have I been reduced to this?

After an extended hiatus, I bought a chunk of mainland rather far off the beaten track.

Within ten minutes, I find "Avatar Name" on my land, building. We were the only two in the sim. Here is the ensuing dialog, paraphrased from memory:I've always thought that ban lines were horrible, I never saw the need to establish an individual ban, were Avatar Name not building on top of my work, I wouldn't have minded. As it was, I cannot interpret this in any other way than intentional griefing.

So now I've got a Avatar and unverifieds banned from my parcel which violates my gestalt of an open game-world. Is this the new SL? My morality feels compromised; should I just accept the brave new SL? Do I have a choice?

That's so sad. But unfortunately, there are people like that in this game who don't understand and don't care to.

Unfortunately as much as you try to be nice in SL there are always 2 others who are just as nasty (at least in my experience)

I personally don't like the ban lines either but just last night I had to ban someone from my land after he proceeded to attack myself and a friend with some sort of weapon while we stood in front of my home and talked. His response to my asking why he had done what he did was: I am reporting you for IM spamming me.

So bottom line, the be kind to your fellow SL avatar is all fine and dandy and for the most part a lot of others agree, but theres always someone out there who has to be a stick in the mud and has to cause problems for others.

Unfortunately it seems to be the way quite a few of new residents behave. I get the exact same sequence of events over and over and over, except instead of building it's wandering through my house, ignoring any attempts at finding out if they're lost or clueless.

My one house is access-restricted so I don't have to deal with it anymore there, at the other house I just tp them home now.

Since they opened up the free basic accounts there are allot more kids and general idiots around. A general percentage of the population in rl are dick heads and as the SL population grows then the griefer population grows with it. Only sure things in life are death, taxes and griefers on the internet.

did the majority of new residents ever behave? Or was it simply the peopel who stay in Second Life are the ones who behave.

Id be really curious how many peopel stay in Second Life after say, 3 months. Ive noticed that after any length of time much of my freinds list the people stop logging on.

I'm curious, if you don't want people to enter your house, why don't you access restrict it or lock the doors? Myself, I can't see why I wouldnt' want people to come in and see all the work I've done.

Locking doors is generally pointless as you can just sit on a prim and move through any object in SL.

Well. thats true, but when I encounter a locked door, I turn away. I assume since it's locked the owner didn't mind me wandering around the grounds, but didn't want me inside.

Unfortunately most griefers are not as considerate as you Kyricus,

Check out the [options] tab on the "about land" tool... you can forbid letting guests on your parcel build... or drag in objects from outside.

unfortunatly your recent experience mirrors what mine has been over and over again in the months you have been gone. I have had my land set to auto=return for ages, but have not yet banned unverifieds. I do however occasionaly enjoy freeze-ban-eject on a few rude visitors. I consider it a lesson in manners.

Solution is not ban-lines... just get some of those security orbs on your land and add the AV to it eject list. There, no ban-lines, no-problems.

The problem is that quite a few people don't, they won't even stop when you start talking to them, they won't even acknowledge you exist so the option of telling them the proper etiquette doesn't even come up.

I have one access restricted, the other I don't because it's not exactly encouraged and the neighbours change too frequently, nor would I want anyone new to rent there to think they'll have to put up with the ban lines before I'd get a chance to add them (the other house has had the same people renting there for 7 months now).

If someone wants to stand in front of my house and cam around, I don't have a problem, if they call out and say hello still no problem, even if they were to walk into the house and say hello I'd find that intrusive, but still acceptable. Someone else's house isn't an invation to come snoop, or to make it your own little nest, whether the owner is there or not.

As far as tp'ing home and not just ejecting, I used to just eject but then found them wandering about the sim for days to come and I can only assume they had no idea how to get off (they're both private sims) which a tp home will solve.

That doesn't really solve the problem because there's an endless line of other newbies stumbling into the house, so the only alternative to a banline would be to have a non-authorized security orb which taxes the sim unnecessarily and is more of a problem than banlines are.

Thank you for this thread; I was wondering if it was just me.

Twice now some guys (two different ones) have just walked into my house uninvited and made themselves at home.

The first time it happened I was trying on new lingerie, so you can imagine how unsettling that was. I explained to the "gentleman" that I was very uncomfortable with his presence, and he finally left.

Yesterday a second man appeared who was no gentleman, actually shoving me aside at one point. That's when I learned about banning from the About Land menu. Believe me, I never looked something up so fast in my second life!

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my doors are lockable, but left them open on this occasion to let my favorite neighbor in. The doors can also send me an e-mail whenever someone attempts to open them. Guess what? I'm getting e-mail from my doors every day.

I consider restricting access to my land a last resort. What are these people thinking? But I may look into the security orb thingy-- thanks for that.

Funny thing , some new residents think many of the avatars they meet arent real people.

They think they are NPCs and ask for a way to be able to tel the diffirence. I think this type feels SL was mostly put here for them to explore and no one actually resides in those places.

Kind of like in a MMO you can wander wherever you arent intruding on player's property

Might be a good idea to inform people better that there are no NPC's all the avatars are real people - And the ammount of LL owned stuff to explore is small.

Of course this will only help some people - Others are doomed to be oblivious of anything they are told.

Some people are just plain rude......much as in the real life world we all live in. Some are just ignorant of what SL is all about. The ignorant group can be reduced in numbers to a degree with some instructions or clarifications when first joining SL. We all invite every newbie to "explore"..........but we seldom tell them anything at all about the etiquett of SL and that almost everything they see is privately "owned". When I first arrived in SL I was not completely aware of this so I have some understanding for the new people. But lately I've found that the majority of the "intruders" are of the rude group.....or maybe it's just that it's getting tiresome for me (not sure which). I'm positive it's the open registration that has contributed greatly this problem.......and won't wane till something is done about that.

Unfortunitately I've resorted to banlines. I used to only put up the banlines if I wanted privacey or trying to build but that is such a pain to remember to do and take the extra time............now I normally have banlines uo. Though I do try to take them down when I'm not doing anything "important" and everything is locked in place. But more than 50% of the time it's banlines with only a limited number with access.

Just as any real life city, as the population grows so does the crime rate. Everyone has to buy locks and provide for their own security. A real crappy aspect of human behavior.

Well many new problem people may not know this, in 4 months I knew there were ways to get through walls but never thought it was that easy, I had even seen a wall passing system for sale

I have a Sexgen bed and apparently there are systems that you can set up to locate items like them, so I have come home sometimes to find the poseballs out. But this hasn't bothered me really, if I came home to find a couple enjoying themselves on it, I would even leave them in peace I think, maybe pull up their profiles and send them a polite note half an hour later, if they came in while I was there they would have to win me over with some good conversation first

Hmm, doesn't stop them getting in in the first place. I hate ban lines and don't use them because I found friends & customers couldn't get in till I allowed them.

I banned someone from my land because he got me into trouble in a case of mistaken identity. This has never given me a second of guilt and he'll never be allowed on my land. This is the only person banned from my land. Behind my place is a deserted casino wiith over 60 banned members!!!!

Just 60, lol, I seen clubs, sandboxes etc with vitually hundreds of banned on the list

As a new resident, I can certainly say this applies to me. I have probably wandered into a few private homes inadvertently myself. Although, I've never interrupted anyone or been asked to leave, so, maybe not? Part of the problem for me is it takes so long for things to rez that half the time I have no idea where I am.

But to underscore what Peggy has said: when I came into SL, I had to pass those four "tests" (walking, flying, communicating... etc.) but there was no information offered about social norms or ownership or anything. And then because new people tend to congregate together at first it's not like you get to see model SL behaviour being practised. From hanging out in newbie spaces, you'd think the social norm was walking around naked and bald with a big orange penis stuck on the front of you!

Also, since the first homes I found when exploring had banlines around them or were locked, I think I have probably been operating under the assumption that if a space is not locked or inaccessible it is open to the public.

(None of which is to say that if someone told me to buzz off I wouldn't apologize and beat a hasty retreat!)

I hate ban lines.

coco

I sympathise with your predicament but I have to say that I think resorting to ban lines is an overreaction. I had a similar encounter to the one you describe and ended up ejecting and banning the guy. But I found the episode quite entertaining, it certainly didn't spoil my day.

Ban lines, on the other hand, are a real pain and can quite easily spoil my day. If we all respond to unwanted guests by putting up ban lines, we'll end up with a community of walled-off little boxes.