another huge attack .. sigh

For Heaven's Sake... Yeah the number of people subscribing to sl has gotten much much higher with the whole no credit card validation thing... but good lord.. how much longer are you guys gonna let this system being down every other hour thing go.? Second Life is a great idea... a great system, but with all these outages it is getting extremely frustrating to all of us paying members.. Enough so that because of that reason and that reason only I would be willing to try and find some better place to spend my money. Lindens.. think about it. Its just getting to be too much.

nice, I like it

Gives the Lindens the option to stop an attack without breaking content based on what we have now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo


googled it up and i think it's rather suitable description for the sitaution

to quote

"
Grey goo refers to a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all living matter on Earth while building more of themselves (a scenario known as ecophagy).
The term is usually used in a science fiction context. In a worst-case scenario, all of the matter in the universe could be turned into goo (with "goo" meaning a large mass of replicating nanomachines lacking large-scale structure, which may or may not actually appear goo-like), killing the universe's inhabitants. The disaster is posited to result from an accidental mutation in a self-replicating nanomachine used for other purposes, or possibly from a deliberate doomsday device.
"

I remember back when we needed to have a CC to verify who we were to register for SL, and the attacks were all blamed on the free accounts. It doesn't matter if the account is free or not, people will still grief. People that pay money for other MMORPGs like FFXO, WoW, and EQ still suffer attacks. It's not the fact that there are free accounts(as someone already stated in this thread, people have "griefing" acounts which IIRC cost $10 a pop), it's the fact that this game is so open to user content. Easiest way to get rid of the attacks is to...get rid of scripting all together. As long as there is scripting there will be massive gridwide attacks from a relativly few instagators. Someone will always have the will, and they will find the way.

Of course, a lack of consumer scripting would pretty much kill the game, as none of the current scripts would be able to be updated(which is important for people who use things like networked vendor systems).

Been premium a year now, just got my renewal notice for the next years billing.

In that year, the new sunrises roxxor, and the rippling water is cool. Outside of that for the most part, texture lag is worse, general performance is worse, griefing is pretty much as I remember it actually, even before the froob (free noob) accounts (honest!).

But my playmate and I will most likely be dumping our land and going verified free basic now. In in our opinions SL's gotten less playable during the last year, not better. The gui is horribly clunky (its impossible to even answer an IM unless you literally drop everything and open and select a window). Simply put, the frustrations simply outweigh the fun factor.

This questions is directed to any lindens reading:

I've been monitoring the blog page for updates on the most recent
goo attack. Why did it take almost 30 minutes for the 3:30 update
that the grid is open again to appear? It was 3:58 when that update
finally showed up on my screen.

I really don't think they want to continue making it easy, seeing that they have no way to trace griefers who attack the grid.

A 7 day trial should be enough for people to see if they want to continue playing......then yes they should supply CC info or a Paypal account (this means Paypal has verified their bank account) and for those in countries without Paypal....there is PaybyCash.com, used now by EverQuest. That still doesn't solve the problem of multiple trial accounts until they run out of e-mail addresses to use, but they can be restricted in building.

Another solution is to have a separate grid for a free trial, a mini-SL, like one town or something, to sample it. Friends already in SL who want to show them around can go join them there to help them along with the interface and explain things to them (EQ has this). If they like it, they can supply billing info to enter the man grid, even if just choosing the Basic account.


I know this forum is for residents to help other residents, but I posted this in hopes of giving hope to those who are fed up over people getting in who can't be traced to be banned. There are things that can be done and I'm sure LL will find something that works.

sad but i tend to agree with this view , sl becomes more unplayable than ever

i've been around for over 2 years now ,

and i've seen very little major changes ever since
linden are very slow to actually listen to their users and improve things
constantly trying to to resolve bugs introduced in the last minor update

the world became bigger yes , but the bigger it gets the more it suffers
and people like me can't do our work anymore , because it takes alot longer
to just open inventroy or make new scripts compile
or even just change the contence of a box
or upload textures , or finding what u need on the map
and it's harder to build because of lag and weird errors
teleporitng rezzing or just flying around without getting thrown offworld
at the edge of a sim ... my expriecne becomes less and less producive and more frustrating by the day


it's not nice to have 40-50 people in a sandbox all trying to hog all the sim's prims
at once , and the welcome area became impossible to even just sit around and have a decent converaion , each corner of the welcome area crashes every 5 mins
at random just an example

the changes to the build tools might have made things worse as they slow down the ui, and every other change to teh ui broke something else we could have used easier before

i could have said much more about the scripting limiations and my huge wishlist for what could have been done differently and better .. but this post space will run out i'm sure ...

fact is , i still have nowhere better to go , and sl is just the only thing out there
so we dont' really have much choice but to grind our teeth and suffer.
but i wish more and more people will express their suffering insted of telling us everything is wonderful and we should just give ll more time (how much more time?? , been 3 years already)

that's all for now

This is nothing but a low lifes attempt to upset us and let him watch this forum in amusement as we all go on about how upset we are. There are some that are mad at the Lindens for this, but they didnt do this. Sure some changes are needed but getting upset at each other doesnt solve a thing when the only person who is to blame for this is the person who released the Grey goo.

I too am a supporter of mandatory credit card, but if that is not possible, then at least limit scripting to people who have verified with credit card. But I wont get mad at the Lindens for a grey goo attack in which they are not responsible for. Despite all these problems this is a very enjoyable place.

But are not the sole reason for all of these attacks. Most griefers are just long-time members with alternate accounts. Instead of taking away free signup, I think that the Lindens should put in place an IP monitoring system, so that one computer can only have ONE account. I also think that the restricted accounts should be UNverified free accounts. Verified would be fine, and have access to everything they do now. My account is unverified and free, and I've been playing for over 4 months. It really frustrates me when people start to say that people with free accounts are only griefers. :\

Wow really? Even though the Lindens didnt do this, they still havent taken it into thier own hands to prevent it, concidering weekly the grid attacks go up in numbers...

OK how much more of this are we going to have to deal with. I've spent MAYBE 2 or 3 hrs on BEFORE all this crap started. Since then I've been on with my name/s maybe a total of 20mins. When is this going to stop? I'm trying to get a business/booth set up and need to go from name to name to get things set up. Unaware that the grid was closed to loggins AGAIN I went to go from one name to another only to get the stupid pop up, currently closed, linden log ins only. WHEN is this going to stop? It's been an all day thing and bets are in next day or two it'll happen again. Am EXTREMELY unhappy about how things been the last month or two and am questioning if I should pay for another year for both my names to be premium players, all I have to say is, I'm glad all my names I didn't pay to be premium players, that would be a waste of my money the way things are going.

Excuse me.... you make it sound that it is entirely because of the free accounts, well it's not. I have done security for a popular casino and you would be surprised as to how many are premium players doing greifing as well. YOU can have one account, personally I have several. I have one for business, one for fun and for just hanging out to have quiet time alone from everyone. I have paid accounts. So don't go hanging things on "newbies" with unverified accounts. It's not ALL done by the accounts not veririfed. True there are some that are n some aren't. This just goes to show how IMMATURE grown ups can be.

Ok I think he stated that all free accounts dont grief... and if every one was restricted to only one account im sure it would help alot, I mean even though you or alot of people have alts for good things, there is alot more who have alts for bad things. And I for one dont feel like having to go through this daily because of these griefers, I have a free account with no varification. But if it comes down to it, I will have no problem putting my CC info on there, even though for me its best that I dont. But whats the point if the grid is down 24/7?

Here is what I remember... I remember the days of verified accounts... I remember occasionally getting shot... I remember occasionally being orbited and on rare occasion a sim being nuked... and I remember glitches and bugs after updates... I remember banning the occasional ass... I remember the Lindens being helpfull and attempting to do all they can to resolve your issue

HOWEVER... I do not remember SL being down due to grid attacks... i do remember one grid attack... but I do not remember one to 5 a week... I do not remember having ever questioned my accounts privacy until now... I do not remember people bragging about SL being so easy to rape now that all you need to do is lie about your registration info and you have a new account... I do not remember having to lock my land to new players because of thier status in game... I do not remember Having several days with the grid being unaccesable... And I dont remember LL worried more about amount of people logged into SL than the amount of happy customers...

But I am beginning new memories of SL... and I wish I did not remember this present... but was able to enjoy the past SL used to be.

Requiring each and EVERY resident to pay $9.95 one-time, to be a basic resident, or $9.95/mo for premium, would go a LONG way in keeping these idiots from their idiocy.. That's what I had to do when I signed up in June '05, and we had a WHOLE LOT LESS OF THIS $@#@#$ back then... These idiots, unless they're independently wealthy, which I kind of doubt, they're more than likely living in Mom's basement on an allowance, if the truth were known.. They're not gonna be able to afford too many $10 accounts as they keep getting these accounts banned. I think if someone REALLY wants to get started with SL and treat it right, and become a useful resident, they can somewhere, somehow, one way or another, come up with a measely 10 bucks. Not to mention, it couldn't hurt LL's bottom line either.... Charissa: I'm with you... I'm getting SOOO sick of this, that I'm seriously considering selling my 4096 s/m of land, de-tiering, and dropping back to basic, and just socializing in SL. I know LL could reduce or nearly eliminate these attacks if they'd get off their corporate can and take the actions that SOOOO many residents have suggested both here and on many blogs... /rant off... Back to watching TV.....

Tas

Perhaps some sort of middle ground with respect to free accounts would work. What if free accounts count not write scripts? They could still test and play the game and work and buy things. They could even build unscripted objects. Being allowed to script should require a one time 10 dollar license fee allowing Lindens to check identification.

I am getting fed up with all the down time. Even if it is fairly high priority for SL... it needs to become absolutely top priority now. I thought they were working on some AI auto detection of grid wide attacks. Apparently that either never got implemented or someone at Linden Labs didn't earn their paycheck.

I am a professional developer and programmer. I am also a sim owner and business owner here in SL. I was on my way to having record sales today. I went out this evening hoping to come back to record sales only to find out I had made only a single sale in several hours because of the attacks. I know LL is taking some efforts to solve these problems, but they need to do more or hire some programmers that can figure out how to solve the problem. Stop fiddling with these trivial updates that add less than crucial functionality and introduce two bugs for every new feature. (Yes I'm probably exaggerating a bit to make a point of emphasis.) Focus 90 percent of development time on scalability and protection from grid attacks.

I am still a fan of SL. I enjoy making things for others to enjoy while also seeing a healthy profit. But grid wide attacks and buggy updates are increasing at an alarming rate while my tier (hundreds a month) remains the same.

I've mentioned these ideas before, but it seems worth saying again.

Ways to stop grey goo attacks:

* Replication enable/disable grid wide
* Family UUIDs for replicated objects
* Generation integer for slowing replication and/or limiting the number of generations possible
* Blocking or crippling the replication functions for unverified users
* Grid-wide disabling of specific user account scripts
* Auto-return set grid wide to take care of unmanaged land, and auto-return ON as default.
* Logging of high replication activity

So far, LLs attempts at stopping the grid attacks have not been aggressive enough.
Its plain ridiculous to shut down the whole grid, or shut off all scripts because of one user.
Refine your tools LL! Give your staff better control over the grid!

LL has done a great job with SL, it is a very unique environment.
But, the grid attacks are definitely a sore spot.

I agree, I didn't know about the attacks till I logged on earlier. I noticed the scripts are disabled when I was online earlier so I logged off.

Well in the most part ypour right...But get rid of multi abusive accounts! most of the unlimited signups is the problem the sooner they close the better.....

For those who agree with the removal of "NO PAYMENT INFO" accounts...

feel free to vote on this...that way the Lindens know that we, in the paying community mean business...

http://secondlife.com/vote/vote.php?get_id=2101

In my humble opinion, unfortunately, for all the sweetest reasons in the world, the Lindens wanted to open enrollment to non-paying accounts. We are now at a critical point in this decision where attackers, griefers, hackers or whatever name you might come up for them, have apparently affected the ability of the paying members to access the game.

Why this is unfortunate is, these people only represent a small percentage of the population of non-paying members, there by causing mistrust and anomosity between the paying and un-paying. Why it is most unfortunate is, the Lindens now will go to whatever lengths they may have, in order to be able to *not* admit this was a horrid idea.

Who pays for the mistakes, the down time...the paying accounts. The unpaids come for free, commit to nothing and open the flood gates for those with mischeif on their minds.

Here is how liden can prevent all this crap and these idiots with nothing better to do with themselves

*** LIDEN LISTEN UP !!! HERE IS MY IDEA ***

Put in a option when people sign up, which will present the signee to check a box saying they want to be a content creater / scripter, then with that said lead them to a special screen that they have to fill out some additional info ....and then either manually (perferabbly, because if its not automated then it will detour the idiots) or automated send a verfication email to activate the content creator account...then once verified scripting becomes available to said user...and plus gives them a token / id that they must place in each script for the script to work...

And if said user fails to be verified then the LSL window would not be available to said user...and if they fail to put their token / id in the script the script would simply not run..
*****..


The above said would prevent these low lifes from doing what they have been doing which is costing LL money and making the legit SL community angry...especially the ones actually making money...

I agree Scripting is without a doubt the most powerfull tool in the game and it should be in the hands of responsible players.
At the moment its like giving everyone a car without first taking a test or a gun without a licence.
Some kind of additional information provided that would safegaurd against the anonimity of scripters might be the answer.
I dont think this is too much to ask if you want to be given a key to the games code then you should be willing to show you have nothing to hide as what you create can affect thousands of other players experience of SL.
This would also allow LL to create a database of scripter's names seperate from other players so finding any malicious players would also be easier.

Exactly, and it would be the easiest method to establish...and those who are not paying members but still are valued content creators and make money in SL can continue to do so...without any real hassle they would just have to apply for a content creator key...ID or token which ever one wishes to call it...

Other companies do this method, such as paypal and amazon.com to gain access to their data.....and I am totally shocked nobody over in LL-ville has thought of this yet...