should I fear if I express my opinion about reported bad behavior from LL?

every now and then I hear reports of stuff like censorship, penalties inflinged on innocent people and disguised under the bureaucracy of LL and stuff like that, do you guys think I should refrain from expressing my opinion or otherwise getting on the bad side of the Ls to prevent me being punished with stuff like involuntary payment of the 150% fine related to suspicion of fraudulent L$ purchases made by other people, or important stufff in my inventory "accidentally" getting lost in a database malfunction, or even suspension of my account for an unspecified period of time coupled with non-cooperative support people and such ?

ps:yeah, I know it isn't the wisest thing to do to mention the repressionist activities of an entity in a forum controlled y them, but doing like this will help spread the word in case I get banned or somthing after I post this

LL has its issues, but I don't believe they're interested in persecuting anyone simply for having an opinion.

ummm huh???

Why would you ever say anything bad about LL anyhow? They are perfect in every way. Everything they do is for our benefit.

*turns to the hidden camera and waves at Phillip

If you are THAT worried, you really shouldn't be here. SL is supposed to be fun. At the very least, put on a tinfoil hat.

I think LL is extraordinarily tolerant of criticism - when it is serious, justified criticism.

For the whiny, neurotic sort of criticism, they seem willing to just grin and bear it - and ignore it. As do I.

Not meaning to stereotype or anything, but your question suggests you may be European, and in pariticular, that you may be east European, in a country once behind the Iron Curtain. If so, have courage! San Francisco is part of the free world! You can feel free to say anything on these forums you want! It will help a lot if what you say is rational and adds to the discussion rather than subtracts from it. But even really malicious idiots can post the most contemptible sort of nonsense here and suffer zero consequences for it. If you don't believe me, just review some of the past threads here!

Relax! And if you get persecuted, let people here know, and the revolution will begin!

It's easy to be tolerant of someone when you're ignoring them!

That's going in your file, smart guy.

Most of what you are hearing are rumours - false stories - things that people make up to scare those that are new to SL.

It is true that things may get lost from your inventory, but no one is making that happen to punish anybody - Second Life has database problems sometimes and things sometimes fall into the bit-bucket. It has happened to almost everybody at one time or another. It's just the way things are in SL for now.

But if you're worried about the things that you say in SL, then you should read these forums first. You might be suprised at some of the things we are allowed to say about SL and LindenLabs.

The worst thing that can happen to you here is if you break one of the forum rules - our illustrious Moderator - Strife - a very fair and understanding person, will (usually) 1st give you a warning, and if you do not head the 1st warning will lock the thread.

That is, *UNLESS* you always post foul vulgar language, racial slurs, repeatedly: flame, harrass people, or break the forum rules. Then you get banned from the forums.


Just be cool and you should be fine here.

Btw, welcome to the forums!

"don't blame on malice what could be explained by incompetence"
perhaps that is somhing I should keep in mind...


and about the stories not being real, I've heard about such stuff from different trustworthy sources over a long period of time, that makes me suspect there is indeed somthing going down...

also, like I've said before, postinghere might not been the wisest thing to do , but I'm here, worse case scenario they will do somthing bad to m e and it will help bring the focus to the situation for more people...


and also, I'm from Brasil, and I was born after the dictatorship had already ended, this paranoia I'm having now is most likely just due to the stuff people I believe I can trust told me

Lol! Hon, Linden Labs is not only completely disinterested in taking retaliatory action toward critics, they clearly don't have the attention span, and in many individual cases they don't have the skills, to do so.

*looks for lightning bolt to strike her*

Nope ... nothing.

In fact, they just gave an award to one of their most outspoken critics, Nicholaz Beresford.

The forums are not about fun, but SL is ALLLLLLL about fun. So buy an airship, get some VERY hot clothing, and have a great time. And don't read the forums any more, we're obviously freaking you out.

See you on the beach!

Oh c'mon, Nika. The Forums are too about fun.

And I was gonna ask if you wanted to have Sex now.....

You are late to the party - his file is already a cabinet and a half.

That all depends, you should fear because in the past it has occured.......Just like RL people are always abusing power. If happened to me and others, wonders why the Lindens themselve are properly screened before they are hired.

I'm not saying this is what happened with Nocholaz, I dont know that situation at all.

But, actually that is a commonly used tactic of a governmental entity I used to work for. Find some way to reward the citizen who is irratating the entity, recognize them for thier outstanding community service/interest. Even better if you can... give them contracts or hire them to assist the entity in dealing with the community. Assimilate them into the entity.

It is an amazingly effective tactic.

So your not gonna be busy then, sugar cookie? *winks*

I guess you were not around to witness what was done to Prokofy Neva.

Those that have not been around long enough would not understand. But those that have either have experieced/or seen LLABS pull their weight around. Witchhunts happen alot ove the past 1 1/2 years why? because LLABS was so scaried that people were trying to promoto a neg image of SL. LOL LLABS PR its self into a dark endless hole over the last 1 1/2 years. Well aleast LLABS learned banned people for less then what lindens make per hour was not worth the lack of brains it took to do it.

You could not be more incorrect. Not only do they have the attention span, some Lindens have conspired with other members on other chat sites such as IRC about ways to ban and harass members they dont like. Ever hear about Prokofy Neva?

Other Lindens have gone into member accounts to discover personal information and then disclose it improperly to a member who was snooping. Believe me, Lindens are flawed people too.

Ha ha, if LL was going to go after everyone who complained about it, the grid would be dead.

Well there was a time the lindens went after people reguardless. Now they wouldnt dare. becuase of past person attacks they done to some on SL. It goes to show you they are GULP Human too?

True, I wasn't around then. But for the benefit of the OP, let me observe that Prokofy Neva is still around, his businesses appear profitable, his blog well read. In fact, that same blog has just been given a postive review in the blog of the person I referred to as having just won an award from the Lindens.

I have read articles about Prokofy, and drop by his blog regularly. I think he would be proud of being characterized as a provacateur. And as such, he of course becomes the center of conflict. But, judging by what I see today, he could not be said to be persecuted -- still seems to be a bit of a celebrity, in fact.

It IS possible to have opinions without pummeling all and sundry with them.

If you ever been involved with LLABS and their ways of causing problems for those they feel is a threat you understand. As some said to me before, fight with LLABS and you will lose.

Virtual world companies would never dream of behaving in such a manner.


a few minutes later:


I signed up with Kaneva back in December of 2005, long before the virtual world opened. I asked one question tonight in the Kaneva mall as to why one would spend time in the limited function Kaneva beta world and made one accurate statement about SL having thousands of times as much virtual space, and they banned me in minutes.

One of the nice things about Linden Lab's response to the many negative statements it's users make about it is that it appears in general to let them do it, long and loud, over and over.

Linden Lab seems pretty tolerant of disrepect toward itself to me. I doubt you have anything to worry about, unless you are behaving much differently than what I have seen.

One might take what I just said with a grain of salt, after all, I just got kicked out of a virtual world.