Second Life listens to its users. Wake up Facebook!

There’s a lot of press right now about the new Facebook design changes, detailing their epic fight against Twitter to become the most relevant social networking platform for big corporations. History has shown us that initially, people are gonna lash out against Facebook about the changes. On the other spectrum, Second Life probably won’t get as much user complaints about a significantly bigger change to their social networking policy: They now plan to separate, identify, and warn about X-Rated Content (read: virtual intercourse)

Change

I’m going to try and write a paragraph about proposed change without mentioning President Obama. Let’s look at what’s happening right now in the social networking world. You’ve got two companies responding to change. Facebook sees that many companies are understanding how to use Twitter for their marketing efforts, and are now turning away from Facebook’s attempt at a solid revenue stream. They’re bringing a new “Twitter-esque” layout, which is sure to aggrevate many of its users. Second Life, a product that blurs the line between an MMO-RPG and a social networking platform, is also responding to an outcry it has had since its inception, which is to moderate and filter adult-rated content.

Why do people yell at Facebook?

In the past, anyone who’s used Facebook has seen the resistance to change. User groups petitioning new changes (for better or for worse), status updates indicate the aggravation, and blog posts about why things were great the way they were. I’ll openly admit that I’ve liked most of the changes for the most part, even if it took me a little while to really “get it.” I won’t argue that the changes have been for better or for worse, but Facebook really needs to work on how they communicate the changes to their community. They’ve started to do that this time around by announcing a “warning” of sorts that things will change, and have explains its new benefits, but that’s about as far as that really goes. Rarely do you see or hear any real engagement from a development standpoint, and the changes always feel forced rather than complementary. With tactics like those, it begs two questions: 1. Does Facebook even are about the user backlash? 2. How could they not see it coming, time and time again?

Why don’t people yell at Second Life?

On their official blog, Second Life has posted about its proposed changes to its platform – namely that they will be filtering adult content. This is a pretty big deal, considering the fact that it’s hard to read any blog post about Second Life, or to even hear a description about it, without the words “sex” and “virtual prostitution” coming up. What’s important though, is why and how they’re making these changes.

The why part comes from their need to expand their audience. While they do have a steady userbase in the millions, their virtual economy is comprised of over $100 million USD. That’s a LOT OF MONEY! But one of their key concerns is the lack of growth in recent quarters, and they realize that they need to get new users. To really push to more businesses and education segments, along with a more “mass-market” flavour, the company has realized that its adult content needs to be filtered out from those who don’t wish to see it. Knowing that this would cause a disruption within their userbase, months before implementation, they’ve decided to outline what they plan to do.

How do you define “Adult Content?”

What’s adult content on Facebook, and in a movie, is greatly different from something that happens in an interactive environment. To tackle the challenge of defining adult content and proposing initiative for filtration, they’ve outlined not only that they plan to work with their community, but have detailed exactly how they plan to do it. You can read the details on their blog post, but the point is – they’re listening to the guys who’ve made them so big in the first place.

Know when to go with the river, and know when to go against

The main takeaway here is that for better or for worse, Second Life is working WITH their users – not against their wishes. Even if they don’t implement anything from their community and just go with their pre-defined idea of what’s right, at least they’re pretending to show that they care, and really, that’s worth a damn. They’re showing that they’re working to preserve their highly profitable revenue channels, increase their userbase, and create an overall better experience. When you look at the backlash of how Facebook users react to even the most trivial changes through the lens of communication, the whole picture becomes a lot more clear.

[ Second Life Blog - Upcoming Changes for Adult Content ]
[ Information Week - Second Life Putting A Leash On Sex, Violence ]
[ Wikipedia - Second Life ]

Advertisement