Second Life in the News, Again!

And what particular point would that be, if you actually had one in the first place?

Lewis

Clearly? Hardly. It's got nothing to do with a "major focus in Linden Lab" or any other conspiracy that exists only in Lewis Nerd's gray matter. It's a much more simple law: the law of supply and demand.

As for your claims of PG land not being available, uhhh...
http://www.anshechung.com/index.php?fct=BUY_LAND
http://www.azureislands.com/zoning.php
http://www.azureislands.com/simulators.php

And in a quick perusal of the auctions list:

Full sims which could be purchased and made PG:
Sipiwesk 001 (128,12 65536 m2 US$1,000.00 Bid Now!
Mosquito (128,12 65536 m2 US$1,000.00 Bid Now!
Tathlina 001 (128,12 61936 m2 US$1,502.00 23h 8m
Great Pubnico (128,12 60016 m2 US$1,401.00 23h 8m

Plots available in PG sims:
Hughes (146,20 PG 1024m L$4,530 8h 2m
Hogback (68,115) PG 8192m US$125.00 10h 17m
Sabulella (36,4 PG 1872m L$8,210 10h 47m
Crooked (169,187) PG 2624m L$13,010 13h 17m
Minoa (210,271) PG 8224m US$266.00 13h 17m
Sammamish (35,73) PG 9216m US$140.00 1d 12h 17m

AND THAT IS WITHOUT EVENING CHECKING THE IN-WORLD LAND SALES SYSTEM.

Credibility is achieves from saying credible things over time, not from posting things as fact that can be easily disproven (exhibit A is right above). Also, it's a good policy to read more than a few sentences of an article before passing judgement on it.

Regards,

-Flip

I'm really not following you, and believe it or not I am trying. I'm pretty sure what you have been inartfully trying to say is that you wish to avoid seeing sexual content without having to stumble on it. I agree with you on this concept.

But what I don't understand is why you assume a gay club means it is automaticaly sexual in nature with lots of people running about naked groping each other. Lets make it easy, lets pretend there is a gay club in a PG area where there is no explicit sex. Would this be something you feel needs to be identifed as such?

Granted, it would make sense for all places in SL to identify what they are about so that people looking for specific content can find them, but thats very different than what you imply but never state, that places in SL should be required to have identity tags.

And just so you know, I have no desire to go to gay clubs in SL. But for some reason, I don't seem to have the same level of problems you do in avoiding them.

And on the other side of the coin, it really would have been nice if the original article in question could have an article about SL geared towards the gay community without it having to expressly state how sex works here.

Take a closer look.

I do not have $1000 to throw at a computer game, so whole sims are out of the question, as are the larger plots which are still at excessive prices.

I spent a while checking out some of the PG land and pretty much all of it did not suit my needs for the project I have in mind - including several "gently sloping hillsides" that were more like cliffs.

I also refuse to rent land because of the inherent insecurities involved with renting.

There is more demand for 'PG' land than "M" land... why do you think that there is so little PG land available compared to Mature?

Lewis

Yesterday. How about you?

My town, Philadelphia, has a lot of straight bars (Emerald City, Live Bait, Singles, The Continental). Are gay folks allowed in? Sure. It also has a lot of gay bars (Woody's, 12th Air Command). Are straight folks allowed in? Sure.

We even had a SEX bar until they closed it down, called Kama Sutra. Now their parties have been moved to Emerald City (interesting crowd), where coincidentally they were having a party immediately following the Second Life Concert we did there last March. We moved to another room so they could start their party, but hey, live and let live.

It's also got dive bars (McGlinchey's, Murphy Tavern), Sports Bars (Champion's, Cavanaugh's), and hick bars (The Cisco Bar & Grill, The Broken Nose).

I'm not sure what the point of your original query was, however, but glad to enlighten you.

Regards,

-Flip

While I applaud that you've figured out that the company that makes this wonderful virtual world is named Linden Lab, singular, and not Linden Labs, plural, I see we still have to do some work on this "game" thing. You'd win a lot more friends - and appear a lot less trollish - if you said, "I do not have US$1000 in disposable money to spend on virtual land in an online world that I use only for entertainment, that is a game to me." It goes back to a lot of the problems I have with you, which is that you appear to believe that the Lewis Nerd view of SL is the only view that should exist (It's only a game... give me six months and I'd fix this whole world if I were in charge of LL... gays should appropriate label gay themed areas so I can specifically avoid them... etc, etc) The fact is there's PLENTY of PG land available, and at typically cheaper prices than Mature land, due to the law of supply & demand.

Another fact is that most people in Second Life don't engage in the sexual aspects of the world, but they don't care if others do, and most people would rather not have to self-censor if they want to tell a dirty joke. THAT is why mature land is so popular. Just because you're frugal and looking for a bargain doesn't mean there's not enough PG land; there's clearly some for sale, as I've shown above (without even checking in-world), you're just looking for a bargain instead of the going rate.

That's not Linden Lab's problem, nor should any of the rest of us worry about providing excess PG land so Lewis Nerd can get a deal.

Regards,

-Flip

Hi!

I am the Avatar Dillon Speculaas. I am the owner of Provincetown sim.

That said, allow me a few observations about this forum discussion, Second Life, and Provincetown sim.

I will admit I have only made it to page FIVE of this discussion. I will go back and read through the rest of the discussion, and I will continue to monitor it as long as it stays alive, so that any of the current participants or others who may come to read this in the future can respond to me, ask questions or offer comments. One can't expect to advance or grow in a positive way after all, if they aren't willing to participate in the free exchange of ideas, can they?

First and foremost, a large portion of what I have read so far seems to center either on the racy advertising related to the linked article, the perceived sexual practices of the homosexual community, or the need to "warn" Second Life citizens about the sexual theme of our sim.

Ironic. One of the questions I've heard quite often from people who have actually visited Provincetown sim is "where are the sex clubs".

We dont have any.

Provincetown sim isn't about sex. It isn't about gay. Or straight. Or furry. Provincetown sim is about welcoming people to a place where we hope they can enjoy a unique experience based on the reproduction of a portion of a real life town that is known as much for its quaint shops, bistros, clubs and historical sites as it is for its attitude of tolerance. Provincetown sim is an attempt to extend that attitude of tolerance into the world of Second Life.

Second Life offers us the opportunity to experience unique reproductions of all sorts of real and fantasy venues, lifestyles and characters. It also offers us the opportunity to teleport to or away from any of these experiences instantly with the click of a mouse. While I personally choose to experience as much as I can from this weird and wonderful world, I accept that others may not choose to do so.

I do not expect anyone to limit my access to in world experiences they may "think" could offend me (how would they know???), and I ask others not to expect me to attempt to limit or shield them from the experience of Provincetown sim. Should you stumble upon Provincetown sim in error, the saftey of the mainland is just a click away.

You only know that most gay bars are gay bars Lewis, by word of mouth. Believe it or not, most don't advertise the label outside, nor even fly rainbow flags for that matter. And it's hardly unknown in city centres like Manchester, where there's a high density of gay businesses, for people to point out before going to a new bar or club that it's gay, straight or even mixed. So in answer to your question, a lot, actually.

Regarding the sex and labelling issue to help you avoid certain behaviours or social situations however, it is my opinion, after my brief stay in SL, that you can actually go to sims like Provincetown and hang out (finah) without being harrassed for sex -- unless you actually enter what is a sexual establishment -- whereas the same can't be said in countless other sims (I'd say it's worse on mainland), regardless of PG or mature status. I've lost count of the number of photos women have sent me without my requesting them, the sheer quantity of sexual come-ons aimed at me from females in everywhere from welcome areas to nightclubs, but I just assumed it was the same for everybody. Hell, in one mature, but none-sex club last Saturday, one girl told me I was hot and proceeded to get her breasts out. I told her not to confuse me with my avatar and after a little joking about it, she moved onto somebody else. No harm was done and we'll have a laugh about it next time we meet, although needless to say -- the club owner wasn't best pleased with display of aforementioned boobies.

So anyway, if you consider yourself a representative of good, wholesome, heterosexualkind Lewis, and if your primary objective really is to help people avoid overt, sexual situations, it's probably advisable to get your own house in order first, before making assumptions about the state of others.

Methinks there's still a big misunderstanding here, caused by words like "apartheid" and "segregation", both of which are very highly emotionally charged words, being thrown into the discussion.

Both apartheid and segregation limit one particular sociodemographic group from having access to certain facilities.

Someone, please, show me where I have said anything of that nature.

Lewis

You implied that gay run establishments should be marked as such without regard as to whether they contain sexual content.

... which has been clarified many, many times since.

Lewis

SO how about you go back and apologize for your silly comments?

Much like Mel Gibson. Minus the movies.

They were not silly comments, just perhaps not as clear as others would have desired them to be - something impossible to second-guess before posting. Subsequent posts have cleared up the misunderstanding, yet I don't see any calls for those who attacked me through misunderstanding me (and who have subsequently has everything explained a plethora of times in a myraid of different ways in the vague hope of getting through) to apologise.

Lewis

I'm not everyone's nanny. But it would behoove you to apologize for insinuating that homosexuals should somehow be segregated away from your polite society.

Perhaps it would be right to apologise.... if that was actually what I had asked.

Nowhere, but nowhere, did I say that all homosexuals should be herded off to a couple of private islands so that the rest of us could get by nicely without them.

What I asked was that 'homosexual gathering places' were clearly marked as such.

Having had a bit of a dig through the 'places' filter, using the word 'gay', almost all had the word 'porn' or 'sex' in their keywords, giving the distinct impression that gay in SL = sex related.

It appears that most gay gathering spots that offer sex are already marked as such, therefore the whole argument once people took it personally rather than as a general principle, and many of the accusations against me, were entirely pointless.

Lewis

gay porno?

Try sci fi and comedy.

Lewis

this thread is riveting!

okay. I will.

Will you try tolerance?

Great. Will you have heterosexual gathering places also clearly marked? I feel very awkward when I accidently stumble into them.

kythxbye

Does it come with fries and a cola?

Lewis