When is ARing really Vigilantism

This came up in another thread in response to a comment I made about some ARing that some of us had done last night.

The scene/story: The inworld Hangout has become more and more laggy over the last month or so. It has always been worse there for me than many other places, but with the latest viewers, it has been much much better for me than it was 6 months or more back. So anyway, last night a few of us were at the hangout and we really were walking thru molasses with lots of that rubberbanding going on. Someone mentioned a new club of some kind had opened in the NW corner of the sim, so one of the folks went to check it out. It turned out to be a casino with campers there.

Gambling is a banned activity and so is camping for the purposes of gaming traffic. Not to mention the horrid effect all the scirpts/bling/hovertext seemed to be having on the sim. So a bunch of us went there to submit ARs. This casino is not that far from the hangout, but it took many minutes for us to fly there. Once we got there, we found that the various casino machines were owned by 7 different people. We proceeded to AR each owner under one or more of the following categories:

- gambling
- camping
- unfair use of region resources
- excessive scripted objects


Someone has now compared this to being a vigilante. My take is that I do not see anything wrong in ARing rule violations, especially if they are having a sever negative impact on my experience here, not to mention that vigilantes take the law into their own hands and we simply reported things to the authorities. We did not got running around the grid ARing all violations, we went to a specific place that was having a specific negative impact on us.

Not to mention that if the ARing is considered out of line or excessive by LL, I am sure they will tell me that.


So the question for RA -- "When is ARing really Vigilantism?"

.

Just my opinion, ARing is vigilantism when you take up a cause and go out of your way looking for infractions to AR. It might also be vigilantism if you incite other people into ARing when they wouldn't have thought it was a problem themselves - especially if you TP them in just to join in ARing.

I don't think it is vigilantism for you and others to AR on an issue that is impacting you.

I don't see how anything involving ARs can be called vigilantism.

The only way we by definition could've been engaging in "vigilantism" is if we all went to the casino and filled it up with lolcubes, or went around spamming the place with gestures until the guests were driven away, or started a thread with vicious rumors about the owners of the objects. As mentioned, "vigilantism" means taking matters into your own hands - but the act of ARing something or someone is the equivalent of calling the police, which kinda disqualifies it from being considered vigilante behavior.

If you were running around looking for casinos to AR, that would be vigilantism. Or even maybe if you were automatically ARing casinos every time you saw them. But a single incident, when it's apparently having an effect on you? No.

I would consider AR'ing to be vigilantism when one goes around the grid specifically *looking* for things to AR, such as spending one's day walking around the grid looking for child avatars in potentially compromising situations. That would be vigilantism, in my opinion; a form of griefing.

Encountering a specific problem, taking specific steps to address said problem via the AR process, and then resuming business as usual is NOT vigilantism.

I understand vigilantism as taking the law into one's own hands, that is, those without the authority to do so attempting to stop, and possibly punish, law breakers. I don't think that *reporting* those who violate the TOS to those in authority (LL) can be vigilantism. Vigilantism would have to involve attempting to act without recourse to LL.

Of course, even without using the term "vigilantism," asking if particular types of ARs are appropriate is a very good question. In the case you described I think you were justified because of the impact of the behavior on your SL experience.

That. Particularly some of the "police forces" that go out of their way to "write tickets" (ARs) for violations.

I think it probably comes closest to vigilanteism when people start abusing the AR system by filing false ARs to harass things they don't like but aren't actually TOS violations.

AR Vigilantism: Any means of ARing that's done in effort to artificially garner attention to a low level violation that may otherwise be ignored. (^_^)

Namely, requesting AR parties via inworld groups, repeat ARing in succession, ARing using hot-topic terms that may not apply, ARing the creator of an object used for a griefing... Stuff like that. (^_^)

To me, that's all abuse of the AR system in order to push a self serving agenda. When, in fact, the only thing the Abuse Reporting system is intended to address is notification to Linden Lab of violation of the TOS/CS as seen by a resident. (^_^)

That said... All ARs I've received except one have been destined for the round file. And, yes, I know I get plenty. (^_^)y

Obviously, it is whenever Cato says it is.

I do not AR. I live and let live. I do not care if you built over Linden road, i will not be reporting it.

If someones activities violate the TOS and directly impact myself or an acquaintance/associate, then I will AR or assist them if necessary, but I will not AR a room of bots just because i found them.

Maybe i should?

I have never ARed. I think when people go out to look for a problem and AR then they are vigilantes or simply nasty bloody-minded and mean-spirited in real. I have recently been ARed over my art work. An anonymous person ARed me - they should have contacted me in sl itself and discussed the issue with me.

People who AR prolly dont have friends in reality. Nasty habit. They are prolly sanctimonious hypocrites who in reality would be grovelling sycophants if they got anywhere near me (or YOU, for that matter.)

Linden Labs should be ashamed of themselves for encouraging the reporting of violations using a method that I was taught ,when I was little, was being a "Tell Tale Tit."
My Grandmother would be disgusted by such behaviour.

I've ARed... when I get called in to our sim because someone's dropped a tubgirl bomb on it, then yeh, I'm going to report that.

The question shouldn't be whether it precisely fits the definition of a particular word such as vigilantism.

The question is when does it cross the line from being a reasonable use of the system to being something whose purpose is to hurt someone rather than improve or protect SL, or something that will have the effect of hurting the SL community, or something that is motivated by obsession instead of real improvement, or something coming from a one-sided interpretation of the rules, and so on.

In this case, the answer is no, but not just because calling the cops may not technically fit the definition of vigilantism.

I've AR'd several instances of griefing which made the regions I was in completely unusable.

Yeah, I'm such a bitch.

Can't have you calling yourself names like that.

That's a deep bag to fill. Too vague for me.

Just what is "motivated by obsession"? Isnt that our primary driving force for art or creativity anyway?

Mea culpa - but thank you for taking up my suggestion Lil. I have a feeling that this issue is likely to become increasingly important both inworld with the lack of clarity about what is permissible in PG, Mature and Adult locations - and also the forums in whatever form they take, with the clarifications of the rules of conduct that everyone seems to want to refer me to today!

I did ask as well (but haven't checked for a response, but it probably could do with answering here) whether any attempts were made to discuss the legality and anti-social nature of the casino's operations with the land owners and machine operators prior to the mass AR.

Pep (didn't enjoy his recent premature evacuation at the Hangout. )

Yeah well ejaculation is gross.
Oh sorry! I really did think you typed that!!!
I'll keep it in just to make you remind me of my need for reading specs!
Sorry Pep.

Mea culpa - but thank you for taking up my suggestion Lil. I have a feeling that this issue is likely to become increasingly important both inworld with the lack of clarity about what is permissible in PG, Mature and Adult locations - and also the forums in whatever form they take, with the clarifications of the rules of conduct that everyone seems to want to refer me to today!

I did ask as well (but haven't checked for a response, but it probably could do with answering here) whether any attempts were made to discuss the legality and anti-social nature of the casino's operations with the land owners and machine operators prior to the mass AR.

Pep (didn't enjoy his recent premature evacuation at the Hangout. )

PS Or was that premature ejection?

I think there is a good consensus about ARs and vigilantism building here. The AR is a tool, not a weapon. Actively seeking out violations to AR is vigilantism. Approaching ARs through groups, as though one were leading a mob armed with pitchforks and torches, is vigilantism (although REPORTING to a group a violation of something that may be ARable isn't, necessarily). ARing when it's clear there is no actual violation is vigilantism (and probably a stupid waste of time too).

However, I want to briefly address, as I have before, this kind of attitude (sorry Jig!):


The AR represents, in effect, community policing: it is the tool that has been provided to us to allow US, as a community, to regulate our own conduct according to OUR values and sensibilities.

Yeah, there are huge problems with the AR system; parts of it really suck. And of course it is prone to abuse; so is ANY tool.

But I'd rather we police ourselves, than have the G-Team actively wandering around LOOKING for things that THEY thought were worth ARing.

As for "snitching" . . . well, that depends. As a child, I was called a snitch for "telling on" a group of kids bullying someone. Didn't phase me one bit; in that context, and a few others, I'll wear my badge of "Snitch" proudly.

"OUR values" may not be MY values, but I may still be unjustly ARed. Community policing is a dangerous game. An old lady I know is German. And she remembers how young children were encouraged to report Jews to the authorities in Nazi Germany.

It's too Orwellian and Kafkaesque to encourage policing on this scale. I have recently come to conflict with a group who have been actively engaged in protesting another group's existence in sl. They have done griefing to me, but now I know the reasons, I am relieved I never ARed them. I would feel ashamed if I had done so.

It is because of people policing our lands I have closed down my galleries, destroyed my artworks, placed land up for private sale, and am gradually withdrawing from sl. I havent seen my partner in sl for 2 weeks - even though we will never meet, he now prefers emails. SL has "lost" me and him. All because one person didnt appreciate a photograph of Jane Birkin published in "Paris Match" in the 1960s.

Someone "snitched" on me.

That's a false analogy: the key word in your account is "encouraged." REAL community policing is based upon values determined by the community itself, and not imposed from above through fiat or propaganda, as it was by the Nazis.

But yes, I agree that the first thing a community needs to do is to determine exactly what its values actually ARE. And THAT has to be done through inclusion and consensus, so as not merely to represent the values of the most powerful, most influential, or even (necessarily) the bare majority. You have to get the first part right for the second part to work properly.

But that IS vigilantism, NOT policing. There is a difference between community policing, and a lynch mob.