New Group: Forum Justice Watch

I propose a new group: the Forum Justice Watch

The purpose of this group is to reduce the level of acrimony in these forums by abuse reporting posts which do not meet TOS standards as stated by SL.

We will especially be abuse reporting any posts which are directed at individuals or groups with known individuals. This also includes posts which are attacking the Lindens themselves.

Note that it will be up to individuals in the group to report as they see fit, the group will only be available to make them aware of potential forum criminal behavior.

That's right, no more targeting oldbies or newbies, no more insulting, attacking, or denigrating other individuals or groups.

Please feel free to join the group in SL, Forum Justice Watch and be a Forum Hero today!

__________________
Purchase a Nuclear Missile Launcher and launch missiles into faraway sims.

Automatically aquire targets overhead.

Huge mushroom clouds and cool sound effects.

Colluding to mass report someone is probably a TOS violation in and of itself

you're 100% wrong!! *jumps up and down* what was the question again?

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! ....TROLL POLICES FORUMS! Film at 6.

.

I dont mind - form what you like - just get used to being told to F*ck off.

Unless you are referring to "The Original Series", don't you mean to say posts that don't meet the standards expressed in the Community Standards and the Forum Guidelines?

The TOS is mainly focused on not interfering with Linden Research's operation of their business.

The documents that serves as behavioral guidelines for interactions between customers are the Community Standards and the Forum Guidelines. The Community Standards apply throughout the Second Life virtual world and the secondlife.com website, including the forums. The Forum Guidelines do not replace the Community Standards but rather augment it.

The vast bulk of the behavioral problems that we see inworld and in the forums could be eliminated if people would just take to heart the first item listed as the purpose of the Community Standards: "treat each other with respect and without harassment".

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Community Standards
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[...]
The goals of the Community Standards are simple: treat each other with respect and without harassment, adhere to local standards as indicated by simulator ratings, and refrain from any hate activity which slurs a real-world individual or real-world community. Behavioral Guidelines - The "Big Six"

Within Second Life, we want to support Residents in shaping their specific experiences and making their own choices.

The Community Standards sets out six behaviors, the "Big Six", that will result in suspension or, with repeated violations, expulsion from the Second Life Community.

All Second Life Community Standards apply to all areas of Second Life, the Second Life Forums, and the Second Life Website.

1. Intolerance
Combating intolerance is a cornerstone of Second Life's Community Standards. Actions that marginalize, belittle, or defame individuals or groups inhibit the satisfying exchange of ideas and diminish the Second Life community as whole. The use of derogatory or demeaning language or images in reference to another Resident's race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation is never allowed in Second Life.
2. Harassment
Given the myriad capabilities of Second Life, harassment can take many forms. Communicating or behaving in a manner which is offensively coarse, intimidating or threatening, constitutes unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, or is otherwise likely to cause annoyance or alarm is Harassment.
3. Assault
Most areas in Second Life are identified as Safe. Assault in Second Life means: shooting, pushing, or shoving another Resident in a Safe Area (see Global Standards below); creating or using scripted objects which singularly or persistently target another Resident in a manner which prevents their enjoyment of Second Life.
4. Disclosure
Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Lives. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident --including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident's privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.
5. Indecency
Second Life is an adult community, but Mature material is not necessarily appropriate in all areas (see Global Standards below). Content, communication, or behavior which involves intense span class="subheader" language or expletives, nudity or sexual content, the depiction of sex or span class="subheader" violence, or anything else broadly offensive must be contained within private land in areas rated Mature (M). Names of Residents, objects, places and groups are broadly viewable in Second Life directories and on the Second Life website, and must adhere to PG guidelines.
6. Disturbing the Peace
Every Resident has a right to live their Second Life. Disrupting scheduled events, repeated transmission of undesired advertising content, the use of repetitive sounds, following or self-spawning items, or other objects that intentionally slow server performance or inhibit another Resident's ability to enjoy Second Life are examples of Disturbing the Peace.

Policies and Policing

Global Standards, Local Ratings
All areas of Second Life, including the www.secondlife.com website and the Second Life Forums, adhere to the same Community Standards. Locations within Second Life are noted as Safe or Unsafe and rated Mature (M) or non-Mature (PG), and behavior must conform to the local ratings. Any unrated area of Second Life or the Second Life website should be considered non-Mature (PG).

Warning, Suspension, Banishment
Second Life is a complex society, and it can take some time for new Residents to gain a full understanding of local customs and mores. Generally, violations of the Community Standards will first result in a Warning, followed by Suspension and eventual Banishment from Second Life. In-World Representatives, called Liaisons, may occasionally address disciplinary problems with a temporary removal from Second Life.

Global Attacks
Community Standards violations which broadly interfere with or disrupt the Second Life community, the Second Life servers or other systems related to Second Life cannot be tolerated in any form. Such actions will result in a minimum two-week suspension and a review of your account for probable removal from Second Life.

Alternate Accounts
While Residents may choose to play Second Life with more than one account, specifically or consistently using an alternate account to harass other Residents or violate the Community Standards is not acceptable. Alternate accounts are generally treated as separate from a Resident's principal account, but misuse of alternate accounts can and will result in disciplinary action on the principal account.

Buyer Beware
Linden Lab does not exercise editorial control over the content of Second Life, and will make no specific efforts to review the textures, objects, sounds or other content created within Second Life. Additionally, Linden Lab does not certify or endorse the operation of in-world games, vending machines, or retail locations; refunds must be requested from the owners of these objects.

Reporting Abuse
Residents should report violations of the Community Standards using the Abuse Reporter tool located under the Help menu in the in-world tool bar. Every Abuse Report is individually investigated, and the identity of the reporter is kept strictly confidential. If you need immediate assistance, in-world Liaisons may be available to help. Look for Residents with the last name Linden.


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Forum Guidelines
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Welcome to the Second Life Forums! These forums are here for you, the Residents of Second Life, to discuss your ideas, questions, and projects and to share what you’ve learned. The boards have been divided up into several sections:

Linden Forums: Find announcements and news, information, economic and land statistics, and discussions with Linden Lab about new features in development.
Classified Forums: Post announcements when you have a product, service or property to sell or rent, or when you need some help with a project.
Discussion Forums: Share your ideas, ask questions, debate policies, and advocate new features with other members of the community.
Group Forums: Create a special place for your group discussions. Forum Archive: Search past forum discussions.

Purpose
The purpose of the Second Life Forums is to promote discussion and education about Second Life. We believe in an honest and open free exchange of ideas, and in always maintaining a respect for the opinions and positions of other people.

Moderation Policy
Linden Lab provides these forums in the belief that promoting discourse and the sharing of ideas leads to a stronger, better informed community. We allow full freedom of expression, within the limits of the Community Standards. Generally we will not delete whole threads, except in special circumstances as noted below. Any editing or locking of threads will be accompanied by an explanation, to make our moderation decisions as transparent to Residents as possible.

Specifically:

* Hate speech and revelation of other people’s real life information are prohibited and are grounds for suspension or removal from the forums and Second Life. These threads will be deleted.
* Self-regulation of forum posts is the ideal. Posts should conform with the Terms of Service and the Community Standards. However, moderators will have the option of:

o editing aggressively offensive personal attacks to remove those statements that violate the community standards (with an accompanying statement explaining the violation and reason for edit), please note language, such as "fraud, liar, cheater, griefer, troller, jerk, scam artist" etc is strongly discouraged, but will not be removed.
o locking threads with explanation in extreme cases (e.g. although posts have been edited and the parties asked to cease, the attacks don’t stop. There’s no obvious constructive discussion going on).
o A system of warnings and suspensions (see description below) will ensure that Residents who repeatedly violate the CS in the forums lose their posting privileges.

Your Role In Helping To Moderate The Forums
There’s a significant amount of traffic to the Second Life Forums, and it isn’t possible for us to read every thread. You can help keep the forums constructive and useful with the following tools:

* Ratings – Each thread can be rated from 1 to 5. If you feel a thread is particularly interesting or helpful, rate it 5. Those threads that are posted with the intention of inciting negative response (see Flaming, Spamming, Trolling below) should be rated 1. Your ratings will help others know what to expect, and what to spend time with.
* Report posts – If you see a post that you think violates the Community Standards, is posted in the wrong forum, or in some way requires review, please report it. We’ll take a look at it and will take any action necessary.
* Ignoring – If for some reason you and another individual never see eye-to-eye you can choose to ignore that individual rather than respond negatively. To ignore people, click on the name of the person who posted the message. This will pull up their public information. Select "add to ignore list" at the bottom of their panel to ignore all posts by that person.

Discipline
Be respectful. Please challenge opinions, state your own and enjoy the discussion, but do not cross the line into personal attacks and insults because you will risk having your Second Life account suspended or banned. We believe that in-world and forum behavior are linked and behavior carries across the boundary. This means if you are suspended or banned in-world you are also suspended or banned from the forums, and vice versa, if your account is suspended or banned from the SL Forums, it will also be suspended or banned from in-world. Violations are evaluated on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the offense and past history of violations. The following types of disciplinary action are possible remedies for inappropriate posts.

* Deletion/editing of offending material: The material that violated the rules may be edited or deleted without warning. In addition, threads that are no longer productive may be locked from further posting.

* Informal warning: If the offense is not severe enough to warrant a formal warning, an informal warning may be issued. An informal warning is a private correspondence between Linden Lab and the violator, advising the violator of the offense and what (s)he can do to correct it.

* Formal warning: If the offense is severe enough or an informal warning has already been issued, Linden Lab may issue a formal warning. The formal warning becomes a permanent part of the poster’s record. Several warnings can result in suspension or banning of your account.

* Suspension: A suspension is the temporary deactivation of a violator’s posting privileges from the Second Life Forums and from in-world activities.

* Ban: A ban is the permanent deactivation of the violator’s account with the Second Life Forums and from in-world activities.


Alternate Account Abuse: When an account is suspended from the SL Forums, alternate account misuse will cause an increase in suspension time for both accounts. For instance, if Jane SecondLifer is suspended from the forums for three days and comes back to the forums on the second day of her suspension as an alt and breaks the Community Standards again, both accounts will be suspended from the SL Forums for seven more days. Every effort will be made to take into consideration the general feeling of the forum, but Linden Lab has the final say.

Recourse: If Linden Lab takes disciplinary action against you that you believe was unfair or inconsistent, you may appeal the decision. An appeal is an e-mail or private message explaining your situation and why you believe you should not have been disciplined. Appeals must be sent via e-mail only to [email]abuse@secondlife.com[/email], and must follow this appeals procedure, or they will not be considered. You may submit only one appeal per disciplinary action.

Basic Forum Policies and Etiquette

* Private discussions – the forums are a public area for the Second Life community’s use. Individuals who have a dispute with each other have other channels of communication to discuss their differences or communicate – private messaging, IM within Second Life, or chatting within Second Life. Also, threads that are addressed to a single individual or group are inappropriate on the forums, this includes slander or "naming names" in a posts title, starting polls about a particular resident or group, etc.
* Think before you post – sometimes in the heat of a passionate discussion you may be tempted to say something that on reflection you will regret. If your words do more harm to the community than they might give you pleasure in the short term, reconsider posting.
* Flaming, Spamming, Trolling – Flaming (posting a message that is intended to incite anger or directly attack a person or persons), Spamming (multiple posts of the same topic or discussion), and Trolling (a post with an intentionally contrary opinion written with the intent of inciting or getting argumentative opinions) are strongly discouraged. If you think your post might be over-reactive, or that it might fall into one of these definitions, please reconsider posting.
* Reposting – If a moderator removes your post, do not repost it elsewhere. Do not repost threads that have been locked or deleted and do not repost content that has been edited or deleted by a moderator. Furthermore, please do not post a "why did my post get removed" post. Send any further discussion regarding post removals to [email]abuse@lindenlab.com[/email].
* Post in appropriate places, for appropriate reasons – The forums are split into separate topics. Please do not post discussions into forums that are clearly designed for other discussions.
* Advertising - Advertising is not allowed on the forums. Posts containing Spam, real-world commercial advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are expressly forbidden. Also, please do not post any affiliate or referral links, or post anything asking for a referral. Such posts will be subject to removal. This includes using the forum private message system to spam other members.

More Information: You may also be interested in reading more about Netiquette - "Netiquette" is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Read more about the Core Rules of Netiquette here.

Group Forums
To request a Group Forum, first make sure your SL Group has at least 20 members, then send an email to [email]groups@secondlife.com[/email] with your SL name, group name and the name of 2 group members who will be moderating the group forum. Please note, Group Forums which go unused may be deleted.

I have never Abuse Reported a posting, and I hope I never have to.

Oh cool! When do I get voted in as an officer?

I think it's time for every single poster here to ask themselves what they've done to promote a more civil tone on the board. Some posters are always civil. Some less so. Others are prone to emotional outbursts or petty sniping.

And then there are those who are oblivious to their own part in the turmoil and continue trying to be clever and witty, when really all they're doing is piling on.

Ask yourself if anything you've posted lately would encourage new people to post, or lurkers to delurk.

I propose a new watchword:

http://img289.imageshack.us/img289/4815/chill5kb.th.jpg

May I suggest this instead ?

I can't be a member of a group called FJW. It's not a catchy enough title.

The way these things go is always good for a chuckle: blaze posts a sledge-hammer-subtle piece of satirical fiction, some people get it and respond in kind, some people get it but decide to take it seriously to make their own point, more people don't get it and take it seriously, other people take the various responses seriously, and the whole thread goes up in uber-seriously-dramatic flames.

It's not trolling, it's performance art - and the crowd performs for the artist.

Great, isn't it?

And what, exactly, does his act add to the ambience of this forum?

I'm not singling Blaze out here, but I think the 2-month Sitzkrieg we experienced after the admins changed the rules is largely over. The forums are back to their normal, backstabbing, confrontive, carping, whiny ways.

Substantive discussion, get thee behind us.

What a lovely place ... to avoid.

cindy, you have no idea how much I agree with you.

__________________
Purchase a Nuclear Missile Launcher and launch missiles into faraway sims.

Automatically aquire targets overhead.

Huge mushroom clouds and cool sound effects.

I just think all this mess could be done with if people felt they were more accountable for what they put out there. Lately I've been really dismayed at some of the stuff floating around. How is hurting someone any fun at all? Instead of asking for more mods, or calling for forum watchs, I really think just deciding on your own that you're not going to participate in the nastiness is the best route.

As stated in this thread, there are but a small number of people responsible for instigating acrimony here. The rest of us are, if anything, responsible for not exercising better self-control. Yes, I do include myself in that number, and that realisation was what lead me to write the thread linked in the first sentence.

Honestly, after all this time, do you really not know who the instigators are?

If you answer that question truthfully with yourself, the only remaining decisions are:

1) Are you willing to give up whatever perverse enjoyment/entertainment you gain at their expense to see the forums improve?

2) If 'yes' to question #1, are you willing to accept that completely starving the instigators of attention, response, or acknowledgement is the ONLY way to achieve forum improvement?

If 'no', stop here and admit to yourself that as much as it bothers you at times, you ultimately enjoy it more than you disdain it. End the conflict within and just accept that you're as into the mud-flinging and acrimony as those you disdain for doing it.

3) If 'yes' to question #2, are you willing to act upon this conclusion by 'just doing it'?

If 'no', stop here and admit to yourself that as much as it bothers you at times, you ultimately enjoy it more than you disdain it. End the conflict within and just accept that you're as into the mud-flinging and acrimony as those you disdain for doing it.

4) If 'yes' to question #3, do you understand that 'just doing it' means using the ignore feature with resolve and determination; not giving 'second chances' or 'hundreth chances' or 'thousandth chances'... put the folks that you truly believe are responsible for instigating forum fires on ignore and leave them there.

If 'no', stop here and admit to yourself that as much as it bothers you at times, you ultimately enjoy it more than you disdain it. End the conflict within and just accept that you're as into the mud-flinging and acrimony as those you disdain for doing it.

It is one thing to say there is a problem, quite another to do something about it. You have the power to make this place more enjoyable for yourself and others. Use it. Or don't use it. Be honest with yourself.

In all the years I've been doing web boards, this has always been the best approach -- but also the one least followed. For some (and I find myself included at times), it's so hard to ignore certain comments. Especially when they're from certain people.

But Ingrid and Cienna are correct. The very best way to defuse flame wars is to simply not participate.

On one board, the resident troll grew so frustrated with not being able to bait any more he just grew more and more strident until he finally got himself perma-banned.

It was like watching a house set itself on fire and collapse in its own embers.

Excellent post, Cienna.

Precisely. People that are determined to disrupt cannot do so unless we allow it. And, without our enabling of the behavior, they will either turn to more productive things or get themselves banned.

You have a lot of nerve talking about justice.

Why would I buy "Justice" from someone who sells a griefing tool in their sig that is, "hard to abuse report"????

That's like hiring a lawyer who's a convicted felon.

yes, i admit it, i'm terribly inconsistent.

tho, i am pretty consistent about that

Ah, as Eboni is fond of saying you are just "stirring the shit" I guess.

Maybe you could add "shit stirring" or perhaps "SS-1, 2, 3, etc." to the front of these headers so we know not to take them seriously. I mean you wasted ten or fifteen minutes of my time thinking about your post and trying to respond.