Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Motivations and Goals

This is totally bogus!! Once again Americans, and "american" sensabilities trump all?? Have we learned nothing?? This is censorship plain and simple and it is imposing some arbitrary standard (american) on people. Classic political "correctness." Thank god i have washington and the lindens to tell me what i am too stupid to figure out on my own. THANK YOU!!

Content is already sorted by "mature" content.. i think we can pretty much all agree on what that is, but to now have the the linden police out scouring sims and making some determination on their own about what constitutes "adult" content?? Come on??

I think to this point we as a community have done alright. There are mature sims and there are PG sims.. and within those worlds are a wealth of rich and varied content. And true, not all is my cup of tea, but so what, who am I to say good/bad, right/wrong?? I can TP out as fast as i did in (most of the time), but within that world are things for every taste. That is how it is!! And it's great!! I mean when i accidently land in some totally offensive sim, how quickly, under the lag consolidation plan, am i going to be able to TP back out?? Will I be able to TP at all??

This is so offensive. Censorship. And who gets to make these determinations?? Joe McCarthy? J. Edgar Hoover? Bill Clinton?? The Vatican? The Taliban?? Think about it.. burhka shops blooming like an Afghan poppy field all over SL.

SL is an inherently 'adult' (over 1 community. Trust us to BE adults. Trust us to be able to click, or unclick a mature box. Trust us to read a sim description before we TP, trust us to have the freedom to explore SL without looking over our shoulders for the "Religious Police" of the Taliban!!

Topless women in america is "adult" but in much of the world it's considered perfectly normal and natural and not even "mature content."

SL is a global community. Far more than half of my friends here, live outside the United States.

This is a classicly American issue.. imposing american tastes, sensabilities, predjudices, mores on the rest of the world.. It is the reason we are so loved around the globe. PLEASE, PLEASE, do not "americanize" SL. Do not impose some "standard" that is such a slippery slope, where does it end once it begins?? I mean really??

If anything should be "adult,' if anything should be shuttled off to it's own little laggy corner of sl, it's the violence.. the blood and gore and guts the murder and maiming and war-gaming that goes on.. that IS offensive.. that IS morally reprehensible under every social, religious and moral standard. Not nudity, Not sex... Not love. The contradiction is appaling, and it's such a sad, sorrowful statement about the world in which we live, both in rl and sl..

Go ahead.. kill.. maim... assault.. just make sure you have a shirt on while you do it.

Agree 100% what you say here.

Had Second Life been a European platform (or some other parts of the World) these topics would be a non-starter.....it just wouldn't happen!

Won't educators/universities etc. want to centre their core work within their own private grid, eventually, or within a purpose built shared 'EduGrid' (for teaching, lectures, meetings etc.)

I agree that Estates are just as affected as Mainland, but I think these particular adverse consequences only obtain with the assumption that there will really be a substantial number of SL residents who remain unable (or, theoretically, unwilling) to visit Adult land. I think this assumption is incorrect.

For one thing, all residents with payment info on file are already verified, in addition to anybody who went through the Aristotle "ID Verification" exercise. Now, many residents (and their alts) are currently NPIOF, but after this change, the vast majority will verify, one way or another. They just won't have any practical alternative, given that most of existing Mature landowners will insist on keeping what they bought, and move or retag as Adult. And it's not as if there will be any choice for Xcite! and Sensations and Stroker's and many, many places that almost all residents visit at least once.

So, the verification thing is a bit of a pain (nothing compared to moving for Mainland folks), but retagging an island as Adult will be almost universal for current Mature islands.

As Matthew Dowd has pointed out, many educators are not finding good uses for worldwide access. But businesses certainly will.

Very few unversities or businesses will have ANY use for Mainland. Why? Lack of privacy. How do you hold a class that requires tuition, when someone can sit in the neighboring parcel, or the sim next door, and attend the class for free? How do you hold a serious business meeting, when everything said or done in the meeting is open to any Resident for listening in or watching? You can't. And for that reason, serious business and university clients won't use Mainland, no mater how much you clean it up. While a company like Coca Cola may find some value in placing a small store in SL, to sell trademarked or logo'ed goods, most SL residents have shown themselves to be very opposed to such commercial ventures. Most, if not all, attempts by big-name real-world companies to market goods and services or to advertise their real-world products in SL have failed spectacularly.

Universities often sponsor seminars that are open to the public and could reach a much wider audience through Second Life. Many kinds of information could be shared between universities in different parts of the world.

Many kinds of businesses could benefit from a wider market also. Art and entertainment businesses that bridge SL and RL are an example.

How many casusal users are there who really use SL anyway. I don't have any evidence to back this up, but how many NPOIF's really use SL with any regularity? I know there are some, I know several, but when you take away bots, throwaway griefer alts and just purpose built alts of a verified main, how many are left? Enough to worry about losing? And if they aren't using a verifiable source to buy lindens, they aren't probably patronizing the adult businesses much anyway. Being locked out of them isn't a big deal.

Nonsense, there was group in France trying to get Second Life closed down, the Germans objected to sexual ageplay. These concerns are not just rooted in US culture.

Lol, if you think a lot of users, especially the casual ones...... are going to go through the process of either Verification or placing Credit card details so they can continue with their SL experience....you're going to be in for a nasty surprise!

Or a nice surprise, depending on your perspective. The causual users that will be screened by verification are only those trying to access adult content. The rest will still have full access without verification.

Er.. Yeah, "full access" except for the stuff that LL wants to make a WHOLE NEW CONTINENT for. But 'full' in every other sense of the word..

Fine. Let them join up on SL!!

Saying that they won't join because they might run into porn is like saying that they refuse to have an internet presense because there's also porn on the internet. They're both lame excuses and speak loudly about the how well the speaker knows what they're talking about..

How many casusal users are there who really use SL anyway. I don't have any evidence to back this up, but how many NPOIF's really use SL with any regularity? I know there are some, I know several, but when you take away bots, throwaway griefer alts and just purpose built alts of a verified main, how many are left? Enough to worry about losing? And if they aren't using a verifiable source to buy lindens, they aren't probably patronizing the adult businesses much anyway. Being locked out of them isn't a big deal.

90% of home buyers are: No Payment Info On File

95% of the avatars that tp to my business are: No Payment Info On File

any other business people out there that know this ??

They can use any excuse they want. It's up to the seller (LL) to make the product into something the buyer (organizations and businesses) wants to buy.

How do you hold a serious business meeting, when everything said or done in the meeting is open to any Resident for listening in or watching?

Unanswerable point Brenda - but a chance for me to throw in a random, vague stat. Yesterday I popped into one of the sex clubs I work for, to make a note of the ratio of NPIOF to Payment Info Used etc. It's one of the most popular free sex places in SL and doesn't use any bots - the traffic is from moving/talking Residents. (SL search) traffic was 35460 (we regularly top 40k).

At that moment in time the SIM was full at 40, 39 in the club's parcel and one on the ground somewhere, that I couldn't profile. A perfectly average snapshot (from my experience of working there for well over a year, 7 days a week usually) in terms of use, no special event, just a regular view - and after checking everyone as quickly as possible, I noted down that 31 Residents were NPIOF and 8 were PIU/PIOF. The mix was primarily regulars, no really newbie avatars, nearly all were over a few months old, a lot were older and although not a large amount, they were tipping the dancers and many had obviously spent L$ on their appearances. Some definitely were ALTs of their mains, as I was when I visited (I included my ALT).

They can use any excuse they want. It's up to the seller (LL) to make the product into something the buyer (organizations and businesses) wants to buy.