In the vein of todays topic: I have a concern

Heres my basic concern.

As a content creator in Second Life, my only real incentive is whatever I can earn by what I create.

Now..as a content creator...I have to toe the line. I have to follow the rules. One misstep..and I could lose it all.

Now with the lack of registration and griefing and scamming on the rise...what do the griefers and scammers have to lose? Nothing. The account they're using gets IP banned, so they just use another proxy and voila, new account, new griefing, new scamming. Right back to their old tricks and old fun....whereas if my account was to be banned, I'd lose everything I've invested for over half a year now, plus all my uploaded resources

Oh and lets not forget I'm paying the Lindens 100+ dollars a month in tier...which I forfiet as well if I get in trouble....and these griefers and scammers pay nothing.

So tell me here...what exactly is the incentive for those of us that develop content in world?

Seems to me its a case of "guns are outlawed so only outlaws have guns", metaphorically. Sure I can make some money...but so can the scammers and rip off artists out there, whats more..they can make money off my stuff, get banned for violating TOS, and be right back again doing it tommorrow, and nobodies really going to do anything about it.

It just seems to me like theres no consideration for those of us that are paying through the nose (Yes..through the nose, 100 bucks or more into a game monthly is...like...wow...a cry for help I think)...to maintain a business in SL, theres no incentive, no real recognition for our work...and whats more, the pirates and criminals have more or less free reign in the world now and theres not a damn thing we can do about it but file abuse reports that do little to nothing because even if they do result in the removal of a griefer or scammer...that person will be back tommorrow.

Seriously, theres no way for LL to be able to ban every proxy server in the world. If their network admins have that kind of mojo, I want to go to San Fransisco and have wild monkey sex with their network monkeys because they're working magic.

So I don't get it. How come the content developers have all the negatives here?

We pay the bills.
We make the products and in world content.
We have the most to lose.
We get nothing in return for that except Lindex returns. And they even charge us for using that!

Pirates and griefers get in for free.

They pay no money at all.
They add nothing to to the world as far as content.
They don't buy anything, they just steal textures or money.
They have NOTHING to lose because proxy addresses are more or less infinite.
And they get the exact same thing in return for their efforts. Linden dollars to generate USD on the Lindex with...and I'm sure when you're stealing money, paying that dollar to LL for a PayPal transfer is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

I mean....hello? Bueller? Anyone? Bueller? Am I the only one that this has occurred to?

I have that concern and share another. Leather Kisses certainly offers mature items. Putting some things in a PG sim isn't appropriate. Today, I set up a spot in a PG sim, filled it with some merchandise - no nudity and was asked to remove a few of the items. The reason stated was because there is no age verification at LL, the sim owner can't risk having anything remotely seen as "mature" in their market.

Removal of age verification is having repercussions felt across many areas within SL. I can't rent a vending spot due to this risk for the sim owner? Did age verification safeguard a sim owner from any liability in case someone underage had access to mature content? In reverse of that thought, do sim owners find themselves now liable if an underage person comes to their sim and gains access to mature content?

Like Suzanna, a lot of money per month is paid to LL. What safeguards do we really have when it comes to liability, underage users, and access to adult material?

I've been asking myself these same questions all day.
We are firmly mired in a situation with no simple solution, and when you say it looks less and less worth it, you are dead on.
You're both right to feel concerned over our own individual liability- that's not something that gets discussed very often.
If I make adult products, a minor gets ahold of them, the parents get ahold of the minor: if the parents decide that they feel the minor having that item is MY fault, what happens? What can they do? What can I do?

I have no idea. Does anyone out there know how this one would likely play out?
I'd love to hear input on it, if that's not something we need to worry about, I know I would love to put it to bed.

And yes, yes, i KNOW there were minors on the grid before 6/6. Difference is, not there are a crapload more of them AFTER 6/6. :|

Alas, asking questions is no gurantee that one will get answers, is it?

Good posts, tho.

You've really hit the nailed the crux of my concern. Before, at least the griefers and scammers were faced with the loss of ten dollars - not a lot, but enough to make most think twice.

I understand LL's reasoning when they looked at where they were losing potential signups - when it came to the credit card page. But if they want a world mostly populated by people that balk at even passing over info for age verification, much less investing the amount they'd spend at Wendy's for lunch, then that's what they're getting.

If they're working on the 3D Web/free for all mentality, then step up and give us the tools we need to effectively combat the onslaught.

yea i was thinking of the US$1000 i pay linden labs each month and this same issue.

that 1000 a month gets me one full sim of land on main land and 4 private islands all of witch could be gone in the blink of an eye not to mention my clothing business with well over 100 items I made over the last 2 years all gone if i did what the same people can get to do day in and day out just by changing there names and ip's

i tell you what my 1000 A month gets me it gets me people who will try and cheat and steal from me and never have to worry about a god dam thing!!

edit:

i may be taking this a bit to personal and prolly should not be posting this now because i will regret it but all this makes me think that I am getting the big FUCK YOU from LL.

Take it a step further, A-Z. You have to worry about ingame issues, what about a parent that is now going to take you to court because you own the sim within SL. Your sim has content in it that their under age child viewed. Will it happen? Do the parents have a leg to stand on? Will they also include SL in the lawsuit because LL doesn't require age verification? Does age verification alone negate that?

well im sure LL will give me the big FU in this case also

and yes im posting as an alt as i am worried about loosing it all buy posting like this in the forums.

asl

I tried to help my friend sign up for the game at one point, and the registration system crashed at that point. After verifying her PayPal, it went back to the first page and her name/info was lost in the system. Maybe it's broken code to blame, hmmm, LL?

Then there was the time I tried to get my boyfriend on SL without using MY credit card, since I didn't want to pay the $10 USD alt account fee. Why would I, I'M not the one using it. But he doesn't have a credit card. Man, we refreshed that page a lot trying different cell phone numbers to find one that would work for cell phone verification. Unfortunately, e-mail text messaging doesn't seem to be standard in Canadian cell phone plans, and my phone never got the text message.

There's two examples where signups were lost on the registration page due to LINDEN LAB's fault. NOT related to credit card fears. Truth is, we/they have NO idea why people's registrations stopped on that page.

Note: That's also the page with the stupid squiggled numbers you have to type in where L's, 1's, T's and I's all look IDENTICAL. I remember yelling in frustration at that bit of nonsense when I registered a year ago, it took me three refreshes just to get a damn code I could READ.

Their official reason for this rediculous registration thing seems pretty weak to me. and Suzanna, you're 100% right. The influx of new arrivals coming JUST to wreak havoc (not havok II!) hurts ONLY Second Life's paying, long-standing, GOOD customers. Stop pissing us off, LL. I could be earning $30+ an hour texture mapping for EA, instead I'm making stuff for your game for peanuts. It's a labour of love for me, of course, but there's nothing to love about damage control after my store, and good, paying customers, get scammed by some new arrival with no RL identity.

This is a very bitchy post for me. I'm normally a very mild-mannered person. But this is something that annoys me, not least of which being the retarded reasoning behind their decision. My rant is done now.

I have to yet see one post in support of the free for all griefing fest that is invading us.

I just hope that the SA mob don't get wind of it.

Lewis

Today, I got an IM from some guy making all sorts of threats for posting on the R*** R*** scammer thread. He then came and posted on here. Right under the scammer R**** R**** posts supporting his post. I tried to explain to him that his name was not named and the thread was not started by me. But to no avail. He was combative and very threatening.

Let me make it clear to him. I have never written his name on there. The only thing I edited in that original post is the name of the place. Their names were written in the original post with ****'s to begin with. :|

So I have no idea why this person and one another I don't even know would come and threaten me so vulgarly over this. I have at the request of Adam Linden submitted their conversations on report abuse report.

So does naming names include A***** Somelastname? Plus the A***** name listed there isnt even the person who IM'ed me with threats.

And why is he treatening me in game over a forum rule? Shouldn't he be pressing the little button next to my name instead of going onto the game and messing up my day?

Yes. He should. AR the fuck out of him.