Community And Linden Responses to 16m Spam Plots and Other Issues

After being dubbed the Sim Destroyer and dropping prims of this post, I was surprised at the amount of response there was.

Anders Bartlett headed over almost immediately to see what was going on - he and I met back when I started Cleaning Ear. He's started his own ad agency in SecondLife, Path42 - but he does tasteful stuff, not the sort of 16m plot spam that plagues the mainland of SecondLife. He gave his support even as Tateru Nino typed out her article. He also showed me a draft of some things he's putting together about ethical business practices within SecondLife - standards for the community.

Others showed up over time. Not large numbers, but worthwhile people. Instant messages of support came in. Reverend LeShelle and I had an interesting discussion about ethics and morality within business in SecondLife. Subsequently, we became friends and I became a member of the Social Action of SecondLife group.

Long time land dealers who are fighting Landbots showed some support - perhaps even, in some ways, joined forces. Landbots and 16m plotspammers are finding themselves slightly inconvenienced these days, and it is going to accelerate over the next 7 days - but we'll get to that.

The Linden response was to toss everyone's prims back at them. When I asked the Linden who did this why he had returned my protest prims near ground zero, his response was 'In future, don't put your prims on other people's land'. Umm. Mr. Linden, sir, those prims were on MY land.. I responded saying that, and suggested that in future he check land ownership before arbitrarily returning things. No response.

A summary of the issue went to Robin Linden - no response yet, and I suspect I am unlikely to get one. Torley Linden has been more helpful, pointing me at Chadrick Linden in Community Affairs.

Subsequently, I replaced the prims with wooden (now snow) prims which allow the advertisers to see out - but are blocked from being viewed outside.

So - community responds, and - with the exception of Torley - Linden Lab hasn't - and they have yet to communicate anything effectively. I won't beat on Torley - it isn't within Torley's scope.

Day Two

The second day saw something in the form of a protest - it just sort of happened - and Spin Martin showed up to see what was going on. As it was, the 16m plot spammers were there and a few residents who showed up played some music and interacted with the 16m plotspam people. I had already muted the spammers, so I spoke with Eric and the folks who showed up - unearthing some things otherwise hidden which will be great material for the ShortCut I'm writing for O'Reilly.

Meanwhile, my contribution to the festivities was putting Yoda in a thong and having him dance - but not on their property. Now there's something you don't see everyday. Spin snapped a few things for Virtual Worlds 2007 - we chatted about this and that, he left. He was quick to point out that this was nothing new in SecondLife - that he had encountered it himself when he was cleaning the Jesse sim. What has changed? Nothing, really. And perhaps that's the reason to continue resisting and taking steps to assure that the community is less impacted by 'experience extortion', or as a coworker of mine called it - 'Cybersquatting 2.0'. It is Cybersquatting - but your equity forces you to see the offenders instead of avoid them.

Not really much of an event, and really - I'd rather have been coding. But I couldn't just leave folks out there unattended. Especially when the 16m spammers had summoned Live Help and apparently have abuse reported me for... rezzing prims on my land? I suppose if Linden Village had these problems, there would be more of an interest by Linden Lab in such things - but it isn't an issue in that area, and perhaps in that regard Linden Village is misrepresentative of SecondLife.

There is a community response building which is expected to coalesce into something more tangible - some people are simply unwelcome on property of the growing community of discontents.

Land bots

The people with the most grievance on land bots have been using such tactics fairly effectively for some time. From a notecard in world:

Have you been wondering why it's increasingly difficult to find inexpensive land? This is due in part to the actions of one player who has created a set of "bots" that automatically and instantly buy all land that is set for sale below the market price. He runs these bots 24 hours a day, raking in huge profits for himself whether he's online or not and virtually shutting off land buying for everyone else. Sure there have always been "land swoopers" out there, but in the past any resident who was willing to scan the search results for even a little while had a shot at getting a good land deal, and land swoopers never got 100% of the deals. That is no longer the case.

Linden Lab knows about this problem but so far has done nothing about it. If the fact that one player can fatten his own bank account at the expense of everybody else bothers you, and if you hate the thought of a future where all land buying in Second Life degenerates into "bot wars," then make yourself heard!

You can send an in-game IM or out-of-game email to Philip Linden (philip@lindenlab.com), Robin Linden (robin@lindenlab.com), Guy Linden (guy@lindenlab.com), Torley Linden (torley@lindenlab.com), and any other Lindens you know or can think of and express your anger over this issue. The more often you contact them, the better. You can also visit http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=197273 to get your free set of anti-landbot scripts.

Spread the word! Your help is greatly appreciated.

I suppose if the Linden folks aren't up for policing things, it is up to the community to do so - and do so we will, with vigor... and within any interpretation of the Terms of Service and Community Standards which permit people to disrupt the community as plotspammers and landbots do.

The wind has been sewn. Meanwhile, a few of us will continue to criticize by creating.

All great research fodder for writing.