Who are the W-hats?

Sorry for my lack of knowledge but I don't know much about this group except from what I have heard today and that is they are a group of underage people illegally in the adult grid who are mouth breathers who are having a difficult time in their special ed classes.

I did a search in find to find all of the memeber so I could ban them from all of from my land but all I found was Admirers of W-hat or some such garbage. Is that them?

The W-hats are a self-styled group from another online community, SomethingAwful.com's forums.

As a whole, generally the forums are more or less well-mannered.

Particularly, though, their "games" forum gets out of hand, and out of hand quickly.

SL has had a semi-permanent thread devoted to it in the gaming forum for the better part of a year. Some of the people in W-hat that are interested in SL generally are trying to keep the peace, but they invariably fail. Miserably.

As a result you end up with 15 year olds running around with the W-hat tag, fucking shit up.

As evidenced by tonight's escapades.

The result is repeated over and over: One of the W-hat "leaders" apologizes, says it's a big misunderstanding, and the forums rip everyone mildly related to W-hat apart.

The W-hats reply by bringing more W-hatters in and being more outrageous than usual, mocking furries, and saying "poop" a lot.

Then both sides simmer down and life continues, minus 3 griefers, but plus a dozen.

Wait two months. Repeat as desired.

LF

Thanks Fly but where can I get a list of their names so I can ban them?

It wouldn't do any good. You forgot that accounts are free now, and you only have room for 50 accounts.

edit: also consider that the SA Goon forums are several times bigger than the entire population of SL.

LF

Just my opinion: The W-Hats are a group that (from what I've seen in these forums and on SL itself) needs to be shut down permanently and officers banned. They have no business being on a system like Second Life. All they do is cause other people problems-- continually. They have no honor, no respect for other users, and no redeeming value on the grid. And they especially need shut down after this escapade.

Sure, they might come back as another group. But they won't come back with the same characters, the same inventory, and that group can be shut down like a shot. Time for someone at LL to put the hammer down.

Yeah but who in the hell are they? Gimme some names please.

Just hit the grid, look up the group (if that's possible-- or are they hiding like the heroes they are?) and check out the member names. That'd be my first guess.

edit: Couldn't find a listing for them myself. Makes sense of course. No one would expect them to be that completely stupid. I don't know as banning them from land would do any good. They typically don't care... they're anarchists. The only way to affect people like that is 1) ban them from the board 2) send a couple of them to jail in an effort to let the others know you mean business.

Such people have little courage if they can't hide behind their computer screens.

you know, I am not amused by what happened today

but seriously, this is kinda like after 9/11 when innocent peaceful muslims were attacked in the streets of th US. It is very easy to compartmentalize and say "a W-Hat did something stupid, so therefore ALL W-Hats are stupid"

they may indeed all be trouble makers, but until they cause trouble you have to take people one at a time and resist the urge to stereotype everyone of a certain "color"

they say stereotypes are effective because they have roots in truth...

but...

people are individuals, not cogs in a giant machine

if you want to discriminate against a whole bunch of people, it is indeed your right, but I would hope you would not really want to do that

In a way Mulch, I agree with you. But you know, I'm one of those people that looks at the activities of a group as a whole, and come to a black & white decision. I mean, call me crazy, but I think the KKK should have been made illegal as a hate group decades ago. If we look throughout these threads, we find post after post after post by people who have had problems with W-Hat. It frankly amazes me that they're still on the board. Seems like someone back at LomeLand Security needs to exercise some guts and put user welfare above this excessive tolerance of griefer activities.

We are all entitled to opinions, but as much as I despise the KKK, you kill thier right to free speech, you kill your own rights.

witness what happened in Toledo a couple weeks back. the supremicists abided by the law, and the object of their hate didn't.

they played right into the hands of the supremicists. it is very similar to the way residents are playing into the hands of the W-Hat instigators.

Destroying the freedom part of SL that we all enjoy, even in the interest of "security" is a bad thing. You are allowing yourself to be manipulated, much like some residents of toledo did





All I can say is that this reaction was the desired response and collectively, the SL resident base is playing right into thier hands and being manipulated.

I also have to reiterate from another thread that I have met some W-Hats and had pleasant times, and I enjoy Somethingawful.com, it is funny. I don't get annoyed when people push certain buttons, it actually amuses me how many eggshells people need others to walk on to preserve their individual comfort level.

but then again I have seen George Carlin live twice, and I will tell you, both times, 100% different material, I got extremely uncomfortable with his content.

it was actually the highlight of his performances to me, seeing people get all dressed up, drop $50 a pop for a ticket, drive a long distance out of their way, only to get angry and storm out of his show.

You MUST allow the button pushers or you're living in a sanitized, opinion free, nerf world

Difference of opinion (and I believe, a difference in fact in this one):

There's a difference between special opinion groups and hate-mongers.

There's a difference between button-pushers and vandals.

And there's even a difference between button-pushers and button-pushers. Some push in order to promote change. Others push just to be obnoxious. Easy to tell the difference between them too.

Guess I'm just one of those few individuals who believe that yes, there is a difference between right and wrong... and a place to draw the line.

Typical response I get to this is, "Well, who draws the line?"

And that can either be answered in one line, or in 200 volumes of text. Either way, the result will be the same. Someone will disagree.

I am curious how many W-Hat members you have heard of. I can name more than 400, can you? Are you sure you're not basing your opinion on the activities of a loud minority?

lol pedo

OK, I'll call you on this one. Please name more than 400 W-Hat members. Dare ya. Double dare ya.

Here's the trick Mulch: if an unusually large number of members of a group are found to be performing wrongful acts, then that group has the option to retain those members-- or boot them. If members of our group were found intentionally harassing other members, they'd be summarily ousted with public dishonor.

Now W-Hat is known for continually disavowing all knowledge of their member's wrongdoings (even when such wrongdoing was documented and established as part of W-Hat activities). They are known for condoning griefer activities as freedom of expression / artistic expression. Has W-Hat ever booted a member for such activities? Dunno.

I'm not going to get into some long debate about W-Hat. I will state that ALL griefer activities are wrong. Some griefer activities are illegal to the point of being a jailable offense (surely an intentional taking of SL offline would qualify as such. How much did that cost LL in downtime and restart, anyway? How much did it cost merchants in sales? How many events were blasted).

Sure, it's a few hours. Nothing life-threatening. That's how a lot of folks look at it. Me, I'm one of the old-fashioned guys who think that wrong is wrong, no matter how many people it hurts or doesn't hurt. And I think that a "joke" ends where the welfare of others begins.

Here's a list of last names and SA forum names. Given the nature of this thread, I think it'd be a bit silly to give out a nice pretty list of SL names. (removed - I think you've had your chance to see it, if not you can PM me for it). I capped it at 401.

Oh, just as a note, so no-one wonders. After reading some posts in other forums (not this one) I've come to realize that I prefer a bit more professional environment where people actually behave like adults. So I'm cutting off my email forum notification as we speak and (as have many of my friends) am pretty much going to kiss off these forums for more worthwhile pursuits.

You asked

I read the SA site myself, and although juvenile behavior is pretty much a staple, not all are the griefers

the squeeky wheels get the oil and trust me, you are THRILLING the actual offenders to no end with this reaction, and the passive benign members are being shamed for the actions of others.

Unless I am mistaken, membership in W-Hat has 2 qualifications: 3 months on SA forums and 1 week in SL

there is no "griefer hazing" initiation

Wayfinder, I am sure u have met idiot SL members, and prolly more than a handful. Should u be referred to as an "Idiot Sl member?"

It is prolly the best bet, most intelligent people stop particiapting in something when it becomes detrimental.

I guess I am not intelligent cuz here i am =)

Well you may have proved him wrong but at least Wayfinder Wishbringer is not a pedo.

I'm a W-Hat.

I've been a member of the SA forums for years.

I haven't done any griefing. Ever.

Should I be banned for something somebody else did while I wasn't even logged in? Criminy...I was even at work when it happened.

Why does everybody hate the W-Hats so much?

Though, to be fair, I'll admit that SA doesn't always attract the cream of the crop. As best I understand, though, this whole incident was a mistake and nothing more. It was a few hours. It isn't like he showed up and bombed the servers and ended the game forever. These things can happen.

As for W-Hat's membership, it's been my experience that most people in the group are friendly people with no interest in rampant griefing. When I joined, there was no being told to run around causing trouble. Actually, the W-Hat rules had the GRIEFING, BAD - RACISM, BAD rules and all that stuff. I'm going to have to rally to the defense of W-Hat on this one, folks.

We have bad apples sometimes, but what group doesn't?

Man I am so on your side for most of your points, but please...

give me a break

either you want to beliive the best and are in denial, or you are a total idiot

I don't hate the W-Hats at all. they amuse me. that is a good thing, as entertainment is hard to find. today one member went too far

if you honestly are going to try to make public excuses for what was what it was, than you lost any credibility before you even obtained any.

I am sorry, but "mistake and nothing more" does not apply to this incident in the least...

Sure, let's just ban every member of w-hat. Forget that it would eliminate several well-liked businesses like BAZ and Valen Heavy Industries. Let's punish those evil fuckers because of one lone member, who's actions were neither encouraged or condoned, and would probably have been heavily advised against had he discussed them first.

I said "as best I understand" on account that I was at work when it happened. I didn't get home until like 1:30 a.m. EST time and didn't hear about this until the servers got back up. From what I've read, it was a mistake.

If it wasn't a mistake, I can definately see permabanning the person that did it.

What I'm sick of seeing, though, is this rampant insinuation that every member of W-Hat is a horrible, mouth-breathing troll that has nothing better to do than drain zits and crash the servers.

not my opinion (check my recent posts). I defend W-HAT as a whole. u screw up, it is YOU who screwed up, not W-Hat

just get your "facts" from multiple sources

an accident is an accident and THIS was not an accident