Hey-Lo

Marianne, here. So, um, Loki asked me to contribute here. I'm still not totally sure what to write, so I prob'ly won't often.

I sent a long letter to Robin Linden and Chadrick Linden a couple weeks ago, after the whole blog about kids happened. I asked a lot of specific questions about a number of hypothetical, but highly possible, occurances that might fall into gray areas. I sent a follow-up a couple weeks later, too, when I received no response. I only asked for some more basic clarification on dat note.

None of the hypothetical stuff was addressed at all. The response I got was actually pretty short.

"Marianne, as I told you previously, child avatars are fine, it's the depiction of sexual activity with children that is grounds for terminating an account, and could have potential implications for real world action. We will post a clarification publicly."

This is purty much in line with stuff dat's been said before. What I'd like to think is dat we're okay on everyting until you (an not, "you", but a hypothetical you) does explicitly sexual stuff with a kid avvie. Of course, I could have it all wrong, but I suspect we're okay in the eyes of Linden Labs. At the same time, it makes a lot of sense to remain cautious about our avvies an what we do with 'em. Not paranoid, but careful. You know, like no skinny-dipping in the waters of Linden Village, or stuff like dat.

This dun mean we're okay in the eyes of everybuggy, though. A lotta people are still treating us bad, an not jes the weird ones who wanna do icky stuff to us. I've heard of a lot of griefing an harassing, as well as a lotta places barring kid avvies, I've hadda get real good with using the "Report Abuse" menu item.

One thing I really thought was interesting about what I posted from Robin Linden was dat she says there will be a posted clarification shortly. I'm glad of this, but also a little unsure, 'cuz I never know what to expect when stuff goes onto the official blog. I expect that any publicity on kid avvies is gonna mean more people causing troubles with us. Still, maybe (I hope!) whatever they post makes it clear dat we really are welcome in the world like everyone else.