An open letter to Philip and Robin

This was e-mailed to Philip and Robin Linden a few moments ago.

Dear Philip and Robin:

I write to you today with a dark cloud hanging over my Second Life.

I am certain that you have read at least some of the numerous forum posts regarding the issues that have arisen stemming from the new "no credit card needed" registration policy that Linden Lab recently instituted.

There have been numerous reports of increased incidents involving new players performing acts that range from harrassment and vandalism to griefing and attempts to scam other residents out of money.

I am sure that this is no secret to you, but the new registration process is making it absurdly simple for literally anyone, from teens to the most jaded cyberterrorists, to gain an SL account for these purposes. Asking for real life information such as their name, address, and date of birth is utterly useless if they can enter ficticious information with nothing whatsoever to safeguard it.

On behalf of all my SL friends, I urge you to consider some form of age verification be put in place, whether it is the use of a system similar to that used by some adult websites, or some other safeguard.

I understand that growth is a good thing for Second Life -- but at what cost?

Sincerely,

P2



[left]Phoenix Psaltery

[left]Associate Publisher / Advertising Manager[/left]
[left]The Metaverse Messenger[/left]



[/left]

Excellent letter

i think every one should do the same and send there own letter if they disagree with the new registration process.

*Claps* this is so needed , Thankyou Pheonix.

Would sending a message direct, or replying here be most effective?

Although I have obtained a free alt for a little peace and quiet out of this, I would have gladly paid the $10 because of the benefits I have from having one. It is not used for any griefing, has only posted once as an introduction in an alt thread, and is no trouble to anyone.

We would, however, still both sign this proposal. Would a "vote proposal" be an effective way, or direct mail to the named Lindens?

Lewis

Pheonix, sadly it has become all about the numbers. Don't expect anything to ever change in that regard.

Then lets generate our own numbers. How do we email a copy of that letter? Via IM, a notecard, or through the Website as a Private Message?

ALL OF THE ABOVE LEWIS

PHILLS EMAIL >> [email]philip@lindenlab.com[/email]
ROBINS EMAIL >> [EMAIL=robin@lindenlab.com]robin@lindenlab.com[/EMAIL]

Well said, Phoenix. I thoroughly endorse your letter. On a side note, I expect that the chickens will come home to roost during the 3rd anniversary celebrations. Maybe then Linden Labs will see the error of their ways and do something.

That's not true. The people I presume you're talking about are those pretending to be employees that the forums have been filled with warnings about today. Both the names I've seen mentioned are accounts created well before the change in registration - one in April and the other, if I remember rightly, in January. That cannot be attributed to the registration change, in the same way that the spate of invisible prims over for sale items, cannot either.

Good points, Moopf. I'd like to see some actual data about abuse rates before and after the change in signup procedure. Is there a connection or are these incidents being attributed to it out of our pre-existing concern about the change in policy?

Having said that, I disagree fairly strongly with the new signup process. It seems to me that a world with this much freedom and endless avenues for troublemaking and mayhem should require a higher degree of accountability from its residents.

Not to steal thunder, but in fact to add to the cause...

I've detailed some of what's going on here over in Answers... since it dovetails with some of my previous efforts to get griefing controls taken seriously.

I agree this is a rushed idea that deserves reconsideration because it's clear that topics such as underage residents have not even been *mentioned* by any Linden on this subject.

I'm very much in support of reducing the registration/ramp-up time to get users off the streets and into SL. If I had my way, I would like for a user who is viewing my webpage to be able to get inside of SL with one click!

How about if unverified residents have certain harmful functions turned off for them. They won't be able to use objects that push, rez other objects, spam the public channel, etc. Maybe we could even limit them to an alternate grid until they upgrade to full access WITH verification.

I know there is a lot of opposition to this plan but I think it's a really important step towards making SL an extremely powerful tool. I would love to see ideas that address abusive users while still allowing this plan to proceed.

By the looks of things, I may be alone on this...so I had better start ducking

If this is supposed to be 'Our World, Our Imagination' then why weren't we as current members asked what Our opinions and thoughts would be on this new registration? Why are big changes like this that aren't good for SL made without thinking about us and the future of SL? Why does it have to be about numbers numbers numbers?

I am a firm believer in quality over quantity and what with all the new scams flourishing I see the quality here dwindling...

Robin mentioned they are much more concerned about adults on the teen grid that teens on the adult grid, whatever that means.

Um, Zsu, that 'Your World, Your Imagination' bit is advertising - i.e. bull5hit. Sorry, I thought you knew that...

I'm afraid SL has reached a stage where resident opinions, resident hopes, resident fears and feelings, matter very little to Lunatic Lab - ALL that seems to matter now is resident money and resident numbers

your not alone on this Aimee Sounds like a good start Like a block of clay before the sculptor turns it in to a masterpiece

What ever they do i truly believe that there needs to be some kind of verification process.

What I fear may happen is that they may go down the path of restricting these accounts to PG sims, thus screwing over everyone who owns Mature land on one hand, while subjecting those who own PG land to even more griefing. It's a lose, lose situation. The alternative grid idea has merit, I'm just not sure how they could do it. The problem can be mitigated by simply going back to their previous authorization method (though also get rid of the stupid cell phone authentication method). It was certainly not perfect before, but this new version is just a free for all.

*shrug* I don't see why it is so much more difficult for people to spend five minutes to enter some basic info to create an account. I mean, has the attention span of the average MMO customer become so short that five minutes' worth of effort to register turned into what makes or breaks the game for someone? I would say that anyone who would choose not to play a MMO like SL just because they couldn't afford 5 minutes to complete a sign-up process is making the right decision; both for themselves, and the rest of us.

Personally, I am very much against the notion of supporting "instant gratification" for anything as big, complex, and socially important as a MMO. Anything worthwhile should have a little bit of effort attached to it. Now, I am not saying that "arbitrary effort" should be added, but the basic minimum to support the needs of the community and medium should always be a required amount of effort. I am very happy to have more people around, but if the people can't be tasked to put forth even the simplest degree of effort to "belong", I am also very happy to say "perhaps this game isn't for you; keep looking! ".

It ultimately boils down to this: Is the gain from removing all effort and providing that "instant gratification" to entice more people worth the overall degradation of the community as a whole from rampant abuse of the system? Is Quantity really more important than Quality?



Seems like a lot more effort than just putting the verification in for everyone to begin with. Not to mention that the kind of people who object to simple verification measures will also probably be put out by being given a "watered down" version of SL to play in until they get around to providing that info anyway.



I admit I am still a newbie, but I don't see how dropping the verification requirement has anything to do with making SL any more "powerful" as a tool. More people, perhaps "low quality" people, doesn't equate to making SL more attractive to me, at least. The more time I have to spend dealing with griefers and people who can't be tasked with helping themselves at all, the less time I have to enjoy myself and to help others enjoy themselves in SL.

I'm reminded of the old proverb which is particularly appropo to this situation:

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

With the dropping of the verification, there is no prevention. In addition, given the relatively low standards set by the MMO developer communit with respect to remedy (and SL seems to be no exception here), I highly doubt there are that many pounds of cure available to deal with the consequent rise in ailment as a result.

If they aren't gonna do anything about the reg process, the least they could do is finally give land owners tools that will work in handling griefers. And how about more Liasons who instead of just watching griefers will suspend or permaban the suckers. Immediately. LL needs to stop being so lenient on these assclowns.

Actually, I expect to see more banlines and "get off my land" scripts as a kneejerk reaction. What we really need is the ability to IP-and-hostmask-ban residents, exactly as it works on any given server package. The address need not be shown; it should be coupled with banning a resident name from your land. Simple.

But, more and more, this appears to fall on deaf ears.

Talarus, I hear what you are saying.

The problem is that a 5 minute registration process eliminates a wide range of possible uses for Second Life as a business tool. I could give examples... Maybe Universal Studios would like a virtual version of their theme park online. Perhaps a furniture designer would like to show customers their designs in 3D. Maybe SL modeled homes would be a good tool for real estate agents to show off property to long distance clients. My own personal example comes from the art world, where gallery owners balked at Second Life as a promotional tool as soon as they saw how long it took to get up and running.

The problem is, few promotional processes can survive the requisite 5 minute overhead ("click to see our new line of patio furniture! as soon as you fill out this registration form, give us your credit card, and respond to the e-mail verification" For Second Life to become a serious business tool, they MUST reduce the barrier to entry.

Of course some people simply don't want Second Life to be used this way. It's a difficult obstacle to overcome when one group simply doesn't want another group to do what they do. This is why I suggested a separate grid, in hopes of serving the business needs of some, while also preserving the social needs of others.

I don't think it is necessarily people not wanting SL to be used that way. I am very supportive of business in SL, including the types of uses you are mentioning. However, the current open registration system that allows full access to the system with no restrictions is not the way to go about it. There is no accountability at all. In the scenarios you suggested - showing off furniture designs, or houses, or a virtual theme park, it would be feasible to create free visitor accounts that are restricted in what they can and cannot do. This would allow quick registration and entry in the world, with the ability to then go to the exhibit in question or look at a house or whatever. To get unrestricted access to SL as a whole, they would then need to put in billing information for authentication. It combines the ease of entry you are talking about, with a modicum of accountability that is needed to help keep SL from just being a free for all.