Tired of vampire bites? Read this!

LOL. I definitely would have had a laugh at that before I banned him, though.

Ahem: The use of real world textures and such within Second Life is quite germane to this discussion if you intend to bring ethics into this. If you wish to bring ethics into this, then we may as well attack al of the second life vendors who follow no code of ethics concerning their use of real world products.

The use of a system which includes all SL users within it as an effort to remove the need for individual registrations is NOT lazy - it ensures that anyone who may be interested need only gather the required items to join in.

As to the last bits of your post? Until you've actually joined in you are simply a data point in their database, not a user. As such you really do not have the right to complain - like many real world systems that collect and store data points as well as many government systems ... you are a number and of no consequence.

Complain about what you actually have the right to complain about ..... and opt out of the system.

Wow, I just came back from Dairy Queen and had a really yummy Blizzard.

What fun those days were around here.

I just want to point out that this in fact is exactly what has been suggested several times: Anyone who *is interested* just has to pick up the required "I'm potential prey" HUD. It could be distributed for free over XSL and OnRez, or even as an option to give it from the "active" vampire HUDs.

Even I could see a couple of reasons, i would never do a biting system where preys are opt in.
It is just not convenient.

Opt out is a cop out in my opinion and used by organisations who are not really serious about giving you a choice. Opt out relies on the many people who won't complain, who cannot be bothered to use it or don't know about it.
You should not have to take action to not participate. You should have to take action to participate. It is at best very impolite to assume people want to participate rather than ask them beforehand and at worst...

"Oh you didn't know that you are assumed to be participating in our scat ponyplay roleplay? Gee what a shame, but don't worry you can still opt out by accepting this "magic bit" you wear between your teeth for a day before your name will be registered on our scat ponyplay database as no longer wishing to play."

Not something a lot of people would want their av's name associated with I would warrant.

I am completely confused about this whole thing - I only know that I have always been careful about the whole being bitten thing with a strict personal policy that I would never accept a bite invite knowingly and also that I don't accept things from random strangers.

Suddenly, over the last 2 weeks there seems to have been an influx of vampire Bloodlines roleplayers, and I have had nothing short of abuse, hassle, and a complete nightmare, everywhere I go. As it turns out, I find out, finally tonight that, I was bitten (can't remember when, or where). I am soooo annoyed right now - I can't even begin to tell you how much.

I refuse the 'offer' to be bitten all the time, but recently I've had issues. They keep on hassling and are just downright rude in some cases. Especially when I insist I have never been bitten - because I have never knowingly accepted a bite offer. Filing Abuse Reports does nothing at all. I have had many comments regarding my size (I am fat in SL, just like RL) and comments that my bigger AV size must mean I have extra blood to spare! I'm just so sick of it!

Anyway - tonight a really cool 'vampire' actually assisted me, and told me what the hell all these scanner things are telling the players. I was very impressed with him and he actually apologised to me - even though the attack was nothing to do with him at all.

Sadly, he then also broke the news that for L$250 I could drink a potion and that would restore my soul. Great! However, if I'm bitten again, I'm as good as dead!!! WTF !!!! I told the guy I didn't have that kind of money, and he helped me out - now I feel obligated to camp to get all the Lindens back to pay back this kind gentleman. It's just not right! I am so annoyed, that something that I didn't ever realise I'd accepted is costing me precious time out of my already very restricted access time in SL. It is going to take me forever to camp back those Lindens, I really hate camping - sitting in the zombie waiting rooms for the minutes to roll by - and now I'm almost forced to do it! Grrrrr!

I realise that this seems an over-reaction to this issue for some people - but along with the abuse I have received, to keep being told my soul is 'in limbo' is to me, just plain offensive! What if I were strongly religious and took those beliefs with me into SL??? A soul in Limbo is some religions is a doomed and tortured soul! And I don't need to keep hearing it from game players, when I have had 2 extremely recent deaths and the families keep talking about souls and stuff (both families are religious). I just don't need their stupid gaming rubbish!

I don't understand it, but will this garlic thing get my name cleared out of their stupid scanners ?

If not, then how do I get back to my pre-bitten days ? The last thing I want right now is a pop up message saying "hi you are now dead, have a nice day!" or whatever it says, if you take the L$250 thing, and then accidentally get bitten again.

In short - how do I get rid of their scanners reporting me as being bitten, or soul in limbo, or whatever and just go back to being as I was BEFORE the 'attack' ??? I just cannot handle another dis-respectful idiot telling me, and arguing that, my soul is in Limbo!

Also - does anyone know who are the creators?....cos I have a bone... a very big one - to pick with them.....Ggrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The cool vampire is having you at it. This is completely false.

Nah, he's not. In the game, there is a Wormwood potion that you can buy and drink to "reclaim your soul." Of course that only matters if you actually care about how you appear in that game's database and aren't, ya know, utterly insane enough to confuse it with anything to do with reality or even SL itself.

Lol I meant they don't have to buy anything to restore their soul unless they're playing Bloodlines itself. I think the person seems to think it effects them in SL somehow.

wow..
mostly i hate it when they beg and wont take "no, sorry i don't do the vampire thing" as an answer. but i don't get all filled with angst, file AR's, anything. i just click the mute option on the pie menu..ok and once or twice set them on fire..

Man I really need to find out where you guys are getting all these annoying bite requests at. I've been looking for these spampires; I even made a sweet, innocent looking female alt hoping to lure them in and still nothing! (Granted, making her look like Buffy might not have been the best idea ever but I couldn't resist...at least the silver dagger she was waiting to use was hidden.)

QFT. This--exactly this--is the very practical reason that opt-out isn't good enough. It's one thing to seek out a role-play game within SL, and quite another for a newer resident to be hounded and harassed and eventually hoodwinked into wasting L$s and time they could be spending enjoying SL, all for somebody else's lame, server-assisted "role play."

Should they have known better? Perhaps, but perhaps they'd have had a chance to learn better had they not been forced to spend so much of their in-world time fighting off the fangs in the first place.

This is a very good point, and to be honest it's one I hadn't thought of before. I had, like a few of us in this thread so far, been rather bemused by the 'victims' who seem to take this very seriously, but the fact is these spampires tend to prey on newbies because newbies usually don't know any better.

And how many newbies must come into SL not really knowing what it's about? We've all seen threads here asking things like, "What do I do here?" where new players assume SL is like other games with levels, bosses to kill, money/gold to earn, and are bewildered when they can find none of that. So, being told their soul is in limbo, or they're now dead might be alarming to them if they're still in that mindset. "But I only started playing a few days ago! I kind of like it, even if I don't know what to do. I don't want to stop now because my soul's in limbo/I'm dead!"

Seriously, just IM one of the game's creators and get your name removed from the system. I did this.

You don't have to buy anything.

I believe you can find the name of the bloodlines website guy in the "fed up with Vampires" thread. Lyle something.

Yes, I will spit in their faces, if this is the kind of 'possible solution' they have to offer. You see, no where in the SL login screen or clicking the ToS, did I agree to be a part of the Bloodlines game. Thus, I am not "opting in" in the first place. I feel that by choosing this 'opt out' option, I am agreeing that at one time I did play their laughable idea of roleplay, WHICH I NEVER DID.

Now, if they had taken the other option of requiring the victim to have a HUD and doing some major rewriting of their pyramid system, then I'd cheer. It'd mean they had the balls to admit they did something extremely stupid and are willing to really fix things to redeem their system.

As it is, all they've done is gotten their game banned from several places and are inflicting the rest of us with Spamires.

I despise these games, I don't even understand the appeal of them; wow, you used a gesture on X people requiring no skill whatsoever, yay for you! Now go back to play with your lego.

Opt-out should be banned from SL entirely, if you want to use someone's details for something other than visitor-tracking, or gathering statistics for your land (i.e - anything land-management based), then you should be REQUIRED to have a clear and valid opt-in stage to the process. For example, if you want to be part of Bloodlines, then you should have to get the HUD. If you want to subscribe to a newsletter you should have to touch a clearly marked item, and so-on.

Opt-out is an invitation for unbounded harassment.

Hate to break it to you, but the moment your Avatar was given a key ... you opted in to anything that uses or references that key. In other words, the moment your account was created and logged into for the first time: You just opted in to any AV Key database out there.

Now, I'm not saying it's right or fair or even ethical. I'm saying that it simply IS. Linden Lab gets to determine in the end what is and is not against the ToS, especially when it comes to AV Key Databases.

There are FAR worse databases to have your information present in.

I will also keep reminding the people who have been spammed that, like any RP out there, you are going to get newbies and n00bs. The difference is that the newbies actually learn and stop breaking rules and such. The n00bs ... do not.

Once again: Try complaining about something a bit more important hmm?

Oh! You have Linden Lab to blame for the way new users are being affected and treated by the n00bs within the Bloodlines system: THEY decided to axe proper orientation in favor of simple HIs and THEY decided to have SLURLs take you right to that place after new account sign up instead of any kind of orientation.

If the creators of Bloodlines cared at all about reducing the amount of spam-bites all they would have to do is limit the number of bite requests that a user could send out each day to something like one or two.

The only way to truly do this and enforce it would be to remove the ability for scripts and such to gather or even use an AV Key.

Yes, lets break everything else so that we can get rid of something that is a mere annoyance.

Oh! Let us not forget that the entire people search is opt out as well - by account removal/cancellation. Hell, most of the crap LL does is Opt-out!

as are many things in real life, such a telephone surveys and the like.

Again, instead of complaining, follow the opt out protocol - as you would in real life to remove your number from caling computers and lists.

lolz@solar

then we should be allowed to use a script to send notecard spam to every single avatar that has it`s key registerd by a 3rd party site

go ahead and try it... it`s opt out!

you endup getting banned

Laughing at them seems to work pretty well...

Two problems with it. First, it's a necklace. I have another necklace I want to wear, and it isn't garlic. Second, wearing it plays into the vampire RP scenario...and most people who don't care to be bitten also don't care to be bothered.

Dab some spaghetti sauce behind your ears. Same great garlic scent and lets you wear your necklace. Plus it lets your date have a snack.