Much of this stuff gets by because the majority of non-residents (and, I am afraid, a number of residents) just don’t understand what virtual even means. They “virtually” do this and “virtually” do that all the time, mostly using the word as a synonym for “really” or “actually”. Start pounding it into peoples heads that virtual means..not real…imaginary, a simulation of reality at best. Nothing that happens in SL can harm anyone in RL. Period. Don’t bring up the argument that you can be robbed of RL money by SL crooks. The money in SL is not virtual, it is tied to RL banks and credit cards. It is real, and needs real protections and is and should be subject to RL laws. It is no more “virtual” than your ATM card or online banking site (which many people call virtual, but it’s not. If you are doing any virtual banking at your banks web page, you are going to be in trouble sooner or later).

No behaviors in SL (or any “virtual” world) are real. Period. You cannot be killed, raped, assaulted, molested, or otherwise injured by anyone or anything inside the virtual world of Second Life…anymore than you can in a story written by someone in text. Anything of a “physical” nature that happens to you in SL stays in SL. Killed? Back at your home in milliseconds….caged? tp away..same with any other actions. You can always just leave. Always. Some of these things may..at worst..annoy you or even upset you..but only in your head. No real harm has accrued. You can have real friendships..same as you can with a chat room or a snailmail penpal…but you cannot..under any circumstances..be assaulted in such a way as to cause permanent, physical, real harm to either you or your inworld avatar. This includes any underage residents who might sneak into the system. They cannot be molested or harmed in any real way….and I suspect that most of them would be much better served if the attention paid to their virtual sex lives was instead turned on what they have to go through every day at their local schools. That pervert the uninformed keep thinking is on the net or in SL is still far more likely to be found in the kids home than anyplace else in the world…including the net and SL.

So tell the politicians, or your neighbors, or friends, or clergy (and it seems..maybe more importantly LL staff)…..the danger to people is in the real world…not in their imaginations or in any virtual world. If it’s not real..it’s not happening….and if it’s happening in SL…it’s not real. Focus people. There are horrible real things happening to real people all the time. Let’s fix that and let the virtual worlds of the imagination take care of themselves. And let’s let the “children in their imagination” back into the mainstream of virtual life.

I am really surprised and shocked at the way this was handled. As you said, even (c) would have been an understandable response.

Anyone up for an alternative SL5B event?

The part I don’t get is – why. This is not rocket science, but common sense. Add to that the fact that Linden Lab is among the companies with the tightest connection to their user base – it’s trivial to gauge user opinions and reactions, because all the users *care* so much about Second Life – and it really makes no sense.

In my linked post, I blamed the incompetent middle layer of LL (and predicted the fall of Phillip, more’s the pity) – but, with M Linden an unknown quantity at the moment, it’s hard to say where it stops.

I fear the day we see Torley’s videos replaced by sanitized marketing videos..

In the case of any other company, things would be much different. But SL is made by both LL and its residents. Even more, that is the essence of Second Life, that is what makes it stand out, that is what makes it so cutting edge. It is not the technology as much as a model of active and fruitful collaboration of service provider and service users. What went wrong when it came to public image of the world?