Adult Content Blog Discussion

I'm not sure I understand why you think an art or garden exhibit can't be in PG land.

Ferrets will take care of your rats.

Oh, sure: You furries have all the fun!

I didn't know I did either

Agreed, it's absurd. I can only assume that LL somehow think people mix up avatars with real people. In that sense you would not see a G rated film with real live people being riddled with bullets or impaled.

If anyone out there is getting upset about seeing avatars tortured or injured I think the solution is mental counselling not a secret new continent.

Gee whiz! Dare I admit to agreeing with you? And, you are aware there have been other threads on this in which people are abhorred by SL violence.

The attitude of LL is very simple and straightforward:

IMO: If you don't see it happen in disneyland, it isn't going to happen anywhere outside the adult continent in SL.

Mr. Kingdon has made in clear in his writings that adult/mature content should be a buy-in, not freely available for anyone to happen upon. [Hence the need for verification - not necessarily a monetary buy-in.]

Will this kill SL? I doubt it, because disneyland is successful, and if it is successful why can't SL succeed based on the same model?

Do I agree with LL? Not in the least.

Consider this....the confusion experienced by those with (assuming) English as their first language...imagine how all this will be explained in Japanese, Swedish, Russian, Welsh...

The Linden definitions also seems to assume that readers are fully versed in all previous debate on the issue and not reading it 'cold'...

The reference to parks etc was for those in mature land with places like these publically themed...like the nude type beaches with bars and chill out areas...point being these are ADULT once public displays of sexual activity are enabled...if there are no sex poseballs then they can stay mature...or if they are on PG designated land they can stay except for the nude beach and bar! .. a nude beach is probably the 'passive sex..as in no copulating...'

Parks and pretty pretty builds are ok in PG providing nothing interesting can happen...no poseballs for sex no beds and no means for visitors to use their own like mobile sex wallets etc....

The easiest description of PG is gardens, parks, water features, forests, education places, houses and homes minus any menu driven furniture or poseballs other than 'sit' no tv's accessing porn, no nude pictures on walls other than classic museum items....stores selling items not linked to sex, violence, poseball sex, erotic attire, saucy lingerie... no drink or drugs allowed. Garden centres and landscaping places will thrive on cheap PG land but no tiki huts and gazebos with sexy couple animations...pet and animal sales, car and vehicle sales will also do well...

If you want a house with a bed where you can cuddle up with your other half then it has to be in mature...

Just to clarify, when SL have rolled out their plans on PG/Mature/Adult on the server/client, what will the technical consequences of having a parcel/sim flagged as *Mature* be in terms of someone new to SL being able to find your content via search? That is, will they see you by *default* in the search results, or will they first have to tick the Mature search option and/or be age verified? Thanks.

Already happening, witness Blondin's blog comment answers that are at variance from the published final definitions.

The knowledge base makes no distinction about indoor vs outdoor sex, only publicly promoted. But Blondin is saying indoors OK, out in the yard, not OK.

If you want to know exactly how it's working, read the wiki page I wrote most of:

http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/Adult_Content_Keywords

I've personally tested every bit of the behavior noted there and every damn word using 1.23RC2 (latest available version).

Note: filtering also applies to seach.secondlife.com, not just within the client. And there are *three* levels of words, which is often missed in the discussion.

(1) words that are always filtered, like "gambling" and "ageplay", no matter what setting you use

(2) words that are not filtered at adult setting, but filtered below adult setting,
(about 100 words)

(3) everything else

Because if *we* can misinterpret it, because it is badly written, the Governance Team can misinterpret it that way too.

It would have been better to make a feature checklist like this:

Feature.............PG.....................Mature................Adult

Sex Clubs.................................................................X

Dance Clubs..................................X.........................X

Parks..................X.........................X.........................X

The new definitions are an improvement on the older ones. Which was easy, because the older ones were garbage.

The current definitions would be good if they were a second draft. Unfortunately, Linden Lab thinks they are final.

I like this one:

"We may take into account whether apparent or reported adult content or conduct on a particular Region serves only an extremely limited or passive function, or an important educational or cultural function, and therefore would be appropriate for all Second Life audiences."

What does that possibly mean? Can an Escort get out of Adult and into PG by calling herself a Sex Therapist instead of Escort? Does a free orgy go from Adult to PG if it re-enacts events from the reign of Caligula? And what is "passive" sex? I mean, it's possible to be passive during sex, but at least one participant needs to be active.

The policy promises that,

"In the FAQs below, we offer examples as to what types of Regions are and are not considered adult, based on, for example, distinctions between 'public' and 'private' content, as well as distinctions between content that is 'expressly sexually themed' and content that is not. "

Then neither "public," "private," nor "expressly sexually themed" are ever defined. What's the difference between public and private, especially since walls obstruct no one? What is "expressly sexually themed?" The opposite of "implicitly sexually themed" I presumed, thought I don't know what "implicitly sexually themed" would be either.

And it's clear that Linden Lab focused most of its attention on trying to decide what is Adult. There are no definitions for "Mature" and "PG" at all. Just examples, but if what you have does not exactly match an example, the policy is useless. Because there are no definitions.

I am guessing that "PG" is reserved for "Institutions such as universities, conference organizers, and real world businesses." The examples under PG focus not on what the content is, but who provides the content. Universities and corporations get to be PG; regular folks are Mature.

Clarity is extremely important because we know nothing about enforcement. The policy links to another FAQ that supposedly answers enforcement issues; it doesn't. So we can assume that the penalty for misconstruing the policy is to be banned first, ask questions later, in true SL fashion. Plus, we can be sure that not everyone will be treated the same. Between two competing businesses, you can be assured that even if they do identical things, one gets limited exposure under Adult while the other may operate as Mature because Strict Linden handles one Abuse Report but Lax Linden handles the other.

Just another example of poor writing and editing. Cyn's original post on the blog claims to link to german and Japanese versions for the FAQ, and they dont.

Knowledge base 6345 has this statement (last paragraph):

"The only place you can have adult content on the Mainland is this new continent."

It should have read "...publicly promoted adult content"

Blondin admits it was a mistake (blog comment 20, but as of now its not fixed, and therefore spreading misinformation.

It's pretty sad when your customers do a better job proofreading your documents than you do.

That is exactly the sort of table LL should publish for definitions to clarify what is ok and where with ticks and crosses, though they should go into more detail by showing non business sex, violence, art, skins, sex animations etc, and include that kiddie porn is not allowed any where in SL

My idea was better. Just fly around the world and make a list of places that must be Adult or Mature or PG. Publish the list. Then we have actual real world examples of what is what.

Too much information in a table like that. Common sense is a pretty good indicator of what should be allowed.

"Common sense? Any rarer and it would be a godamned superpower!"

fresh from Blondins office...if a store sells adult items or some..and needs to use adult filtered words to promote and suceed then it has a strong case to get a move to Zindra if it wishes....

i.e sex bed stores can qualify to move

This officially blows the 2-4% effected stat out the grid...

Was there also. I asked would there be transparency in ticket process for those that ask to move. Would we get a 'next in line' number for consideration to move or would some unidentified linden be making the decision and sending out anonymous e-mails.

Blondin did not respond so I am thinking it is the latter (standard operational procedure)

.

The transcript is here for those that want to read it

http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/Office_Hours_Transcript_-_Blondin_Linden:_06-03-2009