Appeal to Linden Lab Re: 3-Day Forums Ban and Response

No surprise here -- it took Dakota Linden less than 24 hours to cut and paste the TOS back to me without responding to what I view as a troubling phenomenon I never used to see on the forums -- removal of content without a notice of a disciplinary action, sometimes when threads are closed for everyone. I'm not for having these infantile speech laws but if you have them, I think they should be practiced consistently. So if you remove a post that says something critical of Linden Lab and its staff even in the mildest form, or any form, you should generate a notice that says "Warning, your content has been removed for trolling". Or "spam," as it was designated when I opened two other threads besides the official company-made thread about the gatcha machine ban. I thought it useful to make an appeal for the record, so here it is, with the curt response:

#1758300

While I realize it is futile as no Linden will challenge their boss, I would like to appeal the current 3-day forums bans and past actions against me on the forums as I see they are arbitrary. When only the company can make a thread on such a controversial issue as the gatcha ban, and any other thread, even conducted with civility, is dubbed "spam" as mine were, your reputation for legitimate critical forums suffers. I made a list of demands to LL regarding mitigation of the policy, not opposing it, pulling my list out of a 300+ page thread as a very distinct different subject. There was no "fighting" in it and it was calmly discussed. Two of the demands, ironically, have already been met. My 2nd thread was in the "Merchants" sub-forum and was about strategies to cope with the gatcha ban, not addressed in the main thread which was mainly about whether it was illegal or legal, whether the people who made or bought gatchas were predators or chumps worthy of contempt, etc. In that thread, one repeated commenter injustifiably kept dubbing the thread as spam or trolling and may have AR'd it, but I don't think that's where this ban came from.

Curiously, my comment in the main thread about how Bellisseria residents, which includes me, as the middle class that can adapt to this change and buy more expensive non-transferable furniture, and that other forms of illegal activity will re-appear in SL as people cope, was simply removed and no reference was made to it (see attached), i.e. it was not characterized as "spam" or given a notice. That's disturbing. While I view the forum TOS and enforcement as a "contract of cohesion" often clumsily enforced, it has its own logic which many people accept. Removing content with *no* notice and not under the description of a given offense is arbitrary even within LL's terms.

Legions of posters have referred to Belli as "Trumansville" or "Stepford Wives" and criticized its uniformity. Quoting Pete Seeger on "little boxes of ticky-tacky that all look the same" is no different; what is "ticky tacky" if not virtuality? Surely you can concede the houses have limited variety and repeat endlessly? Surely you can concede that Belli, which I have praised as a successful Linden showcase project helping retention and socializing as well as the economy, is not for everyone? Far worse criticism has been tolerated; all that's different here is that it comes from me.

 

This is the 4th time I have had content removed, on some occasions, without *any* notification at all, which goes against the corporate standards of due process you have established in 18 years; in one case, a comment was removed without action, yet the response to it including a copy of it was not removed, illustrating the haste with which the removal was made. In another case, in the middle of his busy workday, Patch came to a thread personally in which forums regulars were harassing a newbie who dared to use the term "sim". Path insisted that we call these entities "regions" and posted a redlined copy of the Knowledge page (!) then removed my comment in defense of the newbie, closed the thread, but took no moderation action against me. This is truly unjustifiable, when the harassers of the newbie are left unscathed. Deletion of content with or without thread closure, with no notification of action under the TOS to the user, should not be allowed.

 

Another time, the reasons were again inexplicable and again involved Patch personally -- and mysteriously. If there is a rule that no poster can criticize or mention in any critical light the VP of Program of LL, then say so, put it in the TOS for the forums. I think this grows from a personal antagonism that may have begun inworld in 2007 on his original avatar, whose identity I don't know, but suspect as one of a crew who constantly harassed me on the forums and inworld for my critical comments about their favouritism. LL has come a long way from those days of the FIC and improved its practices, and since banning me arbitrarily from the forums in 2005 or 2006, a ban which was reversed as soon as the relevant Linden left that position. Personal antagonism is understood, given the toxicity of the forums and anger at policies which sometimes LL is forced itself to implement due to law (although no relevant law or cases have been cited in this curious sudden gatcha ban). But the tools of moderation or inworld bans should not be wielded by those in power simply because of irritation. That is why I make this statement for the record, again, without any expectation of action.

 

• Dakota Linden

  said 16 hours ago

  Hello Prokofy Neva,

  
  

  Linden Lab just completed its review, at your request, of a disciplinary action taken against your account.

   

  Our investigation shows that the suspension of your account was correctly applied in alignment with the Second Life Terms & Conditions and/or Second Life Community Standards. You may review the Terms & Conditions in full at https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/second-life-terms-and-conditions.

   

  If any further information is required, Linden Lab will contact you regarding this incident. Otherwise, please consider the matter resolved.

   

  Sincerely,

   

  Dakota Linden

  Account Specialist 

  Linden Lab

   

  
  
  

I'm going to be sure to send a response that Dakota Linden should get a "long lunch" when asked to rate his work because I think he pasted the TOS back to me very neatly. and expressed the nature of the "managed democracy" of the forums quite aptly.

 

I'm going to note for the record, although they could be entirely unrelated, that I've had a string of incidents lately in which the behaviour of various now former tenants or random harpies flying from the sky seemed calculated, as if to force me either to abuse report them or be accused of abetting their violation of the TOS or, to be riled and then break the TOS so they could AR me, i.e. swearing in General. I can only take these things in stride and move on.

 

Comments

[Frankie Antonioni]

The thread that I put up last night is still up. And I can still post. Here is a post that I just put up. I answered some of the other posters, and at the end, I offered a solution.
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Several years ago, I did a people search. I entered the name Linden. There was more than 300 results. Now there are 187. If you go from 300 employees, to 180, or less, then that tells me that something is going on. LL is not making as much money as they use to. Back in 2007, they were doing pretty good. Back in 2012, they were still doing ok. But today? I don't think so. I would say it was like somebody in the Soviet Union back in 1980 saying the Soviet Union was going to fail.

One poster on here said that he thinks Second Life will still be around in 10 years. I don't think so. I think LL will have fewer employees within the next six months. Perhaps five, to 10 fewer employees.

One solution I have come up for gachas is this. Allow gachas on some islands. If gachas are legal in your country, then you can go to gacha islands. The islands would be set at mature, and you will have to have payment info on file. On these islands, you can have gacha malls. People can rent places at these malls. Creators that are from countries, that don't allow gacha machines, can sell them to people that can go to these islands. It could be a 50/50 type deal.The money made would be split by the creator, and by the person that owns the machines. And the people that play the machines, can resell what they win.

Now granted, if you are from a country that doesn't allow gachas, then you can't visit the gacha islands, and you can't play the machines.
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So lets have gacha islands. We do that with Zyngo, and other games of skill. Now gacha is a game of chance, but it is not illegal in the U.S.