Lindens - is this *really* how you want things to be?

Selador, the truth is of the matter, the Anshe banned thread was a matter that was between her and LL and only her and LL. She chose to air dirty laundry and spread her own account information, something that's not supposed to be done anywhere, much less the forums. I'm really not surprised it was taken down.

When you're in a forum, it's not a matter of real life vs non-real lifeness like a movie or a video game. You are having conversations just like you would have in real life, just using the internet as a tool to do so instead. All social standards apply to the forums just like they would in real life, and when you start saying things that would get you beat in real life on the forums, you should be beat in real life.

When you're in a forum, it's not a matter of real life vs non-real lifeness like a movie or a video game. You are having conversations just like you would have in real life, just using the internet as a tool to do so instead. All social standards apply to the forums just like they would in real life, and when you start saying things that would get you beat in real life on the forums, you should be beat in real life.

this is wishful thinking. there are a lot of non-real participants on this forum. some are only half real. the forums are a game as well. were they a forum on stamp collecting or overclocking your pc, then i would agree with you. however this is vbulletin support for a fantasy world of barbies, kens and space rangers and their twisted poseball escapades. no social standards apply because every one is doing their best to not be themselves.

resmods are part of the game. by volunteering as resmods they've painted giant bullseyes on their forehead for the rest of us to point our popguns at.

The Anshe thread - although as I recall I don't think I specifically mentioned that - was of general interest once the first posting appeared. Whether or not that first posting was justified, once it had appeared the thread became of general public interest. A very large number of residents depend on Anshe's empire, and anything that threatened that was of immediate interest to them.

Therefore I don't think the thread should have been removed, despite the appallingly bad behaviour of most of the people who contributed to it.

This, to me, is a perfect example of why interfering in forums is a bad idea.

I understand it was a concern to her residents, but something like that should have been handled more discreetly, not the big stink raised about it. She could have simply come on the boards and said that there was currently difficulty with billing and so she might not be around for a few days or so. Something like that would have been sufficient, but she goes and blows a big hole wide open and endangers her own business. Not very prudent I'd think... Anyways, I'm trailing off topic.

The Anshe thread - although as I recall I don't think I specifically mentioned that - was of general interest once the first posting appeared. Whether or not that first posting was justified, once it had appeared the thread became of general public interest. A very large number of residents depend on Anshe's empire, and anything that threatened that was of immediate interest to them.

Therefore I don't think the thread should have been removed, despite the appallingly bad behaviour of most of the people who contributed to it.

This, to me, is a perfect example of why interfering in forums is a bad idea.

i dissagree
if she had come on and announced that due to a book keeping error she would be unavailable over the weekend but her alt would be availabe that would have been of general interest.
To come on, in direct violation of the TOS to attack LL's disciplinary policy and to air her dirty laundry was not of general interest to anybody we did not need to know why she was unavailble, or to her her demands for a apolgy again who's buisness was that?

yes, it should be 100% acceptable for an inworld personality as large and as powerful as her (whose actions effect so many) to announce absence from the game and maybe prove that the alt is indeed here and can handle customer support until the main got the problems worked out

and as ridiculous as her posts were, there was absolutly no doubt that she was who she said she was, not an alt

I think the question is... Should any of us be able to come on and say "Hey, LL banned me for not paying my bill."?

That is what occurred. I don't care how much money the poster is worth, that IS what occurred.

Is it okay for 1 poster, but not for the rest? Should we all be able to air our billing complaints? Please, please don't tell me that some of you "equality for all" people are actually suggesting it should be okay for some, but not for others.

without the typical hysterics and threats, how would anyone have known the alt was really her?

i just think this case warrents it because if she defaulted, the effects would be substantial to uninvolved parties

this is not me not being available to give someone a ride on the roller coaster, this is potential to lock people out of land they beleive they own

this is the risk when LL is in charge of regulating all transactions and property

i do not understand your logic?
how does any of this relate to her violation of TOS?
all she had to do was say contact my Alt and it would have been all ok
so No it is not ok no matter what teh fall out might have been

i agree she acted like an ass

and I have done the same thing, only without the threats and more to the point, without the thread being locked

i just think this case warrents it because if she defaulted, the effects would be substantial to uninvolved parties

this is not me not being available to give someone a ride on the roller coaster, this is potential to lock people out of land they beleive they own

this is the risk when LL is in charge of regulating all transactions and property

This is the price of not paying your bills when they come due. It's the price of business. Should the rules be different for her? That's really all that needs to be aswered. Should the rules be different for her than for me, or for you, or for any one of us that doesn't pay the dues they KNOW it costs to do business here?

For whom, exactly, should the rules not apply to?

This is the price of not paying your bills when they come due. It's the price of business. Should the rules be different for her? That's really all that needs to be aswered. Should the rules be different for her than for me, or for you, or for any one of us that doesn't pay the dues they KNOW it costs to do business here?

For whom, exactly, should the rules not apply to?

I see it in a very different light... be careful what you pay for in SL. NONE of this belongs to you. None of it. Really, I mean none of it. The land you're renting could be gone tomorrow, either through owner financial error, owner fraud, or just simply LL deciding, eh fuck it. (Read the ToS, you agreed to it.)

The clothes I sell you could vanish from your inventory, or be corrupted, and there is NOTHING but my good nature (snort) that will get it back for you.

Each US dollar you convert to Lindens is a gamble no smaller than pumping dollars into a slot machine, and you really hold no greater odds of it coming back to you. The only difference is, the slots are subject to perusal and verification, and SL is not.

lets say she has 1000 customers living on her servers

do you think 1000 people whill blame her or the laboratory if "their" land and possestions just disappear into the void?

i don't think an exception is a good thing to make her happy, i want the exception to keep 1000 people from leaving SL and blamining the laboratory for it

Good question, Enabran. Not being a Linden, I can't answer a yes or no, but of course that won't stop me from throwing in my .02 Lindens on the subject.

For most businesses, I believe we are fungible. (teehee.. okay, got that out of the way.) If a top designer, builder or scripter goes the way of the do-do, there will be others to step in and fill that tier of the heirarchy. They may already have the skill, talent and creativity to do it. The brand would no doubt be missed, along with whatever made it so prominent, but trends will shift toward what's available. When it comes to businesses like Anshe's, well.. I don't think it's quite that easy.

SL is still a blind gamble to run a business in. Moreso even than a RL business, which is enough of a gamble in itself, but which has RL laws to protect our investments, and grace periods to run in the red. There probably aren't many people willing to make the kind of monetary investment it would take to run an empire of that size on such a transient platform, and with the kind of ToS SL requires us to agree to. Shutting down such a whale would hurt LL's bottom line.. in the short term. In the long term, it would be benefitial to the bottom line, provided that enough residents step up to fill that gap. That would mean less tier discount, less group land discount, and therefore more money for LL.

That's how I see it realistically. Ideally, I hope that we're all subject to the same terms and conditions. I hope that anyone else would have their account frozen the same way I would if I didn't pay my bills. I would like to think that we're all equal in LL's eyes, and that we're all subject to the same hard and fast rules. (Which are few and far between for LL, but pay-to-play certainly seems to be one of the few.) That's the ideal, but I certainly wouldn't be starting any crusades if that turned out not to be the case. (There would be enough of those without mine.) LL is a business, with overhead and payroll and everything else that comes along with that. If LL doesn't make those costs, and a profit to boot, we're all out of a job, because they'd shut down.

The lack of similarity between using the SL forums and living in the Soviet Union during the cold war is really quite pronounced.

Thats because it is a violation of the forum guildlines to directly contest any application of the rules in the forums.