I am just saying the more barriers that were up and in place, meant the less options, or the quicker of the way running out.

Bringing back the verification with IP banning would be a nice hit. Like I said, we may be able to know how to skirt it, but I wouldn’t say more than 5% of SL residents would know how to not only get around 1 barrier, but an additional one.

TrannyPet Barmy
The REAL ONE
[fuck i'm drunk]

Either way, the point was not limited to teen access, the point is, that it doesn’t matter what ‘access control’ method LindenLab implement, it will be circumventable. The point being made specifically, that most of the ‘protestors’ also already realise this and are not really interested in teens being on the grid or the malicious user access element, but, are more interested in simply using this as an excuse to bring back restriction, for fear of a larger scale market bringing with it a larger scale competition – good bye easy money.

But since you mention the cost thing and how it being FREE, and how all the methods mentioned to circumvent access control cost money, well the SMS Text Message method ……… How hard do you think it is to sit in IRC, befriending a few people, then asking them if they mind you having a verification code sent to their cell phone ? Is that a FREE enough method of circumvention for you ? I’m sure most teens dont have any problem with access to IRC now do they ?

Boy you really need to start thinking outside of the box, instead of thinking within the bounds that LindenLab would like you to.

TrannyPet Barmy
The REAL ONE
[future editor of the SL Herald]

Now there is no safefall at all.

2 points.

Firstly i’m not nessecarily talking about kids getting on the grid, i’m talking about malicious users, that i am supposedly one of, by the by, i got back in the game a number of times via the above methods, heh and via a fuck up i found in their sign up site around about xmas time

Secondly, the fact is, any one, can go and buy a pay-as-you-go style sim card for a mobile phone, they can buy as many as they like with little or no identification at all, for each one they have they could have registered a new account in SecondLife. Similarly, there are many ways to get a paypal account off the ground for use in the verification scenario, as discussed above.

So in light of this, i still maintain that LindenLab will NEVER acheive any effective level of access control through verification means, or “permabanning” on hardware mac address. All things are easily and legally manipulated. Like i said, LindenLab need to either look at actively “patrolling” their universe, or invest some time, cash and effort into developing an effective griefer/underager recognition system that will automatically remove players of this status from the game. Heh at least if they automated the removal process at least every one would know they were being treated fairly and neutrally, instead of becoming pawns in some higher game

I’d offer to get involved in this sort of system with LindenLab, only problem is, the tight fuckers probably couldn’t afford me, and to be totally honest i’m not sure i’d want to get involved with such blatent amateurs, LMFAO, god from what i remember, they release more patches and updates than Microsoft !!! Not to mention *cough* *cough* leaving full client and server side god-mode access in the public client around a year ago *cough* *cough* PMFSL AMATEURS !!!

TrannyPet Barmy
The REAL ONE
[future editor of the SLHerald]

You again make some good points. As for paypal, my social had to be linked and my bank account cannot be used more than once, and since I freakin forgot my password, I cannot access it without providing ungodly amounts of info and I am not able to sign up a new account at all with the bank account number, even after trying to close out the previous account.

But the means you listed, as for prepaid phones, the cards are actually verified in a semi process when they are purchased, but yes it is true that you can get as many as you want. HOWEVER: since the last time I owned a pre-paid phone it could certainly have changed, but once you registered a number with that pre-paid phone, it could not be used for another number. A few may allow this NOW, I am not sure, but when I got my phone, I couldn’t sell it, because it came with the number and frankly, I didn’t want to give it out to any random person, add to that that the cost to purchase new phones often, on top of the ridiculous amount to own the minutes, and after I think it’s either 30 or 45 days without use, the minutes are wasted and you have to buy a new card to “re-activate”.

As I said, a few companies may have changed this, but most are still in tact as I said.

Also, the same goes with pre paid credit cards, they have to have revolving usage to stay open, because it’s “supposed” to be to build credit, and obviously if you aren’t using it, they are giving you “free” credit, by reporting back to agencies that it’s in good standing.

Granted, all your scenarios are possible. But most kids in the USA don’t have the means, or the mode to acheive this more than one or two times.

And didn’t paypal used to be an 18 and older site? Can’t remember for sure.

since when has Paypal been linked to Social Security number ? That’s the first i’ve known of it, and my paypal accounts certainly dont have such information pertaining to me. As a matter of fact, i dont even know what my social security number is myself, i had it written on a piece of paper some years ago, but lost it.

Agreed on the bank accounts and credit card linkage, however, this is fallable. For starters *anyone* can buy a prepaid credit card with no need to prove age or ID, the fact is, prepaid credit cards arent really ‘credit’ cards as such any way, they simply hold a prepaid amount of cash, which isn’t strictly speaking ‘credit’(that would involve some form of borrowing), therefore, the same restrictions on who can hold these dont count. On top of this, from the paypal perspective, there are many ways to create a new account and get credit on it, with out having to link it to any payment form. Create a new account, and then pay that account from an account that you already have credit in. Fact is though that wont actually help you much, lol, if you look into PayPals payment’s api, you’ll find that certain information is passed accross to the payee during any transaction, some of which details the paypal account holder’s name, and weather they are a verified user or not. Still not a problem though, since you could just kill your old paypal account, and sign up a new one, new account number, and undoubtedly, LindenLab’s system will only check the paypal account number(as opposed to the account number and the name) to decide weather the paypal account is restricted or not – even after reading this, if they ever re-enable account verification i doubt they’ll update their implementation.

The fact that any one can get a prepaid card in mind though, paypal doesn’t even come into the equation any longer, since once armed with a new pre paid credit card number you could have verified yourself directly on the SecondLife sign up any way.(and before you continue, one of the times i got back in the game, was via pre-paid credit card so just so you’re aware, i to have experience of this)

On the note of prepaid phones, lindenlab’s system has no idea if a name is registered to the phone or not, it simply sends out a text to the phone, the phone company supplies LindenLab with no information in return, again tried and tested. I got a friend in the US to register a SecondLife account some time ago, they put in junk details, entered their prepaid cell phone number, and guess what ? Verification code sent, entered, Account created.

Like i said, there is no way that LindenLab will prevent access, either through account details verification, or mac/ip address access control, these things are all completely fallable. What they should be looking into is effective methods of ‘patrolling’ the universe either through Lindens directly roaming, or, perhaps come up with some automated AI system that will detect certain phrases, or subjects of chat – this could also work for griefer detection to. But then again, historically, LindenLab are not up to much in the software development league, nor in the financing of their universe, so i guess no matter how much sense it would make, any semi AI teen/griefer detection system would be out of the question.

TrannyPet Barmy
The REAL ONE
[future editor of SLHerald - still waiting for the email Walker]