Official Statement from Oberwolf Linden

[Jaylinbridges]

6 minutes ago, Sparkle Bunny said:

Out of interest, where would the dossier need to be published for you (or anyone else) to take it seriously? Pretty much all of what passes for journalism in SL is blog-based.

Here - as attachments of course.  https://supreme.justia.com/

[Love Zhaoying]

12 minutes ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

There are people who don't want it to be true because they put their heads in the sand and sing lalalala.

You inspired me to post several songs in the "listening" thread: the "tralala" song, the "beans in your ears" song, and the Benny Hill "put your finger in your ear" song! (That last one can be hard to find sometimes.)

 

 

[Sparkle Bunny]

4 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

If, however, you personally consider "blog posts" to be serious journalism as a general rule, more power to you.

I really don't, but print media was unlikely to be interested in a 30-page infodump about a virtual world even if they weren't concerned about it getting them sued for libel, so here we are.

[Rowan Amore]

If the person were so very concerned with illegal activity, why didn't they take their proof to the proper authorities?  That's what made the whole blog post suspicious to me.  That and his quote from a supposed LL employee who said something was definitely against ToS when it fact, it is not although it might be soon.

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

why didn't they take their proof to the proper authorities?

They SAID in the article that they did, which of course sounded like just more BS and hyperbole.

(Paraphrased) What I read: "The authorities have been notified."

What it meant to me: "Nobody paid me for my information or listened, so I went to the authorities and published my own article!" 

 

[Sparkle Bunny]

I think the likelihood of police getting involved with cartoon stuff varies widely depending on jurisdiction. 🤷‍♀️

[Arielle Popstar]

17 minutes ago, Sparkle Bunny said:

I really don't, but print media was unlikely to be interested in a 30-page infodump about a virtual world even if they weren't concerned about it getting them sued for libel, so here we are.

There was a bit of a critique about the blog post on Reddit by a jsn_vlzqz where it was opined:

 

Quote

 

19 days ago·edited 19 days ago

So, I actually am a journalist, and agree with the people here that the polemic doesn't read in a very newsy way. Still, except for the raft of typos, the structure of the piece is pretty well-organized. The allegations (true or not) are backed up with details and examples (authentic or not) in a logical fashion. If it's merely a hit-piece with no basis in reality, I'd say it's a generally well-crafted bit of fiction. This person should be working for a candidate this year.

 

My own estimation of the original blog went up after his/her summation (sorry, couldn't remove the formatting)

[Jaylinbridges]

25 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

If the person were so very concerned with illegal activity, why didn't they take their proof to the proper authorities?  That's what made the whole blog post suspicious to me

Perhaps he/she was concerned about revealing their real identity to government officials.  Are whistle blowers really protected in whatever country the "reporter" lives in?  Maybe he lives in Albania, or North Korea, or Florida.

The claim was that LL had a copy of the blog post early draft in December, and their only response was removing in world evidence.  By going public, it forced LL to "wake up" as Brad said in his post. 

Edited March 21 by Jaylinbridges

[Arielle Popstar]

15 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

If the person were so very concerned with illegal activity, why didn't they take their proof to the proper authorities?  That's what made the whole blog post suspicious to me.  That and his quote from a supposed LL employee who said something was definitely against ToS when it fact, it is not although it might be soon.

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

They SAID in the article that they did, which of course sounded like just more BS and hyperbole.

(Paraphrased) What I read: "The authorities have been notified."

What it meant to me: "Nobody paid me for my information or listened, so I went to the authorities and published my own article!" 

Conjecture and speculation as to the motivations of a whistleblower are not under scrutiny here though. Shouldn't he also be innocent until proven guilty? The important aspect is whether there is some validity to his claims and seeing that there are both internal and external investigations going on with some allegations being admitted as being true, warranted.

[Persephone Emerald]

The credulity of people to believe whatever they hear or read is one of the reasons Democracy is in peril in this world.

[Harper Held]

1 minute ago, Persephone Emerald said:

The credulity of people to believe whatever they hear or read is one of the reasons Democracy is in peril in this world.

Yep; people's inclination to believe whatever is flattering and fits their world view is the 2nd biggest threat to civilisation -right behind AI

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

The credulity of people to believe whatever they hear or read is one of the reasons Democracy is in peril in this world.

"But...but..there's a dossier!!! Don't you respect a dossier?!?!?"

I say: One person's "dirt" is another person's "dossier".  

YMMV.

 

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Harper Held said:

I'm sure the inworld places are gone, or not long for this world.

But the institutional workplace dynamics ...? the favoritism...?

yeah; as I'm saying -they've been handed the perfect cover to distract from changing any of that, haven't they?

 

Well honestly none of this is "new" and none has been "fixed".  When someone told me about the article I didn't even have to know the people involved before I "knew".   

 

For ME it isn't really what has been going on -- it is the duplicity of it all.  

And the workplace stuff. People get to CHOOSE where they work (yep money is involved but so are principles). I have left a job or two over unhealthy work place and disreputable owners. Happily I spent 90 of my time self employed so that fixed that LOL.  

[Arielle Popstar]

2 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

The credulity of people to believe whatever they hear or read is one of the reasons Democracy is in peril in this world.

Or is that the people have the freedom to believe what they read and hear and thereby is starting to disbelieve the side that is trying to pull a fast one over the people? Democracy is threatened for those who have relied in past on pulling the wool over the eyes of the people.

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Innula Zenovka said:

I think we can be confident that LL will be thoroughly investigating and addressing all the allegations for the simple reason that the next time someone's employment with the Lab ends on less than amicable terms and the matter ends up in court, it would be catastrophic for LL not have a very good answer to the question "All these allegations were made in early 2024.   What did you then do about them?"

That's all I have to say on the matter.

 

They HAVE been made before.  An internet search should find them.  Several times.  Not new news and you are an oldie like me. TRUE this is new ownership now and perhaps they will pay more attention than in the past. 

[Harper Held]

6 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

And the workplace stuff. People get to CHOOSE where they work (yep money is involved but so are principles). I have left a job or two over unhealthy work place and disreputable owners. Happily I spent 90 of my time self employed so that fixed that LOL.  

That may not be an option for everyone, especially those with financial or visa pressures. That said, I'm more worried about any favoritism (to the detriment of residents and resident creators) and/or harrasment (blackmail of residents was mentioned) of the kind that was mentioned in the blog post than I am internal LL workplace problems.

But you're right; none of this is new.

Edited March 21 by Harper Held

[Chic Aeon]

2 minutes ago, Harper Held said:

That may not be an option for everyone, especially those with financial or visa pressures. That said, I'm more worried about any favoritism (to the detriment of residents and resident creators) and/or harrasment (blackmail of residents was mentioned) of the kind that was mentioned in the blog post than I am internal LL workplace problems.

But you're right; none of this is new.

We each have a choice. I quit a job when I was living on "pop bottle money" and no bank balance.  I still left. Toxic is toxic and hunger is better than losing your soul.  That is MY point of view of course.  Not many people would agree.  

 

Leaving the thread. you guys have fun directing.  

[Katherine Heartsong]

39 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

By going public, it forced LL to "wake up" as Brad said in his post. 

I haven't been in this world long, but sure long enough to know that there are some pretty slippery and dark places here, and not-hiding-at-all places anyone with two minutes of time and certain keywords could TP to that skirt the edge of whatever sword that blog post was discussing (ahem) very very closely.

Spend five minutes in a few of the obvious ones and it's a no-brainer that the spirit of the rules are being broken, if not in practice.

If LL really wanted to police that side of SL better, it shouldn't be hard finding the places to start and at least start explaining to the owners of said sims that skirting the edge as close as some of these places do is not going to be tolerated to the degree it has in the past. If I can find the obvious ones, surely anyone can.

But I am glad that at least LL has acknowledged the kurfuffle publicly, even if weeks past when the blog was originally posted, and very quickly after being more widely disseminated. Let's see where all this lands as the mature adults we all are supposed to be (or cat, since I am a cat IRL).

Edited March 21 by Katherine Heartsong

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

I am not going to speculate or assume on this matter. Fact is one part of the allegations is very true and I have commented upon it a few times. There are issues in Marketplace that need to be addressed. That is a fact.

The rest: Just because he wrote it doesn't make that true, but it doesn't make it false either.

 

Edited March 21 by SpiritSparrow Skydancer

[Jaylinbridges]

5 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

(or cat, since I am a cat IRL).

Cats are next.  SL can't have naked pu**ys running around G-rated regions. 

[Katherine Heartsong]

1 minute ago, Jaylinbridges said:

Cats are next.  SL can't have naked pu**ys running around G-rated regions. 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

I need to research this.

 

 

Zooby's

soreSpdtont cae600:c372rM7au1 0tlF uhyrft27at 1lPi1fb474u674  ·

 

I will be removing all child avatars and associated child avatar products from Zooby. Unfortunately people have exploited other child avatars (NOT Zooby) and I do not want any association with that. My intention was to create family role play. The child avatar was a case study that allowed me to make the Zooby Animesh Baby.

Fortunately, the Zooby Animesh Baby and Newborn are SAFE from despicable conduct.

I will continue to advance Zooby Animesh Babies, Newborns, pets and plants!

Also..more news..this week we will have several new plants available. Here is a quick gyazo.

Edited March 21 by SpiritSparrow Skydancer

[SabrinaCooke]

If LL had been serious about addressing the allegations in the blog post, then they would have at least come out with a statement saying "These are very serious allegations, and we are investigating the matter" a few days after the blog came out. A company that takes their product seriously would have done that from the start, even if only to help assuage their user community's fear and speculation. 

The fact that they waited more than a month to even start acknowledging this mess, not to mention their silence on previous reports, allegations, and even in-world abuse reports on similar incidents from residents, just makes me think that their PR piece is a whole lot of nothing. Writing a basic PR piece saying "we're investigating" doesn't take long from drafting to legal checks to sign off. It shouldn't have taken an entire month for them to come up with what they just posted, which honestly amounts to nothing but motherhood statements and puff. 

Edited March 21 by SabrinaCooke
Typos.

[Starberry Passion]

For those of you who are saying that s.l children are not real kids, think about the player base. I do realize that the S.L children are not real but it's not accepted, so keep this in mind. I will not call anyone pedophile until they start going after real life kids, sexually. I will not reduce real children to fictional beings inside of a simulation, unless the beings behind the child avatar is an actual child, which can happen.. Therefore, it's to prevent that thing from happening, This is what our small player base is terrified of, the player base is small and Linden Lab doesn't want it to be smaller, so it has to cater to the majority.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The only thing I am concerned about is women who like being short and or skinny.

I believe child avatars should not be able to get into Mature or adult areas, Mature should be for younger adults, 16+ and adult areas should be for 18+ and they should check age and payment on file.

Avatars that is marketed towards children should never be allowed on adult areas, especially since there are more adult sims with sex than not, Second life is more sexual than not, in general.

But, there is also other things, leaving the child looks to residents instead of setting the standard child looks that are a no no, will probably allow people to mob up against someone who isn't into underage *****, sexual or not and is just short or skinny or has a cute face, maybe them like femininity and love being less masculine while being adult. People can abuse people like that, driving away people who has nothing to do with underage age-playing.

I do realize that the S.L children are not real but it's not accepted, so keep this in mind. I will not call anyone pedophile until they start going after real life kids, sexually. I will not reduce real children to fictional beings inside of a simulation, at the same time this does give a bad look towards the public of second.

Second life, already, have a lookism, sizeism and heightism problem

[Coffee Pancake]

4 minutes ago, Starberry Passion said:

Second life, already, have a lookism, sizeism and heightism problem

This is the real problem.

We're already bordering on open season targeting short avatars, women with petite breasts, anime, furries and femboys.

New "tighter" rules (that the majority wont even know about till it's shoved in their face) risks creating a social dragnet where people will report first and ask questions later. These reports if acted upon are a summary death sentence for all avatars owned by that person. It's easy to to think 'this wont affect me', but with the stakes being so high pressure is on. New rules put's everyone in a 'better safe than sorry' mindset.

"Is that a child avatar or is her bf crazy tall .. above my pay grade, report it so I can't get in trouble."

Not everyone wants to be Jacked McBeefpack or Jane TiddyMilf, least of all the younger (20s) people SL desperately needs to join.

If the rules attempt to prohibit child avatars entirely (or force venue owners to take that stance), then SL isn't safe for SL's users, this is how you get a social cascade, a run on Second Life's social bank and once the exodus starts, it wont stop.