SL guidelines, community standards, etc..

For months I've hearing talk that the Lindens have stated rules that certain activities are now "illegal" and are grounds for banning and so forth. Activities like bestiality, age-play, and camping. (Camping meaning one who sits out, usually at a casino, for free money, and is able to bypass the 30min time out and remain online almost indefinitely)

So I went read the ToS, and Community Standards documents, and found NO rules against these activities. So this must be all hyper-boil spread by other users as gossip into scaring them into not performing these activities. Especially campers so they can get a bigger share of the free money being handed out. After all not everyone reads these things so it's easy to spread lies about what's really in it.

Now there may have been forum postings by Lindens who probably have stated that these activities are TOS violations, etc. But if it's not said in their official documents that WE all agreed to when we signed up on SL, then we shouldn't be bound to what's said in a forum post that can later be edited or deleted anyway with out some warning (as they usually do with ToS).

After all there are still thousands of avis camping at casinos (I've seen entire sim islands FILLED with them), there's still a lot of age play going on, and you can go out and buy "animals" that you can have sex with. If this was against SL's ToS or other guidelines, they would have been removed a long time ago.

Perhaps I'm wrong? Can anyone show me where it's been stated that any actives aren't tolerated? The ToS and Community Standards are Quite Vague as to what they allow and don't allow. There's nothing specifically stated that is not allowed. I hope someone can enlighten me on this.. because I'm getting really tired of hearing the same old rumors, that seem more like myth than rules.

I do not want this thread to blow up into a philosophical flaming war argument about what's right and wrong, censorship, user rights and freedom. I just want some facts as to the policies regarding activities, assuming they exist at all.

Good thing you posted this on a Saturday then, otherwise philosophical flame war would have been what you got.

Don't think I've seen them say camping isn't allowed, as long as it doesn't keep other people who own land in the sim from entering. Also haven't heard anything about bestiality.

They will always be careful of drawing a clear line in the sand on what people can & can't do. Daniel Linden said (there's a video around here somewhere..) that if LL does draw such a line, there'd be tons of people standing right on the edge, spitting over the line. It's sad but true.

Anyway, I think the ToS says they can 'outlaw' anything they want, any time they want. After all, SL is private property.

You just need to hear more clearly. No one, especially the Lindens, has said these things are illegal. What they have stated is that depictions of pedophilia are illegal in some places and are also broadly offensive within SL. Being caught involved in the depiction of pedophilia is the extreme focus at this point. Camping has nothing to do with the time limit or the bypassing of it. Camping is the act of sitting or being engaged in an activity for a time period which increases traffice for that particular land owner, and being compensated for this with a Linden/minute pay scale.



I think you mean hyperbole? I think you may be guilty of this yourself now. There is no "free money" being handed out. The money campers earn is from the accounts of individual land/business owners who are paying for a service that (artificially) inflates their traffic count. Why on earth would anyone want to keep someone from the money? The reason camping is hated by many is the fact that an avatar just sitting and doing nothing is taking up resources that an active person/avatar could be using. This happens to the point that it makes some sims useless.



Making assumptions upon assumptions?



There is no way LL could identify and classify everything that goes on in SL. They have stated they do not want to police the residents. However, they are a business and have to cover themselves from liabilities, and they have written the TOS so that when a potentially illegal (read that illegal in real life not second life) activity is discovered/exposed/investigated that they can use the TOS to rid those individuals involved from SL. And don't assume, it just makes an ASS out of U and Me. :^)

Daniel's blog post from a short time ago instigated some of the conversations, although I've not heard of "camping" being one of the activities in question. http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/31/keeping-second-life-safe-together/
The above blog, for instance, contradicts the current Community Standard by outlawing certain activities from the entire grid, not just from PG areas.

This is an ongoing conversation; Daniel's blog is only one part of the story. You'll really need to take a careful look at many Linden statements made progressively over the last four months to get a real understanding of the apparent direction of those statements. Sexual ageplay was condoned by LL for quite awhile. Then they outlawed advertisement of those activities, not specifically outlawing the roleplay itself. The German media resulted in LL banning two players, both well above the age of consent, for their part in the sexual ageplay in that news story, apparently representing another change in LL's official policy. Now some people automatically assume child AVs = sexual ageplay, and this is where some of the witch-hunting begins. So you see much of the concern has to do with the ambiguity which you hinted at. Daniel's blog represents another sea-change in policy. Also worth noting are particular unannounced changes to the ToS which residents have detected and reported (such as the subtle removal of protection from having one's SL recorded by third parties). The blog also directly invites residents to spy on one another's imaginative activities, raising additional concerns about due process and grief accusations. Given LL's inability to affectively respond to very real day-to-day problems that residents face, I think many have little confidence in LL's ability to examine the Abuse Reports this blog invites in any detail. Since many people have hundreds, even thousands of real USD invested in SL, they would like clarification of these issues.

I wouldn't be too quick to accuse residents who express deep concern about this shift of hyperbole.

I hope that helps answer your question in as straightforward a way as possible without too heavily weighting the answer with my own fiercely held views on the subject.

To respond to Kenbro Utu post, you should have read my entire posting before you make statements saying "No one, especially the Lindens, has said these things are illegal." I know this, that's my ENTIRE point of my posting here. Everything that has been said so far is that it is just gossip, or an individual Linden making a post in their blog, or in a forum post. Nothing is legally binding to us as users here.

Kenbro also stated that camping isn't free money? I already know the REASON why people have camping areas so they can inflate their traffic numbers and appear higher on search lists. But the campers who get the money are indeed getting it for free. Granted you're probably paying more for electricity compared to the amount of L$ you may get from camping... but 99% of the campers are basic (no payment on file) avis who have not paid a dime into Second Life.

Sindy mentioned that they don't draw a clear line, this is true. Most "legal" type documents are often written vaguely so that it can encompass a large range of events that one may or may not account for, or predict. Which is good in covering their legal-asses, but bad since nearly anything can fall under this "vagueness" and get numerous people in trouble.

Now after reading Sweet's posting, with the link to the Linden Blog. This sort of enforces that I've always thought. They want us to police the grid for whatever obscene materials we might find. Since everyone has their own level of what's considered obscene, they must be getting tons of complaint messages. Heck I'm sure users are sending complaints for people playing burping and farting gestures. Next we will start seeing anti-smoking gestures and signs on the wall, since "second hand avi smoke is bad for your avi." God knows what other ridiculous things will come up. Anyway I'm getting off topic.

I guess the topic now is if the Lindens do plan on being specific on what constitutes obscenity, and if those activities will be grounds for account bans, they need to be stated in the ToS, or community guidelines. I believe it will be a problem for the Lindens if they don't make it specific in their ToS (or in any linked documents from ToS).

But I don't see why they simply can't leave Second Life the "wild west" of the internet, and simply let USERS be liable for the content and activities they use in world, and NOT hold the Lindens liable.

thanks for the responses so far folks.

/me wakes, scratches her ear, curls up and goes back to sleep

Individual Lindens have gotten a bit more relaxed about restarting a sim when someone complains they can't get onto their land all day long cause of persistant camping.

And I vaguely recall reading that a small number (not all of them) of camping chairs were returned so that the sim couldn't be filled to the brink, although I can't remember where I read that right now .

LL isn't interested in making a list of "allowed" and "not allowed" or even just the latter. In their eyes it would cause even more trouble than vague guidelines.

Daniel clarified the position of the abuse handling team, which is that real imagery or mere in-world depiction of certain activities will be considered a violation of the "Indecency" part of the CS and handled accordingly. If you're waiting for them to add that "sexual ageplay" or "rape" isn't allowed, don't hold your breath. Things like "broadly offensive" provide more than enough leeway. You agreed to the words as written, not their interpretation at the time you read them, so be happy you got a blog post at all.

Bestality: No specific policy has been made in regards to this, although some might consider it past of the "broadly offensive" discussed in the Second Life blog.

Age-Play: Ageplay itself is not banned. Sexual activities between child and adult avatars, or child and child avatars, however, is. This has been discussed in the Second Life blog, and widely reported.

Camping: Not banned, though it can lead to an abuse report for the *owner* of the chairs, if it is determined that they are overusing a regions resources.

As you'll note, two of the above were discussed in the Blog at http://blog.secondlife.com/

I will agree with you, however, that the CS do not get specific on these and other activities, likely by design.

Mari

There have been a number of blotter entries about it..

Also, see Torley's comments at the end of https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-63 .