HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOURSELF FROM GRIEFERS? – Camury Reporting

All residents, upon registering for second life, agree to abide by the rules in the Terms Of Service (TOS) and the Community Standards (CS). But it is very common for people not to know or not to remember these rules.

Terms of Service – TOS

URL: http://www.lindenlab.com/tos

Community Standards – CS:

URL: http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php?lang=en-US

Abuse occurs whenever one of these rules is intentionally or maliciously disrespected, but not all residents know the abuse reporting system or remember to use it when encountering players who are intentionally rude, so-called Griefers.

The best way to prevent harassment or abuse is to use your settings, to control the environment, and who can interact with you. For example, if you are being pushed or moved by scripts, right-click an object and select Sit Here. This prevents you from being moved. If a friendship has soured, block the person and remove them from your friends list. This will also remove all the permissions you've given to the person.  

In Sl, I talked to some people about how they protect themselves from Griefers. Let's take a look at the answers.

Miss  Haneruno  Resident

Camury: Miss Haneruno, have you ever suffered any kind of harassment or abuse in SL?

Haneruno: "Yes I have suffered many attacks in SL. This is very common for those who, like me, use sandboxes. "

Camury: How do you protect yourself from Griefers?

Haneruno: "I know that there is a system of complaints in SL, but when I suffer attacks I get a little annoyed and simply turn off the computer. I do not have the patience to make the complaint. "

Mr Rayc0 Resident

Camury: Mr. Rayc0, have you ever suffered any kind of harassment or abuse in SL?

Rayc0: "Yes, I was in a Protected Land, waiting for my inventory to load, when an avatar started to shoot me."

Camury: How did you do to protect yourself?

Rayc0: "I got angry and teleported myself to another place.

Camury: Do you know the SL complaint system?

Rayc0: "I read something about reporting abuse but actually I never bothered about it. I've never tried to know how to make complaints ... "

Mrs. Brendajac Melborne

Camury: Mrs. Brendajac, have you ever suffered any kind of harassment or abuse in SL?

Brendajac: "Yes, I was visiting the Amazon River Land with a friend when we were attacked by Griefers."

Camury: How was the attack?

Brendajac: "They put us in a kind of cage, where the avatar cannot escape. Even if you leave the game and return to the game, your avatar will be trapped in that cage.

Camury: Did you report the attack?

Brendajac: "Yes, my friend, who is an experienced player, was able to resolve the situation and took all steps to register the attack and report the abuse to Linden Lab. Those Griefers were banned from SL."

Miss Prya Resident

Camury:  Miss Prya, have you ever suffered any kind of harassment or abuse in SL?

Prya: "Yes I was on a land when my avatar was pushed several times and I could not control the situation.

Camury: Did you report the attack?

Prya: "I did not really worry about that, all I did was teleport me to another land."

Miss AnyaMel

Camury: Miss Anyamel, have you ever suffered any kind of harassment or abuse in SL?

Anyamel: "Yes I was at an SL event when I received a suspicious object. All they wanted was to take my lindens. "

Camury: How can you verify that the object was suspicious?

Anyamel: "I opened the profile of the object and saw that the information was incomplete. The creator of the object did not have satisfactory information in his profile and by clicking on the object I received a message asking permission to remove my lindens."

Camury: Did you report the abuse?

Anyamel: "Yes, I captured all the screens and sent everything using LL's complaint system." I'm still waiting for the result of the complaint. "

Send complaints about any abuse you witness, other than those you personally encounter. Complaints from several people highlight the seriousness of an incident and help resolve the cases more quickly. Learn how to report by clicking here:

URL: https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/filing-an-abuse-report-r25/

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“ALTs in Action and Their Rights” - “Seersha Heart” Reporting...

“Susan Sonnet is my favourite alt. Skin and shape by ND (Paris, naturally); hair by Abyss,

outfits by Blaze. Classy, aloof, unobtainable and utterly drop dead gorgeous. It cost me a

fortune in Lindens to put her together, but a stickier SL honey pot you could not imagine. I'm

telling you, she's deadly” remarks by Definitely Thursday, resident on page 13 of the fictional novel AFK by resident Huckleberry Hax.

Are you one of the many residents of Second Life to have an alternative identity or ALT?  Some people have several ALTs serving various purposes.  In the novel “AFK”, the members of a Second Life detective agency do a thriving business with assistance from their ALTs.  This usage, however, is the exact use of an ALT that most people fear, for deception.  This is the belief and the fear of a large majority of residents, that an ALT will be used to deceive them or to bother them in world.  ALTs are not the bad guy, it is the user.  There are many wonderful ways to use an ALT in world.

I have two ALTs, one is a male AVI called Pablo, he does some building projects for me.  He doesn’t have friendships.  He is for working on projects.  In his profile I disclose that he is an alt, how to contact my MAIN, and that I am female.  It hasn’t kept me from some very interesting conversations.  Just last night while building at the LEA Sandbox a Chilean resident noticed my AVI’s name, Pablo, and that he was named after the poet Pablo Neruda.  The resident I was speaking to is a huge fan of Neruda’s work, so much so, he told me he named his son after Neruda.  He said he saw that I was a woman so guessed that I was not a ‘Pablo’ irl.  I laughed and said he was correct.  It was a fun and an engaging conversation that ended with just ‘nice meeting you’.  I think Pablo is a good representation of a large number of the ALTs in world.  It is only a few who abuse the process that give ALTs a dubious reputation.

My second ALT is a female named Stevie.  I do not identify her as an ALT as of the writing of this article.  I made her to perform tasks for my MAIN without interruption from well meaning friends.  She is an alternative to my MAIN.  I use her to explore areas my MAIN avi does not, such as roleplay.  I don’t use her much in world.  Most of my close friends know about her, and she is friends with some of their ALTs.

ALTs, or alternative identities of the same person, easily spark conversation as everyone has an opinion.  Second Life Wiki’s definition reads “an account used by a resident for something other than their usual activity or to do things in private”.  As I wrote in the beginning of this article, what residents seem to fear most about ALTs is deception.  Some have also used ALTs to harass or to stalk others.  Nefarious uses that will get not only the ALT banned, but the MAIN as well.  ALTs are not secret identities to Linden Labs they can identify ALTS from collecting our IP addresses when we log into SL.  It is this practice that helps Linden to locate and ban MAIN accounts along with all ALTs of a user who violates the TOS/CS  of SL.  

In the recent years LL has added an area specifically identifying the account polcies of ALT personas.  In SL’s Community Standards Policy under Disclosure the privacy of someone who is in an ALT is protected by the same privacy standards as a MAIN AVI.  In my group of friends having an ALT is no big deal, and most of us know the identities of our friends ALTs.  I asked my Facebook friends about ALTs and was not surprised at what a nerve this touched in many residents.  Most of the people who replied to the FB post had one or two ALTs and listed many practical uses for their ALTs.  Without exception, each person responding emphasized that ALTs should not be used to deceive or to bother other people.  The reputation of ALTs as possible trouble runs deeply among residents.

Do you need to identify ALTs when you are in world?  Blogs are ripe with information on how to identify an ALT in SL if you choose to do so.  However, it is important to remember, “it is impolite and against the TOS/CS to reveal an alternate account if the owner of the alt has not done so themselves. Accusing another resident of being an alt is also impolite.”  Whether an AVI is an ALT or not is not the most important question.  How they behave as a user is the more important question.

What is more critical is not whether you have met an ALT or not at your favorite nightspot, but if the person you are talking to makes you feel uncomfortable for any reason.  If this is the case, take the same precautions you take with any AVI that you don’t want to interact with, mute them.  If the AVI violates TOS, report them.  Being an ALT does not make someone less desirable to interact with, being inconsiderate does.  Consider how you use your ALT in world, and treat everyone as well as you would inside your MAIN.  If we all do that, then lives should be just fine in SL.

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Second Life Terms of Service- Nomad Aries Reporting…

On August 15th, 2013 Second Life users were issued a new Terms of Service Agreement upon logging into this virtual world.  If you are here, then you accepted the new TOS Agreement License.

 There are major differences between the preceding TOS and the new TOS. One difference in particular has caused uproar amongst Content Creators in Second Life, with good reason.  

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The Green Lanterns & Policing & Personal Safety within SL – Shaneos Howlett reporting.

We are taking a closer look at personal safety, griefing, policing within Second Life. Here is what you need to do should you be threatened by a griefer or your personal safety becomes in jeopardy.

First of all we answer the question ... What is a Griefer ?

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Aview TV: Second Life Terms of Service Community Meeting on October 19, 2013

Many Avatars are up in arms about the new TOS changes that refer to Copyright rights/Content Creator Rights. Here is the discussion that took place Saturday October 19 at 10am SLT at the Justitia Virtual Legal Resource Village. A panel of IP attorneys discussed the new terms of service.

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SL Newser: Most Third-Party Linden Exchange Services Close, Only Podex and AnsheX Remain-Bixyl Shuftan Reporting...

In the aftermath of Linden Labs changing it's Terms of Service concerning Third Party exchangers of Linden dollars, just about all have closed their doors. A number gave statements saying they  were wary of the Lab's wrath, such as the DX Exchange, "the TOS gives us a 30 day period … However, we so realize that with blocking our avatars Linden Lab can disable our business within seconds. We also realize that we put our clients at risk to lose their Lindens in case we annoy Linden Lab." CrossWorlds stated that they would complete orders that had already been placed. But most were no longer making new transactions.

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SLBR News: LL UPDATES ITS TERMS OF SERVICE FOR SL: MAJOR CHANCES FOR CURRENCY EXCHANGES?- Bill Kaye Reporting...

On May 7th, changes went into effect regarding Second Life’s Terms of Service (TOS).  Before logging in, residents were compelled to read and agree to the new TOS.

Read More at SLBR

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