Can I stop this from happening again?

[Notlikely]

Just now, some jerk was able to put a rude tag on my avatar that floated over head in white leters.  I don't know who it was or care how it was done, I just want to know if it can be prevented from happening again.  Is there something I missed in my settings or something?

[Innula Zenovka]

Nope, you can't stop it from happening again.

To explain why you can't, I have to explain how the trick is done -- the text is generated by an invisible follower that hovers above your head.   Simply TPing off the sim and not returning for a minute or two should be enough to get rid of it, though -- it can't follow you when you TP off the sim, and it should delete itself soon after it loses contact with you.

[Kamimatsu]

File an AR as well. What they did to you is unacceptable.

[Notlikely]

What's an AR?  And what good would filing one be if I don't know who did it to me?

[Perrie Juran]

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Notlikely wrote:

What's an AR?  And what good would filing one be if I don't know who did it to me?

---

Abuse Report.

And yes, without knowing who did it it would be difficult to file one.

But even if you did know who did it filing an AR would more than likely be fruitless.  Generally speaking, LL does not censor people for doing stupid things.

[Notlikely]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

[Qie Niangao]

It depends what it said and where you were. If the content was inappropriate for the region's maturity rating, an abuse report might get some attention, or if it contained actual hate speech. Merely rude, though, probably not. As you observe, however, it can be difficult to identify the follower object in order to find out who's the owner; it's possible, but maybe not worth the effort unless this gets to be a recurring problem.

Also, this thing that followed you... it's not so simple to make those work without parcel permission to rez objects, or at least for objects to enter the parcel, and either way, scripts must be enabled. (Because nobody is sitting on this particular class of follower, it wouldn't be exempt from such restrictions as are vehicles. That's not to say there's no way for griefers to get around the restrictions, but I kinda doubt that's happening here.)

[Dillon Levenque]

I'm sorry to derail like this, but I purely love your name. It's such a great expression and you never hear it any more. On a recent trip I drove right by the turn-off to Likely but kept going: i've visited it before. Nearby there's a town called Beiber and one called Nubeiber. It really bugs me that nobody decided to name a nearby town Not Likely. They settled for Lookout, which is not bad but misses the mark. My favorite from the movies is the scene in which the searchers meet Scar. Martin responds to Ethan's "Wait outside" with a very emphatic "Not likely!".

 

 

ETA I was totally wrong. The turn-off is to Lookout and I'd incorrectly recalled Likely as being on the same road as Lookout, but it's not: it's way over on 395 at about the same lattitude. Just a bit north of Madeline.

;-)

[Notlikely]

Thank you Dillon!  When I was trying to think of a name I tried several that weren't avilible and I thought it's not likely I'll find one I really like and on a lark I tyed it in.

[Ren Toxx]

Some third-party Second Life viewers feature an 'area search' that lets you list all objects matching a few parameters, in some cases (as with Firestorm) flexibly enough to filter out those beyond a certain distance, without scripts, etc. Thus, you could use that function to list all objects within 1 or, at most, 2 meters from you; that same function will let you locate each of the found objects with very precise beacon lines, and even examine the object for its owner -the griefer in question.

If your SL viewer of choice doesn't have that option, you can still press Ctrl + Alt + T to temporarily see all invisible objects, and you'll probably see a small one slightly above your head (all followers, regardless of how they work, require at least one object in which to place the following script as well as, in this case, the 'rude tagging' part); right-click on it, examine it, and again, you'll see its owner.

 

And while Linden Labs do indeed pay exceedingly little attention to such griefing reports, it's not that much trouble filing one... if they 'pile up' against the same griefer, it's still more likely that he'll end up in trouble. Too many griefers get away with it at least partly because of this 'why bother, it ain't gonna make a difference' attitude towards AR'ing.

You can also take matters to the 'local level', by seeking the parcel / region owners and telling them about it; and while they, too, may not act on a single such report -as well they shouldn't, if nothing else to avoid false / malicious ones-, again they might end up doing if it's not the first time they've heard of that person doing stupid things; if nothing else, they can completely ban him from the region.