Linden's Default-Deny no-script policy: Chilling Effect on Expression in Welcome

Linden Lab, LLC., is attempting to activate and fine tune a system whereby nobody in Welcome can be griefed. Ironically, what we have instead seen thus far has been the gradual implementation of anti-griefer "protections" that effectively grief larger and larger factions of the very population that is supposedly being protected.

In a recent update to Second Life, Linden fixed a longstanding bug in the no-scripting land rules. This bug allowed the execution of agent-attached tasks when said agents sat on (attached to) an object and inherited its executing rights. (At least this is my understanding of the specifics, which may be flawed.) Now, then, this last shelter against script execution restrictions has been removed from welcome.

When this first occured, I submitted the unfortunate side effect of removing sit-enabled execution priviledges from Welcome. The official Linden response I was given was a reasonable-sounding explanation that the restrictions in Welcome are intentionally there as a necessary protection for users who visit there. These execution restrictions were intended to protect us from griefing in the welcome area, either through obvious things like push scripts, or through DoS-style attacks. The idea is, simply stated, that by removing freedoms from us, Linden is, in effect, protecting us from grief.

I submit that these policies are not serving their intended purpose and that they are, in fact, having a chilling effect upon our ability to assemble and express ourselves in an unabridged manner in Welcome.

"A chilling effect," you say. "How can that be?"

Well, it's pretty simple, actually, although a few examples do come to mind. A big one is the female sit animation problem. As you may be aware, female avatars are forced, sometimes against their will, to sit differently than males. This has been an issue that has gone back and forth on the discussion forums, but all Linden attempts to address this have fallen short. This hasn't really been a big deal to most users, though, as there had been a script-based workaround to the problem, and... oh. Yeah, Well, you see the problem. Linden is effectively stating, "What makes you think you have the right to appear the way you want? If you don't like the way we make you sit, you can stand or leave and simply not participate in Welcome at all." Whether or not this is a good policy is a matter I submit for debate. I think it's not a good policy.

Another example of expression being limited exists with non-human avatars, whose movements are often heavily scripted. Take, for example, an avatar whose appearance is styled after cell-style animation, (e.g.: a cartoon character). Such avatars often have painstakingly animated eyes, where each blink is carefully drawn out in multiple hand-drawn frames to create a seamless appearance of motion. Avatars with tails will flick them in motion, winged avatars will stretch their wings. Linden is effectively stating that they do not wish for players in welcome to see these things; that they must be "protected" from some of the most creative user-building to be found. Whether or not this is a good policy is also a matter of debate. I submit that it is also bad policy, be it intent or express.

"But what about safety from griefing?" you may ask. What, indeed? Well, fortunately, it is impossible to be griefed in Welcome, now, so perhaps the policy is good-- oh, wait, no we're still quite easily griefed in welcome, aren't we? Particle generation scripts that are started in scriptable areas continue generating particles in Welcome. Vehicle code continues to execute, and grief-o-wagons are quite readily created. Users can still attach to their avatars objects SO LARGE that they block everyone's field of view in Welcome. These aren't even touching upon gesture-sound based griefing, whose nastiness shouldn't be underestimated, and several other strains of obnoxiousness besides.

Should Linden tighten up their "protection" by removing these, and other, remaining freedoms? No! If we haven't realized by now that griefers will twist whatever abilities they have for nefarious purposes, we haven't been paying attention! There is no true _automated_ protection from griefers.

By removing freedoms, Linden is indirectly supporting the mission of griefers everywhere to diminish the positive experience of the the community as a whole. In essence, the griefers are winning, and Linden is helping them.

This is a call to restore script-execution priledges to Welcome either fully or in the limited-compromise manner of the "bug" that was corrected. Linden, don't send the message that griefers can beat us all. Don't push the sort of creativity and individual exprsesiveness that makes SecondLife attractive to new users away from Welcome.

Don't take us There.

edited for grammar/spelling

You're not the one who has had to clean up the mess people make there time and time again.
If you want to express yourself, do it on your land.
Some people will whine about anything.

Eggy's blunt, but he has a point. It's not about stifling expression it's about helping with what can often be a maintenance nightmare. Welcome is the first thing people see in SL, and as such it needs to be as lag free and clean as possible.

At least, that's what David told me before it was no-script and I attached a rain generator to my head.

I'm a little bit on the fence on this once.

Bad: It disables a lot of perfectly harmless (and often quite useful) things, such as sit_anim changers for female AVs, since linden is jackass-stuborn about putting a radio button in somewhere to select it.

Good: It will keep some types of griefing to a minimum.

Worse: It will bring out other types of griefing, some of which are much harder to circumvent than simply turning off scripts. The aformentioned "attach huge pile of prims to AV" one (Particularly a huge pile of highly reflective and/or light emmitting torrii), the fact that partical scripts still take effect, (Just fly around linden owned land and look at how many watermellons you find pulsing that green glow...), vehical griefing, chat-spam, neg-rate griefers, etc.

I guess my problem is, it's a half-assed measure that doesn't go a long way to fixing the problem, but DOES go a long way towards hampering a lot of perfectly innocent stuff.

I don't really believe that it is Linden's intent to stifle self-expression. What I am calling to question is the presumably unintentional stifling effect their altruistic intents may nonetheless produce.

Yes, I could go and sit on my land. If I wasn't concerned about an integrated and involved community I would, in fact, have simply done that instead of posting here. A lot of people think like that; "got a problem, go live in your own private bubble universe-- go hide, or roll over and take the kicks." The social be-divided-and-conquered mentality of modern America.

Why not have a Linden at the Welcome 24 hours a day? I imagine the welcome area griefing occurs when there is not a Linden present to immediately stop it. This would also provide new people with guaranteed greeting and help upon arrival.

Yes, I realize this is a manpower issue but on the other hand, the Lindens aren't volunteers. It's a business and people pay them. Being Welcomer Linden could probably be a minimum wage job and it certainly beats flipping burgers.

Eggy, maybe you have been away for a while, so you may not know this but these days we have a feature called "AutoDelete" which serves the function of "cleaning up the mess pepole make there time and time again".

I think nearly any scripter who likes to hang out in the welcome area would at least partially agree with what Chromal has stated. The restrictions are not only overkill, but they are made moot anyway since the "griefers" still have many tools in their toolbox to cause just as much trouble as before.

With the advent of inter-object communication, I don't like the idea that sitting in the welcome area means I will be cut off from the rest of SL and the rest of the world. I also don't like not having the convenience of some utilities such as my scripted calculator or FAQ archive.

I've enjoyed being a Mentor and to assist new people as they enter the world, but if I can't enjoy the utility of my scripts while waiting for the arrival of new users and in the process of assisting them, then my presence in the welcome area will become more and more rare.

As I see it, this is a shame because I believe that at least to a small degree, my role as a Mentor in the welcome area relieved some of the burden on LL employees who are apparently becoming more and more busy as the world grows, and having less time to greet and help new users themselves.

If LL does not address this issue, that tells me that either they are too busy (which just reinforces my point), or they don't have enough appreciation for mentors like myself to give us the courtesy of a rational explanation for diminishing our fun and utility for the cost of a moot quick fix.

In the meantime, if you need me, I'll be somewhere else.

-- Kex

A person's first image of SL and it's inhabitants can be a very strong selling point.

Beta -- end of June. I was looking for "something" on the web, and downloaded SL.

After fixing the ATI video bug "blackout" and figuring out how to get to the "real world" -- I was dropped in Ahern/Dore.

I still remember that day and the impression.

Dorothy, toto, flying monkeys shooting bananas out of banana guns, all running around in a circle laughing...

That scene, and truthfully, I watched without saying anything for well over 20 minutes -- was simply one of the best free advertisements of what could be done within SL with a combination of building, texturing and scripting skills.

Some of the best selling points (as addressed previously) are the scripting skills -- the particles, the customization of the AV's -- the COMBINATION of skill sets into one unique creation.

Please don't shelter newbies from seeing what SL is really capable of doing.

That's just patching a known problem of "alt accounts" being their "secondary persona" that is so well protected by the TOS when they're in a pissy mood and want to "hurt someone."

Really, it's simple. Make people responsible for their actions while in-world and in the Welcome area. Can't follow rules? Not just a "bye bye" to your alt account -- say bye bye for a good month or more to ALL your accounts.

After all, in Second Life, like in real life... you've got to grow up sometime.

ok, so i don't frequent the Welcome area myself really, but i read through this and here's my take:

griefing has to be dealt with decisively.

disabling scripts in the Welcome area (in concern of griefing):
-short run: helps by cutting down on scripted griefing
-long run : will encourage more, and worse, griefing

24 hour Linden monitering seems the most effective.
-problem: there is no 24 hour Linden activity


Solution:

re-enable scripting.

hire more Lindens.

create a new 24-hour Linden Anti-Grief Force. (The LAG-Force? hmm..)

punish the griefers: warning, suspension (1 week), extended suspension (1 month), expulsion.
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th offenses ...or...
- dependant on severity and frequency of attack.


edit: added some spaces to increase readability

my first SL impression was of Washu running around the welcome area in a giant 20 foot tall seagull av that would randomly poo on the ground and would peck anyone's head on command.


I bought a lifetime that day


had i joined yesterday.. i would be *very* underwhelmed

I strongly agree with this. Please, Linden Lab, allow scripts in the Welcome Area.

Great post, Chromal. I agree completely! Punish the people who grief, not the people who do wonderful things with the tools. Blanket policies like this lower the quality of experience for everyone.

Just have to say I endorse this too... Most abuses that I saw in Welcome, pre-script, have not changed since the new policy.

One of the most annoying things about this - some of you know what I look like - my wings emit particles in flight, and are spread out in flight. As soon as I tport to the Ahern hub, unless I -walk- off of the noscript land, and then walk all the way back, I'll be standing there spewing out particles. There's no way for me to stop that in a noscript area. (And I do do this, every time, to keep from annoying people.)

That, and you know where I stand with. sitting. erm.

Oobity Oobity Oobity.