Persephone Emerald

In general, I like the new forums. I enjoyed reading the sometimes rambling discussions in the last forum because they showed humor, creativity & a sense of community. However, those threads sometimes overshadowed ones in which residents were looking for serious answers to problems they were having. I'm also very happy to see the old spam monsters are missing from these forums. On the downside, I think both residents (customers) & moderators (employees?) are experiencing a learning curve as to how to use & control these forums to maximum benefit for all. We residents are still figuring out which areas are best for our posts & what is considered unacceptable to post. The moderators are also perhaps still figuring out where our posts really belong & what words & ideas should be censored. I can't see any other reason why the word "gay" is allowed, but "les.bi.an" is not. This word is not profanity. It is frequently printed in newspapers & spoken on network television. It is also the least offensive, most politcally correct word used to refer to a fairly large number of women who are romantically & sexually attracted to other women. We all know SL is first & formost an adult playground, where adults can express themselves in a wide variety of ways. One of these ways is in romantic encounters, of which - if we believe statistics -10% are same-sex relationships. Assuming 5% of romantic relationships in SL are male-male and 5% are female-female, it makes little sense to exclude 5% of the people using & putting money into Second Life by forbidding references to them with a non-offensive word. Similarly, many people who use SL sell, buy & use adult products & services. I understand & agree that discussions of such things should not be done in front of minors, but these discussions still need to be made. I think we should thus have an age-verified area in these forums, where we can have such discussions responsibly. Finally, these forums provide 4 major services that I can see. 1.) They provide a place where LL can explain changes in products & policy to its customers. 2.) They provide a place where residents (customers) can voice concerns to Linden Labs. 3.) They provide a place where residents can get advice from other residents about how to better enjoy their experience of Second Life. 4.) They provide a place where residents can form friendships & a sense of community. This last function mostly took place in the old forums in the GD area & now seems headed for the "Off- Topic" area. Friendly banter may sometimes seem stupid & senseless to those who are not part of the group doing it , but it serves an important social function of making those within the group feel connected to each other. (This is true in RL as well as in any virtual forum.) If moderators feel they have to regulate such banter to the point of locking threads that go "off-topic", they'll end up stifling the free expression & commeraderie that such banter normally fosters. The environment becomes rather like a workplace in which coworkers are used to bantering playfully with each other while they work. Then an over-aggressive supevisor, in an effort to increase productivity, tells them they can't talk to each while they're working. Resentment toward the supervisor bulids, moral & cooperation between employees goes down, until eventually employees hate their job & higher turn-over rates become a problem. The differences here are that in a workplace there can only be a limited number of employees & the promise of a paycheck will keep the ranks filled even with higher turn-over rates. With Second Life, on the other hand, anoying customers by telling them they can't speak with each other about some subjects or in certain ways can only result in a loss of customers & revenue. Segregate discussions that might not look good to parents & corporations if you must, but don't ban these discussions completely from our forums.

I wonder why the moderator moves this thread to "Off Topic" when it is clearly an effort for a newbie to Find Friends in Second Life ?

Thanks, Niki. I'll check it out. (Edit added 3-4-11): Niki's sim Aphrodite's Fantasies looks very nice & contains a several sections ranging from a non-adult Carnival & romanitc Fairy Forest to the Mutant Jungle & Dungeon area. The Mutant Jungle was my favorite, with very attractive landscaping & well-made creatures. I think Sensual Stoneworks makes some of the best erotic creatures, but there isn't much privacy on their store sim. Electric Pu_sy (aka kitty) also makes some nice toys for reasonable prices. Sensations makes several good tentacle monsters, but their top-line Monster Under the Bed is quite expensive. With the cost of these items being fairly expensive, I think visiting someone else's sim that has them in an attractive setting with a bit of privacy is the way to go.

Ah, my favorite combination would be vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries & champage. What fun is it without a buffet of goodies to choose from?

I admit I haven't been to many adult sims in SL. I used to like The Abbey when it had monsters in the dungeon area, but they're gone now. The confessionals are still entertaining, but only with an amenable partner. Now I guess my favorite adult sims are Sensual Stoneworks and Ecstasy (I think that's the name), the one that has UFOs that transport you to an alien world hidden inside the moon. I'm monogamous in RL & SL, so I like animated creatures (not animals) that allow solo play. (I'm curious how the moderators will handle this topic. I haven't used any profanity or explicit descriptions.) ( 3-4-11: Message edited for more delicate language.)

If moderators will delete posts & close threads for profanity & "mature" subjects on a General forum, how can people advertize sex clubs? We need an Adult, age-verified, forum for such topics.

I'd like to have a like/ dislike button for comments (like YouTube has). I'd also like ot have an Adults Only, age verified section for discussions of topics that affect residents but may not be approriate for minors to read, Examples would be problems merchants & users of adult items have, land-holder & renter issues for residents of Zindra, and determining age appropriatness for displays by arttists & merchants. Datango Vale said: "The General Discussion forum acted as a focal point for the community, like a clubhouse. By removing the clubhouse, the community is fragmented into a wide variety of sub-fora. There is no center, no heart. Admittedly, there were two problems with the old GD Forum." If "Divide & Conquer" is LL's goal , then this move makes perfect sense. We like to view these forums as places for expressing our "Freedom of Speech", but Second Life is not a democracy. It is a generally benevolent dictatorship. We have no citizens "Bill of Rights" here. The govenment of SL controls its press & media. We have no "writ of habius corpus" in its legal system. We have no elected representatives or unbiased judiciary. We residents are at the complete mercy of a govenment that can take our virtual possesions, land, voice & freedom at any time it wishes. Much of the RL world lives under such conditions & has for thousands of years. We must learn to do the same if we wish to live in this particular virtual world. Luckily we still have access to the rest of the internet to share our views. LL can never tell us "No Internets For You.". We also have the freedom to leave for other lands whenever we wish.

Thanks.That worked.

I know this problem has been discussed before, but I couldn't find the previous threads on it. I took my house back into inventory because there seemed to be a phantom prim blocking movement through my entry hall. The invisible "object" was still there after the house was gone, not visible with Show Transparent on either. Also, when I go into About Land to see what prims are present, I'm getting a descrepancy of 2 more total prims than all the others that are accounted for as being owned by me.  How is that possible? Does something like this require a region restart?

Thanks. I already increased my tier & transfered the all the group land to my own land group, then divided it in half & set the half I didn't want for sale. This way, when it sells all the dividends go to me & my partner, who I can be sure will transfer the money back to me. Thanks to both you & Cinn for speedy replies. This whole group land thing has been a fiasco.

Cinnamon.Lohner wrote: Well, at the point in time when the group tier cannot cover the land it owns, Linden will take the land. So you are probably going to have to assume a higher tier for a month to keep the land. It's hard to move land directly from one group to another. The recommended procedure is to sell the land back to yourself and then deed it to a new group (See article linked below). Off the top of my head, I would think the best course of action is 1) sell the land back to yourself. 2) Sub-divide the land into 2 parts. 3) Deed the part you are keeping to a new group and then 4) Sell the other parcel. --Cinn http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/How_do_I_reclaim_group_land%3F Thanks. Sounds like I need to up my own tier to keep from losing the land, then sell off the portion I don't want before reducing my tier again. Funny how trying to help my friends have group land turned into so much of a mess for me. :-/

Do you have any members that are premium & are not using their free 512 allowance (even for a linden home) ? If so they could deed 512 to the group and cover the difference until your co-owner gets his account back. You can also sell off his land from the group without having to add it to your own tier. Check that only the owner role has "Pay group lianilities & receive dividends" checked or any money that goes to the group from the land sale will be divided between everyone. If only the owner role has that ability all the money will be sent to your account the day after the sale. In the group that currently owns this parcel, we had about 6 co-owners, but only myself & the owner who is now suspended were paying tier out of our PayPal accounts, thoough others were giving him money in RL to pay their share. I don't think I can come up with enough tier from other people to cover his share, which was an 1/8 of a region. When I do sell off the portion of this land that I don't want to keep, the sale dividend will go to all owners, even though I paid for the land myself. I expect the other co-owners will refund me the money, though, even without me asking them to do so. Can I sell off group land while one of the owners is suspended, then?

The problem is even worse when you search on the word "Torture" with both Mature & Adult boxes unchecked. There are many, many items available to teens under this catagory. Below are just a few of them. (I didn't know if I should flag these because I think torture devices are considered Mature in SL, rather than Adult, another case of American culture being truely screwed up.) https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Blood-Driven-Impalement-Spike-Female-Scream-Boxed-tagGoth/1268971 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/REPULSE-Bloody-Eye-Face-Tattoo/1561066 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/TORTURE-EQUIPMENT-PACKAGE/1221442 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/TT-TBite-Me/1748309

I'm a co-owner of group land that I bought for the group. I was paying half the tier & another co-owner was paying the other half. I recently found out his account has been suspended for not paying his tier.  The whole group is fine with me selling off half the land & keeping the rest for myself. What should I do first to clear up the mess with Linden Labs, though?  Should I put $40 into this other owners PayPal account, so his tier will be payed & his account will be reactivated? Should I up my tier to $75 & transfer the group land to a group I own myself?  I'll need to sell off half the land & then reduce my own tier to $40 after this is done. The land is in a very nice Mature region, next to a cliff with an unobstructed ocean view, so I want to keep the ocean-view part for myself.

As has been noted elsewhere in the forums, there is still much content that can be seen & bought on the Marketplace that should not be accessable to teens, but is. Below is one example, from doing a search on "naked" with neither the Adult nor the Mature box checked. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/BOXED-COLLECTION-FOR-SL-MARKET/1622028 I flagged this item as Adult content listed as General.

Comment removed by poster. *Ooo look, shiny alpha textures.*

@Brooke Linden - Why didn't you post this thread to the Second Life Blogs section, where all the official Linden anouncements go? Threads can get lost too easily in the Commerce Forums. Edit add: The teens can easily look in through the "candy store window" of borders now to buy Mature items. As others here have stated already, if they can buy it in-world, but not on the Marketplace, that's neither a fari nor a sensible policy.

I think most of the residents are glad you're enjoying the world & finding out why we love it so much too. I get anoyed with Linden Labs alot, but I've also interacted with a few nice & helpful Lindens. I really only complain because I love this virtual world & want it to be the best it can be.

No,. don't kill your alt. Just put it in cold storage. Because some day you might want an alt who doesn't have the last name of "Resident". Maybe I missed a post somewhere, but will all future accounts have the last name of "Resident" or is LL going to get some common sense back soon?

Since Linden Labs thinks eveyone having 42 groups might be too much for the servers to handle, why don't they just up it to 30 or 35 to begin with & see how that goes. With this annoucement, you're practically telling everyone to hog up with 42 groups now, because the total might be reduced later & only the hogs will be able to keep all their groups.

Linden Labs will squeeze money out of its residents & merchants any way it can. I'm not looking forward to the day when they strart selling billboard ads in SL itself.

First off I want to say I do not hate teens. I communicate with mature, intelligent teens & with immature, idiot adults quite often online. I've also seen a little of the teen grid when my niece was showing it to me, so I know there are some very clever content creators on the teen grid. My concern with having teens mixing with adults on the main grid is first for the legal safety of myself & my friends here, 2nd for the welfare of the teens joining us here, and 3rd for the future security of Linden Labs if someone starts a class action lawsuit against them. I wouldn't get sexually involved with a SL teen because I'm not having SL sex wtih anyone but my RL boyfriend. We don't do SL sex often, but when we're separated by over a hundred miles in RL, it allows us a level of intimacy we can't get over the phone. We have a SL home in a Moderate region, so we expect we can behave as adults would in a RL home. We can have nudity in our artwork. We can discuss adult topics. We don't want to worry about someone spying on us or listening in on our conversations. Now for the concerns of the teens: I've read that any teen age 16-17 with land or inventory (which would include content they're created) will have that land & inventory transfered to the main grid. The whole teen continent will become a General rated continent in the main world. So anyone will be able to own land, rent a shop or apartment, or drive there. Teens age 13-15 will either be limited to sanctioned regions or will have their accounts (including all their inventory) suspended until they turn 16. (If I found myself in that situation, I'd create a new account saying I'm 16. ) As a teen coming to the main grid, I think you can expect the adults here to treat you like any other adult unless you behave rudely. Don't look for trouble & you won't find it. Copybotting & content theft will probably be dealt with more swiftly here. Overall prices for things are probably higher, but there are also more free items available here. Even if you never set a virtual foot on a Moderate or Adult region, you will find more things to do on the main grid than were on the teen grid. Teen groups will also probably form to help teens connect with each other. I welcome the teens, but do so hesitantly & not with open arms.

This issue of legal liability with teens coming to the main grid is why I talked my friends who owned General land into selling it & moving to Moderate land. Now we have lovely Modrate land overlooking the sea. I think it will be amusing when some TV show like Dateline decides to show how Linden Labs exposes minors to all the perversions in SL. I can imagine the cartoon BDSM clubs, she-male furries, Gorian slave harems, Vampire & demon clubs, and child avis for sale. Do you think Linden Labs will like that kind of free advertisement?

I'd like to know how many parents in SL who have teens are happy to have them come into SL? I don't have kids myself, but I would be hesitant to have them in here unsupervised. I'm not worried about accidentally bedding one. I'm in a monogamous SL & RL relationship, so I'm not trolling for SL partners. But if someone does wish to play promiscuously in SL, why do so many people jump all over them for it? SL is for fantasy, which includes the fantasy to be safely promiscuous. Imo, LL is only bringing them onto the main grid because they'll spend more money here than they do on the teen grid. Pretty much the only other people who will be welcoming them with open arms are merchants and perverts who prefer teens. (And don't say we don't have them here, because there are plenty of kid avis that are not playing innocently.) My solution to the big can of worms LL is about to dump on us, is to set up one of the already existing continents as a PG one, along with the teen continent that will be migrating to the main grid. Then the rest of us can feel safe from ethical & legal problems on our Moderate & Adult regions.

@ Cinn Thanks. I didn't realize that. I gave you Best Answer for being actually helpful several times & for not being rude.