01-19-2005 13:48
In the early days of Second Life, Residents were able to keep up with the nefarious acts and ill deeds of their fellow Resident by way of a weekly Police Blotter. The Blotter offered an ever-so-slightly jaded and occasionally humorous slant on abuse and discipline. As Second Life grew, however, the Blotter's crude innuendos and lame puns couldn't keep up with an increasingly dynamic world...and so the Blotter faded away.

Now the Blotter is back in an all new form – real-time. The Real-Time Police Blotter offers the Second Life community unprecedented access into the resolution of Abuse Reports and the administration of discipline. Warnings and Suspensions will appear in the Blotter live and in real-time. Resolved incidents appearing in the Blotter contain information about the date of the incident, the Region in which it occurred, the Community Standard that was violated, the type (and length) of discipline, and a description of the event. Only names and specific places, in accordance with our privacy policy, are redacted. The Real-Time Police Blotter is online now: http://www.secondlife.com/support/blotter.php

The ultimate goal of the Real-Time Police Blotter is to better involve the Second Life community in the Abuse resolution process. While the Blotter offers access and insight, what's really long overdue is channel for the community to offer feedback and effect change in the most serious disciplinary situations – permanent expulsion for Second Life.

When a Resident's disciplinary history reaches a point at which they receive a two-week suspension, Linden Lab automatically initiates a Review for Ban. Our staff then review the Resident's entire disciplinary history to determine if, in fact, a permanent expulsion is in order or if a reprieve should be granted. The Resident Review Panel, starting today as a pilot program, will give the community a direct voice in this process.

At the start of any Review for Ban process, a new group of 25 active Residents will be chosen anonymously and at random to independently review the case history and voice their opinion. Names and places will be removed for privacy reasons, and the Panel will weigh-in based solely on the facts. The Review Panel will not have the power to expel a Resident, but they might well save a Resident. Ultimately, the decision to permanently eject a Resident from Second Life will remain with Linden Lab; the comments and opinions of the Review Panel will be used to inform the Review for Ban process and to question our assumptions about when and why Residents should be removed from the Second Life community.

The Real-Time Police Blotter and Resident Review panel are both intended to shed more light on the resolution of abuse in Second Life without compromising our commitment to privacy or allowing one Resident power over another. We will continue to add and refine these programs and add new ones. As always, your ideas and feedback are vital to making a Second Life a better place; if you have questions or concerns about either of these initiatives, join me at 10:00am Thursday, January 20 at the Waterhead meeting area for an informal discussion about the Real-Time Police Blotter and the Resident Review Panel pilot program.