Nothing particularly groundbreaking here. I think perhaps the comp account with the free 4096 wasn't necessarilly public knowledge before.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
In the interest of disclosure, we are sharing the following Linden Lab Employee Policies with Residents. Any changes to the following policies will be updated to this kiosk in the future.
Last Update: 09.18.05 - Pathfinder Linden
BASIC POLICIES
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- Unsuitable Content
Nazi paraphernalia is not allowed, whether in Jesse or Rausch, or as part of WWII role playing. It's very inflammatory, and signifies hatred to most people.
- Asking info/age
It is generally safer to never ask for any personal information.
- Land Issues
All land issues should be reported by the customer to customer support or if not during office hours and time sensitive problems should be paged.
- Forcing Permissions
Just a reminder, please never force permissions on an item for residents. If they have a permissions issue please have them email [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email]
- Discussing SL Future Plans
Please don't discuss any plans you hear that might be in the works (or not be in the works). There might be significant differences in understanding when we're discussing features, in terms of actual implementation and timing, and until we're much closer it's not wise to speculate.
- Manually Cleaning a Sandbox
If the sandboxes miss an auto clean please feel free to clean it manually but you should use shout and warn people first (to replace the built in warning system that usually occurs).
- Warnings and Privacy
When warning someone about an abuse we need to try to be very careful to not mention names and or situations. We need to remember the privacy of other residents and possible retaliations that could take place. Some situations might be better to have the resident report abuse and let customer service handle at a later time. Situations that impact groups of residents and events should of course should be dealt with in a timely manner.
- Abuse Reports!
It's very important that we stress to residents that Abuse Reports are proper thing to do. They may also write to Support.
- Angry Customers
Also please, please do not "talk back" to unhappy customers. It's best to either end the conversation or tell them you're sorry they aren't satisfied with your answer and to please email the Abuse Manager (abuse-manager@lindenlab.com) with their complaints or requests.
ALT ACCOUNTS
============
We've put some rules in place for alt accounts. Please keep them in mind as you use your accounts (whether or not they're comp or paid):
* you cannot transfer L$ into your alt account
* you will not be eligible for dwell bonuses or developer incentive awards
* you should not divulge any privileged information to anyone, including another Second Life resident, such as feature development plans, when new land is going up for auction, marketing or promotional plans, or information about any other resident
* you should not participate in any contests
* you may not purchase land in any auctions, although you may purchase land from other residents
* you understand that Linden Lab will audit your transactions on a monthly basis
* you are also bound by the Insider Information and Linden Dollar Currency Trading Policy which you signed, which requires you to notify Linden Lab of transactions to buy/sell L$ of a certain amount
* your alts should refrain, please, from participating in things like Luna, Bens Vehicle lot, Burning Life where there is a limited amount of space. Our desire would is to allow as many SL Residents the chance to participate.
We STRONGLY advise you not to let anyone know that your alt accounts are employed as Lindens.
COMP ACCOUNTS
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Employees receive one Second Life account in Complimentary status for the duration of their employment in Second Life. This account is chosen by the employee, and can be an account they already own prior to employment at Linden Lab. An employee can change which of the accounts they own is their Complimentary account by emailing Support staff.
Employee complimentary accounts have the Employee land lease added to the account. This is currently an additional 4096 square meters of land allotment. This amount is above and beyond any existing lease for the account, such as the 4096 allotment for Beta Lifetime accounts.
If employment at Linden ends, the account's Complimentary status is removed. Accounts that were paid for prior to employment revert to their previous membership status. Accounts created as complimentary accounts must choose one of the membership plans available at the time employment ends. In either case, the Employee land lease will be removed.
DOS AND DON'TS
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Employees receive one Second Life account in Complimentary status for the duration of their employment in Second Life. This account is chosen by the employee, and can be an account they already own prior to employment at Linden Lab. An employee can change which of the accounts they own is their Complimentary account by emailing Support staff.
Employee complimentary accounts have the Employee land lease added to the account. This is currently an additional 4096 square meters of land allotment. This amount is above and beyond any existing lease for the account, such as the 4096 allotment for Beta Lifetime accounts.
If employment at Linden ends, the account's Complimentary status is removed. Accounts that were paid for prior to employment revert to their previous membership status. Accounts created as complimentary accounts must choose one of the membership plans available at the time employment ends. In either case, the Employee land lease will be removed.
Please do not discuss with residents anything personal about staff members, future company plans, info on land auctions etc.
Please don't get involved with in-world disputes between residents, if it can't be resolved between them, please recommend that they file an abuse report.
Its recommended you do not accept teleport joins until you IM and ask what the problem is.
On removing objects. If it's overlapping privately owned land recommend that they work it out with their neighbor(s). If the object is a Linden object, DON'T TOUCH IT. You'll have to ask the owner Linden in question. If the object is clearly a third-party object and on Linden Land, return it. You can contact the owner, let them know not to do that. If it's not Linden-owned, but it seems like it might belong, DON'T TOUCH IT contact the owner of the object.
Please don't force permissions on any objects. It's quite common for someone to say they can't understand, it must be a bug, they lost permissions. Explain to them that perhaps there is a script or texture that they don't have permissions to. If they need to, please ask them to email [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email].
Don't transfer $L to your other accounts or hand out $L to help people. Its OK to buy some clothes once in awhile for your Linden account as long as it's not something outrageously expensive, use common sense.
It is not recommended to share your identity with other players and please don't ask others to reveal their identities.
Liaisons are not allowed to rate.
Joining resident groups is discouraged as it will be perceived as a sign of bias. Please don't set up groups unless it's work related and approved (like balloon tours, mentors etc).
Please don't interfere or set land for others to claim, land issues need to be mailed to [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email]. Also please don't terraform or fix terraforming issues.
Please don't refer to residents as newbie or noobie, its preferred that they are called New Resident.
Never discuss one resident or their creations with another. If someone asks about someone else, their status, if they are still in-world or any other variety of questions please state that you are not allowed to share any information on other residents. Be careful too with possible alts as it could be someone else using their account trying to get other information. You should recommend that they write [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email] for information on their personal alt account.
Personal Information: Don't ask, don't tell.
This goes both ways, never ask Residents for any personal information, and don't ever volunteer any. On our side, this includes information about internal policies, operations, etc....in addition to your own personal details.... on the Resident side, this includes information that you may have access to (discipline history, etc), information you might just have (via a personal relationship), and information you believe to be public knowledge. The rule of thumb -- if it's not in their first life profile, don't discuss it.
Please never ask a persons password and/or volunteer logging in as them to test out a problem they are having.
You should never force teleport a resident to somewhere where they don't usually have access.
TEEN GRID BACKGROUND CHECKS
============================
For employees who may interact directly with minors in the company's Teen Grid, Linden Lab requires a criminal history background check, which may include a check with a credit agency for Social Security number verification. This background check is comparable to that required by school volunteers or scout leaders. At this time, Linden Lab does not require such a background investigation for developers or gridmonkeys who enter the Teen Grid for maintenance and diagnostic purposes, but who will not interact directly with minors.
The background check shall include a statewide Sexual Offender search for any state of residence found in the last 10 years, and a Criminal History search for any residence found in the last 7 years. For purposes of determining past places of residence, Linden Lab shall consider as valid any address which is reported for a period greater than 11 months. The background check will be conducted by a third party professional service, and administered for the Company by the Human Resources Manager, who will be the only person to receive the report besides the employee.
* Any reported Sexual Offense shall immediately preclude an employee from entering the Teen Grid for any reason, at any time.
* A criminal offense which may be deemed relevant to an employee's competency to interact with minors, or suggest a potential danger to members of the Second Life community (including, but not limited to, statuatory rape or child pornography), shall also preclude an employee from entering the Teen Grid for any reason, at any time.
* A criminal offense (including, but not limited to, minor offenses or misdemeanors) which is deemed non-relevant to an employee's competency to interact with minors or does not suggest a potential danger to members of the Second Life community shall not preclude an employee from entering the Teen Grid normally as other employees.
The results received by the HR Manager of the background check will be reported only as a positive/negative determination that the employee is able to, or precluded from, entering the Teen Grid. This shall be reported to (a) the employee, within 3 business days of the HR Manager's receipt of the results, (b) the employee's supervisor, and (c) the Senior Vice President of Community in charge of the Teen Grid. The specific results of the background check shall NOT be reported to the employee's supervisor or the Senior Vice President of Community. Linden Lab will comply with applicable state and federal regulations regarding employee background checks. Note that the employee retains certain rights to view their background check under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, regardless of whether a positive or negative determination is made.
In cases where the results of the criminal history search are serious enough to suggest a negative determination affecting a candidate's continued employment at Linden Lab, the specific results will be disclosed to the Company President to further consult with the HR Manager. The candidate shall also have the right to request a free copy of the report, to dispute the information, and an opportunity to conclusively demonstrate the inaccuraccy of the information.
KNOWING WHEN TO KICK
====================
Conditions When Liasons Should Kick
Kicking a user should be a final resort if they have not complied with your warnings ( and freeze), after these three conditions are met:
1. User is informed of their violation of the Community Standards, CS should be given to user. Please use IM- private chat while warning.
2. User continues to violate the CS, final warning should be given. Freeze should be used to warn if previous warning did not work.
3. User's continued violation disrupts Second Life. Kick.
Kicks should be used when Residents won't listen to reason, won't cease their actions, and are negatively impacting other residents' Second Life experience. Kicking should never be a first response, but used when other tactics have failed (asking them to leave, etc).
Kick and Hold should be used even more carefully. You should Hold when: someone has come back form a Kick and continued their actions. When you witness someone committing a suspendable offense that makes Second Life unplayable for others. When someone admits to underages status, etc. Don't Kick and Hold if you've only heard (hearsay) about suspendable offenses.
COPYRIGHT AND DCMA
===================
Trademarks and copyrights are governed by different laws, although the intellectual property concerns may seem similar. With respect to potential infringement issues, our policy is to deal with copyright violations under our DMCA provisions (http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php), which means that complaints must be submitted by the owner or a party who has authority to act on behalf of the copyright owner. Trademark violations create potential confusion in-world and, accordingly, in the interest of consumer protection, our position is to deal with trademark violations when we are aware of them, whether or not such trademark violation is part of a copyright infringement.
next week: the .5m torus of "I ate a yummy sandwich and I'm sleepy now"
" Desmond Shang
