Mature Content is automatically OFF in Search > Damaging my business!

With the new viewer LL also changed the defaults in Search. Now in the Search screen you must specifically check 'Include Mature content' in order to find all search results. That's needed in the All tab and Places tab.

I discovered this (after installing the viewer-update) when searching for a specific shop. It didn't turn up in the search. Then I searched for my own shop, but that didn't show up either. Then I noticed that the Mature content option was not checked anymore.

This day my sales dropped down with 90% (!) because I sell a product that people really have to search for.

I have my own land on Mainland. Is there any way that I can include my shop/land in the non-mature content, so that it doesn't matter if the option is checked or not? I sell hammocks, for Christ sake, no sex toys!

Sorry to reply to my own thread so fast. But I'm really curious if other shop owners on Mature land have the same probs as me. Customers not finding you anymore, I mean, because Mature is off in Search.

90% My bet is, if sales fell from a very steady rate to that in just one day, that there is another issue. Perhaps all the lag? maybe the inventory problems? Might even be simply that SL was so wonderfully Crashtastic all day, what with the new client being released..

But even with all that, i would think that folks looking to buy a hammock probably won't check the 'ol 'mature content' box. Might be time to invest in some of that PG land (which is a shame, because land prices are painful.. )

Though, for the record, I can see why SL made that switch. Might be trying to clean up their image a bit. Course, it was always good for a chuckle to search for, say, tennis ball, and see 30 results with pr0n names as a result. (i know, i know.. still can.. just gotta check the box first now.)

Yes, damaged mine too. Didn't even realize there was a change til I read this thread. I was mad b/c my business wasn't showing up in search.

Well, I temporarily solved it... or at least found a way around it. Never placed a classified before (showed up pretty high in normal search at 30 L$ a week), but now I have been forced to do it. Costs me an extra 50 L$ a week. Not much, considering the turnover I usually make a day, but still: I didn't need to do that before the update. So I'm really pissed off about that, but at least I show up in Search again when people have or haven't checked the Mature option. Thank God I don't have to move my business to PG. I'm pretty happy at where I am now.

Still: was this intentionally done by LL to make more money? Or was it just a fuckup?

I just ran a search there for any old thing that popped into my head, and my "Include Places In Mature Regions" was auto ticked.

I didnt do the option upgrade that the viewer offered though, if thats any help to ye

I know Urah, but most SL users will have downloaded the update. Then the Mature boxes are automatically unchecked. It's even silly when you think of it, since the normal SL is 18+ anyway.

In the meantime I have heard from lots of other people (business and residents) that they are confused too, because some of their favourite places or shops can't be found. I often hear that they don't even consider checking the Mature boxes, because they simply do not know of their existence.

Exactly, I didn't find my favourite clubs and shops anymore, and when I IM'd some befriended business owners they were shocked, but nobody knew about the new "feature". Sure, it was somewhere in the release notes, but who really reads them? And the newbies don't even see them when they dl the viewer for the first time.

This is a really, really bad move from LL.

Let's hope that word spreads around fast. In another thread someone mentionned that the new Search 'feature' was in the blog. Well, I missed that, to be honest, allthough I read the blog on a daily basis.

In that blog entry LL promises 'a more granular parcel-level mature identifier in the near future'. Well well....

As Second Life continues to grow thru corporate funding, expect it to become even more difficult to conduct business of a specifically "Adult/Mature" nature.
Since Linden Labs can no longer assert that the Main Grid is inhabited by adults only, "mature" is going to be swept under the rug in tiny little ways that many people won't notice at first or complain about to much, until the corporate backers feel comfortable. In the same way you can't advertise your new strip club in a full color ad in the local paper, merchants involved in adult industries and services will need to seek alternative avenues of advertising.
It's just about the money, so don't take it personally. But have faith that people (adult and otherwise) who are looking for 'mature' content/products will always be able to find it.

Allright Pie. But the stupid thing is that I don't sell mature goods, just innocent furniture, hammocks and beach rocking chairs. Only the fact that my shop is in Mature land (Mainland) is the reason why it doesn't show up in Search. That's a bit over-protective, if you ask me.

Does it not remember the setting you choose?

After reading the forums about all the problems with the updates, I chose not to download it. Anyone else that hasnt updated that reads the forums probably wont, so at least you all should get those sort of customers.

Well, its a fingers crossed case.

But yes, i do think it should have been announced a bit more loudly by LL as it makes a significant impact on the people that are actually making things on the grid.

A snippet in amongst a lot of other words doesnt really cut it, when it has made such an impact.

And everyone cant be expected to read every single thing that is on the blog, forums and release notes every single time

Yes, I've already seen issues from this change. They announced they were doing this about the same time the uproar over the crackdown on sexual ageplay started. The issue is some people feel compelled to push the boundaries of whats acceptable with regards to naming and advertising for their business or land. So Linden Labs had to either choose to begin censoring every parcel and group name as they were created, or simply remove all Mature items from being included in search by default. It was a pretty obvious choice, but a sad one. Another classic case of a few bad apples ruining things for everyone.

The change was in the release notes, I believe. And possibly mentioned on the blog a few days before the release (although I may be mistaken there), I distinctly remember reading about it before it happened.

I'm glad it was changed. I'd like to search for things and not have every other listing be related to escort services or clubs barely having anything to do with my search topic. Yes, we're all (supposed to be) 18+, but that doesn't mean we want to deal with those things all the time. SL is trying to clean up its image a bit, I suppose.

As with any new feature, it takes a little time for people to get up to speed. People will figure it out in a few days and your business will go back to normal.

You're right Jacques. The change was mentionned in the blog two weeks ago. But I missed that.

I see the point that people like to search without sex ads popping up and, honestly, maybe thats the way to go. But what I don't understand is that ANY shop on Mature land, which Mainland is, is now automatically 'banned by default' from the search. I think many shop owners with normal/innocent products are being hurt by this radical measure.

At least I can say that the Classified is doing its work. Sales are slowly getting back to normal again. Or maybe people have found out about the unchecked checkboxes, who knows. But really, for a moment I feared I had to move to some very expensive PG land. And I'm feeling very comfortable on the land where I am right now.

Still hoping for the best.

Many shops own land in Mature Sims but dont sell anything that would fall under the category of "Rated-R".. myself included. Previously, I always had the "Mature Content" flag disabled so that my shop would still come up on searches despite being physically located on a Mature Sim. This new change ignore that flag and my shop no longer shows up at all.. UNLESS you have it flagged. I target a lot of newbies with affordable and nice goods, but this is all for naught now since they wont be able to find me. Relocating my whole store is silly as I have a nice plot of land in a stable and mature sim that unfortunately is flagged Mature Content. All my landmarks are pointing to my current location.

I understand what LL is trying to do with the changes...but there are a vast majority of the shops on Mature land that arent Sexually oriented and we're the ones suffering for it.. When did Mature = Redlight??

Yes, that's the thing that angries me most: Mainland is base camp for cying out loud!

This hit us on sales and traffic and we had no idea why till we actively went looking and no I don't believe it has anything to do with a moral crusade by LL although that may be the lame excuse offered I think easing the load on the search engine is more viable as a reason. Another fine example of SL blatantly ignoring the userbase to suit themselves by clawing back performance by reducing functionality. It has nothing to do with morality or false ads or sexual content. We're on mature land simply because it was what we wanted when we wanted it and was for sale at a good price we don't sell sex or sexual services.

My traffic drop a lot since the last update.... was wondering if the sl players left... now I know what's wrong... My business is not mature, only on mature land this is bad for merchants.

That's stupid.

Seriously.

THERE IS A PER-PARCEL "MATURE CONTENT" CHECKBOX ALREADY.

THAT is what search for "mature" content should pay attention to.

So I'm going to have to buy a parcel in PG land now, and move my store, or support the corrupt "classifieds" system? I find that morally offensive.

Edit: I can't find a PG sim near Noonkkot, so even if I wanted to move my store this isn't an option.

I'm going to call this a bug.

That checkbox is only for listings on the SL website, not in-world.

I was wondering, considering the amount of topics on this issue, if anyone knows if LL know about this problem for (non-sexual) shop owners on mature Mainland.

Okay, don't know if we can do anything with this information, but I'll post it anyway.

About a month ago I sent LL a support request on the Mature checkbox problem. This is what I received today:

Thank you for your inquiry. Thank you very much for this information, please be rest assured that Linden Labs is aware and looking into the Search tools and their settings.

Now I can sleep well.

This was supposed to be fixed in 1.14.1, yesterday, but that rollout was cancelled. It will be fixed in 1.15.0 when that's rolled out.

Just because we're all over 18 doesn't mean we all want to be exposed to Mature objects.