What we can and cannot control, and how it affects us.

[Qie Niangao]

On 12/15/2022 at 1:25 PM, Paul Hexem said:

The real issue is corporate fear of bad PR.

Based on most of the original rules in SL, I suspect LL wouldn't ban much of anything that's not crashing computers or regions- things that affect concurrency numbers. Everything they've "banned" has been in pursuit of that or fear of bad PR on Twitter, it seems like.

Well yeah. It's an online service with just those affordances and constraints that the product team thinks will maximize engagement. If they could improve concurrency by banning nipples, they'd do it. Don't like it, find another slice of metaverse.

The same profit motive drives Twitter, Meta, TikTok, etc. (Well, we hope that's all that's driving TikTok, and it's not an experiment in developing a global Manchurian Candidate generation. But that's off topic.)

Hand-wringing about wanting to control others in SL is only useful if expressed in terms of how more or less of it would improve the product's ongoing prospects.

This happens every time the subject of virtual land "property rights" comes up. Some people would like to "fly" over some other people's "land" which offends some preconceived notions of what SL "land" is. In reality, "land" is whatever the Lab can most profitably sell, and all the built-in access controls and scripting functions exist not because they're the "right" way to control others in SL but rather because somebody in the Product office once thought they'd make "land" a profitable offering.

[Love Zhaoying]

I cannot control the news..about SL:

Yesterday my Google "home page" feed of "Suggested News Stories" showed me a story about Second Life.

I got all excited until I saw the story was from a few years ago.

[Nick0678]

23 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

This happens every time the subject of virtual land "property rights" comes up...

..and clearly stated in the TOS that it's simply a license to use their servers and you are not eligible for any refund.

Quote

You acknowledge that Virtual Land is a limited license right and is not a real property right or actual real estate, and it is not redeemable for any sum of money from Linden Lab. You acknowledge that the use of the words "Buy," "Sell" and similar terms carry the same meaning of referring to the transfer of the Virtual Land License as they do with respect to the Linden Dollar License. You agree that Linden Lab has the right to manage, regulate, control, modify and/or eliminate such Virtual Land as it sees fit and that Linden Lab shall have no liability to you based on its exercise of such right.

https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/second-life-terms-and-conditions

[Persephone Emerald]

7 hours ago, Nick0678 said:

..and clearly stated in the TOS that it's simply a license to use their servers and you are not eligible for any refund.

https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/second-life-terms-and-conditions

You acknowledge that Virtual Land is a limited license right and is not a real property right or actual real estate, and it is not redeemable for any sum of money from Linden Lab. You acknowledge that the use of the words "Buy," "Sell" and similar terms carry the same meaning of referring to the transfer of the Virtual Land License as they do with respect to the Linden Dollar License. You agree that Linden Lab has the right to manage, regulate, control, modify and/or eliminate such Virtual Land as it sees fit and that Linden Lab shall have no liability to you based on its exercise of such right.

^ If this is what the current fuss is about, my guess is that they're getting ready to get rid of the old Linden Home regions.

[Lindal Kidd]

I can't control my pants, apparently.

That didn't come out right. See my post in the "Missing Objects" thread for details.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Lindal Kidd

[CaithLynnSayes]

On 12/15/2022 at 11:48 PM, Dyna Mole said:

A quick reminder while this interesting conversation is still young:   I know it's not easy to separate SL from RL, but please try to keep the focus on SL here.

Oh the irony, lol.

[Qie Niangao]

10 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

If this is what the current fuss is about, my guess is that they're getting ready to get rid of the old Linden Home regions.

That language looks pretty familiar though. I think something like it has been around a long time, like since Evans (2013) or even Bragg (2007).