Second Life WindLight First Look Client

Lindens just released a new First Look client with WindLight technology embedded! This is small video I made of the new graphics.



Places in the video : Sanctum Santorium, Sea Cliff, The Wasteland, Paris 1900, and sims in Otherlands.

Sculpted Prims for the Masses

I was very excited about the new sculptured prim building class, for the past few months I've been learning Blender just to build this new type of prims within Second Life. But Blender is extremely painful to learn, the millions of buttons adds to the confusion. Luckily there is a very good tutorial online that taught me a lot about blender. I was churning out good blender objects in no time.

I was able to make pretty complex objects in Blender, but ran into a wall when exporting this out to SL compatible sculpted prim UV maps. I found two tutorials ( by Amanda Levitsky and one on Bentha.net) that claims to do a Blender to SL sculpted prim transformation.While I could follow these tutorials and get the prims they made in the end... none of these tutorials worked with the more complex objects I had. My results looked like this:

This was way too frustrating, and I cannot justify buying Maya (the officially supported 3D software by LL) simply cause of the price ($2000-8000). Maya has a free version, but it does not work with SL export function that Lindens provided. Blender seemed to be the best option (given how difficult it is to learn) due to it being an open source project just like Second Life.

For a week I've been disappointed with my Blender to SL projects, then I saw a simple tool by Yuzuru Jewell that made it easy to model things using a lathe like system. I remembered this was how I learned 3d modeling long time ago (can't remember the apple software I used), but this tool (called Rokuro) was incredibly easy to use:

And the resulting sculpted prim came out looking as it was ment to be :

This tool could be used by anyone, you don't need any sort of advanced 3d training, all you have to do is move the points and hit generate UV map and bang you got a cool Sculpted Prim ready to upload into SL.

This tool is most useful for anything that could be made on lathe like machine, ie, drawing an outline and having it rotated 360 degrees. It's good for vases, mugs, tumblers, pillars and so on. I will still try to mess with Blender, but till I figure that out my Sculpted Prims come out of Rokuro.

Second Life to get better graphics?

Linden Lab just acquired WindwardMark Interactive, a company that creates realistic looking weather and environments. Does this mean Second Life would get a long overdue graphic overhaul? I think so. This is definitely an interesting development and shows the company has finally pulled itself into profit making.

Windward Mark has two products that would fall under LL. The first of which is Nimble, a highly advanced physics based realtime visualization of photo-realistic clouds.



The realism given here is amazing, and hopefully LL would integrate these into SL asap. The second product (called WindLight ), is a highly advanced lighting system using OpenGL and DirectX.



The realism in both these products leads to very interesting speculations about future advances to Second Life. Not to mention, with this acquisition, LL has also bought into their house a number of highly experienced 3D developers. Windwardmark is based in Boston and would be moving into LL's new Boston office (A recruiting party is going to be held on may 30, 2007 ). LL also plans on integrating these into their Open Source philosophy.

Following the acquisition of this technology, Linden Lab will integrate Windward Mark's WindLight® into the Second Life Viewer and will open source the code under a General Public License agreement. The Viewer (available here) featuring WindLight® will be immediately available for PCs, with a Mac version to follow.

“This is a great example of the benefits of an open-source model,” said Cory Ondrejka, CTO of Linden Lab. “Our core development team is tightly focused on improving the Second Life experience in terms of stability and scalability, but open sourcing has enabled external developers to integrate additional enhancements that are also hugely valuable; WindLight® is one of these. We're excited to bring this technology to Second Life and pleased to have such a talented team of developers join Linden Lab.”

Windwardmark is popular for having made the game called Alliance, which is not included in the acquisition by LL.

Video of WindLight
Video of Nimble

More News Stories on this

SL blog entry on this by Ms. Torley Linden.. wow it's so awesome I'm spasming...

Robin Linden speaks to residents on current issues.

Robin Linden recently held a meeting with residents where a number of current issues were brought to the table. She explained in detail why the two characters in the German video were banned, and how EU laws were not compatible with the type of activities that were taking place within Second Life.

Robin Linden: there are several countries in the EU where the virtual depiction of sex with minors is taken as actual child pornography
Robin Linden: This is a *criminal* offense.
Robin Linden: Tiberious: until the jurisdictional issues are worked out we have to be mindful of laws that will affect our business.
Robin Linden: the alternative is to block all Germans I suppose, but then we'd miss Tao
...
Dreams Lightcloud: i blieve age play is against TOS, isnt it?
Robin Linden: They were banned because they were engaged in sexual behavior where one was playing a minor child.

She believed the very existence of SL hinged on how age-play and the likes were treated within Second Life, she also believes that banning Germany or any other country where these activities were illegal was not the way to do it. Given that the majority of active Second Life residents come from Europe, with Germany being the number two most active country right behind United States.

With the creation of the age and identity validation system, she hopes that in the future the liability of such illegal activities could be passed onto the land owners rather than Linden Lab.

Robin Linden: and we are working with the lawyers to find out if it's possible to pass liability to the land owners if they want to do something which is against the law in their country

The exact way this could be implemented was not mentioned, but it might be that in a future update LL would allow land/estate owners to ban people by country or region?

She also goes on to explain why certain words have been unusable within the advertisement system, such words as "Loli*" and "age-play" are already banned along with the word "casino" (strangely most casino's are now listing their establishments as "kasino" instead). This change does affects many people who sell products based on the "Gothic Lolita" fashion design.

Ryozu Kojima: What is LL's position on the fact that this will affect totally unrelated businesses, such as "Gothic Lolita" fashion?
Robin Linden: we can't let the actions of a few put the entire service at jeopardy

Robin also mentions that the new age and identity verification system would also have real life gender verification, which would show up in the in-game profiles. A thread posted on the Second Life forum by concerned residents debate what the implications of this might be in the long run.

Robin Linden: Brenda - should someone decide they want to authenticate their RL gender it would show up in their profile.

A question was asked by Khamon regarding Meta Linden's recent buhaha on this blog, which went as follows:

You (Khamon): If we're shifting topics, Robin, is LL going to enforce a policy concerning inworld material such as chat logs posted to independent blogs and websites?

Robin Linden: We have a policy about Lindens posting on external blogs. It wasn't followed.

You (Khamon): Meta apparently told someone to delete material from their blog because posting it was a TOS violation. That's since been retracted but I wonder if she was acting on a new policy that just hasn't been published yet.

Robin Linden: No old policy, new Linden who hadn't read it, I think.

Thus, it appears our friendly abusive Meta Linden, did not read the established policy on posting on external blogs, and did not understand the Second Life ToS. Furthermore, she just randomly decided to use the power in her "Linden" name to threaten and harass a resident. It was also known that she's not in the abuse department, and that her activities as documented in this blog were all personal grudges... very disturbing.

Linden Lab should make it so that this kind of abuse does not happen in the future, and should implement some sort of internal review board as seen in eve-online.

A full text of this meeting is available at Second Citizen.

Dear Linden Lab, is this what you call ethics?

On May 14 2007, I was unwillingly thrust into a series of events that started off with a Linden Lab employee (Meta Linden) accusing me of having violated the Second Life TOS by posting private chat conversations on a 3rd party site.

Hello Honey W. We're receiving reports of you posting private conversations on your blog. I understand you may have good intentions but breaking the TOS isn't the way to handle this. -- Meta Linden.

I debated the validity of this accusation, having well known that posting this type of material outside Linden Lab resources was not a violation of the Second Life TOS. Ms. Meta Linden, then went back and asked her fellow Lindens if this was a violation, they replied in negative, which resulted in an apology by her.

Hi Honey I checked with more other Lindens (I am new btw) and discovered that while our TOS doesn't state that it only covers SL Servers, and the intention is to protect the privacy of all resident conversations, that we do not enforce outside of our servers, forums, and blogs, as a matter of policy. I was incorrect. I apologize. -- Meta Linden.

I accepted her apology at once, and posted the full apology here so that no one would confuse her intial TOS violation notice to me as a change in policy by Linden Lab. A normal story would end here, having had a happy ending. But this is not a normal story, nor has it been completely put to light.

To really tell this story, I have to go back a week earlier, when I wrote an article titled "The secret gathering of virtual dykes" -- a funny recollection of a mistaken invite to a private chat conference. Where I discovered that a large number of people were worried about how voice would change everything for them. I found this funny, and having had something similar happen to me twice the same week (first time it was by a bunch of my dorkish friends who invited me by mistake), I thought of blogging about it.

At this time I'd like to point out that I do not have any kind of malice towards people of the transgender community, in fact I do not even believe the conversations I overheard were of any person who was transgender. Would a transgender individual hide their real birth sexual identity within Second Life? I do not believe so. That's something totally different. And that was what those people in the conversation were doing, they were not transgender but rather posers. I've also got a very close friend of mine in SL/RL, who is transgender, at no time did she try to hide her birth sex and how she felt now. Sadly, the hormones that were given to her prior to her operation caused formation of breast cancer and thus she had to stop her change for now.

Thus, I'm very understanding of transgender individuals and I know the difference between those that I overheard and those that are transgender. Regardless, a comment was posted under that topic yesterday morning at 11:32 AM by a Cala Wired Faerie (Super Calamari within SL), that said the following:

I'm so glad you find it funny. It's ignorance and rudeness like yours that drives the transgender community to despair and depression and yes, to suicide. "Virtual Dykes", indeed. Try having a little empathy before you post ignorant drivel like this again.

http://cala-sl.blogspot.com

And oh, by the way - despite the fact that you might have the greatest of intentions in pursuing CP in SL, you yourself are breaking the very TOS you whinge about in http://honeywendt.blogspot.com/2007/04/age-player-promises-to-stalk-me.html in your other posts - so be aware, you have been AR'ed.

And no, being a vigilante is no excuse. Continue and you are likely to be banned.

I saw this message much later in the day and I responded to her assuring to her that I was not writing at all about the transgender community. I did not at any time feel those posers were anything like my friend, it would be quite disturbing to suggest such. Ms. Cala went on to suggest that I was breaking the TOS, (she was mearly mistaken about posting of conversations on 3rd party sites / vs TOS breaking within SL). Since the start of this blog, I've been posting conversations lifted off Second Life, ( Ms. Meta Linden had already informed me last night that this was not a violation of the TOS). Ms. Cala went on to state that she has abuse reported me, (i do not understand the reason for this abuse report), in her fury she stated that I'd likely be banned. She sounded very angry, bitter and vengeful, I tried responding to her as calmly as I possibly could, since she had felt this was a topic close to her. Somehow I was too late.

Going back to yesterday's topic... a number of sites picked up my debate with Ms. Meta Linden, one of them was a story by Prokofy Neva titled "Linden cracks down on the third-party blog!", on the Second Life Herald, I was reading the conversations on that article when I came to one posted by Ms. Meta Linden, posted verbatim as follows:

One last comment I'll add here, given what's already happened. I, obviously, am Cala - very out transgender resident and roleplay sim owner (yay open source CCS, go Suzanna!). I am a human person with my own perspectives, as well as a responsible new employee of Linden Lab. I have some obvious reasons for strongly supporting personal privacy. Yes, I have been physically bashed multiple times for who I am- I don't raise this for pity, it's a valid reason for why I deserve privacy. I joined Linden Lab as an excited resident, thanks to Phillip's well-stated plea on the blog and in the townhalls, because I have a skillset that's been sorely needed, and because I'm excited to make the grid a better place- exactly the same fervor I've seen from all of you. This is why I and many of my peers follow all of your blogs, intently read your responses to our blog posts, and participate in the discussions. We really are listening, and trying our best to interactively discuss, and get the discussions to be better and more productive.

We are working hard to make the grid better. This is harder to do as the system gets more complex and as more attention falls apon us, and the system will have to change to accommodate. It is infinitely more complex because what we make is a New Life - and I sincerely believe it is a Better Life, and this makes everyone very passionate about the topic. I encourage other passionate residents to apply- we really need your help- no matter your personal background, as long as you can help work toward the *Greater* good.

The Grid is made up of people, and so is Linden Lab. Make no mistake, no matter how many servers we add, it is the needs of our people that need to be met, and there is no such thing as consensus at this scale, particularly with an international audience. Even the Lindens are made up of People, humans who are also passionate about the grid and have ideas on how best to meet that need. We do best when we *participate* in these discussions and honestly listen, and learn, and change. I learned a lot today. I look forward to learning more tomorrow... and much further on. No matter how hard the criticism comes.

Even if my outing results in more SL grief (sim-crashes, thanks, I've already had plenty, and today will just exacerbate things via attacks from the PNs) or even more physical attacks to me from people who will link my RL identity with Cala- the fact that it only took an hour to get Cala linked to my Linden av only illustrates my point on how easy it is to get outed- it is still worth it to be out and direct and honest and communicate directly.

Peace,
-Meta / Cala.

Posted by: Meta Linden

I was shocked just by reading the first line of Ms. Meta Linden's post. Her claim that she's "Cala", aka Super Calamari, made whole of yesterday sound totally different. I went back and re-read multiple times the whole conversation Ms. Meta Linden had with me, and then went and read the vengeful note by Cala. I could not believe these two people were the same person.

Obviously, I started seeing this whole series of events in a different light, considering I got :

... so be aware, you have been AR'ed. And no, being a vigilante is no excuse. Continue and you are likely to be banned. -- Cala @ 11 am

followed right after by:

"Hello Honey W. We're receiving reports of you posting private conversations on your blog. I understand you may have good intentions but breaking the TOS isn't the way to handle this." -- Meta Linden @ 1:49 PM

It seems very likely that Ms. Cala, after having been obviously agitated by an article of mine, and after threatening to have me banned, have logged backed into her Linden Lab account and issued me the above warning. It seems that she has abused her power as a Linden to get back at me for things I wrote in the article "The secret gathering of virtual dykes". This makes me real sad.

The warning too was designed to scare me, and so induce a total deletion of my blog. But this did not happen, as I knew very well my right to post whatever I liked on my own personal blog, I debated this matter and was unwilling to give up. It's now likely that she did not want the article on age-play removed, but rather this other article on a secret gathering of virtual dykes.

But why did she go so far? Why did she misuse her authority? Why did she lie about having received abuse reports about an article I posted 1 day earlier (having full known the LL abuse system is not that fast).

I feel completely lost at this point, and completely betrayed by a person who has powers that she can abuse whenever she feels like doing it. How many others have been put in the position I had been put, and mistreated? This is completely unfair and totally destroys any credibility I had in Linden Lab.


Dear Ms. Cala/Meta Linden,

I would like you to explain to my why you did this, I do not seek an apology, I only wish to know why you'd abuse these powers. You had only to msg me as Cala and tell me how frustrated/annoyed you were at my post regarding virtual dykes, I would have spoken to you greatly of it and eased any misunderstanding you had. I am very sorry my article hurt your feelings, but at the same time I'm not very happy at how childishly you responded to this and how you had mistreated me. Please write to me in game, I'd like to speak to you.

Dear Linden Lab,

Is this ethical? I would like to know why a Linden Lab employee was allowed to put a resident in this kind of position. I do not want anything to happen to Ms. Cala's position within your corporation, but I'd like an assurance from you that things of this nature would not happen in the future. We invest in your company by living in the world you created for us, treat us with respect and we'd treat you back with respect. Please put guidelines and safeguards in place so that a similar event would never occur. Please create an internal review board similar to the board that CCP has created for EVE-Online to combat misconduct. Your company is growing so fast that such a board is necessary.

I would also like to see a more transparent link between Lindens and their in-game non-Linden accounts. Further cutting back on abuse.

Thank you.

This is an update on Meta Linden

Meta Linden just IM'ed me back the following:

[18:57] Meta Linden: Hi Honey I checked with more other Lindens (I am new btw) and discovered that while our TOS doesn't state that it only covers SL Servers, and the intention is to protect the privacy of all resident conversations, that we do not enforce outside of our servers, forums, and blogs, as a matter of policy. I was incorrect. I apologize.

[18:59] Meta Linden: I communicate with a lot of external bloggers, I post my in-world office hour minutes on the wiki, and do take our residents individual privacy *very* seriously

Thank you Meta. :)

I would like to point out why I wrote the article you initially asked me to take down. Me and several of my friends have been AR'ing people within that community which was advertising itself as an escort service specializing in girls under 14 (RP wise). This was against the advertisement clause that Chadrick Linden set out. But our AR's do nothing. The whole abuse system is a failure. Thus my article.


Please read this update.

Posting conversations in my blog is against SL ToS

So we have some new Linden's handing out some really fresh rules.

Today I logged in to find my soft shadow text is missing and a note from Meta Linden stating the following:

[16:57] Meta Linden: (Saved Mon May 14 13:49:58 2007) Hello Honey W. We're receiving reports of you posting private conversations on your blog. I understand you may have good intentions but breaking the TOS isn't the way to handle this.

[16:59] Honey Wendt: Hello Meta Linden, How does posting logs of Second Life chat in a 3rd party site (Blogger) break the ToS? AFAIK the ToS only states you cannot post those within Second Life resources (ie. Forum, Blog, etc).

[16:59] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[17:01] Honey Wendt: Here is my Blog : http://honeywendt.blogspot.com , I can assure you that my blog is no way connected to Linden Lab.

Ofcourse, I was alarmed at this suggestion, I had no idea how far reaching this Linden Lab TOS is. I'm actually appalled.

Update: Meta Linden just IM'ed me.

[18:04] Meta Linden: Hello Honey. I suggest you actually read the section 4.1 of the TOS at http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php and familiarize yourself with it. The language does NOT limit the privacy of conversations in SL to within SL boundaries
[18:05] Meta Linden: in fact it specifically states: "you shall not take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content..."
[18:05] Honey Wendt: Into SecondLife right?
[18:05] Meta Linden: not.
[18:05] Honey Wendt: My blog is not hosted in Second Life.
[18:05] Meta Linden: no, please read the TOS.
[18:05] Honey Wendt: Can you cut and paste me the bit, cause this is kinda alarming.
[18:06] Meta Linden: take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content as determined by Linden Lab at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
[18:06] Honey Wendt: This is within Second Life right?
[18:06] Honey Wendt: How would you control something that is posted outside in a 3rd party site.
[18:06] Honey Wendt: What about blogs by other people, what about forums by other people.
[18:06] Meta Linden: no where in the TOS does it say that it is limited to SL. What we are protecting is the privacy of conversations of our residents.
[18:07] Meta Linden: including yours.
[18:07] Meta Linden: posting private IM conversations of others onto a website or sent through an external email
[18:07] Honey Wendt: But you don't have any power over what I post on a blog.
[18:07] Meta Linden: is a violation of TOS and if reported is actionable.
[18:07] Honey Wendt: It's a 3rd party site, please understand this.
[18:07] Meta Linden: no you're right. But we do have rights over your SL account.
[18:07] Honey Wendt: That is true, are you threatening me btw?
[18:08] Meta Linden: you are violating the rights of the other people whose IMs you posted. And no, I am informing you of our policy
[18:08] Meta Linden: and kindly asking you to cease
[18:08] Honey Wendt: I see no reason how Lidnen Lab's ToS can apply to what I do outside Second Life.
[18:08] Honey Wendt: You pointed to the TOS and said it's a violation, not asked nicely.
[18:08] Honey Wendt: What about other bloggers? Almost every blogger out there does this.
[18:09] Honey Wendt: Plus did you read my blog? I thought I was posting stuff against age-players etc, stuff that you guys are totally against nowdays.
[18:09] Meta Linden: you're not the only blogger we have confronted over this. It doesn't matter the topic, I'm afraid. I do understand your position. Unless you have explicit rights from the individuals involved you should not be posting conversations.
[18:10] Meta Linden: We're not singling you out, or being threatening. Can you understand how this violates their privacy rights? Would you want anyone to blog your private IMs?
[18:10] Honey Wendt: I'm sorry Meta, I cannot censor myself on a 3rd party site, your TOS does not reach that far, if it did it would be a sad case, you have a right to terminate me, but in no case would it be according to your TOS.
[18:10] Honey Wendt: I've never violated anyone's RL privacy, everything on my blog is about virtual people. SL people.
[18:11] Meta Linden: SL Identities are real people.
[18:11] Honey Wendt: No I never posted anythign about their real identities.
[18:11] Honey Wendt: They are virtual entities, this is on a 3rd party site, you are asking me to censor, and I have read the TOS it has nothing to do with what you suggested.
[18:12] Meta Linden: can you show me where in the TOS you think it limits those terms only to within Second Life?
[18:12] Honey Wendt: Meta, do you know how ridiculus you sound.
[18:12] Honey Wendt: Linden Lab TOS cannot and will not be applied to my personal websites.
[18:13] Honey Wendt: I will not censor myself.
[18:13] Honey Wendt: I will speak to other Lindens regarding this.
[18:13] Meta Linden: it's about conversations that originated within Second Life. And please feel free to.
[18:13] Honey Wendt: Can you point to which conversation?
[18:14] Meta Linden: all of the conversations in your May 12th post. Do you have the permission of any of those avatars to post those conversations?
[18:14] Honey Wendt: Those conversations dealing with escorts posing as little girls?
[18:14] Honey Wendt: Surely, you are not defending them.
[18:14] Honey Wendt: I will not take them down.
[18:15] Honey Wendt: Meta, I have to go now, good luck.


Please read this update.

Fear of prosecution drives age-players undergound

In Yongchon, there was a school made by a Lolita McAllister, that catered to only men who were interested in having sex with a person pretending to be a girl of the ages 12 and under. For the past few months a good friend of mine has been AR'ed people claiming to be 12 or under there. Here are some conversations (all with girls from the same location that Lolita McAllister is running):

[15:46] (my friend): Hello, how old are you
[15:46] Darren Tani: Hi! Fine thank u
[15:46] (my friend): I said, how old are you.
[15:46] (my friend): Age.
[15:47] Darren Tani: 12
[15:47] Darren Tani: ill b 13 in august
[15:47] (my friend): Do you realize only adults are allowed in SL?
[15:47] Darren Tani: did u know this is ageplay at this location
[15:47] (my friend): I'm going to send you to a Linden who'd help you off this grid.
[15:47] (my friend): Advertisement of sexual ageplay is illegal.

...

[0:41] (my friend): Do you act any age under 18?
[0:41] Sox Ochs: yes if you like i can be what you want me to be xx
[0:42] (my friend): Are you aware this is a bannable offense within Second Life?
[0:42] Sox Ochs: no
[0:42] Sox Ochs: i wasnt aware
[0:43] Sox Ochs: 16 is ok i think
[0:43] (my friend): No.
[0:43] Sox Ochs: im in the uk xx
[0:43] (my friend): This is Second Life, you cannot be sexual at 16.
[0:43] Sox Ochs: its legal
[0:43] (my friend): It's the policy, 18+.
[0:43] (my friend): You did read the notecard near you right?

...

[15:56] Lynn Negulesco: im as old as u want me to be, hehehe
[15:56] (my friend): how old is that
[15:56] (my friend): roughly
[15:57] Lynn Negulesco: lol, most of my clients ask for me to be between 12 to 14
[15:57] (my friend): you are in the US?
[15:57] Lynn Negulesco: but personnally
[15:57] (my friend): um do you charge?
[15:57] Lynn Negulesco: i can change ages
[15:57] Lynn Negulesco: yes i do
[15:57] (my friend): how much
[15:58] Lynn Negulesco: 600 15 mins, 100 for 30 mins
[15:58] Lynn Negulesco: 1000*
[15:58] (my friend): what age do you like to be?
[15:59] Lynn Negulesco: meh, it makes me happy knowing what age the client want me to be
[15:59] (my friend): One sec
[15:59] Lynn Negulesco: so waht ever age want, i will like it
[15:59] Lynn Negulesco: ok
[15:59] (my friend): You are aware that sexual ageplaying as minor is illegal within SL and considered pedophillic in most western nations?
[16:00] (my friend): That I'm to report you to LL for violation of rules.
[16:00] (my friend): Plus the fact you have been escorting is real bad.

My friend asked this question to many people posing as little girls in the place given above and every single person gave an age under 14 and suggested payment. This is all run by the Madame called Lolita McAllister. (Yeah weirdo you could have found a less obvious name).

All these people lived around this land owned by Lolita McAllister. There used to be a huge sign there which had the note card referring to the new Linden Labs policy on age-play. But that doesn't stop these people from soliciting sex as minors (usually for 1000+ Lindens).

Today, I went to see what was up with this place. Their name has changed, it's still called School, but anything pointing to their real activity (sex with people pretending to be 10 yr old girls) has been taken out.



So have they reformed? I thought they had. When I zoomed in closer I saw a bunch of people including a Jonathan Scamper (with some slaves by his feet) and a Barns Balhaus (looking like a 13-14 yr old) and some other age-players including the owner of the land. It's quite apparent that they have not stopped their activities and that what used to go on out in the open is still happening.



Just for LULZ, I msg'ed Barns Balhaus and asked her what her age was, she claims she's 12 (with a über sexual profile and ready for escorting for Ms. Lolita her owner).




Right after that she cleared her profile (My friend mentioned that other age-players also did this ). Kinda amusing cause they have no concept of screenshots or um logs in teh Linden Lab HQ?!

I also sent an IM to Jonathan Scamper and asked him why he's involved in this, he couldn't quite answer my question and kept asking me to show myself to him, (by when I was pretty far away). Anyways, he claims to be an owner of underage (role playing of course) slaves and one of his way of making money in SL is pimping these sorry retards off. There is your daily sickness.


Update:

Jonathan Scamper msgs me back to clear his name (sorta), he said his slave was not underage. But yeah he works for Ms. McAllister. He also mentioned a very interesting thing. Ms. McAllister was banned by Linden Labs recently for the same thing I just blogged about, she had just come back to SL.

It's interesting she'd come back and go into pedophilia right away. Oh well.

[10:21] Jonathan Scamper: My slave is not underage and nore does she pretend too be, your perception of what you think looks young and what they say are two different oppinions
[10:24] Honey Wendt: What was a respectable person like you doing in a pedophilic area?
[10:26] Jonathan Scamper: going in too clean it up, but you don't care do you, you see a place and you assume I am apart of it. do you care too ask if I am able too ban people off the land no, do you care too ask my personal slave if she plays young or not, no, you assume things about me because I am here trying too clean up this joint , but instead you slander my name. and there has no proof of me supporting this child crap. all you can say is I asked where you were too have you show me these god awefull pics so I can have the mremoved, but no you assume I want them instead of show them.
[10:27] Honey Wendt: Mr. Scamper, you were role playing in that area.
[10:29] Honey Wendt: You can post what you just wrote as a reply to my blog, or I'll cut and paste this as areply if you like
[10:30] Jonathan Scamper: I was sitting around talking with my slave.
[10:30] Jonathan Scamper: that is all
[10:30] Jonathan Scamper: but you chose too not have them or me know where they were so I could remove them
[10:31] Honey Wendt: Did you not at any time realize you were with a group of people who age-played (sexually) children?
[10:31] Jonathan Scamper: yes after her account was closed
[10:32] Honey Wendt: Who's account?
[10:32] Jonathan Scamper: the boss
[10:32] Honey Wendt: I mean looking at those names, lolita etc..
[10:32] Honey Wendt: Her account is already closed?
[10:32] Jonathan Scamper: after it was closed we changed things too make it legal place
[10:32] Jonathan Scamper: it was a temp closing too get her too change
[10:32] Jonathan Scamper: so she did
[10:32] Jonathan Scamper: that is why she is back
[10:32] Honey Wendt: Why's she back?
[10:33] Jonathan Scamper: so stop harassing us, Lindons thought she must have cleaned up or she wouldn't have
[10:33] Honey Wendt: But the stuff is still happening, Mr. Scamper, I asked a girl right near you how old she is and she said 12.
[10:33] Jonathan Scamper: it is that simple
[10:33] Honey Wendt: Are you with them?
[10:33] Jonathan Scamper: and now that she knows about it, I gave that post too lolita
[10:33] Jonathan Scamper: I can't controll what lolita won't do
[10:33] Jonathan Scamper: I can controll what is going on in front of me
[10:33] Honey Wendt: So she's still whoring these people who pretend to be 12?
[10:33] Jonathan Scamper: you forget she owns the land I do not
[10:34] Jonathan Scamper: no
[10:34] Jonathan Scamper: she isn't
[10:34] Jonathan Scamper: she has cleaned it up
[10:34] Honey Wendt: What is your relationship with this Lolita, if you dont mind me asking.
[10:34] Jonathan Scamper: tha tis why i posted that link too her
[10:34] Jonathan Scamper: so she can see who is still doing ot
[10:34] Jonathan Scamper: it
[10:34] Honey Wendt: Mr. Scamper, I looked around there are kid av's with sexual profiles right there.
[10:34] Honey Wendt: Working for Lolita McAllister.
[10:34] Jonathan Scamper: then that is an issue she must deal with,
[10:35] Jonathan Scamper: I am doing all I can too stop me from being wrong in your opinion, all I know is I am here too clean it up.
[10:35] Honey Wendt: The thing is, you said ([10:33] Jonathan Scamper: so stop harassing us, ) as refering to you and Ms. McAllister?
[10:36] Jonathan Scamper: when I said us, yes i meant her and me, because she has shown me so far that she will ban anyone pretending too be 12, now if the girls you have in that blog don't change there attitude or stop saying they are 12 when they are not, then yea I would leave, but I am giving my friend the benifit. she has cleaned up allot.
[10:37] Jonathan Scamper: so that is why I said stop harassing us
[10:37] Honey Wendt: Was that girl Barns banned?
[10:37] Jonathan Scamper: i do not have the ban list
[10:37] Honey Wendt: On your profile, Ms. McAllister is the first person listed.
[10:37] Jonathan Scamper: I don't own the land
[10:37] Honey Wendt: You were role playing though :) Only one person can own the land, but many can do things on it.
[10:37] Honey Wendt: But this isn't about the land right?
[10:38] Jonathan Scamper: she is the first person listed cause she is a friend "who is cleaning up the place
[10:38] Honey Wendt: This is about role playing under age and being associated with it.
[10:38] Jonathan Scamper: your asking me too tell you something I can not, you asked if she was on the ban list, I can't tell not being an owner you can't
[10:38] Honey Wendt: You worked for her right?
[10:38] Honey Wendt: As a security guard for escorts pretending to be 12.
[10:38] Jonathan Scamper: do I have too repeat yes, because I know now she is doing what she has too too stop what lindins don't wat
[10:39] Jonathan Scamper: *lol* no I didn't work as her security guard
[10:39] Honey Wendt: What did you work as?
[10:40] Jonathan Scamper: someone who signed up the girls and who was warning them each and everyone that they can not play child and gave them a note card from lindins themselves too each sign up, so too sit there and tell me that I agree with it all, is bull, when you haven't seen an example of my aplication proccess
[10:41] Honey Wendt: Like a pimp?
[10:41] Honey Wendt: Do you know the names of the girls listed on top of my blog entry?
[10:41] Jonathan Scamper: no like a fantasy where ADULT avatars can come and escort here
[10:41] Honey Wendt: Darren Tani, Sox Ochs, Lynn Negulesco
[10:42] Jonathan Scamper: I don't know if they have been banned or not, again what i wasn't aware of I can't report too lolita. now that she knows it is up too her too ban them cause I again don't have land rights
[10:43] Honey Wendt: Every single girl there claims to be around 12.
[10:43] Honey Wendt: Well, I usually send stories like this to various Lindens too, so that works pretty fast on banning.
[10:45] Jonathan Scamper: Well good, I am all for it, you think I am going too sit here and not agree that I think age play should be excepted no Hell no. I am all for anyone pretending too be younger than 18 too be known, what you say will help me out, so don't sit there and tell me I am not doing my part, and here is a copy of what i hand out all girls during there orientation.
[10:45] Jonathan Scamper: that is in dutch form
[10:45] Jonathan Scamper: so you even know I do it for anyone not speaking english too.
[10:46] Honey Wendt: Even though you hand that out (and I saw it in that land too) the girls are all dressed up as kids and seuxally age-play pre-teens.
[10:46] Honey Wendt: You want people to pretend to be younger than 18 sexually?
[10:46] Honey Wendt: About 10?
[10:47] Jonathan Scamper: if we beleive they are acting like children and "arn't small adults" then of course will do something about it. if we discriminate against dwarfs then I should die, dwarfs should be allowed too play themselves here too, they shouldn't have too be adult looking in height just because of some idiot who wants too beleive all short people are playing young
[10:48] Honey Wendt: Well thank you for your time. I have to go now.
[10:48] Jonathan Scamper: of course you do, too go slander more of this conversation in your blog
[10:49] Honey Wendt: Mr. scamper, it's an external private blog beloning to me, I can post anything I like there.
[10:50] Honey Wendt: I can't do that here, but I can there, you are free to write anything there as well as I do not censor.
[10:50] Jonathan Scamper: you do it too slander names of people who are not doing what you claim like me for example "bad taste, even if private
[10:52] Honey Wendt: Well, I try to tell the truth, I've gathered information on Ms. McAllister's little playground for months.
[10:53] Honey Wendt: You should be aware of this by seeing the logs posted.
[10:53] Honey Wendt: If there is any futher concern, I suggest you make a post. Thank you very much. And Goodbye.
[10:53] Jonathan Scamper: and yet nothing against me, but you still slander my name. I see your reporting is not pick out the good people, but rather the more people you can mention the better for your report

Update

I just googled for "Lolita McAllister", and found this little burb on TSO Enquirer:

AVIE CHILD PROSTITUTION IN SL?

Posted Thursday December 28, 2006

It has been reported that A Child Avie Prostitution Ring is Operatin in SL called The Girls School Clubhouse, Yongcho. Apparently it is run by a head Mistress named Lolita McAllister. According to one witness who visited the clubhouse , Lolita openly admitted that although all the prostitues were children, their RL Controllers were 18 and over. Needless to say, the Appauled Witness reported the Shameful Madame and the Clubhouse to Lindens on Wednesday December 27, 2006. They have yet to Reply... But we will keep you posted as soon as they do

Apparently this pedophile has been running a child av whore house since December, I wonder why Lindens allow someone like this to be within Second Life. This person shouldbe investigated and thrown into jail or a mental asylum.

So I was right about the CP getting LL in trouble

Linden Labs just posted a blog entry titled "Accusations regarding child pornography in Second Life", which is a detailed explanation of the little case that got Germany all fired up and have been pushing some of the first negative SL stories of the past few months. (Actually a torrent of stories as follows ... )

BBC
The Age
Mail & Guardian Online
Buzzle
Earthtimes.org
Telegraph.co.uk
Washington Post
Deutsche Welle
Ars Technica
Blogging Stocks
Inquirer
and many more...

All this I gathered while reading google's aggregated news service. Linden Labs has been very prompt to propose an age-verification service earlier this month due to this very case. They were totally tight lipped about the specifics of why this age-verification thing came into existence and in their haste they decided to go with a totally untested (and possibly quite deadly in terms of privacy) way of verifying our age and identity:

"We are in the process of implementing an improved electronic age verification system that will verify Residents’ ages by using different forms of identification, such as national identification numbers, passports, and social security numbers. This will enable us and our Residents to block mature content from anyone who has not affirmatively verified they are an adult."

The above is from their latest blog entry, in which they first came to terms with the real reason why this system was to be implemented:

On Thursday May 3, we were contacted by German television network, ARD, which had captured images of two avatars, one that resembled an adult male and another that resembled a child, engaged in depicted sexual conduct. Our investigations revealed the users behind these avatars to be a 54-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman. Both were immediately banned from Second Life.

So according to LL's logic, using their extremely obtrusive method of verifying your age can stop the above scenario from happening. Yes, and how would such a system stop a 54 year old man and a 27 year old woman from play fucking daddy/daughter? Jesus, someone hand LL a a big cookie and a glass of milk. Does anyone at LL have any brain cells left?

As much as I hate non-PG age-players (as apparent from my blog), I have to firmly state that verifying your age as being over 18 is not gonna stop the above from happening. LL further stated:

During a subsequent interview with ARD’s Report Mainz documentary on Friday May 4, which aired Monday, the reporter presented photographs that he said were found in Second Life and that appeared to include sexual photographs involving a child.

ARD reports that it has handed the images to a state attorney in Halle, Germany. Linden Lab has proactively attempted to contact the authorities, as is our practice if ever an image of child pornography is reported in Second Life, but has not received a response or any other contact from the German authorities.

Dear LL, have you ever checked out the child skins that are being sold in SL? LL, you know very well what photosourcing is and that for the past two years there has been complaints from your residents that those skins are made from real children and have genitalia of real children, and used by these sick age-players to do whatever they do. You have been telling us the whole time that it's simulated porn and not child pornography, I'm glad you are finally becoming aware of the difference between virtual and real.

Just go to any skin store that's selling child skins and you can find your CP there.

Update: Click the picture below to watch a German language video on child pornography within Second Life, it's worth just for the look on Robin Linden's face when she sees what is happening within her beloved Second Life.

Link to video (German and disturbing)

The secret gathering of virtual dykes.

For some strange reason, late last night I was accidental invited ("Honey" probably being a very common name in SL) to a secret gathering of an elite dyke conference. I had SL minimized most of the night, watching TV on Joost (free but stupid service), when all of a sudden, I noticed the SL program bar blinking. When I maximized it, I was reading pages of a virtual conferences to which I've been mistakenly invited.

Ahhh fun!

It appears that there is a secret cartel of virtual dykes living within Second Life, many of them are prominent members of the Second Life fashion and upper elite community. All of them were very worried about something that is affecting their virtual lives, and from the frantic scrolling of my conference window, I realized they were facing a crisis similar to that of the extinction of the dodo.

Being as silent as a mouse, I sat there and watched and read all that was written. At first I was trying to keep a straight face, but when I started understanding the topic of their discussion and the seriousness in which it was being debated, I couldn't help but burst into laughter.

This elite group of virtual lesbians had one real big issue. Linden Labs recently announced that Second Life as of 1.16 would include voice support, a feature that would be turned on by default. For some bizarre reason, this cartel of upper class elite dykes are all men, in real life. Their concern was that when voice support was enabled, they would have a very hard time explaining the 2-3 years of their virtual existence as hardcore female dykes to their in-game friends and partners. The seriousness in which this whole conference was debated nearly numbed me with hilarity. It appears some of them were even making plans to leave. And some others were coming up with various schemes to get around this new limitation.

The best line I heard was from one who said she would from now on tell people she was born deaf and mute.

I think we got a winner here.

I waited till everyone left the conference to close the window, so that no one would see "Honey Wendt has left the session" or the likes. But if you were one of the brilliant ladies in that conference, please feel free to send me an IM. I have no desire to post the full text of the conference or names involved.

PS: This is the second time this week that I've been mistakenly invited to a secret conference. I fumbled the first one by inquiring what it was all about, at which point all participants immediately left the conference.

Virtual Gender Bender

Linden labs to sell my personal information!!! YAY

On May 15 2007, the Linden Labs is going to demand every single user to give identification in the form of social security numbers, passports and drivers licences to a company called Aristotle.

The reason for doing this is apparently to stop minors from accessing (Second Life is strictly 18+), the majority of SL areas (which would automatically deny access to anyone who has not validated themsleves with Aristotle). And it doesn't matter if you're an adult and have been using SecondLife for 2 years with your credit card validation. They force you to submit all sorts of personal data to this Aristotle.



And who is Aristotle?

Why they are corrupt data selling horse fuckers. (PROOF)

Aristotle International used a website to sell the lists, which contain details about registered voters from nearly every state. The data includes birth dates, home addresses, phone numbers, race, income levels, ethnic backgrounds and, in some cases, religious affiliations.
...
But in reality, Aristotle's site allowed anyone to register and purchase lists under a phony name and address. The site asked only for a name, the state where the buyer resided, an e-mail address and a phone number. Fields for mailing address and company name were optional.
...
Sylvia Levy, a South Carolina voter whose data appeared on a list purchased by Wired News, said she was surprised to learn about the transaction.

"If I knew this, I would never have registered," she said. "This is very disturbing, and I'm very disappointed in the system."

And that was about RL voting. Now we are trusting our personal and private information with these con artists. What the fuck is Linden Labs thinking? Yeah wut?

I'm sure gonna trust LL and some marketing whores when Homeland Security and TSA are so cool on personal data.

I've been hearing from various people that LL is imposing this age verification (along with a ban on age-play due to pedophilic cases in Germany vs SL resis's).

Rock Vielle posted the following on the old forum :

Following the story that in Holland, the Dutch Prosecutor's Office is considering legal action against child porn in SL (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/0...ual_child_porn/) and (http://buziaulane.blogspot.com/2007...first-life.html), and the blog concerning Rape Games (http://sparklematrix.wordpress.com/...e-games-update/), the sexual activity of some players in SL has again come under the spotlight with a recent German news broadcast, on ARD, again focussing on child porn (http://portal.gmx.net/de/themen/dig...55801RIaPy.html).

In Germany it is not only illegal to engage in paedophilia, but also to depict it in any way. Stories, pictures, cartoons etc depicting any of this is illegal. Circulating now in German porn shops are movies made inside SL showing sex between a child avi and an adult avi.

In Europe, the stories concerning SL are starting to become entrenched in people's minds that SL is a haven for paedophiles.

There is talk of another programme coming up, on BBC's Panorama, also depicting SL in this way. It is getting to the stage where, in Europe, who would admit to being in SL?

How many of these kind of news stories will it take before rl businesses and corporations desert SL in droves?

Is it time that all sexual activity in SL, which engages in role playing which is illegal in RL, such as Age Play (paedophilia), Rape Play (rape, abduction, sexual assault), Gorean Lifestyles (sexual slavery), even Furry Sex (bestiality) should be outlawed completely by SL, for the greater good of the majority of its residents?

How many more negative news stories can SL survive? How long before these sickoes spoil it for the rest of us?

Screenshot Dump

Age player promises to stalk me

Just a few hours ago, I randomly msged a Sunshine Garmes and gave her a link to the new Linden Lab policy on age-play. For some reason she got very agitated by this, the policy is clearly for those who engaged in sexual age-play, thus I found her reaction pretty hilarious. And since I had better things to do than debate this concept with her, I muted her (as she had a whole scroll of justification going on).

Then a few minutes later, a person by the name of Greg Cummings, IM's me.

This is the conversation.

[18:56] Greg Cummings: hey what is the problem with sunshine ? she not sick like that
[18:56] Honey Wendt: Who are you
[18:57] Greg Cummings: i am her boy friend in rl and in sl so she did nothing
[18:57] Honey Wendt: Did nothing? What are you going on about?
[18:57] Greg Cummings: i got the note card u sent her
[18:57] Honey Wendt: I did not send anyone a notecard.
[18:57] Honey Wendt: You are plainly mistaken.
[18:57] Greg Cummings: can i send it 2 u?
[18:58] Honey Wendt: What is it about?
[18:58] Greg Cummings: it shows ur name all over it
[18:58] Honey Wendt: My name?
[18:58] Greg Cummings: yes
[18:58] Honey Wendt: You mean you got a notecard from her, with a private conversation between me and her?
[18:58] Honey Wendt: Please send it to me.
[18:58] Greg Cummings: yes it pissed her off
[18:58] Honey Wendt: This is a violation of community standards.
[18:59] Honey Wendt: I will have to abuse report her for this.
[18:59] Greg Cummings: omg stop plz shes a good person
[18:59] Honey Wendt: You cannot send notecards of private conversations without permission.
[18:59] Honey Wendt: You should have read the community standards before comming to this game.
[18:59] Greg Cummings: i do it all the time
[18:59] Honey Wendt: It's a violation and I am reporting this.
[19:00] Greg Cummings: ok report me im jusyt asking u to stop she did nothing
[19:00] Honey Wendt: http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php
[19:00] Honey Wendt: # Disclosure Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Lives. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident --including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident's privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.
[19:00] Greg Cummings: ok so if i sent u a note card calling u names u wouldnt send to ur bf or gf ?
[19:01] Honey Wendt: What do you mean? This is SecondLife, the conversation was a private conversation between me and her. I have every right to the conversation.
[19:01] Honey Wendt: If that was disclosed without my prior permission, it violates the CS.
[19:01] Honey Wendt: And thus I'm abuse reporting her for this.
[19:01] Greg Cummings: and so do i shes my woman and all the stuff u said is untrue
[19:01] Honey Wendt: That is of no concern to me.
[19:02] Greg Cummings: ok il send this because its not true
[19:02] Honey Wendt: You are also violating her right to be here. You just disclosed to me her RL sex.
[19:02] Honey Wendt: After having posted you the Dislosure statement.
[19:02] Honey Wendt: This is not cool. Please read the Community Standards.
[19:02] Greg Cummings: omg shell tell u shes a woman
[19:02] Honey Wendt: I do not wish to know this, neither did I ask you of this.
[19:03] Honey Wendt: It does nothing to my rights being violated. And my conversation being given to you without my prior permission.
[19:03] Honey Wendt: You a 3rd party who is in no way involved in any conversation I had with her.
[19:04] Greg Cummings: i live with her
[19:04] Honey Wendt: I don't care this is Second Life.
[19:04] Honey Wendt: What is her fulll name in Second Life, I have to put it for this AR.
[19:04] Greg Cummings: ok but i seen it on hher screen thats not cool we have 3 kids
[19:05] Honey Wendt: That does not concern me, and I suggest you think before typing.
[19:05] Honey Wendt: She has violated the Non-discolure community standard and I'll see to it that it's reported.
[19:05] Greg Cummings: lol i seen it on her screen she did no such thing
[19:05] Honey Wendt: Is there anything else you wish to tell me?
[19:06] Honey Wendt: What are you speaking of? She gave you my conversation with her. This is what I'm AR'ing.
[19:06] Greg Cummings: yes plz stop saying that stuff about her
[19:06] Greg Cummings: she didnt give to me did i send it 2 u? no im sitting at her pc
[19:07] Honey Wendt: What stuff are you talking about?
[19:07] Greg Cummings: hmm u know what u wrote im looking at it
[19:07] Honey Wendt: I'm asking you what I wrote.
[19:08] Honey Wendt: If you can't tell me then what's the use. You should read the community standards and rules before violating mine.
[19:08] Honey Wendt: I have abuse reported her for discolsure, and giving you a private conversation I had with her.
[19:08] Honey Wendt: Goodbye.
[19:09] Greg Cummings: i said im sitting at her computer and ill report u right now for lying
[19:10] Honey Wendt: For lying? There is no rule against lying and when did I lie? When you accuse someone do please tell me what I'm accused of in more detail
[19:10] Honey Wendt: I'm going to post this log all over the net. You are parnoid and totally childish.
[19:11] Greg Cummings: ur accusing some1 of something they didnt do so ur in the wrong but ill send it right now thank you
[19:11] Greg Cummings: lol ill sue u go ahead
[19:11] Honey Wendt: Explain this, it was you who told me that you got a notecard of my private conversation wtih that person.
[19:11] Honey Wendt: From that I know the CS was violated.
[19:12] Honey Wendt: I don't have to cute and paste you saying this right? It's right above.
[19:12] Greg Cummings: cause im sitting here looking at it at my gf'bf computer so u cant comtrol that
[19:13] Honey Wendt: You have changed your story, first it was you got a notecard from so and so. But sadly, I'm no longer interested in this conversation as it's childish and going in circles. Go vent out elsewhere, you obviously have sad conversational skills and logic.
[19:13] Honey Wendt: You are muted as well.
[19:14] Greg Cummings: lol ok ill go after u 2 for harring her

Ok folks, he's coming for me! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo scared!!!

Yes, I was in serious cat mode:



One strange thing he said was the following:

[19:04] Greg Cummings: i live with her
[19:04] Honey Wendt: I don't care this is Second Life.
[snip]
[19:04] Greg Cummings: ok but i seen it on hher screen thats not cool we have 3 kids

Looking at Sunshine Garmes profile, I could see that those kids are clearly the SL kind, and not RL kind as Greg was suggesting.

I am Mommie to 3 Great Kids here in SL. (Crazy, Ellen, Joi) I am excited to be part of all of their experiances. I love them all Dearly!

This makes me wonder just how distorted reality is for these age-players.