Chat Repeaters are a serious issue

[Chetar Ruby]

Less of a question, more an observation and call to action:  Chat repeaters.

I'm seeing these used more frequently in large clubs claiming their clubs are too large for the standard 20 meter chat range of local chat.  I'm of course of the opinion, if you need a chat repeater, you're probably doing something wrong.  But that's besides the point, my personal opinion doesnt affect the abuse these objects are permitting.

Chat repeaters are considered to be the user who owns them, not whomever is actually speaking and being repeated for those outside of normal chat range.  What does that mean?  It basically means, if I block someone, and they speak outside of chat range, I'm going to see their speech in local, despite having blocked them. 

In short, these objects are allowing people to circumvent being blocked.  I consider this a serious exploit and abuse of scripting privileges.  This would not be allowed under any other circumstance.  I'm asking Linden Labs to take action against these objects due their abusive nature.  Thanks for your attention.

[LittleMe Jewell]

I don't really have a comment on it since I seldom encounter them. 

However, since you seem to be wanting a discussion rather than a Question/Answer thing, the post should go into the General Discussion area.  I've reported the post and asked the Moderators to move it there.

Here is the link for future reference:  https://community.secondlife.com/forums/forum/321-general-discussion-forum/

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell

[Rowan Amore]

Block.the chat repeater?

[Rolig Loon]

As Lil points out, the Answers section of these forums is here for asking questions about how SL works (or why it doesn't).  It's not an area for discussion, and certainly not one for making feature suggestions to Linden Lab.  This is a resident-to-resident area.  Lindens rarely pipe up here, although they lurk occasionally.  If you really want to get Linden Lab's attention, you can submit a feature request in the JIRA or, if you think some feature is not working as designed, you can submit a Support Case.  If you want a discussion among residents, Lil's right.  The General Discussion forum is the best place to start.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[Adamburp Adamczyk]

Well, it's actually NOT a privacy breach, these have come up at many of the Governance User Group meetings.

 

Governance implied that as well as everyone wishing Gov18 a happy birthday, that these repeaters are okay as long it says they're in use.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

 

On 9/14/2020 at 11:05 PM, Chetar Ruby said:

This would not be allowed under any other circumstance.  I'm asking Linden Labs to take action against these objects due their abusive nature.  Thanks for your attention.

Maybe group chat would be a good alternative. But a repeater is more noob-friendly, like at Draxtor's Book Club.

I say it's not up to LL but the responsibility of the venue host. Disabling repeaters would break a lot of other things in SL too. I'd like to quote physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman:

"If you don't like it, go somewhere else." (Or ask the venue host in question.)

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Claireschen Hesten]

I come across these things so infrequently i don't have an issue with them. i don't think they are doing anything wrong if people don't want what they say in local extended beyond normal chat range they can take it to IM or start a conference call chat with everyone in the venue

[Seicher Rae]

11+ years in SL and I've never encountered or heard of the things. By the description, if you don't want to see it, block the holder of the repeater.

[MoiraKathleen]

At places where I am aware of chat repeaters being used, there are legitimate reasons (the space where people are congregating is large enough that not everyone is automatically within local chat range of everyone else, for example, like at a dance club, where it would be expected that one should be able to hear all the local chat). 

I have not come across a situation where it is being used in an abusive nature.  If you have someone blocked, yet you still see their chat because the chat extender is repeating it, are you at a public venue where that is happening unintentionally (and perhaps even unknown to the person you have blocked) or are you saying that the person you have blocked is intentionally using one just to harass you?   Either way, if it bothers you so much, you might want to find other places to hang out.  

[Chaser Zaks]

These should mostly be a thing in the past after LL finishes implementation and testing of region chat range settings(BUG-228333). They exist in the region debug console, but are currently read only.

chat_range
    View or change the region's chat range.
    Read-only

shout_range
    View or change the region's chat shout range.
    Read-only

whisper_range
    View or change the region's chat whisper range.
    Read-only

 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

On 9/14/2020 at 5:05 PM, Chetar Ruby said:

Less of a question, more an observation and call to action:  Chat repeaters.

I'm seeing these used more frequently in large clubs claiming their clubs are too large for the standard 20 meter chat range of local chat.  I'm of course of the opinion, if you need a chat repeater, you're probably doing something wrong.  But that's besides the point, my personal opinion doesnt affect the abuse these objects are permitting.

Chat repeaters are considered to be the user who owns them, not whomever is actually speaking and being repeated for those outside of normal chat range.  What does that mean?  It basically means, if I block someone, and they speak outside of chat range, I'm going to see their speech in local, despite having blocked them. 

In short, these objects are allowing people to circumvent being blocked.  I consider this a serious exploit and abuse of scripting privileges.  This would not be allowed under any other circumstance.  I'm asking Linden Labs to take action against these objects due their abusive nature.  Thanks for your attention.

I *****ing hate them. Mostly used in live music venues..

Edited September 16, 2020 by Tarina Sewell

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

A couple places at their landing point I saw a sign saying a chat repeater was used due to the size of the club.

[Ceka Cianci]

I didn't even realize General chat got blocked.. I thought it was only like IM's and such..

It's been years since I blocked someone so I'm not up to date on it really..

I believe back then it didn't work for general chat.. I've been really out of the loop on that it seems..hehehe

[Peter Stindberg]

On 9/16/2020 at 9:49 PM, Chaser Zaks said:

They exist in the region debug console, but are currently read only.

The range can be read via llGetEnv - any idea, when it will be settable as well? The bug report you linked doesn't shed light on this.