Minor Change to the Abuse Report System

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You receive an auto-response email??? I never ever got a single one after filing ARs! So how do I get them?

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Instead of removing information, especially with something as important as the AR system, how about adding information. Things like the ability to look up the status of an AR, who on the Governance team is the lead contact for an AR, was the issue resolved or not? LL is our "Government", we pay Taxes (Tier / Premium account Fee / $L Exchange Fees, etc & etc) how about a little more transparency into the inner workings and processes that we pay for. I understand confidentiality issues, and I am not asking for disclosure of confidential information. I’m simply looking for the status and resolution of the AR’s that we file. Something that tells me that the effort taken to file the AR is indeed getting some sort of attention and producing some sort of results.

I can't tell you how many AR's I have filed as a property owner, only to have that AR disappear into some black hole, and the offending AV returning and disrupting an event again, or hearing that they have done the same thing at some other venue.

I have also seen the other extreme, where a AR was heavy handedly applied to some trivial matter that could have had a simple resolution, as well as seeing AR's used as retaliation or as a form of grifing.

The current AR system is sadly broken and gives the appearance of being mostly ineffective and really needs an overhaul, rather then a trivial and unnecessary window dressing. Getting an AR reference number at least gives us a sort of official-ness to the process, even if it really isn’t.

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I used to get these emails until like about a year ago. But then I fell into disgrace and now the automated system is ignoring me *lol*

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What when I've filed several reports from the same account? Reference numbers are usually a good idea, so you don't have to juggle dates, locations and other potentially non-unique information to make sure both parties are talking about the same incident.

Just to illustrate: Can someone tell my what could be the reason that I can't reproduce the Snowlgobe bug I filed 21/Jan/10 02:00 PM (in what timezone are these dates, anyway?) anymore? You know, the one that Techwolf commented on today, still being able to repro it, while I'm not. You sure know which one, don't you?

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Boroondas, they won´t touch the JIRA and we can keep our beloved reference numbers there. They´ll remove the useless reference code that was sent to you by email (if you ever received it) after filing abuse reports. Abuse reports are what you do after five minutes at a random welcome area

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Thank you Maurice for your efforts and the heads-up.

However - and I say this in absolute seriousness - since nine out of ten abuse reports are frivolous or outright lies or false assumptions, does it really matter? Example: I create a kick-butt that fits my right arm, select it in edit mode and shift-drag to copy it for my left arm and it now have the same time and date of creation on every prim...

So some paranoid do-gooder witch-hunter AR's me for "copybot" violation...

/me shakes his head slowly in typical disillusionment as he walks away, loud "I-give-up" sigh heard coming from deep within...

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I had made a fairly lengthy forum comment on this topic the last time they tried to do this (and then LL backed off, and left us the reference numbers). That comment might have made a difference then (I don't know), and might have been useful to quote here as well now that they've again announced such a change.

But those forums are gone, and the archives are not available, so I can't.

And I really don't think LL would care, if I did - there's obviously something going on behind the scenes (infrastructural? organizational? VCs pulling their strings?) that is requiring some rather fundamental changes in the way LL interacts with their customers and the way they do business... so, they're going to do what they're going to do, whatever we have to say about it.

But that works both ways.

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Yes, you should receive a reply indicating that you've filed an AR that contains a few details about the AR itself. If you aren't, check the email address we have on file. If you still aren't, file a support ticket and we'll try to figure out what's going on.

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You're right, I have no idea which JIRA you're referring to. Fortunately, ARs aren't JIRAs. :-)

I can't give you too much more info, but suffice it to say that even with multiple ARs filed from the same account, we won't have any difficulty figuring out which one you're referring to, provided you give us sufficient details. Date and time certainly help narrow the scope, and other details, such as type of incident or Region name narrow our field even further.

As stated in the blog post, the AR number hasn't actually been needed for quite a while, but was left in place while we made other changes.

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Just because an AR is filed doesn't mean that we will take disciplinary action. ARs are investigated before being acted upon. We are definitely aware that the AR system can be used as a method of griefing, or be misused by Residents who don't understand what they are seeing.

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Just because an AR is filed doesn't mean that we will take disciplinary action.

QFT

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ARs should not be used for personal disputes. Until that change is made, I'm not even going to bother reporting ad farms. And I hate ad farms. But I hate frivolous ARs to solve intra-Resident problems which LL should not be wasting resources on even worse. Personal disputes should be handled personally and not require some quasi-governmental intervention. =\

I always liked the mute button. I wish more attention would be given to developing upon it further than wasting time and energy filtering which AR is valid or not. I guess there are too many people who crave power more than efficient resolutions. =S

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Unique reference numbers are always good... to remove them is like removing an index from the database and thus making the AR report less searchable. Yes, of course it can be found through the name... but if I contact you about a particular report, I have the ability to say #XYZ and discuss it with you or add to it or say that I have filed this report before here is the number, the person I am AR'ing is continuing the pattern of behaviour as before... and so it can be linked.

Forgive me, but removing such a VITAL piece of information is not only making it difficult for Linden Research but also residents that keep track of things they report.

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When will people start to realise that the mute button does not resolve the pattern of behaviour? It treats a symptom when the cause needs resolving.

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So banning people for having an argument is a resolution?

I'm talking about personal disputes. Personal disputes don't always result in self-replicating prims and orbiters. They can, but that's the point where it actually affects the server, and not just another Resident. That is when an AR should be filed, not just because there's some names being called or whatever.

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Where did I mention banning? Where did I mention AR? I said simply that mute does not resolve the pattern of behaviour, and furthermore it places the focus of responsibility upon the victim to change, when they may have done nothing wrong. So, should it require a ban, then yes, ban... perhaps if LL did that more often there would be less violations?

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Removing the system of allocating a reference number to each AR seems like a backward step. I do hope LL will change their mind about that. Its surely much easier to refer back to a case using a reference number.

I want to thank LL for always sending me a response to my AR submissions; even the ones that bounce back to my email with the "delivery failure" message and no reference number are getting through and being actioned.

Rather than muck about removing the reference numbers, I think LL should be bringing in more staff, and training them fully in all aspects of the Community Standards and Terms of Service. There are major inconsistencies that a lot of residents are aware of, and we know that sometimes there is an empty G Team office for hours at a time. SL is a 24 hour world and it needs 24 hour coverage for support if its going to succeed and grow.

Also, I do wish people would stop submitting ARs over trivial personal disputes - LL really do have more things to do with their time than have to be dragged into a game of verbal tip taps. Its like crying wolf, and causes delays dealing with the real problems, and sometimes this is a risk to the grid as a whole.

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Ok, since I get all other kind of emails from LL, I'm gonna file a support ticket for that.

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You're right, I have no idea which JIRA you're referring to.

For those interested, that'd be SNOW-456 Crash when trying to file an Abuse Report (AR).

Fortunately, ARs aren't JIRAs. :-)

Of course they aren't. Though the technically interested Resident has to wonder how they are different when it comes to referencing them.

I can't give you too much more info, but suffice it to say that even with multiple ARs filed from the same account, we won't have any difficulty figuring out which one you're referring to, provided you give us sufficient details.

Now that's trivially true, 'cause when you have difficulty figuring it out, the given details obviously haven't been sufficient. Pity you can't give more details on how it works, that'd certainly be interesting. While I can see how diverse info can narrow it down, and narrow it down enough for almost all cases, I don't quite see how it can replace a unique identifier for the few remaining ones.

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I think the number (or another unique reference) is absolutely necessary. Recently I filled 4 AR for 4 great balls griefinig my land and buildings. The same creator and owner, same object name, same date, same reporter, and almost the same position. Without a ticket number it's difficult to distinguish a ticket from another.

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I do have one question regarding AR's. When another resident is being very abusive, particularly using offensive racial slurs and it's reported, how is this handled? I've reported some recently from the same resident repetitive times along with screenshots and text, but the resident apparently has gotten no consequence for it. Is there a number of times it has to happen where someone uses racial/gender etc slurs before they have consequences? (I could mute the person but running a large group and getting complaints from members I need to be able to know what's being said so we can AR it.)

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It seems, you´re not familiar with the fight clubgoverance team rules. We don´t get information what they react on, how and why. You have to believe and trust. That´s why they haven´t needed the reference number in a long time. Usually you don´t hear anything about an abuse report you filed anymore so the reference number is obsolete... Now to answer your question without sarcasm: Even if it seems that the G-Team isn´t doing anything, there are so many residents including me that have seen the G-Team in action that I feel safe to say that they react on evere AR and have a look into it. The measures they can take have a wide variety and removing a resident temporary or even permanently are the last two options. So let´s say the resident you reported made his statements in a short amount of time and hasn´t had any records on file so far. Then chances are good that he gets a warning and some time to change his behaviour. If he keeps going on with his abusive behaviour then you and others keep reporting him every time he violates the guidelines so the G-Team knows that more severe measures need to be taken. I know for a fact that I at least once during the last three years went out of my skin over a heated discussion and while I wasn´t reported I´d have been very happy to get a warning and time to show that usually I´m quite nice before getting removed from SL

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Is the Gridsurvey updated regularly? I know of some incidents that action was taken but don't see them on there.

But yes, what haappened to the incident page??

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Just because an AR is filed doesn't mean that we will take disciplinary action.

Understandable.. But sometimes I wonder if some AR's and swept under the rug. I don't want to single out one instance but I do know of one case of abuse where I've seen the region name mentioned many times in the SL blogs and outside websites. Does region ownership affect action that LL makes if they are in violation? Or if they are friends if a LL staff member?

I do have to say I have had mostly good outcomes from AR's and tickets but those where no action is never made makes me wonder. I have a ticket for the above mentioned abuse and waiting to see the responce. It's been two weeks before the ticket had a "Work in Progress" status.

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100% agree with this (the post I am replying to)

It is very frustrating to fill an abuse report, and see no results, and in some cases see that the problem is still here as if nothing was done.

Suppressing the uniform reference to ARs will still further degrade their credit, without improving anything.

I suppose thatt his AR number is the index in the AR database, so it has to exist anyway. So why to hide such a convenient resource, and increase workload of LL and increase the probability of mistakes?

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For several weeks, the Incident Report page (http://secondlife.com/support/incidentreport.php) is blank and we need use a repository (http://www.gridsurvey.com/blotter.php). Why?

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Is the Gridsurvey updated regularly? I know of some incidents that action was taken but don't see them on there.

I cannot be sure. The page show "Last update at" but I cannot know more .

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I find it odd that you would remove a unique indicator to a exact ticket and would rather ask for ask for a approximation.

You fail to explain why you are removing it, other then saying: "it isn't required". Of course the ticket number isn't required as you say, it would be odd if you weren't able to search on other info too. But in that same manner you could have done the reverse, and say you remove the time/date and name because it isn't required because you have the unique indicator.

So could you explain the reasoning behind it more. Are you for example changing to a different reporting system that doesn't provide unique indicator? Or does 99% of the people that followup never bother with the ticket number? etc.

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WTG...

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Please see JIRA issue SVC-2585: "Abuse Report Emails Now Devoid of Useful Information".

This issue needs to be re-opened. Apparently the decision has once again been made to make a, "Minor Change to the Abuse Report System" without an understanding of how it will affect estate managers or security organizations, and without even a reasonable time frame for residents to respond to the announcement of such a change.

To reiterate, it is very important for Linden Lab to give us some kind of unique descriptor for tracking our issues-if they are going to give us feedback at all-and also that we be able to communicate with LL the correlation between issues that may have been reported by different residents, against different abusers, at different points in time and space. Removing the ID that forms our only unique and objective means to track our own reports is a very BAD idea, unless it is going to be replaced with something that fills the same requirement. Don't use these identifiers anymore? Fine. Replace them with whatever kind of unique identifier you DO currently use.

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LOL! Well that makes sense Torben. I wouldn't want to get kicked out for one F Bomb either. Though racial slurs..well that's a matter different in my opinion but I do understand there should be a process and that sometimes false ARs are filed.

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Am I the only one with de ja vu at the moment? Didn't LL do this then bring it back a year or so ago?

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No, Hewee was faster than you

The history of removing that number is written down in SVC-2585.

Last time they tried it, they removed every single useful information with the number so they undid the changes. So, if the number doesn´t go this time, they´ll try again around september 2011...

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"For several weeks, the Incident Report page (http://secondlife.com/support/incidentreport.php) is blank and we need use a repository (http://www.gridsurvey.com/blotter.php). Why?"

Indeed, what happened to the police blotter? Even though it did not list all the disciplinary actions, we did get a general idea of whats going on (in a good way). For example there are residents that say nothing is done about traffic gaming... then you look at the police blotter and see multiple warnings and even suspentions for that violation, confirming that action IS taken. It was like the only tiny bit of transparency the whole abuse system had.

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I don't see the importance of the reference #. In the 3 years I have been here I think I would have had under 20 reasons to file a personal AR as they seem to come in waves ( Holidays anyone!)

If I find that I have to hand the issue over to a higher authority, I have to have faith in their resolution of the report( either good or bad IMO), Otherwise there would be no reason to file one in the first place.

I don't get all excited after filing one , racing off to search the people list to see if XYZ avatarts name has vanished. If its bad enough for me to file an AR then I'm confident the Boys n Girls in the back room can assess the issue with their own resources.

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Ok, since I get all other kind of emails from LL, I'm gonna file a support ticket for that.

Make sure you include the reference number of the AR that didn't get confirmed.

oh... nvm.

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Agreed Amras, ARs should not be used as a method for perpetuating personal disputes. And we are the chief proponents of muting Residents who you don't wish to hear from.

As Baeric notes, muting does not always solve the issue. There are also cases where personal disputes end up violating either the TOS or the CS. As you've indicated, there is a delicate balance here.

I would encourage you to report genuine policy violations, such as ad farms, to us despite your concerns about personal disputes. It will help us clean up what you hate.

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Maurice, I personally don't hesitate to AR people who go beyond argument into griefing, such as insulting comments in public. I consider this an offence, because it disturbs my enjoyment (and other's enjoyment) of SL, even if it does not disturb SL itself (such as a replicator attack).

I especially do it as a security agent, when I am confronted to griefing or abusive behaviors, even if I am not personally the target of these behaviors. But in this case I always do a report to my group, where the AR reference is indispensible, as the person using the report later cannot know the detailed circunstances of the incident (date, place, nature, etc). Especially that my report can be of a different date of the AR.

Also, muting does not solve all the issues. A muted person can still continue to defame us in a public place, without us being aware. This gives to the others a feeling that we are accepting the defamation, and is counter-productive. When attacked in a public place I prefer to say aloud "I mute and report the griefer" and no more.

At last, muting somebody can be done without real offence. I often mute persons with noisy gestures, and unmute them later. This does not mean that there is a matter for reporting the person, or a personal dispute..

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The URL for the Incident Report changed a few months ago as part of our web site overhaul. The new URL is: https://secondlife.com/my/support/incident-reports.php.

Regardless, you are right, the Incident Report is currently blank. Our Web team has already looked at this issue, and I expect a fix to go live tomorrow.

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Thanks Maurice.

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Very good points Frans, and ones that have been echoed by others on this thread.

The short version is this: we haven't used the AR number internally for a very long time, which is the result of a number of systems changes over the last several years and only now being reflected in the auto-response.

We feel very confident in our ability to review and respond to ARs, and Resident communications about ARs, without this number. Primarily because we have already been operating without it for quite some time. This is what I meant by "legacy" in my blog post.

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Perhaps this is true for "this" legacy reference number. But you mandatorily have some index for the database of ARs, a path/filename, a handle or something. This can be used as an uniform reference. There would be no inconvenience to replace an old unused reference by an actually used one. But whatever reference you use, we need one.

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I agree with you Yichard, Muting is a good way to stop gestures and things that a person may do.

In a standpoint of a club owner, I really can't mute any guests that become annoying. There would be no way to tell if they are offending other guests. So yeah...just like you said about people talking about you and you would be seen as accepting of those acts.

But on the other hand if I am wandering around and run into any unsavory characters, the mute works great

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Maurice,

I understand the resident response team's confidence in being able to respond to reports without needing the unique reference number. That is excellent. However, what may not be very visible to you is how residents use the reference number to track incidents. There certainly HAVE been times when we have needed to report patterns of misconduct by a group, resident, or set of residents (who may or may not be alt accounts of the same user), and have needed to refer to reports filed by different residents at different times and places.

Also, that unique reference number allows residents to share information among themselves and reference incidents using a unique ID. If Linden Lab doesn't provide that ID, the filing resident themself needs to do it, and if different residents use different means of coming up with unique identifiers, there WILL be conflicts. You may or may not be aware of efforts to replace the widely used BanLink system (which has recently been discontinued due to technical and maintenance reasons) for sharing ban information between estates and businesses. Having that unique identifier provided by your database is a very big starting point for BanLink replacement systems and self-governance in general.

Thank you for your consideration.

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Maurice,

Would it be feasable to have a page like we do for ticket history but also for AR's?

And a page listing the AR's that we submit with a link to it at the same location we click to see out ticet history.

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Clint,

This is a really good idea. "Feasible"? Yes. "Easy and quick?" Not so much. :-)

I'm going to get your suggestion to our Web team. If you'd like to create a PJIRA and get further thoughts down and/or garner support from other Residents, that will also help.

Regardless, thanks for the suggestion!

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The logical way to deal with a great number of ARs is that they are entered in a database. Of course we have an index field (the uniform reference), and data fields such as the requester, the person, the type, evidences, statute, etc. Once this done, adding a page like Clint Maggs ask is just "back office" work: when the page is loaded, a database request returns all the ARs of the requester.

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About muting from "taste" reasons, such as noisy gestures (spanish/brasilian users love this) or the terrible heels, a partial mute would be fine: just muting the sound of this person, without severing all communication. This partial mute would also disappear at the end of the session (or some times after, as we often crash)

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It would be fine too that ARs filled by security agents be accessible by the responsibles of the group (persons having a given role in the security group). Security groups often manage many sims, with many agents, who cannot know what the others did. So responsibles of the group manage a list of reports (which may include ARs or not). This list allows them to spot repetitive offenders (one offense may not be worth a ban, but the same repeated several times will owe a ban)

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Your welcome Maurice. I just was looking at my ticket history right then and though "hey...would'nt that be cool". I submited a JPIRA also like you said. In my 3 years, I have never submited one before...haha. I hope I did it correctly.

Thats a good idea Yichard but I would think it would be very hard to manage and put into place. I can relate to group (as in more than one person...not a "group") and that sharing info is usuafull. I've seen venues use a shared account for DJ boards for instance. Permissions make it a bear to change things sometimes. But maybe if this feature can be put in place, the person submiting the AR's can then log them how ever they wish (SL notecard..RL Excel sheet?). Just looking ahead, I'd copy those logs from the site and then manualy share them with staff members, etc. I'd have to see if sharing that info is in anyway a ToS issue though.

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Minor Change to the Abuse Report System