And another thing…

I’m posting this as a kind-of addendum to my last on the announcements from LL relating to Classifieds and paid ads, but also as a separate entry as it harkens back to the other current Big Thing  – the arrival of teens.

In the e-mail from “The Linden Advertising Team” (is this Nelson again?) is a little passage that may yet be a time bomb (and which explains why this announcement went out in a “no reply” e-mail, rather than in a comment-enabled blog post):

Maturity Changes: Previously, advertisers declared the maturity level of their ads. However, to prepare for teens coming to the main grid, we will be using the maturity system used for Search that is based on two factors:

• Parcel maturity level
• Content of the ads themselves

Advertisers’ declared maturity will still be visible in Viewer 2, but will be informational only and not affect the actual maturity rating for each listing. We are targeting these changes for the week of Dec 13th

So, in other words, those operating on Adult lands will not be able to advertise in Classifieds even if their ads conform to PG/G OR M guidelines – or if they do, they cannot SET LOCATION to provide a direct Teleport to their store / location (which teens cannot get to even if they do read the ad).

Now, given there have already been “improvements” to search covering the arrival of teens and it has been indicated that teens will only be able to search at the PG /G level – and while appreciating these safeguards do not cover every eventuality, this move is going to be seen by many in the Adult community as punitive against them. Rather than a better search engine and better policing on their part, LL have opted for a solution that may well inconvenience them the least – but could further marginalise a section of their mainstream user community.

Again, I have nothing major against teens entering the Main Grid; yes, some of the actions LL have taken have caused eyebrows to rise – but I still haven’t felt it’s going to be the God-awful disaster some have been predicting. That said, this decision does come across as unreasonable.

My real issue with the whole teen thing is more to do with the fact that it appears that some in Linden Land believe that teens are the new saviours of Second Life; that there are vast hordes of teenagers out there, champing at the bit to get into this virtual playground, and thus revive its fortunes if just a few “minor” things are nipped and tweaked.

Those of us who have been here long enough will remember something similar back in 2007 /08, when LL seemed to believe that if they just did *this* and *that* – and to hell with what the users felt – then Big Business (which sniffed around the edges of SL in 2006/07) would flood into the grid and take them to The Next Level.

And we all know how that one worked out, don’t we?