Strange person in my house

This s a pretty good rationalle.

But sometimes you do need to get around -

For Flyovers -

I make an effort to get out of someones land as soon as possible when no one is there.

If someone's there I go around onto other unoccupied parcels.

I dont do that many trips flying anymore now that there is P2P Teleporting. But sometimes its nice to explore the "old fashioned" way.



If listed on places , it is for all intents a Business or a Venue.

So, yesterday, a day-old avatar with n00b skin, a freebie tux, and a machine gun appeared on my land, shot a few rounds in the air, and proceeded to cage himself. Now, I'm on an obscure enough part of the mainland that this doesn't happen very often, so it got me thinking again about the trickiness of the SL "socialization" process. A lot of folks are just never gonna get it ("How do I win?". Most of those will just disappear, leaving their trace in the Total Residents statistic for posterity. Some will go on to be griefers or, well, ne'er-do-wells of one sort or another. But a lot of folks eventually figure out what SL is about, and end up happy residents.

What we do in permitting or restricting access sends a message to new residents about what SecondLife is and what they might do with their time here. The more access restrictions they encounter as they explore, the more hostile an environment SL appears to them--and the more likely they'll restrict access on their parcels if they should ever decide to get land. There might even be a selection effect: the more hostile the SL environment, the more it will appeal to hostile avatars, and the fewer peacefully creative folks will find it a place in which to work and play.

The problem is that, at some point, the proportion of ne'er-do-wells could lead to more and more access restrictions (and other unwelcoming behavior), just to maintain some kind of order for the landowner. For some landowners, we're clearly at that point already--and that's fine: if for whatever reason a landowner doesn't feel like dealing with visitors some of whom will be unsavory, under those circumstances that landowner may not be so effective in welcoming others.

But I think, considering the "average" of all landowners' access policies, there's a kind of "tipping point" where we could create such a hostile environment that no new resident worth keeping would want to stay, a kind of self-fulfilling dystopia. I just hope we're not close to that point, and never find ourselves any closer than we are now.

I think much of the reaction to Ricardo is not so much to his barriers as to his bitterness.

He is in what is fortunately a very unusual situation: A large neighbor with staying power intent on griefing him into selling out in any way possible, including sending serial griefer alts onto his land for months on end. If Ricardo needs to put a general banline on his property, he is not only entitled to, but is in fact acting intelligently given his circumstances. And if Ricardo's way of experiencing SL does not require socializing with other avs, that is no-one else's business but his. (BTW flyover rights is a phony issue: You can transit a banned property once you get up to, I think, 150m.)

The unfortunate thing to me is that his neighbor's relentless assaults seem to have gotten to him. Ricardo needs an attitude adjustment - not to turning the other cheek to someone who will obviously regard that as a weakness to exploit and gleefully use against him, but to ban, eject, screen out, AR, AR, AR as he must - and be able to do all that with equanimity. Enjoyment, even. His neighbor evidently enjoys his assaults on Ricardo; Ricardo needs to enjoy effectively countering and frustrating them even more.

Go for it, Ricardo. You not only need peace of mind, you deserve it. And it'll drive the bastard nuts.

Good point, Qie. We need to focus our preventive actions more on neutralizing and eliminating the actual self-appointed griefers among us and less on the citizenry in general.

The only good griefer is a gone griefer.

I think the lack of built in conflict in Second Life leads to all this worry of griefers as boogeymen. Theres no "Bad guys to fight" in SL so people invented them.

SL Darwinism? Survival of the fittest (or most thick skinned?) Interesting.

@ Har: Nicely said about Ricardo. Changed my outlook on the situation. Good luck Ricardo!

All perfectly wise and reasonable, Chris. You're obviously a good soul, but we just see it differently.

Your method pretty much rules out exploring, doesn't it? Do you really expect everybody to pull up search before they cross a parcel boundary? Is it wrong to just drop in on a bunch of green dots on the map and see what's happening?

I learned many of the same polite behaviors you did growing up: all kinds of things that I practice every day in RL, but are not applicable or appropriate in Second Life. Property and space are obviously a very different thing in RL, where one can cause real harm, damage, or theft. In the absence of those problems, people's vigorous defense of their borders and precious pixels just seems ludicrous to me. Obviously I'm not going to go leering at someone in their bedroom, or bypass a locked door with my camera controls. But in the absence of any other indication, my assumption is that most people want their creations to be seen and experienced.

As I mentioned before, if everyone kept people out of their property, SL would be useless. You could shop for shoes and hair all day long, but not have any place to go to wear them.

awwwwwwww. *hugs Dekka*

/me whispers in a Kurtz-like voice: "The horror.... the horror..."

I've stayed out of this, but I'm bored with work, so here's my 5L. I don't think I would ever be comfortable walking into a stranger's house without being invited. I don't mind crossing their land from above when I'm flying because that doesn't intrude on them (assume I don't crash into their house), and I'm not all that comfortable walking through their land, but it can't always be easily avoided, so I've done it. OTOH, that's just me, and I have a tendency to apply RL concepts to SL outside of the fantasy aspect (I can fly, breathe underwater, etc..). I don't think those concepts really apply, but they make me comfortable, so there you have it.

I understand why people who are having problems with griefers would be really upset and do everything to protect their land. I think it's important to remember, though that the vast majority of people you meet are not like that. You can assume everyone is a griefer and keep your defenses on code red, or you can give people the benefit of the doubt until you know better. The former makes you bitter and isolated, but you have fewer griefing problems. The latter gets you griefed a little more, but also exposes you to the beauty that others might bring to the game. My choice is the latter, but that's just me. It's a personal choice and it's unfair to judge someone who chooses differently.

Smart person.

I'm scared....Hold Me!

OMG, A hermit?

You obviously don't know Ricardo. But funny nonetheless.

Hey, Ric!! Check this out!!! A hermit, lololol. Can't wait 'til he sees this, lol.


I understanding what you're saying regarding the land tools. But you see the thing is no one likes to be forced into doing anything they don't want. In this case if he closes the land which he didn't want to do, he'll be doing because they forced him into it. Just like he were to move or sell his place it's because they want him to do it.

If you knew Ricardo, you'd know he's not about to be forced into doing anything he doesn't want to especially from these joy boys from the mall.

But I guess some people wouldn't understand this so I can understand this too.

Who are you, Fred Mertz?

Stick to your pie jokes...er...comments.

Down Fred... easy man... Ricky is almost home...

He's said himself every stranger trespassing on his land gets caged. Using the ACL would save him the trouble. Or are you just being contrary now?

just had some guy go into resident houses

when wanting to ask him wth he was doing, i crashed...doh
log back in:


wrong answer and gave him a piece of pie for the journy home to help island by an estate ban...

why can`t ppl be atleast polite while exploring and entering houses?

newbie dropped in to my previous house and while wondering "wth" she said "nice house", chatted with her for a couple of minutes and gave a bunch of landmarks and items (forgot the pie back then but didn`t have a backpack)

He's homing in on the point Har made that he should not do what his griefing neighbor forces him to do. But in the end, he is forced to do something - either let the griefers run all over his land, or put up ban lines, or cage intruders. He's chosen the evil he wants to live with.

I'd hardly call using the most convenient method to control pests "evil". I'd be worried if I were him that the mallies would figure out that they might be able to get him banned by getting him in a cage-match and ARing him repeatedly, thus costing him his land anyway.

I'm just trying to sort out these odd little decisions.

I am all about griefer prevention through land tools. But it is only "evil" in the sense that he is forced to do something in response to his griefing neighbor. I don't agree with his choice, but he is an adult, and it's his choice. As long as he knows the risks, that's his decision, however regrettable it may end up being.

No grey area here.

Eject, ban OK and legal (if a tad unfriendly)
Cage, orbit, kill, etc... Wrong and not legal

Honestly, cage-gunning tresspassers is just as much something "forced" as using the ACL, in some action need be taken to prevent further greifing. I'm not seeing how choosing to break an agreement he made - to follow the TOS - makes his choice in any way defensible given he has many other acceptable options.

Hmm..read again dear. I never said I cage or I have caged anyone so your comments are invalid.
Get your facts straight before rushing out to point fingers and write things you know nothing of or about.

But enough has been said about this. I made it clear what my situation was/is and why I do what I do. I've been backed into a corner and now because of this everyone pays.

I don't come in sl to fight or get upset with anyone, that's not me. But I refuse to be a target for anyone and I'll do whatever I have to on my land. If it means ejecting people then so be it. The thing is I have that right since it's my place.

Call me a grouch, call me whatever you like. Come here and tell me to turn the other cheek and preach to me how I should abstain from being rude and all that other nonsense. You do that, you let them walk all over you, I won't. Now, If you know me you'd know I don't care what anyone thinks, especially those who although supposedly come here to read, still get it wrong. Reading comprehension isn't for everyone I know, so I understand.

Like I said, enough of this already. I will however continue to do what I have to and as long as you don't come where you don't belong, then you have nothing to worry about. It's that's simple. And more inmportantly it's my right as a land owner.


I have gotten many IM's in game of people who have read this. All have told me they understand my situation and given me tips or words of encouragement. A few have given me lm's for devices to help out. It's nice to know some people can still understand what they read. A few have said they've been thru' similar situations themselves so they know all about it.

'nuff said.

Cole, don't waste your time, it's not worth it.

Ok, orbit. Whatever. Same difference.


So sorry, sad sack. I'd shifted to wondering why you don't take the easiest route. The ACL would save you gobs of time and effort, but whatever son, you just keep on keeping on.