By Bixyl Shuftan
When the Revolting Adults held their first protest about Linden Lab’s upcoming plans for Adult Content Filtering, the Linden they questioned professed not to know much about the issue. He told them Blondin Linden would know more. So the group decided to meet at his place in the Hanley sim during his office hours, Wednesday May 20th at 3:30 PM SL time.
On the day of the protest, I tried porting over with the Landmark I had, and nothing. I tried a few more times without success, then looked at the map. The Hanley sim appeared empty, but there were a few people at the edge to the north and south. I ported near the edge of the sim to the north and headed south. I was unable to cross the sim boundary, and it appeared that there was no sim to the south, even though the map told us otherwise. But with the map showing the place was empty, what was going on? That was the question asked when other protesters gathered at the spot. Some suggested some kind of Linden trickery to keep the protest out, “LET US IN!” “... ignoring a jira ticket with over three thousand votes is one thing but, locking us out of office hours?”
Finally one of the protesters told everyone she’d been IMed by someone on the inside, saying there were about 40 people in the sim. Apparently it was limited to that number. I continued to try to port in via the map, and finally I made it in. Once inside, I saw where the people were, and headed there.
Arriving at 3:45 PM, something must have annoyed Blondin Linden just before I got within chat range as he yelled, “LOG OFF NOW!” Whatever happened, that was the only outburst I heard from him, the rest of the time answering questions. I got around the obstacles, and joined the mix of avatars questioning Blondin Linden.
These are not all the questions asked, only those answered. Only two of the questions that I asked Blondin, and one from protest leader Xantarius Cain, got a reply.
Is the estimated "end of June" time still on course for Ursula moves?
ANSWER: End of June is still on track from what I hear. That's when it'll all begin.
Will we be able to access Ursula with 1.22 viewer?
ANSWER: That is a good question and I am not 100%. I need to check. Good question though.
Here is a question, what is the line Linden has set for "Adult" content, and is it really only the extremes of sl's mature content?
ANSWER: Depends on what you consider extreme. The definitions are almost done.
Are the Lindens committed to tweaking the search restrictions indefinitely if needed until they function as intended and will there be a publicly announced plan on how people can get the exceptions that were promised for people who had legitimate use for otherwise adult terms?
ANSWER: We are committed to tweaking them. If you've noticed a bunch of words have been removed based on resident feedback.
Blondin, would giant phallic attacks be permitted in such an event if held on Ursula? :) ANSWER: Griefing is griefing no matter if its on PG, Mature or Adult.
Thanks Blondin - Follow up Question - Jack and Cyn don't seem to be singing from the same song sheet when it comes to land transfers. Cyn suggests pre-speculation and acquisition prior to move is valid. Jack says checks will be made into past content. Which is right?
ANSWER: They both are. Checks into past content will be a last resort if we feel that someone is truly trying to game the system. It's a last resort.
How will object name and descriptions which are set to show in search effect your parcel? For instance in a situation where a mature parcel with appropriate name and land description also has an object using adult language visible in search, will that prevent the parcel from being visible to mature viewers?
ANSWER: I read this quickly so forgive me if I misunderstood. Objects actually ON a parcel wont be filtered if they use adult words.
Question: I do have the concern, that with such guidelines in place, and the reliance on ARs to control it, the system might be too easily abused to report people for alleged adult content violations. Given that I have several friends now who have been suspended for nothing because it seems like there was no one investigating the reports ... how much security is provided against the abuse of the system or to prevent cases where people report activities thinking that they violate the rules but that are not doing thins actually?
ANSWER: Well, you bring up a good point about abusing the abuse reports. There are A LOT of AR's submitted each and everyday and each one gets special attention. I've seen it in action. The Resident team doesn't act unless they feel confident that something has actually happened that needs further investigation. And on that note, AR's do have to be kept secret to protect the residents’ privacy.
Oh end of June? So The Aporncalypse happens at the same time as the Homestead price increase?
ANSWER: It's bad timing - I know. But the two have nothing to do with each other.
Bixyl Shuftan: Blondin, can you tell us what will happen to landowners and businessmen/women who decline to rate their land?
ANSWER: I'm assuming you mean Private estate owners as they are the only ones who have to flag regions. In reality, not to much unless they get AR'ed. Then the Resi team will come in, look around and decide what to do. Most like, it'll be a few IM's asking the owner to flag.
Oh Blondin, what's the score with the viewer? I heard if you check Adult you can't see any PG or M results. Are they going to fix that or is it intended?
ANSWER: Seems to work for my RC viewer. There are check boxes for ADULT< MATURE AND PG. Check any and all that you want to see
I heard all furries are going to be rated as Adult from now on. Can you comment on this baseless rumour?
ANSWER: In no shape, way or form, are furries going to be generally classified as Adult.
Not flittering objects seems like a loophole that will be exploited. I follow the rules, but my competition uses objects to advertise, but get around the rating system. How will LL deal with objects in search that don't match the parcel rating?
ANSWER: Abuse Reports.
And it was answered on the JIRA because that was a big concern for fear of griefers being able to search bomb places.
ANSWER: I believe this is the correct reason.
Come on guys, give up with the sign on page thing already. It's a stupid way to announce something.
ANSWER: It has proven to get a lot of attention and it will be something we utilize in the future about commenting this to a wider audience.
Question - does that include returning protest posters from private land ?
ANSWER: Are you talking about the signs I returned? The sign on my land? The signs that were causing lag? Didn't I leave one out for good faith?
Blondin, I repeat my question... Are we Europeans having support for enter the mature section? Because we Europeans don't have the age verification system.
ANSWER: I know that laws in Europe are a bit different, but there are many Europeans who are already verified. Off the top of my head Lord Sullivan is verified.
Bixyl Shuftan: Blondin, can you tell us if age-verification will be designed to protect the anonymity of users?
ANSWER: No one is forcing you to use Aristotle. That is just one way. You can do it by having a payment relationship with Linden and your identities will not be any less secure.
They said from the start that this isn't about preventing people selling sex beds on mature land, you just can't advertise a sex bed in classifieds as sex is filtered?
ANSWER: Correct.
Blondin: The draft 'definitions' are fairly vague and subjective - you have mentioned getting final ones soon - are these much tighter or basically the same as the draft that is currently there (the one that has any photorealistic nudity as being adult) ie: all good quality skins = adult.
ANSWER: The format will look the same but we've taken the chance to explain a bit about photo realistic. THe word will still be in there, but no, it doesn't apply to the selling of skins.
Blondin, will traffic scores still affect search rankings?
ANSWER: I don't know.
Question - Many people have bought mainland parcels in the same region to provide prims to support their core business - however 2/3rds of land may not look adult will we be left with a turkey when only a 1/3rd is allowed to move for free?
ANSWER: I believe that all holds can be combined and moved over. If only a section of your land is ADULT, you can move it all, not just that portion.
What about assurances I wont get stuck wiith my (hopefully still) popular club in a sim with another equally popular club?
ANSWER: We will be very conscious of our placements.
Blondin, pardon me, but that's disingenuous. You can sell a product, but not advertise it? Come on.
ANSWER: If you rely on those key words, ie if that's the market you want to focus your advertising on, then you should be on adult land. Apply for a move.
The more I sit in on this, the more it becomes clear that no matter how much the userbase protests these changes, the userbase who pours money into LL's pockets daily, these changes are still going to happen despite the fact that only a vocal minority wants them. Talk about bad customer service.
ANSWER: But if you notice, we've changed a lot of what we originally had in mind based on resident feedback.
Blondin, does linden labs have any intention of opening up additional lines of communication or conversation on this matter? Will we see any more brown bags or forum conversations or are we reduced to the just office hours?
ANSWER: The Brownbags are over. But we'll be opening another forum thread which I'll be actively back on once the update blog goes out.
Blondin, where in the TOS or Community Standards will it be stated that adult content is OK on private land, and that these changes apply only to BUSINESSES?
ANSWER: the TOS will be changed to reflect all these changes around adult content.
Blondin: You skipped my question a second time. How many sims are you going to auction?
ANSWER: I don't know. Depends on how many are left after the swap I suppose.
Blondin, what about others who =can't= for whatever reason, but who DO want to? because here in Italy we don't have the "buy linden" service.
ANSWER: A support ticket would be the best bet.
Q: (it was missed last time I was here, and has been so far today, so I'll just ask it one more time before giving up)...Regarding groups, if/when they also get adult flagged for keyword use, what about the thousands of Residents who are NPIOF or unverified who are already existing members of said groups? Do they remain in the group, get auto-ejected? Possible repercussions?
Answer: I don't know what will happen to those members.
Xantarius Cain: Hi Blondin: Linden Lab has previously stated that private sim owners will not be affected much (other than having search terms for those sims filtered if the residents performing the search is not age-verified). TWO QUESTIONS: (a) Will private sims be required to rate themselves as "adult" if they contain adult material? (b) Will adults who have not been age-verified be locked out of these private "adult" sims? IF YES to both, private sims will be affected more than previously thought. IF NO, this presents a HUGE hole in the age-verification security that LL is building. Please explain.
Answer: yes to A and yes to B.
Haha, Blondin has been lowering the avatar limit on his sim to reduce the number of people shouting at him in this meeting.
ANSWER: Not true. I never shy away!
Well they did remove ponyplay from the filter, because the ponyplayers argued that there doesn't have to be anything sexual about ponyplay. T**s are still inherently sexual for some reason, though.
ANSWER: Google T**s.
It was after answering that question at 4:42 PM than Blondin told us, “Ok, That’s it for me tonight. I’ll be back next week!” Responses from the audience varied. Some were satisfied with Blondin’s answers, thanking him. Others were not, complaining of canned replies, skipping their questions, or of giving replies that weren’t true. One resigned resident commented, “I guess we’ll have to be satisfied with a gilded cage.”
Shortly afterward, I heard from Revolting Adults that the JIRA ticket concerning adult content they had been asking people to sign hit 4000 votes.
Bixyl Shuftan
On March 31, 2010, M Linden announced an updated Second Life Terms of Service (TOS) that becomes effective on Friday, April 30th. We have incorporated our new Policy on Third-Party Viewers into the updated TOS. This Policy governs access to Second Life and our technical platform that supports Second Life by any third-party viewer, by which we mean any third-party software client, regardless of its source code, that logs into our servers. This includes software for viewing Second Life, any chat clients, utilities, bots, and proxies as well as applications that may not be listed in our Third-Party Viewer Directory. This policy does not place any restriction on modification or use of our viewer source code that we make available under the GPL. Rather, the policy sets out requirements for connecting to the Second Life service using a Third-Party Viewer, regardless of the viewer source code used, and for participating in our Third-Party Viewer Directory.
