The Garlic Necklace doesn't really work.

That would be ideal.



No, what they have is, by definition, an "opt-out" system. That's just how an opt-out system works. Period. You can't have a "zero knowledge" opt-out. It's basically an "everyone EXCEPT these people" kind of system, which requires maintaining a list of the exceptions.

What you are talking about is an "opt-in" system, which is the better (if, arguably, less profitable) system for it. This would basically be "no one EXCEPT these people" system, where the only ones on the list are the ones specifically requested to be participants.

I haven't read this entire thread but since the BL subject has come up again...

...I had never received a bite request...until last week when I logged onto SL and got the "Your requested location is unavailable" message and got dumped into some hub - whereupon I received a couple of "bite requests."

Ah! But I was ready. I put on the "Vampire Hug Hud" (not sure if that's the correct name) made by Cheree Bury and offered a "hug" to each of the people who sent the bite requests. What this Hud does is offer what looks like a hug request then when accepted a stake becomes visible, does a kill animation on the "hugee/vampire" and they even go underground.

Welp...none of the vampires accepted my "hug." In fact one tp'd out of there after declining. One person kept spamming me with bite requests...I declined and offered the hug...it was declined and offered the bite...you get the idea.

I was really disappointed no one accepted my hug I finally said, "So you big, bad vampires won't accept a hug, eh?" did a "point & laugh" animation and left. (I know, I couldn't resist messing with this bunch.)

I got home and pulled the camera back from my av a bit before detaching the hud and saw...I had the stake in visible mode...ooppppppsssss.

So, the moral of the story is, apparently one can just be "holding" a stake and the vamps won't accept a "hug."

what would be the point in this though? do vampires bite each other. From what I can see, only the vamps use the hud, it makes no sense to have a non RP'er use the hud, or for someone to get it to get bit, then etc

we would be back to square one, where vamps (not all) are harassing people to get them to join so they can wear the hud and get bit, however in this case, there is no "garlic" to keep them away, you would have to deal with each one, one at a time.

I like what the necklace did for me.


you will notice if you read my previous posts I make mention of this, but think it would not work, for the reasons outlined above.

Well I have been spending an hour in search, google and running around on on the bloodlines sim and shops, but they hid it very well.

Does anyone have a SLURL so I can TP right to the exact spot. I couldn't find it anywhere.
no links, no leads, nothing.

Also the residents there who probably should know don't help me. maybe I should dress up as the freebie Darth vader, and they'll help me then, otherwise I probably look too tasty to them.

I am "fresh meat" and am getting sick of pushing the deny button all day.

You might say, well, let them have your fresh soul, and you'll be left alone. I doubt it would help. besides, I like my soul, I'm keeping it maybe if the right amount of money is offered. But I don't want to be a capitalistic pig either

Kasuga I think I still have mine in my inventory, when I log in tomorrow I will send it to you (heading to bed now)

If you already have one by that time, forgive the duplicate.

I went to the All tab in search, picked Places from the little menu, typed in garlic necklace, and the first two pages of results pointed to vendors for them.

A look at the FAQ on the bloodlines web site yields http://slurl.com/secondlife/Liquid%20South/212/37/22 For this one, you walk up the stairs, go through the door between the lanterns, and turn right inside the room to find the vendor.

Thanks people When I get back from work I will look at the tips I got.
Also if the necklace is simply transferable then it's even better.

It's awkward to aid them financially in order to get rid of them.

The vendors sell the necklaces for L$0 so there isn't any financial aid involved. The necklaces are no modify but allow copy and transfer, so you can hand them out to anyone.

Ah, then it's cool, well, if you please, you can also drop it in my inventory while I'm offline, I'll receive it later then

I would send a copy, but I don't have your profile up on my screen and am too lazy to search for it.

There were two points to our whole argument against Bloodlines:

1. The garlic necklace is marketed as a means of removing oneself from the Bloodlines system. It does not do that. Now, while there is no argument that, because of the way they created the system in the first place, total removal is not possible, the argument remains that the necklace does not do EXACTLY what it is marketed to do.

2. Bloodlines has no business even having the data of anyone who did not specifically request being put in their system, notably by buying their products. One can argue that interacting with their products by granting bite permission is all the permission BL needs to gather one's data, and that would be true; however, Bloodlines fails the disclosure test - specifically, they do not mention ANYWHERE that one's data will be collected and stored if one grants bite permission.This is unacceptable. If you even REMOTELY believe this is acceptable, then this just shows proof of how damaging data mining operations have been on our concept of right to privacy. Getting my data without my consent is unacceptable. Consent can be implied in any number of ways, but if consent was implied by an action that I did not initiate, then it is not legal consent.

Realistically, there is little I can do to get myself removed from every database where legal consent was not granted; but it does not mean I should just sit back and let it happen. It is my right and responsibility to challenge every occurrence I discover, and to try to push forth legislation that criminalizes the process of unconsented data mining. I WILL NOT EVER just sit back and take it, or, in your words, just "get over it". This is an irresponsible attitude.

1. The necklace has been marketed as a means to remove yourself from the game (meaning active play) nowhere in the OP's posts has there been anything stating in direct wording that it removes you from their system.

2. I'm sorry, come again? How many other databases is your avatar's information in? Let's see here ... Name2Key, the JLU database, Bloodlines and countless others.

3. Your Avatar is not you, it does not exist outside of SL .... IT IS NOT REAL. Unless these databases somehow have your real life information, including billing information ... there is nothing to worry about.

4. My attitude is one of a person that understands that this crap happens and that there is often very little we can do about it. Welcome to the information age .... Get used to it, as this issue is NOT going away and may one day become one that cannot be tackled at all.

Here's another example of a database that keeps track of you, even if you never opted in at all - The three credit companies. "You need credit to get credit" ... except just about everything you do financially is recorded - even if you've never applied for a credit card.

Words of a vampire...

You know, the Bloodlines roleplay is SL roleplay. All players that don't understand that SL is not a reality, should refrain from ever joining.

But, I play in this game, and I will decide what I roleplay. If I don't want to be bitten in this game I push decline on the bite request. The same person tries agin within a short while, they will get a report against them, then the game is getting annoying.

Also, Vampires should be able to be punished for harassing others, and unwanted biting. And for example resetting all their stats to zero.

Wanna bet it'll get really quiet on the biting?

plus, the necklace probably isn't working, but it's a start.
Also, they could script the necklace, so that if they do an unwanted biting request while wearing it. The vampire dies, resetting stats, etc.

Besides, looking at the images of it, it's not even an ugly necklace either.

Matter of opinion, lol. It's a big ugly bulb of garlic on a string. I wore it, clicked it, clicked 'activate' and saw the chat come up that it was activated and I would not be disturbed again. Also to wear it again and deactivate it if I should decide in future to play Bloodlines. Then I detached it. Not something I would choose to wear as a fashion accessory to be sure. From what I understand, continuing to wear it is not necessary, once it's activated. So far so good, no bite requests. Unknown if thatis coincidence or the work of the necklace but for me, it accomplishes my goal, for the Bloodlines players to leave me alone, so all is well in my SL.

You're still not paying attention.

Read carefully: Whenever someone with our problem IM's one of the Bloodlines creators and asks to be REMOVED FROM THE SYSTEM, that person tells us to use the garlic necklace, thus implying that they're directing us to something that ostensibly will do what we've asked them to do - remove us from the system. The fact that it DOESN'T makes us feel as if we've been given the runaround, and it makes us resentful. Get it? If the necklace does not remove a person from the system, then they shouldn't be telling us to use it when we ask to be removed from the system. How hard can this possibly be to understand?

Here's the problem - Bloodlines would never do that, and the reason is that the game REQUIRES you to send multiple bite requests in order to stay in the game. Here's how it works - as a vampire, you carry up to 5 "liters" of blood inside you. However, every night at midnight SLT, .25 liters of blood is taken from you. If your blood level reaches zero, you are "destroyed" - all your stats are reset to zero. To be un-destroyed, you merely need to bite someone and get some blood again, but all your stats will still be at zero, so you'll have to "start all over". Thus, in order to play this game, there must CONSTANTLY be biting requests, because players always need more blood.

Of course, a vampire can buy (no-copy) "casks" of various volumes for storing excess blood, so a vampire can "own" more than just the 5 liters they have inside them. The total amount of blood a vampire owns is called "blood wealth" and is a power stat and a prestige symbol; you can allow other vampires to tap your blood stores in exchange for something - lindens, or loyalty, favors, having someone join your "clan" or downline, whatever. But still, every night each player loses some blood, so in order to maintain and increase your blood wealth stat, you still need to keep spamming people with bite requests. In summary, a vampire needs to bite at least one person every single day just to maintain status in the game. To progress, a vampire needs to bite more.

The game's design indicates that either the designers were so immensely stupid that it never occured to them people might not like being spammed with requests, or they were so narcissistic that they knew but simply didn't care. Given their attitude and responses to people who have complained, I'm going for the latter.



Well, again there's nothing really about the necklace itself; you click it, hit the "activate" button, and you don't need to wear it anymore. What the necklace actually does is add a special marker to your file on the Bloodlines website. When a vampire tries to bite you (and they can still try - you will show up as a potential victim on their initial scan even if the necklace has been activated), their Bloodlines HUD sends a query to the website. If your file on the website has the necklace's special marker in it, the website sends a response to the HUD telling it you're not allowed to be bitten, and the vampire will receive a chat message to that effect.

Oh no, I saw and IGNORED that part.

You are being directed to a means to remove yourself from active participation. Like ALL opt out systems currently in use in the real world ... Your information IS STILL RETAINED IN AN EXCEPTIONS LIST. Get it? What is so hard about THAT to understand?

Want to be removed from the system and prevent further issues? Well guess what, if the creator won't do anything and LL won't do anything ... you're not left with many options at all.

I didn't ASK simply to be removed from active participation. If I had, I'd be like Hax, and simply be satisfied that no one is asking to bite me anymore. We ask to be completely removed from the system, period. In response, the Bloodlines people say "here, use this" - where "this" does not actually do what we're asking. That makes us uppity.



Except the one I'm exercising right now.

'This" is currently the way the system works and - once again - it works like all other real life exclusion systems. One way or another, you're in the system.

Sadly, posting here and complaining, not to mention stirring the pot is NOT a viable option: It's not helping you get what you want ... now is it?

All you've managed to do is stir the pot and create - as another poster has pointed out - a semantics debate.

Hardly productive at all.

In Canada we have a "no call list", which is a government run system whereby you can sign up, and you go on a list. The list is forwarded to telemarketers. Telemarketers are, by law, not allowed to call you anymore. If they get caught, they pay fines.

To sign up, you have to supply your name and phone number. The effect, of course, is that your name and number finds it's way onto even *more* telemarketer databases. But you don't get bothered anymore.

The BL thing is similar. You are still in their system, but you no longer get contacted (and your name stops showing up on their website). So it's fairly analogous. It's SL name and UUID instead of RL name and phone number. You're in their database, but you don't get bothered.

You might argue that BL could do something (else) nefarious with that information, but as you yourself pointed out earlier, you don't *know* that they would, so you have no reason to suppose they would.

Since when has making mong of (literally) suckers required consideration?
I think you are all under the mistaken impression that this is some sort of game for your entertainment rather than a money making scam for the creator.

If people enjoy it (and clearly they do), it's hardly a scam. It is a successful business like any other.

It does have aspects of telemarketer about it, sadly. Or perhaps Avon. *Shakes fist*

It's not a scam, it's just spam. Spam is bad whether it's a scam or not.

Since the target doesn't have to accept the bite request to have the bite counted as valid, it seems like a piss poor vampire simulation game... there's absolutely zero skill involved.

It's more like an infectious disease simulation. People need to start responding to bite requests with "no, I won't let you cough in my face, jerk".

More like Amway, I think, unless Avon is more MLM than I appreciate.

I agree that we don't have evidence of a scam, per se. There are some red flags around the fact that participation is monetized through sale of after-market souls, but for it to be a real scam, there would need to be some way for the creator to monetize that database of people gullible enough to be bitten, or unskilled enough to consider the HUD a useful augmentation to role-play, or anti-spam enough to wear the necklace, or whatever. One could imagine someone might well be willing to buy a list of exceptionally spam-tolerant residents, but we don't have any reason to believe that this is happening.

But certainly scams can have victims who enjoy participating. Surely Bernie Madoff's victims enjoyed participating all the while their investments were being pilfered. Indeed, I can't think of a scam where the participants didn't enjoy the process right up until confronted with the fact they were being scammed--and even then, many go into denial.

Well, as I've stated before - the system blows, and I will continue to say so until they change it. If they never change it, then it will never stop blowing; and, sadly, I'll be forced to acknowledge that fact repeatedly.



Well, it does not achieve the primary objective, no - not directly, at least. However, it does adequately serve a secondary objective, which is to express and vent my displeasure.



You, your own self, instructed me to "deal with it". That's exactly what I'm doing. I "deal with" people like the Bloodlines creators by complaining this way.



Hey - for certain values of "productive", which are obviously subjective.