Censored Xxx

Torley Linden:
This thread stays locked as it's not appropriate; this is not a place for rants, so please don't misuse Resident Answers.

For emphasis, in our Community Standards, it mentions Global Standards of broadly-viewable material that must be PG:
Last night, despite my very careful decision to make sure all of my XXX rated company stayed in a so-called "mature" area, some Bush Republican at Linden Labs changed my gorup name that also happens to be my company name. When I called Linden labs o nthe matter, the abuse center was soooo tight, that they would not even allow names like SexRags, C-Rags, or XXXRags, claiming that all group names MUST be PG.... (Never mind that I can drive my 5 year old down the street in my town and see signs displaying XXX along the roeadway.in face "XXX " was CREATED to be PG.) It seems the lindens want a pg utopia, despite the fact that they have created what they call "amture areas". it seems they are okay with rated R, but rated X is entirely unacceptable. Coming soon to a sim near you, dress codes! I think if the lindens wantot keep people from being offended by what they see in mature areas, rather than slamming us for stupid stuff like languuage, they should add a warning bypass that an avatar has to go through before entering a mature sim. Really simple.... "WARNING... YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER A MATURE SIM WHERE X-RATED CONTENT MAY BE PRESENT. ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO ENTER?" barring that, maybe a 3rd level should be created.... PG, Mature, and X-rated sims. I dont know what the answer is, but languuage censorship doesnt reek of the utopia Phil has talked about in interviews. it reeks of more of the same... people telling other poeple what is and is not appropriate in thier "own homes". I understand that the lindens have imminenent domain over Secondlife, but if they are gonna sell land and call it mine, then they should bloody well act like it's mine. The search section has a check box to include or not include mature content. Apparently that should be done away with under the current gestapo. I think it's time that we in the MAJORITY who are unoffended by true "mature" rated material push this issue. After all...it's the uptight pricks in thereal world that drove us into this world in the first place. Why should we allow them to ruin this one for us too?

From that rant I managed to find SOMETHING that makes sense
"barring that, maybe a 3rd level should be created.... PG, Mature, and X-rated sims"
yes, and preferably away from normal mainland, a single "red-light" district instead of a trillion little ones that mess up everything.

Also please keep in mind that automatically assuming the political orientation of anyone who promotes something in SL is silly. I myself am very liberal in RL, yet am for some moderation or regulation of sex stuff in SL.

Furthermore, group names being PG makes sense, because they are a viewable part of a public profile, and profiles must be PG.

Punctuation and paragraphs are your friends, Tiffany. Take a bit of time out to get acquainted with them.

:words:

/me things a Preferences option for 'include mature items in search and profiles' would be a better solution than changing all group names that might be mature..

I agree with you 100%

Does anyone else take this to be a harbinger of the big rollout of web-accessible grid data?

I'm guessing our profiles, groups and all that are gonna be searchable REAL soon off-grid.

lol.. interesting that all you got from that was that I am not the best typist in the world. Didn't realize that was so frikkin important... but here's a repost.... so that maybe you understand it. if not, maybe someone will read/ explain it to you... hehehe.

I am offended by people who are offended too easily. Last night, despite my very careful decision to make sure all of my XXX rated company stayed in a so-called "mature" area, someone at Linden Labs, without discussing it with me, and without warning me, changed my group name that also happens to be my company name. People pay me money to belong to the group, largely BECAUSE of the name. When I called Linden labs on the matter, the abuse center was soooo tight, that they would not even allow a compromise with names like SexRags, C-Rags, or XXXRags, claiming that all group names MUST be PG.... (Never mind that I can drive my 5 year old down the street in my town and see signs displaying XXX along the roadway. In fact "XXX " was CREATED to be PG.) We settled on “Total Rags” and apparently I am going to have to use the member roles (until they clamp down on that too) to run my business… despite a market for it as it was.

It seems the Lindens want a pg utopia, despite the fact that they have created what they call "mature areas". It seems they are okay with rated R (depending), but rated X is entirely unacceptable. Coming soon to a Sim near you, dress codes! I think if the lindens want to keep people from being offended by what they see in mature areas, rather than slamming us for stupid stuff like language, they should add a warning bypass that an avatar has to go through before entering a mature Sim. Really simple... "WARNING... YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER A MATURE SIM WHERE X-RATED CONTENT MAY BE PRESENT. ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO ENTER?" barring that, maybe a 3rd level should be created... PG, Mature, and X-rated Sims.

I don’t know what the answer is, but language censorship doesn’t reek of the utopia Phil has talked about in interviews. It reeks of more of the same... people telling other people what is and is not appropriate in their "own homes". I understand that the Lindens have imminent domain over Second life, but if they are gonna sell land and call it mine, then they should bloody well act like it's mine. The search section has a check box to include or not include mature content. Apparently that should be done away with under the current Gestapo. I think it's time that we in the MAJORITY who are NOT offended by true "mature" rated material push this issue. After all...it's the uptight Bible thumping whiners in the real world that drove us into this world in the first place. Why should we allow them to ruin this one for us too?

What if you created a group name containing a sexually explicit word in a language other than English? 100L says they wouldn't catch it...

Is this the way you talk to LL? Did you make sure to call them monkies and remind them that you're paying their salary, too??

Group names shouldnbt have to be pg, given that there IS a check box in the search for including or not including mature content. how many steps must we take to protect people from being offended before it's their fault for showing up in places that they may find offensive?

What makes you think that you are in the majority? What makes you think that "your way" is the right way? I for one do not want Second Life to turn into another "Sociolotron" - and if the sex is all you are here for, may I gracefully suggest that you find somewhere more rewarding?

I take great offense to being called an 'uptight prick' by you; simply because I happen to have a different outlook on life to you does not in any way make me a lesser life form, or less valuable to the SL community, than people like you.

The rules are that everything publicly accessible including group names and profiles must be PG rated. You are clearly the one who was at fault for not following the rules that are clearly explained, so quite why you are getting so irate simply because you were caught and punished is beyond me.

Broccoli

So is spelling my dear ^_*

Sorry, just had to play the part! I misspell constantly to be honest, yet have been the head of more spelling bee's through my childhood than seems logically plausible.

Anyway, back to the thread...I can understand and expect censorship to an extent, however censoring the label 'xxx' is a bit harsh, since yes, it exists as a publicly viable representation already.

So...does anyone know of any other nice, newly starting online 3d worlds which allow raw meshing imports and avatar replacements? (besides imvu, who's censorship is already far far worse than SL, and far buggier)

My $72 per year doesn't even pay for a day of coffee for them. I was quite polite with the lindens. I just figured that anyone who would smack me down for spelling/ punctuation on a post deserved a little of the same.

The rules are clearly explained that profiles, group and avatar names must be PG rated. How many steps must we take to protect the feelings of people from being offended before it's their fault they get punished for breaking what is, after all, a very simple and clear rule to follow?

I always enjoy these silly threads where people cannot see the hypocrisy of yelling at people for being 'intolerant' of their different lifestyles when they are in fact being intolerant themselves of those with a different lifestyle to their own.

Broccoli

I would be interested to know how much of SL is PG. Most of the places I find are rated Mature but I don't see much "Mature" behaviour etc going on there. Take my Sim for example. A large part of it is resedential. there is a small shopping Mall with a Fairground attached to it but that is all. Oh forgot the 512M Plot that does indeed sell some things that perhaps might be rated as "Mature". So one Sim with as far as I can tell 512M of "Mature".

Having visited a lot of SL I would say a three tier rating might be a good idea. I guess the hard part for what is there now would be how do you rate what is currently "Mature" when further dividing SL. I doubt that would be possible. Maybe new businesses that meet the XXX standard could be restricted to some areas from a certain date but then we would have fighting over "that business is in a Mature Area so why can't I be" and so on.

I always tick search in Mature areas simply because if I don't I miss out on a lot of good stuff which for some might be the Fairground at the top of my hill?

Assuming there should be rules regarding what goes where maybe it should be right across SL instead of some areas rated M and some PG?

Looking back over my posting I would say a two tier system is fine but maybe Linden needs to think a bit harder about how much of SL should be rated as "Mature". At the moment it seems to me there is normally not a lot of difference between PG and M.

A

I'm not here for sex at all... I am here for money.. and newsflash.... sex sells! I didnt create the market... but I sure as **** plan to capitalize on it. If people want to pay my staff money for ridiculous sex with cartoons, why shouldn't I do my best to promote it? Again... what is the point of a "mature" check box on search, if not to filter for the easily offended?

As someone posted above, just uncheck "mature" if you want your eyes not to see mature titles in search.

A search for land for sale at any time always shows a lot more 'mature' land for sale than 'pg'. The logical conclusion from that would be that 'pg' land is actually in very high demand and gets snapped up very quickly.

A lot of people ended up having to buy 'mature' rated land simply because that was all that they could find at the time - our Stratics Headquarters in Rosieri, for example.

Quite why Linden Lab don't release more 'pg' rated land I really don't know. It's almost as if they are trying to promote the 'sex' side of Second Life, despite their constant attempt to downplay it and show that there is more to it than that.

Broccoli

Officer.. .I WOULD have had Orange Juice instead of rum, but I needed something to drink, and Rum is all I could find at the time.

I think the problem here is that by tolerating mature content under the current system, LL can distance itself from responsibility for that content under its ideals of user freedom. By creating a red light district, whether it be a separate continent or otherwise, LL would be dedicating time and resources to promotion of the sex trade in SL, and would therefore be seen to accept it, if not endorse it. This would drastically change public perception of LL, particularly at the corporate level.

LL is wise to restrict text which is visible to the public. Lost respect = lost business.

Making money out of sex is even worse. How does it feel to be a prostitute, even if only in virtual form?

You ask for the point in 'mature' checkboxes. If the land ratio of mature/pg was reversed, mature land was in the minority, AND adult related places stayed there out of the way, then it wouldn't be such an issue.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. "PG" is for clean. "Mature" should be for areas where things like swearing and nudity are permitted. There needs to be an additional "XXX" rating for the sex clubs, sex toy shops, fetish areas and suchlike, so that people who don't mind behaviour fitting of an over 18 but do not want to be faced with sex everywhere you turn. There are, believe it or not, quite a few of us out there on the grid.

Broccoli

The Sin industries drove the 2d internet into existence.... and it changed the world. Why should SL get in the way of it's own progress? Lost respect? I submit that they lost my respect when they got uptight over a name. Need i remind you that this is a world where people can buy a HORSE for sex?

Apples and oranges. You could have gone to a different bar/store, you don't have much choice in Second Life.

Good land in SL is scarce. You no doubt remember the problems caused by the scrums for first land.

Sometimes you can only find a good bit of land that isn't in an area lagged down by camping or spinning adverts that happens to be on a mature area, but you do not plan on using your land for anything sexual in nature.

Broccoli

Wow, a very good point. Made me rethink the idea of a three-tiered system.