Skybox Security?

I was wondering how you guys handle people flying up to your skybox? I used to work in a friend's skybox (with security orb), but now I have my own store with my own skybox over it.

I understand some people get curious when they see someone above them on the map, and might want to fly up there to have a look. This has happened to me a couple of times recently and usually I don't mind. Often the person just apologizes and we chat for a bit. Last night however I was in my skybox when I noticed the menu of one of my lounge chairs saying something in chat. I turn around and someone is sitting in it. This person did not introduce herself and the conversation I had with her was very weird and made me uncomfortable. (She was asking questions about someone we apparently both know, though I don't know her at all.)

So my question is: do all of you guys use security orbs in your skyboxes? I don't do anything 'private' in my skybox, I just work there. I kind of like interacting with (possible) customers, but after last night I feel very uncomfortable at the thought that someone might come up there without me knowing. (Though I suppose they couldn't 'do' anything to my stuff.) Also: are there any basic, free security orbs out there?

Would love to hear your thoughts and/or experiences

A security device (not all are a orbs) is the only way that I know of other than banning specific people from the land.

Even explicit bans don't extend above 768m above ground level.

I hacked up a little contraption that occasionally looks around my skybox (at very high altitude) to see if anybody is in the vicinity. It only does this if I'm around (and wearing a little script that automatically wakes it up when I arrive). If somebody wants to play in my skybox when I'm not there, I figure it's no harm to my pixels. When it sees somebody, it IMs me with a link to their profile so I can easily check up on them.

If somebody becomes a problem, then I'll have to extend the script to automatically boot them from the parcel, which would get pretty close to a regular security device. I've not had to resort to that so far, and would prefer not to have sensors lagging any of the sims where I have land when I'm not actually in that sim myself.

rant
1. Why do people care about privacy in SL?
2. If you cared about privacy, you'd shell out USD$/EUR for your own private sim and lock everyone out.
3. If you are on the mainland, then you really have no absolute expectation to privacy. If you are having "sex" on the mainland (or any other activity you wish to keep secret), and then get upset about people "dropping by" (or eavesdropping, or whatever)...what you are really saying is that you are getting a thrill by doing something that you "hope" will not be seen by somebody else. It's part of the game...."who might be watching"...or "wow, who can I catch next snooping in?".
4. If you "get off" by designing all these security things, then that's why you enjoy SL...watching for peeping Toms. Admit it...you're an exhibitionist! LOL
5. But, if what you really want is privacy and go around screaming "Why can't people leave me alone?" or you start lagging the sim with the ever-increasing arms race against people "dropping by", then buy your own sim!!!!

/rant

I use a Hippo brand security orb.

It zaps em like the naughty flies they are.

Is also copyable and works with group land - due to using a two prim setup. You deed a controller box to the land group, but the orb with the complex code stays yours.
- So I've rezzed several of them at different heights. My private box, my build platform, and even in my shop (the one in my shop is set to only eject people I add to its blacklist - allowing me to have a ban list for a shop at 1700m up).


And to poster above, some people don't like being hassled when they're busy, or when they not going out looking for a perv to hassle them.

Its not about camming - its about keeping them out of your hair.

I decide when I'm on the menu to be bothered, not you.

I don't know if this was aimed at me specifically, but wow ... chill lol

Like I said, I'm not too fussed about privacy and I know one can't really expect privacy unless they have their own sim. I'm not doing anything in my skybox that I don't want others to see, and I do actually like it when (polite) people stop by and have a chat.

The question in my original post was open as well. I was asking whether you guys use security systems, or just let it be. I'm not even sure yet I'm going to install one. Partly because it's not that important to me that I'd shell out for it, partly because I wouldn't enjoy locking out those who are actually nice and want to have a chat.

That's the way you see SL, and that's fine - for you. But others see it a bit differently and do like to have some privacy. Fortunately, it doesn't require paying for a whole sim.

Btw, it's not part of the game, as you said. SL isn't a game for most people, even though it is for you. It's a place to be - not a game.

SL is whatever you make it.

With regards to why I'm ranting against privacy is that it leads to ever increasing "security measures" that end up...
1. Increasing the load on sims
2. Inadvertently "attacking" people who happen to just innocently flying by, near, above...whatever over your plot of land
3. Ends up casing chaos for nearby land owners.

Since mainland sims are a "shared" resource, the use of "security" devices on the mainland just ends up wasting the shared resources of the others that own land in the sim, or ends up having some innocent person logged off (because they were orbited), crashed, frozen, lagged, or teleported home because they just happend to encounter your overzealous security system.

I remember flying through a sim, several times, towards a destination I wanted to goto on the mainland...I would get this "friendly" message from a "security device" over someone's land....

Security Bot: "Intruder! You have exactly 5 seconds to vacate the premises!"

Me: "Umm, what? I'm just flying towards my destin..." ...boom...I'm either orbited and my viewer crashes, or I'm teleported home.

I generally agree with everything in the rant, but this thread seems an odd place to post it. I don't recognize privacy motivating any of the posts here.

It doesn't seem unreasonable for folks to want to know if somebody else is around, having nothing to do with privacy. Personally, I won't wear a radar HUD nor use any such features in a viewer because I only ever care about visitors to my own land, in case they need help or--in theory--need to be sent packing.

And like it or not, there are people who need to be sent packing. I only ever encounter them at Infohubs, but that doesn't mean that tomorrow somebody won't decide to it would be fun to be an asshat and stalk me to one of my parcels where I'm working. Just muting wouldn't prevent them from interacting with stuff I'm debugging or otherwise making a pest of themselves, so I might need to arrange for them to be ejected whenever they try to get on the parcel. (Yes, they can be pests from a distance, too--it's Mainland--but the goal is to keep them occupied until the Resi team swings by with the paddy wagon.)

I agree. Privacy is vital, including in SL.

Exactly. To you, it's a game but, to others, it isn't. Just like I said

Yeah, right - like sims can't cope with running scripts.

That's possible, but in every case that I've come across, except one, ample warnings have been issued before people are "attacked". I wrote to the owner of that one exception, and s/he changed it to allow time for people to move on.

I don;t see how. Would you like to expand on that?

So people shouldn't use any sim resources when they own a parcel in the sim, because they are shared resources? In that case, who *should* use the resources? Sorry, but the whole of that paragraph is nonsense, imo. If you were talking about parcels with hundreds or thousands of scripts running, alright, but you are talking about someone running one script, and not a heavy script, at that.

I was thinking about security before looking at the forum. I am toying with the idea of renting some land and putting up separate skyboxes for myself and a friend.

What I would like to know is, (1) how does one prevent unwanted guests from using a skybox, and (2) can the method be used for two separate skyboxes (one above the other)?

I probably won't be able to check for any answers to this until tomorrow or Monday, so apologies in advance if I can't respond immediately to replies.

Use a seperate security device for each skybox, and set their ranges so that they don't overlap (*that* would cause confusion to innocent passers-by ), and especially so they don't cover the other skybox.

The maximum range for a 'scan' is 96m, so set the skyboxes up accordingly - at least twice that distance apart, for instance.

1. You shouldn't assume. One is often wrong if they do that.
2. Depending on how you setup your script, you might be running multiple sensors over a large area, spawning temporary prims to expand your scanning range, unecessarily using sim resources for something that really doesn't do any good.
3. There is no problem with using resources. But the race towards "ultimate security" necessitates an ever increasing use of sensors, bots, things flying all over the place to achieve your goals. Griefers will then escalate their ways around your "security". The losers are the innocents just flying by.
4. I'm not saying that all "security" mesures lag sims or cause havoc. It's just that many do. And the end point is that they don't really provide security at all. Those that say they provide security are basically providing a "griefing" tool if it happens to actually keep people away, but there is a lot of collateral damage.
5. I've been a land owner, with over-zealous "security" scripts nagging me, attacking me...all when I'm on my own land or just happen to stray a few meters off my land onto your "private land". Just my experience.

Just make a megaprim rez over all your stuff when you're gone. Easy...No sensors needed. You're welcome.

It all depends on the script. A touch handler causes less lag than a listen handler on channel 0 for example.


Define "ample warning". I have had a blue window "warning" be under another blue window notifying me of something else. By the time I saw the warning I was booted. Oh, and this assumes that I was not dealing with something much more important than what another resident saw as important (yes, I have had seen badly configured security orbs overlap a store).

As to vehicles: they are notoriously tricky to control at times, especially when crossing sim boundaries. Ever wandered around SL and seen vehicles caught in midair in a banline?

Even without a banline, it is rude to your neighbors have a banline up. They may want, oh, a door that leads towards your plot. Also keep in mind that banlines are actually OVER the property line ... I have had to move buildings because a neighbor put up a general ban line and the ban lines were inside of my house. A little realized fact by most people ... bans on the ground do nada for your skybox 1000 meters up.



Plots should use any resources in proportion to their size. Obviously there is some fluctuation there (like a 512 that wants to throw a rez day party for the owner) but it should be done in a manner being respectful that OTHER people in the sim share the same resources.

I don;t believe I've made any assumptions. You said it's a game, so, to you, it's a game.

I think you're going way over the top there with all that rezzing everything everywhere stuff. The usual security device is 1 prim with 1 script. Some, like Hippo. apparently use more than one rpim with more than one script, but what you described is way over the top and doesn't belong in a thread with this topic.

There's nothing wrong with listeners. Lately, I've noticed people decrying the use of scripts because of lag. It's nonsense. Too many scripts, doing things every seconds or so, can cause lag, but the idea that a listener will cause more lag than a touch event is rubbish. It will only cause *any* lag when the sim time is full.

I think that 10-20 seconds is ample time. Of course, there may be times when you don't notice it. So?

I don't think anyone mentioned banlines.

Fine. And a security device is proportional to even the smallest plot.

I apologize. My experiences with security scripts doesn't matter. Only your experience matters. Carry on.

No problem. My experience with security scripts is writing and selling one, but I suppose yours is the same, huh?

It might actually be useful if some sort of "standard" for default settings of these things were established. That way one could tell that somebody running a security script with unreasonable settings really intends to be an asshat, and is not merely too stupid to RTFM.

And I will say that 10 to 20 seconds is not even in the ballpark of an adequate warning interval for somebody not on the "eject on sight" list. More like two minutes as the minimum setting, with five minutes the default. Just try disentangling yourself from a vehicle orbiting another sim when the viewer thinks you're at 0,0,0 while the sim thinks you're high above somebody's "secured" parcel. When that happens I can always just relog, but I can also decide the parcel owner is a paranoid megalomaniac, which in my book s/he will forever more be.

Since I'm going to come to that conclusion anyway, it would be better if the megalomaniac in question actually made the absurd settings, not just inherited them as defaults.

Even if we can't afford to replace our car, we should spend as much as a decent car payment on a private sim?

I agree that "security orbs" provide no privacy and are a waste of money, but "buy your own sim" is no alternative, and your fantasies about people "getting off" on being spied on are nothing less than the words of a cad and a bounder, sirrah!

Vote for http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-205

but I already live in one so what should I do now?

"A rant or harangue is a speech or text that does not present a well-researched and calm argument; rather, it is typically an attack on an idea, a person or an institution, and very often lacks proven claims."

Prefaced properly so I can ignore the rest. Thanks.

You folks are what is making SL into a trash heap!