lindens latest blog: dob a neighbour

where?

Banned?

Or

Hired by LL?

Because most of the western world views the burqa as a symbol of female repression regardless of how those cultures actually view it.

I'm at work right now but if anyone wants one just for kicks, IM me inworld and I'll ship it to you when I get home.

I guess I'm sort of wondering exactly WHO will be doing all this reporting? I mean, out of the millions of "residents" how many actually read the blog in the first place? And then out of that percentage, how many will dismiss it out-of-hand? Of the percentage that DON'T dismiss it, how many will actually spend their time "witch hunting" in Gorean lands or combat sims? Like, 2 people?

I'm wondering if this is sort of a CYA thing on LL's part. We all know they can't even provide REGULAR support, let alone 24/7 "violence watch." Or maybe they're going to outsource their policing to other countries?

irony hey

I'm not getting into a big debate about this because it's going off topic but there's a huge irony of campaigning for freedom on the back of "regardless of how those cultures actually view it".

Hi Oryx *wave*

Check out this thread: forums.secondcitizen.com/showthread.php?t=13725

This is starting to look like...and I REALLY dont want to even think of it...but the hitler youth...

Good idea, because freedom for one will always encroach on the freedom of another.

I think I know what the ESC Sheepbot will be doing now. And out of those who have read the blog how many will become informers? I won't. If something "Broadly Offensive" is going on in plain view in an inappropriate area I may hit the AR button, but other than that, I am not my brother's keeper. What he does is none of m business.

Probably the latter.

Oryx, there are cyber-vigilante groups who will join Second Life for the express purpose of hunting down and AR-ing people engaged in activities they don't like. This happened on LiveJournal just this week when an extremist group with possible neo-nazi ties complained. (BTW, do NOT visit the webpage of this group without a secure browser and firewall, and do not link to it - it's filled with spyware and they pursue trackbacks.)

The LJ staff responded by bulk-suspending of hundreds of user and community journals - without review - based upon the single-word interests listed for those journals (things like "rape" or "incest". Most of the suspended journals were for things like rape/child-abuse survivor support groups, fan-fiction, literary study-groups, etc. To their credit, LJ issued an official mea culpa and apology (after a huge outcry and boycott threats) and is working to reinstate most of the journals. Unfortunately, they've stated that, in the future, single-word interests will be assumed to be prefaced with "I like ...", which is not only patently moronic, but also renders the interest search useless.

To see LL pull an even more oppressive manuever - and literally giving this group the green light the very next day - is frightening and chilling.

SL is now more oppressive than any first life government. I say that because in first life, people at least have some reasonable expectation of privacy in their own homes and don't have to worry about vigilantes swinging cameras in there. Even the Taliban had more limits over what they could reasonably control.

That's really sad. You'd think people would have better things to do with their time.

It's a problem from people who try to enforce their moral views on others, and would like to see people being punished for expressing a different or even opposing moral view, even if the latter don't do anything illegal and don't harm anyone. Phelps is the best example for this breed of people who assume it's their mission to "clean up" the world. And the same type of person will be attracted by D.L.'s call to arms.

Welcome, everyone, to the world of Thought Crimes. Do you like the atmosphere?

Express a thought, any thought, and if someone doesn't like it, and can get a vociferous little mob to back him up, YOU get banned next. Express no thoughts at all, but have a piece of land or something else someone covets? Get falsely accused by him and his little band of brownshirts, and get banned, for his profit.

When the "ageplay" issue first reared its ugly little head, this was what I was afraid would happen. And now, here we go.

I still cling to the hope that LL is really only declaring it will do what it has to do to get irresponsible yellow journalists and overzealous prosecutors out to make a name for themselves off its back. I cling to it because at least that makes sense. But if it isn't that...SL is soon gonna look like 1950s era television. More specifically, McCarthy Era television...

[sarcasm]

I think Im going to stop making sexy clothing for women, and start making no-nonsense full length attire... since that seems to be the direction we are going. Oh... and I'm going to start a "Junior Anti Sex League" group... if there isn't already one out there.

[/sarcasm]


I'm not sure what else to say that hasn't already been said. What I think I will do is just sit back, get out some marshmallows, and roast them over heat that this is generating. LL never listens to the "majority" of its users. No amount of complaining, protesting, or begging is going to get them to deviate from the path they are on now... which as several have already pointed out... is one of making SL commercially presentable.

Oh... and I want my Burka in fishnet please

I'm wondering if Verifing all accounts may actually help in this situation. How many of these griefer groups will go through the steps to verify.

Unfortunately, in this case we're not talking about bored teenagers of whatever age, we are talking about obsessive crackpots. So the answers to your question is, too damn many.

Well if people want to peep on my land they will be very disappointed. My partner and I tend to rez what we need and then put it back in inventory. And no, I will not become an informer.

LL have lost the plot; I can only guess that they are either going to bring teens to the main grid or sell to Disney. Either way my land gets sold and membership cancelled.

The very suggestion that we should spy on each other and AR is horrible and I trust all sane residents will not be doing this. However, some will, either because of their faith - those who are intent on forcing their morals on us - or vigilante groups made up of little boys who want to be big.

Finally, who is this 'community' LL has intimated are the reason for this absurd and ridiculous action.

OT - Oryx I went to your shop and had to buy the pink and gold salwa

I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about this until people start getting banned, if that actually happens. This announcement and the age verification thing strike me as having far more to do with PR than with a desire to actively police the content on the grid. For better or worse SL has long had a reputation as being full of nothing but sexual deviants and the portion of the press that's hostile towards SL loves to make those kinds of claims every chance it gets, which results in things like the German tv expose on ageplay. I'm a fierce believer in "anything goes" as long as people are respectful of those around them but I can certainly empathize with LL about how they must hate that kind of publicity. This is about damage control and trying to change the general public's perceptions and won't necessarily equate to a genuine puritanical crackdown. I think it's more of a "we're not with those people" kind of thing.

What makes you think there isn't already a multitude of people doing exactly that? On top of which you have the revenge/spite ARs.

When someone has their profile altered, or receives a warning for mature content on their profile, it's generally not because LL accidently stumbled on to them. It's because someone disliked that person enough to report them. The same is true for "offensive groups".

LL may very well receive dozens or hundreds of ARs a day about various forms of "kinky" play in SL and decide that the "community" feels it's a problem because they're AR'ing it. There isn't an official way for any of us to voice support for any particular activity, only a dislike through ARs, giving LL a very one-sided view of how the "community" feels about anything.

Sadly, I do agree with you.

Actually, he found a bug (which has now been fixed) in the sim auction system which allowed people to prematurely visit an auction's bidding page, and start bidding on the auction, before the Lindens had initialised the opening price.

I love how he's harpooned himself here. If the TOS isn't legally binding then nothing gives him any right at all to land on Second Life.

thank you for the clarification on the land bit. As for the burka, it's an ironic statement. I suppose I could get back in my furry avatar and buy a 10' peeny attachment to wear around. Also and ironic statement.

To be honest, I always thought it would be a matter of time before the TOS would be successfully challenged. I know for a fact that they are so one sided not have any legal weight under British law, especially the bits about no refunds for unused subscriptions if your account was terminated. I don't know what the situation is under US/Californian law (nor how binding the section trying to enforce Californian jurisdiction on anyone challenging LL), but find it difficult to believe any civilised country would permit such a one sided contract.

The only reason, I felt this didn't happen sooner was the cost of taking the issue to court would be much larger than any recovered by it...

Regarding the Bragg case, unless he not only found a way to bid on those auctions before they became public knowledge (what he claims he did), but ALSO foudn a way to close those auctions while they were still hidden from public knowledge (haven't seen anything to state that), I don't see how he would have gained an unfair advantage over anything.

So he put in a bid before anyone even knew it was up for auction. It would still have been open to be bid upon over the usual timescales, right? Can anyone say whether ort not he forced those auctions to close in his favour while they were still hidden from normal public viewing?