Lindens Take My Sploder From My Cold Dead Hands

The term police state is a term for a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population, especially by means of a secret police force which operates above the normal constraints found in a liberal democracy. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.

Well yeah, if you haven't figured out, Second Life is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship. As long as we are on LL's servers, they make the rules. For better or worse, right or wrong reasons, they have decided no gambling including sploders (apparently). They have made the request that we report gambling when we find it. As I see it, so far it is only a request. I probably wouldn't report anyone for this. If they want to pay me to police the grid, I might but until then I won't do their job for them.

And more often than not promotes neighbors turning in neighbors for any supposed infraction.

Yes ... which has absolutely nothing to do with what is under discussion here.

Good grief.

My guess (just a guess) is that there's someone vindictive out there who chose to target you.

I'm not keen on gambling on the grid, but I'm not reporting anyone's activities.

Sure, if a casino affected me directly I might, or if it looked like the grid would be shut down to the detriment of all, within weeks, if we didn't collectively clean up our act... but... now? That's a bit much. I'm all for letting the Company clean 'em up themselves.

Personally, I'm wondering where the 'better business bureaus' are in all of this.

Nary a peep out of them when one of the listed bbb companies forcibly converts $L balances into junk bonds, no delisting of casino businesses, no ejection of a casino owning board member... shouldn't they be the ones snitching on all the business misdeeds?

grin

This is a GRID WIDE POLICY. This is not based on ARs - it is the law imposed on everyone. So to go to VooDoo Lounge and take one sploder - and not go to the Edge, Badgirls, Sanctuary Rocks etc. and remove all sploders is harassment and abuse of power. They cannot say it is a law that all must comply with and then tell the community to choose the items they want removed from the grid and they will remove them.

Don't get me started.

You were NOT the only one affected. I was at a place that had all of their Slingo Solo machines returned like a day ago, so I think it's safe to say you are not the only one.

Like I care.

coco

Reported for not caring.

Big Brother is watching you.

Misery loves company. But I am not going to go runing around the grid reporting on others just to make myself feel better.
And Linden Lab employees should not be running around on their day off randomly returning sploders when their time could be better soent helping the working casinos close their doors.

Im not sure thats true.

TO be an accessory after the fact, I believe you have to know about the crime and to do something to assist that person.

I think that comment was tongue-in-cheek though .. it's not a crime until a law enforcement organization decides it is. It's just a violation of policy. (Knowing about a crime and not reporting it is an offense, btw, but I'm not sure if accessory is the right term.)

And I too am not going to go around reporting anyone, but for the OP ... as a nice police officer once explained to me, the fact that someone else on the highway was exceeding the speed limit by more miles per hour than I was doesn't mean I'm not guilty of speeding.

I think they are watching transactions and if they see you pay out a certain amount to multiple people in a short amount of time they investigate. It could be worse I heard they suspended someone just for paying some people they employed. I guess this puts to rest all those endless posts about 'are sploders legal'.

Someone mentioned the return of solo slingos...does that mean that solo slingo AND the regular slingo, devil may whatever...are now against tos too? No more slingo??

And this comes as a total, and Complete surprise to you How exactly?
The Ban has now been in Place what? Three weeks, Four weeks, and Sploders Definately fall under the description given in the Ban., people have been talking about the Ban everywhere, it's not like it was Kept a secret.

You were In Violation, Of Course they did something about it, so WHY exactly are you whining when Nothing MORE was done to you than having your property sent back to your Inventory? Take the Hint, Remove the Rest of the Sploders before they do something worse and Get over the Idea that rules apply to everyone But you.

Angel.

oh gesh bladyblue, the nightmarish! Then again i wonder if they are appling this cross the board? I sure hope they have, if not oh boy!

Sorry to hear it,

Usagi

Gambling is now illegal in LindenLand. It is not very hard to read and understand the new rules.

Well sweetie, if its applied to all i say so. But if its happening to random owners i say its a issues.

They are banning them when someone reports them. Please read the blog.

A new low.
To have the community decide which people have to comply with a grid wide policy that applies to everyone is WRONG. To ignore several fullislands of casino equipment and instead work overtime on a Saturday to return one sploder without talking to the resident is outrageous.

That police officer probably claerly explianed what the speed limit was and proved you were exceeding it. Linden Lab refuses to be that clear on their policies.

Please do show us all where Linden Lab answered anyone's questions regarding sploders - perhaps we all missed it in the blog.


Obviously the rules apply only to those that random community members say they apply to. If they applied to everyone then every sploder on the grid would be gone.

It's a matter of manpower. They're not out crawling the grid looking for gambling, they are responding to abuse reports. Yes, it sucks if you get AR'd and somebody arguably in worse violation does not ... but on the other hand, there'd be nothing to AR you for if you weren't in violation.

And what happened, really? Your sploder got returned to you. You didn't get banned or fined or suspended, you just got a clear answer to the question, are sploders allowed under the new policy?

I think you are feeling like you're being singled out and I am sure that's not true. But either way, the rules have changed and we all have the choice of abiding by them or trying to quietly get around them and risk getting caught.

Anyway, you didn't have clear guidance about sploders and now you do.

I wonder if there is any way we can convince the Lindens that Ad Farms and those annoying rotating "For Sale" signs are a form of gambling? I'd AR those in a second. (I just logged in and found 10 of the silly things on a 8624 sq m plot in front of mine.)

Technically, I see no way for the Lindens being able to scan/ban gambling activities grid-wide automatically (though other threads hint at a flawed attempt to do just that). So, I think it will be a sort of random and ad hoc approach to begin with. I think they are likely giving people a bit of a grace period (hence them returning the objects) then will probably start banning when they encounter people who are still in violation of TOS for this.

For me, I would not AR a sploder. Despite my personal dislike for gambling, where I live (in RL) online gambling is still legal and I see no compelling reason to care if someone else is doing it. I'll let the Lindens police the grid.