JacksonBollock

Mmmm.. is there such a thing as a lion with a "passive aggressive" roar? Maybe when one meets a really big Wildebeest that's just too big to take down, but you know - he still has is dignity after all.

Nah, it's called that by people who don't rely on word-of-the-day loo roll

Ooph, I'm guessing you've modelled your SL persona after the Lion in Wizard of Oz? Although that particular Lion always had courage he just didn't realise it - so maybe not.

Hi @Zalificent Corvinus Always a pleasure - but you know, a few things. You've really got to learn a new insult, the whole "Pseudo-Intellectual" thing is running out of steam - it barely smarts at all anymore. May I suggest word-of-the-day loo roll, something will turn up I'm sure. Also, you go way too deep on what's commonly called the pejorative portmanteau - I mean "thickapedia" - really? Finally, I'll direct you to Ted for the rest - my Straw Man stand in. I've already introduced Ms Ragu, but I think you'll enjoy him just as much. All the Best Jackson

I did want to raise this myself, and yes this is already happening and regardless what some may say, AI is getting really good at "mimicking affect". There are lots of things to discuss around this, but needless to say adoption of this sort of "She" type partnership is definitely accelerating - for good and bad. If AFK clubs can make a living, then AIK (or something catchier ) can as well I'm guessing.

In answer to your questions. I'm for it, but in moderation people! I'm not against it, see answer 1 above. I'm getting no SLex, but an adequate amount elsewhere. I don't know what that would feel like. Jackson

And some downplay it all for laughs and sympathy

Ah well you see Rowan. I suspect you're far more attractive in RL than I am. And to be fair, I'm just exhausted most of the time

No Sh*t Sherlock, I'm a late middle aged man, married for nearly 3 decades, 2 live at home kids, and a full time job. Of course I'm an Involuntary Celibate! Good catch though *cough" "it takes one to know one I guess" *cough*

Good Morning Extrude Extrude, I'd like to formally introduce you to Ted. Ted looks like me, he even sounds a bit like me sometimes, but he's not me. He's a Straw Man, he lives on the other side of the field from me. I'm Jackson, I look almost exactly the same as Ted, but I'm not Ted. Sometimes I wish you'd come and talk to me and perhaps chat about topics we are both interested in. However, no matter how much I wave and call across the field, you're not interested in me - you're only interested in Ted. This makes me sad and lonely, so I'm going to pick up my things and wander off so you carry on your discussion with Ted undisturbed. All the best Jackson Not Ted.

As I think I mentioned before, I'm not particularly secretive about my SL in RL. In fact more than once I've walked through these forums - and my postings - with a few people from work. Just by nature of the industry I'm in I spend 10 hours a day with people 20 years my junior (yep, I'm kicking on 60) and reaction - albeit anecdotal - is pretty much the same. Surprise that SL is still a thing. Surprise, actually, that SL looks as good as it does. Confusion about the barely concealed antipathy and distrust towards newbies from oldsters (you must be an ALT of an ex !!) Rapid perception that yep, SL does consist of a fair few elderly horn dogs who still enjoy the "idea" of sex, even if not the physical reality of it. (Obviously while choosing to believe the other party is a 27 year old swimsuit model in RL, rather than a retired teacher on the same BP meds and Statins as they are ). Rapid perception that the remainder of SL comprises people who spend all day in a skybox trying on virtual clothes and taking selfies. Resignation that a once great idea has been relegated to a bad punchline. I'll say again, no problem with sex, no problem with adult regions, or for the most part any exploration of other sides of oneself not easily expressed in RL. But this is the reality of what I hear about SL from the outside world, and maybe we could come up with something other than the two options on the table so far. Sex with Elders, and loads of it - the more the better - gumilingus pays the bills. No Idea at all, our speciality is harshly critiquing every other idea - our only idea is not yours!! So, to get back to the topic in hand. Finer grained controls are coming, the mobile app is coming, and SL is likely going to head back out into the mainstream after a few years moored up in its cosy little backwater. I've pitched my ideas of what those controls might look like in another thread, and others have taken a punt as well. I think we're all pretty aware of the real options on the table (not the 2 above thankfully), so we'll just wait and see.

Exactly.

This view paints a pretty bleak one dimensional view of SL, what it is, and what it could become. the reality, thankfully, is far more nuanced. Social momentum, the "snowball effect" of users attracting more users, is definitely important. The idea however that Adult Content is the one and only possible sustaining force driving that momentum is a pretty parlous perspective. When did "Your World, Your Imagination" become "Your World, Your Imagination - as long as it's imagining ways to use a mouse with your non-dominant hand"? Even if yours was the only way forward, sorry to break it to you - no one under the age of 40 is lining up to get nasty in SL, for the simple reason that no one under the age of 40 wants to do the nasty with someone twenty years their senior (which is the assumed current SL demographic), regardless how immersive the experience. So we best think of something else, just in case

Yep, sorry - my quoting of the original was rubbish. Thanks @Rowan Amore

The thing is that Second Life is almost by definition a de facto niche; isolated and pretty widely misunderstood by the majority of adults out there. (or actually they understand us only too well). I don't agree that the way to remedy that (if indeed we want to) is to say to the wider world "you know what guys, we're leaning so far into our rep that the only way you can get our mobile app is via an android burner and an unrestricted app - don't in the name of all that's holy load us onto your main phone!!" I'm not against sex or adult regions and I'm definitely not saying SL has to be family friendly. What we do have to be is new user friendly, and portraying ourselves as a seedy dive bar which you can only enter through the back door (so to speak) isn't great for that. I know, I know, a lot of people in here love that idea and maybe a lot of new residents would as well - but at least let them come through the front door and grab a drink first

Ok, so that's fine, we just disagree where the "walled garden" begins and ends I guess. The crux of the matter is then "to keep Second Life as it is" - is that sufficient for anyone other than an aging demographic which has found a comfy cosy corner of the internet to wait out the grim ripper? I mean we could just cut to the chase and have the tagline go something like: "Second Life - we'll only do enough to guarantee you die before we do" Not great, but it's definitely got niche appeal

Unless you're one of the 4% (charitably ChromeOS takes it to 6.5%) running Linux on your personal devices, then you've been giving those rich folk pretty much carte blanche over your digital lives for about the past 30 years. PC or Mac, Android or iPhone, either way you've been lining the pockets of the Holy Trinity far too long to be going all guerrilla freedom fighter now.

That's really interesting Ayashe - maybe a chat for a different day though .. We tend more to the domain specific end of things, lots of fine-tuning, but no personality required We've been using the usual latest and greatest from OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini - but we get really good stuff from open source LLAMA3 too. All the Best Jackson

It's not bad these days you know... nuances and all if you take a go at just an open ended chat with GPT4-O it can be a bit off putting just how realistic it is. Then add in some fine-tuning or even just a large-ish context and it starts to feel definitely a bit weird.. My daughter loaded a fair chunk of Harry Potter into the latest Gemini and then asked to have a conversation with Hermione. Hermione was pretty articulate, and did display a surprising emotional intelligence

One other point to consider is that if you change your region to A rated, it's likely you won't be able to access your own land from the mobile app - regardless the apparent age of your avatar.

It's a pain but, unless LL create some sort of exception for the parcel owner, then the following will apply:

It's a reasonable take @Jaylinbridges , and I think a fair picture of where we are now. However, I do think it underestimates the current capabilities of LLMs and Inference engines, as well as where we might be in a couple of years time. My punt is as follows: LL could implement real-time filtering on messages at submission time. Not as outlandish as it sounds with both OpenAI and Google rolling out real time conversational agents over the next few months. Per Token cost might be an issue here, not technology or privacy concerns. Even that will be mitigated by self hosting an open source LLM - something like LLAMA 3 - with OLLAMA (which I run quite happily on a modern-ish laptop rocking just 16Gb RAM - albeit it not for 50,000 concurrent conversations ) Either way LL is an Amazon customer, and Amazon are already pitching their Bedrock and Sagemaker offerings. Also leveraging multi-agent systems (something like CrewAI) could triage conversations to minimize the AI attention spent on harmless conversations. Privacy is protected (as much as it is now anyway), because the conversation will not be stored unless it is flagged as potentially inappropriate. Flagged conversations are sent to Humans for final review and decision making. Mitigating False Positives: LL has a goldmine of data collected over 20 years that could be used to fine-tune the LLM for Second Life's specific context and language. This would significantly improve the accuracy and effectiveness of content moderation, ensuring the AI understands the nuances of in-world communication. This is technically feasible now, just not cost effective, but at the rate open source models and availability of inference compute are increasing, I give it 2 years for most companies, probably another 2 decades for LL

Also, who'll be doing the "designating"?

I really like this analysis @Ayashe Ninetails thanks. I'm most excited about the release of the mobile app, but more from a customer acquisition and onboarding perspective than anything else. Current Market trends are towards a Unified Experience , so offering a unified but adaptive experience across multiple form factors - both in terms of a consistent design language, but also in terms of delivering adaptive feature sets. This means ensuring that the platform provides a seamless experience whether accessed via mobile or PC, while also tailoring functionalities and access levels to suit each device's strengths. Customer Acquisition through Mobile is proving successful across the industry, not just because of mobile's relative ubiquity (67% mobile to 33% pc), but also because of more widespread discoverability and reduced barriers to engagement. If done right, then customers onboarded via mobile are very likely to download the PC version to be able to engage fully. We're going to see some of this enforced anyway just by virtue of required compliance with App Store Policies. Due to content restrictions, particularly in adult environments, we will need to offer a moderated version of our platform on mobile, directing users to the full-featured PC version for unrestricted access. At the end of the day, if the mobile app is well-designed, it will serve as a gateway, attracting a broad audience with its accessibility and convenience. The PC version, in turn, can provide a more immersive and unrestricted experience.