Your2ndPlace

If it were just any crockpot, I wouldn't be worried - but when a congressman urges the FTC to send out parental advisories on Second Life, it makes me pause. First - children should simply not be in Second Life - there's a teen grid for teenagers, of course. And everyone wonders how to keep children away from anything even remotely related to sex - but we adults all know, or should, that this will not happen unless you lock them in the basement like an inbred son (Mandatory Harold and Kumar reference).

A parental advisory? How does one send out a parental advisory? Is there a massive email list that every parent in the world is on? Or perhaps there's an automated SMS system that tells parents what's going on?

Or maybe - just maybe - parents should be aware of what their children are doing? I know, it sounds silly, but the last I heard parents were the legal guardians of children. Legal. Guardian. More importantly, they are supposed to be... parents. I realize that cultural definitions may vary around the world, but if a definition of 'parent' doesn't involve the key phrase 'responsibility' - well, shucks, Congressman Mark Kirk has a point and the government should simply become a daycare for parents who can't abide 18 years of what some sweaty bodies created while interlocked in the same activity that children are being protected from.

I suppose what parents should really be asking is whether they want the government of their country doing the parenting. I suppose the true parental advisory should be:

If you can't raise you're children, your government will do it for you.

I wonder when people gave up on their own responsibilities...

Last night, Arbitrage Wise spoke of the situation with SLWallet at SLCapEx's new main area in Treasure Cove. The transcript of the meeting, also available here, can be found below.

What it boils down to is this: The resources necessary to purchase the shares have decreased considerably due to a number of reasons which are, at the least, credible for some. The lack of updates centered around some possible business alliances that have been slow to coalesce, such as working with First Meta. The meeting's news from Arbitrage Wise was generally well received, though at least one person represented what may well be the majority of people who got stuck in SLWallet and who simply wanted to get some money back. Of course, the day traders had been decreasing the price to bulk up on shares, with very little in the way of bullish trades.

So what does the future of SLWallet include? Arbitrage Wise mentioned working with eBay sellers, as well as a few other intriguing ideas. He, and SLCapEx as a whole, are pressing forward - and pushing on SLWallet to build it's businesses which at this point have not coalesced.

Here's what it boils down to:

• Second Life business ventures for SLWallet are still in process.
• Buybacks will not be 'substantial' over the next few months, but will not go away. For clarification on this, see Arbitrage Wise's response to my question on that at 19:21 in the transcript. Further explanation continues at 19:23.

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.

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.