08-13-2003 16:06
The Police Blotter’s world is nearly complete – the stars are all but aligned in a symphony of perfection that can only mean that the Mother Ship will soon be calling us home. The Blotter recently witnessed a giant phallus – the size, this time around, of a Saturn 5! – at the very moment it was erected by a naked resident. Never before have these two violations of the Community Standards been combined into a unified act of transgression. In a single moment, this now-suspended resident was able to achieve two-thirds of the here-to-now theoretical Ultimate Abuse Trifecta. It’s a brave new world indeed…

Second Life seems to have spawned its very first Boogey Man! Sightings of Second Life’s most unpopular resident of all time – the Blotter doesn’t dare speak his name for fear of invoking him from the depths of his unholy slumber – have been flooding the Blotter’s in-box. From a technical standpoint, the Blotter can tell you with confidence that this Boogey Man has not (and will not) return. But on a spiritual level, it may take a séance to exorcise his spirit from Second Life.

The last week wasn’t all nakedness and male members, however. While some of the incoming trial users may not be the sharpest hammers in the sky, they have for the most part been earnest and attentive in their desire to learn the finer points of living a Second Life. Mostly. In one ugly incident, a new user donned a Klan costume and paraded himself around the Welcome Area. This is, of course, a blatant violation of Second Life’s hate speech standard and more than that its an act of thoughtless disrespect to Second Life’s culture of tolerance and respect. On a more functional level, the Blotter asks this question: In a world that gives you unequalled freedom to choose who you are and how you present yourself in-world – who would choose to put a bed sheet over their head and approach the world as an ignorant bigot?

Statistics: Eleven complaints of harassment, intimidation, or vandalism, four complaints about assorted rule violations, ten instances of inappropriate content on a PG sim, and two complaint of an undisclosed nature. As a result of these complaints and our subsequent investigations, eight residents were suspended, fifteen warnings were issued and two resident were shown the door forever.