How do I get out of the BloodLines database?

1) I don't have access to anyone's email address through SL, unless they give it to me.
2) People still chose to be on Facebook, which has ALWAYS been a RL identity service. You can't be blind-sided by something you opted into.

I value my privacy as much as anyone, which is why I protect it vigilantly. If I give up my personal information, that's my problem, not the person/business to whom I gave it up.

If someone tells me their personal secrets, that's not my problem. I can't "unlearn" knowledge (except via head trauma or extreme psychological manipulation), and no one should expect me to do so. I feel the same way about information that I collect and put into "databases". They are an extension of my "mind" in regards to how I live my life (as well as run my businesses).

As for the Bloodlines scam, it is only a scam because people let themselves be manipulated by it out of some fear/loathing that, somehow, some bits in a database means they have lost a piece of their "soul", "privacy", or otherwise.

I may be in that database. I have never been "bitten", to my knowledge, but I DON'T CARE. Thus, they aren't going to get any money out of me over it. In addition, they will earn a spot my personal "blacklist" themselves. However, I will NEVER demand they remove me. Why? For one, my SL persona being in there is MEANINGLESS. For another, they have NOTHING about me in their database that isn't already publicly known. My name? Right at the top of this post. My avatar key? Use a script in-world or any one of several name2key databases. They have NOTHING about my RL identity that I haven't somehow given them.

What I think is truly amazing is that the current MyFaceTwitHole generation have grown up with this impulse to publish their lives on the internet, and then realize how stupid they have been in doing so, and then demand that everyone forget everything that THEY THEMSELVES published in the first place. To put it in the vernacular, IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.



I agree, they SHOULD do it. That doesn't mean they MUST do it.



I don't wonder at all. >.>

I would hope for "never", as I think that what you are asking is akin to Big Brother-ism.

Every day you live your life, you are CONSTANTLY disseminating information about yourself to everyone around you. You like to drink a mocha latte in the morning? Your coworkers know it because they can smell it, or see you with it. You like to buy Kibbles(tm) brand cat food instead of Friskies(tm) brand? The people walking up and down the aisle when you pick up the bag know it, as well as the store clerk when you check out. That's all "data about you" that you give away freely every day of your life. No one has the right to ask for erasure of that data. You don't "own" that data any more than anyone else does, and when you share it, it's shared. It can't be "unshared", and you don't have the right to ask for it to be.

That which is known publicly is fair game to be "known", including stored in an information retrieval system. That which is known only to you privately is fair game IF YOU SHARE IT. Thus, if you elect to share it, you better do so under some guarantee of protection with whomever you share it.

I am a big believer in Privacy rights for individuals; even Google searches on my RL identity bring up less than a handful of hits. However, I am also not insane over it, thinking that I can tell people what information they can keep about me that is either public, or that I have given them freely. *IF* I gave it to them, that's tacit permission to keep it for as long and for whatever (legitimate) reasons under which I agreed to give it to them.

Asking for legislation against such would erode our "fair use" freedoms that much more. No thanks.

Another good example that is highly relevant to SL:

If I own a club in RL, and someone comes in and trashes the place, then I am going to know EXACTLY who that person is, and give that person's full RL identity, including photograph, to my bouncers so that he/she is never allowed into the club again. In addition, I can feel free to share that information with other club owners, or with the public in general (the only difference in SL is that I can't share it INSIDE of SL, but I most certainly can OUTSIDE of SL).

The only people who would have a problem with that are the people that misbehaved in the first place. Too bad for them.

That's the same principle behind what I said above; you give out that information by going places and doing things. That information is given freely by everyone to everyone else. No one has the right to ask for erasure of said information. No one.

I've read through not only this thread, but many threads regarding bloodlines. Now for a little perspective from someone inside the bloodlines game.

First of all, it's not bloodlines that is the problem. It's people who play the game. Just like any other game, you're going to have those who do stupid stuff like send blind bite requests. The bloodlines game does not endorse nor encourage blind bite requests. Many of the clans within bloodlines do not endorse nor encourage blind bite requests. In fact, many clans will reprimand, even to the point of banning, asshats that keep sending blind requests. It is the way that honest people play the game. We all get a bad name because of the asshats. What's new about that?

If you have not purchased a HUD, then you are not a registered player. If someone is actually able to 'bite' you because you clicked 'yes' without reading the request, the only thing that goes into a database is your avatar name reflecting that you have been bitten but you are not an actual player. If you don't want to play, then IM me inworld and I will happily send you a free garlic necklace. Put it on, activate it, remove it. Yes, your avatar name will go into the garlic necklace database. That's your 'opt-out' option.

Did you know that there is a newer vampire roleplay game in SL where the hunters can bite you and drain all of your blood and you don't even know you've played the game at all? I don't play the game so I don't know if they also keep a database of people who have been bitten. I guess it would be interesting to find out, huh?

I guess if you don't want to be in a database with an avatar name, then you probably don't ever enter a store in SL, or walk across a door mat, or go to clubs, or go to any public space, and you only hang out on your own lands that you own outright. Because if you rent land, if you shop in a store, if you go to a club, if you slap an MM board, if you sit in a lucky chair, if you purchase anything, if you roleplay anything, etc., then your avatar name is also in all of those databases. And in fact, if you purchase something and have credit card data on file with LL, then some stores can even get the last 4 digits of your credit card. I'd be much more concerned about my credit card data being in someone's database than the fact that my avatar name is sitting in some list of unregistered people for a roleplay game. But that's just me.

Couple of other things to note here. First, bloodlines seems to get all the results of all of the other roleplay games that also attack prey, such as Hunger. Because the bloodlines game is so well-known, every bad roleplay situation gets lumped in with bloodlines. That always amazes me. Creating some opt-in situation where a person has click off 'yes' to say, I'll opt-in, especially when they are new to SL and don't even know what it is, is just silly. Are you going to do that with ALL RP games that exist in SL? Do you know what that would entail? Or does it only apply to bloodlines? Sorry folks, that one won't fly.

Requiring RP-only sims is equally silly. How would you keep me, a vampire, from hunting on your sim? Tell me I can't bite there? I don't bite anywhere but my own clan lands. And if my partner or I find out that anyone in OUR clan sent blind requests like that? Oh yeah, we would take care of that in a hurry. Because the roleplay aspect of bloodlines is private to me and mine. But we wander all over SL meeting people, going to clubs, shopping, living life. When we encounter people we like, we often will tell them about our clan. If they are interested, then we'll take them to our lands for a visit and to meet others. If they decide to join us, then we hold a turning ceremony, which is part of the roleplay aspect for us. It doesn't occur in a club or store or on the street. It occurs on our land that we own.

There is a way for a sim owner to ban certain activities, including bloodlines biting. If someone violates that, report it to the sim owner so they can report and ban the offender. But don't lump the entire game and those within it into the same pot. That's just ridiculous.

Another thing, from a player standpoint, if you accepted a bite request without owning a HUD, you are the LAST person a smart bloodlines player would now hunt. Because you will cost the player more than any other person to turn.

And lastly, I'm always amazed by the people who admit that through their own stupidity they clicked on something without reading it first. I don't care that you just clicked on something that meant you were waiting for a request to click off. There are griefers all over SL, there are people who send out computer viruses via these kinds of requests. If you really aren't smart enough to read the request before you click, then I just have a hard time feeling sorry for you. I'm guessing that you probably get TPed all over the place, that you have a notecard bin that is overflowing, and that your LMs are a mess. I'm also guessing that you probably have gotten a virus or two thay way as well. And don't tell me that you didn't know because the 'request to animate' box didn't tell you who was sending you a bite request. Bloodlines bite requests are VERY specific - they state not only that it is a bite request, but who is sending it. Don't believe me? IM me inworld and I'll send you a request so you can see. I won't bite you unless you actually click 'yes'. lol

There are asshats everywhere. The only way to avoid the asshats is to buy your own sim and don't leave it. The only way to keep yourself out of a database is to not own or rent property or vehicles, run your own cash-only business from wherever you live, handle all of your money in cash, isolate yourself from humanity completely, and live off the grid. Otherwise, you are in a database. In fact, everything about you is in a database. I find it quite funny that you're freaking out over your avatar's name being in a roleplay database. There are a lot worse things to worry about - like, is your payment information on record at Linden Labs? Do you know how secure it is?

Oh, and to those arguing about the EU, Linden Labs is in San Francisco, CA. Unless their servers reside outside of the US, which is possible, then whatever occurs on their servers falls under US jurisdiction. You are choosing to do business with a US-based company. Just because you do so from an EU country does not suddenly mean that this business falls under that jurisdiction. Although your activities could now fall under both, depending on the laws in your country. Now, if LL has servers in your country, then that's a different story.

The only problem is that games HAVE to be designed with asshats in mind, and they either should deal with them by denying their asshattery through technical means, or at least policy means.

Bloodlines (and others, to be sure) does neither. It always has tacitly encouraged "spreading" of the game through casual channels. What is the point of allowing someone to "bite" someone else who isn't even interested in the game in the first place? Well, by the game's design, it IMPLICITLY assumes that "everyone" is part of the game; that all residents are nothing more than cattle for the vampisites to feed on, and provides a mechanism to do just that.

I have a fairly common bite animator attachment I use (for a different kind of "biting", but it doesn't involve anyone in anything outside of just playing animations for spur-of-the-moment play. I think that is part of the problem with Bloodlines et al; that people think it is just a "spur-of-the-moment" thing, then later find out that they were unwittingly involved in something deeper, and it annoys them.

In addition, originally, Bloodlines made money off of removing people from the game with that "turn back to human" potion, which was prior to the free "garlic necklace". The fact that the game was EVER designed that way smells of scam.

Beach:

Every RP system has a GM or two. Every. In this case, since they control the Bloodline databases, I'd count the Bloodline staff as GMs. The job of the GM is to get rid of players who are "asshats," and preventing new ones from cropping up. Yes, there are ways of discouraging the "asshats."

They could create a victim HUD for blood-dolls and have the vampire HUD work only with it. Yay for opt-in via paying for the HUDs! They could limit hunting activities to those properties that register to be Bloodlines RP zones. Create a scanner that allows the HUD to function only those areas. People entering those areas will have acknowledged that they are likely to be hunted.

After many people threatened to retaliate against the creators of the system, (mostly ARing the creators as well as the "asshats," they created a "sop" if you will, rather than fixing the bloody system. They created yet another database, one you have to opt-in on to opt-out of the game. Makes absolute sense! People are complaining because they are being added to a database without their consent! So, we'll make another database that keeps them from being harassed, but requires their consent to get on it! Heck, that's easier than revamping the whole game and will make us look like good guys!

For the record, I have a problem with the system, it's creators and the "asshats." I realize there are some great players in there and I don't ban the system from my shop. I do however request that all RPers treat my place as "RP neutral," meaning, discuss systems, RP if it's not annoying to other shoppers, and take it to IM if it is. Basically, be courteous to fellow residents. I'm not an RPer in SL, but I am in other places.

I just found out i had been stuck with whatever they stick you with..LOL I was like omg you bastards finally got me!! LOL
i never answered a bite request and even the guy that was telling me i had been ghouled or whatever..i told him someone had to stick me cause i know for a fact i have been good as gold the past 6 months..
he agreed someone probably stuck me with something..
so he asked if i wanted to be a vamp..i said heck no..
I said i hope i look like crap to all you guys..
infact if more keep iming me and asking me if i want to be one i may make their data base work in my favor and agree and tp them to my place so i can shove them a billion meters into the ground..

he got a giggle about it..

i said i was just kidding but that those lil shits going around doing this stuff is what gives anyone that plays it the right way a bad name..

if i start getting a bunch of IM's over this all i may turn bitch on them ..but he's the only one that's IM'd me so far and that was like a week or so ago..so no biggy..
it would be nice to know the name at least of the one that got me so i could go vamp hunting for that little shit hehehehehe

Which, via Farcebook can be linked to you. Some people consider you a weird freak to be in Second Life in the first place and then somehow it comes to light that they are part of all this vampire nonsense too?

That could go down really poorly for some people.

So? Delete your FaceBook account, use a different email address for it, or live with it. Why is that anyone else's problem but your own? No one here is forcing you to have a FB account, or allow it to be linked to your SL profile. If FB<>LL have some kind of stupid thing going on, deal with them or deal with it.

(btw, "you" doesn't necessarily mean you, personally, but anyone who is in that situation)

I haven't really been following this thread, but I kept seeing it crop up so I decided to take a look. I've been offered to be bitten a few times, and I always decline, because A) I'm not into stupid games, and B) I NEVER EVER EVER EVER accept ANYTHING AT ALL, EVER that's unsolicited. The idiot who offered to bite me kept pestering me to let them bite me. I should have figured out it was some lame attempt to put me on some spam database. If I ever get any crap from them, I'll AR them. You'd think that LL would step in and shut down this obvious spam scheme.

But its not hurting LL at all so they wont do anything unless they get lots of ppl ARing the company not individuals

thats why i shop at hours of the day when the stores are the least busy, and why what i take to work is in unmarked containers, and take my breaks in isolation when possible. besides which the people that see me buy things don't generally have any idea who i am, nor, the way i work, do the people around me at work usually have any idea either. true i can't prevent that some part of the world in my sphere of existence is aware of a few things but i can and do minimize it as much as possible, and any time i discover any records are being kept that i don't wish to be kept, if there is no way to expunge the records i simply move whatever activity it is that is being tracked elsewhere so that at least the record only goes to that date. it's also why whenever possible i use anonymizing proxies and machine address obfuscators and things of that nature on the internet. some amount of information about me is necessary to conduct whatever enjoyment of life i want to have, but the decision of what that is and how much of it there is and where at belongs to me. as much as possible, anything there is anywhere is as you say with my consent. some, i am sure, is not, and i know that is unavoidable but it is not completely outside some degree of control.

If people are concerned about people finding out they're playing SL, then they probably shouldn't tell the world they do on their Facebook page.

And your point is? Are you afraid that BL is posting your name on FB?

My point is that your name is not secret. It's your SL name which is more likely to be mined here in the forums that on the BL dreaded database. If you've been bitten by someone in the game, you can't even search for your name on the BL website. The only way that your name will show up is on the person's profile page who bit you. But it is not searchable. My point is that there are HUNDREDS of things that actually deserve your attention.

This is not one of them.

*ponders a "Vampire Slayer" game*

Everyone using Bloodlines is automatically "opt-in" since, well, they're vampires... and they're not opposed to the idea of getting automatically included in RP games you don't know about.

When a vampire (names can be datamined from the Bloodlines site) comes in range of a "slayer" they get a animation request that will get them staked/drowned in holy water/beheaded/other fun things.

Opt-out would be easy: wearing the Bloodlines garlic necklace which "removes" your name from the Bloodlines game and marks you as a "non-vampire" .

Maybe someone should make a JIRA to ban Bloodlines.

When it's to the point half the sims in SL have to post a sign saying no Bloodlines...isn't that an indication it's used half the time for griefing?

Wow, the ignorance is amazing. If you're going to bitch about something, don't you think that getting educated about it should be the first thing you do? *shaking my head in wonder at the ignorance*



Right, and that never happens in real life. The first thing that comes to mind is telemarketers. If you want to opt-out, you have to put your phone number in a database that says you don't want to be contacted by telemarketers. If they contact you anyway, you file a complaint. Change your number and have to opt-in again.

People's priorities amaze me.

As to being 'stuck' with something you didn't consent to via a bite request, you must be talking about a different game. There is no 'sticking' in bloodlines. Unless it's new and just started today, since i haven't been on SL since late last night.



Sounds fun. As long as it works along the same lines as bloodlines where they send the request and you can choose to say 'no'. Just like in bloodlines. lmao

Don't be silly. This is The Internet.

It may be a different game it may not be..who knows..but i guarantee i never consented to anything..I make sure i check my drop downs just to make sure there isn't a bite request..

I've heard of spikes and a few things from all these games..all i know is there is more than one way to get added to these games..

some have it where you just have to be in the dang sim..
so if i am on a bloodlines site then it was something that stuck me there.. if it was another than it was something in their game..but there was no bite request that got answered from me..

am i sposed to say..oh my god i must be wrong because you may not know of some asshats out there doing something you don't know about yet?well someone else told me i was stuck..
stuck or whatever they did it was without me having to do a damn thing..

i seriously could care less about being on some silly data base..i was just making fun because they finally got me and had to cheat to do it..and not a soul in the world will make me see it differently..

I was on the WoW forums today, and this caught my eye. So it's not just here.





To which someone replied:



I lol'd.

They aren't. Facebook and SL are now linking you automatically via shared e-mail address.



Not everyone is aware of this situation. So it could be happening with them and they are unaware of it.

I don't like third parties collecting information on me. How many people that are not on the forums are aware that things like Blood Lines stores anything outside of Second Life? Not many, I will bet you.

How does that work? Facebook doesn't know I have a Second Life account. Even if they did, they don't know the e-mail address I use for it, even if it is the same one.

I guess some people are using the same email for their RL and SL FB accounts.

Sounds like a Facebook/LL problem to me. What does it have to do with third-party databases?



*shrug* Better stay in your house, pull down the shutters, lock the doors, and disconnect from everyone and everything then, even the nosey neighbors down the street are probably collecting information on you. <.<



Ignorance is bliss.

The real question is: why would they care?

Hypothetical situation:

Colleague and you are both up to be possibly promoted, one of you may get the job. They decide to dig up some dirt on you and via Farcebook, link to your Second Life, then find some third party information that your name comes up on a vampire website, even though you have nothing to do with that rubbish and just said yes to some random thing (not to mention possibly some deviant sex sites and what not.)

They take this to your boss and point out that someone who is so "morally bankrupt and weird" should probably not have a role with sure responsibilities.

Information has funny ways of coming out and about.