My Feedback As I Leave Second Life

My Second Life is over. My business closed. All my land sold. SL uninstalled from my computer. Just waiting now for my last process credit to go through and then I'll be leaving SL.

During my time in SL I have bought & sold some 30,000 sq. m. of land. I have run several small businesses, the last one at a profit. I have spent somewhere around $3,000 in the game on land, shopping, etc. I was a premium account member since my first month.

My primary reason for leaving is the proposed Linden Lab "age verification" process. As I have already stated multiple times in the forums, I disagree strongly with the method of "verification" being proposed, in specific the requiring of additional sensitive personal information. I believe providing such a large amount of personal information is dangerous in regard to identity theft (regardless of LL's assurances it will not be stored by anyone) and causes great alarm for more nebulous reasons as well. I also strongly object to the company which LL has signed a contract with to do these verifications due to their political ties and reputation as a data-mining company.

I believe that when someone clicks that button saying "I am over 18" that the responsibility lies with the parents and the individual when someone lies - not Linden Lab and certainly not the citizens of SL. Lastly, I do not believe any kind of online "age verification" process will stop minors from being on the grid, either with stolen information, or with accounts opened by their friends or family members who are over 18. It will certainly not stop adults from participating in such things as "age-play" or the trading of illegal online pornography through the game (as in the recent German press scandal).

As I leave the game, I also must put out a shout about customer service. The lack of online help in game is pathetic. The slow response time to griefing and other issues is disheartening - especially when you have lewd particle litter cluttering up your land for a week - and the offending source object is not on your land so you can't do a dang thing about it. The ridiculous difficulty of getting someone to actually speak to you about your account when Linden Lab has done something crazy to it through no fault of your own without even notifying you first - that is entirely unacceptable.

As for the citizens of SL, most of you I have encountered have been delightful, kind, helpful and brilliant in your creativity. The citizens of SL have been what made the game most fun and interesting. I will miss you all. Ad farmers, camp-botters, land-botter barons, griefers, annoying people who obscure other people's land with your out of control prims and those who do not understand the world "No" when you send lewd IM's to pretty avatars - I won't miss any of you a bit.

This will be my last post. For those of you continuing on, keep fighting for it to truly be "Your World, Your Imagination". Kick back as hard as you can when LL refuses to listen. And when finally you are tired of fighting, I'll see you out there in other, greener game pastures.

Won't this guy feel dumb if LL decides not to go through with Age Verification in it's currently proposed form at the last minute!

All I can say is good luck and thanks for lightening the server load!

Is this the point where we're all supposed to plead "No! Don't go?!"

I also don't really get what that post is supposed to be?
Shall we really start being sad? I don'tget it, sorry.

edit: hey wait, JANUARY 2007??? Now THAT's a long time in SL....

That is the date the person joined the forums........has nothing to do with when they joined SL. The OP could be an old timer with an SL join date in 2004.

I'm quite confident there will NEVER be another online world as wild and free as SecondLife.

This frontier is being tamed. The bean counters and lawyers are on their way.

The next frontier, whatever it may be, will likely be something so radically different that there will be little to compare it to online worlds as we know them now.

1/24/2007.

My SL "born date"..............February 9. 2006. My forum join date..........April 2006.

Can I have all your stuff? I'm over 18 Earth years of age.

heh yea buh-bye

In some ways I agree with you, Rusalka. LL isn't - shouldn't - have to be babysitters for us.

I don't think they have a lot of choice, though.

I am reminded of a tshirt and popular cyberpunk saying.


"If you die first we're splitting up your gear"



Now divy up the stuff!

Well, y'all can dis Rusalka to your hearts content, but I for one always hate to see a person willing to stand on their principles leave.

Rusalka isn't willing to be manipulated or cowed into doing something personally distasteful, which is noble, if you ask me. How many of us will grumble and complain, and then give up our personal data to an untrustworthy company? Anyone who complains, and then like a milksop gives up the data, is nothing but a whiner. Rusalka is making a stand. That's not a bad thing.

It's a sad day when strong people leave. SL will end up with a lot of weak, whiny people.

In a way I second your concerns about the age verification. But *sigh* - lots of posts about it - you can choose not to register.

Have fun with another "game".

Meni.

Age verification is what it is. Honestly, it hasn't rattled me that much. Not enough that I would consider leaving, anyway.

Good luck with whatever you do next.

Thanks for your feedback, and good luck in your future endeavors. We're sorry to lose you and hope that you'll consider rejoining us again in the future.

As this isn't exactly current version feedback, I'm locking the thread.