[A Farewell From Jack]

Thanks for cleaning up helping to consolidate the Mainland!  I stayed in SL years longer because of the good treatment I got under those policies.

[Welcoming Teen Grid Organizations to the Main Grid]

In SL, what is a "reasonable measure" when someone can peek through your curtains without so much as lifting a pixel finger? These need to be set in stone.. they will not until a case is pursued in the courts

It's much simpler, its called abandon the mainland and move age verified adult only land, and never go anywhere else.

You forgot: And never talk to anyone who isn't also on Zindra.

(And of course make sure your Profile is suitable for viewing by children, and that you never distribute any content to anyone not on Zindra, etc.)

This is what I have done.   Of course, since Zindra is not where my interests were, that effectively mean I've left SL.  (Closed my school, let the teachers go, and abandoned all the Mainland including the school.)  I cancelled my Premium account.  It was an interesting ride for the last four years.  I continue to observe from a distance (these forums) out of curiosity.

Another option is to purchase a private (island) sim, locate it out of cam range, rate it Adult, and never communicate with anyone who isn't on your island.  This is probably what LL is hoping you'll do, but that's beyond my entertainment budget.  It also has the problem that you can only do your own activities -- I liked to attend things (educational, art, and live music venues) in SL, and those were never in safe regions like I'm describing.

Regarding the "close the curtains" suggestion, I think you will find that legally speaking, police and courts will not be interested in such analogies.  This is not about "rules" as someone suggested, but about real life laws (about ISPs, content providers/users like yourself, and contact with minors).  And please do bear in mind that once you are merely accused, your life will be over, even if you are eventually found to be innocent.  It will be fascinating to watch other people being legal test cases, but these risks are way out of bounds for me.

In real life, I don't make a habit of walking down the street talking to strange children.  You might consider that teachers are not even generally allowed to socialize on the Internet with their own students.  Why someone would think that seeking out random minors (which is specially part of what using Second Life is now advertised to be about) is a wise idea, is beyond me.

But Linden Lab has decided on this path, and there is no chance of changing anything about it.  I know that few people are interested in any warnings or analysis that I'm giving; I just felt compelled to make an effort. So this will be my last message on the forums.  I'm just going to peek in and read every now and then from this point on.

[Welcoming Teen Grid Organizations to the Main Grid]

I dunno.  As someone who's worked in criminal law (but is not an attorney) I think this is more akin to a 15 year old peeping tom that peeks through your curtains.

Here's what I think it's like:

You contracted with an ISP (Linden Lab) for the ability to make contact with, communicate with (text chat, IM, Voice, avatar actions and animations that you perform), and supply material content (scenery, forum, imagery, music, multiple-player interaction, etc.) to a particular segment of the public.  And if you own/rent land, you are facilitating others to do so, even if you're not there.  At first you were told that you would be connected to adults (18+) only.  But now your contract has changed, and you know that it will also be minor children who you may be connected with.  This "integration" is an advertised feature of Second Life from now on.   You have decided to continue, with full knowledge and intention that anyone might be a minor child.

That is, you have decided to purposefully, willfully, and knowingly, set about to make contact with minor children over the Internet through a "fantasy service" called Second Life.

And by the way, there is nothing that can be used to defend you if any of those children should make certain baseless accusations.  Notably, of the form, "Mr.  Avatar said something very naughty to me in Voice!  And his friend Miss Pixels didn't have any clothes on for part of the time cuz she was doing something called "rezzing" -- and then she said bad dirty things to me too!  And OMG I never saw a PONY do THAT before?!?"

DIng-Dong!  I'm Officer Friendly from the child exploitation crime unit.  I have a warrant here to confiscate anything containing electrons that's in your house.  Please show me your computers so I can take them without trashing everything else in your house.  (Well, maybe I'll do that anyway, you sick pervert.)  And now please show me your hands, so I can cuff you.  We need to go down to the station for a little chat.  Don't pretend you don't know what this is about!  We already talked to your boss.

Well, now, says Mr. RL Judge at arraignment.  It seems to be your word against the child's.  But you're the one who connected to this Internet playground (and even spent money setting up to control part of it).  And this was for the willful purpose of meeting random minor children - your ISP Linden Lab has shown us the Terms Of Service where it spells this out for you.  So, who should I believe?  Innocent little Sally Newbie, or the adult who signed up to meet kiddies?

Sally Newbie is typing...(to Timmy Teenful):   Hahahah I did it, and the police came!  I was so scared! But I told them just what you said to say, and it worked.  Mom isn't mad at me at all, in fact they're all acting weird.  The parents are always weird anyway so no biggie.  Hey! They said that guy was going to prison.  He was so mean he deserves it!  Adults are so stupid!  LOL

[Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback]

Yes, exactly: Each person should be able to choose how they see other people's names.

On the Preferences/General tab there should be these checkboxes:

Off    On    Show Briefly
Show Display Names
Show User Names      Only if different

 

1. That's for in-world.

2. Would be nice to have separate settings like that for Chat, IMs, and logs, and for lists such as Friends and Group members, etc.   This would allow people maximum control over their confusion.  (Best placement would be as hidden options on the various separate elements/floaters for easy toggling and redisplay;  maybe also in a central tabular place in Preferences for review and master reset.)

3. You should be able to mouse over an avatar or a Chat line or an IM title and cause the User Name to appear temporarily, regardless of the above settings.  (You should also be able to see object name, uid, and Owner for any Chat line, so that you can tell what object is spamming/spoofing/etc. at any time, too.)

4.  Chat/IM log entries have structure in them these days, don't they?  Put the info in there so that it can be recovered regardless of the textual representation.  When you just look at the log in the Viewer, you see according to the current settings, which you can dynamically change.

 

5. Here's another idea, if you want to get carried away:  A region-based set of defaults for how the names appear.  "You have entered a region where avatars are known by their Display Names and User Names are hidden by default."  Option to change settings to that only when inside the region.  (No message if settings are already compatible with your default or current settings.)   This maximizes the Display Name immersion for roleplay sims, meetings where people are expected to use their RL names, etc.

6. I guess you could have that kind (5) of default for Groups, too.  The group owner can set the default for which name(s) the group's member lists use, and each person can set their own setting for how they like to view the group.  This overrides your global setting for how you like to see groups.

My general theory is allowing maximum customization, as you can see.

 

OBTW Kudos to LL for listening to people's feedback.  Frankly I wouldn't have believed it.