I know these posts are coming fast and hard and I’m fairly certain nobody has even glanced over my blog to this point, however I would like for somebody, whoever it may be to take a look at this to see how a 3-year going on 4-year Teen Second Life resident feels about the topic.
The idea of a grid merge is one that has been alive and stirring on the Teen Grid since the earlier part of 2008 with groups such as “The Grid Merge” which now sports (at the time of this post) a wealthy 604 members, which is a significant number when you consider the fact that the Teen Grid contains somewhere in the area of 200 simulators. Needless to say little has been done about the issue until 2009 came around with Philip Rosedale, founder of Linden Labs going out and saying that a merge is the best option. You can find this by navigating to the following link to find a Global Kids post on RezEd quoting Rosedale about the topic in January of this year. http://rezedhub.ning.com/forum/topics/philip-rosedale-teen-second
Of course with any major change in any technology, be it the telephone or our precious Second Life, there comes many ups and downs and controversy along the way but eventually something gets done and a majority of the people out there end up happy. So what are some of the upsides to this possible merging of the grids?
- Improved and more regulated Teen Second Life economy
- Teens would be able to meet up with transferred friends
- Educators would be able to communicate with students more frequently (a majority of the regions on TSL are educational)
- A merge would shy many copybotters on the Teen Grid from copybotting, the product would be available
- Teens would have a much more vast area to explore than the 100 or so public sims on the Teen Grid
- Children and parents would be able to talk to one another on the same grid
Okay, so there are many upsides and from my perspective I would definitely love to see a grid merge because, as I have said I have been a commonly active member of the Teen Second Life community for quite some time and still have a year and then some until I transfer and from what I have seen the Teen Grid has been at a decline since it has opened in 2005. Sure the building standards have increased but the amount of copybotters has risen tremendously since the technology has been discovered by Teen Second Life residents and needless to say not much growth has been occurring either. But enough of my opinion thrown into this post, it is time to talk about some of the downsides of this dynamic event.
- Teenagers and adults in the same area could bring out some conflicting thoughts
- Younger teenagers may feel left out in most scenarios
- Sudden increase in price on everything for Teens may result in frustration
- Adult content, if not moderated effectively or flagged in some way, could be a problem
- Possible that merging the grids may not have too much of an educational impact
Most on Second Life, when tackling this subject, tend to gravitate toward not merging the grid, and in my opinion I believe this is from lack of actual experience. And coming from a three, almost four year veteran of the Teen Grid I can safely tell you that the situation on the grid is not improving. The isolated grid is not allowing teens to express their creativity more freely amongst themselves but rather limiting them on ideas and making them resort to things such as copybotting. The Teen Grid can no longer support it’s own weight, the community has just about given up on itself, which is why outside help is needed.
If you look at it in the following perspective it all makes a lot more sense. The Teen Grid works in cycles, the cycles come as follows. Every few months the Teen Grid tends to run into a dry streak, where it seems as though nothing new is coming and no new places are being opened. Then a few new designers come in and fix things up, usually become some of the biggest names on the grid that everybody knows, the help renew things. Then suddenly they disappear, these people transfer, they leave along with the skills they have taken the time on the TG to develop, thus making their magnum opus only available on the Main Grid of Second Life, and leaving Teen Grid residents at a point in time that was as if they never existed to begin with, with their skills no longer available on the grid.
Please leave a comment expressing your own opinion and be sure to use the poll, I would like to see what other people think about this and discuss the topic.
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As a resident of the adult grid I thought you made some important points and I agree with a lot of them (given that I am on the adult grid and only know the teen grid from what my daughter told me about it) The only point that I disagree with is the issue of copybotting which seems just as rampant on the adult grid.
Just as you have said about the teen grid, Shelby, I only know what goes on within the main grid from transferees, I knew copybotting still existed there but wasn’t sure about the scale of it.
Even so, the TG is a safe haven for content stolen from the Main Grid to flourish and circulate. Without volunteer groups (with help from MGers) identifying content (http://www.flickr.com/groups/1066102@N23/), there would be no one to verify the content floating around the TG – We’re “Not supposed to be” on the Main Grid in the first place.
And still, with content spotters and myself as the head copybot investigator on all TG rental sims, the job is difficult. The situation seems to be improving, but once copybotters find a chance or loophole, they’ll flock to it and start selling MG content again.
The difference is that when you copybot on the MG, everyone can easily know because it’s all on the same grid.
If you copybot on the TG, it takes investigation, verification, going through various channels to get the information to the rightful content creators, etc. All with no substantial help from Linden Lab TG-side.
~V.
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