by red hot iron, by passages in books, a balanced hatchet

((A NOTE: While this is not an apology, I will say that this post is only directed at Dale Innis because he got in my way first. It could have been anyone; I'm not, per se, singling him out.

Now then.))

Lemme 'splain this to you people.

I'll go ahead and answer the comments made on last night's rant, but I don't think (with the exception of Sphynx, who just seemed genuinely distracted) any of you understand what we've been handed.

Dale Innis said:

I don't know how much of that conversation you were in on, but everyone was having such a good time just chatting with like-minded pervs [...]

Right. Because sitting in an obviously-designed-by-committee structure "having a good time" was the whole point of the exercise.

I don't know where you were, Dale. Me? I was watching as kids wandered around freely. I was watching adult artists who were heartbroken about what was going on. I was listening to merchants who still haven't been contacted on moving their businesses, and whose greatest fear is that they're going to have to buy land at high rates from land sharks just to continue in business, while meanwhile, their sales are dropping 75%.

I'm sure you and everyone you were with were having a fine time, joking and laughing. The people I was "with"--in the sense of standing next to them, appalled at Linden cupidity--were having a fine time, too. The dancer who'd put on her best slippery oil skin and seemed, for all any of us could figure out, to be doing her best to start an orgy on the spot. The newbies wandering in who couldn't spell, couldn't figure out where 'te sexx' was, and wandered away. The woman who thought the greatest joke in the universe was coming in naked on a horse, didn't seem to understand why few of us found it as side-splitting as she did, and who eventually wandered away.

You also said:

If things work out as I hope and expect, there will be vast amounts of Adult land on the grid, and on most of it there will be nothing sexual or otherwise kid-unfriendly happening like 99% of the time.

Riiiight.

Obviously you've forgotten what all of this was supposed to mean. According to Blondin, Blue and other Lindens who chimed in during the several forum posts on the topic, the adult continent was not designed to be for adult activity period. It wasn't designed to be just a rating, where people would only do "those things" on occasion, out of sight of anyone, and the rest of the time be happy little residents of Stepford--I mean, Zindra.

Do you even remember what the set policies were, Dale? If that even matters at this point, because the entire design of the adult continent convinces me that not only are the Lindens not listening in any way, shape or form, but they don't even properly comprehend the question in the first place. But the adult continent was not designed, so they kept telling us, just for sex. Oh, no. It was for the very worst that the human psyche could dredge up, so that the rest of the grid wouldn't have to be exposed to it.

Beheadings. Amputation. Medical fetishes. Torture porn. A happy new playground for the Dolcett crew. Shootings, stabbings, rape, non-consensual anything (though as I've said before, the concept of "non-consensual" on the grid is moot) concerning sex, bondage or (virtual) death. Apparently, anything that touches on Gor and Gorean is in this classification, too.

Photorealistic depictions of penetrative sex. Depictions, even cartoon ones, that feature any level of blood spray at all. Photographic displays of sex or violence. Photographic displays of corpses or mutilated bodies. Drug use. And I'm not even going in-depth into any of these.

Is there anything--anything at all on that list--that would tell anyone with two braincells to bash together that what they most wanted for their extreme gratification needs would be a goddamn industrial park with radiant teal lights??

And you ended with a comment worthy of Torley at his best:

But the people who were there last night were great!

Well, I'm glad you found the 'great' people. Me, I saw despair and confusion, I saw tragedy and resignation, I saw the quick-dawning realization of how deeply and viciously the Lindens have just slapped every adult in the face by presenting this. I saw people who wanted this to be just another free sex room paired with people who were justifiably cynical and depressed. I saw perfectly designed spots for business campuses, sterile landscaping, just about the single most ridiculous and inanely retro graphics to identify sim border crossings--and, might I add, those border crossings? Always either separated by a lane change, or actually occurring at intersections, so that anyone who actually wants to drive through the new and shiny will be unable to change lanes or actually stop at the (scripted! Why is no one more upset by this? SCRIPTED!!) traffic intersections without losing their car in the first place!

Ah, why am I bothering, you're not listening either.

But I do have to make one more comment, simply because I honestly cannot believe bits of your brain didn't leak out your ears when you typed this, Dale:

On the child AV issue, I will go out on a limb and say that the Lindens' current position on the subject, that child AVs are allowed on Adult land as long as they aren't doing anything kiddiepornish, is the right one.

Obviously, your tongue is firmly in your cheek, right? Because to even hint that you mean this seriously indicates such a staggering loss of comprehension, I'm surprised you can still form words that string together in sentences.

Let me try and explain this, since you seemed to have missed it the first time.

Regardless of anyone's personal reasons for climbing into a child avatar, nearly every single child avatar on the grid then expects to be treated like a child. Oh, maybe not talked down to, maybe not sent off to bed at a set hour, but they want to be treated commensurately with their appearance.

So. Regardless of whether the woman behind the screen is a 47-year-old housewife with five kids of her own in Detroit, she's wandering around as a six-year-old moppet on the grid. Fine. Let's go through this, then:

PG: She's fine. She's six. She has swings, she should have nothing offensive to say or be exposed to, she is a child surrounded by protection. Nifty.

Mature: She's still pretty fine. She's six. She's at a tea party in Caledon, or she's wandering Animania, or she's shopping for child-sized formals at Evie's Closet. The conversation may go over the head of the average, actual six-year-old child, but as she's an adult playing a child, more or less there's understanding and while she may chide people who act "adult" around her, things are still pretty much fine.

Adult: She's six. She's in a sim where--at any time--people could start to talk about sexuality, about violence, about drugs. Regardless of whether or not she's doing anything "kiddiepornish"--and really, you couldn't have come up with a better word than "kiddiepornish"??--the porn could start up at any time. Because that's the rating, Dale. The entire point was to push those who want adult dealings in the world, to not deal with children, moralists, and sneering prudes--wouldn't have to. The whole point was to get people verified, so there wouldn't be a problem with anything that might happen in the adult continent.

So. She's six. She's wandering around the adult continent. By merely being there, she's forcing upon rated adults, in rated adult land, restrictions. By merely being there, she's forcing her rating on the sim. Because gods forbit, anyone do anything rated "adult" in front of a child, regardless of who that child really is on the other side of the glass.

Do you get it yet? Does anyone reading this get it? Or are you just shaking your head because you don't understand what the big deal is?

This is a nightmare. And this is a nightmare that the Lindens are expecting us to swallow, because they're that smarmily superior about the whole thing. Now people will quiet down and behave, they might be thinking.

Sure.