Miscarriage of Justice

Upon checking my email this afternoon, I discovered that I had been disciplined for "Creating scripted objects which in any way singularly or persistently target another Resident in a way objectionable to the targeted Resident in a Safe Area or scripting object that prevent other Residents from entering or participating in damage-enabled areas." I can conceive of no possible way that I violated this term of service, even when interpreted in the most liberal fashion possible. Furthermore, this displine comes shortly after I abuse reported another individual who was verbally abusive and violating numerous rules of the sandbox. I am now convinced that this abuse report was motivated by one narcissistic and juvenile person's desire to get revenge on me for reporting him. Furthermore, I am now convinced that the justice system in Second Life is an abject failure. Having previously defended that justice system on these forums, I feel I should apologize to those of you who had been arguing that the system is ineffective and hostile to actual victims. You were correct. The system does not actually punish those persons who intentionally and maliciously misbehave, but instead targets those who are victimized by others. I did not take arms against anyone. I do not play with guns and I do not actively code. I merely requested that an individual adhere to those rules which exist to make the sandbox a place that can be enjoyed by everyone. As a consequence, I was formally warned.

A formal warning may seem like nothing to most people. I'm sure a lot of people here have been similarly disciplined. However, I can definitively say that it is the moment when my innocent and naive faith in SL was shattered by the heavy hand of Linden injustice. It is not just an undeserved warning. It is a Linden endorsed attack against my person, and it hurts very deeply. I have privately appealed the abuse report. If the appeal is unsuccessful, I will be going basic and (depending on the response I receive) leaving. I have no desire to give my money to a company which would betray its innocent and hard-working citizens just to avoid losing mentally deranged griefers as customers.

I agree.. I think they need to reword the warning. Maybe something like after 2 weeks it disappears off your record or something.

I got a formal warning once after being consistently verbally harrassed. The warning was not a problem, I could deal with it, but it reeked of this beauracratic permanence that made feel like I had a forever stink on my record.

A lot of us find that sort of thing onerous to exist under.

Aw I can only imagine how I'd react to this - I'd be devastated. I'm terribly sorry you've had to deal with this. It seems as though every tool we have to protect ourselves against nasty people can be used by the baddies just as easily. If it's any consolation, you are regarded highly by many, many creative people inside SL, and I for one don't want you to leave.

I appreciate the kind words, Osprey! I was considerably more bummed when I got the email. Now that I've had a chance to relax a little bit and enjoy my Friday evening quietly building, I'm going to back off on the bluster a bit. I'm still rather upset that the system can be abused so easily, but I won't be leaving over it right now. I enjoy this world and helpful people like you way too much to toss it away over this incident.

Abuse system can be kind of goofy at times. One time I was testing an in-development weapons system in Rausch. It sent a single projectile on user command at a single specified avatar. Some punk came in with his little gun and wanted to tangle, so I fired off a homing round. The wuss ran away from the round and into Clyde. I didn't think anything of it.

Turns out the coward had backed out of Rausch, let the object hit him, and filed an AR. Got me a warning identical to yours, Ardith.

Ah well. You know and I know we're both good people.

I hope you appeal this one... if you need to, call up LL and talk to someone.