Second Life Griefing Tools Direct
It’s a fact of life that griefing is part of the subculture of Second Life. It’s not necessarily an agreeable subculture or one we particularly want or need, but it is there all the same. I say this not to excuse what goes on, but to underline the fact that right or wrong, most of us in hearing about it tend to shrug our shoulders and then carry on with our lives.There are times, however, when griefing – which is actually crossing the line each and every time it occurs – crosses a the line not only in terms of resigned acceptance, but also in terms of criminal behaviour.The fashion world in SL has to this latter situation. This saw an SL user already complicit in copying skins and shapes, and whose profile boasted they had scant regard for the ToS together with outright threats against content creators, start to use griefing as an attempt to extort money from others.
They did so by crashing large fashion events and then demanding payment in order to not crash future events.Much of what happened in this matter appeared to go unreported outside of fashion circles – few blog (this one included) reported on the matter, despite the problems apparently occurring over a span of months. The Lab also appeared unwilling to engage in the matter, despite extortion being a.
Just saying, if I do not like a video game, I log off and play another one. I am not going to get upset and have a hissy fit if I am playing Call Of Duty and another player shoots me.I would like to be a fly on the wall when someone calls the police to complain about some other game player getting the upper hand on them while playing a video game.Every one knows that there are other game players in this game who like to greif. That is all part of the silly game. No one is forcing anyone to continue playing any video game, wether it is Second Life or any other video game that players interact with each other. If one of the video game players is feeling threatened by another video game player, log off from the video game and the threat is gone.If people playing Second Life are not happy with how the game is played or the video game creator’s customer support department, go find another game to play that is more to your liking.Suing a video game, thank you I appreciate the laugh of the day.Like. Ok Albert, give me your definition of a game. My definition of a game is.
You download a game, the game has a beginning, a real story/plot line, levels and an end. Does Second Life have those thing? Second Life is a community with real life people, people whom can get hurt, whom lose money when grievers fuck the place up, whom have feelings and real emotions. People make real friends online and sometimes they cross over too rl.
Real people not just some computer puppets. PLUS what those grievers do is blackmail “pay for protection” things gangs and the mafia do in rl with rl stores. So this is a criminal intent and has to stop!Liked by. “Ok Albert, give me your definition of a game. My definition of a game is. You download a game, the game has a beginning, a real story/plot line, levels and an end.”Never played to many multi-player games that have an end. Funny to call the police in real life because another player stole all your golden coins.
I would love to be in that squad room listening to the cops laughing that one up.One builder who I helped sponsor by providing free store space told me that she was trying to earn the most money to win with her creations. I would suppose”win” meant to make the most gold coins or linden dollars or what ever they are called in the game you are playing at the time.I can understand the competition that all of you builders are going through to win in the game.Since the game of Second Life is what you make out of it. Some can be neurotic and make Second Life replace their real lives and get overly involved in the game. Maybe to the the point that a trained psychiatric professional is needed to create rl/sl boundaries so that people like this can tell the difference between the two.In any case if a game come to the point that a person feels threatened and feels it is necessary to call the police about another person taking their golden coins or what ever the money is called, then these people need to stop playing these games and go outside and take a walk in real life.“officersniff.sniff.
These people cheated and stole my golden coins can you help me win?” sniffing again “they cheated and used a hackno fairsniff.sniff”Like. Oh, nonsense. If it is such a “silly little game,” why do you griefers — and griefer enablers and justifiers — need to disrupt other people who don’t think it is? What sort of totalitarian cult do you belong to that you have to impose your notion of how it “should” be on other people by harassing them online?
Why is that okay? Why do YOU let other people’s decision to take SL seriously and use it for commerce or any damn thing they want without YOUR permission so able to bother YOU?! THAT is the question that needs to be asked.Like. Brain dump:How to motivate LL to follow the money if a merchant pays the extortionist?If they won’t do it voluntarily, what form of ‘letter from a lawyer’ would?What if the trail crosses state lines?What if the trail crosses international boundaries?Can someone estimate the amount of US$ involved both as damages and payment demanded?
There are levels of US$ that are necessary to trigger Federal action.Can the payment processors be obliged to take action against the party(s) behind the accounts using their services for extortion?It sounds from your description that LL will only respond to RL legal moves.So merchants should maybe come together to fund that.Tell LL that it’s going to happen.Two avenues in tandem. Bad publicity and legal action.Like. “They don’t do anything to stop griefing.
Instead, they have left this job to a gang of griefers called the “Justice League Unlimited””Here are a few points in response to your post. First, the history of Linden Lab’s griefer response is nowhere near what you posted. LL had a talented and effective group of employees called the Governance and Response Team (the GTeam) that did a good job of responding to and ending griefer attacks. LL laid off these great employees and replaced them with untrained contractors who had to get the residents in the field to show them where the griefer objects were located. Now the contractors are all gone and there is no LL response at all to Abuse Reports filed during griefer attacks.
Second, Linden Lab did not turn over griefer response duties to the Justice League Unlimited. JLU’s involvement with griefer attacks was and is the same as any resident on the grid – they file Abuse Reports. And third, the Alphaville Herald is not an impartial source of news. If you believe everything they say, then you will continue to post inaccurate and erroneous opinions like you did here, and your credibility will continue to decline.Like. First of all, what I see here is someone who infringes on the copyright of a company that publishes “superhero” comics.Second, who exactly and when granted YOU the power and the authority to substitute Linden Lab’s abuse handling team?Whether you like it or not, you are nothing but a bunch of rogues, bullies like that Greek gang named “Golden Dawn” and your team has a well-documented history of harassing and stalking others.Let’s face it: it’s not a situation where you are the “good guys” and the Patriotic Nigras are the “bad guys”.
You’re both detrimental to everyone’s experience and use of SL and I don’t want your team or any other rogue team of wannabe cops anywhere near me every bit as much as I don’t want snotty brats who think griefing is fun near me.Like. And something else:If and when I face a griefer, I’m going to file and abuse report and I’ll take appropriate action within my customer-provider relationship with Linden Lab, who are the only people with legitimate authority to handle such incidents.You see, I pay RL money for L$ transactions to Linden Lab, not the JLU.I use Second Life, which is a service created, maintained, run, developed and provided by Linden Lab. Last time I checked, the servers, developers etc are all Linden Lab – not JLU.And as far as I know, you are not Linden Lab employees, you are not a team of people contracted and authorized by Linden Lab and I fail to see why I should trust you to act in lieu of Linden Lab.Like. Lets see about a year or more ago a Linden deleted a popular mega prim that was not only used to greif, but was also used in many builds.People logged in to find parts of their sims missing. The same thing happened even earlier with another popular texture that left people’s homes textured with I.P. Replacements after there was some question of who had the rights to use this texture.Then we all remember Stroker’s bed drama over a bed that someone got a hold of with a full perm script inside somehow. The Lindens disabled Strokers scripts in the questionable beds that this person was selling using Stroker’s scripts.
In doing this, Linden Labs disabled the legitimate beds that other had bought from Stroker himself.Like. I didn’t ask you for examples of LL breaking stuff. You asked for examples and I gave them. As for red zone, I never said any thing about red zone.
I was able to defeat that spyware without anyone’s help. So red zone was never an issue for me (unless I wanted to make it an issue).The combat sims crash on their own without anyone’s help, so I consider poor game performance as a normal part of Second Life.
I would be a basket case if I stressed over lag or crashing sims when ever l decide to play Second Life.The moment that I have to become serious while playing a game or stress over how another person is playing Second Life( or any other game), then it is time to stop playing that game and find something else to do.Like. I’d like to comment on 2 points:1. OK, it’s possible to report an item you see on Marketplace for violationg the ToS – it requires that you log in SL, though, with your SL viewer. It still makes the process harder than it should be. I mean, if you saw the item on Marketplace, you should be able to report it from the Marketplace pae immediatelly. Not to mention that, if you go to the in-world store, you may end up being tracked by tools that detect your presence.2. I understand that it’s a bit harder to fight griefing when you can have as many free accounts as you want, but one should be careful when stating things like: “in an age and situation where alt accounts are freely available, the removal of a single account is no guarantee the individual responsible has actually been removed from SL – or more particularly that their modus operandi will not be repeated elsewhere by others.” I mean, yes, this situation requires that the Lab go further.
But I’ve already seen somewhere people saying that free accounts, themselves, are the problem. I’d say to those who state so: be careful what you wish for. Here, for instance, it is said that “Junkyard Blues has been forced to resort to restricting access to their club to “members only”, which impacts both their business and their customers” – in other words, less people will go there, less people will be inclined to buy from stores there, etc. If you restrict access in SL to premium accounts only, I’d say most likely the same thing will happen, now to the whole grid. I, myself, am not premium, and I prefer to be non-premium. Still, I pay rent, buy L$ regularly, buy stuff in world and on Marketplace, etc. And I know many in the same situation.
So, whatever the solution is, it has to be done without banning free accounts.Like. The means to report SLM items via the viewer’s Abuse Report window has been highlighted, but thanks. It would still be easier to flag items directly from the Marketplace pages.I fully agree that issues such as this should not be used as a hammer against free accounts – and my observation is not in any way intedned to be taken as such.The vast majority of free account users do so fully legitimately (I actually have two accounts: my preimium, and a free account – my Crash Test Alt). I’ve argued myself quite persistently in the past – contribute as much, if not more, to the SL aconomy than premium / paid accounts, and as such should not in any way be banned.Neverthless, my point in passing the comment on the ease with which accounts can be made is valid; better checks and balances are required to ensure those who are banned from SL remain banned, rather than having the freedom to return. Admittedly, in the era of dynamic IP addresses and people owning multiple computers, this is a tad easier said than done, and I fully appreciate that.Like.
On the other hand, on the abuse report issue, trying to be positive, at least there is a way to do it. And on the free accounts, just to make it clear: I understad what you mean, my comment was mainly motivated by an observation I read elsewhere, that seemed to imply that the problem was the mere existence of free accounts. I also recognize it’s difficult to solve the issue and that having free accounts makes it even more difficult. But I’d say that, unfortunately, this is how it is, difficult. Maybe persistent action (banning griefers persistently) can help, maybe providing special “security” for sims that become target of frequent attacks, maybe developing some tools to identify ongoing attacks and stop them On limiting alts per main account hum, is that effective? I mean, if I’m a griefer and I want to disrupt stuff, I may create different main accounts, with different IPs, one would not even know they are connected to the same person in the atomic world.
Not sure this is effective.Again, sorry, I know this post is not against free accounts, it’s just that I’ve already read people elsewhere complaining about free accounts, and it worries me.Like. The rhetoric against free accounts in general has been around since 2006. Some people felt that only paying members were guaranteed to act responsibly, an opinion to which i do not subscribe.
I agree with you that this issue demands and dictates persistent action – eternal vigilance – on behalf of LL.And perhaps LL should make an example of certain extortionists and griefers, by publishing their RL info and not only aiding their victims in suing them, but also suing them themselves under the provisions of anti-cybercrime legislation. They have the right to do so, you know.Like. The article’s point was not against free accounts; it was about how easy it is to engage in abusive and disruptive activities when you can easily make as many free alts as you want.Let’s say this is my main account.
And, just because i want to cause mayhem, i go and create four more alts (the maximum i can make for free). I also go and make a few more main accounts and attach four more alts per main account; thus, without any cost, i have amassed a platoon of alt accounts. I equip each of my alts with a griefing tool and start launching them to disrupt others.People report my alts for abuse.
They get (perhaps) banned. No problem; i still have my main accounts – i can, if i’m smart enough, delete the griefing alts before they are investigated after a possible AR. And i start over.This has got to stop.Yes, each person must be able to join for free, in order to make SL’s appeal wider. But each main account must be allowed to have only one free alt. Any more than that should cost money for their creation, so that their owners will be discouraged from using them for griefing (when throwaway accounts start costing real money, people will use their main ones for everything). Also, once someone has made an alt, even if s/he deletes it, this alt should still count against the remaining number of allowed free alts.For instance, if i have my main account and make two alts, under the current “five avatars per ‘household'” regime, i’ll have two remaining “slots” for free alts. Deleting an alt should NOT free up a slot.So, free accounts?
Yes, by all means. But restrict them to two free accounts per “household” (i.e.
Per RL owner): one main, one alt. Anything more Get your credit or debit card out and PAY.Like. Re: “disrupt in-world user group meetings in order to try to voice their concerns and frustrations directly (if unfortunately inappropriately)”Oh, come now. All these people did was speak a few sentences in a meeting.
There was no “disruption” whatsoever. And they were right to try to get these technical Lindens who work on the server to realize that their very jobs depend on there even being a Second Life, and if the disruption of.their customers’. SL gets to bad, they’re going to have to hear a few off-topic phrases about this. Honestly, you would have thought these innocents crashed a sim for the way you describe it! And indeed those Lindens are equipped to help and in fact their conveyance of this “disruption” cured the problem INSTANTLY, and the griefer was banned within 24 hours after that. That is what it takes.
A few geeks didn’t get to have their precious Lindens’ full attention for 2 seconds, big deal.Like. As someone who deals with SL griefers as a matter of course almost daily, I have to say that they are becoming more organized and deliberate – not to mention more malicious – of late. Rather than just the odd attention-seeker, we seem to get a lot of co-ordinated ‘flash mob’ attacks and orchestrated troublemaking. This takes the form of three or more people coming to a sim and engaging in an elaborate RP (in the form of an argument in local), while an accomplice unloads griefing tools elsewhere n the sim, while the guides are occupied with the ‘argument’.It’s planned and deliberate, and not just a matter of the odd, random person who wants to annoy or antagonize others. Griefing may have been a part of SL since its beginning, but it is becoming more and more of a problem due to the ‘organized crime’ factor which seems to be a part of recent griefer ‘culture’.Like. 1) I understand that LL does not want to go down any slippery slopes, such as investigating the legitimacy of, say, every DMCA claim. That is a far cry, however, from taking their current “impartial” stance between creators and obvious, blatant thieves, esp when we are talking about major established businesses put at risk (such as Curio) — and that did not used to be the case.
Thief accounts used to be deleted; now, apparently, LL does not bother. I have pretty much stopped bothering to file DMCAs. What is the point in having content taken down when the thieves have copies tucked safely away from prying eyes in inventory?If LL cannot afford to have people on staff to deal with griefing and blatant, egregious content theft, then collect fees from those who are asking for relief and hire some people. My bet is that many merchants would be more than happy to pay for some protection — we are operating in the damned Wild West and need some law enforcement.2) Extortion is criminal activity and needs to be reported to the police (or FBI), esp considering LL’s “impartiality”.Like. According to the same TOS, L$ are not money. (Section 5.1) There’s some convoluted legal language about a “Linden Dollar License” which defines buying and selling in terms of that License.I don’t know how that interacts with legal definitions of “extortion”. It needs somebody who knows the law to figure out.
I’d suppose that the precise status of the L$ matters. In Britain it would, I think, be covered by the Theft Act if the L$ was not money.Secondly, I had an interesting exchange with Linden Labs when I reported a region apparently down.
It involved somebody who commented on the ticket under the name “Boris Linden”, saying it should have been an abuse report (the apparent cause was a griefer attack).My response was: “On past experience, not just of reports by myself, I am unconvinced that any abuse reports are investigated.” (I hereby give myself an unlimited license to quote my own copyrighted material, valid in all jurisdictions subject to the Berne Copyright Convention.)This provoked a reply, urging me to make an abuse report, and saying I would be “pleasantly surprised”. This was several hours after the incident, and I had made an abuse report at the time anyway.
Second Life Griefing Tools Director
I politely reminded the person–he didn’t identify himself this time–that according to the TOS, the results of Abuse Reports were kept secret from the reporter, and added that I had already made an abuse report and received the auto-response.I didn’t say that the Linden didn’t know what he was talking about, but I suppose he might have inferred it.I remain unconvinced that abuse reports are investigated, and I have no idea whether or not mine are even considered complete enough to investigate.Like. L$ is not a hard currency. True.If L$ obtained by deception/fraud are converted into US$, then those US$ were obtained by deception/fraud.Whatever about the internal SL situation, I believe that the L$-US$ stage is where a possibilty of Federal action becomes possible – depending on the amount involved. The amount should logically be cumulative, and not a per-transaction view.That should apply to the proceeds of content-ripping as well as to extortion.I am not a lawyer.
So I can waffle.Like. This evening I wrote about a serial griefer who has been plaguing the Linden sandboxes. He has three current alts and at least seventeen banned alts. So LL is investigating Abuse Reports in some way. I believe that once the number of ARs on a resident reaches a threshold, LL investigates and possibly takes action. But in my experience there is no real-time investigation or action taken on Abuse Reports.
The only Linden who ever shows up in the LL sandboxes these days is TimeLimit Linden. He takes exactly 5 hours to respond, and coincidentally his response coincides with the sim’s autoreturn time. So I think your “pleasant surprise” after the Abuse Report was the standard response promising an investigation and hoping that you encounter no more problems in Second Life. I hope you acted surprised when the email arrived. All written material with articles in this blog, unless otherwise stated via citation and / or reference, is © Inara Pey.This blog is. You are free to share/repost/include material in this blog part or in whole in electronic and/or printed format, providing: full and correct attribution is given; doing so is not done for commercial purposes.
Second Life Griefing Tools Directions
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