Determining and Dealing with Ambiguous Behavior In SecondLife and on the Web

For all of you coming from Prok's blog - this post isn't about her. It's a general post. She just happened to be the person who was banned from the Linden official blog.

On the internet, we all have parts to play. People step on other people's toes all the time; sometimes the media is the problem. People don't always communicate as clearly as they think (which is a problem), or sometimes they do communicate as clearly as they think (which can be a problem as well).

In light of the SecondLife abuse report system being overhauled, and the recent banning of one resident from the Official SecondLife Blog¹. Of course, I have heard the same resident has been banned from other blogs for the same behavior. I have my opinion on that, but I don't think that resident is important enough to give too much attention to. Sorry.

But, you know, it's the Internet. People do this stuff.

Let's deal with the blog stuff first. It's easier.

Blog Bans

Banning someone from a blog could be called censorship. But there are people out there who act like Trolls now and then. If you spend enough time on the internet, you'll see them. In fact, if you spend enough time on the internet, you've probably been one at any give point in time and not realized it until - if you are introspective - afterwards. Many people leave trails of text on the internet with no thought that those words will be available on the internet forever, or at least a very long time. Snappy gossip and dialog is all fine and dandy, but in 10 years would you want to see that same stuff you wrote?

Some people do seem to troll on purpose. Timothy Campbell did a nice write up on Internet Trolls. My perspective is 'What Does It Matter?'; generally speaking I don't like to feed trolls. But then when cornered, trolls pull out the flag and wrap themselves in it - citing Freedom of Speech. It's subjective. The guiding principle when looking at that:

...The ultimate response to the 'free speech' argument is this: while we may have the right to say more or less whatever we want, we do not have the right to say it wherever we want. You may feel strongly about the fact that your neighbour has not mowed his lawn for two months, but you do not have the right to berate him in his own living room. Similarly, if a webmaster tells a troll that he is not welcome, the troll has no "right" to remain. This is particularly true on the numerous free communications services offered on the net. (On pay systems, the troll might be justified in asking for a refund.)

This is especially true when one has one's own blog - if you have a problem and you want to vent, by all means do it in your space. Personally, with 5 years of professional moderating of discussion behind me, I enjoy reading a good troll now and then. It happens. Sometimes one can have some fun with trolling the troll, but what happens then is you just share the label.

In the context of the recent ban of a resident from the SecondLife blog, it's the first ban that I know of and the coverage since has - for better or worse - substantiated it. But this is only one case. There have been plenty of folks pushing the envelope on the Linden blog. One seems to have pushed too far. If more people get banned, I'd say that there might be a problem - but one person? Come on.

I wear my asbestos underwear and my teflon suit whenever I login. What does it matter anyway? Respect is mutual. Those who give none get none, and those who want the most attention typically don't deserve it. The Lindens have rules for comments. Not a bad idea, really.

Griefing and Abuse

Griefing isn't too different from trolling in a virtual world. I consider it par for the course, for the most part - simply because there's no law against being an idiot. If there was, a significant part of the world would be behind bars. But it creates an administrative problem for people who run a virtual world. For those of you who think it's horrible, you haven't been to a Player Killer MMORPG where people camp the lifestone to kill you again. At some point, bad behavior has to be accepted as part of the community.

In the context of SecondLife, though, griefing means inconvenience. What causes griefing? Consider how Bartle described users motivations in 'Designing Virtual Worlds' (2003, p 130):

1. Explorers: People who come to see what is there and to map it for others. They are happiest with challenges that involve the gradual revelation of the world. They want the world to be very big, and filled with hidden beauty that can only be unlocked through persistence and creativity.

2. Socializers: People who come to be with others. They are happiest with challenges that involve forming groups with others to accomplish shared objectives. They want the world to have extensive social infrastructure and shared activities: towns, clubs, arenas, weddings and hunting parties.

3. Achievers: People who come to build. They are happiest with challenges that involve the gradual accumulation of things worthy of social respect. They want the world that allows all kinds of capital accumulation and reputation-building. They want the ability to increase the power of their avatar, to build new structures, to hoard wealth, and to change the world itself.

4. Controllers: People who come to dominate other people. They are happiest with challenges that involve competing with others and defeating them. Also described as "griefers," they want worlds that allow users to intervene in the activities of other users, so that a record of domination and control can be established. To them, it is all sport.

So griefers are typically 'controllers', or people who are slanted toward controlling. If you see a parallel to why trolls do what they do, you may be on the right track. In reality, when you mix a website and a synthetic world, you inadvertently have the behaviors in world and out of world².

The SecondLife problem revolves around the subjectivity of the Community Standards. Some people read them one way, some people another. For example, 'Harassment' could be text spamming (repeating stuff over and over to flood the text chat) to caging. The same with assault and disturbing the peace. Some people have different views of these things, or after they've done their griefing fall back on the ambiguities within the community standards. Perhaps that's what needs to be addressed.

But then, how many text messages in a minute is text spamming? Is caging from a first timer with an immediate and sincere apology to be considered abuse? That's where griefers and trolls live, you see. They live in the ambiguity. At the end of the day, someone has to decide - and everyone with SecondLife has accepted that the Lindens decide as part of the Terms of Service.

Maybe the problem is that the Lindens aren't decisive enough, sometimes. But the truth is out there - if you don't like it... log out.

¹Amusingly, this is the same resident who tried to get me into an argument and tried desperately to get my attention. Not worth it.
² What's interesting to consider is that Internet Troll Personality Disorder may be valid for a professional to diagnose. That's kind of creepy, but it also means that it may be a disorder which requires professional help.