SLife And Times: Two Sides of Banned For Being Furry

By Bixyl Shuftan

For most clubs in Second Life, it's not a big deal what you look like as long as you can fit through the door and behave yourself, especially if you tip. Being the lone furry or tiny at a mostly human club, or the sole human in a venue of furries might get you a few odd glances, but it's my experience seldom is anyone rude about it. If there's a contest that night, you might actually get a few extra votes and win as you're instantly recognized.

But as most people in Second Life know, eventually you're going to run into someone who has a problem with your looks. This was the case of one furry friend of mine whom was invited to a venue by it's hostess, and got booted because the rules of the place stated only human avatars were permitted, "I was sent an invite, to a club, only to get told I have to leave for being ME!" His name was an obvious clue to his avatar, "She KNOWS I'm furry. What the frack would someone knowing I'm no human invite me for?" He was furious, "I want to go back and torch that f**king club." But once he had a moment to calm down, suggested I try to get the point of view of the hostess, if she was willing, if I was going to write about the event. He did admit that the word "human" was in the invitation he'd gotten, but didn't realize it until after he came back from being away from keyboard pressed the "accept" button to the teleport request, so the part about it being a human event had faded away after several seconds before his return.

Contacting the woman in question, once she heard her name wouldn't be mentioned in anything written she only asked that the article be objective, "This is an important subject, I think." She was tired though, and trying to set up a time eventually we settled for answering questions by notecard. She had first met the fur in question through friends and had a positive first impression. Where she was hosting that night was in a formal ballroom, "In the ballroom it is clear that it is humans only. On the rest of the sim, everyone is welcome as long as they are covered. Not only is it clear in all the literature, the TP I sent that ******* took was very clear. To wit: '? I'm hosting at romantic *** **** ****** 2-4 PM w/ DJ _________, International Romantic Music. Join us? FORMAL, HUMAN?'"

She described the situation after the fur in question showed up, "I knew as soon as he landed as a furry that he was in violation of the venue's policy but there was no pressure. As host, I was in charge of dress code violations (DCV). One of the owners was there, as was the manager. They were very relaxed, both welcomed him in local chat, as did I, calling him my friend." She told me she decided to do nothing as long as no one complained, "****** was there for over an hour before anything was said about him violating dress code. ... The owner responded that Raccoon was my friend and that I would take care of it. ... When the guest complained, I reiterated that he was my friend and posted some comments I always make in support of furries when I see exclusion. One is, 'Did you know RL furries donated 12 Million to charitable causes last year?' ... I had to apologize to him on IM and remind him it was a human only ballroom. I have many furrie friends and always feel badly when they are excluded though I know from speaking with them that they are used to it. I also respect that each venue has a right to design and run things as they choose. My responsibility is to abide by the rules and in some instances, enforce them."

She would go on to say that avatar discrimination happened in other places in Second Life, "There are many exclusions in SL. Children are not allowed some places, non-human AVs, pregnant AVs, collared AVs, or particle emitters, for instance. As a woman, I am excluded some places. Sometimes it for dress, like 'must be nude.' I've been ejected from venues for non-compliance with that rule."

The way she saw it, the fur had fair warning, "He had notice before coming that it was human only so he chose to come as a furrie. He and I chatted, we all enjoyed the event, no one said anything until one of the guests complained." She did acknowledge that he was booted by the owner instead of being allowed to walk out on his own accord, "He said he would leave rather than create drama. Then he posted other's text in local chat, creating drama, disrupting the event, and violating TOS."

That last detail was the one big difference between how the two persons described the event. Talking to the fur later, he told me he never posted any IM conversation out in the open, "I have transcripts of everything." He also stated he was there for less than a minute before being asked to change. As mentioned earlier, he did admit to accepting the teleport request before noticing the word "human" in the invitation, but he had been away from computer, and the notice about it being a human event had already faded.

The hostess did have some final words, "We have the perfect opportunity to make something positive of this unfortunate incident. My personal philosophies and practices are to celebrate diversity and promote inclusion. When we were planning the .... Clinic, some administrators wanted furries excluded but acceded to my argument on why they and everyone should be welcome. The salient points here are that being an activist can be noble, valuable, and serve the greater good. There are ways to be an effective advocate and ways to hurt your cause. ******'s behavior in this instance gave all those there valid reasons to exclude furries, setting back rather than helping. If you feel furries (or any group) is excluded, make a valid and rational case for why this should be reconsidered. I have shared a few of the points I use. Respect the venues. They have no obligation to follow any course other than their mission or business plan. If the venue is considerate enough to state an exclusion policy so there is no surprise, be grateful. Speak privately to the owners if you would like them to reconsider their policy. If you wanted to be respected and treated well, act that way toward others."

The idea of being grateful and respectful in the face of being given the boot is likely to be too much for many of my fellow furs in Second Life to ask for. They are very proud of their looks, and will see exclusion as an insult to who and what they are. A historic RP area such as 1920s Berlin they can usually let slide as the idea is to make it as close to the history books as it was. But a venue that's purely for entertainment such as the infamous "Frank's Place" that sees a furry avatar as the equivalent to ragged jeans and a t-shirt at a high-class establishment, that viewpoint is seen as a pile of waste matter.

Looking at the hostess' comment about "exclusions" one way, it could be seen as saying discrimination is a part of Second Life, and there's nothing that can be done about it. But looking at it another, it could be seen as saying not allowing someone into a club just because they're furry (or because they're not) is as justifiable as saying women are only allowed in if they're naked without anything covering their private parts.

While the Newser has written about this kind of situation in the past on occasion, fortunately, this kind of incident is rare. The amount of time I've been asked to leave a place because of my having a furry avatar can be counted on one hand after over thirteen years here. I've been to high class places with first rate musicians that while asking me to be neatly dressed didn't have a problem with my avatar. One investigation of a place in which someone was thrown out for having a nonhuman avatar revealed that there was a nonhuman on the staff and the incident was likely the result of a hostess' inexperience. Of those who prefer human avatars, most would rather be in places where they can invite their friends. One SL church operated for months with a number of furs in it's flock before getting a new pastor whom then insisted on "keeping it real" and telling the parish human avatars only. The majority of people, humans and furs alike, left.

So while this sort of thing does happen once in a while, it shouldn't define our Second Lives. It's best to take ourselves, and our tip money, to places that appreciate our company.

Addition: It turned out that the hostess had no problem with her name being given.

Bixyl Shuftan

Businesswoman Banned From Second Life Without Clear Explanation

By Bixyl Shuftan

Talking to Furry Fashion, I was told about someone who worked with them, Luna Pawpad, whom had been given the boot by Linden Lab without being told exactly why. "Luna Pawpad helped me set up the FF Halloween area but LL banned her account," one of the staff told me. They had no idea why she was banned, "Every time she opens a support ticket they close it without responding. She keeps getting the run around. She's disabled and relies on her Second Life income. ... She'd been a loyal SL player for over seven years, and now she's banned plus all her alts. She's lost her parcels, her accounts, her store, thousands of items/money down the drain."

I talked to Luna via an Instant-Messenger. She described herself as quite involved in Second Life commerce, "I'm  a major part of Furry Fashion. I was a premium member, and I had a business. ... I was also heavily involved in Quest Fur Cover and other events like Gacha Guild. ... All of which helped supplement my income in real life.  I'm non-working disabled, and my husband and I are struggling as it is. My account was going on nine years old in November."

Linden Lab had blocked her entry into Second Life without saying exactly why, "My account was put on administrative hold. All I got was a lengthy notice that I broke TOS, and that's it." When I first talked to her, she could only think of one possible reason, one that she thought she had straightened out with Linden Lab some time ago, "The only clue I have is that my account was held before because I used my mom's card a couple times to buy Lindens, ... with her permission ... because she had no other way to send me money (according to her). I just provided her ID and my account opened back up."

And with that all was well, until now, "Then suddenly this, like months later. I've opened two tickets to appeal, and they were closed without (an)answer. And the direct case I filed last night, no longer exists."  She wondered, "maybe her bank happened to flag it one day, or maybe she did by mistake. That's really what this all seems like is a mistake." She had explained the situation to the Lab back then, "in the last case I filed I wrote out a very lengthy explanation, the case that now no longer exists. ... The only reason I used Second Life to get money from my Mom, was because I processed credit periodically anyways, from sales of my own stuff."

Later on, Luna mentioned there might be one other possibility, "A couple days before I was buying demos of full perm stuff to look at." And she purchased an item that she found out later was copybotted, "I didn't realize it till after I purchased it, so I just deleted it. It was a whoops."

I would later get an email from a Rand.Lupindo.

I've known Albright (Luna.Pawpad) in Second Life for at least 7 years, and in that time she has been a stable, energizing presence, volunteering at my own Sim (Timber Wilds animal avatars and sandbox) and other communities.  It is thus with sadness that I found that she was recently banned permanently from Second Life for unknown reasons other than an unspecified violation of the Terms of Service, and as far as I'm aware not given any warning, explanation, or recourse.  

For what it's worth, I doubt this ban is deserved, it smacks of the impulsive shadow banning of content creators on flimsy grounds that occurred last year, and I can vouch for Albright as a fixture of our community and certainly not a greifer or criminal.  If the ban is somehow deserved, she should at least be given an explanation as to the specific reason and some recourse for appeal.  

If users are going to be surreptitiously expelled from the game after accumulating years of legitimate accomplishments and relationships, fully intending to be and believing ourselves to be in compliance with the rules, without warning and without explanation, not even allowed to come back on a new account, then it seems that no one can feel safe investing their time and effort into this space.

And then another from Bowno Scarbridge, saying she was talking to Luna the moment she was booted off Second Life,

I had logged onto Second Life on the 3rd of October into the Gatcha Guild event. The BRDMRT Raptors had just been added the night before and I wanted to see how many people were around and enjoying them. Luna Pawpad and a few other friends soon joined me in the Raptor fun! We were all goofing around, clicking people's noses and making jokes over voice. Good stuff and good fun. Suddenly, Luna vanished out of nowhere, completely randomly and without any warning. A couple minutes later I get a message from Luna that she had been banned from SL. Confused and shocked,

I asked her why. She had been transferring her L to her alt account, which is used to store it for safe keeping. She was locked down for  'suspicious activity' because she was transferring L.

 SL replied to her appeal with :
  'Thank you for contacting Linden Lab Fraud. After conducting a thorough review, Linden Lab has determined this account or an alternate account has violated the Second Life Terms of Service. Regretfully, we have determined this account and all alternate accounts will be permanently terminated. Per the Terms of Service, you may not return to Second Life on any account, new or existing.'

Luna Pawpad is a modder of the SL community. Her products are texture mods that she makes by hand. Her work is her own. None of it breaks TOS and none of it is Copyright. She is decently known in the modder community. She has a few enemies from working as security at Furry Fashion.... But that's really about it!

Luna Pawpad thinks that transferring L was one of the causes, but also the fact that she had to borrow her mothers credit card for a bit. Her mother AGREED to this and even let her use her ID as proof.

She has tried to make tickets, and LL continues to close them without replying. Her email that she has sent will likely never be replied to or if it is.. it will likely just be a copy paste message. ... Linden Labs is being very unprofessional about this entire thing. The LEAST they could do is tell her what she did wrong. Right now, all we can do is assume. Luna is a paying customer to SL and deserves to at least have her tickets answered and a chance to defend herself.

This hasn't been the first time Linden Lab expelled someone from a popular business from the virtual world. In 2014, Meissa Thorne, one of the major contributors to the popular fishing game 7Seas, was banned for refusing to provide her Social Security Number and other ID directly to Linden Lab as part of their new Identification Policy at the time. Although the team had time to prepare for her exit, there were lasting changes, such as no further "Fishversary" celebration events.

As for what to do now, Luna wasn't sure where she could go from here, "I've submitted tickets, Ame wrote an email. I don't know if any of my other friends have done anything, but at this point, getting enough people to vouch for me might be my only hope at this point. I've seen people get banned for legit TOS violations, but returned because enough people protested."

And so, as Furry Fashion's team gets ready to celebrate Halloween, the mood has been darkened as one of their own has vanished, not at the hands of a monster, but the heavy hands of Linden Lab, with no clear explanation as to what the reason was for, or if it may happen again.

Bixyl Shuftan

SLife and Times: Banned For Looking Odd

By Bixyl Shuftan

For my furry friends at the Sunweaver/Angels community and elsewhere, one of their pet peeves is being harassed or banned about their appearance when they go out looking at different places and clubs. Some consider it common to the point they'll hang out only at places they know have other furs or call themselves "furry friendly."  Grease Coakes wrote about his experience, and I've written on the topic myself. Personally, I've found it a rare experience, though still annoying.

So it got my attention when a "coconuteater" wrote on "Blog Veridical" about being banned at a club "within three seconds of my avatar entering the building." He Instant-Messaged the owner, "Hello, why am I banned?" The owner's answer was, "I smell a lot of trouble, and I'm not up to it today." "Do you think I'm a griefer or something?" "So you think I'm an idiot?" While he didn't give his account name, he did show his appearance. This was a human avatar, but it was oddly porportioned, with a huge chest with wide shoulders, tiny arms, and big ears. He was also barefoot.

There were a number of comments after a link to the article was posted on the "Second Life Friends" group in Facebook. Some offered sympathy. Some suggested he simply go to a different club, "Shallow sl saddens me this is what it comes down to judging by a persons looks shame on all of them." "Even pixels get judged these days........sad times." Some were saying he needed to update his looks, "Thats the lesson here.. leave those noob looks back in the past where they belong. this is 2017 .. not 2005 .. noob feet ( AKA Duckfeet ) are out.. Noob hands out. block head.. out. layer clothing.. dead as dust." "If we were friends I'd strongly encourage you to improve appearance. You don't have to have a mesh body. ,,, Put some effort into making the visual experience more realistic or at least show you care about what you look like."

Others were saying his odd appearance was the kind favored by griefers, "I definitely think 'troll' seeing this avatar. ... you know what they say, first impressions matter." "I cant help but feel your intentions were to stir the pot, everyone knows that extreme noob looks are usually a griefers preferred appearance. If it was my club and i saw you come in looking like that, i would also be atleast worried drama was coming." "i have to admit u look like alot of the griefers ,j\s. nothing aginst u. jus really u look like a griefer" "If you've been in Second Life for more than a couple of years, and have been to clubs or gatherings - you KNOW that many (not all) griefers like to drastically deform their avies to look crazy. You know this. So if you're not a noob, why would you drastically deform yourself to look like a griefer? Come on now. Keep it real. People who've been griefed are going to have their guard up and when you manage a CLUB, you MUST keep a lookout for people who look every bit like a griefer. You don't wait for them to do it. ..." "That avatar looks like a classic griefer avatar."

And a few were saying yes, it did look like the stereotypical troll avatar, but avatars like these they encountered weren't always that. "That being said a lot of people have used this game to bully and harass people in a certain manner. You can understand why some people are so quick to judge, but it should really be by your actions not how you look." "There was a time when the 'different' avatars were the ones with big boobs, tans, perfect hair and giant pectorals. The avatars that people consider 'griefer' avatars were once the far, far more common avatar you'd see on the grid. Insisting on looking 'different' *is* a choice. Some people don't want to look like a cookie cutter copy of someone else's distorted notion of perfection, or acceptability. They just want to express themselves. Your comment reminds me of how outcasts were treated by the popular crowd in high school. As long as people don't act out, or have an avatar emitting giant Bill Cosbys, I say let them be. Even if you have had a rough day, ejecting people just because of their appearance is lazy."

One comment got my attention, "What it comes down to is how much time you are willing to put in to growing your group and making it a place for all... last night I had a potential griefer on my sim (1 day old, dressed like it and a naughty word name). So I TPed to him and asked him how he was doing... it took me a short ten minute conversation to find out that A) he was new and B) he was really liking SL... I made a friend, not a potential enemy down the road. A**hattery like the club owner pulled will make more enemies than friends...if you don't have an enemy before you ban someone, you usually do when after you do... in this case, an enemy that will post about you on his blog."

About the only thing most agreed upon was ultimately "his sim, his rules." Even those who sided with the writer, there was an admittance he was within rights to do what he did. They just felt he shouldn't have.

This isn't quite the same as the situation furs and other fantasy/sci-fi avatars such as faries and elves, who can spent plenty of time on their looks. But still, it brings to mind the old story of those who are different being singled out and being told they are not welcome.

Do you the readers have any stories of your own, or stories about handling someone new who stood out?

Scources: Blog Veridical , Facebook

Bixyl Shuftan

Whatever Happened to Intlibber Brautigan?

By Bixyl Shuftan

Readers whom remember the old Second Life Newspaper of JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer may remember Intlibber Brautigan. He was the head of BNT Holdings, a major sponsor of the paper which at one point controlled over 50 sims. He was also an opinionated figure whom defended the controversial Woodbury University, infamous for harboring a number of suspected griefers, and butted heads with people such as Prokvy Neva.

 Things seemed okay from the paper's point of view as his sponsorship included space for an office and a private island for James and Dana. Then in October 2009, disaster struck. Linden Lab seized the sims under his name, including that with the SLN office and James and Dana's home. Aside from Intlibber stating that his company's revenue took a sharp drop due to the real-life economy and projects that failed to "come to fruition in time," Dana called his official statement "an outpouring of spite and blame on others" which she refused to publish in full. Although the paper soon found a new office, it never truly recovered, and the incident was likely a contributing factor to Second Life Newspaper's folding less than a year later.

After that, not much was heard about Intlibber. In July 2011, Krypton Radio claimed he was linked to an account that was banned. After that, nothing for a few years. Then a few days ago, my attention was directed to a post on Facebook by Mike Lorrey. ...

"My IntLibber Brautigan account is now somewhat open in Second Life. Linden Lab has me in a 1 sim prison called ONDW 37, which as you can see in this snapshot, is one of several prison cell sims that class action claimants are given, in order to put their inventory assets up for sale on the SL Marketplace. Claimants have 1 month to get their stuff listed. I am unable to receive visitors in this sim, and cannot communicate with other users in SL. LL has removed all my group memberships, even the groups I created and own, and does not allow me to teleport elsewhere in SL. This is what they think constitutes the terms of their "settlement" of our class action lawsuit. They are also trying to refuse to pay me the 2L$ per square meter for the 53 regions of virtual land I owned before they banned me, despite that being the clear terms of the settlement."

Could he put them in Marketplace? "Yes, thats why they have me in this single sim, to put objects for sale on marketplace via a magic box. My lawyer is still dealing with LL's consistent intransigence at refusing to comply with the letter of the class action settlement agreement which SHOULD have awarded me $1000 per sim for recovery of sim setup fees, PLUS 2 L$ per square meter for 53 sims of land. They are refusing to pay either of these sums, which should total up to around $80,000 USD. I also have around $4500 worth of L$ on my accounts, but they've put a negative 2 million L$ on every account to prevent me from transferring my money to anybody else, and they put a negative $17,000 USD balance on my account dollar side reflecting the fallacious tier charges they placed on my account AFTER they had suspended me (my monthly tier fees never exceeded $10,000 at that time, so this is clearly almost two months of tier, far longer than they allow."

"If they refuse to comply with the settlement we will be forced to ask the judge to sanction them with the award of all my attorneys fees for dragging things out and causing these problems, and have the settlement set aside so we can demand the reconsideration of the economic loss class of the suit which she had closed because the lawyers pushing the class action "lost" or otherwise misplaced my claims, faxes, and letters urging them to make me a named party in the case, since I showed the largest economic losses of all claimants."

"I'm selling my stuff because the settlement gives you the option of either selling your stuff on marketplace, or else receiving a mere $15 compensation for all of the content on all of your accounts. I had 200 accounts, about 15 of which had money and content, and had invested well over $50,000 in various content development projects."

When asked why he got banned, "LL seized all my sims after engaging in a campaign of blocking my ability to trade L$ for USD to pay bills, and lobbying my customers to move out of my sims, all because I defended those whose rights were infringed: ad farmers, woodbury university, private property owners, and my investors."

When asked what else he was doing online, "In what time period ... In the past year I've been working on a new business plan that is confidential but will have some information about that disclosed at a later date, provided this settlement is equitably paid to me so we can seed the revival of BNT with the settlement money."

When asked what is he selling on SL Marketplace, "TONS of stuff. I used to build buildings for clients, script stuff, etc. I made a scripted set of HUD combat flight instruments like an F-15 eagles heads up display, among a number of other things. I developed the Major League Combat first person shooter combat sim, I developed the Teller Motorsports Park racing sim.... seriously its odd that so many people believed the lies told by certain Lindens and their groupies that I wasn't a creative person in SL."

And so, the land baron whom once had over fifty sims is now confined to a small tiny space isolated from the rest of the Grid. It seems Intilibber is in the process of writing his final chapter in Second Life, or is he? As he has been accused of using alts to get around his ban from Second Life, it's possible he may pop up once again sometime in the future.

Bixyl Shuftan

Avatar Discrimination: A Club Gives Furs the Boot

By Grease Coakes

At random I wanted to hang out and listen to music at a human club. Human clubs are known for lots of emotes and dance music that you might hear at a dance club in real life. In my experience human clubs are great places for me to write, or to play neopets while my avatar just dances. If everyone uses emotes I’m not really missing out on much in the club chat.

Then one time while checking out one club, GOL Element the 8th, I was surprised that I was imed by the club host, Psique Delicioso.

Psique Delicioso: hun

Psique Delicioso: please change to human form

Psique Delicioso: lol

Grease Coakes: Why?

Psique Delicioso: no furries

Psique Delicioso: its rules bebe

Grease Coakes: So basically this club is against furries? (shocked)

Psique Delicioso: we not against anything hun

Psique Delicioso: it’s been like that since it’s been founded

Grease Coakes: Wouldn't you think a rule like that is outdated in SL?


A little later I was ejected for simply refusing to change to a human avatar.

The next day I stop in to see if lightning strikes twice. Sadly it does, but I was able to speak with the manager and I had this to say.


Grease Coakes: Hi Lava I was wondering why furries are not allowed at your club?

LavaIncandescente: cuz is in the rules

Grease Coakes: That's your only answer?

LavaIncandescente: we try to explain to people what to be allowed

LavaIncandescente: in this club stay rules  no animal no furry

LavaIncandescente: please can your change avatar

LavaIncandescente: ?

Grease Coakes: Is there a certain reason you do not allow furries or animals? I mean I have lots of Linden to tip your DJ and host. My money is no good here?

LavaIncandescente: @--'--

Grease Coakes: I don't have any human avatars.

LavaIncandescente: sure but you have need change avatar

LavaIncandescente: for to be allow here

Grease Coakes: And yet humans have been allowed in furry clubs. Don't you think it's rude and racist to not allow furries in your club?


A little later Tiggeh, a furry who likes to hang out at IYC, and I were both ejected for being furry. Tiggeh and I both began talking with each other."

Grease Coakes, "It's different if they only booted me, but if they booted two different furries that says something."

Tigg:eh (tiggy.scholessinger), "They are technically racists."

Grease Coakes, "I was thinking that for example we can change avatars in SL. But In real life how would that look if that same club in real life didn't allow blacks?"

I think in today’s multi cultured and multi-racial world a club in real life wouldn’t get very far if they said no Africans or Asians allowed.

Tiggeh also mentioned a group that he was a part of called “Furs Againist SL Social Inequality”. I easily found the group on Tiggeh’s profile and asked what the group was about.

Kenshin Kazoku (forgottendreamkeeper), "We're basically a group of furries who are fed up with the lack of respect here on SL... "

Kensihn was also booted from a cabin hangout sim just for being furry and got this excuse from the manager, "We have a very specific clientele and we would not want to offend anyone by allowing you here." Fur is offensive? It boggles my mind why someone would find an animal avatar offensive in second life.

The flip side is why someone would be prosecuted in real life for walking around in a fur suit. As a kid I remember watching Sesame Street or maybe seeing someone in a cartoon animal suit and thinking what would it be like to be a cartoon animal or a real animal? So if it socially acceptable to be in a fur suit, say an entertainer at Disneyland, why not dress up in a fursuit on your free time? Amurtigress, a griffin friend of mine, showed me a picture of him wearing his fursuit to cheer up children at a hospital in his country of Germany in real life.

I think this article speaks out that racism is wrong in today’s society whether as a pixel avatar or in real life. It’s sad to see that even in a virtual universe like SL where there are many great things to see and places to hang out. I was shocked at GOL when I was told not to be a furry. Something for GOL 8th element to think about is you can change your avatar in second life sure. But what if this was in real life and I was writing about a real life version of your club. Would you still ban a furry for being born the way he or she was? Yes I know furries don’t exist in real life, but I’m making a point.

It’s easy to eject a pixel furry, but would it be so easy in real life to say it’s just the rules and not have a valid reason behind the rules?

Feel free to stop by http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GOL%207/139/205/34 which leads to GOL Element the 8th to hang out as a furry.


Grease Coakes

Some Examples of Linden Labs' Ill Treatment to Those Who Do Second Life Good

It's no big secret most longtime users of Second Life have mixed feelings at best when it comes to Linden Lab. As a corporation, they can be downright cold and ham-handed at times when it comes to the treatment of their customers. Case in point was a few years ago in late October/November 2008 when the Lab pulled what many saw as a bait-and-switch with their raising Openspace tiers by 66 percent. The result was protests by residents big and small, among them Sarah Nerd, a businesswoman on the Grid as well as a blogger and one of Second Life's stronger supporters.

During the protests, Sarah got caught up in the moment and let a profanity slip into her words. The result was that she found herself suspended from logging into Second Life. That her estate business was about to take a major hit, or that Sarah was a model citizen who continually promoted Second Life mattered nothing.

"I was ashamed of myself. Not because I said f***, but because it was the realization that the game I love, had no love for me." Sarah Nerd would go out of business later that year.

About a year later, one of my friends, Foxyfurman Kumani,  had his own problems. When the community he lived in beforehand, Woodlin, began going downhill, he formed his own estate, Foxworth, and invited his neighbors over. Some months later, the Lindens targeted Foxworth, banning some customers and a real-life friend he invited to Second Life, accusing him of rigging traffic numbers, "why the hell attack me?" The accounts were never restored. The sim would continue to have some trouble with the Lab. Finally changes with the policy on Zyngo games, coming at the same time a major renter decided to move on, caused Foxworth to close down.

And recently there was trouble for a genius builder and scripter, as well as a good friend of mine: Alleara Snoodle.

Alleara Snoodle has been mentioned a few times from her work at the Chilbo area. But preferring to work behind the scenes, her work often goes understated or unrecognized. She has made a little money through building, but has worked for free on projects for friends, as well as the Relay for Life.

Usually very friendly, Alleara is more skeptical when is comes to Linden Lab. She once expressed a few opinions that sounded like she thought they could be lazy at times when it comes to problems on the Grid. But I never expected they would actually have a problem with her, considering all that she's done. That is, until a mutual friend told me she'd be off the Grid for a few days. She explained Linden Lab had suspended her account.

Alleara later got in touch with me through other means, "I got kicked out (logged out by Admin) and got an email that I cannot log in until Monday." She told me she was helping a friend making science-fiction shuttlecraft. But when they tried to put them up on Marketplace, bugs in the system kept that from happening, "We sent a lot of JIRA, but nothing happened."

Her persistence eventually got the attention of one of the Lindens, but not the way she hoped, "I was making him act, and he was not happy." The exchange got personal, and she ended up booted off Second Life, "I thought … he would at least react normally, but what can I say, his backyard. Every Linden can speak out a three day suspension at will with no paperwork."

Alleara told me in the past, there was someone in Linden Lab who helped her out, but that was no longer the case, "I have lost my supporter in the Lab, so this may happen from now on." Second Life Newser sent a notecard message to the Linden Alleara named as the one who suspended her. There was no answer.

After a few days, Alleara was back online, and busy with some project. Unlike Sara Nerd a few years ago, she had already learned not to be shocked at Linden Lab's ill will toward those who support Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan