We Wanna Be Free To Do What We Wanna Do And We Wanna Get Loaded

One of the beauties of Second Life is the freedom to create, it’s why the old tagline of “Your World, Your Imagination” was so wonderfully apt, and why it was disconcerting when it was removed. Some people of course don’t like creative freedom because creative freedoms lead to situations where people don’t like what others create. However one should always remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I still get excited when my scripts come to fruition and actually do what I want them to do, to me that makes it a beautiful day.

However with creative freedom also comes responsibility, which is why people aren’t free to create anything they like, there are certain items that will earn you a one way ticket to palookaville, there’s a distinctly “Don’t be Evil” subplot to these creative freedoms, hence why you get asked for permissions to do things.

Rules are of course seen in some quarters as a bad thing and being careful what you wish for is another concern, which has been exemplified by the official forums which are being rejigged again.

They have brought back a General Discussion forum for Second Life related matters. There have been many times over the years when Linden Lab have been accused of not listening, there are also times when they don’t want to listen and the General Discussion forum is a classic example, because at least three times Linden Lab have tried to kill it off and whereas it gets knocked down, it gets up again. Once it was in the form of Resident Answers, which became the general discussion by default. I have no idea why Linden Lab keep fighting with forum users on this issue, it helps to put the discussions in a controlled environment.

I also have no idea why Linden Lab won’t implement a classified forum and a new product forum, SLUniverse has a classified section and within that, a new product forum. Linden Lab should be looking to make posting rights to such forums for premium or concierge customers only, adding a perk to membership.

However it’s unfair to say Linden Lab never listen, the return of the General Discussion forum is a sign of listening, although it’s tiresome to keep having the same discussions with them on the issue. They did also implement an event announcement forum, which is now since the revamp: Upcoming Events And Activities. The forums should compliment the inworld experience, why there is so much of a problem with the forums being used to promote commercial activities will forever remain a mystery because commercial activities are a big player in keeping the Second Life world turning.

Then we have the ranks, which I find rather silly, badges? We don’t need no stinking badges. There are ways to give people extra privileges without the silly ranking system, indeed I find the ranking system to be rank. Then of course we have the be careful what you wish for scenario, because when these forums were relaunched they were moderated to be clinically clean and that nerfed them badly in terms of activity and participation, they are a long way from recovering.

This squeaky clean nonsense still leaves a footprint, we still have the absurd word filters, I can’t advertise an event at my cock-a-hoop tavern because of the word cock, seriously, this is still bloody silly and word filters have been an epic fail right across the Second Life experience, search, where people can’t advertise blue tits, the marketplace, the silly rule that says the first rule about naughty word club on the forums or Jira is that you can’t talk about naughty word club. The way to deal with explicit posts is for a human to moderate them, computers cannot do this task in a common sense fashion and it’s about time Linden Lab realised this.

Linden Lab have shown a willingness to change things, which is to be applauded, but they should be going further than they are, look at the old forum structures that worked, look at the SLUniverse structure, that works, give commerce greater visibility in the forums, it’s not that hard to do.