Yesterday I had a meeting with Terrence Linden about the upcoming closing of the Teen Grid and I received alot of good feedback in the half an hour that I had. As many know Terrence posted a new blog post about Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid on Thursday 18th November 2010. Since then there’s been over 500 blog comments on the post and that number is increasing.
Here’s the latest news:
- The date has now been pushed back a few days after 31st December 2010
- Teens will only be able to go to G regions, until they become 18 years old
- Linden Lab engineers are hard at work preparing currently for the Transition
- The TSL website went offline last week officially by Linden Lab
- Everyone will see the teen grid regions and it will be visible (regions will stay where they are)
- Very mixed feedback from Teens and many have been asking questions on how things would be done during TSL office hours
- Terrence Linden has been talking to a lot of lindens on this, across all parts of the organization and has learned a lot about how LL internal systems work, code, policies, etc
- In profiles there will be no way to find out any teens age –> (safety/privacy)
- Terrence pointed out theres’s not enough communication with the landowners on the teen grid
- Linden Lab have noticed the teen grid declining
2011 The Big Change
As many of you know Terrance Linden goal is to make the experience for Teen Grid residents smooth as possible when they come over in early January 2011. Terrance added that this TSL Transition is good in the long run, in the short run it will be choppy and hard. It’s a big shift, a necessary one for the good of the grid and Terrence is excited to see what the 16-17 year old do on the main grid. Terrence thinks it won’t be as big of a change as people think, but it is definitely a change. G regions are 15% of the grid, Terrence wants to do this correctly and Terrence pointed out it is hard reading some of the blog comments because it is a change for people and change is difficult.
What are your views on the TSL Transition at this stage ?
Daniel Voyager 
Heh, I wouldn’t call the reactions VERY mixed considering like 90% are against and 10% are pro. Also, what the heck does he mean “In profiles there will be no way to find out any teens age –> (safety/privacy)”? Someone’s safety is going to be compromised either way. If anything it’s better that we are branded as teens. At least then we will know who we are dealing with every time we meet someone. Keeping age private only increases the risk of a teen getting caught by a pedo or a teen engaging in virtual intercourse with an adult.
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Hey Blaze.
As far as I know LL will not be branding teens in profiles/accounts. So we won’t know who we are talking to inworld etc.
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I’d have far more faith if they gave any indication whatsoever that they are going to have some child safety initiatives and safety online initiatives, I work day in day out with the age group they’re bringing over to the main grid and all the safeguarding children meetings I’ve been on point me in the direction of the big holes here, if Linden Lab do have safety intiiatives and advice, they’re keeping them close to their chest and that makes me wary.
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Thanks Ciaran Laval. 🙂
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Did Terrence ever say exactly when the Merge will happen, seeing that it’s not going to happen on New Year’s?
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A few days after the new year 2011. So within the first week of January 2011 is my prediction.
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Okay, thanks 🙂
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So apparently, Terrence is popping into Eutopia on the TG this Saturday to come talk to us about the merge and answer questions. I should probably write up a small list of questions…
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@Blaze Borgin: Thanks for mentioning the event and providing a chat log for the rest of the SL community to view..
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