How can I report a bully? but not an abuse?

Can you please advise what I should do next...

I have experienced... aggressive language... unreasonable behaviour... the person in question using spyware... contacting my Groups to bad mouth me... and threats to blacklist me purely on something that I said in RP out of chat range and NOT on any actually action? (I have chat logs).

Sounds like the stuff for an Abuse Report on Harrassment.

Sounds like there are a number of issues there that would make an abuse report a valid response. If you have friends who have witnessed this behaviour as well, encourage them to report it too.

Will look into it now

That's an AR for harassment, you definately DO have a Case of Abuse there.
Be sure to do a Seperate AR for EVERY action this person takes against you, and if anyone Witnesses it, then have them Send in a supporting AR as well. Also ask anyone of your friends, group members, or Business associates to AR when this person Contacts Them about you.

Angel.

Not to thread jack...but it brings up a question I have debated asking here. What if a person hasnt said anything to you, but did send out a notecard to people with slanders accusations about you? Is there anything to be done, or do most people just have to roll with the punches even though they havent ever even been spoken to

You can abuse report that too i reckon. If you look at the police blotter, you'll find that something like solliciting abuse for instance is also cause for warnings and suspensions.

Spyware is a TOS violation, and should be reported to Linden Labs with as much proof as you can muster. At the top of your SL screen find the Help menu, go to Report Abuse. A template will appear on your screen to fill out, You can attach snapshots and chat logs, et al to it as appropriate. Fill it out as completely as possible. Your abuse category appears to be Harassment. Each case of spyware used against you qualifies as a separate Abuse Report (AR). It will help if you can find witnesses that can attest to the spyware on your behalf and file ARs in support of you.

Threats may well be TOS violations as well, depending on the nature of the threat. Each verifiable threat should be documented and AR'd. Any witnesses should file ARs too. The "aggressive language" you report may qualify as threats as well, depending on what was said. Again, each separate incident merits a separate AR.

As for the bad-mouthing, unreasonable behavior, and slandering you to groups, please understand that once LL is moved to investigate them they will also have to consider anything you have done or said that may have exacerbated or even caused the problem. This could also be Harassment against you, if way out of proportion to anything you have done, but all too often such cases will turn out to be mere pissing matches between two residents in which LL should not and probably will not take sides. You mention something you said in RP, so there are two sides in the case; there usually are. Much depends on what you said or did to provoke the problem, and the forums are really not a good place to air such debates. If you feel you have a solid case of unwarranted harassment, credible supporting witnesses are all the more important, along with chat logs (which, unfortunately, can be selectively edited or otherwise misused). ARs are your best medium.

Aside from ARs, you should approach the owners or other officers of the groups involved and appeal to them. If you feel you have been slandered to other Residents, it is good to protect your reputation by showing in word and deed that you are not what has been depicted. People can tell the difference once they see there is one.

There have been cases of people complaining in these forums who turned out to be the true offenders, and probably many more such accusers have gone to LL, so understand that is the context in which you are acting and so everything will naturally be taken with a grain of salt. If you are certain you are right, go ahead. If you can prove your case, certainly go ahead. Unjustified attacks should not be tolerated. If you know you are not right, it is probable that you will make more enemies than friends and it would be better not to indulge in vindictiveness.

It is to be hoped that the best possible outcome will result from this, and that you will contribute to making that outcome happen.

Dearly Darlings,

Bad mouthing people via groups is still harassment and further, as we are a writing culture that is libel. Report it.

You all have a lovely Saturday!

Ever Yours,

Mrs. showdog Tiger

Also Clear cut Harassment, and it has the beauty of having multiple Witnesses AND a piece of Solid evidence Complete with the Harassers Signiture.
How Stupid can some people get? The Note Card is Hardly a Bullet proof method of harassing someone, it's like sending around a letter with your Signiture, ID Photo, and DNA from their Spit on the Envelope.

Angel.

Thank you (and the others that posted) for the fast reply. I'm tired of being worried about someone that I've never spoken to nor has spoken to me, so after seeing this I feel a bit better knowing that it *is* seen as a form of harassment. I appriciate the objective views on it, I just sit and worry instead of thinking logically lol.

I know honey, some of us just always worry if we are going to do the wrong thing or hurt someone's feelings when we don't mean to. Far to many don't really care anymore. I will never forget the first time I had to ban someone.. my hand shook before I pressed that button and was worried about it for weeks afterwards. If LL doesnt think it was serious enough, they won't do anything about it. So throw it at them and let them sort it out.. No one knows when you AR them and the Linden's don't tell you if they punished them.

Technically Spyware is NOT a ToS violation in and of itself. I can use it to listen over the sims I run security for and be well within the ToS. (can actually use it anywhere in SL, but I only use it for security).

What you can NOT do is repost chatlogs by any medium. That means; no sending chat logs via notecards/e-mail/IM/regular-chat/etc etc.

Copy/pasting regular chat is also agaisn the ToS under this ruling.

The only exception is when sending chat/IM logs to LL for an AR. As LL has logs of all chat/IMs anyway, it's not like you're giving them anything they don't already have.

For the logs being sent to Groups to "get you in trouble", I suggest rationally pointing out to those Group Officers that any chat log can be doctored, or just completely fabricated. Offer to to discuss the log in detail with any Group Officer, or landowner to point out your side. What mainly happens in this case is that the idiot sending such logs gets themselves banned from teh group lands, and possibly blacklisted themselves.

For chats/IMs to you of an "agressive" or "threatening" nature, I reccommend two things;
1) NEVER never never never never NEVER respond to these!!! Not even politely. I say this because when you get angry, or upset, you can say things that can be used agaisnt you. This is a favorite tactic of true griefers. Don't stoop to their level. Either just listen, or MUTE, but DO NOT RESPOND!
2) AR any such chats/IMs. As I said above, copy/pasting for AR's is allowed. The chat log button still does not work on ARs though (unless LL fixed it without telling us). Simply make your AR complaint and at the bottom say "E-mail of log to follow. Will be replied to auto-response to this AR." This tells LL to look for something else comming. When you get the auto-response in your e-mail, just reply to it and attach the copy/pasted log. I recommend using a simple text program like WordPad, so that it can be opened on any platform the responding Linden may be using.

~Jessy

Jessica, thanks for the elaboration.

You're Welcome.

And just to make clear to everyone, I wasn't picking on you Har *hugs*. Hope you didn't take it that way.

Spyware and weapons, and other things of simular nature that griefers use are 99% not intended to be used as greifing tools by the creators.

However, their use for griefing can give them a bad name. Orbitors used to actually be quite fun at times, and I can use LL Edit tools to crash a sim in less than 6 seconds. All in how something is used (btw, yes, I have reported that use of the Edit tool as an exploit. 9 months ago and it's still there *Smirks*).

One of the most popular scripts to grief with by lagging a sim is that stupid "Fire" made by a certain Linden. I've actually ARed that Linden for even creating that shoddy script. I believe that item should be removed from SL (or at least from the Library) and that Linden taken out to the woodshed for a serious spanking. But again, it's all in the use. *shrugs*

~Jessy