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SH: I've had good experiences with Live Help. Less so with abuse resolution.
You: there's a volunteers page
RT: Is live help an online chat thing? Ah, ok. Going to go check it out
You: Tell me about abuse resolution Sally
SH: Well, I've only butted heads with it but once. The experience nearly made me cancel my account.
You: wow - that's not good!
You: what happened?
SH: I went to a club with some of the Baku crowd. Yes, they aren't exactly loved. But the event seemed harmless so I went. They went to a club as mimes with blank protest signs.
SH: Nothng was said . Nothing was done. To anyone. They went, and, riverdanced, as mimes.
SH: They kinda gathered around a few people and danced, the patrons thought it was funny. The owner FLIPPED OUT
SH: He banned everyone from the club, and I was fine with that, it was his place.
SH: So I didn't give it a second thought until he starts IMing me asking about it. He said the sim crashed. This was news to me. I told him I had no idea about it at all.
SH: So mid conversation with him suddenly I'm banned from the game.
SH: No explanation. Just GONE.
SH: It's an hour ban. I figure, okay, they're slapping everyone's wrist. No biggie.
You: did you get an IM from the liaison?
SH : None.
SH: Nothing.
You: ok - then what happened?
SH: Then on top that, suddenly, the hour ban becomes a 3 day ban.
SH: No explanation.
You: You should have had an email explaining the violation.
SH: I did, it was very vague. It said 'Something was done. We are investigating.'
SH: Essentially.
You: We've found that many of our emails don't go through because someone has changed their email, or it gets caught in a filter.
SH: It took them nearly five days to reply to the email I sent them explaining the situaton.
SH: By then, my ban was up anyway.
SH: What really got me is, I had never been called on abuse by anyone in the game, pretty much ever.
You: When we do respond we always cite the community standards violation. It might seem vague (Harassment in xyz sim).
SH: And then suddenly a 3 day ban for something I didn't really know anything about.
You: That doesn't sound right.
AH: its probably to do with the people you were with S
RT: That's what I said
SH: I think it's largely because I happened to be with the Baku people.
AH: who are known griefers
You: It could have been that Alexa, or maybe a mis-interpreted chat log.
SH: I personally feel, if someone is going to be banned from the game, they should be spoken to in game first.
You: We try not to kick people out because of guilt by association though.
You: I agree. Occasionally it doesn't happen though, and that's when there's a large group
You: a frantic land owner, and a liaison trying to catch all the perpetrators at once
TP: S, were you dressed in the same outfit and carrying a sign? Were you also Riverdancing?
RZ: I bet you won't go do that again though
RZ: I agree an explaination is warranted
SH: Right, it was still a very messy situation though. Especially since it would have also been a first offense.
You: When you did get a response after your ban was up, was it any more useful?
RZ: Side-note question, does "Live Helpers must be at least 90-days old with a clean Linden Rapsheet" include a neg rating?
SH: Not really. I may even still have the email saved. It basically said that abuse was reported in X zone, and all reports are investigated. It seemed very mechanical.
You: No R - just no warnings or suspensions
SH: It wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much either if the initial hour ban hadn't become a 3 day ban. while others who recieved an hour ban for the same circumstance were back, in an hour.
SH: It felt like someone was flailing at the controls and just picking out names on a list to punish at random levels.
You: S - when did all this happen?
You: Maybe we could take this offline and I can see if I can get a better understanding of what might have been going on on our side
SH: It was back right before Christmas.
You: ok - thanks. I'll look into it and see if i can get you any more illumination.
RZ: THis problem is also relayed on the message boards by various people
SH: So, it was a little while ago, and I'm largely over it. I just thought, it was worth mentioning to maybe note to the people who do the bannings to investigate a little deeper.
RZ: same story different offenses
SH I just found the email. It all seems pre-generated except for the one line Offense and Discipline lines. I can forward it to you if you want.
You: absolultely. There are occasional mistakes, although generally when there's disagreement its a difference of opinion as to how bad the offense was
You: thanks!
You: anybody else have anything to add? Questions, ideas?
You: OK - do you think this was worth doing? Should I hold meetings like this regularly?
KK: i have a question
JC: Yes!
ML: yes definitely!
AH: do you think LL will ever introduce being able to buy L$ via you with Gom and pay by credit card to LL?
JF: yes
RZ: absolutely
TP: i think this was a great idea
You: K? what's your question, and then I'll answer A.
KK: are we able to pay for SL via money order and snail mail Robin?
You: No K, not on a regular basis. We don't have anyone here to process checks and money orders.
You: Maybe when we get bigger.
KK: ok. thanks.
You: A -- we regularly debate the idea of offering L$ directly to users
TP: I would love to see the L$ payments for land tier come back.
You: As you know that's a regular feature of the There economy.
AH: i didn't know
RZ: paypal will accept the user to set up direct withdrawl based on account number
RZ: with validation
AH: i hate paypal lol
You: If we do, there are many who feel that it's a potential conflict of interest.
RZ: gotta go with what ya got
You: What we've proposed is to enable the exchange of L$ through 3rd parties like GOM
CK: i thought you could buy L money directly from SL
AH: mm
You: by setting up a transfer type system in world.
You: Then in theory more exchanges like GOM could develop, using the API
KK: what's API?
You: Application program interface - basically something that would let people set up systems that would talk to the one we create in SL
KK: k
RZ: traffic/dwell
RZ: when I look at it, and it says 5
JF: oh 1 more thing.amy chance of getting a land teir inbetween the 40 and 75 a month levels?
RZ: what does that mean to me?
You: J - possible, but I don't have a timeframe
TS: So, basically, people with money could come in and buy up all the land and subdivide it and make it even harder for the onew without to buy land?
RZ: yes and they do
AH: they do that now lol
TS: yeah I guess.
OZ grumbles at how ridiculous it is to afford land
TS: It sure is a struggle to find $$ to buy land
You: S - are you saying that based on adding tiers?
JC: More granularity on the tier would be fabulous
JC: I'd buy more tier if I could notch it up slower
OZ: I'm ok with paying just some US$ for land, or just some L$ for land, but to have to pay thousands of L$ for land, then start paying out of my own pocket? Blech
TS: no... more on the use of US$ to convert to $LL
TS: I recently purchased land for a group and it is tough making ends meet even for the amount we have
TS: luckily someone gave us the land..
You: I don't think it would change the way people buy land. But what if you didn't have to pay $9.95/month for a premium membership to get L$2000/month.
You: What if you could just buy what you needed when you wanted to?
TS: I have been going nuts for months trying to figure out how to do it
OZ: Robin that would be hugely successful, if it cost less than GOM prices
AH: nods
SH: From a player standpoint that would be the bee's knees. From a corporate standpoint that would be terrible. =)
You: I suspect the market would fluctuate some, the way it does now. We wouldn't set a fixed price.
AH: i would rather trust LL to debit my card that i do PayPal
AH: than
You: We're working with PayPal to recognize virtual goods so they'll back up a fraud claim
LT: there are privacy issues as well
You: Of what sort L?
LT: It's my understanding that using PayPal playewr to player exposes your RL identity.
You: Hmm that's probably true.
LT: I would rather that LL only had that info
You: Although not on eBay, I don't think.
AH: i agree
RZ: I have no problem with Paypal it's great
You: there you'd tie an email address to an SL name
AH: i see one person who sells L$ on ebay
JF: i've never had any troubles with it either
CK: nor me
You: well thanks to everyone for coming by. I appreciate the thoughts, and I've started a list of ideas we can feed into the dev plans
