Back when the rating system was introduced the Lindens and I had a discussion on the content of CoLA and determined that the content of CoLA and other role play sims like it was most generally Mature and not Adult this was largely because the sims presented content was not sexual in nature by design. And that it was more akin to an R-rated movie than an adult themed sim.

Unfortunately now with the integration of the Teen Grid with the main grid. The TOS and rating system was updated to adjust for this and with the changes what was once Mature is now rated as Moderate and the Moderate rating actually due to some very suspicious policies on the Linden side will only block out underage users if they have bothered to register as an underage user.

Now CoLA isn't a sex sim, its a role play environment, but the role play in the CoLA environment is fairly dark and individual role play activities or even group role plays can spawn incidents that are of a mature nature that I feel are legally inappropriate for under age users.

Now let me first qualify my statements here by saying that I'm well aware that the average 14 year old on the internet in the 21st century has seen more porn than I probably did at the same age, but regardless of that as a legal business entity and a responsible adult, it my decision at this time that because flimsy Linden content control policy which only methodically blocks under age users from Moderate if the user is honest enough to register as an underage user, it puts me and the staff of CoLA and every sim owner in the CCS network in the position of having to force our users to age verify to responsibly ensure we are not exposing minors to inappropriate content and to protect ourselves from the gaping wide hole in the Linden verification policy which has essentially hung all estate owners out to dry if they host any content at all which could be considered inappropriate that isn't shunted off into an Adult rated sim that keeps minors out of the region.

I've wanted to avoid this as I believe everyone has a right to privacy in regards to their Second Lives' but unfortunately with the integration of the teen grid and the situation as it stands I have no choice but to at this time set all the CoLA chain sims to Adult rating, and to also recommend the entire CCS network do so as well for their own protection to ensure that no one can be legally held culpable for the gigantic loophole the Lindens left in the TOS policy which effectively defers all legal responsibility for content exposure to minors to the estate owners while somehow believing in their own blowing rainbow smoke rings up their own ass that the kids on the Teen Grid, in total, are honest enough to register as underage users when if they don't do so they can go where ever they want.

I would like to close this post by saying that I personally don't have a gigantic problem with people under the age of 18 and I'm sure there are many mature under age users that are better behaved than some 30+ year old users in Second Life, but the simple facts of the matter is the Linden TOS changes and rating changes and the huge flaw in their logic that assumes all under age users will register as such leaves us no choice but to force all our users to age verify simply to ensure that we as a community cannot be legally held responsible for exposing minors to content that may be inappropriate.

As per usual as we get feedback from the network, we make adjustments where things need to be adjusted. While we've been somewhat backed up on the new web systems integration, and getting our data collection going for API 3.0 (we're currently collecting product ID/version strings/creator for all weapons that request API access from the server, this is part of the process of getting API 3.0 into motion), its come to my attention over the last 30 days or so that the Double XP policy, while adjusted from the old one to be more supportive and positive, still left plenty of loopholes in it language for people to basically interpret things how they wanted or, what they came up with as far as ideas on their own just wasn't addressed by the policy at all.

Because of this I am once again forced to make changes to the policy.

So without further ado, explanation, or complaint, feel free to review the update policy here: CCS Network Double XP Policy

I feel the adjustments are positive and as far as the adjustments that had to be made to deal with abuses of the policy. Well, I apologize to the player base for not having foreseen them when the new policy was formulated.

I would like to close this news post with the following statement. Please stop looking for ways to abuse or get around the rules. Double XP has some very positive points, it allows lower level characters to catch up to higher level ones a bit quicker, balancing out the level base in the network more efficiently so people can play together without too much level imbalance. It allows me to finance the constant expansion of the CCS network's technology needs and it allows me to compensate Melanie for the time and effort she puts into helping me make this a better system, and also allows CCS itself to be self supporting and capable of responding, financially, to the demands or needs of the network at any time.

Those of you that are making it negative for the player base, and negative for CCS in general, are hurting the network as a whole for your own interests. I will start terminating players, GMs, sims or entire communities if this does not stop. I hate to be heavy handed with any one, we are a collective partnership in this network, everyone working together and providing hundreds of role play/gaming/combat environments in Second Life, making CCS literally one of the most widely used gaming systems in the history of Second Life, and we've all done great over the last four years, not just me, but all of us, together, the players, the sim owners the designers and the system developers.

Continued attempts to "game" the system and get around the "rules" and make it negative will be viewed as hostile attempts to degrade the integrity of the CCS Network and will be dealt swiftly, to protect the integrity of the network and the players that enjoy this game. I hope I am abundantly clear on this.