Sexual Personality Verification

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?

What a brilliant and funny essay! Almost as good as Swift's "...Modest Proposal."

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

Thanks, Lorna, for brightening my day. However, I was concerned to read that wearing a massive prim cube on one's head was considered rude in SL society. When did that become such a big deal? Man, the rules constantly change around here. I wish someone would send me an update once in a while.

That's a legacy thing. In current versions of SL, if you "wear" something that isn't clothing and doesn't have an attach point set, it appears in your hand. But on older versions, it appeared on your head (!). So the classic sign of a new player was someone who bought an outfit that came in a box, then wore the box on their head..

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

*chuckles*

Morwen.

OMG! This is just too funny. Almost had me on the hook, but then realization dawned. It's not April 1st is it? Carry on - we need more joke threads. ;>

"Oh Lorna! I bow to your greatness. "

I'm with Brenda. *grins* Of course when these policies go into effect, there will only be ten people left on the grid....

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...

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.

------------------------------------------------------------

1)Personality Validation
========================
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
===========
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
===============
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.

Oh, that was great. I LOVE satire.

As for a later comment linking Machiavelli with a bunch of paranoid control freaks, as a historian, I mourn poor Machiavelli's bad press.

He actually wrote to make a case for practical government that should educate everyone and make regents into realistic role models for the people.

People often hear his quote "It is better to be feared than loved" without knowing the whole context - that he considered it best to be loved AND feared (fear meaning that people realize that attacking you is dangerous, not in the sense of a reign of terror - it was used in the same manner as 'fear God'), but if you could only have one instead of both, it was better to be feared because people act against people they love all the time due to selfishness, but if people are afraid of personal injury, they are much more likely to not do it to avoid the unpleasant consequence.

Another reason he said it was better to try for the latter is because you can't really get people to love you, no matter how hard you try - they either do or they don't, but you CAN get people to assume that attacking you is dangerous.

Specifically:

"Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women. But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause, but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. "

Poor practical Machiavelli. Forever maligned.

P.S. Great job, Lorna. Loved it. But for me, you gave the game away at "Hippies"...

I think I read somewhere that there is an eastern european country where portraying apparent magic powers (witchcraft!) is illegal... since Teleporting obviously counts, when is that going to be banned in SL?

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.

------------------------------------------------------------

1)Personality Validation
========================
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

I think I read somewhere that there is an eastern european country where portraying apparent magic powers (witchcraft!) is illegal... since Teleporting obviously counts, when is that going to be banned in SL?