6 months from now, SL will be........

Phil Linden will be cuffed in a cell in Munich. The peoples revolution will be drawing to a close, and Prokefy Neva riding on a sculptie pony will have assumed command of Linden labs. Somewhere, an opensource outsider discovers a simple trick to eliminate five major sources of lag. Governor Neva proclaims the month
' LAG FREEDOM MONTH' and suspends everyones monthly tier to celebrate the event.

*take another hit off the bong.

o.0

I may have to reconsider my pro-Voice stance now.

Kam

Winter and Desmond open their new theme park and its an instant success!

oh noes!!!!!!!11111111eleven

LOL...

In 6 months, SL will be completely different then it is today. There will be a bunch of new residents, there will be much more land, there will be much more of pretty much everything.

round firm and fully packed with extra minty freshness...
every resident will have, free of charge a lag monkey, attached to thier head...
and Google shall rule them all

The actual size of the "paying customer" base is rather small: 83,063 Premium accounts at the end of April 2007. These are the residents who have the right to own land and they constitute 1.4-percent of the Total Resident Population (5,973,301 at the end of April). These are the folks that pay tier and island fees (which is the largest source of revenue for Linden Lab).

LL doesn't have to worry about the Premium accounts as 1) they have something at stake (their land) and b) as they've already placed payment info on file something like age/identity verification isn't much of a threshold for them.

Another small (and unknown) percentage of the population can also be considered "paying customers": those persons that purchased currency from the LindeX and thus incurred a transaction charge (and also might have wound up buying their currency from the Supply Linden account). As these persons also had to have some form of payment info on file to complete their transaction it's unlikely they'll find age/identity verification to be much of a barrier. [We'll be generous and consider this to be another 1.4-percent of the total resident population.]

The remaining group of "paying customers" are those persons who registered an Alt and incurred a one-time charge of US$9.95. Again, as these persons provided some form of payment info age/identity verification isn't a tremendous hurdle. [Please note that LL has placed a number of Alt accounts "on hold" due to possibly erroneous information provided during registration and those persons might wind up paying US$9.95 to get their Alt out of hock (as they attempted to evade the US$9.95 charge for an alternative account)]

Age/Identity verification is threat mainly to accounts which provided inaccurate and possibly false information during registration (if a person lies during registration they have little to complain about if they get caught). If 40-percent of those accounts leave SL not much happens as they had nothing at stake and LL was not deriving revenues from them and can't rely on _possibly_ deriving revenue from them in the future.

The current problem facing LL is increasing the conversion rate: growing the percentage of residents who take the step from free Basic to paying Premium and (hopefully) owning tier, however, it's up to the individual as to whether or not they wish to be (and can afford to be) within the ownership portion of the population.

A: I am a Premium Account holder. Until my current term runs out or the Linden Lab verification plan goes through. At that time, I will leave SL forever.

B: I have owned over 30,000 sq. m. of land during my time here (okay, not an island, but still, more than the average.) I have sold the last 15,000 sq. m. of it at a loss in protest of the age verification plan. Along with every last bit of transer-permissible inventory (over $1,500 USD worth) - for pennies on the dollar.

C: I have provided 100% accurate information on my account.

D: I am a 33 year old avid female gamer who has played in over a dozen online worlds since Everquest came online. And decided SL was the most fun, most enjoyable, most community minded, most user-created free space out there - and so I gave it my money and my time and stopped playing any other games. I spent many thousands of dollars on user-created items to enjoy, dumping money in Sploders, contributing to SL causes, buying land and paying tier fees. In other words, perfect SL customer for both Linden and SL business owners.

E: I will never give any online game more personal information than Linden Lab already has on file for me.

I care more about my integrity than money. Every single day we are allowing our governments, our corporations and now even our "games" to take more and more of our privacy and our personal information without protest. Well, I'll go back to playing Monopoly with my RL friends before I contribute to that de-evolution of our society into 1984 Big Brotherism.

A: I am a Premium Account holder. Until my current term runs out. At that time, I will leave or downgrade.

B: I haven't purchased much land yet but it's building, I'm stepping slowly and wish I'd stepped a little slower now that this is here.

C: I have provided 100% accurate information on my account.

D: I am a 37 year old avid male gamer who has played a couple of online MMORPG's such as World of Warcraft and City of Heroes. I play sploders, I buy items in SL, I spend Lindens and try to enjoy myself.

E: I will never give any online game more personal information than Linden Lab already has on file for me.

If my details are good enough for them to charge me now, then as far as I'm concerned I'm verified. I am not going to provide them with additional and unnecessary information when they have enough information on file to take payments from me.

I agree with Ciaran.

Of course, I don't visit adult areas either...so I'm not incredibly worried.

If I have to fork over my info just to log in, I'll sell out and quit.

Well, I hope that the Munich sim will be flagged Adult then!

A bit off topic maybe, but I'd just like to know at what time a right to anonymity in all things become the corner stone of our civil liberty?

Fair enough, if you seek no interaction from me then I have no right to know who you are.

But.

As soon as we interact, you want to sell me something, buy something, interact with me in any meaningful way, then openness and freedom of information is surely key.

The internet is growing up, you cannot call SL a virtual world with all that implies and then suggest that you can have that without responsibility and accountability.

if I buy anything online from you, I want to know who you are and that my money is safe. If I call someone a friend or tell them I love them, then surely I should know who they are and vice versa.

The big question is I guess what constitutes an illegal search, and I suspect it stops being illegal and stops being a "search" if we mutually agree to interact in some way. Obviously the information passed should be appropriate to the level of interaction.

This isn't about civil liberties or right to privacy, this is about people wanting to remain anonymous while they act in a way which would be shameful to them if their identity was known.

It would also be nice if half the people who referred to 1984 or "Big Brother" actually gave some indication of having read the book.

The cornerstone of civil liberty is freedom and openness, one of the first things your mom told you was "don't speak to strangers" - and your momma didn't lie.

Handing over *complete* identity to a business, never mind doing it over the Net, is a considerable threshold for anyone with a mind.
Concern over identity data is not the preserve of some lunatic fringe of society. The level of information being contemplated by LL for age verification is illegal in Europe. i.e. even governments there think it's a bad idea. I have read that in Canada, it is illegal to even ask for the information, never mind store it.
Perhaps you didn't notice the reports of the huge fuss when European governments refused to hand over data on air-passengers to the US?
Perhaps USA residents have become used to the Police State society there, and the gross intrusions by business into private lives, but most of the rest of the world is more mature than that.


Bear in mind that Age Verification does not verify age. Any kid can supply a parent's ID, and they will. That's a no-brainer. They already lie to register. To use your own words, it "isn't much of a threshold for them".


We are being asked to supply a very dangerous/illegal level of ID data to a commercial entity (of whatever trust level).
Why?
- NOT to keep children away from porn and violence - because it won't!
- But to participate in and give legitimacy to a fraudulent charade

Age verification is a lie! It is a PR exercise. It is a fig leaf.
If I age-verify, I will be participating in that lie, knowing that it is a lie.


I pay my subscription and tier with my credit card. (My corporate credit card to be precise.) If that were my parent's card or my own individual card on a parent's account, then there would be an audit trail visible to my parents. Shame *and responsibility* on my parents if they did not review charges.

In six months SL will be pretty much as it is now on the surface.

The current age verification scheme will fail (if a minor can get their hands on a parent's credit card, how hard can it be to get their hands on a passport or drivers license?), but LL will find a better way that does not require sacrificing personal information.

The media will have moved on to newer Internet activities to scare parents about, and SL will return to the generally tolerant place it's always been.

"Hot New Features" will continue to keep SL offline most Wednesday mornings (implementing them half the time, and fixing the bugs they cause the other half).

Nude RL pics of various Lindens will circulate on the internet, causing a grid-wide case of the giggles.

A slang term will become popular describing a slightly confused state of fatigue, it will be called "lag".

I'm accountable, if I'm doing anything illegal LL have my details, and they are happily charging me for being here so I'm very much accountable.



This takes time, some people roleplay in SL and will stick to that role, that's their fun and they are entitled to it. This whole world wouldn't be anywhere near so popular if everyone was on here with their real details stuck to their foreheads, those details come with trust and that's always been the way on the internet.



No this is about a right to privacy and wanting to know exactly why they need this extra information because the points being put forth by LL simply do not add up. I'll repeat, I'm not anonymous. My details are already logged.



Indeed and LL aren't being very open about this and as for not speaking to strangers, not only do I consider Integrity a stranger, I consider them exactly the sort of stranger that my Mother warned me about.

SL will be still around, perhaps the lag will be getting worst

I have to say that I didn't say "complete identity", I said appropriate identity.

I'm from the UK, and if I go into a bar and try to buy alcohol, and the barman thinks I look underage he will ask me for proof of age.

I suggest that if I enter an environment where I will be able to take part in commercial transactions, where there is gambling, agressive sexual behaviour, prostitution, and "ageplay". Then a higher level of identity checking may be in order than that required to buy a beer.

To say that because the current protocol adopted for verifying age has flaws, you think it a good idea to have no age verification is .. well the current procedures used by police forces to apprehend murders is not foolproof.. let's do away with murder as a crime.

Finally the examples you gave concerning data protection in Europe were slightly skewed to say the least. The issue is not that you choose to give individuals/organisations information about yourself. It is the fact that the information should not be passed on to a third party without your consent.

Hence the data protection act does not limit the amount of information any entity may hold about you. SImply that you can access all information held about you by any party and ask for that information to be removed. That action may of course result in your relationship with the entity being terminated.

A freedom which is yours at any moment. If you don't want to engage with someone or something because you think they ask too much.... then don't.

I can't imagine for one moment that LL want to put our details (which they apparently say they aren't storing anyway!) on our profiles in-world. Sorry, I think this passage is just OTT.

In 6 months time as someone else has put, there'll be a new soapbox to stand on. The newbies coming in will think age verification was always here. Whether that age verification is truly effective or not, it might, just might, be enough to stand up in court when some irresponsible parent sees a meal ticket when their offspring has appropriated their passport to get into Amsterdam .... which subsequently gets bought up by Desmond and Winter and turned into a PG theme park.

* undergoing another crisis where everyone on the furums will say they are leaving ....but won't

* still experiencing an enormous population growth rate

* still getting borked every other wednesday

* still having new features introduced while old problems remain unfixed

* more realistic objects and animations thanks to sculpties and motion capture

* more RL businesses moving in

* people still defending sexual ageplayers, goreans and beastiality (of course none of them actually does that kind of thing, but they support the right of others to have the freedom to do so ... pffft)

* the media, governments, revenue and law enforcement poking into every nook and cranny of the grid

* a never ending supply of noobs asking "Where can I get a dick?", "Can I have a job?", "You sex with me - yes?" and "You give me money?"

* people complaining about laaaaaggggg when mostly it's their own systems and wireless networks at fault

* the difference between Premium and Verified still mostly misunderstood

* people calling for LL to do away with free accounts

* LL completes move to a secret location with unlisted phone numbers to facilitate improved customer support, TOS contains a clause "All inappropriate behaviour is banned" Lindens wash their hands and smile with glee ....

bloody hell we got " rodders" here .... just need a del and trigg now *lol*

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!! This should be posted in all forums and the press as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they'll be here in the next 6 months ....

It's not obsoletely clear whether you are endorsing or ridiculing the 'logic' in the above.
One has to hope that your intention was to ridicule it.

By the same 'logic' (?)
"To say that because the current" procedure for suppressing/defeating/limiting terrorism "has flaws, (we) think it a good idea to have no" anti-terrorism.

That sort of 'logic' is the age-old perversion used by politicians and other villains to counter rational arguments. The dishonest technique is based on the assumption that the listener is a complete moron incapable of rational thought.


What LL are doing in effect is to say that they will accept extremely easily forged ID online as proof of non-forgery of age.
It's a fraud and a blame-shifting exercise - one that implicitly tells a court and society at large that LL's position is that little or no blame applies to the minors or to their parents/guardians.

THAT is what the "Age-Verification" debate should be about. The waffling about data protection concerns and laws is a red herring in the claimed core mission of protecting children.

Hello Sling,

Well whether my logic is "obsolete" or not is probably a moot point

I hope that I wasn't ridiculing, more pointing out where I feel certain arguments fall apart. However you're anti-terrorism analogy does follow my logic.

People reading my posts might have got the idea that I'm anti civil liberties and personal privacy, I'm not.

In fact I care about it a great deal, I do think however that those hard fought for ideals are at best diluted and at worst hi-jacked by some people in the belief that by simple reference to them they somehow negate any contrary argument.

I'm not going to go over my views again (much to everyone's relief).

I will simply ask this:

Without a rigorous "waffle" about laws, civil liberties and what exactly our hard won freedoms give to us AND require of us, how exactly are we to protect our children online?

There is no magic bullet, it is a hard question to answer and I salute people who work to find an answer, even if they come up short again and again.

On the other hand, I don't have much time for the inane rhetoric of those who refer to "big brother" and the sanctity of personal privacy without offering any solution to what is I'm afraid a serious issue in this on-line world of ours - whether they agree to accept it or not.

Thanks for listening!