In August this year, Linden Lab announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) to run a new Adult-oriented Gateway for Zindra and Adult-related activities in Second Life.The closing date for proposals was the 12th September, with an announcement due at the Adult Content User Group meeting held on Monday 3rd October.
Only it wasn’t – the reasons given at the meeting were that Viale Linden needed some extra time to work things out and get some preparation work done.
However, some people seem unwilling to wait, as there is a note card doing the rounds that reveals that the winning proposal for the Gateway is apparently from Freedom Continent. This is a group of some 16 private island sims, all themed around adult activities and which include Thunderbird Island (Jennifer’s Jewelry), Blacksilk (The Blacksilk Academy), Damsel, Bondage Ranch, Bondage Playground and Slaver Bay among others, and which includes brand names such as Latex Station, MoDesign, and Think Kink.
The notecard itself reads in part:
“At a meeting on monday the 3rd October Linden Labs [sic] announced that a single organisation had won the contract to build, run and expand an Adult Gateway in accordance with well established principles. While it has not yet been officially announced, the organisation who obtained this contract is called ” The Freedom Continent “. This is an established complex of 16 sims, mostly adult, working together to bring a better sense of reliability to adult users in SL. They have in place a well established management system and many years of experience in dealing with adult content. The freedom team are looking for mentors who understand the problems in dealing with adult content users and work with the team to build a good sound adult mentor group who will greet and teach new users as they appear. The Mentor group, The Adult Grid Mentors, will form the backbone to the group. This mentor group will be the official mentor group for the new adult gateway and has the full support of Linden Labs [sic].”
Precisely what form the new Gateway will take remains to be seen, although four sims are on offer for actually hosting the Gateway – these being the four used to host ZExpo 2011 earlier in the year. As a part of the arrangement, the group managing the Gateway regions will also have exclusive use of the name “Zindra”. Reaction to the news of the selection – assuming it is accurate – has yet to be gauged, but is likely to be interesting.
Update: October 7th
Commenting on questions raised as a result of the note card circling in-world, Peter Gray, Linden Lab’s PR Manager stated, “There is a leading candidate, but we’ve not yet finalised any agreement or announced our selection. We hope to be able to do so soon.”
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
Do you know who is involved in that continent? My Spidey sense has a bad feeling about this.
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I’m just reporting what arrives in my inbox. However, I am hiding under the desk. You’re not the only one who has that tingly feeling.
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Come on over and visit, Look up the names of the sims or the stores and you will find us.
Perhaps we can give you good tingly feelings
Chloe (of Dark Elf Manufacture and Think Kink)
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All i Know is that i love Dem free collar and cuffs, even if im a full adept of Open Collar.
And damsel a lovely place, even if laggy sometimes, and the dungeon:)
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LL appears to be increasingly outsourcing everything we pay them for and those people will expect to be paid by us as well. So LL collapses into a tiny company collecting massive tier and SLM commissions and if we want any work done *we* have to pay someone else to do it on top of what we already pay LL for.
Fun. Great scam being set up.
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I always find it intriguing when those who make sweeping moves in the name of ‘fairness’ are always speaking in code for some discriminatory practice guaranteed to silence voices. Ultimately they do the most unfair things in the end. Misguided corporate, committee-driven procedure? If it weren’t so damaging, it would be funny.
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Indeed a scam. Exclusive use of Zindra name by a private enterprise?… representing all of Adult SL and Zindra (since LL will direct market them as the official gateway). Cry as much as you want about the way Zindra Expo group managed that 4-sim island, trying to be neutral, fair and inclusive, every step of the way, but ZE did it as an official LL group and had to remain true to fairness principles. ZE didnt pay to have exclusive rights and didn’t let commercial interests interfere with an official responsibility. This is nothing against the ‘winners’ of this unethical contest; this is a statement of outrage against an unethical contest that has devalued the work of many over the past 18 months. This is a statement of outrage against an arrogant display of disenfrachisement. Also note that the Zindra Help Vortex (LL’s official adult sandbox and mentor region) is completely overlooked as a new group is brought in to ‘be the officlal mentors’ of Zindra/Adult SL. This is insult upon insult. Hard work and passion are ignored; integrity lost. This new incoming group (while well-meaning, I’m sure) should realize they are entering on top of the backs of others who have sweat and bled to build this opportunity and been marginalized as a result. This is not a proud moment in SL’s history. It’s a destruction of community and alienation of those who have ‘gone before’
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Bad feeling…exploitation…? No one is surely surprised by this? A good while ago in the time of Mark Kingdon it was remarked (by whom I forget) that we need to remember that Linden Research is in business to make money for its investors, and that Linden Lab is merely a part of that company.
What IS a surprise, I suppose, is that it has taken the Lindens so long to realise that there is a community “out there” ripe for the fleecing. Adult content…let’s not be prissy… Porn, is what is being traded here. Any hope of an enlightened approach has gone to hell in a hand cart. I’m sad, but not surprised, Inara.
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What’s also revolting is the total lack of transparency in every step of this process. While the responsible facilitator for this mess claims to promote the community (almost chokes on latte here), nothing has been really held up for public scrutiny. It’s all been done ‘in the dark’ with a manipulation that appears to be public but is, in reality, secretive. For example, why haven’t the ‘proposals’ for this ‘adult gateway’ been made available in published form prior to decision? Zindra Expo group did make a ‘counter proposal’ regarding the island and immediately published it inworld and offworld for all worlds to see, weeks in advance. I believe if you have a decent idea, it should stand up to the public eye. It’s usually the unpopular (that is, no one wants it) ideas that need to be shuffled through the backdoor and forced upon the masses. Once again, this is not any discredit to the ‘winners’ of this farce of a ‘contest’, but transparency would lend more credibility to the process. As it has been, voices have been silenced and deals made in the dark. Ethics, anyone?
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