Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

The MJ Plan:

A preference setting in the viewer to toggle between PG and Mature which controls what areas the user can access. Defaults to PG. If the user wants to access Mature regions, or parcels marked as containing Mature content, they have to set it in viewer preferences.

The user has control of their experience. No one gets moved.

Enforce current TOS regarding mature content. All parcels in Mature areas default to having "Mature Content" checked in land settings. If mature items are showing up in search, it appears this is almost always because this is set incorrectly. LL should be resetting inappropriately marked parcels when they're found.

Put the G-Team to work in welcome areas.

Well, this action by LL has cemented my decision - my teen daughter will NOT be coming to SL. I do not trust the lindens, and I believe that - despite their insistence to the contrary - they are combining the grids, bringing the teens to the main grid.

Since they are doing so in this backwards and ineffective way, when it occurs, my daughter will be able to walk the mainland at will. And since no tech solution can prevent it, she will be propositioned by idiots wearing 9" dongs and see rampant sex inside people's homes. Since ALL that's happening is the moving of the businesses, the mainland is not and CAN NOT BE MADE CLEAN AND SAFE!

If they would make the new land G rated and make that the entry point for the game, as well as a business area and teen hangout, I would let my daughter join. Might even buy her 4+ parcels of land to build upon and enjoy as she sees fit. But since LL's minds are made up and they won't even consider a better way than their current idiotic plunge off the cliff, so too has MY mind been made up.

No, my daughter won't enter SL. Not Teen, not main, nothing.

No, I won't be getting my premium again and buying mainland for either of us.

No, my daughter's friends won't be coming in either. I will tell everyone of their parents that SL is PATENTLY UNSAFE FOR TEENS TO USE.

See this money? Kiss it, LL... Kiss it goodbye. If you cannot run things better than this, then we'll find better things to spend it on, and with people who don't treat us like garbage as we fork it over like YOU do.

TY. I applied for a job with LL via two different email accounts. I wrote to Philip Linden specifically and the Board of Directors in general. No reply of any kind from anyone. Fair enough. I'm looking 10 years ahead and they are looking at April.

You provide a superb summary of the options. Imagine a thread in which we could all make such contributions instead of bickering over definitions.

Kirsty, nobody answered your question directly, but everything that the Lindens have so far said is that private residences will NOT be affected by this - they will not be forced to move. They may CHOOSE to, but they may also remain where they are without an issue.

Blondin, I am far from being a tecchie, but surely the stuff we are all talking about is just data on your servers. All the rezzed items have a location. Can't your "backroom boys/girls" just write some simple program that changes the location of all objects in a certain location to another location? You could also copy terrain maps, I think, to get the terrain copied exactly. I really think you guys should be offering that as a service, the lack of reliability of moving complex builds is something that I have seen a few times - ugly! I think that if you can not offer this "service" for those that you are going to force to move, then that is the single thing that will destroy the adult businesses in SL.

They're damned if they do, damned if they don't. If they rolled it all out with all the plans made, people would complain that they had made all the decisions without consulting the residents. Now, since they rolled out the half-formed plans to get input, we're slamming them for not having everything decided...

Maybe its all a nice april fools day joke that started long before april fools....

well, here's wishing..


I have a business in SL, and as a business owner, I recognise that its baaaad from a consumers standpoint to move, and to H3ll with 'to serve you better' reasons.

That said, I've been reflecting over the possibility over moving the 2 projects I am involved in with any land swap to an ADULT region.

1. My store, skimpy clothing... weapons, and anything I just feel like crafting on any given day. Yes, I'd move that to a Adult region, I sell also from enough stalls or satellite stores that I'd still have reach to others not able to purchase from the 'main store'. That said.. if hippo or alika allowed me to specify what image was adult, I'd specify that...

2. Morningstar Studios, a clothing optional, adult themed club, has traditionally been on mature land, and I know the owner and myself, being trusted and opinionated, are both in line with moving it to a adult enforced region, that said, the concern that those that want to come are able to easily get verified is of high concern.

Personally, an Adult tag isnt a bad idea for regions, and land, however hows this for an idea....

Put a setting in preference to 'show adult content' 'show mature content' and leave it togged off by default.... I know of to many people that we have to tell to 'change your preferences settings' cause they dont seem to know they exist... Underage teenagers well... we wont get into the VCR was run by my 6 year old debate...

Another problem is that all this just heightens the need for a central database of knowledge to sort and verify personal data before allowing access to restricted areas....

Maybe a RFID chip implanted in your forhead or hand that you can scan with your computer's optical mouse.... (ACK NO, book of revelations...) before you get booted out within 30 seconds for not verifying fast enough.. ok now Im rambling thoughts coming a jumble.. is this what forums do, cause the mind to go to squishy mush?

How about creating 2 Continents...

1. Mature & Adult hobbled together
2. General and PG hobbled together.


Someone upgrade my Earth Viewer... I want to alt cam into my neighbors bedroom, damn she's hot..


Peace, long life, and honour.

Godric Kharg

hmm,.... land swap... old land being newly profitable for the land squaters and hawkers...

They aren't consulting us now!! All they did was say "Hey, we're gonna do this. And this is how it's gonna be, like it or not. Wanna tell us a bunch of things that nobody is gonna even read? Go for it, we're not listening." So yes, they did roll it out with the plans made. The only thing that has changed was they realized that their guiding document needed revision, that's all.

And you are an example of a person, with a teen, that Linden Lab, is trying to protect with all the nonsense it is proposing! And you think their approach stinks and won't be any kind of solution!
Wake up Linden Lab! Hello... anyone home?

M.Linden will be furious....trying desperately hard to get SL a good image in the media, then this happens. Thats why all this adult sectioning is a nonsense.....one piece like this can undo all previous good news that LL is cleaning up the grid.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1166348/Jealous-husband-decapitated-wife-online-affair-Second-Life-lover.html


It's not an April fools joke, its appearing now in other European media too

Shockwave, with respect, they have rolled NOTHING out yet. They may have made a lot more decisions than some would like, but nothing is "out there" for people to use yet. Nobody has been moved yet, no new client has been sent out to us yet.

Please, I don't like how they are doing this at all, but I feel we have enough to complain about without resorting to hyperbole and distortions.

Speaking of satellite stores, will LL be compensating businesses who have to shut theirs down? Or will they have to settle for the land swap for those now redundant stores?

I just went for a stroll and shopping in world, but I refused to buy anything. What I noticed was the huge number of sexy skin shops. Wow, if these places show boobs and vaginas will they have to leave? These may be mastebatory, so they have to go.

Hey, I heard Darling Brody is now on the Linden Gteam...I hope that is an April Fools joke.

BT

The same thing would have happened because she was:

chatting on AIM
talking on YIM
cybering in IMVU
sending pictures of herself in email
talking dirty on the telephone

If someone is feeling jealous, then what they are jealous about is only a detail. Here's a real news flash - men and women were killing their spouses in jealous snits long before the computer was even invented! Never mind SL. Humanity has not changed much in 50000 years - only our tools have. And when a man or woman's inner Ogg comes out and bashes the other's skull in with a club, it's not the computer, telephone, videogame or dirty magazine that did the killing.

You can't make humanity stop acting like humans, just because you gave the customers of your video game fewer choices. So M, take note - this guy woulda flipped out because his wife was flirting with the mailman, so I guess we need to stop delivering mail and make everyone go to the post office. Right?

/me points to the new required viewer, V1.23, finishing up right now.

I suppose all the code for 1.23 was written overnight, then?

I hope this is just a rumor. This is ridiculous. I am tired of seeing furries being lumped together with adult stuff. How can an avatar by itself be adult? Not everyone is into yiff and kink (at least not everywhere and all the time). Besides that, SL's oldest furry community, Luskwood, is PG. Not not mention the existence of furry Lindens.

How about some clarification on that one?

how can a combat sim - where the intention is to kill each other - be considered to be mature yet a strip club where you have avs taking their clothes off - and nothing more - be considered adult?

why is violence like that ok yet someone being tied up and spanked is not?

To my European eyes it doesn't make sense.

The intolerance towards sex has already begun big time inworld.. One of the people I share a sim with got knocked back for a hunt because their (decidedly pg) shop shares the sim with mine and the hunt has decided to be "kid friendly" and by their classification I deal in pornographic goods and they don't want child eyes to see such unpleasantness - even at a distance.

As I understand it, one of the hunts that has just kicked off is getting complaints because some of the pg shops object to having what they consider a mature shop either before or after them in the hunt list. (now my mind is boggling at the sheer narrow-mindedness being displayed - it makes nany look reasonable)

How do you plan to address such intolerance towards those who are left behind?

Plus furry child AVs ... I would just LOVE to see the justification they are adult content now and are banished to pornville. Which flies smack in the face of current policy that child AVs can not be near naughty stuff.

Nude beaches but not a strip club? does that mean people can not dance around a palm tree on a nude beach? or that strip clubs have to be built on nude beaches in tiki huts?

Dance clubs with alchohol are you saying they are not allowed on PG.

Combat sims but not other rp areas? its ok to shoot each other blow the sh*t out of zombies but not to walk around with a scantily clad women following you!

Lingerie shops and private builds with furniture and accessories are allowed in mature areas, are lingerie shops not allowed on PG sims? don't most private buildings have furniture and accessories in them?

Skins are they adult content? Sex beds and other furniture is that adult content? it looks like they may be treated as such form your post.

I must say so far your idea of mature is not looking favorable, I can see why people are getting worried.





LL said they wanted to seperate extreme stuff from the mainstream and yet so far it seems you have all decided to move anything of a remotely mature nature to the new adult area.

Why not zone the entire current mainland PG and the new adult area mature if you are going to be as heavy handed as it seems.

200 sims will not even come close to the land required if you are actually going to encourage people with any private adult content to move accross to the adult area.

From your post Blondin I can say,
I think I might actually fall into the catagory of the adult zone.
As a mature user, this angers me as I am not a regular user of extreme content and don't wish to see what I consider extreme content on a regular basis.

I supported LL's direction with regard to adult content as I believed it would actually provide over time more choice and freedom for the majority of users.
Now you seem to be pushing me, through your definition of adult against mature content, towards either pornotopia or decide to remain in pink and fluffy puritan land, neither of which I actually want to be part of.

If it was "rolled out" as you claim, then I could download it now. It isn't. Maybe you and I have different concepts of what "rolled out" means, I guess....

To write something as complex as the viewer and coordinate with the server code guys on what the protocol is and what the two are supposed to do together... takes many people many months to accomplish. And it requires first and foremost, command decisions from the top on what has to be done. That 1.23 is about to be released (their words) and become the required viewer (their words) means that the server code and the viewer code began their mods no later than January. This also means that "the course" and what was going to happen was decided and set into cement before then.

So yes, the plan has already been rolled out, and without any discussion with us. Had we been asked earlier on what the best way to clean up the mainland would be before they started modifying viewer and server code to implement their super-secret plan, you'd be correct. But they didn't do that.

You've seen the source of that rumor, and even commented on it. I don't recall which Linden it was, but they mentioned something about furry avatars being mature rather than adult, back in the last thread.

Yes, it's just a rumor.

it is not released because its still being tweaked.
but The LL overall plan is as good as rolled out.

as i said before i feel pity for people buying land without knowing the changes that are coming.
but thats typical of LL.
a lot of people who either pay tiers or create content or both are going to feel the cold.
thats 1 reason why people are now getting out of sL and looking at alternatives.
the other reason why 80 or more regions are being abandoned per week is because LL isnt a trustworthy or viable business model anymore.
Big companies are not interested in it either.

Yes, you make a lot of sense Shockwave. It is pretty obvious that Linden Lab had the plan laid out long before and have spent money working on it. From my observations, this is how LL works. Now there is nothing wrong with a company making up a plan ahead of time, and being proactive. But surely being honest about it is something people would respect more. However, to ask for feedback after the fact, means that it is all a farce and nothing will really be addressed.

This is the corporate culture of Linden Lab - shoot first, then ask questions later. Eventually, one of those bullets will be fatal.

Blondin:

Though a lot of my questions have been answered, there are still some much lingering and important ones that still need answers, I will keep them short and to the point as I have posted them many times.

1. Will all Adult places be bunched together or seperated by housing, I feel as though we are well spread out now across the mainland grid and it is economical suicide to place all the clubs, malls, and sex clubs right next to each other. As of now there is not one functioning club/mall/sex club for many many regions/parcels around us. Can you ensure me that if we have to move this will remain the same? It is not right to locate someones competition right next door to them, nor is it economically feasible.

2. Malls/Sex Clubs/Clubs already have a lot of scripting on them for pose balls and vendors - what steps are LL taken to ensure there is no more lag after putting all this together on one place? If there is more lag when this is all done, what will LL do to correct this?

3. In the event all the places are bunched together and our now successful club declines and is unable to relocate all the vendors, as previously stated, we WILL loose vendors in a move that is not handled solely by LL, what kind of discounts or compensation can we expect to receive? All money paid to LL is based on our success and does not come directly from our pockets, if we fall short because of a move that you suggest when we are already successful and able to do so now, what kind of grace, discounts, or compensation will be given for this, surely it is not expected we take losses here?

4. Who will get priority in picking a location, if I have to move I would like water on our land as I am sure lots will, what will be done about this?

5. Seems like all the businesses, sex clubs, sex object builders, and those that simply enjoy sex (smiles big) are going to be effected by this move, does this also include the person that lives in their own house (that they pay tier for) who want to enjoy sex with someone? Are they subject to the move as well? To say that someone having sex in their private home is any different from dancers stripping in a club is different just is not so, I have walked upon some houses where people were in open chat having sex and it was worst than anything I heard coming from the club.. Sex is Sex.. no matter if in a private home or in a club, beach, or whatever...

6. Isn't this an adult game? And if your opening it to a family like situation aren't you opening yourself up for more liability in the long run, wouldn't it be easier to make a family version just for families like there is on the teen grid? Would it not be easier for all involved that the new area be soley PG?

7. Is LL aware that their upcoming changes may also effect others decision to remain with Secondlife when there are two or three other upcoming places just like Secondlife that they can go to and not be under all of these rules and restrictions. The Sims online started doing this and they lost everything and it is now closed. Maybe LL should check out http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OpenSim:Grids before forcing changes upon everyone. Think of all the unhappy people leaving here and going to one of these upcoming places and how it could explode over night. I think your weighing a lot on the loyalty of your users to not leave SL with these changes. But if enough of the people are unhappy with the changes, and decide to all leave to one of these upcoming sites, where would that leave LL?

Please provide me with answers here to these as I have been asking with no answers. Thank you for the answers you have provided to some of my questions, I will need to get with you to evaluate our land and see if it is one that has to be relocated as well.

Summer Golding....

Congrats Blondin, you've just turned a large part of SL into a nude beach.

The earlier posters pointing out the development effort that must have already occurred before any discussion with residents took place matches my thoughts on the matter almost exactly.

I see a few possible scenarios here.

The technical controls being built into the new viewer and server code are applicable to several possible implementations of content filtering and/or segregation. Its pretty useless to try and impose either what we're hearing from LL or any of our proposed alternatives without the ability to detect "You shouldnt be here or seeing this" - and other than the self-selected PG continent idea all of the alternatives depend on that.

Whilst like many of you I too felt that I'd been lied to about the validity of this feedback process as it proceeded with no substantive response from LL to anything other than questions on how we do as we're told, I now find myself wondering if we should be giving LL a little more benefit of the doubt.

The one decision we know is set in stone is that some kind of filtering or visibility controls will be implemented, but we dont know how they will be applied to enforce exactly what policy. I'm hoping that now a large number of us have given LL enough feedback to begin discussions on defining that policy, they will take place in the open with full transparency on the part of LL. That would be the gesture of good faith we need and would go a long way to repairing the damage that this situation is causing to the relationship between LL and its customers.