#SL Adult Content Week 45

The rumor is circulating that a group called the Freedom Continent has won the ‘contract’ to provide gateways to Zindra, the Adult Content continent. I have yet to see any formal announcement of the winner. Venus Petrov points out the gateway privatization in a post in the SL Forum and brings up another interesting point. She asks if this privatization of gateway hubs is a pilot project that may be extended to gateway hubs in PG and M rated regions. You can read the thread and see what people are thinking. If you are a shop owner and this is a pilot, this will affect you.

Along with that rumor is news from Viale Linden that searches using the term ‘Zindra’ will no longer return the Linden owned gateway Zindra (region) as the #1 result. I guess because they changed the region’s name. So, privatization is underway.

In the 11/7 Adult Continent User Group (ACUG) meeting Blackcrow6667 Garmes spoke. I was late getting there as a preceding group meeting ran over, or at least I stayed over because of interesting conversation. According to Black the first part of the proposal Black was making is to build a learning center. The idea is to teach people to build in SL with Prims, Sculpties, Mesh, and to script. I wonder if it matters that the Zindra Help Vortex does the same sort of thing?

In any event Black’s Proposal is:

To grow Zindra through the support of;

(1) a Zindra Builders group to promote, orchestrate and encourage user participation through regular speed builds, show and tells and scripting and mesh creation lectures at Zindra Vortex; effectively transforming it into a one of a kind learning center,

(2) Grid Wide Photo-Sharing using the PixQuix HUD allowing any resident to freely share and view fashion and event photos and contest winners across the entirety of Second Life both within their viewer and by slideshow at various locations around Zindra,

(3) The promotion of a Zindra Trending group to encourage group chat discussion of themed trends, fashion show events and ongoing sponsored hunts and

(4) The use and promotion of Facade to further trending as the most advanced Midnight Mania-styled game board created to allow residents to teleport directly from board to board, store to store (removing the need for owners to group spam locations) throughout the Zindra continent to effectively encourage business.

After reading through the proposal, items 1 to 3 are pretty much in place now, but by others. Photos are shared in a number of ways now. Just over 2 years ago I wrote a review of photo sharing sites creatively titled: Photo Sharing Sites Review. 🙄

We have a photo sharing site custom made for Second Life called KOINUP. It is designed for use with all virtual worlds. A resident by the name of Talia Tokugaawwa makes a KOINUP Exploration HUD and sells it for L$0 in the Market Place: KOINUP Exploration HUD. I’ve used it and it is pretty nice. I’m not that much into KOINUP as most of my SL Photography is for use on the blog or package covers… Geez, I’m getting old and boring at 3 years old… I’ve gotta find some new boy toys… or something.

Item 4 is however interesting. Not only is Façade an interesting product it and suggests a motive for why anyone would want to run gateways. If I understand, the gateways will be 4 regions and the operator will have to pay the tier on four regions, which is like US$1,200 per month. It is unclear whether Freedom Continent is taking on that level of commitment.

Façade is like a Midnight Mania prize vendor, but better. It uses an external to SL web server. This allows all the Façade machines to be networked. Like a hunt forwards hunters to each new location, Façade can forward people to the networked Façade machines. It is sort of an endless hunt without the participant setup headaches. As the network grows more people play and they have more chances to win by visiting more places. So, Façade is anticipated to be an excellent traffic builder. Whether it brings is the type of customer you want is debatable. SL Marketing things tend to lack demographic selection.

Façade does not have to be configured. That makes it easier to use. Big plus.

All users of Façade can see the network-wide statistics. Numbers are always helpful for economic business decisions.

My impression of Black’s presentation and Façade is that it is mostly a sales pitch. It has possibilities. As a byproduct there may be some benefit to the Zindra land owners but I don’t a see a revolutionary paradigm shift that is going to change player retention or region visitor rates. Time will tell.

Regions Renamed

What was formerly The Zindra region appears to have been renamed. May be Mosh South… I’m not sure but I think that is right. I am told that Zindra Prime is the new Zindra gateway run by the gateway proposal winner. As of yet there is no official word from the Lindens that I can find. I remain unconvinced.

Freedom Continent

Some rumor has Freecom Continent as the proposal winner. Don’t expect to open your world map and find Freedom Continent. There is no way to name continents within Second Life. Continent names are something we see on maps. But, there is a Freedom Continent group within SL. From the information on the group one can find that Bondage Ranch, Think Kink!, MoDesign, Latex Station, Pirandello Bay , Blacksilk Academy are parts of the Freedom Continent.

Also, Forceme Silverspar has written an article about joining Freedom Continent. Who is Forceme? I have no clue. But, she has a blog so you can figure it out. Whoever, she now has the privilege of rebuilding the Information Hub for the Freedom Continent in a region named The Farthest Shore.

Serjourn Daxter is shown as the founder of the Freedom Continent and owner of several regions that make up the Freedom Continent.

So, I expect this to be the new gateway to Second Life’s adult content, if Freedom Continent did in fact win the proposal. We’ll have to see what happens as some saying they have inside knowledge that places the new gateway at Zindra Prime. A point they make is from the August 26, 2011 ACUG meeting minutes where Viale Linden points to the Zindra Request for Proposal that promises exclusive use of the Zindra name. See the 4th paragraph.

See Page 2 link below buttons…

10 thoughts on “#SL Adult Content Week 45

  1. this topic of the newly created ‘adult hub’ regions is hotly being discussed in the Adult Content forums (I should know..Im one of the hot ones!)
    Some of the larger issues:
    1. Viale’s scheme to sell off ZEXPO island to do this ‘welcome center’ turned out to be a major mislead: these new adult hub regions are not even on mainland. They are just extra regions connected to the Freedom Continent (private organisation, not an actual LL continent, by the way), so they are geographically connected to a private concern.
    2. Even though these regions are NOT on mainland and are part of private estate, they are named Zindra North, South, East, West and Prime. 100% misleading and a marketing disaster. This is an isult to any mainlander AND will cause real damage. Traffic redirection, branding confusion, etc. Those region names MUST be changed.
    3. Because the sale of ZEXPO island was failed, the Island’s ongoing Seasonal Events Program was interrupted for no reason and we have lost valuable momentum in a deadend situation.
    4. The Freedom Continent seems to take an approach of ‘subdividing’ Sl adult content in categories (a gor-hub, a bdsm-hub, a CARP-hub, etc)…this is a losing game and is just asking for discriminatory practices. LL and its endorsed programs (such as this) should never be in the business of prioritizing lifestyles, companies, religion or politics.
    5. Nothing against the Freedom Continent. I always understood their genesis so be a healthy reaction to the original Zindra migration. But they are about sex. No doubt about it. I cannot see in any way how the approach fits the mission of a more sophisticated adult SL that is about ‘more than sex’

    Check out the Adult Content forum and join the conversations!

  2. *sigh*
    I have only peripheral involvement with the Zindra continent, however “Lindens without History” is very important. It has been said endlessly for many years, The Lindens Need To Spend Time In Second Life! At least those who make decisions do. A game coder with no in world understanding should be relegated to “cog in the LL machine” status, just do as you are told! Senior Lindens coming in from the outside need to spend *lots* of time in world, and not just at art shows, get down and dirty with the residents! That, after all, is what alts are for 🙂

  3. I visited this new hub area and stopped in at some of the Freedom Continent sims to have a look around. I was curious to see if Bondage Ranch had changed much since the last time I had visited a few years back.

    It is perhaps a good idea to direct noobies who express interest in adult activities to a central area where they can find information on what kind of adult activities can be found in Second Life and direct them to people and sims that provide that. It would be important to provide or sell space for people to advertise their sim and activities and give out landmarks. Hopefully this advertising could be categorized and arranged to make it easier to find what one wants. I will have to watch and reserve judgement before commenting on whether or not I think the new hubs do that job and do it well.

    I think the breakdown grouping Gor, Nordic, Medieval, Greek, and other historical types of role play together is misguided. These are very different things, and not all of these are necessarily adult only oriented. I think it depends on how it is done. If the hope is to attract sim owners to connect their sims to this hub, it is doomed to fail. The idea that one could cross from one to another to role play is in serious error. Having a group of plaid wearing, axe wielding Scottish reivers invade a Gorean sim is totally wrong. Even among Goreans there are groups who will not role play together based on their interpretation of what Gor would be like.

    Coming from a Gorean orientation in Second Life, I am a bit spoiled. Some of the most beautiful builds in Second Life are Gorean. There is cohesion, a feeling of cities and countryscapes, of actually being in a place. Travelling around the Freedom Continent, I did not find that kind of cohesive vision. It felt like chaos over-run with commerce. Everywhere I turned I saw advertising or shops, and very little content. I don’t think I could bring myself to join my sims to such a disorganized and un-beautiful place, whether they be Gorean, D/s or anything else.

    If this new hub area is just a place to put up ads for sims in different categories that are grouped together, giving out landmarks, then it should be fine. We do desperately need ways for people to find other people and places that share their interests.

    • Rational thinking and well expressed. The mixing of types makes sense to those not involved in any of the types. Otherwise, it makes no sense and is, as you state, a problem.

      What the hubs will be is unknown. We are 5 or 6 weeks past the due date for the proposal winner announcement and I have yet to see an official Linden announcement. While researching this I remained confused as to what was what and who is doing which.

      Sunday’s Zindra Alliance meeting should be interesting. Noon SLT/PT, Sunday @ Bronlen.

  4. I am amazed anyone would think trying to categorize lifestyles would ever work properly in such a free and diverse world such as SL. I never saw that as a way forward. Within the Femdom world, for example, there are so many variations and crossovers into so many other styles. It’s actually a bit insulting to be labeled in anyway, let’s face it. (I noted with much derision that ‘femdom’ is tucked deep into the ‘bdsm’ category in the adult hub’s setup. This is an artificial and very insulting assumption. Femdom is not bdsm) Also, there are SO many barely categorizable and unique adult places in SL. It’s a maddening prospect to try to ‘catalog’ them. This is not what LL should be doing anyway. Not their business. Search does that.

    Note: Zindra Expo group will also be having its meeting on Sunday, for a change (at 1PM)
    http://zindrabusiness.blogspot.com/2011/11/zindra-expo-group-meeting-sun-nov-13-at.html

    • I agree…

      Categorization is something humans do to make handling information easier. For categorization to work people have to understand it. No one can ever understand all the nuances, branches, and exceptions to the rich variety of things and ideas humans have created. Computers handle the raw data and sort it into manageable sets humans can deal with. Allowing people to learn how to find information via computer search is far more productive than having an arbitrary collection of people making arbitrary categories and groups of information based on their incomplete knowledge.

      It is human nature to think we can and must manage things. History shows that a good measure of anarchy and freedom result in the best solutions and environment for most human efforts and tasks. The challenge is getting the right balance of anarchy, freedom, and organization.

    • As you said, search will categorize, you have to categorize if you have limited space by count of letters you can use, or by numbers of regions for example.
      Btw. I wonder where the dom in femdom is coming from?
      And actually you categorized BDSM, and limited it, as you said that femdom is not just BDSM, so what BDSM is then for you?

  5. fantastically stated.

    A great way to ‘manage’ is to inspire, and promote others to expressing themselves and their passions. Identifying the talents within a pool and letting them shine. (thats one real example of organic movement: a good facilitator need only identify the talent and help ‘nudge’ the process along. The best projects give voice to everyone this way)

    Organic movement does not mean promoting competition, bias or directed paths (thats micromanagement at least)

    When I think on the way ZEXPO Island did operate and the currently-doomed Zindra Promenade was going to operate, they were all simply projects of inspiration, to allow anyone (the more the better) into the process to be expressive and become engaged. (I feel all the other Zindra Expo projects were set up the same way). The projects demonstrably brought people into the process (attraction) and kept them involved in future projects (retention). More people entering the world of Adult SL.

    Hmm…fits the supposed LL mission perfectly.

    Infohubs with adverts and guided experience don’t do this. You MIGHT redirect traffic and get some specific sales to specific merchants, but that is not a real retention plan.

    Creating a dynamic and interactive space that is open to all IS the way to do it. To bring in more creators. And by doing it this way, you can avoid any issues with categorizing people by lifestyle or other criteria. It’s truly a ‘free market’ system.

    Guided Infohub filled with adverts, organised by kinks? A theme park strategy?

    NOTE: In the end, if someone wants to try it, sure, go ahead, but naming it Zindra-whatever is wrong.
    NOTE2: and don’t forget, categorization AND prioritization of lifestyles? Isn’t that a direct road to promoting lifestyles and isnt that a direct road to discrimination troubles later?….best avoided

  6. Add to the scenario the most recent debacle where the LL ‘community manager’ is attempting to remove the Zindra-identity from the very successful Zindra Help Vortex, trying to micromanage that region’s content to bring in advertising, and trying to undermine each and everything the managing staff does there. The actual volunteers who manage that place are being 100% ignored, and their voices dismissed, in favour of a very small group of voices who troll the forums. Yes, loud whiners are getting their voices heard over hard-working volunteers, and the transparency of this favouritism is amazingly clear at the inworld ACUG meetings as well as the forums. People have clearly demonstrated hatred for a program are seriously being listened to, about that program’s future. Think about it: would you TRUST to ask a bank robber how to build the best security system for the same bank he wanted to rob? Under the codeword ‘inclusiveness’, this manager is trying to wreck the success story of Vortex and get the current staff to quit (my opinion) because who could do their job while its constantly being undermined? This is a new era: LL rep forcing a very specifci agenda onto residents, chasing away the talent, and operating with obvious bias and discrimination.

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