Aggressive Advertising - The Sallow Debacle Part Deux

Previous reports:
[rt.lindenlab.com #338829]
[rt.lindenlab.com #326848]
[rt.lindenlab.com #335998]
[rt.lindenlab.com #339767]
[rt.lindenlab.com #339810]
[rt.lindenlab.com #339811]
[rt.lindenlab.com #339831]

A certain individual (I won't give out the name here but if you IM me I'll be happy to provide a name) is exploiting a gray area of the TOS by using a notecard giver with a sensor listmaker on an ad parcel in Sallow thats specifically targetting my customer base and my residents and my business at Angel's Respite in Satellite. Yesterday, Lexi Linden came out and determined that it was in violation of the TOS and removed the ad....leaving his ads that DO NOT send a notecard to people on my property.

Today Cyn Linden told him it was NOT a violation of the TOS and allowed him to put it back. So thusly its spamming us with notecards again.

The gray area here is its not a timer, its a sensor listmaker, so you don't get notecards from him constantly...BUT...he resets it once a day or once every other day so you get one notecard at least once a day, I have several copies of this notecard myself. This constitutes spam.

Also according to The Big Six of the Community Standards, under the harassment section it says, and I quote "Communicating or behaving in a manner that is offensively coarse, sexual favors, or is otherwise likely to cause annoyance or alarm is Harassment."

This ad causes annoyance for my customers, my residents and for my family that lives on my property. Notecards are communication....to quote Kenny Linden "Its like mail". Being it is communication that is directly annoying other members of Second Life, according to the Community Standards it is Harassment.

Also, under section of Disturbing the Peace.

Every Resident has a right to live their Second Life. Disrupting scheduled events, repeated transmission of undesired advertising content, the use of repetitive sounds, following or self-spawning items, or other objects that intentionally slow server performance or inhibit another Resident's ability to enjoy Second Life are examples of Disturbing the Peace.

As I said, I have several copies of this notecard myself, the notecard has been repeatedly transmitted. The owner of the listmaker prim shows up once every other day to reset the scripts. So thusly because the notecard is repeatedly transmitted and it inhibits my ability to enjoy Second Life by violating my space and the land I pay for without my consent, it is Disturbing the Peace.

Also since this person is directly marketing his business to MY business traffic I find it to be a direct attempt to sabotage my business. Which is also against the TOS.

I am TIRED of ARing this. I am tired of being told that I have no right to determine what gets passed to my customers, residents and family, on MY land. I pay $125.00 a month in tier for the land I have. I've spent over $500.00 USD acquiring the land I have in this sim. I spent a week of my life rearranging my build to deal with the ad mess that popped up in Sallow after the primary landholder had to sell off in a hurry. And this guy gets to piggyback on my expenditures and hard work simply because hes "in a gray area" of the TOS?

The TOS is quite plain, I just gave you two examples of it. And multiple AR#'s from several different accounts citing their position that they feel it is abuse.

I want a ruling on this. None of the Lindens in world will make a ruling on it because "Cyn Linden has determined it is not against the TOS"...well I want to talk to whoever Cyn Linden reports to...because I feel her interpretation of the TOS is very liberal.

I don't spend the money I spend to be exploited and griefed like this. I am a content developer and a builder myself, yet somehow its OKAY for this guy to be directly trying to market to my customers on MY LAND that I pay for.

I want a resolution to this situation that allows me my rights as a land holder and someone thats paying an exorbitant amount of tier to control what goes on on my land. Thats supposed to be my right as the owner of the land. And through a "gray area" my rights as a land owner are being abused.

I don't care that he advertises his business. I just don't want him advertising ON MY LAND. And while hes TECHNICALLY advertising on his land, the notecards from his listmaker prim are being handed out on my land over 100m away. Every time I contact him personally to try to get him to be reasonable, he increases the radius on the sensor.

How is this not Harassment, Disturbing the Peace, and Actively Attempting to Sabotage a Business?

Hes got ONE gray area, and thats that the listmaker script is NOT set to just hand out notecards to everyone it sees, every time it sees someone, only to new people that are not on the list. But if hes resetting the script every day or every other day....he gets around that.

And I have two examples directly quoted from the community standards that say its not in a gray area at all.

I could save alot of money by tiering down to zero land and just putting my stuff in a mall somewhere. I built what I built to provide content to Second Life and to make a nice place to be for Second Life renters and my customers, friends and family in Second Life, I spent hours and hours of my time working on my building design to make it realistic and attractive....and I'm being told everything I do, and all the money I pay...affords me no personal rights as a land owner to determine what is presented to people on my land because hes exploiting a gray area to aggressively market to my parcel.

And hes sure as hell not marketing to anyone else....I'm the highest traffic parcel in this area.

Oh and also my conversation with Kenny Linden as follows:

[removed chatlog--disclosure in Community Standards]

Oh and in an earlier conversation I was told by Kenny Linden that my options were "Do it to him too....or move". Hrrm wouldn't doing it to him be escalating an issue thats already in the areas of Harrassment and Disturbing the Peace? And moving? Are YOU KIDDING ME? Shall I cough up yet more money simply because the Lindens are too timid to make a ruling on their own Community Standards? I think not.

So no Liason can make a ruling on this issue. Somebody at Linden Labs needs to, because this is ridiculous.

I will reduce my tier to membership only. Period. Over this issue. And that is not a threat that is a forecast. I've made an effort to attempt to beautify and add content to this world. I should have the right to have my land inviolate from this kind of marketing if I do not wish it to be going on or have not agreed to it. Its nothing to me to live on a 512 plot somewhere and sell my products and be damned with this game if I can't control my own property.

Angry!

Why is it that so many people in SL are whinny cry babies?

Fascinating stuff.

I just visitied Angel's Respite, and I too was spammed by this notecard.

I think we can conclude that either:

a) Cyn is busy and simply mistook the situation
b) LL is developing a policy of hands off on the mainland.

It's quite possible, especially with the recent overload of new users, they have been inundated with abuse reports and are rethinking their strategy .. and that is to let estate owners be their first line of support.

I'll be watching this pretty closely, I think it sharply speaks to LL's priorities.

I really don't think that is called for. The OP has a very valid issue here. I can only imagine that Cyn simply made an error.

It only matters if its happening to you.

Why is it so many people in SL have no empathy for others? Sociopathy maybe?

According to the ToS, in chapter 5 under User Conduct, section 5.1 (iv):

"5.1 Participant Conduct. In addition to abiding at all times by the Community Standards, you agree that you shall not:... (iv) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content as determined by Linden at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable..."

Lexi Linden removed the offending listmaker spammer yesterday. So apparently Lexi Linden's sole discretion isn't valid?

According to section 2 of the The Big Six of the Community Standards:

"Harassment
Given the myriad capabilities of Second Life, harassment can take many forms. Communicating or behaving in a manner that is offensively coarse, intimidating or threatening, constitutes unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, or is otherwise likely to cause annoyance or alarm is Harassment."

According to section 6 of The Big Six of the Community Standards:

"Disturbing the Peace
Every Resident has a right to live their Second Life. Disrupting scheduled events, repeated transmission of undesired advertising content, the use of repetitive sounds, following or self-spawning items, or other objects that intentionally slow server performance or inhibit another Resident's ability to enjoy Second Life are examples of Disturbing the Peace."

According to social law and etiquette of society:

"You don't have the right to be an asshole. Have a nice day."

Why not put one on a lot near/in Ambleside that's idle and see how long it lasts?

I don't understand what you mean here Nim :/

I'm afraid when it comes to the outside world I'm pretty behind on things. I spend a ton of time working on my own parcel and don't get out alot.

Edit: Well this was a response to a response but I guess you deleted it.

I did, sorry.

Why are you so willing to let any abuse go, unless it's something that's happening to *you*?

It sure looks like spam to me. Are the Lindens so clueless these days that they honestly can't recognize actual spamming?

If this were to happen to me, I'd be *seriously* tempted to drop 1/3 sim worth of tier I'm paying.

I'm on the OP's side. If the customers are on her land the spammer has no business spamming them. I think he started out being a smartass with an advertising gimmik and now he's griefing because she objects to the spam.

Look at it from a simple perspective.

I have a huge, realistic, well designed and built skyscraper on my land.

Someone walks in and goes...wow this is really good, I'd like this person to design my home/business/estate.

They walk inside...and boom...notecard from the offending advertiser...advertising HIS construction company.

So they assume its from me. And they contact him to arrange a building contract.

Lame...in the extreme.

I've closed this thread:

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It's really unfortunate to see this.