Stop hating the foobies.

Free accounts without information are, believe it or not, members of Second Life too. Just like you.

I'm one of those free accounts.

My credit card doesn't have a associated address on the system-side. As such, I can't seem to authenticate with Linden Lab's credit system properly, nor am I eager to go to PayPal after previous incidents as a seller on eBay. I never use my cellphone; As a result of my minimal needs, it's a pay-as-you-go without the ability to SMS. If Linden hadn't opened the signups, I wouldn't have joined.

I've suceeded in joining the Alliance Navy; I'm only two weeks old and I'm netting what some have described as decent-level modelling. A gun I aided in scripting got it's resale rights purchased by Armory Overstock; He got 3000 Linden, I got a few hundred of that.

Those who do use free accounts for quick and dirty griefing are suceeding before they even act, thanks to the fact that the SL community is already raising hell over their mere existance. That they get to go and take action against fellow players just raises the bonus level in their minds. Ban them on their own merits, on their own names, hate them for being assured pricks, instead of that little note of "No Payment Information On Fire".

Everyone just needs to take a step back, breathe, and begin the practice of Assume Good Faith until given reason to otherwise (CommunityWiki and Wikipedia also have such practices with various viewpoints.), not just with foobies, but with a lot of the various people here... Or soon, it'll just start to self-destruct.

Edit: As for the minor viewpoint, one or more Lindens have stated, on these forums or in very public interviews, that they would require age verify of any account if they had reason to believe it was being used by a minor. I will find a link shortly.

Further Edit: "What keeps kids out of the main grid is the age verification process triggered by abuse reporting... if you have good reason to believe that someone is underage, please file a report on them. Our process in these cases is to investigate and demand age verification where appropriate." -Phillip Linden

I'll assume good faith - good faith unverified may be minors. Ones I will ban on account of its a crime to distrubute adult media to a minor or aid in corruption.

I'll act in good faith banning all unverified, to protect myself legally.

Sorry, but when I don't get regularly blown out of the sim a couple of times a week for daring to walk up to someone on my own land and say "Hello" who just happenens on every single occasion to have been someone with an unverified account, I *might* consider it.

And when, "I'm sorry, this is a private gathering," when I'm out on our (Private, on 1/4 sim of land I own, and built with prims, *not* on the shore.) beach with my gf and a couple of female friends and the person actually *leaves* instead of standing around gawping at the topless and bikini clad girls, I *might* consider it.

And when I can log off for the night, and have the far end of my land *not* used by griefers, all with unverified accounts, to stand on while shooting my neighbors, I *might* consider it.

And when it's possible to ban someone who griefs me by name, and not have them come back over and over and over with a new name every ten minutes, I *might* consider it.

Until then though, the far end of my land is going to *stay* off limits to unverified accounts, and the remainder of my land is likely to get the ban on unverified accounts switched on whenever I feel like it.

It's my land, I paid for it, and I *honestly* don't think that asking someone to come up with a credit card (Without being asked to pay even one thin dime to play.) is all *that* huge a burden.

Avil, do you have or can you get a debit card that does have an address?

Heh, if LL really wanted to they could verify your address by mailing you something for you to mail back.

I don't hate anyone really. I react negatively to someone who does something wrong but I don't go around checking what level of account everyone has as soon as they are in range. It is behavior not account type that is the problem and sadly many of the misbehavers are "foobies" (odd term).

Tess

It's exactly like Jack said. If situation was different, there would be no problems. People shouldn't have to keep an eye out for people that will most likely blow them away on their own land. People shouldn't have to waste time banning that person just so they can make another alt and come back again. Until some kind of system that would ban griefers permently from logging on to SL from the computer they use, this will continue.

I try really hard to take care not to prejudge anyone by their account status, but tonight in an hour of logging in, I got hit on harassed, and generally annoyed by 4 different less than a week old avatars with unverified status, I was in a failry quiet spot, not doing anything but talking to a very good friend of mine, nowhere popular. So I'm a wee bit leary of new people now.

I feel kind of left out. After all of these complaints about unverifieds, I'd have expected to be attacked by at least one. But I just haven't been yet.

Awwe, don't worry. We usually get 2-3 everyday, so I'll be greifed enough for the both of us!

What the hell is it about newbie guys who look like complete crap and thinking that they're gods gift coming up and hitting on women in SL who've spend thousands of lindens and many hours on hair, skin, clothes, body and face shape etc. and expecting to score?

Like a friend of mine who was out building and minding her own business who wound up having some two day old guy coming up and hitting on her who had on free Barbie Club t-shirt and sweats, hocky hair, bare feet, a face that looks worse than the default and a body with with orangoutan arms...and who was a member of every strip and sex club in SL.

Seriously, what's up with this? I honestly don't recall it being quite *this* bad in the past.

Even though I'm one of those women, and even though I totally get where this post is coming from, still I can't help giggling at the very concept when I read it.

Any methods to protect people against unsavory types or actions always end up hurting and restricting people who dont deserve it. But I'm still going to ban unverifieds. If you think I'm going to wait to be griefed, deal with the results and then ban them on an individual basis, you got another think coming about how I intend to use my time.

And for me, it is NOTHING to do with age verification. I couldnt give a shit how old you are. I just want to be make sure you are accountable for your actions when I AR you, which requires some form of logged identification and not an anonymous throwaway account.

LL chose the identification methods (personally I couldnt give a crap what they use, as long as it's a foolproof way of having a rl person to account for the avatar), and LL chose to discard any requirement for identification methods. And they gave me one way to deal with the results. So don't blame me for using it.

Whoops -- just made my ban-on-sight list. Griefers and bang-bangers. KIDS.

I had considered mentioning that if they allowed us to ban by group, he'd already be unable to access my land regardless of verified status, but decided it detracted from the main point I was trying to make.

He would be though, based on that group membership.

The "Get Verified pic" now free and included in the Freebie
Pack.

"No info on file" is the equivolent of wearing a mask in public.
Everyone wants to be accepted but if you are wearing a mask
and carrying a gun, go figure.


Getting verified is easy and the best way to join the community.

I'm used to being hit on, I've been in SL for over 2 1/2 years now. I have spent a lot of time and cash on my av, due to having been here so long, but I don't judge avs on appearance, my first av looked like crap, it takes a while to get the hang of av creation. However when a male and female avatar are sitting together having a chat, you think common sense would prevail and you wouldn't go up to the girl and ask "Wanna fuck?"

To which, of course, the answer is "Wanna fuck off?"

As a DJ RL for two decades, I can tell you from much field observation, there is no limit to the stupidity of guys when they're trying to score.

I'll call ya momma and beg for a spanking!

Did I just prove Fade's point?

Honestly if I saw THAT group flag on anyone I would be nervous (about 2/3 of pre-freebie griefing I have been in or wittness to has been by someone who had group tags of one of the many gun-nuts and warmonger groups...Alliance whatever, Mercateers (sp?), 'Insert mafia-esque name' Family, etc) and combine THAT with a freebie account (about half the incidents i have seen / been in post-freebie accounts has been by free accounts), I am definitely going to class you as a potential griefer.

I've given the benefit of the doubt more than enough times and been screwed in the process. Now, quite rationally, I am going to listen to the voice of experience and treat you as a potential griefer. I am sorry, but until LL actually has a meaningful way for them to enforce bans and starts banning griefers, well...past experience wins out.

She just might do it Flip, my mama is mean.

In Anarchy Online, they call the free Newbie accounts 'Froobs' Sounds a lot better than 'foobs' or 'foobies'.

Well, My experience with the unverified has been actually largely positive. I've met and tried to help out some nice folx (including spending half an hour with one noob helping him get his graphics and network settings tweaked to the point where he was getting decent performance). I have made a few friends. And, best of all, my lady and I have adopted two lovely daughters.

And I have been griefed twice. The Griefers were AR'ed and contained, and dealt with by the Lindens.

I am not going to blanket ban or avoid unverifieds - but - I do understand the motivations of those who do, especially the owners of adult oriented businesses. In fact I think those folk have no choice in this matter if they are going to be responsible business owners.

I hope we will soon have better tools to shut down the Griefers, and then be able to more fully welcome the new folk to their Second Lives.

Sorry, not good enough. I act premptively.