Linden Lab Cuddle Adult Content

There has long been an argument put forth that users of Second Life should be able to discuss adult content on the official forums, there has also long been a response along the lines of “Not bloody likely” from Linden Lab. There are concerns about poor promotion and people labelling Second Life as being full of perves, however that happens anyway.

However there have been chinks in the armour, the adult continent of Zindra and moves to an adult rating in Second Life were well intentioned, although I still maintain they were poorly executed, that’s ancient history though and this isn’t the time to go over that.

Then there was a super secret adult forum, created with the assistance of Blondin, where selected users could discuss adult issues in an adult forum. Then along came Viale, there were still calls for a wider adult forum, along came an adult section on the destination guide, which helps adult ventures get promoted to those whom are seeking that kind of content.

Today I was browsing the official forums when I noticed, a lot of recently created threads in a new Adult Forum section. This took me by surprise for two reasons, one I didn’t actually think they’d do it, two, I noticed something on the official site without having to stumble across it on SLUniverse!

Closer examination shows that this is Blondin’s old super secret forum, extended to a wider audience, well that’s what it looks like, or maybe someone at Linden Lab has pressed the wrong button, I’m seeing grumbles galore about some megaprims faux pas. I’ll leave others to comment on that.

I don’t know whether there are any access restrictions on this forum, such as only account verified users being able to see it, I’d hope there are some restrictions. There are also community guidelines posted in the Adult Content forum which inform people that posts must be general rated, which might be tricky, although it is perfectly feasible to discuss adult content issues without resorting to vulgarity or obscentity.

These issue of an adult content forum was discussed at the adult community user group meeting, the minutes of which can be read here. I was there, even if I’m not listed as an attendee and my quotes aren’t there either, but that’s another story, one important quote from that meeting, which goes some way to explaining Linden Lab’s softening of their approach to the adult community, was made by Viale:

“Some of our best Residents are Adult folks and I want to make sure they have a sense of community.”

There certainly does seem to be an attempt to embrace the adult community again, which is important because the new GUI changes with the built in shop link to the marketplace is going to annoy some inworld store owners, but that’s a post for another day. Viale does seem to be making progress, whether the forum is a success or failure will be down to the users, the opportunity is there for adult content discussion now.