Impeach Bush Guy Says 1/3 of His Plots Will Not Have Signs

Defanitly the 1st and 3rd ones for me. And lastly the fact that I can't stop him from buying any land I want to sell. Unless I set it only to sell to a certain person? To me that is so stupid. Why not just have it so I can set it to NOT sell to certain people too? Be nice to cut them off from buying if enough of us did it? He may have L$ but can't buy squat of land if he's not given the option?! That is just my L$ 0.02 but I have tried to say all this before in a much longer discussion that no one said much to.

I agree. I will start a petition to ban the person who plays the character of ImpeachBushGuy. Please instant message me in game under Matt Copeland if you will be willing to sign.


Thanks.

I've got a very cheap Impeach the Impeach Bush Guy t-shirt for sale at SLexchange (under the name IBG) that could aid for graphic demonstrations.

.....

Though that was pretty much a shameless plug...

I agree with you. Although, one has to think - will we ever be able to be on top of who's going to buy land for greifing? But then again, how many alts can a guy make?

I dunno.... just talking to myself.

Thank you! This is exactly what it is. He may or may not believe what he posts but that is not the issue. Posting your views is one thing (and should be encouraged). Tossing out these signs willy-nilly with no regard to overlapping other lots or Linden land is griefing; plain and simple. If he wants to buy an entire sim and plaster it with anti-Bush signs, have at it. But enough of this putting signs out and not doing anything to keep within your property lines until you get busted.

BTW -- I'd be interested to know how much this little venture is costing? Money that could be better spent supporting Cindy Sheehan for Senate is being used to promote an agenda that will be viewed by apathetic American voters who will be too busy playing Tringo on election day to care. I love this place!!!!

Matt Copeland, you can rest assured I'll be contacting you asap!

I think the arguments for and against are all valid in this thread, but no one has asked the big question. WHY is he doing it? Why is he putting up controversial signs that get everyone to start huge threads about? I honestly don't believe that he is doing it to get his political view across. Whats the point of swaying the opinion of a 17 year old in Scotland? Do I like Bush, do I not like Bush? Who the heck cares? In the game I am a female, land-owning clothing designer and I've not seen one booth for casting my vote for an elected official. So if its not political, why? Obviously Linden Labs is not going to stop him from doing it, despite the public outcry and proven detriment to the value of property surrounding the signs. This person needs the attention? Wants profit from the property he destroys? Maybe he's just a bully and delights in forcing frustrating situations onto people in which they are powerless to change the circumstances. I don't know, but perhaps the underlying reason why should be looked at and not the blanket free speech argument. This is a "case-by-case" kind of situation.

Thanks Cris! Exactly my thoughts! We even enjoy 2 of them at our land in Benten. One is right next to the Impeach Bush sign too..

Yea right! Our group sent you a few IMs regarding the sign and asking you if you'd consider selling the plot, since it's surrounded only by our land and nobody reads it anyway. Benten is a very quiet sim. Even I don't know what they say, but they're buttugly. Anyway, none of us got a reply! Sorry, that after that we didn't reply to your request to remove the tree in front of it either.

Aside from any other issues ...large in your face signs--just suck no matter what the heck the message is. It just craps up the landscape.....and can't think how many folks would want stuff like this going on in rl. Eyesores are eyesores. Let have lindens set aside a few sims for folks to express their views with the biggest ugliest redundant and boringest signs they can create and put zoning rules in other places. A few folks with a little resources can make SL .....mighty ugly as it is now.

Zoning laws might be the way forward but it may be another problem in the making, especially if it becomes retrospective law enforced by Lindon.

I try my damnest to get my locations next to a linden road. Almost like a mimic of in real life advertisting. As it stands even now it's possible to see many different advertisements while going for a drive. Just like real life. I also see currently the higher prices being set on roadside micro plots. I like others are happy to pay the price, another land market accessible to the starting up land seller. Large majority of the notecard requests and vendor sales I track come from roadside locations, so I'd say it's worth it to advertisers.

I'd be for all (some at least?) 16 or 32 meter borders along Linden Roads zoned as the only advertising allowed locations. With web on prim eventually on the way advertising can only get better. Flash billboards along the road would, for me at least, make travelling more interesting than looking at 90% of the builds.

Wow, lots and lots of upset residents. The ex-military guy who doesn't like the sign that says "Support Our Troops" is one of my favorites. The guy who thinks other people's speech should be censored because it disturbs him and compares it to a radio he can't turn off is a classic. Dude, there's an off button on your computer.

The signs are ugly. The signs are annoying. The signs are political.

In SL you have the right to build what you want on your land. There are certain restrictions spelled out in the TOS you have to follow, but other than that, if you have the prim allowance you can build what you want. Period. When we joined SL we understood that these were the rules.

People who think they have the right not to see something are wrong. Freedom of expression is not freedom from expression. When everyone has the right to express themselves that means that most of us will hear or read or see things we don't like.

This doesn't mean that the guy putting up those signs isn't a jerk. But as adults in a free society we have to put up with jerks. Take any actions you can within the TOS to get him to stop. Protest is freedom of expression too. And if you can come up with a simple, effective addition to the TOS that would stop this sort of thing, I, for one, would love to see it. In all the many many threads on this, though, I haven't seen a single, simple rule that could be effectively used to stop this that wouldn't massively infringe on the rights we all enjoy in Second Life.

I was about to go to sleep, but I think I'll have nightmares about that now.

Yes, me too! As if it would make a difference if you put signs right at the road (that most people don't use anyway), they are still in plain sight of everyone who lives around, and it doesn't make them less of an eyesore either.

Oh and NO, Chrischun, we won't swap your plot for another one at the road in Benten! Strange suggestion, but I guess you didn't get my and other people's point here anyway. Sad!

whys this not even locked?

The anti-Bush guy has a roadside corner near my land. His sign blares over everything and in my opinion is an eyesore. While I think his political message is nonsense (I am NOT defnding Bush btw.. and dont want to defend bush) ... it is his use of land in SL that is the issue. I mean he could put "I love the Spice Girls" on the sign for all I care about the message. The sign is still an eyesore. So wanting to increase the value of my land I asked if he would sell me the land. He refused. And I will be the first to admit I got angry. Heck... it made me want to love Bush... and that is crazy. But I calmed myself down.

As I thought about the sign I told myself that he was a jerk for bringing real word issues into my refuge from the real world. Then I thought about him. He pays money to play this game and is helping to support a game I love. Perhaps he sees SL as his refuge from RL. His message is radical, even goofy... and in RL.... he can't express those views and be taken seriously. So he comes to SL to blow off steam. He is able to be relavant in SL and that makes him feel good. So why does my refuge from real life take precendance over his? Well, it doesn't.

I decided to take actions to make my SL life better by blocking the view of his sign. Is that my perfect, favorite ideal way to handle things? No. It's a compromise. Maybe one day he will sell me that land and I will take down my walls. Maybe not. Either way my life now goes on in relative peace and so does his. He has a right to put up signs and try to broadcast any message he wants, as long as he pays his bill every month. And for that matter so do I. I have come to peace with this matter and I hope all of you can too. Well, I'm off to build my HUGE I love Posh Spice signs. See you soon.

If the Impeach Bush Guy sent me the textures he used, I'd use it to repaint the outer walls of my house for every newb to enter SL to see.

You may be forced to hear or see, but noone can force you to listen or pay attention. If you do, that's your responsibility. THAT is free speech.

id like to be american right now, at least then i could be angry at the signs for a political reason, but im not. Even so, their just plain ugly. and blatant griefing.

freedom of speech is diffrent to the medium used. -- ok, you want to impeach bush? you can have that opinion. *thats* freedom of speech.

freedom of speech is not about spewing your bullsh*t all over the place in an effort to be heard. Thats just being an idiot.

Besides which, if you spew too much (like you have) your no longer part of the message, your part of the noise. -- the signs have 0 meaning anymore anyhow.

Correct on that, the fact that the message is going nowhere.

Maybe a "Send Bush to Golf with Cheney" thing would be better.

And THATS what america is good at!!!


*I'm an American & I approve this message! *

yeah sorry. im just sick of people deciding freedom of speech allows them to be total jackasses.

He's probably talking about the land that he uses as his "home". I've been at that land, and ironically not a bush sign in site. That's probably the "1/3" he's talking about. I guess he doesn't want to look at them, he just wants everyone else to look at them.

lol.... I think if I had a radio that wouldn't stay off .. I think it would end up in the old trash folder

Unfortunately we have no rights in SL when it comes to other people imposing themselves on us. At least not with the sign issue. *sighs* Personally I'm sick to death of all this bs. Gone rounds with his buddies on SLX forums over this. Finally decided it really wasn't worth trying to talk to them anymore.

Land extortion is land extortion period. I don't care if you throw a free speech label on it or not ... Let's just call it for what it is shall we?

I would have to agree with Sherrade, that was my first thought when I saw the first post. LOL

LL could very easily end this whole sign controversy with a simple change (a form of which has already been proposed in prop 905). Adding the ability of end users to filter content either based on land, as prop 905 proposes, or better yet, based on owner. This is effectively the same as being able to mute a contact. IF we can mute their voice, why not also be able to mute their offensive content?

No one's freedom of speech would be impaired. Posters of potentially objectionable content can post until their hearts are content. But other users would have the freedom of choice to NOT listen.

EDIT: After careful consideration, I submitted this as a proposal. Optionally extending mute to content of the muted avatar is now proposition 1032. I do not believe this is a duplicate, particularly of 905, since 905 proposes filtering based on land locations. And I did not find any other proposals to mute or filter based on owner.