Tilia will be sold to Thunes.

[Sid]

ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/thunes-to-acquire-payments-platform-tilia-llc

Are the investors taking the money for the parts that they can sell and let SL sink in the swamp afterwarts, because they don't see how to solve the elephant in the room problem?

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

By "elephant in the room", you mean...?

 

[Sid]

The child avatar problem, that can't be discussed in public.

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

I guessed as much, but wanted to confirm. The way I see it, an honest discussion of the matter is long overdu regarding its mechanisms of enforcing its policy. In most companies, when someone gets hired, there's a clause in the contract along the lines of "if you do something that makes us look bad to the public, you're getting fired and sued."

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Sid I think you're taking your pessimism a bit too far. The child avatar thing is just making a mountain out of a molehill. Thunes is also a payment company, they have a big presence outside the US, but not in it. LL has had difficulty in the past dealing with payments and payouts to non-US customers. This deal fixes that. I think this quote from the article itself explains the sale, no conspiracies needed.

Floris de Kort, CEO of Thunes, said, “The acquisition of Tilia demonstrates our ambition in the United States. This investment will enable us to leverage Tilia’s capabilities to provide merchants with direct money movement solutions in and out of the United States. Furthermore, Tilia’s deep expertise in online gaming, virtual worlds and token-based payments will greatly accelerate our growth into that fast-growing, exciting industry.”

As part of the transaction, Thunes and Linden Research, Inc. (“Linden Lab”), the current majority owner of Tilia, have agreed to an exclusive five-year partnership in which, post closing, the cross-border payments company will provide payment processing and pay-outs to Linden Lab, leveraging Thunes’ global network – allowing gamers to pay, and to receive money real-time, in a more cost-efficient way and with increased transparency.

 

[Madi Perth]

The child avatar problem, that can't be discussed in public.

There is no child avatar 'problem' in second life. There is a problem with a management structure that was suddenly hit with a scandal sheet and is looking for someone to blame.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

There is no child avatar 'problem' in second life. There is a problem with a management structure that was suddenly hit with a scandal sheet and is looking for someone to blame.

Wrong and wrong: SL has a big age play problem, and it also has a problem how the company and its management structure dealt with it in the past.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/thunes-to-acquire-payments-platform-tilia-llc

Are the investors taking the money for the parts that they can sell and let SL sink in the swamp afterwarts, because they don't see how to solve the elephant in the room problem?

It is kind of common for companies to sell off assets that are a little detached from their core business so they can refocus efforts elsewhere. I really don't think the "elephant in the room" problem is that unprecedented for LL or that big of a problem overall. I think it's a real problem but often overblown.

 

[Cristiano]

Wrong and wrong: SL has a big age play problem, and it also has a problem how the company and its management structure dealt with it in the past.

It does not have a big ageplay problem. Is there a problem, yes? Has management historically handled it poorly, also yes. However, overblowing the issue doesn't help either. None of it has anything to do with the topic at hand.

 

[Sid]

Thunes is also a payment company, they have a big presence outside the US, but not in it.

I live outside of the US, never heard of them.

 

[Noodles]

Tilia doesn't own SL though do they?

 

[Free]

Tilia doesn't own SL though do they?

No.

 

[Sid]

On the other forums Coffee Pancake wrote, and I agree with her:

If the payment processor says no smut. We're dead. This is not a reach. This has happened several times now, we have been immune as we owned the payment processor, now we don't.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

It does not have a big ageplay problem. Is there a problem, yes? Has management historically handled it poorly, also yes. However, overblowing the issue doesn't help either. None of it has anything to do with the topic at hand.

It has a big ageplay problem, because mentioning the possibility alone about that something might be off is enough to put the whole platform into big trouble. If SL would have a different reputation than it has this would be a lesser issue than it is today.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Yeesh, sounds like they're relinquishing a lot of autonomy doing this. I hope they have smart enough lawyers to declare and defend terms that protect them when this inevitably comes back to bite them.

 

[Noodles]

On the other forums Coffee Pancake wrote, and I agree with her:

That's the realm potential issue. Isn't PayPal really bad about not allowing porn processing?

Patreon has been cracking down too.

It's like all these pay processors are waging a secret war against pornography.

 

[Monica Dream]

It's like all these pay processors are waging a secret war against pornography.

What's secret about it?

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Well when in 2021 OnlyFans wanted to go IPO, there were plans indeed there to drop porn entirely as well. Problem in the background was that some banks refused to process payments from them.

Of course since OF is basically porn only in terms of what brings in the bucks this was reversed later.

The Guardian then had quite an elaborate comment about the unaccountable power of platforms and banks in that kind of matter.

The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks | Jillian York

The service has reversed its ban on sexual content, but valid – and legal – forms of expression for sex workers are still under threat, says author Jillian C York

www.theguardian.com

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

Given the role banks and payment platforms pay, shouldn't they be neutral instead of trying to impose their owners' ideology on people? Then again, most people with very deep pockets are horrendously conservative and authoritarian.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Well when in 2021 OnlyFans wanted to go IPO, there were plans indeed there to drop porn entirely as well. Problem in the background was that some banks refused to process payments from them.

Of course since OF is basically porn only in terms of what brings in the bucks this was reversed later.

The Guardian then had quite an elaborate comment about the unaccountable power of platforms and banks in that kind of matter.

The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks | Jillian York

The service has reversed its ban on sexual content, but valid – and legal – forms of expression for sex workers are still under threat, says author Jillian C York

www.theguardian.com

I had a funny thought.... what if I sued a bank or 2 as a shareholder claiming they were not maximizing profits properly by wasting time and resources with their anti porn agenda? I'd not do it, because I wouldn't want the attention, but it would hardly be the most absurd shareholder lawsuit I've heard of.