This is Grouchy Gamers

I'm still here and I'm still posting stories, I don't bother with web pages much because I'm too busy gaming with friends, usually Tabula Rasa, Second Life, Hellgate: London or some shit like that.

That reminds me, I seriously need to get a logo for my site.

Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 7:47 PM PST by: Robin Linden

Catching up with the concerns that have been raised regarding our recent expansion of age verification testing….

Trust is the foundation of any community. And one cornerstone of trust is identity. You’ve got to know something about the person you are dealing with before you can trust them. Knowing who to trust in an online environment presents unique challenges. Traditionally Second Life users have based their trust on relationships built over time, and often on some basic verification such as ‘Payment Info on File’.

The IDV system aims to deliver two things. First, for Residents, it gives them the chance to independently verify certain aspects of their identity (their name, age, location and sex for instance) if they choose to. This will help establish trust by removing a layer of anonymity for those they interact with. It’s much easier to trust someone who puts their name behind their words and actions.

The second benefit of the IDV system is to help land owners and content publishers be sure that minors do not get access to inappropriate material. Again this is voluntary, but we wanted to provide the tools for estate owners to restrict access to content of a sexual or violent nature to those they are sure are over 18. They’ll do this by flagging the content as ‘Restricted’ which will only allow avatars verified as over 18 to access the land. Visitors to Restricted areas can also be reassured that all other visitors are over 18 as well.

More info on this week’s grid problems.
Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at 4:59 PM PDT by: Ian Linden

For the curious, I want to shed more light on the causes of the stability problems Second Life has experienced over the past four days. First, some background: the two facilities which currently make up the grid use encrypted IPSec tunnels (a form of VPN) to securely communicate with each other over the Internet. This is what allows, say, a simulator in Dallas to query our databases in San Francisco. Needless to say, if these tunnels don’t work, SL doesn’t work very well either.

I took the time to upgrade the PostNuke software and made sure it works with the forums, isn't that nice? I think so.

I think I'm too soft on you people.