Disappearing threads: WTF?

I do not remember that happening. Must have been during a break in me keeping up with the forums.

I took a rather long break when the General Forum was shut down. 9/11/06

My posts on that thread do not show in my Posting history. Which is definitely a first to me.

Avion, if the rules have to be equal, why was the thread DELETED and not just locked like has been done when the same, and far worse rule breaking was done in the past?

I believe that a huge new policy change is on the horizon. There is as of yet no policy against this. What is LL even going to punish her for? In order to protect themselves, they must act responsibly, and show that they treated the land scammers fairly every step of the way before they shut this down.

I don't understand what locking a thread does to stop the abuse inherent in naming names. It creates a permanent freakin' archive! Rather than making some Linden spend a whole business day slicing and dicing the thread until it complied with the forum rules, it was more prudent for LL just to remove it.

Excellent question, Ray. See my response to Alicia above.

I can't disagree with what you are saying here, but from the reaction of everyone else on this thread, this was handled poorly. Once again, LL's "No communication is the best communication" policy backfires on them.

True but its within their discretion. Once names are named the fastest way of killing drawing any attention to it is to kill the thread. I've seen lots of threads where names were named and and removing the name/editing the post did not have the desired effect because half a dozen others caught it in quotes and of course the whole peanut gallery chimes in drawing attention to the thread as a whole and disemminating the name even more. Then there are the posts where people don't post the full name but place so many clues about the person that the identity can easily be determined by many. Deletion sends a strong message that naming avatars with potentially defamatory statements will not be tolerated.

Anyway this thread has served its purpose so I'm locking it up now.

Oops wrong account.

If I have one flaw, it is that I am too relaxed about theme. Not kidding. What you see in Caledon is created for the love of it, not because I forced anybody to do it.

I can't remember the last time I tapped someone on the shoulder about a theme violation. Last summer... maybe.


And your mother is very discreet.

Well if they want the policy to be:

Any thread where posters name names will be immediately deleted ..

Fine, but at least clue us in.

I lean toward the lawyer-wetting-his-pants theory. The Thread That Never Existed And You Can't Prove It Did went beyond discussing lawsuits. It alleged the scammer estates commit wire fraud which, if they draw purloined money out of SL and into RL, they do. Two things about that: Wire fraud is a felony under federal law in itself; and two commissions of wire fraud within a ten-year period can trigger RICO - the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It was originally aimed at the Mob, and if memory serves (I needed to look this up once for RL reasons), it permits lengthy jail sentences of up to ten years in prison, huge fines, and confiscation of assets involved in the fraud.

I'm not a lawyer - can you help here, Trout? - but the fact that LL has let this apparent fraud go on despite numerous, vociferous and repeated complaints by the defrauded over a long period of time ought to be making their lawyers nervous in the service. LL or its employees don't have to be involved directly in the scam to be considered complicit, I think: Failure to report a felony is a serious matter too.

Wow. Thanks for that informative post, Har. You are probably right. Guess this thread will soon be sleeping with the fishes too.

But once again, LL only acts when THEIR ass is on the line, not when their customers are victimized.

Interesting take on that Har.

If true the naming names didn't matter a bit,

Which would make sense considering they usually never do anything about that.

correct me if i`m wrong as i`m no lawyer

but as it is basicly all owned by LL and their TOS pulled under their feet allready when it came to "virtual" stuff, aren`t LL liable in the end for facilitating fraudent activities and not step in as this has been going on for a long time regarding the same person swinging the judge`s attitude?

It is helpful . I wonder what the lindens think?

The fact that the thread disappeared... when, over late Friday night, California time? The wee hours Saturday? ...is pretty much proof to me that they didn't exactly have a board of directors meeting over this.

I figure someone saw a bunch of complaints and hit the flush button. Whoosh. Gone. Back to bed.

When I see hoofprints I presume horses, not zebras... the simple explanation serves unless there is very, very compelling reason otherwise.

This may ultimately be a federal case, but I don't think there was a conspiracy coverup at oh-dark-thirty last night.

And if there was, wow... talk about secret agents on the job...

"Linden. James Linden. I have a licence to delete threads..."

Gods I hope there isn't a James Linden... grin!

I'm teasing! wait, wait...

*bang*

X_X


A coverup conspiracy is about that likely

No, it was during the heyday of General nastyness. It was usually a fate that befell the worst of the worst threads where stuff like death threats would pop up. When people comment today that the old General wasn't so bad they don't know that some of the most egregious stuff was removed for "Linden Review."

Back in November there was a thread started by a reporter (as I recall), asking people to share thier experiences with crime in SL. I responded to it as did a few other people. The next day I went to look for the thread and it was gone. The record of my response is missing from my posting history as is the record of what a few other people wrote, missing in their posting histories. The last time I saw the thread there was nothing in it violating the TOS, no naming of names, etc. Just annecodatal accounts of peoples experiences with scam and crime in SL.

I posted this thread on 11-10-2007 in RA asking if anyone knew what happened to it.

Post RE: crime in SL. Where did it go?
/327/66/222555/1.html

Several people remembered seeing the thread but we never found out what happened to it. We can only assume that someone in authority has a practice of deleting any discussions that they feel might reflect too badly on Second Life or LL.

I think that no matter what the legal system does. The court of public opinion is the first they will encounter.

There is actually a James Linden! He's responsible for the development of new ALL Search! In fact he actually wrote into the thread dealing with New Search late last year as he felt resident's opinions were very useful.

`

were there names named in the thread(s) in question?

Failure to report a felony requires a higher level of scienter than a prosecutor under U.S. laws could probably establish in this situation. Without written leases executed by both parties all this amounts to is he said she said allegations and circumstantial evidence being tossed to Linden Lab without any further evidence to support it.

Keep in mind these are criminal allegations rather than civil actions so the standard for estabishing guilt as opposed to deciding a prevailing party in a civil action is much higher. As a result the principal case of RICO violation against the player allegedly commiting the wire fraud based purely on circumstantial evidence and he said she said testimony would be hard enought to prove to a jury. The burden of proof for prosecution for failure to report would be exponentially harder and I doubt a prudent prosecutor would even bother. At best a prosecutor might use that as a hammer to get Linden Lab to cooperate in a criminal investigation but that's hardly necessary as Linden Lab has always been cooperative with law enforcement agency investigations like when it invited the FBI to visit SL casinos.

Land scammers

there were no names named in mine it was just deleted

Watch out. There is a jack too in charge of consumer affairs

Maybe it really is being investigated and the thread was,,,,wait ...I hear something......whose in my house ? AAARRRRRHG! [email=......aaaaarrrrrgh......aaaaarrrrrgh@$]......aaaaarrrrrgh......aaaaarrrrrgh@$[/email]^&^* OUCH

Gorerotted.