Analizing Lindens Blogpost

I think it would be good to try and gleen as much information from the blogpost as possible. Carefully read and examined piece by piece can give much more insight than irrationalbacklash posts on the forum...SO since there are so many smart people on the forum, why dont we try and Analize the post and make assumtions on meaning in the post.

Well the Blog Post clearly conflicts the CS

/327/2a/187905/1.html


My take is that they mainly mean to add Rape play in with the Age Play ban, and other subjects to be determined.

However, by using the same language for something that is allowed on Mature Land in the Community Standards: Dan Linden is endorsing the turning in of people for potentially anything that occurs on Mature land only.

Furthermore a very public announcement for peopel to turn in their neighbors is in itself problematic. Since Its not like getting people to turn in their neighbors was rare ..

Now they will feel vindicated.

Lastly - The impression that the Lindens are availible 24/7 for banning sexual material - but not for Customer Service - rubs a lot of paying customers the wrong way.

I think this is the most important part of the blogpost since its describes those things that are considered broadly offensive

Images of child pornography, sexual violence and images of graphical violence or avatar portrayals of any of these

The Picture thing again, Most people are more than willing to accept that, and those who don't probably just want some further clarifications on exactly what it means. Pictures of Real Children being sexually molested I am sure that 99% of people are Completely understanding. and can probably handle the same for the rape and violence, sense I guess we can't tell if it is Real rape or just a photo shoot.

The questions that are being asked as far as pictures are about things like fan art.

The most debated part is the avatar portrayals and depictions.

Avatar Portrayals because it is two consenting adults at the keyboard.

And I haven't heard much on depictions here but that is what the whole thing on LJ was about. because depictions dose include stories or fan fiction. but basically more stuff that can be considered art, pornographic art but still art completely sprung forth from the creators mind.

Acidraven Harrington
Child Avatar
Height detector 1.0.4: AcidRaven Harrington is 1.191803 m
(3 feet 11 inches) tall. (counting your shoes)

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high…
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never say we die.
Freedom is for Everyone.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/full-reign-of-self-expression-for-consenting-adults-in-second-life.html
BTW anyone know why my .sig not adding to the end of my posts?

The portrayal of child pornography (real or simulated) is illegal in many countrys therefore since LL is a global company, must adhear to and respect the laws of these countries

steps up to the plate:




contradictory in the wording. while saying that the diversity of things in LL are to be applauded, a unamed and always "vast majority" are complaining about that very diversity, and are pressing no, forcing LL to do something about it.




i agree with the depiction of any form of child pornography and any who participate in it should be hanged from a yardarm and dipped over and over in a vatof salt laced vinegar, while being whipped with barbed cat o nine tails.real life depictions, i belive those are referring to the photographs that were handed out during the latest scandal as well.

what defines what is lewd and or violent in a virtual setting? if this was applied to the Internet as a whole, many if not all, online RPGs will be shut down for their "lewd(half naked warrior women with big breasts, strapping heros with huge cod pieces),extreme or graphic violence(WoW, Elfquest, Ultima Online, or any RPG that uses bloody images during a kill).

as for the fantasy rape, and lets get real, it is fantasy in this venue, and vastly different from the real thing. RL rape is traumatic, violent and about dominance, control and rage.
fantasy rape is based on RP. and if the participant is not comfortable with the way it is goin can always wave the White( or red) flag to end the event. one poster in another thread put it perfectly:everyone has a rape fantasy hugely different from the real deal, that is romanticised and involves some flowing hair hero with stapping muscles and a huge ..well you know where im goin with that.




"broadly offensive" part? completely and utterly unclear as to what this means. anything can be offensive if you look hard enough for it. all Daniel did was open a new avenue of griefing for those dissatisfied with thier SL. and on top of it all, claimed 24/7 access to service we as a community know is not there.

as for the individual or groups "promoting such content or activities will be dealt with etc etc", one group i was in was just the recipient of such a sanction. our group did nor discuss sex, nor promoted lewdness in anyway, there was no "broadly offensive content, nor was anyone raped, killed what have you. we generally sometimes forgot we were in it unless someone asked in group im about any bug issues and work arounds available to help with the lastest update issue. but yet our group was sanctioned and basically told to change the name or lose the group, amoung other things. we opted to close the group.

to sum up: as usual LL is being vague, responding too little to late to something that could have been nipped inthe bud a while back. and is now responding by having the Residents turn on each other like a pack of rabid dogs. i do believe the Third Riech tried this tactic, and we all know how that turned out.

"It’s up to all of us to make sure Second Life remains a safe and welcoming haven of creativity and social vision."

In a system that has no means of "policing", it appears that this is the only option available. Encourage the members to police themselves. However, I can not go up to a person or group and tell them that they are in violation of Coummunity Standards or the Terms of Service.......I could be AR'd myself for harrassment. The only option I have is to report it to an authoritive representative of Second Life and let them investigate and/or follow through with any actions necessary.

People seem to have a huge problem with this part of the statement. And I can see why too. However, what else can be done? No one wants an official "police force". No one wants "big brother", no one likes a "snitch". But without some way to enforce any rules or standards those rules and standards are less than useless. At some point we are going to have to learn to accept some level of control over the game/platform or loose it completely. If you don't (or can't) trust Linden Labs to be fair in their judgements following an investigation then you are forever going to be unhappy with SL and maybe you should consider moving on to something else.

Basically, my two lindens is that no matter what half on the posters on these forums are to go off half cocked and dream up ridiculous, stupid scenarios protraying doom to us all. If we can't trust who we pay then maybe we should quit paying and leave.

Ah that old chestnut, where would the world be if everyone followed your lead? Well America would still be under British control for a start

When something people enjoy is undermined, they have a right to complain. The banning of the word "Lolita" from search results is just plain absurd. What other words will be banned? Deeds are the issue, not words, its deeds that lead us onto the rocky road to ruin.

However nobody is suggesting an official Police force, it's an unofficial one, just like Livejournal and look at the mess they got themselves in. Of course Livejournal based their censorship on words, not deeds.

So no, people shouldn't just walk away if they don't like the actions, they should have an avenue for providing their voice. Unfortunately I'm not at all convinced that the forums are such an avenue with threads being locked without any real justification, the town hall meetings are a mess, with so many questions and not enough time for people to answer, however I'll continue to look for the correct avenues rather than waving a little whie flag meekly.

Second Life is not a democracy. It's much more like a dictatorship.....the Lindens have total control. So your search for a "voice" is probably futile. Your choices are very limited (only two come to mind) and will almost definitely remain so. The only other possiblility is that LL decides to try a democratic approach...........oh that will be fun to watch fail.

Yet they claim to be responding to democratic pressures the "vast Majority" who is never polled, questioned, or consulted.

They shouldnt be able to say they are speaking for us , without consulting us.

If they want total dictatorial control. Cool. Then they should cool it with the responding to the demands of the community BS.

I'm just curious which of these the phrase "our community" replaces:

1) Concerned Corporate Sponsor
2) Potential Investor
3) The Media
4) Possible Prosecutors

5. One of the Linden's Prudish Mother

But then the shouts would be deafening of "they don't listen to us!!!!"

What I see is similar to what you see in lots of private businesses. They cannot or will not give control to the customers but they still want to do as the customer wants. That can be extremely difficult depending on the type of business. And, to be honest, Second Life falls in the extreme part of an extremely difficult type of business. They cannot give control to us. They cannot ignore laws imposed upon them (in LL's case, many laws in many jurisdictions). And they feel they must appease potential huge investors.

They don't do a particularly good job in my opinion.........but I do see an honest attempt on their part.

Seems to me these are the critical bits:

1. "The diversity of things to see and do within Second Life is almost unimaginable, but our community has made it clear to us that certain types of content and activity are simply not acceptable in any form."

This is simply, transparently untrue. The community has not been consulted, indeed LL have no mechanism to consult the community, no votes, no representative groups, nothing (except the AR's of a small, self selecting subset of residents).

2. "Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors; real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life."

This is in direct contradiction of the Community Standards which, as I write this, read:

"Second Life is an adult community, but Mature material is not necessarily appropriate in all areas (see Global Standards below). Content, communication, or behavior which involves intense language or expletives, nudity or sexual content, the depiction of sex or violence, or anything else broadly offensive must be contained within private land in areas rated Mature (M)."

In other words the CS EXPLICITLY permits these things on private land in M rated areas.

3. "Please help us to keep Second Life a safe and welcoming space by continuing to notify Linden Lab about locations in-world that are violating our Community Standards regarding broadly offensive and potentially illegal content."

Thus, residents are currently being requested to AR violations of the COMMUNITY STANDARDS (i.e. offensive materials on PG or public land), not Daniel Linden's ill phrased blog. So no change there then, carry on as before.

A ray of hope perhaps? Well, perhaps. I for one will be scanning the CS regularly for changes over the next week or so. After all, the Lindens are back to work tomorrow.....

Love Suzi

They claim to.

They even make changes in our name. Which we didnt ask for.

I agree its their right to make changes. Its hypocritical to say thats its in our name, if we didnt ask for it.

Clearly, as a dictatorship, they have the soverign right to blame new policy on us when it suits them.

Sure - and until they exert dictatorial control to tell us to shut up - we can call them on it.

Keep it up. The Lindens are finding out from us that no, we are not interested in participating in a VR police state, with neighbors informing on neighbors and unknown Official Forces making you disappear for good in the middle of the night with no explanation to anyone of what happened or why. If people wanted to live in the atmosphere Daniel Linden's blog post would create, we could all move to Cuba, or Saudi Arabia, or North Korea, or Belarus, depending on what kind of climate we prefer.

So keep it up. You know why? Best way to tell LL it ain't gonna happen. Because the next way to tell them is to leave for something else, and let them fold up their operation and go back to their former day jobs. This way is better.

I hear Cuba has the best healthcare plan of those