Friends List and online visibility

[Brendan Siemens]

I hear in the near future that you will not be able to see the online status of your friends. Something about privacy issues and a treaty that was signed among numerous countries. I sure hope this does not come about, how can you run a business or group on sl or mingle with friends if you cant see who of your friends are online or not.

[Ceka Cianci]

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Brendan Siemens wrote:

I hear in the near future that you will not be able to see the online status of your friends. Something about privacy issues and a treaty that was signed among numerous countries. I sure hope this does not come about, how can you run a business or group on sl or mingle with friends if you cant see who of your friends are online or not.

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the way it is supposed to work is..if they are online you will be able to see them online ..if they are offline you will be able to see if they are offline..

if they decide to show as invisible or as offline to some people on their friends list..some 3rd party viewers have options to ignore that to where they can see if they are actually on or off line..

LL is saying that 3rd party viewers cannot have that in their viewers anymore..

groups online or offline status never changed if they decided to show as offline on their friends list..

a persons friends list really should have nothing to do with a business someone may run..where a lot of groups are setup by businesses..

i don't believe they are changing the group online status..maybe in the future they might..but i haven't heard anything about it lately..

the changes recently were about 3rd party viewer changes...

[SecretFromHeaven]

are people able to show as invisible in SL while they are online, like in yahoo?

[Dilbert Dilweg]

Yes you can .

[Pussycat Catnap]

Or rather you used to be able to hide your status, until a certain malware viewer cracked the code and put in a feature to snoop folks - which was retained when that viewer was required by LLs to change its name in response to said viewer having used SL to launch a hacking attempt on aother website....

At present you no longer can, but the ability to have privacy will sort of half-baked be returning, as they're not really blocking old copies of the thing... Just break the script side version of it.

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

Or rather you used to be able to hide your status, until a certain malware viewer cracked the code and put in a feature to snoop folks - which was retained when that viewer was required by LLs to change its name in response to said viewer having used SL to launch a hacking attempt on aother website....

At present you no longer can, but the ability to have privacy will sort of half-baked be returning, as they're not really blocking old copies of the thing... Just break the script side version of it.

 

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Even though I don't always agree with you I generally respect your opinions.  But this exercise in hyperbole, revisionist history and dramatization really goes over the top.

First of all, they didn't 'crack a code,' they incorporated an existing function into the viewer.  llRequestAgentData was always available for any one to use. 

Second, your characterization of Emerald as a MalWare Viewer.  You do realize that  PissedOff Linden with sufficient authority at the Lab could launch the same exact type of attack as what was done with Emerald with the official viewer?  Yes, I agree absolutely wrong to do.  But to simply characterize the viewer as malware because someone abused it?

Third, show me where Linden Lab ever required that they change the name of the Viewer.  On this I could be wrong.  But I sure don't remember it being required by LL.

[Ceka Cianci]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

Or rather you used to be able to hide your status, until a certain malware viewer cracked the code and put in a feature to snoop folks - which was retained when that viewer was required by LLs to change its name in response to said viewer having used SL to launch a hacking attempt on aother website....

At present you no longer can, but the ability to have privacy will sort of half-baked be returning, as they're not really blocking old copies of the thing... Just break the script side version of it.

 

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Even though I don't always agree with you I generally respect your opinions.  But this exercise in hyperbole, revisionist history and dramatization really goes over the top.

First of all, they didn't 'crack a code,' they incorporated an existing function into the viewer.  llRequestAgentData was always available for any one to use. 

Second, your characterization of Emerald as a MalWare Viewer.  You do realize that  PissedOff Linden with sufficient authority at the Lab could launch the same exact type of attack as what was done with Emerald with the official viewer?  Yes, I agree absolutely wrong to do.  But to simply characterize the viewer as malware because someone abused it?

Third, show me where Linden Lab ever required that they change the name of the Viewer.  On this I could be wrong.  But I sure don't remember it being required by LL.

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ya they were not required to change their name..just to get rid of that DLL..then to get back on the 3rd party viewer list of theirs they had to do certain things to get back on that..

emerald broke up in that time period..

the whole name change came after the groups of devs split..then one part made phoenix..which we have today..phoenix devs if i remember right still had to do what LL was asking before to make the LL 3rd party list..

which they did..

i remember being so mad at that time and saying i wouldn't ever use it..then lordgreggreg came back and that was the only reason i tried it again..

it felt safe with him back in there..

hehehe

i'm sure i missed a bunch of steps or may have something just not right..

i'm just going from bits that i remember off the top of my head..

anyways ..not all versions of emerald were banned from sl..the ones without that DLL in them could still log in..i think even today..i have it still..but i really don't want to install another viewer on my system..

two is enough or i start having cache problems..hehehe

[Qie Niangao]

You're right that the ability to hide online status never existed.  The preference was always easy to circumvent with a script, among several other methods.  In fact, some old versions of the v1 Linden viewers had defects that "leaked" the status right into the profile window regardless of setting.

On the other hand, characterizing the final releases of Emerald as malware is perfectly apt. Whatever a hypothetical Linden might be able to do, an Emerald developer actually planted the code and turned that viewer's userbase into a DDoS botnet to attack a personal foe. If that ain't malware, I don't know what is.

[Perrie Juran]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

You're right that the ability to hide online status never existed.  The preference was always easy to circumvent with a script, among several other methods.  In fact, some old versions of the v1 Linden viewers had defects that "leaked" the status right into the profile window regardless of setting.

On the other hand, characterizing the final releases of Emerald as malware is perfectly apt. Whatever a hypothetical Linden might be

able

to do, an Emerald developer actually planted the code and turned that viewer's userbase into a DDoS botnet to attack a personal foe. If that ain't malware, I don't know what is.

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The screen you see on your log in page when you launch the viewer is for all intent purposes a web page.  (Someone can correct me if I am not using exact correct terms).  The images on it load from a server.   Disconnect your internet and you will see no images, just an error message on a white screen with the official viewer.

Someone decides what information to send, the images to include etc.  So the program itself is not malware.  If someone on the Phoenix Team should betray our trust they should be removed from the team and banned from SL just as if an employee of LL betrayed it should be terminated. 

It was in another thread that I said that  we have no real way of knowing what motivates the various TPV developers, whether it is altruism or selfishness or something else.  But what I do know is that at least for me their viewer runs better than any other I have tried and that personally I prefer it's interface. 

If they as a group violate my trust, then I will have to deal with it.  How many people feel that LL has violated their trust.  For instance we were told there'd be no teens on the Main Grid?  How about getting your account suspended and losing your SIM's you paid for because months later you still haven't got your issue resolved?

People just want to paint the TPV Dev's with this broad brush of "teh kiddie haxors."  By those standards I could just call LL "teh adult haxors."

gah, my apologies to all for this thread jack.

[Anaiya Arnold]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

Or rather you used to be able to hide your status, until a certain malware viewer cracked the code and put in a feature to snoop folks - which was retained when that viewer was required by LLs to change its name in response to said viewer having used SL to launch a hacking attempt on aother website....

At present you no longer can, but the ability to have privacy will sort of half-baked be returning, as they're not really blocking old copies of the thing... Just break the script side version of it.

 

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There's only one version PussyCat.

I guess they could have "hacked the code".  I can only suppose this would entail typing random stuff into an lsl script until something worked.  At which point they would jump from their baths yelling "Eureka". 

Alternatively, and I accept this may be a radical suggestion, maybe they just read about it on the lsl wiki.

[madman626 Fall]

Well you can still see them if they want you too if not well that there rights .its going to be up to them wish I think is a good ideal why could ppl get see you online if you don't want them too ?