Your2ndPlace

Fox news are carrying a story about the dangers of Second Life for children.

The headline "Does the Internet site Second Life pose a risk for kids?".

Here's a tip for Fox news and Mark Kirk who wants to issue a warning. Second Life main grid is 18+. No if's, no but's, no why's, no wherefores. Kids should not be on the main grid. Kids are not welcome on the main grid. Kids are lying to get on the main grid. Why oh why is it so hard to get this message across? Why does nobody ever mention this. Channel 5 don't mention it, SKY don't mention it and now FOX aren't mentioning it.

Linden Lab provide a teen grid, with checks and balances that make the teen grid a lot more safe for children than sites like Myspace, facebook and Bebo. There's never any mention of this in these news reports, that's grossly unfair to Linden Lab.

Let's deal with some of the issues here, kids can get onto the main grid. The issue is how to prove identity on the internet and quite frankly, it's simply not possible. However, Mark Kirk would do well to put pressure on Visa and Mastercard to flag whether a card number is owned by an eighteen year old or not. This won't mean Visa and Mastercard are held responsible if a minor uses the card of an adult, but it does get around the silly situation of kids with cards being able to access adult content with their own card.

Linden Lab in turn should change their own Identity process to a credit card based one. Integrity can confirm if someone is over 18 via name, address and date of birth, Linden Lab should then charge a nominal fee to a credit card and if the credit card details match the details Integrity confirm then you have a match. The credit card payment gives the cardholder an audit trail, something which is lacking with the current farcical system.

This just in:

9 May 2008 – Animal lovers and Second Lifers are being encouraged to attend a live virtual event to help end commercial seal hunting – with guest appearances by a US musician and a UK politician.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) concert on Saturday 10 May (3pm SLT & 11pm BST) will feature singer/songwriter Juel Resistance and Labour Member of Parliament for Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy. Second Life's residents will have the opportunity to hear about IFAW’s campaign to help stop the cruel Canadian seal hunt. Residents will be able to view and hear video recorded by IFAW monitors during the 2008 seal hunt which began in March, interact with IFAW avatar Daisy Meadowbrook and take action in support of calls for a Europe-wide ban on seal products.

Kerry McCarthy MP, who will speak at the event, said: “I strongly support IFAW’s work to put an end to this brutal hunt. The annual killing of more than a quarter of a million seals, mostly for their fur, is simply unacceptable.

“An EU-wide ban on the trade in seal products is a vital step to help end this hunt and make sure that Europe plays no further part in this cruelty. I’m very happy to lend my voice in support of that effort.”

Second Life Residents can attend the event on Saturday May 10 at 3PM SLT (PST) by following the link below:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/IFAW%20Island/177/76/53

Those who are not already Residents of Second Life can sign up at no cost via the www.secondlife.com site. For more information on IFAW’s Stop the Seal Hunt campaign, please visit: www.stopthesealhunt.org or www.ifaw.org.

About IFAW

The International Fund for Animal Welfare works to improve the welfare of wild and domestic animals throughout the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress.

Today Day Oh released new mega prims. These are not the cut and hacked ones, they are newly created! The first set the .5 series is perfect for those parcel sized builds like in Fermi Sandbox. They are free, and over 2000 in the first box are available here http://slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=685589

This is huge, and was first reported by Lillie Yifu.

Well someone had to mention them, my sister scarred me for life! Via the official blog Bay City is up and running.

The work of the LDPW, a cityscape, a cinema, a lighthouse, a trolley bus, bowling, ballon trips and probably much much more.

No terraform, no subdivide, no join, no messing around with the builds. Auctions start next week and to those of you who claim this is just a hosting service, let's see what value people place on these parcels.

Aided and abetted by Katt Linden, who not only told me Bay City was south of City Haven, she also told me which direction south was (Thanks Miss Communication ;) ).

I took a stroll around to capture the new sights.

This is a bowling alley, honest!

A lighthouse always works.

I didn't see the water trolley, maybe I was looking in the wrong places.

Canals but I didn't see any gondolas.

The inside of the cinema, it's great being able to go to the pictures..not sure what the main feature is and they're optimistic with that many seats!

The outside of the cinema, traditional looking but alas no circle or stalls...I'm not the only one who remembers the circle and the stalls am I?

Via this announcement:

There will be a shareholder's meeting on Monday May 12 at 5pm SLT and Tuesday May 13 (for the Euro investors) at 12pm SLT.

The meeting will be held on the sim Treasury Cove in the soon to be new location for SLCapex:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Treasure%20Cove/128/141/38

It is expected to be an interesting meeting.

Real life is still happening all around me at a frantic pace, so I haven't been able to do as much as I would want within Second Life. Ciaran Laval notes the unfair marketplace practices, which is true on the Linden Lab side of things - but 2 things, as noted in the title, are quite simply not happening.

First of all, WSE remains closed - now for 4 months despite promises and platitudes. I'm fairly certain that the only people surprised at this point are a minority that LukeConnell Vandeverre has assuaged into staying or threatened with having them lose their work (or something in the middle?). However that works, it quite simply doesn't look too awfully good.

And SLCapEx's SL Wallet is beginning to be doubted severely, with prices dropping despite 2 buybacks in the past. Arbitrage Wise posted that a shareholders meeting is supposed to happen this week, but I strongly suspect more people are wondering about the buyback. Full disclosure: I've got shares there, trying to compensate for my losses when JT Financial became SLWallet. However, I am not day trading - I am being bullish with spare change.

It begins to be a little disturbing when I mention WSE and SLWallet in the same breath, but there it is. There is absolutely no evidence to support SLWallet at this time, and even with promises of a shareholder meeting... things do not look well right now for WSE Live and SLWallet.

Early reports are filtering back from the traffic meeting with the underlying message that they are a waste of time. I'll hold judgement on that until I attend one, I think I'm booked in for Thursday.

However one issue that is related is the showcase and I'm having a hard time not finding it unethical in a world where we're supposed to have a marketplace. I'm simply uncomfortable about the idea of stores being promoted in this way. I wouldn't find it so objectionable if places with stores were being promoted, but highlighting a particular store makes me a tad uncomfortable.

The first thing that should be made transparent about this, the very first step to retaining business credibility, should be that no Linden Lab employees, their family members or their close personal friends are promoted via this process. The sort of thing that happens when companies run competitions, employees not allowed.

Personally I'd prefer them to have awards and the winners showcased, that would have more of an ethical feel about it. The winner of the best building designer for whatever period, a month, a quarter or even a year, gets a showcase spot. The winners would have course have to be picked and probably by the very people making the picks now, but the whole process would appear to be more ethical, and maintaining standards is a very important issue in a business environment.

I wouldn't even mind if the showcase featured those paying the most for their adverts, I know some don't consider that fair, but it's a metric that's hard to dispute and I don't object to those who pay more, getting greater exposure.

Places, I don't mind them picking their favourite places, as long as they have the heart and will to follow it through. So many times we see Linden Lab rolling out the bold new frontier only to see the solution to be half assed.