Michael Fairplay

I'm thinking of downgrading my Internet speed a little to save money. I'm a disabled male on a limited income.What is the least speed required to be able to play SL well? Please help if you can the system requirements just say DSL or cable. Which unfortunately doesn't help me.

This is the whole problem with the abuse report system. It can be abused so much. I 'm not sure if it was abused in this case but their needs to be a better process for appealing in cases where people report over things that aren't their business or report for nothing at all

I agree a lot of people have valuable things to say, I just think Linden Labs needs to make the community focus on specific topics. GD implies a free for all and that is the mentality that needs to go.

I'm sorry, I don't agree with this decision. People didn't follow the guidelines with the first one why should we expect anything different now? I understand that you're trying to listen to customer feedback but I think you need to consider the whole picture. General discussion was not good for the SL community as a whole and I'm sad that it has been decided to go back down this road.

I don't see the point of the web profile. It seems completely useless

Welcome, I hope your first order of business is to reverse bad policies. From the teens coming in to the world. To AR abuses. To the ridiculous parts of the TOS. SL needs to go back to what worked. How did they gain this mass popularity to begin with, If it worked once it will work again As far as listening to the residents argument some make. That is how Linden Lab got into this mess. They are trying to please everyone and you just can't please everyone Hopefully you will bring back the fun and the frivolity back to SL. Of course it depends on how much your hands are tied, I hope this is a real CEO and not a puppet CEO.

I wonder if they will be adult products on public Linden land which they seem intent to bring minors into? Just thinking out loud here.,

I have read that all again, provided my 2 cents somewhere above and made now a summary from my view which I like to share with you Linden Lab: Linden Lab should concentrate all efforts only on technology, reasonable prices, advertising the platform and excellent customer service. This is all what we need. Here are the reasons: I have no doubt that the youth is the future, because this is logical, but the age of 18+ is young enough to be the future of Second Life. It worked in the boom times and it will work in the future if you advertise the platform in a professional way. The younger youth may wait until being 18+, same like Linden Lab can wait on them. Every single day hundreds of thousands of kids turning 18+ on this planet. This is early enough to catch them daily (sic!) via good advertising. And it is not rocket science to do so. Really.. I suggest to keep things as simple as possible and going back to the simple basics like we had them from start on. This is the only elegant solution, because it is simple, easy, fast and fun like a prim. 18+ as entry level and 2 simple ratings. General and Mature (or call Mature = Adult because we are adults in all common international meanings of the vocable) Linden Lab should immediately stop to do: - demographic policy: - social policy - cultural and educational policy because trying all that fails on every level and seen from every perspective. This is what I strongly believe and I have the strong impression that this is also what the majority of the customers strongly believe, when I read the nearly 100% negative reactions on the new 16+ policy - in this blog and in all forums we have. We were told from 2003 on, that we literally *own* this world and that we *make* this world Second Life and we were told that Linden Lab would have no plans to mix kids and adults, because Second Life was clear announced as an adult environment. It just makes a good reputation and it helps to impove the human condition (hint, hint - this is your goal, right?! You said so in every "TAO", or was this a lie?) if you LL give to customers what you have *promised* and not take away from us what you have promised: Our World. Our Imagination. Without restrictions (except criminal activities and griefing). And your only job as a provider is - and for that we pay - to provide the technology and an excellent customer service, incl. the best you can add to help us to cover our IP rights, because we make the content and the atmosphere in Second Life and not you. This was the deal and this should be further the deal, because it is a successful deal as we all know, incl. you LL.. We are your partners, you know? We co-exist in this way on a creative and on a business level. This works only if the highest possible level of freedom and spontaneity on the grid is given to us!. Too much zoning, too much rules, too much quarantine of activities will kill the former spirit and thrill of Second Life. You should not destroy this creative and even monetary successful project for no reason, because it will not kill your, nor our business, if Second Life starts for people from age 18+ and upwards. This is all what we adult customers need. Really. We *never* asked and yelled for more, nor less. Brilliantly said! Linden Lab needs to get out of the moral police business, I've preached this time and time again. They need to focus on all the areas you said The only time Linden Labs should involve itself in the players business is when griefing is going on. You mix real life kids into the grid and they'll have to play even more of the moral police.

Adults built most of the internet too and yet teens are welcome there (with relevant controls in place to limit their access to adult material, as is now the case for SL). The sooner 'adults' stop seeing SL as somehow different from the rest of the internet, the sooner we can move forward constructively and be done with all the 'angst'. No, I'm sorry but that isn't the case with SL. They are letting teens IM whomever they please and letting whomever IM teens as they please. That is not a controlled environment

I have to agree with Shock wave, again. If we can't convince LL of the dangers of this move, perhaps the Nanny groups can... I have one solution to add. It is obvious to me, that we cant lable teen's profiles with a "T"(for instance). Due to naughty people wanting to stalk them. But, Adding a "A" flag to adults profiles will provide the same protection for us Adults. This "A" profile flag will only work for verified adult accounts. It will give us all a way to be certain we are interacting with other adults, or adjust our behavior if no "A" is visible. Please give us this obvious way to insure we know who we are interacting with, for everyones safey. Alisha Unfortunately the no A could also signify to a stalker that they have found a kid. SL needs to put some stringent measure in to prevent the children from talking to adults that don't want to talk to children and from the stalkers trolling for children. This will take time and resources away from improving SL. They are short of staff anyway after the layoffs.

Whilst I would love to be the one that says: "Yay, let the kids come and enjoy Second Life too." I'm afraid, I can't. I am disappointed that you have chosen to close the children's grid without putting enough effort into making the teen grid a safe environment for the children to experience that does not involve them coming into contact with adults. You could have secured government funding for the teen-grid with children all over the world signing up as well as finding a way for skills development and government education departments to invest. After all - it's money you want - isn't it? I am thinking of the parents that allow their children as young as 3 years old to play on Second Life and this is not an isolated incident. I visited a friend recently and saw her three year old playing on a sandbox - this child had better flying skills than even I do. And what about the families with children regularly already accessing SL main grid. I have heard about primary school children rushing home from school eager to get onto Second Life to attend scripting classes. This is not like 'making certain drugs' legal in the hope that certain minds will no longer find it interesting again. I have more to say on this too but of course - if I said this in a private letter to you - you would probably only ignore my worthwhile recommendations so this is the best place for me to air my well refined argument. Did you consider there are 8 and 9 years olds accessing the Anime sims where some of these sims are full of Adult material? With these ill-thought changes; kids will flock to these grids - not for the innapropriate material but they will certainly come across it - and once exposed - that is it for the innocence of the child. Once exposed to that kind of material a child's mind may not be the same again. I find it hard to believe you will have decent measures in place for the protection of vulnerable people. You can't combat two-bit hackers let alone hardened criminals with only one addictive thing on their innapropriate mind. I am ashamed with such a poor decision by Linden Lab. I don't want to be the one to be negative here but this may prove the worst decision Linden Lab has ever made. You have no control over copybotters and griefers - God help us with paedophiles and perverts now flocking in their droves to a place where they imagine they can access innocent and vulnerable children to groom. I guess you know what you are doing - after all - filling this place with kids brings dosh from the parents paying for them to play but is it really a worthwhile risk when you know what else such a decision will bring. Also don't you find it a little odd that real life adults playing virtual children were curtailed but they are almost handing real life minors the keys to the kingdom? When virtual children get more protections than real life children it's time to realize something screwy is going on

You must be joking right? Are you sure you have thought of why what you just said sounds...well I dont want this post ARed. So you are telling me that unless they demonstrate they are taking reasonable procautions, you will go on a cruisade against them? Are you also telling me that when underage people go on the internet, SL is the ONLY place they can access adult material from? Are you also telling me that you know whats best for everyone and are willing to impose your opinion on everyone else? Are you also telling me that somehow you will order these filtering companies to comply with what you think, with a program that is NOT even an internet web browser and you do in fact have to download in order to use?(which incidently is about to change somewhat) Are you also telling me that you are a nazi or something of some sort? because imposing your will on other people is is very much like that. First, you do realize that teens can currently lie about their age and access SL right? and that the current precautions that are going to be taken do not change the fact that teens cannot actually do any adult stuff without lieing about their age? I will simply take your point about under 18 being underage in regards to US law and not wanting lawsuits. I am sure you have heard by now that in many places 16 is considered old enough; in my state, the age of consent is actually 16; so the question is, how do you treat this so called age of consent? Second, do you not also realize that many teens do not even use SL to get adult stuff and indeed just go around the internet looking for it; filtering is far from effective here, as it is a fact that many younger people know alot more about computers then older ones do. In fact, it is good enough that many adult websites simply put a disclaimer saying you are over 18 which you have to click in order to access them, yet somehow, they havent been sued yet. LL is actually going further then this by blocking people. Third, as the main SL website does not contain any adult content and any part that does is actually labeled as such and is really the market place, not the main site, it is very doubtful that filtering companies would consider it an adult website. How are these companies going to filter something like SL which is an outside program? At most, they could possibly filter the web version of SL, but then you can just use a viewer to get around it.(yes, I do realize that there are many ways to block access to different things, but typically filters work through web browsers by blocking actual websites or IP addresses, although blocking IP address is far from effective usually) Fourth, you make yourself sound...I will just say I disagree so I dont get ARed. SL is already widely known as a place with perverted stuff in it despite what else there may be. It doesnt matter what "offical" label SL may have, as it is mostly adults that make use of it and therefore, to most of them, it would not make the slightest bit of difference. Obviously, by business, you mean more then just the lone user.(at least I hope) Many of the actual big businesses have already pulled out of SL and there are not many left. Aside from them, there is only educational institutions which use it for research(besides a couple government agencies). Whether an adult rating would hinder any participation here is something that can not be predicted and it will likely depend on price raises rather then any label. Well I enjoyed showing you how absurd your point sounds to me and wrote alot more then I really wanted to. They are taking precautions and obviously this doesnt seem to be enough for you. There is no way to garuntee anything about anyone and trying to do so is futile. It is still up to people to make their own judgements and it is still up to the parents to monitor what their child does. It will be interesting to see if something does happen however as I would like to know what happens with laws between different countires here or if someone could site child neglect and possible accesory to what happened on the parents for not monitoring what their children are doing at home. Ok, I think I will stop writing now as I have wasted too much time here. Actually it is your reasoning that is absurd .Yes teens can get adult material on the net without going to SL. That doesn't affectt SL. This isn't about protecting the children at least for me. They are parents or guardians that is their job not mine! If teens access adult material on the web it doesn't affect me. But teens being allowed on the SL grid could affect me and I don't like it. They don't have a right to do that. As it stands now teens have to totally lie a bout their age which LL can't be held liable for. You let the little teenagers in and SL is responsible. Yes they shouldn't see anything naughty but they are allowed to IM freely which could open up a whole bees nest. SL is liable for that because they didn't take the precautions far enough. This is a train wreck waiting to happen!

Okay, I want a teen blocker available to adults who do not wish to interact with teens A script or device to prevent any contact and to flag a warning if someone is using a under age account. I dont want my SL experience compromised by having to change my appearance or behaviour due to the presence of minors. That being said...... if anything happens in SL that creates a problem in RL for teens or adults with teens I think this will be LL's responsibility. This was a terribly bad idea and yes I am a premium member so maybe someone might consider if we are PAYING for this experience we dont want to have to compromise it for the benefit of teens who will not respect our privacy rights, who wont understand adult issues and feelings and who will undoubtably look for ways to get into areas that they are not supposed to be in. Can anyone see the nightmare this will create ? Geez...... folks BAD IDEA! Exacly, Some of us do not wish to interact with teenagers on any level online It's bad enough we are pretty more forced to consider teens in the real world. No way around that but we don't have to let them into our virtual world. As you said this world is for fantasy and we should be able to live out fantasies freely. Of course SL has already done a good job of curtailing that before. I'm sure a few of the kids will behave themselves and obey the rules but all it takes is a few more that won't and the whole experience is ruined for we adults.

It has nothing to do with raunchy, sexual behavior. general/PG means just that. From my understanding, there are to be no mature behaviors. These include profanity, risque jokes or anything of that sort. Basically, when I am on a general sim, my guideline is.."Could I say/do that in church or in front of my highly religious and prusish grandmother?" I dress appropriately and carry myself in that fashion. As for IM's, I have never made it a practice to entertain long conversations with those I can't see. Even among my friends, we'll go to their house, my house or a beach or club for any real conversation. Maybe that's where my problem is. I very much treat SL as much like RL as is prudent and warranted. In RL, I don't make it a habit of finding names in a phone book, doing a Google search to learn about them and then call them on the phone and say :HI, let's be friends!!". I also really don't care to meet such people. Brynn If you chose to play that way that is perfectly fine, Not everyone does though The adults that like adult activities have the right to expect an adult environment without teens intermingling. Those that came to SL in the early days were told we were entering an adult environment we were apparently deceived. That is another issue. Linden Lab made certain promises in the beginning and now breaking said promises. It's about integrity.

While I do aggree with you in essence, the still remains that I do NOT engage in mature/adult behaviors on general rated sims. I never have nor do I plan to start. Personally, I feel that anyone who does is showing great disrespect to the sim owner and is in fact in breach of TOS/Community Standards. I'll concede that point, No one should be doing naughty stuff in G sims. Fine but if someone IM's you you have no idea of knowing where they are on the grid,. You have no way of knowing if someone is camming in on you on the grid. This would work better if SL made parents send in a permission slip for 16 year olds to be in SL and had them make up a list of people they are allowed to talk too and restrict IM's for teens to the prescribed list. This would make parents being involved and aware of where their kids are and whom they are speaking with. Even if someone isn't doing something outright raunchy on a G rated sim there is still the possibility of a risque joke being told etc. Adults have to watch every word that comes out of their mouths now in G rated areas. That is no fun nor is it relaxed