In Development.. Really?

I have mentioned in the past that I liked the prison idea under one condition, that the in-game prison alternative to banning resulted in longer sentences for bad behavior and greater likelihood of a sentence.

From my experience, the Lindens have been hesitant to the point of phobic over suspending users. I understand that a 3 day suspension may sour a user experience resulting in the loss of a paying customer. Still, we would still like to get them out of our hair!

Sending them to the cornfields softens the blow Lindens must suffer from diciplining users. So how about crimes that would have resulted in a 1 hour suspension get 1 DAY in the cornfield? 1 day suspension = 7 days in the cornfield, etc etc.

LL needs to stop looking at the dollar sign and look at what a shitty experience griefers give residents in SL. They should be more concerned with retaining the residents griefers drive away than the griefers themselves. God forbid they should inconvenience someone who's earned a suspension.

I bet they're behind school sports that don't keep score too. Wouldn't want to hurt anyone's wittle feewings.

I'll be really, really happy when LL grows a pair.

I don't get why people are complaining about this. The place (by myself) is so boring that I don't want to login, and when I do, there's not even outside communication.

I'm still so baffled by this. What in fact does one have to do in order to actually incur sanctions in SL?

I've been thrice suspended for three days each:

1. for teasing a volumnous poster in the forums for being a volumnous poster
   
2. for one sentence mocking a poster for switching voice from articulate to "English as a second language" as the need for sympathy suited the poster - the intention of my mockey being to show that such conduct is rather racist although I think my parody itself was interpreted as racist
   
3. for some forum offense reason that was - as is their practice - never specified and which I frankly have no idea what I'd said
   

Their forums, their rules, their judgements; I don't contest the charges or suspensions. These all occurred after the "forum suspension yields concurrent game suspension" rule was established. I've never uttered an unkind word in game, never crashed a sim, never shot any player with a push-gun, never released grid-crashing viruses, never defrauded anyone, never stalked any one, never build a giant phallus in any sim of any rating.

But... I never got to play in the cornfield! I feel so deprived! My game experience has been limited because I wasn't sufficiently dangerous to society? What can I do that will be bad enough to let me play in the cornfield but not get banned? Any suggestions?

So if I'm understanding this all correctly, you got the use of a private sandbox at LL (i.e. SL player) expense as punishment for some offense but which still allows you forum posting privileges?

I can imagine this offending some people's sense of justice.

Have you ever had the feeling that there is some joke that everyone knows about except for you? I hadn't... until now.

....the land is no create and no scripts. Not very sandbox like!

Find someone to make a JEVN emulator and get things with it?

Thanks for the clarification. I would have to agree that there seems to be little reason to log in at all, then.

I guess that begs the question, why have it at all? No, nimrod, I don't expect you to have an answer for that one. Frankly I'm beginning to think it is one of those "sound of one hand clapping" zen sorta things: if you are able to ask the question you are not capable of understanding the answer.

No, I agree with you, I don't know why it exists. While I was that I was laughing and thought it was funny that it existed. In the email I got that told me I was suspended, it said I was going to be sent to "The Corn Field" I thought it was a joke, guess the joke was on me!

My thoughts have been, and still are, if you're gonna suspend people from the main grid, make them earn their way back in.

Assign each suspended person a scripted object that follows them and randomly asks mind numbingly boring questions every 0-10 minutes. Once asked, if the person doesn't answer within 30 seconds, any time served since the last question was answered is not counted toward your release. So a 4 hour suspension would *require* you to hang around this stupid scripted object at a minimum for 4 hours before you earned your way back onto the grid.

The idea being, productive citizens will put up with it, learn their lesson and come back to SL with a new appreciation of their rights. Griefers, getting no attention and no stimulation will get bored and leave.

Ooh I like this idea - rehabilitative justice, sort of like the Juvenile Boot Camps that were all the rage a decade ago because they work so well. You could make the offenders:

1. make pizzas and have to use the lavatory often.
   
2. have them write "I will not pledge allegiance to Bart" over and over on the chalkboard.
   
3. put them in orange jumpsuits and make them take care of Land Management trash removal requests
   
4. sit on orientation island and tell newbies that "users are losers"
   
5. let them log into the main grid, just make everything grey and slow to respond

Or if cruel and unusual punishment is not prohibited by the Terms of Service:

1. make them fix and respond to the [email]bugs@secondlife.com[/email] submissions

Okay, I take that last one back - too nasty - and submit:

1. give them an ATI video card, a machine running Windows with 256M RAM, Bonzai Buddy, and AOL and should they be able to log in they will have demonstrated their rehabilitation

or is that too retributive?

Almost... throw GATOR in there with them!

I'd like to apply for the position of Governor of the new prison sim. I'd also like to nominate it be called Shawshank. I'm an honest man. I live by my bible. I'll work the inmates hard. Get them on a prison release program. Anyone know any accountant griefers?

I really feel like there is a giant difference between the two. When you're out of the grid, LL doesn't worry about you. When you're in prison or a boot camp, it's because society has to do *something* with you.

If a suspendee isn't inspired enough by what they see in SL to feel like they have any other opportunities for pleasure here other than to annoy the current population, why do we want them around? But if they were so excited about SL (and only made some errors in judgment) that they're willing to put up with the suspension then they will feel some ownership in the place when they come back.

At the very least, they'll be apprehensive of another suspension.

I'll donate the gators & sharks.

.

Best.

Punishment.

Ever!



- Newfie

Actually. If you get yourself an accountant, don't betray them by killing one of their buddies. It'll bite you in the ass.

No, seriously people. C'mon, seriously now. Seriously now, seriously...

SERIOUSLY!

Why not just force them to go stand in the corner of their parcel and have a "time out"?

Just to clarify:
Pony - Funny&/or Cute!
Hippos - Funny&/or Cute!
Cornfield - NOT Funny or Cute.

Having The Cornfield running on some old, lame server seems hilarious to me. Where's the harm? They can't script, they can't create, they can't communicate -- not much load on the grid or anybody else's client. It taunts them -- so close to SL, and yet so far... Shoot, maybe they can share a QA load-test server so that the punishee will be gratuitously lagged at random.

Having them wander the main grid with some punishment drone would consume resources and (at least theoretically) impact other users. And give the offender the opportunity to continue griefing during their sentence, should they choose to continue being evil. On the plus side, it would be public humiliation/punishment, and justice would be seen to be done.

I dunno, I just find myself chuckling every time I think about somebody being "sent to The Cornfield..."

Maybe the concept is for lesser offenses. There are many occurences of violations of the TOS which, while annoying, one can be reluctant to report if the impending punishment could be a ban. Certainly for crashing the grid, theft, the biggies. But do you really want to enforce PG sim behavior to that degree?

I'm so curious I'm wondering about getting in trouble for a minor 3 day spat.. I wonder if I can request a visit..