Protests Against SL TOS?

I'm bring to light the actions of Linden Lab. They allow groups of SL members to abuse other players by bending or breaking the rules for those members. I'm exposing that their form of "government" isn't the benevolent dictatorship that everyone wants it to be, but a fascist dictatorship.

If SL is just a game, then who cares? It's just a game, then all of this is just part and parcel of some kind of game play/role play.
If SL is a world, then I do care. The SL world shouldn't be fascist or allow rules to be broken in the favor of a select few friends.

BTW, as someone said I could be RL sued by Linden Labs. That would be really interesting to be sued in RL for role playing in a virtual game. Wouldn't it? I mean we are all here under our game names, not our RL names. This is all part of the game. I don't see people getting sued by Sony for killing other people in games. (This is not the same thing as taking down the grid or hacking the client software).

I have to interupt here for the good of all, several logical statements have been made only to be countered in a school house style "nuu-uuuh" with no rhyme or reason... or that is tosay illogic.

We can not continue to have logic and illogic mix, for one would assume that like matter and antimatter they cease to exist when touched. But remember, that does not happen without a great release of energy.

What is released in the forums however is much worse. It's hate, fear, self rightious indignation... and sometime that causes herpes I'm sure.

If you have a point to prove..and someone responds, you can either, say why you dont' agree, give evidence as to why they may be wrong... or you can continue to make these forums the troll room it is becoming.

If you have a point... make it. We all do and it's a great freedom LL lets us do INCLUDING speaking up about things.

Protesting.. defamings... all lumped together.. . folks why don't you just learn tocommunicate.

If you get kicked out of the WA for title on your head MAYBE you should have started with a call to the 1-800 number instead.

None of us are silenced here, but you have to know how to make yourself heard.

Also, dont' confuse "not being heard" with apathy about your ideas.

Some if us really dont' care.. we really don't.

But that will not stop you from speaking out.

It will stop you for repeating a message over and over when it has been heard.

It's legos..

It's playing house

It's LL freaking business

Thank you for bringing to light what is painfully obvious to most of us.

So what solution to you propose to this facist dictarship?

You tell me what other company would let you pull all your money (leave premium) and still participate.

As people continue to point out, SL is something hard to define as game or non-game. LL is, however, most definitely a business. Name it however you want, but you do clearly understand how things work and how business works.

You've also made your point on this before. Some support you, some do not, others don't give a hoot. I'm just suggesting that maybe your tactics are not the most effective. Your supporters will probably remain as such, but you diminish whatever your message is by the repetitive raving.

Can anyone guess what this is?:

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I don't know why you are being purposely obtuse, as you are an intelligent man, Hank. If you were sued, it would be from a result of false statements you are making about a company. It is not role playing - you are responsible for what you are saying. They probably aren't concerned enough with your buzzing around them to bother, but when you start to make statements about them causing database accidents and how corrupt they are and attributing specific actions to them as fact, I am sure their tolerance is wearing thin. You are wrong that Sony or any other company would allow you the freedom in their own forums and on their own servers to openly disparaige them. Blizzard and Sony both heavily moderate their forums and their servers. Linden Lab is far more tolerant than most companies - you just have a vendetta against them, as Cory pointed out.

Take Cory and Introvert's advice - you are way too close to this Hank, and it is only harming you in the end, which is a shame. I have nothing against you at all, but your fixation on "exposing Linden Lab" is nothing short of obsessive.

Fascist - if you said fascist on a sign, they yes, that would probably be against TOS regardless of what you meant by it. That's entirely too close to the Nazi stuff I mentioned earlier.

I would suggest you rewrite your sign, and then ask others if they think it goes too far, or might have a meaning you didn't intend. There are lots of ways of saying the same message.

I wouldn't be one to tell you that you should shut up about this (delayed reaction though your activities may or may not be), or to quit playing for a while, or any of that. But if you're going to do a protest, I would say, be very careful about what the signs say.

I couldn't, for example, take part in the "LL Get Rid of the Bush Guy!" signs, as much as I hate their inaction on all those signs, because the wording would have suggested I wanted to get rid of the guy himself, which I don't. I don't know if that was the meaning the person who made the signs intended; I just know it means I can't take part, unfortunately.

coco

Hank, I really don't know what happened or why you would have a vendetta, but I do think you're a bit over the top on this. LL is made up of people. They aren't demons incarnate, they aren't even vindictive. I'd say they're tolerant to the point of martyrdom on occasion . They are human and as such make mistakes, can't please everyone, must make priorities and judgements even without omnesience, must assume responsibility AND take liability into account. While navigating the mine field that all those considerations create, they also must make enough to live on, grow and stay viable as a company.

Then again, I've never seen protests as a real tool for change , so the whole nasty title thing seems rather silly to me. I say I don't see it as a tool for change because I can't imagine giving into a protest action. Would not be an effective way to influence me. But I'm an oddball . I guess I think if you have a real issue, you should try to logically and systematically convert people to your point of view, and only after you have a good case built, go confront the entity that your case is against. If you can't build a good case, then there might be a reason for it and perhaps rexamining your motives/emotional state might be in order. If you can build a good case, but the entity which you are trying to change won't change, then it's time to go around them and find another way to your larger goal, which might be socializing, creative persuits, business or what have you.

Four pixels?

It is astounding to me that six people (apparently) believe that Linden Lab should be immune to criticism, as opposed to their allowing criticism of their actions!

coco

Who? I didn't see that anywhere in this thread.

Check the poll results.

D'oh, forgot to vote. My bad.

I'm pretty surprised by that too, but I suppose you could look at it as analagous to having a guest on your private property. If they're being a jerk do you have an obligation to continue extending your hospitality? The questions is really moot since LL is extremely tolerant by anyone's definition (except Hank's).

Hank would sound a lot more plausible if he would stop using the word fascist and say things like "Linden Lab is corrupt and immoral" or "Linden Lab is unfair and unjust" or "Linden Lab grants favors to some users to the detriment of other in an unethical manner".

People get sick of hearing the the same freaking word over and over and over.

Was this ever answered?? I'm curious as to know what the title was too.

MJ

Were I making this call for my own company, I would never feel obligated to spend any portion of my budget to host criticism of my organization. The fact that Linden Lab allows so much unrestricted freedom of expression has a variety of good and bad consequences.

Heh, I would only allow the critisism if I felt I could counter it point for point and come out ahead. If it's something I know I will lose on, then yes, I would immediately withdraw my support especially if that support is in the form of a communication medium.

Or... that some people just think a lot of these polls are silly and give ludicrous answers just to 'take the piss'

I won't tell you what I voted

If it was "Philip licks goat balls" or something similar I could understand them being a lil miffed - and watching Hank go 'askew' lately - it's the way my imagination is leaning.

The thing is, there is a sort-of-halfway-thing there though.

If you stood in McDonald's and criticised McDonald's, you might expect to be kicked out, but you would still have the option of criticising McDonald's on the public street right outside McDonald's.

The TSO boards were like that in the beginning. The boards - NOT the game.

You couldn't say anything that could be construed as anti-the company, which believe me, made a person think twice about saying anything, which kind of defeated the purpose of Beta feedback, ya know?

What made it worse, you would - at that time - get kicked out of the game if you were kicked off the boards.

Later on, they changed that.

But it was never a problem to criticize these things within the game.

I doubt seriously that the Lindens don't want to entertain any citizen's point of view within the game. I think it was maybe the use of the word Nazi in the sign - as far as I can determine - which was causing that Linden to perceive a problem.

coco

If it can be seen by LL as a legit attempt to help better their product and a way to get the pulse of the user, then they owe it to themselves to listen to the criticism. LL also should want to see some of these issues hashed out amongst the users as anohter way to guage overall sentiment (albeit from just a small sample size). What Hank is doing is useless for LL. Either way, they allowed him to make his statement. Now he is just being a nuisance.

I agree with all of the above.

Well I don't. I don't know much about this situation, so I assume others here must know a lot about it, to be able to label a resident a "nuisance."

I'm not aware of any evidence to that fact, however, so I will put in my dissention regarding that remark.

coco