Discuss New Forum Policy Here - Pt 2

I don't doubt that you follow this line as an individual but there have been a few posts which have wistfully described the forum as having become boring. The inability to use the tool provided, the ignore button, in some part has also been self described as akin to passing an accident scene. This trait is far more common than self restraint.

OMG Jeska u surxx0r I personaly attack u!!!!!!111oneoneeonetwo

j/k

It's a deterrent. And a bit of a poker bluff, I suspect. The appearence of enforcement with teeth: the idea that you could lose virtual property and recreation inworld based on your behavior in the forums compels people to take less risks and police themselves.

Will the Lindens do it? Probably, if the circumstances are extreme enough. But I agree with Chip; such bannings will be fairly few and have a long "paper trail".

But why Lindens need this extremely harsh deterrent? If you misbehave you get banned from Forums and that's the end of story, you can not post again. Why is it necessary to scare people with SL banning?, is it just to completely prevent these posts from appearing in forums to a point they are completely sterile? Why not simply delete them then? Is it to identify individuals who can be a damage to SL in future based on their forum activities? Why?

I don't understand the reasoning and as such I am very much against this policy.

Until they keep making alts.

I know I am beating this subject to death but I am really interested in how many people think it is Ok to personally attack someone in the forums because you disagree with them? That is what the new policy is all about yet I see a lot of people skirting this with side issues. Come on and let your opinions be known.

If you think it is fine to go after someone because you disagree with them please raise your hand and be counted.

If not then there is no issue as far as I am concerned.

then ban the alts too, eventually it gets expensive to pay 10 bucks to make an alt every time you want to offend someone

Susie, with all due respect, this question is a bit pointless. The folks who do the personal attacking, generally speaking, don't think they are. So if that's the case, they won't say yes.

Trial accounts are free for 7 days.

It's not pointless at all unless the people in question have little computers in their fingers making them post things against their will. Posting something in the forums is a conscious act and people need to take responsibility for their own actions and own up to the consequences. If they can't be responsible for their own actions I don't know who will.

you can't sign up with the same registration information. now you might be able to get around that. but you have to use a credit card.

People have more than one credit card. People have friends.

Susie, you miss my point. People do mean things and don't realize they're mean. They don't feel it's something to take responsibility for because they don't realize what they are doing is wrong.

People who do it when they know what they are doing is wrong are generally savvy enough to skirt the TOS rather than blatantly violate it.

Then how does banning accounts help with this get around? People will simply make trial accounts, then they don't care if they get banned both here and in SL, no? Why not make trial accounts not possible to post on forums or only at certain places in forums for help only.

I still haven't heard a valid reason for this policy change.

Yes I understand that. Then some people will learn their lessons the hard way and hopefully learn something from their experience.

Because they'll lose their land, money, reputation, friends' list, and items, and that's a huge threat.

The people who don't have one character who is in SL a lot will more than likely not care what happens in the forum enough to keep making alts.

Trial accounts I can see having a legit stake in the forums, if they were having trouble logging in and needed help.

From your mouth to Philip's ears, eh?

Yes you can. After a certain period, I think it's 3 months, I'm not sure, you can get another trial account using the same credit card.

No from their own mouths to Phillip's ears. I take no responsibility for other's actions.

er... as long as you don't reach the alt max... 5 or 7 per cc?

I was playing off a common saying. don't worry about it

As you know from the other thread, I, too, am against banning people from the game because of subjective and highly differing evaluations of their forum posts. Not everyone is offended by the same thing. I shouldn't have to point that out.

I almost just put "ditto" to what Catherine said, but I decided to wait a bit and read later before deciding for sure. So I have given myself some time to read more, and to think about it. And yes, like Catherine, I, too, will exit, gracefully I hope, from the general forum, until such time as I can be sure I don't risk my game by putting it at the stake of my opinions.

I don't have an island, but as long as I know fellow posters have the power to AR me enough - and it is irrelevant to me whether or not that is likely, though my being banned was brought up as a reasonable possibility in another thread - to influence my case, as an individual, such that I might lose my game for posting my opinions in the general thread, I will abstain from doing so. I'll continue to post in other threads, unless and until I deem them likely to pose a similar risk.

coco

I don't get it. Are these new rules only for the general forum?

You're begging the question.
Most of us feel that certain banned folks said things that were fairly straightforward mean, untrue, and abusive. Nothing subjective about it.

Hiro

Do you mean things like accusing others of being alts?

Alexa

Hiro, I understand what you're saying about people using other credit cards and friends' accounts and so forth, but it seems to me that makes just as strong a case not to ban from the world if they become obnoxious on the forums. After all, if it will harm people who are productive in-world but won't stop the determined griefer, why bother? If I have land and reputation and all that other stuff and I don't want to lose it - but I do want to post goatse in every thread - why couldn't I just use a different credit card and start s--t at an Internet cafe or LAN party? Under these rules, some alt on a different credit card will be banned from the forums (don't care) and from the world (also don't care) - maybe even hardware banned (on someone else's hardware, so don't care about that either) but my main accounts in SL and on the forums will be untouched.

Conversely, if I was a jerk on the forums but nice in-world, I would be getting banned from a place where I cause zero problems, on account of some drama offworld. Imagine getting lead away in handcuffs on account of driving 70MPH in a 65MPH zone. That is how heavyhanded I think this policy is. People set up huge businesses and social networks and add to the overall SL experience and I really can't see booting them out (usually without any chance to log in and pass the torch to someone else, cash out on L$, etc.) just because they named one too many names.

Again, I don't have a problem with suspending a person from SL on account of being a nuisance on the forums - but I think that permanently banning someone from SL because of forums behavior is A) too strong a reaction for those who have something to contribute in-world (and don't have a laundry list of in-world abuse reports); and B) will do little to prevent people who are just out to troll and are using throwaway accounts. Keep in mind that someone who is a jerk on the forums may have huge contributions to make in-world, and if you permaban that person (and they are too pissed off/not clever enough to get around it), those contributions are gone forever.