Formal Response to a Formal Warning

Sent in response to the warning, and cc'd to Robin Linden.

Dear Linden Lab,

Over the past few months I've noticed an increasing level of hypocrisy, personal bias and inconsistencies in the way your staff moderate the Second Life forums, most recently in the still open thread Useless Thread Hijacks (/120/c7/27640/1.html) in which, after multiple personal attacks, many against me, a Linden interjected merely to move it off topic with no censoring of the posts themselves; the personal attacks still stand unedited now.

You will also no doubt have noted, and subsequently chosen to ignore following your convenient locking of the thread Muting self (/120/f4/27661/1.html), that a number of people, myself included, have voiced similar concerns of Linden conduct in this regard. There are a number of other posts that highlight similar experiences.

Since it appears that you only often take action after 'snitching' abuse reports, even after a Linden has viewed the thread, I have this morning abuse reported a large number of posts, old and new, that I believe further highlight this double standard. This is not an action I would normally take; I don't believe in censorship of personal opinions, but given the circumstances and LL's refusal to acknowledge or address this situation, I don't see how else I can make my point.

When you examine the posts in this way, the pattern would tend to indicate that it is not what is said, but who said it, with Linden moderators displaying clear favoritism and bias towards the actions of certain contributors over others, and dependant on who the target of these attacks are.

Your warning has had the desired effect; I will change my forum tactics as a result. I will stop conducting 'role playing of this type' - joking with a good friend - and instead I will concentrate on highlighting where I see these inconsistencies and bias in Linden moderation of others posts, because it is simply not acceptable for a company to conduct themselves in this way; allowing certain paying customers more right and privilege to make their opinions known than others.

I hasten to add, though, that I believe this warning for 'personal attack role playing' to be an excuse on your part to give me a more general warning for forum conduct - either that or there really are some staggering levels of hypocrisy at work here when you put this reasoning and the consideration that it is a 'first offence' of this kind into context with a number of other threads and other posters behaviour.

I have seen much evidence to suggest that similar inconsistencies and bias happen with inworld Linden moderation and actions too, and though that is not the focus of this response it is worth pointing out that these experiences are also regularly highlighted on the forums without any reponse or clarification from a Linden representative.

If this trend continues, I guess the only option left to me is to 'vote with my feet' in protest. No, I'm not threatening to leave because I have a lifetime account on which I can play for 'free', but I will return my private island and tier down to zero land because I refuse to continue to pay sizeable monthly fees to a company that treats people with such blatant inconsistency and double standards in their rulings, especially when I seem to constantly be on the raw end of the deal despite the fact I am nowhere near as provocative as many others.

I accept that Second Life has grown perhaps quicker than Linden Labs can grow to meet the demands, but I think it is high time that Linden representatives started behaving in a more consistent and professional manner, and a more cohesive official voice, towards all of their paying customers and begin to address some of these concerns that are being brought up time and again rather than ignore them, because it will only foster further resentment and further damage the reputation of Linden Labs. I am personally disappointed that a company that used to be so responsive to customers opinions and wants should now increasingly appear to be distancing themselves from their customers and often seem incapable of fair and consistent enforcement of their own rules.

Kris Ritter

if you aspired to this quality of posting more often, i doubt you would have gotten a warning. of all the threads they could warn you for, it's pretty funny that they chose a joke thread. actually, if joke threads aren't safe then i'm in big trouble for what i said to you in the backward thread!

(please don't close krittiana)

I don't know if you noticed Jauani, but you have since been censored. Though amusingly, they left the quote of what you said in a post a little further down.

And no, I didn't report you

And as you point out, it's pretty funny that they warn me over a joke thread and direct a formal warning as such, which is why I pointed out I thought it was little more than an excuse. And not a good one at that.

As for any 'personal attacks' by me they mention, I tend to be as restrained as I can at the time - yes, I've responded to some people with insults, but mostly I just drip on the sarcasm rather than be outright coarse or rude. As I said in the other thread mentioned above, I can't indirectly refer to a class of people as 'pond dwelling scum' yet its ok to call me, by name, 'fucking obnoxious'. Hmm.

I don't mind. As I've said before, have at me. But the Lindens mind. Sometimes. Depending on who it is thats doing the attacking and depending on who is being attacked. And that is what is so wrong.

I am by far and away not the worse for personal attacks - not by a long chalk - and I defy anyone to post evidence to suggest that I am overtly vicious to anyone without similarly vicious provocation (i fight fire with fire! best to try to relate to people on a level they understand!), and this didnt mention 'useless thread hijacks', so I should take it that that is not what this warning is for?

As I said. Hypocrisy. Double Standards. Inconsistency. Favorites.

i could agree with you about inconsistency (i didn't read the thread) but don't you think the rest are pretty far fetched? for example, who would be these favorites? how would we know who has recieved warnings and who hasn't? hypocricy - i don't observe LLs practicing the behaviour that they hand out warnings for. not on the forum anyway.

if i was LL and was playing favorites, the owner of heaven and earth, the first real island sim and payer of a 200 USD tier would be on my list. so i don't believe they are playing favorites.

if i had to pick a real double standard it would be everything anshe. if anshe's name is in a thread, it's an instant linden sanctioned battle royale. i guess it has to be so as anshe is SL's walmart.

I'd be on my list too.




Agreed.

** Pulls up chair, reaches for popcorn **

Tsk. Troll

No no no.. I am the troll.. It's me me me.

Seriously, I think that your response to the "warning" was far more mild than I would have written in the same circumstances. And, considering those circumstances, I WOULD HAVE WALKED... right down to the $0 tier in your case.. but that's me.

FWIW, I agree wholeheartedly with your "side" here. It boggles the imagination that any policy or plan could be so haphazardly and inconsistently applied by a company.

All I can say is what others told me when I ranted and vented about a fly-by triple neg - wear the warning as a badge of pride if you can. What else can you do?

Hmm.. well kris i think this is the first time i have activly disagreed with you. I too received a warning for my thread "flame me" and the only thing it did was embarassed me and you are sure to notice the dwindling use of these forums by me. I figure if they dont want people to joke here im cool with that (it is there forums) ill joke around in world if i feel the need. But i do not think that they are just picking out certain people because if that was the case i wouldnt have gotten a warning letter. Im not going to point out exactly how much money i have put into secondlife or how much money i pay them monthly but im sure when you are flying around and you see some of my get-a-way homes in world and such you will realize i own a nice bit of land and i pay fee's accordingly. I am also a mentor, live help, and an instructor. The point is.. even though i do all this for the company they are quick to put me in line when i get out of line, so i seriously do not think that they are biased.

Well hello,

Yup I got EXACTLY the same warning, and I spent till 8am this morning, before I went to bed fuming over it, what can you do, they don't give a stuff *sigh*

hypocrite

\Hyp"o*crite\, n. [F., fr. L. hypocrita, Gr. ? one who plays a part on the stage, a dissembler, feigner. See Hypocrisy.] One who plays a part; especially, one who, for the purpose of winning approbation of favor, puts on a fair outside seeming; one who feigns to be other and better than he is; a false pretender to virtue or piety; one who simulates virtue or piety.

The hypocrite's hope shall perish. --Job viii. 13.

I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart. --Shak.

I to replied, to my email, but of course, no reply as of yet and I doubt there will be one.

BTW I would call what I have been doing trolling, not personally attacking but meh, if they don't know the meaning of the above word, I doubt they know the meaning to alot of others..

Willow

I hope the forum moderators will ignore this e-mail and not give in to the threats. It makes me sick when people try to use their dollars to push for crowny treatment.

Um I got that email too, and I am just as perturbed as Kris, and I haven't written down any 'crowny' treatment, so I hope that they DON'T ignore this thread.

Kthxbye....

I hope you understand script language

IF(OwnsSim&IsPayingLLAlot)
{
dispensejustice();
immunity();
}
else
{
ignore();
}

I own a entire sim and an undisclosed amount of land frequently resides in my tier.. and i am considering getting a private island so that i can texture it.. and umm im sure they are aware of what i have and my plans to get more.. but um.. why arent they taking care of me?

I don't

yoshi i think it was more stating that if someone is going to invest a lot into a game...fairer treatment is in order...ive been following all said threads myself and while other folks have used abusive language in response and willow and kris were makin playful statements THEY were the ones that got made the example of...i myself left a game i was game staff in prior to SL because of all the stupid politics and unfairness and everything that it seems like this game is heading in the direction of....i know that kris and willow were joking, and yet others that responded to them who went overboard got off scott free? makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever....now im just waitin for MY warning cause i have an opinion that is contrary to most others....

*nudges Surina over for some sitting space, intrusively grabbing a handful of popcorn from her bag and chowing down*

*runs in and STEALS all of your popcorn, replacing it with hot nuts*

they taste SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo damn good

/fun end for fear of banning

kris ur just getting so fiesty in ur old age. but then i dont give a damn about the forums and apparently u do. the forums in general are only a small segment of the sl universe. apparently some think being a forum celebrity, (meaning a person who posts a lot and gets involved in arguements) has some meaning. if a poll is conducted in the forums one clique or another grabs it and all u will see is that cliques opinions. its all so narrowly focused i cant understand the lindens actually trying to get some broad based opinion out of it.

if the lindens threatened to ban me from the forums i would write them back and just say sure, go ahead.

marilyn

Hey Kris, here's another one for ya, Korg insulted me in this thread...

/120/0c/27545/2.html





And it still stands and believe me there are far worse insults to others from korg in there. Its still an open thread.

Ah Kris *hugs* - that just royally sucks. I am starting to feel sad about SL - its so true that only a hand slapping occurs in really nasty threads. You and Willow are generally having a fun time.

I guess some complainers must have started sending in reports. I really can't think of why else you would have gotten the (^see above) 'royal' treatment.

I completly agree with you Kris! More so I have a prime example of the bias that does exist in these forums:

/120/96/27605/1.html

"Originally Posted by Jauani Wu
Kris you and your posts are just fucking pathetic!, Why don't you and willow fuck off and get a life, your sad, annoying, obnoxious and pathetic, kthxbye!"

I found that post extreamly offensive and I reported it. The only thing done was someone edited it to remove it. I of course had already quoted it so it's still there.

I would think an out an out attack like this would cause someone to be banned but they were not. Now I would like to know. Why not?

Cat

Too bad your initials aren't A.L. or then you'd never get banned! Even if you've been doing shit since Beta!

Its sad that there is biasm, but I'm not really surprised especialy when LL is so integrated into the community and of course will have "favorites".

I'm actualy kinda surprised they even said anything when you do own an island. Guess you have to own 3 nowdays.

Well they kinda HAD to warn Kris if they warned me, or that really would have taken the biscuit, so I think thats why her I own a Sim card doesn't play well...

However, Kris and I were only have friendly banter, cos we WUB each other, so wtf this shit is all about I really do not know, but I do know i'm getting madder by the moment

If you read my email at all you evidently didnt understand it. I said I wanted equal treatment. Not special treatment. Which I'm currently not getting in my opinion. And the Lindens arent listening when its pointed out.

So why should I sit here and pay $200 a month to get singled out as an example when my 'crimes' - which they state are a single incident of roleplay and 'personal attacks' which I would dispute anyway; attacking isnt my style unless fighting fire with fire - are far less severe and vicious than many others who get away with it.

I am not threatening anyone with anything. Would you continue to give your hard earned cash to a company that treat you unfairly in comparison to its other customers?