Have the recent suspensions been fair and reasonable?

I think it's time for another poll. As I always do when I make serious polls about controversial forum topics, I'm going to avoid expressing my own opinion, and I hope to present as unbiased a poll as humanly possible.

In this case, I'd like to see where the community as a whole stands regarding the recent suspensions of certain individuals for posts that allegedly revealed exploit information.

What do you think?

No they haven't. I'm not usually bothered by these things, but I'm bothered by this.

This bother me - yes..

I get scared to write from my hearth whats on my mind.. and I am not used to it in my own very free country... Please tell me its a bad dream only-- and wake me up..

/Tina

I'm undecided on this issue. It's hard from my perspective to understand the full truth from both sides. Perhaps the people that were suspended did something beyond just posting certain info on the forums.

One I know of was...others no.

Brent Linden made a public warning already and another private warning would have been sufficient if they wanted to address specific individuals. It really seems like they wanted to make a point to the community at large. They are a corporation not a government, they have the right to do business any way they choose, but I have to hope we're just maybe missing chunks of the real story. Maybe more was info was posted by the individuals than we know, maybe there was some refusal to listen..*shrugs* I don't know.

Not putting a vote because I did not see all the posts concerned.

If the posts include details of the exploit enough for someone to replicate the exploit, then regardless of reason (whether information, or just quoting) the penalty is fair and reasonable because it goes against a major article in the Terms of Service. Such articles are common to most MMOGs and all carry very stiff penalties. This is the letter of the law. Exploiting and exploit disclosure are among the highest level violations in the MMOG industry. Penalties range from long suspensions, to character deletion, to permanent account bans.

Being circumspect implies that sufficient data was left out. If they were being circumspect, then the penalty is uncalled for.

I saw one post with a large [CENSORED] tag in red. That is a clear indicator that the details were divulged. I saw the original text prior to the censorship and it qualifies as full disclosure.

It would interest me to see who all got suspended posted over in secondcitizen or sluniverse.

No, it most certainly was not fair, nor even-handed.

For more than 24 hours many of us tried desperately to get LL's attention to these bugs and exploits with zero results and not even a post of acknowledgement. I read most all the threads and posts concerning the ongoing discovery of various new bugs, and not once did I see Cristiano expose or disclose a single detail about any of them beyond that an exploit existed...which was no more than myself and many others had also done many many times throughout the day.

In point of fact, up until I went to bed that night, I had only seen one person on these forums post details about any of the numerous exploits we were discovering, and that LL had been ignoring for more than 24 hours after the first report to them. One person posted details during that time. The rest of us went very far out of our way to NOT post details or allow anyone to know how to reproduce the bugs. Even when people IMed me in world I refused to discuss the bugs and exploits I knew about. No where on these forums did I see Cristiano post any such information either.

Personally, I fell many people who were involved in bringing these bugs and exploits to light should get a medal, not be banned. But then this seems to be a trend recently that I find disturbing...point out any of LL's dirty laundry and get a ban...

Fair? Hell no.

I need to say apoint here.......I got caughtup in this "set a example of in the warning and being through out of the mentors because of a few boarderline issues" I given alot of love to the helper groups and all my play time to help others as a mentors and greeter to be throwout without real reason. Since there are far more worse people in the helper groups that are stil in it. I don`t understand why hurt the helper groups why throwing out productive members...........There were a few questyenable warning which i had no recourse........Its not fair!

The biggest fault in the warning system is that you aren't told what you've done, and there is no opportunity to appeal.

There appears to be no accountability on the part of the person issuing the warning either.

Lewis

Its like a Kafka story then... or like Guantanamo ....

/Tina

Kafka? Gitmo? Isn't that a bit over the top? I mean, it sucks, but it's not all that.

Same here. I saw no one posting enough information that would allow me to replicate it myself.

I've bolded the part above in red because that is what makes me SOOOOO mad about this. LL are the ones who put out an update so buggy we could all spend weeks trying to list all of the bugs.

And some people - upstanding citizens with a great deal of care for SL and commitment to the community - tried to get LL to notice the exploits LL created, and then those residents posted here to warn us. And for that they are suspended?

Under these circumstances NO RESIDENT SHOULD BE PUNISHED.

LL should think twice before they hurt people who are only trying to help.

coco

@Cocoanut and Zoe.

From what I know, there existed TWO posts that disclosed details. One of the posts I saw personally before it got a big red **CENSORED** tag. The other one was mentioned by another resident (Hok Wakawaka, I think) as having been thread-deleted, which means we won't see it at all. No idea who the poster Hok referred to was.

Now if other posts are to be believed, the third post would have to be a quote of one of the above two. Since there is no quote existing on the thread I saw, this quote would be appearing on the one that was thread-deleted.

I remember the name of the one that got the "censored" tag, and its thread still exists.

Nice Illustration - is it your ava?))

/Tina

thats the problem........but then who are we? I needed alittle time off but to have it done this way is really tacky and low. Atleat they could look back on records to see how clean ( atleast ) I am. of those in questen.

And Karen Linden tried to cover up, asking us to IM her with links to the offending posts.
Sadly, the grid was down and her emails were not enabled.
They aren't making it easy

Who are we?

Loyal, committed customers who pay to keep their company alive, that's who.

In actual fact, we have far more 'invested' in Second Life than some greedy VC who's throwing money at Linden Lab in the hope of turning a profit out of it.

Lewis

It seems a lot like beating your dog for barking, nevermind he's barking at some guy who's climbing in your back window.

QFT

Yes, and if you beat a dog long enough, he won't bark when he sees someone climbing in your window anymore.

The warnings were appreciated and I'd like to thank those who did. They paid a price to help us and though I can't do a thing to help them I can say....Thank You.

I did notice, however, that LL's responses, and warnings of exploits themselves, only came AFTER Residents had already warned the rest of us and began to spread the word. Quite frankly, if Linden Lab wants to point a finger at those who posted, they should be aware that there are four more fingers pointing back at them.

Very bad handling of the situation, imo.

~Jessy

No they were not fair. I only read one post that described how to do one of the exploits and that should've been the only one with a suspension. Thank you to those that did bring it up, it was the only way to get LL to respond as quick as they did.

Isn't there more reason to be concerned about the griefers, texture theives, and other rip-off artists??

Without knowing the whole story, I can only vote "Dunno"

Not fiar at all. As i stated in another thread...

They ban people for talking about exploits but they let the cyber terrorists go free to grief us all... It goes to show its just like that old story. man steals a loaf of bread and gets his hands cut off for it, while an evil genius takes over the world and kills millions and gets away with it.

You know... I don't know where you all hang out in SL... but I haven't been griefed in a couple of months. I'd be interested to see a demographic map with "crime rate" indicated in pretty colors.

Seriously though... my shop is on the main grid, not a private isle, and I haven't been attacked in quite some time.