How to be safe in SL? What is griefing? What should i be aware of?

[Sammie Kiyori]

Hello,

Reading some posts (scary) and being a newbie I want to be smart in my SL life or my new addiction (haha). I especially want to keep RL separated from SL life. So if you could give the basics of the dark or bad side of SL. Thank you so much for your help any would be appreciated. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by rtthgrls

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi rtthgrls!  Welcome to Second Life.  As others have said, I teach a class on Avatar Safety at Caledon Oxbridge University, on Sundays at 10 am SL Time (PDT, the time shown by your viewer).  It's free to attend!

But, just to ease your mind a bit...my class covers all sorts of griefer "attacks", scams, and hazards...BUT these are all the exception, not the rule.  For the most part, Second Life is a very safe and fun place.  So...be a little cautious, a little skeptical...but don't let it spoil your fun.

[animats]

11 minutes ago, rtthgrls said:

Hello,

Reading some posts (scary) and being a newbie I want to be smart in my SL life or my new addiction (haha). I especially want to keep RL separated from SL life. So if you could give the basics of the dark or bad side of SL. Thank you so much for your help any would be appreciated. 

Take Lindall Kidd's safety class at Oxbridge Caledon University.

[Rolig Loon]

SL is no scarier than RL.  It's hard to find anywhere in either universe where it doesn't pay to use common sense and be street smart.  So, don't take candy from strangers, don't tell anyone your password, don't tell people any more about your RL than you want to, and understand that the only true secret is the one that you never tell to anyone else.  (BTW, I have been in SL for 12 years and have never told anyone who I am or where I am in RL.  It's none of their business.  And I don't ask anyone else, either.  If people tell me on their own, that's their business.  I would be violating the TOS if I passed on their information to someone else, so I will never do that.)

Other than that, take comfort in the fact that you cannot be physically harmed in SL, and people cannot "steal" things that belong to you.  You can certainly be scared out of your wits and can suffer verbal abuse, and you can lose items or have them corrupted by sharing them too openly.  Always remember that you can teleport "home" or to a safe spot if you feel threatened, and that your ultimate defense is to log out. ("Ooops!  I guess I must have crashed!  Darn the luck." )

Start reading articles in the Knowledge Base (link at the top of this page) that have to do with Permissions, Friends lists, and other topics where you might have concerns.  And by all means, take a simple free newbie course at Caledon Oxbridge University or NCI, or elsewhere in world.

Edited April 8, 2019 by Rolig Loon
Typos, as usual

[Rolig Loon]

Oh, I forgot about "griefing."  It all depends on your tolerance level and degree of risk aversion.  People will refer to an act as "griefing" if it appears to be deliberately meant to harm them in some way.  For some people, that means that anything that they find offensive is "griefing".  For others, "griefing" has to mean the equivalent of scorched earth warfare.  As far as Linden Lab is concerned, the TOS says

You are solely responsible for your interaction with other users of the Service, whether online or offline. We are not responsible or liable for the conduct or content of any user. We reserve the right, but not the obligation, to monitor or become involved in disputes between you and other users.

In other words, unless you violate the TOS, we won't usually get involved.  So, you can see what they consider "griefing".   I suggest reading the TOS and the Community Standards.  Few people do, but reading them will answer a lot of your basic questions about what's allowed.

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Rolig Loon

[Sammie Kiyori]

Thank you to all that responded. I do feel better and I will take a class or two and learn more in articles. I like that no different in the RL. This is a great start and I appreciate the advise and time to write. I am loving my SL life.

[Nalates Urriah]

On 4/8/2019 at 2:04 PM, rtthgrls said:

Thank you to all that responded. I do feel better and I will take a class or two and learn more in articles. I like that no different in the RL. This is a great start and I appreciate the advise and time to write. I am loving my SL life.

Welcome to SL.

Also, put some of the information you want others to know in your profile. Right-click your avatar and select My Profile. Left-click the gear icon (settings) and edit the parts of your profile. This is a handy place to put the notice you are not going to share RL information. A significant number of people have hilarious made up information in place of actual RL info. Have fun with it.

You can be whoever or whatever you want in SL... with a few limitations. For instance in RL I am a cheetah... I just like playing a human in SL...

[Sammie Kiyori]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Welcome to SL.

Also, put some of the information you want others to know in your profile. Right-click your avatar and select My Profile. Left-click the gear icon (settings) and edit the parts of your profile. This is a handy place to put the notice you are not going to share RL information. A significant number of people have hilarious made up information in place of actual RL info. Have fun with it.

You can be whoever or whatever you want in SL... with a few limitations. For instance in RL I am a cheetah... I just like playing a human in SL...

That is soooo funny. Thank you Maybe I will be I will be a cougar or fox. thanks again

 

[Sammie Kiyori]

On 4/8/2019 at 8:18 PM, Lindal Kidd said:

Hi rtthgrls!  Welcome to Second Life.  As others have said, I teach a class on Avatar Safety at Caledon Oxbridge University, on Sundays at 10 am SL Time (PDT, the time shown by your viewer).  It's free to attend!

But, just to ease your mind a bit...my class covers all sorts of griefer "attacks", scams, and hazards...BUT these are all the exception, not the rule.  For the most part, Second Life is a very safe and fun place.  So...be a little cautious, a little skeptical...but don't let it spoil your fun.

Yes I would love to attend I would just have to click on the calendar? thanks

 

[Lindal Kidd]

1 hour ago, rtthgrls said:

Yes I would love to attend I would just have to click on the calendar? thanks

 

Caledon Oxbridge University, on Sundays at 10 am SL Time (PDT, the time shown by your viewer).  https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon Oxbridge/92/198/28

[Laoise Rumsford]

On 4/9/2019 at 6:34 PM, Nalates Urriah said:

A significant number of people have hilarious made up information in place of actual RL info.

So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah.

^ This got me a lot of laughs in the past. 😛

[SakuraFireBurns]

On 4/19/2019 at 4:20 PM, Laoise Rumsford said:

 

 

On 4/8/2019 at 9:01 PM, Rolig Loon said:

SL is no scarier than RL.  It's hard to find anywhere in either universe where it doesn't pay to use common sense and be street smart.  So, don't take candy from strangers, don't tell anyone your password, don't tell people any more about your RL than you want to, and understand that the only true secret is the one that you never tell to anyone else.  (BTW, I have been in SL for 12 years and have never told anyone who I am or where I am in RL.  It's none of their business.  And I don't ask anyone else, either.  If people tell me on their own, that's their business.  I would be violating the TOS if I passed on their information to someone else, so I will never do that.)

Other than that, take comfort in the fact that you cannot be physically harmed in SL, and people cannot "steal" things that belong to you.  You can certainly be scared out of your wits and can suffer verbal abuse, and you can lose items or have them corrupted by sharing them too openly.  Always remember that you can teleport "home" or to a safe spot if you feel threatened, and that your ultimate defense is to log out. ("Ooops!  I guess I must have crashed!  Darn the luck." )

Start reading articles in the Knowledge Base (link at the top of this page) that have to do with Permissions, Friends lists, and other topics where you might have concerns.  And by all means, take a simple free newbie course at Caledon Oxbridge University or NCI, or elsewhere in world.

yes i SUFFERED LOTS OF VERBAL ABUSE FROM MANY PEOPLE

[DeepBlueJoy]

I AM DeepBlueJoy, Blue to my friends.  That is all you need.

I live 'somewhere' (usually) -- some days I exist between dimensions.😼

I don't even invite most people to my house in SL...  RL is a bridge waaaay too far. 

(If I get to know you well, I may eventually tell you which country I live in.)

I've actually met a couple people from SL -- but I went to visit them in a public place (one was in hospital). 

Why, yes, I am paranoid. If you have a problem with this, I will probably have a problem with you. 😸  Your attitude will be cheerfully shredded in the chipper-shredder in hell!

 

Blue skips off to the wild indigo yonder, singing rock and roll at the top of her lungs!😺

[Dean Haystack]

1) Don't tell anyone anything you don't want them to know
2) Don't give anyone the rights to edit your objects or track you on the map if don't want them to
3) Don't accept any item a stranger might give you

Pretty common sense stuff, apart from that, learn to brush off anyone that claims they will hack you, almost always those people can barely change their own WiFi password, let alone hack anyone...
If someone is saying things you don't wanna hear, BLOCK them, don't file a report over things like "this person called me a bad name" that report will take days if not weeks to be looked at.
If someone is bumping you or overall messing with your avatar, just teleport away, when someone does that to you they want attention, if you fight them they get it, if you just go do anything else you defeat them.

[Lindal Kidd]

I would not make Dean's #3 a hard and fast rule.  Many strangers (me among them) will send you helpful or fun things.  Some will do this on short acquaintance, others may toss you something in passing.

Notecards are safe.  (Although a notecard can contain an attached object, which MIGHT not be safe.  See below.)

Landmarks are safe.  (Although if you teleport there, there might be some scary or even unsafe things.  Teleporting back out is always an option, though.)

Objects are safe, while they are resting in your inventory.  If you exercise a bit of caution, you can generally find out if an object is going to be nasty, or at least keep its nastiness from being anything other than a momentary annoyance.  Give it to an alt, who has no money in her account, if it's transferable and you are really paranoid.  Open your Edit window and then rez the object.  If it does anything unexpected, just hit the DELETE key.  If it asks permission to take $L from you, click Deny, then delete the rezzed item.

Animations and gestures may not be safe.  Don't accept them unless you know and trust the giver.

Don't accept animation requests from complete strangers, and if they rez a comfy chair and ask you to "have a seat", don't do it.

[ananoelle]

Listen to what your mumma told ya. 

Don't take 'candy' from strangers.