Sexual Personality Verification

Second Life has grown rapidly in recent months, much faster than Linden Labs are able to keep up with the necessary work of policing and controlling the resident population. This has resulted in a lot of stress recently, with griefers and other undesirables running round spoiling the experience for right-thinking residents all over the grid.

I would like to present some solutions that, together with already announced recent initiatives, will get things back on track and allow the grid to be under control once more despite there being far too many residents for Linden Labs to keep track of individually.

These solutions may seem complex, but please follow it through as I explain exactly why they are needed, how they can be implemented, and how they will solve various problems that we encounter in-world. It's really very simple and will greatly improve everyone's Second Life.

The three main systems I propose are:
1) "Personality Validation" - keep griefers off the grid
2) "Big Buddy" - detect griefing automatically
3) "Help a friend" - make it easier to report griefing.

What defines "griefing" will of course vary from person to person. It is not sufficient to merely follow the laws of the United States - other countries have other laws and they do not always cover situations that will offend others in-world.
For example, I might be shopping in a mall, and someone might show up who is wearing a 10x10x10 wooden block on their head, pushing everyone out of the way just to annoy them. Or I might be exploring someone's private house, and I might find them in their bedroom, naked and doing things that are offensive in my culture. These problems all need solutions that can be automated so that griefers cannot run rampant across the grid.

Here is how each of my ideas will work in detail, to make SL a safer place for everyone.

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1)Personality Validation
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This is to make sure only right-thinking people are on the grid, and keep bad people away. Each resident would be required to complete a battery of tests, similar to the questionairres on okcupid.com. Given at least 100 questions answered, the system can rate various traits of the resident's personality and if anything comes up red flagged, they can be banned from the grid. Questions can be included to judge truthfulness also.
This could rid the grid of undesirables such as:
* Perverts
* Furries
* Communists
* Hippies
- these are just examples, the actual criteria could be worked out in a poll and voted on, or just decided by Linden Labs.
Examples could include "Do you like to help people when they seem lost or are asking for help?" or "Would you consider it appropriate to roleplay sexual acts in public?" - again the effect of the answers on the 'vetting' process would be determined by poll or by Linden Labs.

2)Big Buddy
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We all know that people's behaviour in Second Life does not always meet the standards laid down by the TOS or that normal people find acceptable. Residents might not always be aware when their behaviour might be offensive to others, or they may get carried away, or think they can get away with it.

This proposed system would protect all residents just like a helpful older sibling, by monitoring all actions and communications throughout the grid. It would notice when anything suspicious or unauthorised took place, such as griefing, spamming, foul language, or sexually explicit behavior. It would then teleport the guilty parties to a Linden Labs VR courtroom where a panel of judges would instantly make a judgement on the accused and take action such as banning them. This action would make griefing and sexually explicit activity almost unknown, overnight, and make SL a much cleaner, quieter place for normal residents to live in.

For example, two residents might be having a public discussion which turns into a violent argument. The system detects language which other residents might find offensive and teleports both residents to the VR courtroom (VRC) to discuss their actions away from other residents.
Alternatively, two or more residents might be engaged in some heavy roleplaying in their dungeon, and the system might pick up on sexually explicit language or behaviours, and transport them to the VRC to discuss the matter.

This implicitly would require a panel of volunteers to be on hand to judge residents, but if this wasn't possible then a default judgement would be made by the presiding AI Agent in the VRC, thereby not adding any workload to Linden Labs.

3)Help a friend
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There have been a lot of reports lately of Avatars and in-world content that breaks the TOS or is otherwise offensive to decent residents. This can include avatars with an offensive appearance, sexually suggestive posters, avatars made to look younger than the average resident (40) or wearing clothing that is more revealing than is accepted in society.

I propose a system in the Radial Menu, for dealing with this sort of content. The current "report abuse" option simply doesnt work. It pops up a box saying "we will NOT be telling LL about whatever you're complaining about" and there is no guarantee that anything will ever get done.
Therefore, the new system will provide an immediate solution via scripted submenus. See a sexy poster on someone's land? Click it, click Report - Content - Explicit, and it will immediately be deleted and a notecard sent to the owner explaining that it caused you offense.

This system works just as easily on avatars. If you see someone in-world inappropriately dressed, unrealistically presented, too young, etc, you follow the same procedure. See a girl in a bikini who is rail-thin? Click Report - Appearance - Girth - Anorexic, and the script will immediately add a couple dozen virtual pounds to the character, likely making them look more like IRL, and preventing an idealistic sterotype from influencing any kids who are on the grid (even though they shouldnt be, they still need protecting from unrealistic idealised figures). Then click Report - Costume - inadequate, and the script will provide them with a free one piece garment that covers them from head to toe, and automatically wears it on their (new, plumper) avatar. See someone too short or young looking? Report - Appearance - too short, and it will make them a foot taller. Report - Appearance - too young, and it will add a layer of wrinkles and dial up the "saggy boobs" settings etc.

Take Care,
Lorna.

I know this was written sarcastically, but with a small change that's actually not a bad idea.

Right click on the content, click "Hide", and the content willl no longer be drawn on your client. It's still in the world, but you'll never see it again. It's replaced by an opaque grey box so you can't "hide" someone's walls to spy on them. Works on avatars too. It's just muting taken to the logical extreme.

Funny!

Oh Lorna! I bow to your greatness.

Although you have put a lot of thought into this it just simply isn't going to happen. SL tries to stay away from any political inspired way of life. Neither far left or far right but somewhere in the middle. This middle area is based on libertarian philosophy. Sl tries to stay as far away from policing people as they can and usually only prosecute the very bad.
Griefers are a big problem in Sl but many good people have come up with some interesting anti-griefing tools. Check them out by visiting Slexchange.com. Also where you go can make a big difference in the amount and the kind of griefing. Stay away from public sandboxes. There are many private sandboxes that enforce non-griefing rules and are better for projects than the public ones. If you are on a private sim or island it is left up to the owner of that property as to the punishment of a griefer. So u can go straight to the owner who is likely to take action faster than reporting it to a Linden. But to be fair with SL and the Linden enforcers just remember that there is no Law that is created for the good of the masses that in some way limits the actions of those good people as well.

Oh yes and by the way, If I ever catch you: IN my house, in my bedroom, spying on me. You will really know what limits griefing can be expanded. Property in SL is PRIVATE
If they offend you it is wise to stop being a peeping tom. (sorry I just took a cold shower and was a bit irritable)

I am from Europe. I hope we can keep the US paranoia out of SL as long as possible.

*laughs*

it was german paranoia that started this latest round of issues.

I am assuming the OP's post is a joke, otherwise they seriously need their personality 'validated' as they are coming accross as a bit of a control freak mentalist.

Obvious, it was a post full of good, tasty and old fashioned sarcasm. One of the best posts I ever read here

I wish you had put that at the top of your post - would have saved me a few minutes reading..

Doesn't Germany have a history of such paranoia...I seem to recall reading that somewhere in school...*checks her past history books*

And there was the Spanish Inquisition.

And the Puritans who came over to Salem and started their witch hunts were originally a bunch of Brits - and it was still a British colony.

And boy, you haven't seen paranoid if you were never in Russia or Eastern Europe before the collapse of Communism.

Oh, and just get the Greeks and the Turks to start talking about each other.

Then there was the little chauvinist-paranoid unpleasantness recently in Serbia under Milosevich, when it still claimed to be Yugoslavia, with attendant mass massacres.

Lemme see - Italy produced Machiavelli, as I recall.

Oh, phooey, let's knock off this country-by-country silliness. If you want paranoia, just check out the history of anti-Semitism throughout Europe. For the last thousand years. THE LAST THOUSAND YEARS!

Look, I know it is fashionable on the infantile left in Europe to bash America, but you who are doing it, keep it among yourselves and your fellow infants, so you can get away with what you take to be your bon mots. Trot it out here, where there are quite a few intelligent, noninfantile people hanging out, and you are going to get your nose rubbed in it.

[Wanders off, looking for a rolled-up newspaper.]

Let's not forget Pol Pot, Idi Amin, various Caesars, Franco, Peron, Pinochet, Vlad the Impaler, Donald Trump.......

I have no personality. Is it possible to validate something that doesn't exist under this system?

Why not? We can farm this out to another company who doesn't realize they are going to do it.......

In fact, I was invited the other day to a German-run island with adult content - on the basis that I stay only in the mall area, and I have a chaperone with me at all times (!!!). For access to the rest of the island, they are already running their own age-checking system - using a "porn pass" type service with a fee...

So, umm..hey, let's just make a German grid, or..better yet, let's just divide the grid up in smaller sections..each country with thier own..and like, you know..you have to have Passports to cross into one another's "Country"...you know this is the same kinda non-sense that makes up the real world. Each group pressing thier values on another...some rather "fur"vently.

*goes to play with her toys again*

Hey! Back up a little here, this sounds like The Star Chamber, or worse.

I found a link about undesirable behaviour - it starts with Identification, then Removing them from society, then... well, here's the link: http://www.jpfo.org/justiz.htm - BTW if anyone is interested, this whole "identify, then.." thing is German.

Besides, you can't just ban things that anyone finds offensive. That's a slippery slope - for those who don't know, any little loss of freedom doesn't sound like a big deal, but take a few of those easy steps and you'll soon find that things you hold dear also become threatened. OMG whats next? the BDSM community? Lots of people find that offensive but why can't they just mind their own business?

Theres a lot of talk about "greifing" but what happened to peoples' privacy on their own land? Or being tolerant of other people? Why should we only be allowed in SL if we pass your personality tests??!

Also whats with calling sexually explicit stuff offensive? Aren't we all adults? Whats the big deal? If you don't like it, just ignore it.

I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition...

Pssst! It was a tongue very firmly in cheek post

"nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition"

Imogen beat me to it!

Lorna that was GREAT!

But we have to remember that not everyone will enjoy their newfound freedom to experience SL in a safe environment. Those people might need a little convincing. I heard of this one guy whose avatar was enclosed in a cage with hungry rats...

No no.... that was about the US *points at the right school book*

*chuckles*

Morwen.

Wow did you really have to bring this last name into it? ... the thousands of fuzzy whatsits that had to be killed for his hairpeice alone ..