Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

Put me down as a skeptic. Bandwidth requirements for SL are already a problem.

If you're able to make it, I'm sure many of us will be grateful. It seems to me that the more people in attendance who have a decent level of knowledge of the concerns of this thread, the better, and you also seem to have a good grasp of the technical issues.

That is pretty chilling news. Up until now, LL has held that there is nothing inherently wrong with having a child AV.

That may still be the case. One does have to wonder how anyone knew that these banned "boys" had realistic bits, unless they were waving them around at people...

I was just over at xsl and found this link on the forums..

http://www.crikey.com.au/Media-Arts-and-Sports/20090414-Virtual-worlds-grow-up-and-become-useful.html

an interesting quote from it

The linden still don't know how to define anything!

I am always age playing when in SL, None of my Avatars in SL portray my RL age. Whenever I have sex in SL I am Sexually Age Playing, since none of my avs in SL portray my RL age.

The related category for ARing simply says "Age Play" nothing else not "under age sexual age play"note: other things have some description), Linden blog posts on this are even more confused. This is an old issue and they still have not gotten their definitions sorted out.

The next time you see me walking around in a 20 something year old av fully clothed in a PG sim not doing anything sexual you should report me for age play.

There still is nothing in the TOS about age play in any form. The TOS points at Community Standards. There still is nothing in community Standards about Age Play. You need to happen to find the right blog posts to get some inkling What the rule might be(might be due to the confused definitions) There should be some sort of readily findable reference list for community standards even if it is qualified in some manner to try to avoid loop hole quibbling. Broadly Offensive is Broadly Interpretable!

The Lindens do not want us to know what the rules are!
Why should anybody think they might do better this time around?
I have a bad feeling about this whole mess.


PS. Almost nobody I talk to in world knows any thing about the impending Adult Content changes"

PPS. who kidnapped Blondin? He seems to be missing.

That's the SCARY thing. There are a LOT of adult businesses that i know, and escorts/strippers, and other *adult type* people in SL... and they are CLUELESS....

They have no idea what is coming.. and honestly, even those of Us that know.. are still really clueless. LL needs to get on with it... give us the rules, time lines.. and lets ROLL.

Since it is obviously going to happen, I'm ready to pick my new sim, move my business, and be done with the whole ordeal.

~Brie

I have the feeling , that this customer-service-manual they use (written by Attila the Hun in year 493) is a bit old-fashioned...

Yesterday my pakistanian driven fake italian-pizza service came in time with a delicious gourmet pizza with an extra free bottle of burgundy red wine, at sunday the easter-bunny came in time, with a bunch of perfect colored easter-eggs and premium swiss chocolate, today my turkish charlady came in time and cleaned my rooms in a way that these are looking like the most expensive suit of a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and my Porsche Dealer called me 5 minutes before to ask, if I need a set new summer tires for free.

So, what's wrong again with our overpayed and underpresent personal at the Lab?

Where are their 8 phobias of the day?

Morganna,

This is a topic all to itself.. should we be continuing this here, or in a separate thread, or in IM's? There are differences between EQ and SL to be sure, but I think there might be more similarities than you might think.

The main difference is intent. EQ is designed as a game first, and SL as a social engine first, meaning people in each have different expectations. That said they are still people.

In EQ, I have seen romances formed and shattered. I have seen both good and bad roleplay, and although creativity is not expressable to the extent it is in SL, I have seen both poetry and storytelling contests in EQ.

In SL, I have seen a lot of empty sims... oh they have content on them, many of them have interesting product, but they have no people or very few people. I have seen one of the larger freebie places where they have people stationed at the corner of each aisle just standing there in creepy security guard/maniquinn fashion, intervals too regular to be coincidence. Occassionally one moves around a bit. Whether they are bots or people I don't know, but I can't understand the purpose of them being there.

In an anime themed mall, I was tossed around by a 'Goku' using DBZ style power balls. After a while of letting him toss me around, I simply turned on 'fly', mentioned that it was an interesting choice of advertizing style, and he said something sheepish and stopped.

In a Naruto themed sim (in the shopping district as an obvious outsider) I got into a conversation with one of the group members. Even though it was not an RP manditory area, I RP'd my entire side of the conversation and the regular there was not able to keep up. Even though I asked about his rank in character, instead of RPing an answer he ended up pointing me at his profile (which is sort of what I was saying earlier about profiles not always being a good thing). His profile required some OOC talk to figure out what his real rank was in *that* sim. If I was expected to look first and RP appropriately, I would have gotten it wrong, since his profile contained both outdated info as well as info relating to other sims. Then his friend showed up and they started talking in very un-Naruto style speach ('rude powergamerese' to be precise). That was not aimed at me.. was just banter between the two but not in IM's but local-speak. To be fair to the guy he sent me an IM afterwards and we talked a bit about the sim and Naruto generally. He seemed a decent enough guy.

I got the usual enticing phrases from pole dancers in various clubs, but as I have not committed myself to spending anything in SL, had no LL to tip with so did not stick around. Some of those clubs actually had real people in them other than dancers. Not all of them had anyone.

In a Neko themed club, I had the only truely positive social interaction, but to be fair to the other establishements, I interacted less with them. The only down side to that encounter is I felt out of place in there without ears and tail .

In EQ by contrast, even though it is not intended as a social engine first, I have met people who have become friends and in a couple cases RL friends, and even though a lot leave EQ and it has more and more in the way of 'empty spaces' too, even without the creativity available in SL, many of those who I have known who have left have come back. This is not meant to be an EQ ad. SL has a lot to offer. Just saying you shouldn't be complacent or blindly prejudiced. To me, a profile is an RP crutch, so that a people do not have to spend time actually getting to know each other. There are situations where that can be useful, but not everyone is going to have things they need to advertize.

Clueless, or don't really care?

I've been going through old landmarks this morning to see what effort is being made by business owners to get the word out.

Almost none.

Even one of the business owners who posted a long rant in one of these threads about the impending doom of his place has made no effort that I could see to inform his customers of the new policy.

I'm beginning to wonder if they can't be bothered to care, why should I?

It's just dawned on me that either LL live in some kind of alien concept world or are really just pretending to be stupid and are actually malicious.

In theory I can stay on the mainland as long as I take all the "adult" keywords out of my ads and parcel description. It appears the items themselves aren't a problem, just advertising them.

Now, since I run a shop that sell items that requires those keywords to get my potential customers to be able to find me, just how am I supposed to keep the shop economically active when I can't advertise what I sell?

As far as I can see it's just another way of forcing people over to the new continent whilst making it appear that it's the owners decision not anything that LL has done.

Just once I'd like them to take responsibility for their actions rather than always trying to blame their customers.

They are clueless... and yes, i am sure some don't care, but what i am finding most often is people saying...."what are you talking about... adult content... moving sims.. ect...I give them a brief run down, and point them here. Not sure. as a business owner, what i can do short of that.
Maybe put up a protest sign? I'd welcome any ideas
~Brie

nope, welcome to the modern online world of customer service.

1. Always make sure your customer knows they're in the wrong
2. never give them any rights to anything you provide, not even the right to discuss arbitrary decisions
3. If you can, charge them for everything you do for them
4. never listen to any feedback, they don't know your business
5. never tell your customers your plans, they'll only take it the wrong way.
6. despise your customers for sticking around and only see them as the pot of money to be dipped in when funds are short.
7. don't provide quality, quality costs and people will accept most rubbish you throw at them anyway
8. never apologise, never explain
9. all PR must include lip-service to concerns but no actual concrete plan to address them.
10. Never look at your churn rate, it doesn't really mean your product and service is bad. It really just means they're not a dewey eyed schmuck you can financially exploit.

I'm actually in the same frame of mind on profiles as Alexander. I think people put way too much emphasis on them as their main deciding factor of whether or not they want to approach people. I likem it to handing out a doessier to everyone I meet on the street in RL. I don't read profiles right off, if I find someone interesting, I like to make small talk for a bit and see where it goes. If it looks like we are hitting it off, then I may look at their profile to see what they are into. In any event, I never look at RL tabs.

My profile is fairly sparse, I don't do pithy quotes or sappy odes to people.It's just basic info. If you want to know more just ask. Before SL I didn't do any sort of online socializing or gaming, and still don't. The first time someone asked me A/S/L I was "Huh?" It's just my opinion, but it seems people in todays age of "social networking" *I hate that term* want Plug and Play friends. They don't want to spend any time getting to know someone, they want it now. If they can't learn all they need in 5 minutes then it isn't worth the trouble for them. I think it's sad, and a reason why our world is in the state it is in to some extent. It's ironic in that technology like the internet and SL, which are meant to help bring us together does just as much to insulate and isolate us.

I came across a european couple today who had just purchased some rather nice beach land and were building their new club, which they were advertising with music! strippers! etc. Apart from the fact that I would have struggled to explain adequately in their language, I actually hadn't got the heart to go up to them and tell them the plug would soon be pulled on their exciting new venture unless they were prepared to move.

We have just under 900 members in our group and have informed everyone in the group about the facts as they are at this time. We have also promised to keep them informed and to the options that they now have, we have also pointed them to the forums. The people that also help on the sim are kept up to date with our plans etc.

Is that enough? well I don't really know but we will continue to pass information along to them and it is then up to them what they then do with it.

This is the biggest thing that shows, at least to me LL's disingenuousness on this matter. Without waxing hyperbolic, this is going to be a world changing shift n policy, even if it is indirectly for most customers. And LL is making no effort to inform the population as a whole. They need to tell everyone what is going on, just using the forum and blog is not enough. Some way of telling everyone INWORLD has to be figured, perhaps coupled with a mass emailing as a back up. It is just another sign that they don't care about the current customer base, their business is not important any more.

I've done a group notice or 2 and a regular put an I'm Adult Content box of stuff at my place. There's also been a fair amount of chat..

What else can I do? LL isn't excactly overflowing with details on what's going to happen, who it's going to happen to or when it might happen..

I'm sure Blondin's doing the best he's allowed to do but the forums threads here seem to be no more than a "we talked to residents" checkbox. We get one juniorish Linden to cover the whole angry mob?

So.. As an owner of a naughty club, what should I be doing?

Sadly all true

You forgot 'farm out your CS and pay them incentives based on situations resolved, so that they have no incentive to actually take the time to solve anything, but instead give a canned answer and simply declare the problem solved'

Umm. not sure that could be answered in a PG forum....

Oh, you meant about the whole move thing!

Edit: Sorry.. couldn't resist

Right there. Every time someone buys mainland, they should get a notecard exolaining the situation. LL is happy to take your money, but don't want to give you the caveat emptor. I am glad this came down when it did. I was contemplating getting back into SL in a bigger way, rejoining premium and getting a decent sized mainland parcel, at least a 4096. But now, LL isn't getting another cent from me until this all shakes out, and even then what little love I have for them is being quickly squandered over their handling of this that they may never get me back as any sort of paying customer.

I quit SL totally a year ago, abandoned my land and cancelled my account over LL's bad management policies and SL's instability. It was duing the period where every day the grid was going down, we were told not to rez or buy when we were in world. It was a waste of time logging in. I did reinstate my account 3 weeks later and in the following months things did get better stability wise. I figured it would be as good a time as any to get back in. But not now, and I don't know if ever.

They literally dont know. I asked at the Twisted Orchid the other night and none of the staff there had a clue.

Many Many club owners on private sims are thinking "its just mainland I dont need to get involved in this" and not discovering that private sims will also have to flag and be subject to access restrictions. LL HAVE NOT announced anything other than on the blogs and here. They really really should put the word out inworld, maybe with a spash on the welcome screen.

Hmm ... maybe you quoted the deleted posts?

I was thinking something as simple as putting information at the landing point. You've done more than most of the places I've been to.

At the next Documentation team office hours, I'm going to ask Torley and any other Lindens who are there why they never brought splash screen announcements back.

Mature mainland is poisened and nothing than a landmine-zone/ticking timebomb from now on.

No one can create, rezz, act there spontaneus from now on.

Because: moral-police is watching. The censor-hammer and the AR-hammer is floating over everyones head.

LL has to make that clear around the clock, frequently, all 15 minutes, and on any possible ingame channel for sellers, buyers and owners/renters. Because any freedom is taken away from the mature-sims. It is not acceptable, that Linden Lab let run people constantly into this trap, day by day.