Darkwood Drama..just cause..

A while back, I was sold a small piece of land in Dore (512m) for L$1. I was a member of the regular Darkwood group, and then was voted in as member of the Landowner group. However, because David Cartier was pissed at me for buying the land, which he wanted for a friend, he managed to get a second vote in (as though the first didn't happen), and get me booted out of the landowner group by getting his friends to vote against me. The Lindens were informed and their decision was that the vote was wrong and should be discounted, because he used a bug in the system to get that second vote in before I was added to the Lnadowners group. However, by that time I had no desire to be in the "holier-than-thou-we're-darkwood-gods" group.

You may remember me posting about this craziness when it happened a few months back. This was right before the Lindens dropped their active support of Darkwood.

Since that time, I've left the regular Darkwood group, and have built a Darkwood themed outpost in my little corner of Dore.

I've gotten many positive ratings from people who have enjoyed the build, and it is very much in theme, even though I don't HAVE to follow that Darkwood medieval theme. I do love the look of the Darkwood area and it was one of the places I found most enchanting in SL when I was a young newb. So I am happy to "unofficially" contribute what I can to that look and feel.

So...everything is peaceful for a couple of months. And then....

I take a friend to see my little build on Friday night, and much to my suprise and disgust, David Cartier has decided to be an ass once again, for his own bizarre reasons. He built up the land on one side of my little build, into a large mountain, with an ugly structure on top of it. (He owns the land on two sides of my little build.) So now my build is not even visible from the Darkwood side and anyone standing in my outpost sees a sheer cliff a few meters from their face. It is so obviously done to obscure my build. Of course, that not being enough meaness for him, he plants a forest on another side of my build, to obscure it from the welcome area, making it virtually hidden from travelers exploring from the welcome area. The trees are so thick, and so close to my build, it is again obviously done just to show his childish displeasure to me.

Both the mountain and the forest are so out of place and so snuggled up to my little build, that there can be no doubt it was done in spite and to hide my structure.

Now I can only wonder...did he do it because my build got more attention than his? Because I'm a better builder? Because I'm not a member of the Darkwood group? Because he's still angry he didn't get that little chunk of land?

The funniest part by far is...I built in-theme BY MY OWN CHOICE, and could have just as easily built a giant rotating neon cube that spit ugly particles. Or a billboard. Or a gun shop. Or a junk yard. But I didn't. I built a lovely sidhe outpost, that fit nicely with the Darkwood theme. And because I added to the community's beauty, he decides to punish me. Does he want me to sell it to someone that will not respect the theme. Does he want me to build a giant, flashing neon tower?

I just don't get it...

(Waits for David's alt to come into this thread spouting obscenities to get the thread closed, like last time.)

I agree this sounds bad, but should you have named names in a forum instead of speaking to the Lindens about this?

That really sucks. Why do people act like such asshats. On the other hand that seems to be a TOS violation.

Being one who has been 'warned' about naming names on the forums, I have this little bit of advice:

If you don't want your name dragged around the forum, act appropriately.

It absolutely kills me that someone could act like a complete a$$ IW towards others, yet those who are on the recieving end of deal cannot say anything about it.

We can't name names in the forum?? Huh? I didn't post any chat logs or private conversations...

I see names in the forums all the time..

I don't think there is anything the Lindens could, or would, do. He is within his rights to do what he wants with his land. Doesn't make it right, but does make it legal.

David,

Do you have any experience in running a guild? Have you ever wanted more than 512m of land to build that dream guild on? Do you LOVE the medieval theme, and long for the sounds of an epic medieval battle?

Just curious

Hehe. Well, I've done the medieval MMORPG thing. For many years. Have no desire to actually run a guild, as that sounds like far too much work and politics. However I do love a good medieval battle, and already have a large (8,000+m) medieval (well..celtic) build in SL (Tir na Nog in Callisto).

You have my total and unequivocal support... people SHOULD be named if thier behavior is donkey-like. Otherwise, you can be a donkey and get away with it.... no in my SL buddy!!!

David,

If you do get a chance to stop by, come see us at SimCast.
You may like the current project we have been working on

I'm new to SL, but I've already read a whole lot of topics like this.
It makes me sick how childish some people act sometimes...
He didn't get the land he wanted, so he did his best to destroy your land. Real mature.

And yeah, names should be named, because it allows me to avoid morons like this one.

Dore, huh? I'd like to see this place mind if I IM you in world?

Sure Marius! Won't be on till later, but feel free to IM. The Darkwood area covers the Darkwood sim and parts of the Dore sim. It really is a nice, themed area. I think a lot of good folks have left the area due to political BS, but there are still some lovely builds there.

Sounds great Prong. Now you have me intrigued. I will definitely come by!

I won't be on for at least 2 more hours, but I believe you will be very impressed
Just so you know, leaving the telehub area of SimCast w/o a game tag will get you teleported home by our Automated Zone Sentry. If you could wait for me to sign in, I could provide a game tag for you to use, and prevent multiple teleports home

See you later...

Sweet!! always looking for ideas to bring to my house up in Wilmot. SNOW ELF!!!!

I'm looking at it right now, and I think the best course of action is to raise your land to the same level as his. The outpost would be even more visible from the welcome area. I think it would be a good move, aesthetically. In any case, both plots are in the same sim, so they have the same terraforming capabilities... so any "terraforming war" is automatically a stalemate.

There are two sides to every story. You might have spoken to one of the group members if you were upset with the land before going for DRAMA of the DAY, but you haven't talked with any of them. I NEVER responded to your last post, either myself or any alt; it was deleted before I was even told about it.
We in Darkwood had agreed that no votes on new members or land would be done by the group vote mechanism, but rather by "voice" vote or our own scripted voter, since it was and still is bugged beyond endurance. If you had approached us in an openhanded way you would have been more than welcome, but the fact is that you bought the land in an underhanded way when it should have gone to a longstanding member who was waiting to tier up and move next to her friends in the theme. That, however, happened MONTHS ago, and nobody really cares about it, to be frank. A lot of the residents have moved in since then, so there is no conspiracy against you by any means. You are just another absentee landlord.
I'm not the one to approach on this, as it is group land you are referring to. I have helped with some building, but I'm really concentrating on other property I own in another sim, just now, and really don't have the time for a major building project any time soon.

Yes..but then there would be an even bigger and uglier (unnatural looking) mountain in the corner of Dore, and would serve to block the view of the lovely dock and alehouse/resturant behind me on the waters edge. I can't remember who's build that is, but the detail is fantastic, and I can't imagine she's too pleased to have David's pinnacle partially hiding her build either. Thanks for the suggestion though Huns.

Yes, it is hard to post a conversation when you haven't had any...

I don't know "them". And "they" didn't speak to me when hiding my build, so why would I feel in any way required to speak to "them"? But I did check to see who built that building. And are you honestly saying you didn't raise that ugly pinnacle and plant that dense forest to intentionally hide my build? When someone does a real crappy thing, that is not against the game rules, so to speak, I feel it is wise to inform others, so they can go and see and judge for themselves. That is one advantage of a somewhat free society.



Then why was I initially entered into the voting system and voted in? And why did you use the bug in the system to immediatly reverse that? I sure didn't enter those proposals in myself...



Now this is funny! I did approach the Darkwood group in a very open-handed way and told a gathering of Darkwood members about my long standing desire to join that community. I then waited a few weeks and was finally voted in as a regular member. And when offered a chunk of land by Strife, I immediatly hopped on the chance. What was underhanded about that? I had no clue as to the political crap going on, nor did I know anything about anyone wanting the land. Strife asked me if I wanted it and i said yes. I asked him if I had been voted in as a Landowner and he said yes, so I looked at the vote to be sureand it showed it as passed. He sold it to me for L$1 and you banned us both from your land almost instantly, much to my suprise, instead of talking to me and explaining the situation. Now who was underhanded in these dealing? I know it wasn't me. I am VERY honest in all my dealings.



Absentee landlord? Well if you mean do I live there? No. But I do stop by fairly regularly to check in and make small additions. The plot is a bit too small to live on for me. And if no one cares, why did you intentionally try to hide my build? I didn't say anything about a conspiracy. I just named one name..and that name was yours.



Umm..David..it has your name all over it. You didn't raise the land? You didn't build those buildings? You weren't standing inside when I arrived the other day? You didn't reply "thanks" when i told you "Nice mountain."?? Hmm..I'll stop by and see who planted those nice tall trees today as well...

Too funny. How childish. Have fun. Do whatever you can to push me out or hide my build. It won't make me move and it won't make me hate the Darkwood idea.

Having been the recent subject of a series of in-world ad hominem attacks, I am more than a bit disappointed that the majority of respondents appear to take sides with David Valentino without hesitation or investigation. I have no insider information regarding David Cartier's intentions. However, I offer this admonition: Be sure of your facts before taking sides or making accusations. As a general courtesy, if you have not already done so, contact the individual privately before bringing him before the forum tribunal.

Point to ponder (see esp. "Everyday Example":
http://www.fact-index.com/f/fu/fundamental_attribution_error.html

You don't know me either for that matter, since you've never bothered to speak with me. That build is just there because it is there. Everybody is building hills this week; next week it will no doubt be something else. As I said before, I dont dwell on ancient history, but you brought that all up, and slanted it so that it made me look like the one at fault, when I was just caught in the middle of everything with Soren being away that week. The Lindens settled it and I have been perfectly happy to live with their decision - especially since a lot of the things that happened did get out of hand and were totally unrelated to you, but rather the previous owner of your property. There is nothing here that could not have ben handled through an IM or two, so I'm sure it does not belong in a public forum.
As for my name "being all over it", a great deal of the content was created by Brian Rutherford, Alberto Linden and a few other friends of its resident. She can't rez a plywood cube to save her life. Are you going to neg rate them as well?

Thank you, Paolo. I actually had someone call me up and tell me that I was getting dragged through the mud, and it was a total surprise; nobody ever said anything until now here in the forum - in fact David Valentino IMmed me the other night saying "nice hill" or something along those lines - which is hardly a complaint by any means. I had to think about what he was referring to, since the hill had been there for a couple of weeks, so far as I know.

I ahven't neg rated you or anyone else involved. Although I did just recieve a nice negative raiting from one of "them". And how did I slant things in any way? Show me where I told a lie? You hovered my pointer over the build and it said your name. You were actually IN the build when we arrived. And who exactly would think that totally hiding another's build would be ok with them? I think folks should by all means look for themselves. Judge for themselves. And if you were "just caught in the middle of things" then why did you immediatly ban me from your land? Why was it you that insisted that i be booted out of the Lnadowners group? Why was it you that announced in group that I shouldn't be allowed to hold that land? Hmm..david..you can do better than that.