Linden support for Griefers

Why is it that so many of the recent Linden actions seem to directly suport and favor the griefers? The script kiddies, hackers and crashers who are out to DESTROY Second Life seem time and again to be favored over the residents and content creators who attempt to use, create, and PAY FOR Second Life. Some examples:

Unlimited alt registration, with absolutely no verification -- yet Verified accounts are limited and require payment?

Linden Lab eliminated every vestage of account ID verification, opting to not even bother to check to ensure that the e-mail address provided was valid. While this may have allowed Linden Lab to pump up its membership numbers and to allow access to non-American users who had difficulty providing credit card or PayPal information as payment info, it also opened the door to allow griefers to create infinite numbers of accounts, with no personal ID whatsoever, and while paying Linden Lab absolutely NOTHING for all those free, disposable alts.

Yet at the same time, Residents who are willing to provide VALID payment and identifying information, people who are willing to sign their name to the accounts and suffer the consequences if they misbehave, are still told that they must pay for every alt, and if they create more than 5 accounts for any reason, Linden Lab can, on a whim, force them to elimimate perfectly harmless accounts in excess of that arbitrary limit, and to forfeit any non-transferrable assets in the closed accounts.

Observation: Linden Lab policy supports lying on the registration forms and refusing to pay Linden Lab for the accounts. Do that, and you play SL for free, with infinite accounts. Be truthful, and they limit your accounts and require payment.

Recommendation: ID checks do not need to be limited to providing a credit card. But requiring a credit card and a valid e-mail as the PRIMARY means of proof of ID is a HUGE step in the right direction! If someone in Sweden can't register because your system won't accept their credit cards, then FIND AN ALTERNATE METHOD THAT WORKS FOR THEM. But DON'T throw out other methods just because they are not a 'one-size fits all' solution. Throwing away all attempts at verification of identity is stupid, in the extreme.

Yes, the old registration could be circumvented. But that doesn't make it completely useless. Any competent locksmith could walk up to your RL offices and pick the locks, and could walk in to any room in your offices. But because that is possible, would you respond by removing all the doors and windows, allowing any vagrant off the street to walk in and take what they want? Of course not! But that is what you did to SL, when you eliminated all ID checks.

Easy to destroy, yet difficult to constructively contribute?

Again, Linden Lab requires absolutely NO valid ID to create a Second Life Account. Griefers can create infinite numbers of them.

Yet to comment on the Blog, to have the priivilege of raising questions and providing constructive feedback to improve the community, Residents are forced now to create a verified account through a third party company.

Pardon me? NO verification to enter Second Life, but to comment on the Blog, you need to register with a third party compant that verifies you gave a valid e-mail address and requires tons of other information about you? Again, the griefers have a field day, while you restrain the residents.

WHY is it terrible to require valid ID to PLAY in SL, and even to DESTROY SL, Yet it is perfectly fine for Linden Lab to REQUIRE a validated account to comment on your Blog?

LL Protects the guilty at the expense of the innocent. Perception that griefing gets no more than a slap on the wrist, and in many cases goes unpunished.

Residents file AR's on users who grief, or who are admitted minors, and still see those people in the SL community, still causing trouble, weeks later. We see griefers coming back again and again to attack the same sites, with the same tactics, ADMITTING that they are someone who was recently banned. Sometimes within minutes of being banned!

The "Police Blotter" shows virtually NONE of the serious charges, and shields the identity of the convicted violators. Most charges listed there are getting minor punishments, like 3-day suspensions.

Observation: Even if LL is resolutely pursuing and catching these griefers and taking them to court, all the public sees is a griefer free-for-all. This encourages the griefers, who percieve that they have nothing to lose - especially when they can come back 5 minutes later with a shiny new alt. It discourages Residents from even bothering to file AR's, as they NEVER see any proof that the AR did more than get an auto-reply and then got deleted.

Recommendation: While TOS Violations are being examined, it is better to temporarily suspend the suspects, and to ban their IP address / Machine ID Hash, rather than allowing a suspected griefer to keep right on griefing and making new griefer alts.

In the Real World, when a suspected criminal is caught, he is arrested and detained. If he has a clean record and a good reputation, he can get out on his own recognisance. If someone will put up bail for him, he can be set free on bail. If he is a known offender, he is held while the investigation proceeds.

In SL, if someone is accused of griefing, or being under age, look at the situation, and act accordingly. If they have a clean record, and are a contriburing member of the community, (Verified ID on file, Paid account, known content contributor) they can keep playing while you investigate. If they are a shiny new alt, with no track record, but are willing to provide full ID to track than by, verify the ID and they can 'go out on bail'. If they are a known past offender or an unverified account and REFUSE to provide ID, suspend until investigation is completed, and lock out their IP address / Machine ID hash while being investigated.

After a person is CONVICTED Of an offense, their avatar name and the nature of the offense and the punisment given should be a matter of PUBLIC RECORD. If they appeal a convicyion successfully, such appeals can also be part of the same public record.