RC Questions

Well said!!! Valerius

Hugs and Kisses

“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot!" Oliver Twist, chapter 51

That line has been buzzing around my head ever since the notion of word filters came up - But although it's read at school I'm not convinced Dickens is such a good thing for those of a weak constitution.

Though it might be slightly more PG suited to fragile souls than Shakespear, and certainly has a lot less rape, extreme violence and incest than the Bible...

Anyone else get the feeling there are a lot more underage avi's around since all the press coverage on MMO sites about the adult content changes?
Nothing I can pin down to actually AR someone, just my intuition by the way they chat, what words and style...

I understand and sadly accept the fact that all the businesses and pubic areas that are deemed by LL to be of adult content are moved to the Ursula Ghetto. And there's going to be some sort of "think speak" in place and there will be a list of banned naughty words for local chat. And supposedly I'll still be able to do whatever adult activities I wish when *inside* an enclosed building on my property that will be allowed to remain in a "mature" sim (or will all the mature sims become one gigantic PG sim? That's what it sounds like).

I will NOT, however, ever again visit what will become to me the "PG continent". If I inadvertently find myself in a PG sim, I will be horrified and will teleport out of there as quickly as possible. I already REFUSE to do business with anyone located in a PG sim, ever since I heard about Project Ursula. I also will NOT visit any of the lovely parks or "romantic" places that will remain on the PG continent.

I have gone thru my saved land marks and revisited the ones that are PG and have toured them one last time. If any of them had businesses, I browsed thru them one last time. And, if any of them had anything that I didn't think should be in a PG sim, I submitted ticket reports for being what I deem to be mature content in a PG sim. Funny that no one has gotten back to me on all those reports I sent in. But the way I look at it, LL can't have it both ways. If it's adult, then it should go to Ursula (where the target market for the mature items will be) and not hide on the PG continent.

Since the adult businesses are being exterminated from the main continent and moved to this ghetto called Ursula, I will NOT go back and revisit the PG continent. I will NOT do any business whatsoever in a PG sim, and I hope that the businesses that enjoy the massive amount of money the adults residents in SL have brought to them will move to Ursula as well and also not look back. And the ones that think they belong on a PG continent may decide to move to Ursula as well, to follow the adult residents' money.

I hope to move to Ursula and not look back. Because I intend to spend my money only in businesses on Ursula, I would like a search filter that will show me ONLY places in Ursula.

All three of PG. mature and adult have search checkboxes, so it appears that your wish will pretty much be granted.

I think the current search feature has check boxes to INCLUDE mature content. And besides that I want a search feature that will show me ONLY adult content, which will be only businesses located on the Ursula continent

Dunno, but the "Streisand Effect" is genuine, and no doubt will make itself known more and more in the coming months.

Some points I want to make because I keep hearing these things stated over and over by certain people in these forums.

There is no such thing as rape in SL. There is rape roleplay which requires all parties to consent, watchers included by way of continuing to listen in and watch. Nothing about the changes would make it any less likely for you to stumble upon this situation in a roleplay, but TP is and always has been your friend. If you can't TP, well you can move via your legs, or even fly away in SL. Just try your hand at being a hero and saving someone from being raped in a roleplay scenario. See how fast it takes for the supposed victim to tell you to sod off. The closest thing I'd argue to virtual rape in SL would be copybot by way that it steals content you made without your permission (Linden Labs allows copybot) and bloodlines (still requires you to click "yes".

If you want to ensure that a strip joint doesn't move next door to you, buy PG land. That still doesn't ensure that the person next to you won't put up a giant flourescent pink and green tented roach motel. In fact, there are no gaurantees when purchasing land that it will remain exactly the way you bought it and want to keep it, unless you purchase your own Island. Sorry but neighbors come and go. Some are good, some are bad, and that is simply the way land works in SL. Some of the earliest complaints came from people upset about the Political neon ads of one very famous land baron. Ads like that can now be AR'd... But you cannot AR an idea and it is only a matter of time before someone else decides to make a new form of political statement. No amount of zoning is going to ensure that every build next to your land meets your idea of a quality and an acceptable build. It works exactly the same in real life. How many people have lived next to the guy who parks 20 old rusted cars on what was once possibly a nice green front lawn? Worst case scenario, you move yourself away from the problem with no gaurantee the problem will not follow you, or evolve into another kind of problem.

It is my opinion that the Lindens cannot and do not grasp either of these concepts about SL. Perhaps they don't spend enough time in world to be able to do so, and that is the only explanation that makes any sense when looking at their version of changes that they actually believe will work.

You will be able to do that with the 1.23 viewer.

Adult content will also include islands rated Adult, not just Ursula.

You might notice this particularly now that the SLexhange (whatever it is called now) no longer allows teens to even log in. They completely cut them off and even one teen mentioned on the "Shopping For Virtual Goods Just Got Simpler" blog the fact that doing so is encouraging them to make adult grid alts just so they can buy and sell items via the website. Lindens could do much better by offering teens more incentives to actually stay within their own grid and hang out with their own age group. I don't think Linden Labs should be encouraging them to join the adult grid illegally by cutting off their options and fun. I don't think this is helping Linden Labs diffuse rumors that they have no plans to merge the grids.

The release candidate viewer has an adult checkbox for search, it doesn't as of yet work in the way people think it will eventually. Right now parcels with adult flagged words are returned via adult search, so a store carrying Gorean clothing can only be found by those searching for adult, even though the content isn't adult, same for sex beds.

All adult sims should only appear in adult search though and if you use adult search you certainly should not get any PG results.

Gambling houses already shifted to using "gaming" or "Zyngo", that happened soon after the gambling ban. By the way, add "Casino" to the fully banned words list. That actually makes sense since its defined as a gambling house

Ok after link after link, I'm kind of lost since there is....I'd say 1000's of posts on this and would probably take me a week to read it all. Forgive me if this has all been covered.

I read something about private estates being moved? That seriously can't be right can it, since we can control whats in the spot next to us?

How will this effect my rentals? If a renter puts up things classified "Adult" how will this effect me? If I want to keep renters, will I have to move to ghetto central now? Will I have to make new rules stating that nothing of a sexual nature can be placed outside of their house? Will they all move because of word filters and can no longer have sex? Most renters that can afford to pay rent work as escorts, and tend to bring their customers home, so it seems this could seriously effect me.
I've been relocated once and really don't want to be relocated again. If I have to do it again, I want a private estate!

What is odd to me is the sim I used to own was surrounded by all mature sims, but now I'm right next to a PG sim where you can just look across the boundry and see everything. Why was PG and Mature sims thrown right next door to each other anyways? Never made much sense to me.

Will LL slowly start to properly sort out how sims are set up? Such as offer PG land owners that are next to mature to move to a PG sim on another continent, and move a Mature sim from that continent to where the PG sim was....or even more simple, change ratings here and there to make it a little more uniform? As of right now there seems to be no reason to how it's set up. (Granted I don't get out much any more, and never go to PG if I can avoid it)

Every change LL makes, is always declaired the end of the world, but SL goes on. Some for the worse, some for the better. It would be nice to see things a little more uniform (Especially when I log in, and rather then be in my sim, be in a PG welcome area nude).

Well-reasoned argument and counter-argument, with evidence to support what many of us here have known for a long time. I'm sorry to see it was unfortunately so quickly dismissed, misinterpreted and misunderstood yet again; the end of your nose can be impossible to see if your eyes are closed.

The temptation to buy into the debate again is great, but I'm determined not to waste my time. Instead, /me stands by with the salve to apply to Valerius's poor head once banging it against the brick wall has ceased.

Somewhere in there you might have covered the crux of the issue, but I missed it, so here is how I look at it:

* Throughout its website, Linden Labs talks about "buying land". This gives the average consumer the impression they are buying something, naturally enough. The average consumer does not know the intricacies of the terms of service, but they do understand the difference between buying and renting.

* The reality is Linden Labs offers a month-to-month rental, with the ability to change the terms under which they rent at any time.

* This mismatch between what they say, and what they really do is the root of our angst over the adult changes. When you buy something, you expect to get a set of fixed rights and conditions with your purchase. When you rent, you understand that the landlord might change the rent, or set new tenant rules.

* To "own land" normally includes the ability to admit or exclude whoever you wish from your property. The new adult land will take away part of those rights.

* To change the zoning or allowed uses of land arbitrarily so that it loses value would be considered a "taking" of property, and requires compensation if it is a government doing it. Linden Labs acts as the government of Second Life (the public land is even owned by an avatar called Governor Linden).

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

Therefore I see one of two results:

(1) Linden Labs proceeds with their plans as we now understand them. They then commit a fraud or unfair trade practice by claiming to "sell" something, when they do not. There must be something you buy which is yours after-wards and which the seller cannot change after they sell it to you.

(2) Linden Labs modifies their plan to offer a trade for equal rights land as they had before, compensation for lost rights, or a buyback. The offer should be available to anyone affected by the changes.

* Considering that no land in the current plan will have the full rights as mature land has now, and that they plan to bring in new servers that pack *more* sims per box (lower overhead), a tier reduction of about 20% seems fair going forward. That means canceling the homestead increase, and lowering the remaining land from what it is now.

* As an alternate, establish a clearly labeled adult grid, with a separate login. That means a big notice at registration *and* at each login that this contains adult material for an over-18 audience. Call it Adult Second Life, or the Adult Life Grid, if you want to distance it from other SL marketing. Allow 6 months transfer time to move from the existing main grid.

They have boldly announced the first University grid, and the teen grid shows its technically possible. Once people are past registration, there should be no other restrictions to using the adult grid set by Linden Labs.

Anyone that complains that little Johnny saw a penis can get told "why the fuck were you letting your child roam around an adult site?"

* As another alternate, make it a fair deal for anyone that needs to move due to region rating definitions:

(1) Allow *anyone* that is affected to swap for land of preferred rating one time.

(2) Allow combining existing land anywhere on the grid into the move request.

(3) Rebate one month's current tier on the moved land for time and trouble moving.

(4) Allow increasing land area at the destination at a nominal price of L$3 per meter (the current minimum auction price for mainland regions). In other words, if you want to add 1024 meters as part of the move, it would cost you L$3072.

(5) Allow decreasing land area via Linden buyback at the current average mainland selling price. The idea is "you sold me this land, you broke it by changing the rules, give me a refund".

If we push for more votes misc-2727 can be the #1 jira by Blondin's OH this week.

agreed and we also have 354 signatures on the open letter here as well all we need is the people from the JIRA to sign the letter as well

http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/An_Open_Letter_to_Linden_Lab

We're all going to be under that table once LL let the rest of the grid know and the howls start afresh

Please can i be reminded/told how to vote for this jira. I signed the open letter already

Hans

Go here

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-2727

on the left hand side bar you will see the If you were logged in link, click that and login and you will see the voting link on the left hand side just click that link

Has anyone made anything that people can set up on their land, and distribute that will help bring more attention to this?
I wouldn't have known about any of this had I not ran a search on my name, and evidently "Sartre" was somewhere in this mega-thread

Maybe something that has links to translate whats going on into several differen't languages

Many thanks Lord Sullivan i'll do that this afternoon.

On another topic, i am finding that a great many of my in-world friends, many of whom i share, erm, well seriously intimate fantasies with, have absolutely no idea there is any change about to happen: mostly they have never heard Ursula and the new adult content rules. It all seem very bizarre given the strength of feeling in this thread.

Hans

There is a list of Protest material here

http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/Related_Groups_%26_Protest_Material

Also check out the following link, Adult changes - A balanced view: http://satiateddesires.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/second-life-adult-content-changes-how-theyll-affect-you-update-1/

If anyone else has adult protest material available please add it to the SLapt.me wiki page. I also have some items on display around our landing area ay BDSM-Life SLurl in my sig line

You are welcome. Many of us are trying to bring it to the attention of as many people as we can by sending them here or to the SLapt.me wiki. For many though I believe they do not fully realize all the implications for this if the changes go ahead as they are being stated by LL.

If each of us gets at least one person to the SLapt wiki and or Couldbe's blog and each of them tells one other person the details will spread virally and fast, and the reasons I say there as well as this thread is at the SLapt wiki and Couldbe's blog is we have started to pull together a lot of links and information for people to follow as the lengths of these threads must put some off lol, I have read every single post on this issue and followed every link posted since the beginning and if I had just read about this I would surely be put off by the sheer amount of information to plough through.

Personally i believe LL is hoping that by delaying the announcement then they will have to deal with less fall out from it as it will be a finalized and done deal. That is why it is so important for this information to be in easily digestible reference points like Couldbe Yues blog and or the SLapt.me wiki as they are both good places to start.

Both links in my sig line BTW