I tuned in to the recent town hall meeting with Phillip Linden. As we all know, users can submit questions in writing or ask via skype. One of our residents brought up the question of "Does LL intend to do away with the open registration process"... (Im not sure where to find the transcript of this session or I would post word for word)...Phillip [imo played dumb] answered in a confused tone as if he did not know what the resident was referring to and told him that we have the option to band unverified accounts from our land, basically saying it should not be a concern to this resident (or any of us) because they have provided us the means to ban these unverified people.
When I heard his response I thought "oh duh! I didnt even think of that".. (I was very satisfied with how the meeting went, btw.) But this method of banning the unverified users does not solve much. Because when they attack, the whole grid goes down. Its not one sim that goes down, its eventually the whole grid- whether you banned these accounts or not.
This brings me to my question- WHO is attacking? Are statistics showing the majority of these accounts as unverified? I assume you catch some of these people, have the majority of them been unverified accounts? Or is this information you can not disclose?
If the accounts have mainly been unverified ones, I dont see why there is such an issue to go back to where we could enter our CC info, or very easily enter a cell number and get the code to join second life. If a verified user chose to attack the grid, atleast there would be a way to trace this person as you have his cc and or cell number. Of course there are ways for them to obtain false information but if you make registering *that* much more of a hassle than simply being able to join up and recreate freely, these griefers are probably less likely to bother.
Admittedly I have not even been a member for a year yet, but[/b] in my earlier days i cant seem to remember this much attack and downtime; and it seems many of the more elder residents don`t recall it either.[/b] So I am asking YOU who holds the information- are we wrong? Is there not a rise in attacks but perhaps the attacks have just been more severe lately to where it seems the attacks have been significantly worse?
Many love this game and are willing to dish out money to live, play, and earn in an enjoyable community. IF it is true what everyone is saying, IF the griefers have gotten worse since open registration- you folks are sacrificing 1 steady resident for 30 new accounts who probably do not stay more than 2 weeks time. More and more who gave into this game financially and content wise are leaving, but it matters not to you guys due to the flood of new users. This major flood of new users. I just don`t get it. The ones who give into the game are who make the game. If they leave what are you left with? IF the majority of attacks you were able to trace ARE unverified- Are these attacks worth the flood of people? I know for a fact if something ever happens and i lose the content I created I will NOT be redoing it or returning to Second Life. Im sure others feel the same. You`re telling us open registration is worth the risk of the grid hacked for x amount more users than if verification was required upon signup.
It is *SO* easy to have ones account banned and them recreate a new one for free. This gives people a playground to do what they want. They dont care, and thanks to unverificaiton upon registering they do not need to care.
Is there a reason behind this unverification your residents are misunderstanding? Are these recent slews of grid downtime not anyway linked to unverified users? Please enlighten us if so. I`m just at an awe that the only reason is to usher in more users UNLESS unverification is not the issue here. And if it is i cant fathom someone stupid enough to not do away with it. And with the ease of joining SL- it makes no sense to even have a teen grid.
I guess some people just dont fix things until a major disaster strikes. You folks have advertised this "game" as a business platform, many have abandoned RL jobs due to the profit they make in SL, meanwhile the "game" is getting worse and worse. It isn't a fair deal at all. One of the things that made SL so inviting was the quality of residents. Philip did say he believes the percentage of bad is much much smaller than the good. But as we all know- bad always screams louder than good. And right now it just seems that the GOOD users are now outweighed by griefers, and this open verification is giving them free tickets to test their hacking skills. The self replicating object on my sim today had a creator who had deleted his account and probably has a new one. Phillip says he feels everyone is screaming the bad and it would be nice to hear some good, perhaps do something about this if it is the cause; and if it isnt then educate the residents. Im sure if a verification process was brought back all of us paying customers would kiss his feet.
While I do understand not all unverified accounts have owners with ill intentions (I have a few good-hearted friends here with unverified accounts) and i myself am not prejudice to unverified users...IF "statistics" show these attacks have gotten WORSE since allowing anyone to join, then please, lets go back to a verification. Or, something just as good if not better. (/139/e6/142097/1.html This is an idea that could be tweaked and polished to possibly work but obviously causes problems. But here is an even better insight: /139/32/142098/1.html )
If you are showing no raise in attacks since the lift of verifcation then would you mind letting us all know and explaining the supposed cause? That way, when we are attacked we do not get 50 posts screaming to bring back the verification process. Is there a chart we could see that shows the rise and fall of attacks in accordance with what the registration process was set at? It seems everyone complaining are mad about the open registration process; and if this is not even part of the problem- let us know truthfully; we perhaps we are just ignorant. (Of course, we can`t forget those older members who swear it HAS gotten drastically worse...)
However, If there is a raise in attacks since the lift- get rid of the open registration- Save SL. This battle can NOT be won throwing someone out who can get right back in. Over, and over, and over again. This battle can NOT be won by allowing someone to register and attack fearlessly because they didnt have to submit information which *might* allow them to be traced and caught. This neverending battle is not only hurtful to residents, but the LL employees who have to bust their butts. Really, the continual allowance of open registration when it IS the problem, is not a battle against griefers, but a battle against yourselves.