From: Robin Laffer
Here Here! bring it on, fed up of non verified accounts griefing and using my land as a sandbox.
I have to admit, this is a complex issue. That there are two extremes we must avoid here cannot be denied. If we are not careful, we will end up with SL Jim Crow laws, apartheid, or worse, with newbies wearing yellow stars living in ghettos and concentration camps. As several pointed out, we were all newbies once, and I myself gave SL a three-day basic subscription trial run, albeit I did use my cell phone number in those days to verify my identity, before I decided to go with paying for premium service. On the plus side, the influx of newbies HAS seemed to level out the economy, and has given a near-endless supply of cheap labor doing work nobody with any building skills or money in the bank would do for a living (except maybe for fun).
On the other hand, unverifiable newbies are becoming a threat to social stability. Many people with vendettas against others can create unverifiable avatars at an endless rate, and harass their enemies without cease. As well, in general a class of citizenry has been introduced that has at best boorish behaviour as a hallmark, and at worse, downright destructive social skills. Nothing like popping into a club to visit your girlfriend and getting blasted into the stratosphere before you barely had chance to land. And with the endless supply of freebies available, unlearned newbies with WMD can be quite annoying. Additionally, as pointed out before, there is the added danger of being engaged in a sexual activity with an unverifiable, only to suddenly have the police knocking on your door for soliciting a minor, corruption of a minor, et al.
If nothing else, unverifiables should be restricted in their use of scripted objects. And really, unverifiables should not even be permitted in mature sims unless they can provide SL with proof of age. I myself smell massive lawsuit here waiting to happen.
Finally, it wouldn't hurt to demand that all newbies be paired with a mentor for their first several days or weeks of SL life. What can it hurt? As an incentive, SL could give these mentors a bonus to their weekly stipend per hour per newbie.
That there is a problem cannot be denied. I myself get frustrated with newbies and their nonsensical erratic behaviour. I have had naked newbies walk up to me demanding to see me naked, and others walking up and demanding a kiss, and others propostioning me. I've had them try to skyrocket me into SL outer space...which I don't mind if I am already planning one of my missions to space...but unexpectedly, it's a pain. I have had them come up to me and assault me with weapons unproked, try to cage me, and try to set me on fire. Still others tried to make me their submissive without my permission. Thank God for Mystical Cookie and her Mysti-Tool! Saved me from many bad things.
On the other hand, I have formed nice friendships with unverifiables, and have had pleasant experiences with them. Sad to say, it seems the nice ones are in the minority.
Finding a solution that works without resorting to Nazi tactics will be difficult at best. But it has been my experience in SL that its non-Linden leaders and pillars of the community are among the brightest and most innovative people on the planet. Putting differences aside and putting our heads together, we can as a global SL community develope policies and practices to deal with the newbie problem that will both alleviate the social disaster upon which brink we sit, without resurrecting the worst of mankind's tragedies of gulags, concentration camps, ghettos, plantations, sweatshops, and townships. I have faith in my fellow SL premium members, Estate and Island owners, Mafiosa Bosses, business moguls, and landed gentry in general to tackle this issue in a positive and productive manner without taxing the already overburdened Lindens.
