Asshat of the Year

This statement is relevant.

Korg, now I wanna know - what IS a justifiable neg rating? If I can't neg rate someone's appearance for dressing like Hitler, then what in the name of all that's holy SHOULD I be neg rating their appearance for? An av covered in aborted fetuses? Jesus fellating Dick Clark? Teal and orange stripes together? Seriously - its a cliche, Hitler is used so interchangeably as the Worst Evil Mankind Ever Produced - what DO you find an acceptable reason for neg rating appearance?

And I'm glad you put the word "outrage" in quotes, because I didn't say I was outraged in my opening post, or in any subsequent posts.

I also never called for a mass neg rating, cats having sex with dogs, or anything else.

This statement: Inappropriate and unnecessary, which baits retalitory remarks.

Korg, you must love to be so disliked and loathed by so many ppl. You my friend need to reevaluate yourself and your life and figure out why you are so hateful and bitter.

...He's looking for attention and he got it. Nothing hurts more than indifference...

Uh.. don't flatter ourself and call me "your friend" in one breath and then in the next stand on a high horse and lecture me. You need to read the posts I made... not the responses which are far more incendiary. I have been extremely restrained.

May I suggest you go find Darko and do something fun in real life. You obviously aren't having fun here today.

Sigh. As the person who has to clean up messes such as this as well as spanking the perpetrators I find the sensationalism that the Second Life Herald lends to acts of grief as counter productive to my job.

Just as people like to role-play in games like TSO and SL while mixing in Real Life aspects of their character, the SLH is role-playing as a pulp gossip newspaper that occasionally mixes in real news.

Unfortunately, it has become clear to me that some acts in SL are actually done with partial intent on getting mentioned in the SLH for fame and glory. That’s why I consider SLH one of my headache’s – it provides much of the reward that greifers seek. In fact, the SLH provides belated dividends for griefers’ investments: the SexyPimp incident was months ago, and the SLH likes to dredge up old names and events to inflate fame and infamy.

We at Linden Lab take griefers seriously. Users who engage in behavior similar to SexyPimp are bascially burning an alt, risking their other alts, and jepordizing their plans to expand in SL (such as buying private estates and such).

SL griefiers usually receive warnings first since we at LL believe that the SL environment is open enough that even users who initially turn to grief for entertainment can eventually find a creative and productive aspect of the world that is just as entertaining or more so. However, a single griefer can ruin the experience for 100 people, so it is not within LL’s best interest to let them continue. If the grief continues we escalate countermeasures to raise the cost (time and money) that the griefers must spend to continue their game. Unfortunately some griefers have a lot of time and money to burn.

Finally, I’ll offer some advice (and a plea):

Please don’t Drink and Drive SL. It really makes my job difficult when I have to deal with drunk mistakes.

Okay.. first... I never said you used the word "outrage". However, read your own post. If that is not an expression of outrage and indignation, what is? I also did not say that YOU called for a mass neg rating - that was Darko, tongue in cheek or not.

Second, I am not sure there is a truly "universally justifiable" neg. Then again, I did say that everyone has the right to neg anyone for anything, didn't I?

OTOH, if the rating system is to mean anything, then shouldn't there be rational standards for such things? There is a certain level of civility at least paid lip service to (inconsistently at least) here in the forums... somewhat moreso in the SL world itself.

Personally, I have negged people's appearance pretty much only when the clothes they wore were poorly made AND they were not noobs. A noob might be trying out a new item he/she just made. A person who has been around for a while and wears something that is poorly made (white edges, for instance) is just asking for a neg. Then again, take a look at my profile and see just how many negs I have given out.... not many and most were for behavior.

You are one of the few people in these forums that despite my most sincere efforts I cannot even begin to like. !

I'm doing year-end housekeeping, Darko, I'm still on this list too, right?

A person who has been around for a while and wears something that is poorly made (white edges, for instance) is just asking for a neg..

This post of mine runs tangential but parallel to the main thoughtlines of this thread, connected at the metaphorical hip.

There are just some people hoping to appear on Second Life Herald and/or get forum drama started via forced, deliberately provoked reactions (perhaps due to deep-seated hostile insecurities) -- which I can safely say tend to lean on the negative side due to acts such as griefing by GREEFER KIN involved.

Andrew Linden -- was this you? -- thoughtfully posted this on SLH the other day. I find it insightful:



Source: http://www.dragonscoveherald.com/blog/index.php?p=589#more-589

Godwin's law need not be stated so many times.

Finally, I’ll offer some advice (and a plea):

Please don’t Drink and Drive SL. It really makes my job difficult when I have to deal with drunk mistakes.

I understand ...snip

I'm gonna take a chance that you can put aside your reactionary bias against me and answer the question and give you the benefit of the doubt.

I never questioned your "right" to neg him....le snip

There is one. It's called "Hollywood".

This is going to result in a huge bunch of flames I am sure, but I don't believe that dressing like Hitler is either a TOS violation or a reason, in and of itself, to neg rate anyone (though I do believe you ultimately have the right to neg rate anyone for anything).

Seriously, behavior aside (because I was not there and I think the original post is somewhat skechy as far as describing "outrageous behvior worth negging", how is it that a person dressing in an improperly constructed/fashioned replica of a historical outfit and "made up" to look like one of the most influential figures in history deserves a label of "asshat" or any other negative label?

IRL, the movie The Producers was a hit by making fun of Hitler, his actions and mannerisms via humor. Chareli Chaplin did the same thing in The Great Dictator.

So, the question remains. How is just dressing up like Hitler a TOS violation? How is it offensive at its core - behavior of the avatar aside?

Are we going to have to extend this to any and all representations of anything - for instance, to replicas/depictions of Luftwaffe aircraft, to the use of US symbols (as they might be offensive to internationals/American Indians/whatever, to the inclusion of the Union Jack as it was a symbol of Empire for centuries to some? Where do we draw this line? Can it be drawn logically?

And Torley - interesting link. Thanks for posting it.

Certainly, the figure of Adolf Hitler evokes strong feelings, and people are justified in their outrage. However, this is nothing more than an uncreative grieifing that is pretty commonplace in SL. I am sorry that it happened to Shiryu's event, but by adding attention to it, it provides the kind of fuel that griefers thrive on - achieving notoriety and getting a rise out of people.

Certainly, if I had been more aware of what this griefer was looking to get out of the situation (additional notariety), I would have left it out of the forums. I was unaware that some, as Torley's very educational link displayed, are getting actual press! (of a sort)

Well, again, I apologise for bringing this to light when it should have been squashed silently. For me, it was a complete WTF moment just due to something I saw a few days previous flying about the NE section of SL - we had flown in on a friend's airplane and while outer walls of homes were still rezzing, I caught a 3 second glimpse of neo-Nazi propaganda inside someone's house. I asked my companions if they had seen what I saw, but they hadn't been looking in the same direction and while the incident stuck in the back of my mind, I decided it was a flash in the pan.

And then a few days later, Hitler shows up. I seriously thought I was losing my mind at best, or at worst there was some crazy White Power underground in SL I had no idea about.

Maybe I should change my forum nickname to "Haunted by Nazis". *sigh*

I agree that dressing like Hitler isn't a TOS violation in and of itself. However if he is griefing or disrupting an event while doing so, it may at least deserve some neg ratings and a possibly wrist slapping by a Linden.

I would like to nominate everyone who responds to this thread as biggest asshat because I think we are all dicks for trying to dump all our worst attributes on one person or group. Any one of us could win this award; it all depends on the direction the market flows.

hiro...do you have a link where u cut and pasted that fine information?? or a referance...i would love to see that!
justin