What is the reason for security?

Sorry if this is old news, but I can't really find the answer in the KB or by searching the forums. When I search, I get lots and lots of hits about what griefing in the abstract, and I get lots of hits talking about various kinds of security, but I really don't understand the nature of the threat. Can someone please explain, briefly, what kinds of things people can do, so that I can make an informed decision about what, if any, security measures I need? Thanks.

Well for one, people can enter your house unanounced and uninvited, particularly if you're having a private conversation or in varying states of undress while you try on outfits. You can also come across "squatters" who camp in your residence and watch your tv (if you have one) or use your bed for things you may not want them too.

Generally, people in SL see their homes are they see their RL homes and don't like random people popping in and poking around. There are quite a few people out there who don't mind the occasional passerby....but there are just as many people who'd like to keep their homes their sanctums.

~EDIT~
Oh...and just yesterday my in-game sister was telling me she had to leave the place she was renting because one of her landlords or some such stole her hammock. Apparently, land owners can take other's items, and one stole her hammock. She said after she called him on it and he repeatedly denied it, she felt it was time to move on.


~Second Edit ~(From Maggie McArdle)
You should also know that unless you own the land you are renting you are pretty much at the owner's mercy and settings, unless you are parceled. Various security steps you can take are: setting no build/ no script, buying a security system, or getting a locking door script. Any combination of those should give you a measure of security.

Ok, thanks Joseph. While I wouldn't like any of those things happening to me, I guess I was thinking more along the lines of some sort of damage that someone could cause, something that would take some time to clean up. As for people wandering in, it's already happened to me a few times, and, in all but one case, it was just a clueless person who didn't understand that there was private property in SL. In the "one" case, I don't really know motive, but he snuck up behind me in the dark with a weapon, so I ejected and banned him.

I'm asking this question because I've been doing some talking in other threads about problems with flying airplanes over people's land, and I want to understand the real nature of the threat, so I can speak in an informed way about, say, the reason for ban lines, for instance. One thing I'm curious about is the option to not let people create objects or run scripts. What are the dangers of allowing people to create objects? Or run scripts?

Simply Put, the Need for security arises when some Less than socially adapted person drops into the Middle of your Civilized conversation and begins making all manner of lewd or suggestive comments, and when he's asked to leave, he rezzes some Gigantic or annoying scripted object in the Middle of your home repeatedly until you have to Call for a Linden to get rid of him.

If you are asking for a List of actual Griefing Methods, this could turn into an Extremely long Thread, and then you Will definately get those abstract discussions on what does, and does not constitute griefing.

Hang about the Welcome areas for a week or two, you will see there Many of the wandering Troglodytes that like to amuse themselves with petty griefing, Just pick the Prime examples, and Imagine one dropping into your next social gathering Uninvited, You will then Understand the Need for security.

Angel.

Our first week in our new home, my wifey woke up to find someone had rezzed a bunch of pointless spheres all over our home. While this in and of itself isn't major, had someone followed that example, but used a self replicating object instead, the entire parcel, and possibly thereafter sim, could have been filled with annoying self reproducing spam bots.

Because of self replicators and the trouble they cause, several people have No Build and No Script on thier land, as well as auto return. Needless to say our own was turned on that same day. We didn't get the security however until after we had a string of people repeatedly trying to open our doors and enter our home, even after being told the door was locked (both by us, and the door) and ignoring several greetings. As of late we've been toying with turning off the security device while we're home, as we do know it distrupts people flying overhead and we figure the doors should be enough to get the point across the the random passerby.

Unfortunately, the other night our device hadn't been off a good 20 minutes when some jack-a-mole decided to cam pan into our house and sit down on one of our rugs (thus bypassing the doors) and then start jumping around the house like a rabbit on crack.

So much for giving people the benefit of the doubt.

I encountered my first griefer today. I was kinda excited that I would get to exercise my landowner powers for the first time and eject this guy, but the encounter was really rather underwhelming. Y'see, my land is set to no-damage/no-push and I was checking email at the time, so it took me a minute to even realize there was a guy standing next to me attacking me. I asked him what he was doing, he replied that he was trying to kill me, took a few more sword swipes, switched to a gun and fired at me a few times, then he flew away.

Is it odd to be disappointed in a poor griefing attempt?

Not at all. The stupid, pointless weapon griefing doesn't bother me in the least bit. When I'm hanging with my family and someone comes along and cages us, spams us with items, or runs around with a 8 meter member on however...I tend to grow a bit impatient.

A week or two ago I was at a small antique store, waiting for my partner to relog and decided to check my email and check the forums. While doing so, I start hearing all these explosions and seeing all this smoke (I leave the bottom quarter or so of my screen empty so I can see any SL chat that pops up ). So naturally I come back to SL and sure enough, some butt monkey in the neighboring sim is standing there with a rocket laucher, firing tracers at me. The parcel the store was on had both No Push and No Damage on...so I just stood there looking at the guy a while. Two or three more rockets without a responce and he grew bored I suppose and teleported away.

Needless to say I went back to my web browsing.

Ok, that helps. Please don't misunderstand my question as in any way a defense of people whose aim is to cause harm to others. And, for the record I'm completely in favor of people protecting themselves from such losers. I really just want to understand the actual harm, so that I can decide what measures to take myself.

Also, a couple more questions came up as I was reading. What does it mean to "call a Linden"? Also, I understand that one can pan a camera and see into a neighbor's house, but I don't understand how someone could use panning to place their avatar in your house. (Again, I'm not looking for the "how-to," just asking whether this is what you meant).

Calling a Linden means to go into Search, under People, and to find someone with the last name Linden who's online. You then send them an IM (the SL equivilent to ringing a person's cell phone) and ask them to come over and help you deal with a situation.

And yes....using the camera to see into someone's house enables you to enter without using a door.

1) Linden is the Last Name Given to All Linden Labs reps active in SL (Yes, the game people are actively on the ground With Us, Unlike games like TSO where we doubted there actually WAS anyone working in the EA complaints department) If you do a search for the Last name "Linden" you will get a Listing of all the active Game Mods registered, and indications of which ones are Currently On Line. IM them as you would any other Av and ask their help for Immediate Persistant troubles. Tech Problems are best handled through live help, and Minor Griefing can be ARed. If you are reporting a griefer to a Linden, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ARed THEM (The griefer) FIRST.

2) -Step One, Lock Camera View on a Wall surrounding an enclosed Space.
-Step Two, Zoom the Camera in to within two or three meters of the Wall.
-Step Three, Pan the Camera Laterally until it moves Inside the wall.
-Step Four, Pan Back a few meters and Loc View on some object in the room inside(A chair or something).
-Step Five, Click on the Chair, and Choose "Sit here".
-Step Six, your Avie will fly past all walls, doors, and Windows, and sit in the Chair.
-Step Seven, Be ARed for Irritating the Home owner who wants people to respect their Privacy.
-Step Eight, Log into MSN's Games Board to Play Sudoku, Bejeweled, or Luxor while waiting for your two week suspension to expire.

Hope this clears things up.

Angel.

Wrong... A landowner can only return or delete objects on their land owned by others.

Unless of course she gave him permissions, which of course is not reliant on the location of the item, or land ownership.

Chances are shell find the hammock in lost and found, or trash.

Ok, now I think I'm getting the idea. Thanks. Regarding panning yourself through walls, on my first day in SL, I came across a free item called an "anti-griefing vehicle." It's just a cube that you ride, and it will allow you to pass through walls. Presumably, this is to get out of cages and things (hmmm...Cages and Things...hey, the perfect name for a griefer boutique). Anywho, I haven't used it to get out of a cage, but I did use it as a convienient, stable platform upon which to sit while I built my skybox. Never occured to me that the "anti-griefing vehicle" could very easily be a "griefing vehicle."

I like to have my lands set to yes damage. I get pleasure from shooting griefers rather than just booting them. Since it's my home, if I die I just reappear right there. I also set it to no fly to make it a bit easier.

Let's hear it for totally random caps!
=)

Can security devices also let you know when someone's cam panning in your home?

There's really no need for security devices.

The scripts that boot people just for flying overhead really make the mainland absolutely impossible to fly by on. They're rude, and I tend to AR and negatively rate every single person employing one if I get hit.

The ban lines are also just as rude.

People who want to treat SL land as their real land are, in my opinion, just ridiculous. It's very, very infuriating to be flying around under 200m and get ejected from my plane, run into a ban line, get orbited by a script etc, only for flying around. There's not a lot of scenery at 700m, in case you guys weren't aware. Ban lines and security scripts are inconvenient for others NOT griefing at the very lowest level, and outright rude and AR-worthy at their higher settings.

If someone's being annoying on your land, eject them and ban. The new settings prevent banned people from allowing objects to pass onto your land, so if you ban someone they can't bother you outside of your plot. You run the risk of attracting a lot more negative attention with security scripts and ban lines than you're going to prevent griefing.

btw, something I've been wondering as far as dealing with griefers, what happens if I freeze somebody and then just leave? Are they unfrozen on relog, or do I now have a lifelike statue on my property, or what?

I believe they unfreeze as soon as you're offline.

That's why it's always preferable to eject and ban, unless you're going to freeze them, dress them up in prim skirts, take screenshots, send them out to everyone, and then eject and ban.

lol

I may do this to a friend as a joke. To get him back for the time he and someone else played football by shoving me around while I was afk.

No unfortunately.



I can understand your frustration, for as I said, we try to keep ours off whenever possible as to not inconvience overhead pedestrian traffic. However I still believe in having one on my parcel as there are times I'd much rather be prevenative than reactive. If I'm upstairs building, or the girls are trying on outfits, why should I not be allowed to put up a do not disturb sign? Why be bothered with trying to right click the yahoo bouncing around your home to eject him, when a flick of a switch can keep him out or eject him for you?

That's completely different than the normal way they're used. People usually turn them on, put push up to 10000000000, and log off, so anyone around the parcel is immediately attacked. I can't stand that. Your situation is totally acceptable and understandable. But turning security scripts on when you're not around (hypothetical, general you, not you specifically), turning ban-all on when you're not online; that destroys the spirit of Second Life in the first place, and is why so many people vacate the mainland.

I have a security orb that I set to just cover my house - and I try to have it on only when I am at home and with somebody and do not wish to be disturbed.

It is set to eject from land, only covers 30 meters (enough to cover my house and not much more) and only operates for those on my property so where the 30 meters overlaps with other's property it does not affect people. It is set to a rather short period - 10 seconds - because I have little patience.

But I don't have it on that often except sometimes I forget, and I try to keep the setting such that they really only cover the areas where I might not want to be disturbed.

If you own the land, I see a Security system as useful, but best used with great constraint and consideration for others.