Boaz Sands
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I wasn't aware Teen SL wasn't on another grid (like Aditi is). I've never been there and don't have teenagers anymore. If this is the case, why the hell are they changing it at all? If it's the same grid, it's the same resources - shutting down Teen SL saves them nothing in that regard. Which leaves only money as their motivation to shaft just about everyone on the grid, adults and teens. Nice
It is my understanding that on teen grid there was an approval process that involved LL staff to verify age by contacting the parents. So if that is the case more resources and time were needed for the teen grid.
Also with the teen grid LL was legally responsible/liable as the teens who owned land not being of legal age could not be legally held responsible if their land contained "adult" content. Most of the land was probably owned by LL which would make them legally liable.
With the move to main grid LL removes their legal liability by putting that on the PG sim owners.
Read the TOS......Land owners are responsible for the content on their land. Again under this situation LL will take the position that LL is not liable as they are only selling a service to the land owners who are ultimately responsible or liable for any content that may not be age appropriate.
so to repeat the PG/G sim owners are the most at risk here from a legal standpoint.
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Here is how I see it now:
First -- Do I want teens in SL ? It personally doesnt bother me as I dont partake in and sexual activities. I live on private estate mature sim so the liabilities are minimal for me. I always conduct myself in a manner in PG/G sims that any child could see or hear.
Do I think it is a good idea? I believe there are liabilities for General sim owners. I also believe it is not the best environment for teens in general.
I do however hate that the only thing that SL is really known for from a public view is Sex or sleazy sex places. It would be nice if some mainstream PR for SL was about the other great things people do in SL ( I dont mind that there are sexual activites, just dont want that to be the only thing it is publicized to be)
As far as the liablities 1) change your land to mature or adult if you dont want the liability.
2) dont carry on adult conversations with those you have not verified as adults by either asking them to tp to a mature or adult region. (that of course doesnt help with the teens that lie about age to create non teen accounts )
3) Dont participate in any adult type activities on PG/G sims.
4) if you are on mature land on the mainland and a child sees or buys anything on your land it is not your liability but LL since they are responsible for making sure the "safe guards" are in place. that teens cant see, or enter or buy adult/mature content here.
As far as the safety of teens
There is nothing we can do about that ....they are going to be here. LL has determined that restricting teens to PG/G sims is all the precautions that need to be taken. IT is the parents responsibility and the PG sim owners that teens no be exposed to "adult" things
As far as the painted on clothes. They can just Sext they dont necessarily need to have nude avies to partake in teh sex side of SL. Besides the teens already Sext using their phones now.
Most teens have seen it all so the only real thing is keeping them safe from pedos. That is an issue anywhere on the net not just SL. Only through education can they avoid being in such a situation.
As far as removing all adult content....Nany even if that is done there is always IM sexting and voice sex chat that will go on and it wont prevent pedos from doing that either.
As far as things like LL implementing some of the things many have suggested if it takes more resources or man hours to implement it , it wont be done.
Remember LL probably closed teen grid because of the extensive man-hours it required to maintain as well as the fact it was not profitable. It also posed more liabilities to LL than merging them to the main grid as per the TOS it is now the sim owners liability not LL. The sim owners are responsible now for the content and activities on their sims.
Lets face it teens have always been here it is just that now the plausible deniability defense is gone.
Get ready, 16 & 17 year old access is only the testing ground LL probably has plans to allow the 13-15 age group on too.
LL has changed their strategy. Maybe they think teens will increase the profits by being here through purchasing lindens, purchasing items which in turn would mean more linden exchange by those who sell. Although my guess is that teens will expect free use free items etc. In general teens dont want to spend money on things like SL. They will just rip and get the legit freebies or make their own things. Just look at all the tunes, etc. teens rip from the internet in general. Not all mind you but a huge majority.
We have expressed our opinions, offerred suggestions etc.that is all we could have done. None of it really helped. Decision made. End of discussion. As there is nothing I can personally due to ensure the safety of teens here I just cant worry about that now. the parents and PG/G sim owners need to do that
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One thing that does concern me & many others.. when the issue of copybotted items came up in that chat.. someone said.. so? Well, so.. expect to lose a majority of your inventory as the ADULTS that created that content originally file DMCA take downs, and LL removes it a piece at a time from your inventory, and/or bans accounts for being the creator of said copybotted items
Some designers take copybotting VERY seriously and are more than willing to take RL actions so they have more than just losing inventory at stake.
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THanks for the info Blaze.
I am terribly disappointed about the transfer of the copybotted inventory though
. As you said probably 90% of the teen grid inv is copybotted. I guess we will see them starting to sell all that when they get here. It will take a while for the creators to find the botted items to DCMA them. It would be nice if the responsible teens like you would alert the designers of them. -
[QUICKTIP] Dragging a texture preview to apply it
A group blog by Secondlife in General
Since the whole alpha flicker thing drives me nuts one of my fav tricks is to use fast alpha. When I have that checked the alphas dont have that problem of determining which alpha is in front of the other and they dont flicker ..yay
. well at least not as much. However there is a bit of a tradeoff as the alphas themselves are not as crisp when usig the fast alpha setting. My questions is though is there not a way that textures could be assigned priority so when you build something you can let the system know which alpha should be in the foreground?
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you missed the point of my question
- These Residents will not be able to enter Moderate- nor Adult-rated regions, even if they have payment information on file and/or have used our Web-based identity verification system.
Does age verify still mean 18 and older.? the phrase above.....Web-based identiy verifications system leads you to believe someone under 18 uses a verification
Are age verified and Web-based identity verification system. the same thing? if so this would now mean that age verified doesnt ensure that one is 18 or older?
- These Residents will not be able to enter Moderate- nor Adult-rated regions, even if they have payment information on file and/or have used our Web-based identity verification system.
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Terrence......Terrence
I am going to try again on my question to Terrence as it was never answered. If any of the rest of you know the answer please let me know.
The announcement says:
- These Residents will not be able to enter Moderate- nor Adult-rated regions, even if they have payment information on file and/or have used our Web-based identity verification system.
Is it not currently possible to only allow age verified individuals on to your land? And if you do that does it mean that anyone age verified is over 18? what exactly is the difference between age verified and identity verified?
In other words, if someone owned a PG sim but wanted to restrict entrance to 18 or older would implementing age verify ensure that only those who have verified they are 18 be allowed?
Please answer this question. I am not sure how you pick which of these comments to respond to but sure would be nice to have an answer to this .
- These Residents will not be able to enter Moderate- nor Adult-rated regions, even if they have payment information on file and/or have used our Web-based identity verification system.
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I strongly suggest that anyone who differs with teens being in SL simply choose not to visit PG rated sims from the first of the year until they close the grid to anyone under 18. Don't buy or rent PG rated land. Always, always set your land to mature or adult.
Vye, a couple problems with doing that
1. I sell items which are pg. I would love for those teens that might actually buy some things to have access to those.
2. There are many adults who only want to visit PG/General sims as they prefer not to be exposed to adult or Mature things.
The HUGE problem is that the owners of the PG sims are the ones at risk here. They cannot control what or who does anything on their sims. They cannot afford to police the sims to ensure that all content is PG all the time. To do so would require 24hour monitoring of all chat and activities and of course there is no way they could even monitor the IMs. LL has pretty much stated that it is the sim owners responsibility to appropriately rate their sims ie: LL accepts no responsibility for any content by users.
I personally am setting my land to mature just to avoid the legal liabilities
I think if LL would release all PG sim owners of liabilities you would see many more people welcoming the teens.
I do think that there will be a mass exodus from the maingrid due to this which in essence will destroy the land economy as Mature and PG mainland owers go to the private sims.
I personally dont partake in any the sex side of SL but at the same time I think that those who want to should be able to as long as it is between two consenting adults.
As far as the teens bringing money into SL, I have to ask the question......if the teens were spending money on the teen grid then why didnt they generate enough revenue to support the teen grid ?
I certainly dont mind teens being on the grid if.....
LL can ensure the proper safe guards and if the PG sim owners are not faced with liabilities.
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If you are not a PG sim owner and/or have no contact of a sexual nature with an underage person, then you are at no risk. Unless you tick off some teen and he/she or their parents just accuse you of something you didnt even do.
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lol.....that is too funny . I was just thinking the same thing. That would work for those who just dont even want to talk or friend the teens not just those having the sex stuff.
I can see it now for all those here who absolutely wanting nothing to do with teens. Opening line. Lets tp to a mature sim...."oh you cant? then sorry you must be a teen and you are now muted" lol
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the numbers are quite small in comparison to the total adults but my guess is that LL thinks those numbers will grow and add to the revenue generated on the grid. I personally think that LL is kidding themselves if they think that they will be generating a lot of revenue from teens as most teens will have basic accounts and wont spend much on the grid. They will be looking for freebies or creating their own content. The under 18's I have met that are illegally on the gird now usually boast that they have never spent a penny on SL. Some even seem to be proud of their abilities to rip content then pass it along to others. I am not saying all teens will steal content. I am just saying that they will not be the ones improving the economy.
While they probably wont generate revenue for LL in their teen years I guess there is future potential revenue if they stay on the grid into their adult years and that may be LL strategy. To get them interested as teens in hopes they will spend some cash when they become adults.
The only other strategy from a business perspective of having teens would be to create a mass social network for teens in a SL format then somehow get advertisers interested in marketing to teens thereby generating revenue from selling ads to those wanting exposure in a teen market. Of course for that to be successful LL will need tons more teens and more development of the grid/service to facilitate that sort of thing
Anyway I dont mine teens. Most are fairly intellegent and can create some good content. There is nothing we can do to prevent pervs from approaching them . that is the responsibility of the parents and well.......now the resposibility of the PG sim owners too.
All we can do is try to inform the teens to be aware of the risks on the grid as well as the internet in general and hope they will be cautious in there interactions on the grid. A teen welcome entry point would have been nice to at least give them some info about the cautions they need to take. but LL has decided it is better to dump noobs in the grid ilo of the welcome center approach they used to have.
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When it comes down to it LL doesnt bear the liability of an underage person being exposed to anything. They are just providing a service. It is comparable to a ISP providing a service for a web site. The website owners are the ones responsible for the "content". The sim owners are the ones who will bear the legal liability of anything that an underaged person sees/interacts with. The general/PG sim owners have the most at risk If those sim owners have rated their sims PG/General then it will be their responsibility to ensure nothing of a mture or adult nature occurs there. You can bet that is the legal stance of LL. I sure wouldnt want to be a PG sim owner and take that risk. I would rate my sim mature or adult just to eleviate any legal liabilities. I just wouldnt have the time to deal with any complaints or potential legal issues of being a PG sim owner.
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Question regarding this portion of the post---- These Residents will not be able to enter Moderate- nor Adult-rated regions, even if they have payment information on file and/or have used our Web-based identity verification system
If someone is age verified does that mean they are 18 or older. So if we blocked for only aged verified does that mean no teens would be in that category. I was just confused by the term Web-based identity verificaion system...is that the same as the age verify?
I now can block entry to my land to only age verified and want to make sure that means they have been verified as 18 or older.
Terrance can you clear this up for me?
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I do have to admit I am happy that LL is not increasing prices to the regular sim owners.
However I do think that more notice should have been given to the non-profit organizations.
Someone commented when many of us were irate about the teen influx to the grid, I will paraphrase the comment made----The decision has been made, so if we dont like it we should go to another grid. I dare say those that responded like that would not respond to this situation the same way ...(ironic).
I personally dont feel that way about the subject at hand. I believe the educational and non-profit sims contribute greatly to the grid and I would hate to see them go.
Some have offerred possible solutions which I think should be considered before just giving up.
As someone who has been involved with 501c3 organizations, Many if not most pay the going rate for services and goods then receive funding to cover those costs. All organizations, non-profit and for profit incur cost increases. It is a fact of life. This just means that they have to find additional funding and/or explore revenue generating activities, services or goods to raise the funds. Is this a good thing? not really but if we are passionate we just know we have to work harder to raise funds and file more grant requests as each grant individually will probably be smaller due to cut backs.
As someone who has approved grant requests, I look for grants that can support their projects with ongoing donations, related business income, and other granting sources. Most 501c3 organizations have some kind of service, goods or other revenue generating projects that they an do to help support their organizations in addition to grants and donations. There are many creative ways to raise funds. I would hope that the educators and non-profits would explore some of these options and others that have been previously mentioned before they leave.
As a side note.....non-profit does NOT mean that the organization cant show a profit on their financial statements...and as long as services or goods sold are "business related income" they are encouraged and fully acceptable under the IRS regulations.
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sigh-- I cant ever get these post to reply to the person intended.
To Nany,
when you say...."I agree that accounting for this stuff is pretty complicated. We do include the full price of SL land in our budget then list the discount as a donation. That's the way our fiscal sponsor set it up."
do you mean that on the budget you submit to the granting organization, you show the full cost of the sim under the expense section then put the 50% discount in the Revenue/Funding section of the grant budget?
Or...do you just put the full sim cost on the budget and not list the discount on the grant budget.
Only showing that 50% discount on the finacials of your organization?
sigh-- I cant ever get these post to reply to the person intended.
To Nany,
when you say...."I agree that accounting for this stuff is pretty complicated. We do include the full price of SL land in our budget then list the discount as a donation. That's the way our fiscal sponsor set it up."
do you mean that on the budget you submit to the granting organization, you show the full cost of the sim under the expense section then put the 50% discount in the Revenue/Funding section of the grant budget?
Or...do you just put the full sim cost on the budget and not list the discount on the grant budget.
Only showing that 50% discount on the finacials of your organization?
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Hi Kim, welcome to SL
I think for me ---- Your world Your imagination sums it up.
Of course the diversity here really should make for a multipronged marketing campaign.
Want to market to gamer types---highlight the inworld combat, roleplay
Want to market to the creative types -- highlight the inworld merchants( clothing designers, sim developers, animation creators, etc.)
Want to market to the music lovers and singers type -- DJ live music venues, Karaoke, etc.
Want to market to the educators--- classes on sculpting, scripting etc. Photoshop tutorials, etc..
Want to market to the artistic types--- inworld ballet, artist galleries, etc.
Want to market to the social network group -- coffee shop chat areas, meeting new friends, shared interests etc.
Want to market to the teens --- well I have to be honest and say that I have no clue what a teen likes now a days (things were so much different when I was a teen ) and quite frankly, I dont think it is a safe place for them but since LL has decided their new direction is a family teen, kid environment you better figure out a way to make it safe for them before you market that area
SL really does have something for everyone
good luck
. As you said probably 90% of the teen grid inv is copybotted. I guess we will see them starting to sell all that when they get here. It will take a while for the creators to find the botted items to DCMA them. It would be nice if the responsible teens like you would alert the designers of them. 
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Technology Improvements for Q1 Including Raising Group Limit to 42
in Tools and Technology
A group blog by Secondlife in General
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Yay!!!! I can kill my group alt
Sounds like some good things....thanks.