RC Questions

Reading the surrounding text, all I see is an attempt to shape quotes into a meaning that was not part of and parcel to the original meaning. This is a reasonably consistent pattern ... almost as consistent as rationalizing words of those with whom one agrees.

Has anyone considered that much is made of the Lindens not listening, and the misqouting them and taking their thoughts completely out of context, may be contributing to that. I know that at this point, if some posters on here told me the sky was up ... I would have to look first.

I will agree with you on one thing ... I'm WAY of topic here, and not advancing my side of the discussion. Please accept my thanks for the needed grounding, and I will limit my commentary to things topical.

It made a nice change, we haven't gone off topic for weeks.

Ahhh memories... I remember the good old days, couple of pages worth of something OT then the caravan would move onto something else.

An idea was presented a while ago, that didn't get much play, possibly because it was limited in scope and not a 'scrap the whole thing' solution. I'm not sure who presented it, and apologies in advance if my description is not accurate.

What about grandfathering people that don't get the land swap, but that have some form of adult material? Grandfathering isn't the right word really, as the only fair way to do this would be to offer it to anyone that going forward, comes astray of the adult content rules.

With that provision, those that don't get the swap, but that suffer an AR in the future, or break advertising rules that will probably change like skins on a stripper, would not be left out in the cold.

The land swap really doesn't need to be a one-shot deal. It could be regularly offered ... after all, the Lindens are getting land in equal measure to what they would be giving. That the land given to them might be of less value, is only so, due to their own policies. It would be hard for them to cry foul.

Thoughts?

It's a personal perception, to be sure.



The amount of quoting them accurately and in-context FAR exceeds the hyperbole "heaped upon" them by at least one order of magnitude. The hyperbole tends to get more attention, because, well, it IS "sensational". That doesn't alter the fact that many of us have been dealing with EXACTLY what they said and trying to get them to reconcile it with other, CONTRADICTORY things they EXACTLY said, too.

The Lindens may want to pretend their feelings are hurt, or that it is fruitless to engage a large pride of lions in the arena with bloody chunks of buffalo strapped to their bodies, but that's their JOB. If they can't DO their JOB, then M needs to find someone who CAN DO their JOB.

A valid point. It's also my work environment in a nutshell.

Won't happen, too difficult..

The exemption would be given on your current content. They would have to keep detailed records of what your parcel contained at the time of the exemption then compare that to the current set up at the time of the AR.

This would be to avoid the situation where someone suddenly went all hardcore and scared the neigbours.

Allowing this would be a gift for those who do take advantage of things and LL just won't do that.

In this case if you were ARd and your content had changed the g team would need to assess the parcel as it is against the guidelines then compare it to the records of when the exemption was given. Then they would have to work out just how much more extreme you'd become (if any).

1. LL don't keep records. I was surprised to hear them say they had details of objects on a mainland parcel from one month prior.

2. The g team aren't that thorough. They can barely managed to apply the current policy - either because they can't be bothered making sure they know what it is or they just don't care enough to be professional.

It was brought up at Blondin's office hour early on, with a response that was something to the effect of "that won't meet our goals".



Put simply, "free swaps" don't make them any money, and they are VERY keen on keeping the amount of land they swap for free as limited as possible.

We've asked them to consider allowing anyone who wants to swap their Mature land for Adult to be given the "free swap", but Jack has made it clear that such is not going to happen.

Yep. I've had my turn in the barrel before. It's a thankless job where the only reward is in the wonderful people who comprise your team doing their absolute best to make people happy. That, and the occasional "thank you" from a random community member.

Not all Merry-Go-Rounds are PG/Mature one reason I *am* Adult Content, I almost wish that was a quote from him, I'd send him one....hehe

just found this..

http://www.massively.com/2009/05/09/is-congress-the-smoking-gun-behind-second-lifes-turnaround-on-a/



I think it's unduly optimistic, but hey, it cheers me up

I'm not following the no money point. I might be missing something.

Lets say that a year from now, user John Doe has some difficulties with the G-Team. Who really cares if he porned up his land or not ... it really doesn't matter. The Lindens make him a new plot and move him for free. They get to auction off the old plot, and get land use fees on both. Even if the price they auction for is very low, its money they wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and isn't use fees the mother-load for them anyway?

I would have called them on the concept that this doesn't meet their goals, as the professed goal is a predictable expereince. Having people skirting the rules, which will happen, is not in line with that goal. I'm sure they were indeed called on this, but I listened to some of those brown bags, and it was clear it was a free-for-all.

Which is why I started a Wiki page that collected the entire messages Blondin wrote, with links to the original messages, so that correct and complete quotes could be retained.

I think the idea is that the price Linden Labs expects to get from auction of Ursula is going to be very high: they will get more money if speculators bid up the auctions anticipating that many people will be forced to move to Ursula.

Aren't speculators maxed out on land use fees? How can that be better for them than two users that would actually pay fees?

Not sure what you mean.

There's no artificial cap on the number of people who can buy land on speculation, nor on the amount of land they can buy. If they have the money, and see what they perceive as a potential to profit immensely (whether there really is one or not -- that's why it is called "speculation", what else is going to stop them?

The money point is actually part of a larger issue; the fact that Ursula is presently only 1/20th the size of the mainland, and they don't want to make it any bigger, because they (probably) don't have the hardware to do so. If they swap more people, then they have to bring more servers online, and when the old Mature land is abandoned, they can't turn off the existing servers hosting those regions.

Given the current glut in the mainland market, that has been going on for over a year now, and is expected to get MUCH worse with this policy, it comes as no surprise that they don't want to open up free land swaps to anyone.

That's one MAJOR reason why the whole policy is flawed and unworkable, and why they seriously need to rethink it.



It doesn't meet their goals, it will cause a great deal of damage to SL and the residents, and there will not be this huge "influx" of people as a result.

And a likely outcome? parents see the FTC warnings and scream and holler to their Reps, not to make the explicit content secured to those who are of age, and having the adequate safeguards, as well as pro active parenting......I say Nay Nay.....but to have it all removed because politicians, a lot of parents and ultimately LL, always want the easiest way out.

It's never "How did Johnny get into the Dirty Bookstore he isn't supposed to be in", it's always, "What is that Dirty Bookstore doing in my neighborhood, enticing Johnny to enter it.?

Because they're expecting them to pay some years of tier equivalent up front when they buy the land in auction, like they did in other recent auctions of "special" land.

If anyone would like to visually emphasize their "point" about being angry over the changes, while attending various Linden office hours and brown bag sessions, I have the perfect fashion accessory for you. A stylish full-sized pitchfork, with carrying animation!

Available free. Free to copy and distribute. Just send me an IM or a notecard in-world.

The angry mob already has torches (Free in everyone's Library inventory). Now they can carry pitchforks, too!

But, we were told this policy is for the benefit of new users that want a cleaner mainland. If LL had faith in their plan to bring new customers. Surplus cleaned up mainland is just waiting to be snapped up.

A free swap for all is unlikely to ever be offered. It's just too unpredictable for LL. I also don't think it would really be in the best interests of SL. It would be likely to result in people requesting a move just to keep a private sex bed or something. Which really should not be necessary. Then some time later they find themselves next to some free sex empire and wanting to move back.

That said, I read a Linden say something like "we think residents will self categorize". Well, that sounds like a good idea and and I think LL should work to make it as easy as possible for residents to self categorize. There are lots of ways they can do this, probably the best is to commit to maintaining price parity across land rating types. Or they could offer for say, six months to buy M mainland for the average selling price of A mainland. Whatever, they need to get creative, self categorization is in everyone's interest.

If they intend to severely limit the free swap, then sell the surplus A land at auction for windfall profits while letting M land values drop to nothing. That would be unbelievably scummy and short sighted. I really would struggle to continue paying any money to a service that acted like that. I hope it isn't so.

Yeah, but the point is that those "new users" aren't either "new" or "users". They are vapour. They are the "birds in the bush". Yes, there are birds in those bushes; MEEEELIONS of them, I tell you, with all sincerity and veracity I can muster. The question is, how many of them are they really going to be able to entice to their hands over this?

I mean, they may actually succeed in dispelling the perception that SL is virtual pornoland to the common person, but that is assuming such is the ONLY reason someone is hesitant about joining. Some (many?) may use it as an easy excuse to avoid considering it on other grounds.



Anyone VOLUNTARILY taking a free swap to Ursula and then getting upset over being next to some "free sex empire" deserves what they get, tbh.

However, that's not the issue for me. I paid a pretty good chunk of money for half a sim of Mature mainland, rather than PG land, because I could do whatever I wanted on it, including Adult Content, if I so chose. That is a significant part of the value of my land. That value is now gone, and with the land glut, most of the value of my so-called "investment" has been nuked. Well, that part, I can take, because that was considered in the risk analysis BEFORE I bought it. This change was not, and now my land stands to become not only worthless, but I CAN'T potentially partake in some forms of content that I bought it to be open for. It doesn't matter one whit that I haven't put up adult content on it at this point; it is a default expectation on the value of that land to me, and now that basis is changing, without due consideration given to mediate it.



LL does not meddle directly in the market. They maintain it in the most crude of ways, by controlling the supply of land. They aren't going to set prices or otherwise meddle in the market between residents.



You've pretty much just detailed the plan with respect to Adult land as it stands right now. Now you know one of the major reasons people are pissed off, abandoning their land, tiering down, and/or leaving, even BEFORE this train fully wrecks.

Perhaps not- I mean, I'm not a coder, and what I know about programming would fill a very small pamphlet Well, okay leaflet.

My point is that, for example, if they had thought through the definitions, they'd have known that there were far too many dual use words to rely on a keyword system for filtering and that the would need to use a context based system.

I'm not saying that they needed to have the whole thing locked down before they started re-writing the code, but they really should have known a *lot* more about the ramifications of their idea than they do, and they have done a *lot* of things in the wring order, or not at all.

^V^

Ah, so you knew it wasn't actually a quote?


Interesting

^V^

The filtering itself is in their Google Search Appliance. Google wrote THAT code long before Linden Labs thought about Adult Keywords.

Argent, my point is that if LL had done their homework, they *would* have known what changes to make and what kind of search routine to use, and they wouldn't be trying to keyword search routines in an environment that is almost completely composed of dual (or more) use words.

Or maybe they would... this is LL we're talking about here.

But really- First VL and now you? am I really being that vague or is it "ignore the overall point and quibble about a tangent" day?

Can't we just say I said "code" when I suppose the proper word would have been "module" or "plug-in"? (I'm a hardware goob, not a code monkey ) And does it really *matter* to the argument I was making?

LL didn't do its homework. as a result, they made crappy decisions about a lot of things, including what search routines they were going to plug in. It doesn't matter who wrote them, or whether they are modular and can be applied to whatever definitions LL cares to name. Keyword search, a client that doesn't remember preferences from one log-in to the next, undocumented multiple steps to access adult content tabs rather than a single button system, and some sort of disconnect between their verification system and the client and parcel verification checking...

I mean, it's quite a list, isn't it?

That's all I'm saying. from soup to nuts, they haven't done enough homework or taken their plan to its logical conclusions. they are operating with a lack of basic information, and it is showing in their work.

^V^