A Conversation With Michael Linden About the #Scourgemobile

Here's as far as I got querying Michael Linden about the #Scourgemobile as it has now been dubbed on Twitter by Holocluck and others:

 

[2011/06/11 17:30]  Prokofy Neva: Michael, the Linden roads are your domain, can't you do anything about the Scourgemobiles? You know, the AnneMarie Otoole cars and buses and boats on all the roads and even waterways and railways. And then this other character Yavanna Lllanfair who claimed to me her pods, which are just like AnneMarie's nuisances, are "Linden approved". Can't you develop a policy about these? Like ad farms? Even mitigate how *frequent* they are? They are just flying through the air everywhere and piling up and just a huge eyesore and nuisance. Why can't you act on them?!
[2011/06/11 17:30]  Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[2011/06/13 14:35]  Michael Linden: (Saved Mon Jun 13 16:03:55 2011) The moles and I just build the roads, sorry.
[2011/06/13 14:35]  Michael Linden: (Saved Mon Jun 13 16:04:39 2011) Any change to the Terms of Service and Community Standards would have to come from the Governance and Community teams.
[2011/06/13 14:36]  Prokofy Neva: Can you hazard a guess as to whether sending unmanned scripted vehicles over Linden roads is a violation or not?

 

So, Michael is dodging this and "working to rule" like a good metaversal myrmidon. He doesn't answer my question.

And in fairness, he isn't in charge of G-team, or Governance/Crime Control any more, although he can sometimes intercept a pass, so to speak.

There supposedly isn't a G-team anymore, but really, there is, because if you approach Concierge, asking them to treat grief prims on your sim as a physics problem rather than a governance problem, they will tell you that you have to AR it and "governance" or even "g-team" will take it -- even though they don't exist any more.

The Lindens maintain this posture so that G-team doesn't acquire a visible head, like Harry Linden, or Michael Linden (who once held this position) because griefers then target that Linden all the time and harass him.

So what to do?

I think we have to have a demonstration. Who's in?

 And as I think of it, Michael cleverly *does* answer my question by implying that the nuisance vehicles *are* legal, and that making them illegal would require "a change to the TOS" (as RedZone did, remember). Hmm.

Comments

[Micha Sass]

Count me in as a counter-demonstrator. You wave your 'Down with this sort of thing.' signs, and I will wave my 'Support for creative mainland dynamics.' sign. I may be on my own, I am not very well connected these days.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

Threats are being made on Michael Linden's behalf. rodvik needs to investigate as he apparently has to investigate the crap every low level linden has been doing like the SL8B logo now.

FFS rodvik. Polygraph your staff and ditch for cause the ones engaged in racketeering and/or favoritism.

[melponeme_k]

We are nothing but a terrarium or an ant farm to these people. Why else would they be so psychopathic towards us, their customers?

Someone once wrote here that the major game companies are just waiting for a misstep by Linden Lab then will swoop in to pick up the world cheap. Maybe that won't be so bad is my thought now. At least the game worlds control their griefers.

As far as Rodvik Linden is concerned, he has minimal power. Philip Linden and other bigwigs set up this world that is not beholden to Robert's Rules of rationality. Instead it is a balkanized collection of states ruled by different warlord Lindens. The whole company needs to be cleaned out and started from scratch. The only down point is that the grid is created by arcane code which means the people who most need to leave are the people who can make the grid work. Tricky, Tricky.

[Saffia Widdershins]

I've seen the pods being used at SL8B - I presume as the official means of transport around the sims. And I guess this is why their creator talks of Lab approval (even though the uses are completely different).

[Ann Otoole InSL]

well then LL needs to have annmarie come out and set her junkmobile rezzers up in sl8b to cruise around attacking people and plowing into builds and sticking spewing particles. would give it that real mainland experience.

[Darien Caldwell]

"Someone once wrote here that the major game companies are just waiting for a misstep by Linden Lab then will swoop in to pick up the world cheap. "

Waiting for one? LOL Daily for 8 years now...

[ichabod Antfarm]

Nobody would ever mistake you as anything less than a "counter-demonstrator", Micha; you wouldn't even need to wave your sign or anything. Prokofy once said that 2 plus 2 was 4 and the internet utterly freaked out.

[Thanks for the laugh ichabod]

Catherine does not make such sensical claims: Her claim is that 2 + 2 = Terrorist, Communist Fish.

The way she handles daily interactions is proof enough of her illness.

[Laetizia Coronet]

I know I am vocal about scourgemobiles (the word really is Holoclucks) but it's not a question of banning any and all such creative use of Linden roads and waterways.
The problem with Otooles vehicles is not that they exist - it's how they behave, and what their purpose is, perhaps how they look (very SL 2006) and how many there are.
A better scripter could have done better work and we'd have cars that disappear when they lose track of the road, and when noone is using them. Coupled with a builder we could even have cars that look good, and no tanks or other machinery not everyone approves of. Then perhaps a restricted use of some roads for testing purposes, or a max amount of rezzed cars in total at any given time.

It simply looks like the wrong person (lacking the necessary capabilities) has taken the initiative. It's going to be hard to snatch that away from her though.