.076 user, 5.241 members, and hundreds of guests daily.

One thread is all about the adult content theme.

http://www.slinfo.de/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=56290

They have no Blondin there to answer questions...and they are very upset too... *very*

Maybe you can use this week to inform Jean Linden, the strategist for Germany and surrounding german speaking countries, to be there for them or to send a german speaking Linden wich has then your role Blondin, to discuss that with them too. It is not easy for them to find and to translate all meanwhile available infos and open questions and other related issues.

You Can TP to Arapaima on Totally UNVERIFIED accounts while using the RC Viewer.

You Can NOT TP to Arapaima on Totally UNVERIFIED accounts while using the CURRENT Viewer.

You Can TP to Arapaima on Any REGARDLESS of Status account while using the RC viewer.

You Can NOT TP to Arapaima on Some VERIFIED accounts while using the CURRENT Viewer.


(Account status does NOT appear to be updating automatically for any Verification but PIU)


If a basic account sends a ticket about verification not working they get an email,
requesting personal information and hard copy documentation of such.

The link on the accounts page for verification still leads only to Aristotle, it still says,beta,
And the is no information provided for other options.


The knowledge base does not provide any direct updated information about different forms of verification. Tho there is some information about adult content. people searching for verifcaton info wil only find the outdated/incomplete beta info.

Right now, the statement that the Agni/Main grid is explicitly for those over 18 is buried on page 4 of 13 of fine print of the TOS, which you dont even have to read when creating a new account. You only have to check the box and proceed.

Now that Second Life *explicitly* has an Adult category, it should be made much more obvious that "Some parts of this service contains Adult content".

This should be done in two ways, in my opinion:

(1) Provide a prominent notice on the registration page (preferably as a pre-page before you fill in the avatar name, etc fields):

"Second Life has two sections, for those 13-17, and for those over 18. By providing date of birth indicating you are over 18, you explicitly understand that you will be assigned to the adult section, and that some parts of it contain adult material. Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No"

(2) On the login screen to the main grid you are shown a notice that "Some parts of SL contain adult material, depending on your settings and where you go, you may encounter such material"

-------------------------------------------------

Doing this will give better protection to Linden Labs from parents claiming "I didn't know Johnny would see smut", and reduce the number of children active in the main grid.

It doesn't stop the underhanded kids who log in without their parent's knowledge. Really, nothing will prevent that. It just makes that first access point, account creation and login, a bit stronger. Combined with the age/account verification, its more filters to keep the kids out.

So Blondin, which parts of this are incorrect? or should I say, is this a correct interpretation of the current LL policy and if not where is it incorrect?

******

This applies to everyone who wished to access or provide what LL define as adult content.

The changes are likely to be implemented around mid June. There is a new viewer (1.23) that anyone who wants to search for adult content must download. If you use any third party viewer that hasn’t included the adult modifications or chose to remain on an old official viewer then you will no longer have access to the adult content search. You may not be able to search but if you have LMs or someone TPs you then you will be able to access the adult continent.

If your avatar doesn’t have any verification on file then you will not be able to view or access any adult content, even if you use the new viewer.

There are two types of verification: Age and Account.

* Age verification comes via the Aristotle verification system and can be found here: https://secure-web20.secondlife.com/account/verification.php?lang=en

LL doesn’t receive any details of the information you give to Aristotle, they just receive a flag from Aristotle saying you’ve successfully age verified using identification that confirms an age over 18. You are then able to access the full range of adult content if you wish.

* Account verification requires you to give LL your payment details - credit card or paypal or to have given your payment details to XStreet SL.

Once you have successfully entered these you are account verified. You will be able to access all adult content but will not be able to access any land that has an age verification requirement set by the land holder. Account verification in no way demonstrates you are an adult because credit car companies explicitly exclude the possibility of this in their terms of use. LL though have decided that an account that has been payment verified can be considered adult and therefore can access adult content.


##How this affects you as mainland owning resident.##

The approach appears to be “consenting adults in private”, so if you’re on mature land then move everything that might be sexual inside and it looks like you’ll be fine.

If you want to advertise your land in places, events or put a classified up and use any of the adult keywords to describe it or if the activities of your open house fall on the adult side of the fence then you need to consider moving to the adult continent or using words that will pass the adult keywords filter.

If you do that though and your actual activity is adult then you can be ARd if someone turns up and is offended. The moment you make your land public access and advertise it in any way, if it falls foul of the policy then you’re at risk. Even if you only do it once a year.


##If you live on a private island.##

Your land owner has to make a decision whether to change the maturity level of the island or stay as it is. A mature island cannot have adult parcels on it, so if your activities are considered adult and the landowner doesn’t want to change the rating then you are going to have to either adjust your lifestyle or move.

There will also be those who are affected because the landowner wishes to change the maturity rating to adult but certain residents do not wish to live with the restrictions on access that this imposes.

In all private island cases you must talk to your landowner.

##If you’re a business on mainland you own.##

This impacts you considerably. The approach taken is that if your parcel is not considered extreme in content then you can stay where you are. However, you can no longer advertise using adult content words. If you chose to stay and use euphemisms to work around this then not only will it be likely that your potential customers will not be able to find you but you may also find yourself ARd if someone turns up expecting something more PG than you are offering. In this case the policy of the kb article will apply when they review the AR.

The current process outlined by LL for those who wish to move (and remember, LL aren’t forcing anyone to move - you are a liberty to stay on your parcel or to close your business down).

* At a time yet to be announced they will open a list for people to register for the move. At the moment it appears you will need to lodge a support ticket.

* Either your parcel will be inspected to see if it does fit the adult criteria or they may allow everyone to move. there is no current definitive answer to this yet.

* If you are allowed to move you will be asked to provide a list of 3 places in Ursula that you consider suitable. At the moment they will not consider adjusting the parcels for non rectangular shaped plots nor will they guarantee you’ll get the same size of plot as you’ll be giving up.

* They will then advise you of the plot you have been assigned and you will have 9 calendar days to move all your items from the old mainland plot to the new. At the end of the 9 day period they will reclaim your old mainland plot.

Currently they have agreed to allow you to leave a LM giver to your new store for a certain time period. The time frame has not yet been specified.

What else you need to know: This has not been clarified yet, so we can only go on what has been said in the forums.

* Adult business classifieds will only appear in adult search results, even if there are no adult keywords used and you are advertising pg items.
* Adult parcels that are set to show in search will no longer show in the places tab - only in all. You’ll be paying the same as the pg mainland for less exposure.
* They will not help you move your items.
* They will not change your landmarks. This impacts on those given out, those in your vendors, xsl boxes etc etc.
* They will not divert your classified LM
* They will do nothing to help you update your XSL listings
* They will not update peoples picks to your shop

##If you’re a business who rents premises on the mainland or a private island.##

The you’re in the same situation as private island residents. If your landowner is not going to move to the adult content then you need to find new premises, adjust what you sell to fit the mature guidelines or close down.

This will also be an issue for those who wish to remain on the current mainland and their land owner has decided to move to the adult continent.

##If you’re a private island landowner##

You do not have to physically separate your sims. You will have to flag the appropriate maturity rating for each one. So you will be able to have adult rated land physically side by side with pg or mature.

And Spanish? and French? and Italian? I know a few in SL that speak this langs and its not easy to communicate. I my self are Scandinavian ( Norwegian) But i manage kinda in English lol

this one too and this one is wearable!

At least do not ban people without payment info/age verification on file from adult continent for the next 6 months after ursula is going to be open and see how it affects the SL. then you can decide what to do next and ask residents if this is enough protection. We belive it is enough. We belive that just simple pop up window with "I agree to enter adult sim etc." , YES or NO. is completely enough.

Well, we tried here often to tell the Lindens to pay fair attention to all the different languages/nations and to provide appropriate informations for them too. It should be routine and usual for an international acting company to have a well briefed and prepared multi-lingual service-staff ready at start while planning such a major change on their product.

Blondin. The lack of enforcement of the current policies is obvious when doing PG searches with the new test client for various words that are mature but not flagged as adult. Places show up in the PG results with adult flagged words in their name and many adult flagged words in their descriptions. Those places that are more than mature are not ticking the box for mature content in their land options. One has to wonder how long they have been operating like that and one has to also wonder if these new policies are going to be just as unenforced as before.

It also makes you wonder if maybe current rules were properly enforced if most of the new measures would be necessary in the first place.

It is no wonder people are running into adult content accidentally.

You certainly can with a private island -- using the bake terrain and dowload/upload RAW terrain buttons on the terrain tab of the region/estate menu (if you have access to it, of course). Not sure how that works with the mainland. I've moved islands this way in the past.

They can move entire sims IF THEY WANTED TO... move all PG sims to URSLA, leaving the sim name INTACT (oh look! LM's still work!) then move the 'mature content' from those sims.. much simpler, easier solution that doesn't hurt as many people.

I'm afraid that 500 pages is a bit much to search through for people with RC questions. Maybe a new thread about RC questions?

The adult content providers in favour of this plan would get what they want.

Those who are complaining about running into adult content via search would get what they want.

Ursula would offer people the choice of being to advertise more liberally than they can on mature land, so Linden lab would truly be offering more choice.

So the only flaw in your suggestion is that Linden Lab don't have the will to make a policy announcement that would cause far less problems for the populace.

Yes someone else made a similar point, open a brand new thread.

Dear Blondin:

I am currently putting together an adult mall, and will be building it on RENTED mainland (I don't want to up my tier to own mainland atm, and I don't like private sims). If I decide to stick with renting when I open my mall in early June, will I be eligible to transfer it with all the other adult business owners, buying plots of Ursula, or will have to wait till all the owned lot transfers are finished and buy on the main market?

The problem with moving a whole region at once is that the teraforming edges gets all screwy when you put regions from different places next to each other - imagine a beach region getting plopped down next to a couple mountain regions. I guess they could hack up the terrain heightmaps to normalize it more but then the objects are all in the wrong places. I guess they could also hack up the object positions but then any script that cares about position (ie: beds and rugs and such that rez poseballs) would be all wrong..

Doable? Yes. Easy? No.