Reduction/Possible Solution to Grid Attacks

Hey Lindens - in order to reduce and possibly end grid attacks - why not put a credit card/debit card restriction on ALL new avatars created. Its only common sense that says this is not a bad business move - it would still be free, however, credit card / debit card confirmation would list the identity (unless it is stolen) of potential griefers. Not only that - but again - from a business standpoint - those with credit cards/debit cards are more likely to become paying residents. HELLLOOOOOO!!!

Bonus Points: It will help to insure younger players will not be using the mature sites!

So....close the registration gates back to how they were prior to 6/6/06?

Yeah, we've suggested that...like...a million times.

If I were LL, I would not do this because of the risk of shutting down open source and 3rd party bot development for the platform.

Within SL, bots are generally pernicious. But they will be valuable tools for other grids that get build using LL's platform.

Oy ...

Depending on how successful the uptake of the new age-verification stuff is; I would rather they moved towards requiring it for all new players. I realise that there are some issues with different countries, but if enough of these are resolved then I think it would make the most sense.

It is otherwise very naive of LL to believe that adult content will not slip through the gaps in adult-flagged parcels. At least if the whole grid were eventually locked down again then we'd only have to worry about the occasional minor slipping through via bad parenting.

You say that as if you think all griefers are underage...

I'm surprised to hear someone who actually pre-dates the Age of Unverifieds broaching this subject once more. The fact is that far fewer people complete the sign-up process if asked for a credit card before they even have a chance to see what SL is all about. Linden Lab will NEVER go back to a credit-card-required model. The current situation lets them get these astronomically high "registered users" numbers, but also REALLY DOES get them more regular players, because folks who might otherwise have been turned away at the gate will eventually provide their payment info and buy Lindens when they have a chance to fart around in-world and realize that SL is indeed something worthy of their money and time.

And credit-card-as-age-verification has long been discounted as futile. (Not that other proposed methods are any better.)

Your proposal WOULD reduce (but not eliminate) griefing, but would also slow the growth of the legitimate population.

Which under the current business model would hurt LL pretty bad.

Under a different business plan it might have been possible but thats not what weve got.

If, when I joined, just under a year ago, when I knew nothing about SL, it has asked me for a credit card, I would have passed on it.

I never implied that, I'm talking about keeping minors out of the grid.
However, if decent identity verification is implemented then it should be easier to ban griefers, ie - if Integrity gives LL a one-way hash that uniquely represents (but cannot be reverse-engineered to get access to) a person's passport ID; then they can ban a griefer by their verification hash, and thus ban any other account who verifies with that hash. For a griefer to then continue they would need to get a hold of more passports, which aren't cheap, and take time to get.

I am certain we can both testify they are not!