I am curious on the opinions of others about Russians who play SL and what if anything LL should do if anything?

[Prokofy Neva]

13 hours ago, Marigold Devin said:

I personally think Linden Lab won't have had any views about this issue, as I don't believe they are politically led. There is a heck of a lot goes on in our virtual world that could be seen as potentially facilitating all kinds of things, yes, no doubt, including warmongering. You could equally say there are other country's people gathering in Second Life to plot and plan the next plane strike into other tall buildings in the world. 

Do you think Linden Lab need to be randomly spying on the conversations of certain country folk? Hmmm. I don't know what to think at this moment in time. And against my better judgement I am about to submit this appalling reply.

The Lindens allowed 4chan types to build horrible replicas of the World Trade Center on a sim, re-enacting the airplane crashes, but their capacity for tolerating such mayhem has fortunately diminished over the years. There was a limit to how much virtual violence hey would tolerate from Palestinians or at least those posing as such attacking Jewish and Israeli sims in SL. They have a system to block certain terms on the forums and in some respects inworld as well, and I think they could do well to put some in now. They haven't been non-political on all kinds of issues, that's just not accurate. They were early with their solidarity with the British when attacked by terrorist and with their support for Black Lives Matters, so good on them.

[Mollymews]

Hamlet has a article up about some SL people from Russia reaching out to SL people from Ukraine to help give them a practical assist. Is a good thing for them to do and I am supportive of this

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2022/02/second-life-tribute-to-ukraine.html

 

[Qie Niangao]

I too would be surprised if sanctions included forcing providers to deny application-level services to Russian IP addresses, accounts, etc. The same may not be true of B2B or network-level services, which could well be or become part of sanctions.

It would be possible to make it very difficult for Russian internet traffic to get outside Russia at all, although that's a step more likely taken by Russia ("Great Firewall" like) than as a sanction against Russia. And not very likely in any case.

It's interesting that posters have pointed out the financial sanctions may make it difficult/impossible for Russians to cash-out L$s, but I think payment will also be a problem. Certainly it will become very, very expensive as the ruble continues to collapse. (Not sure how many Russian SL users buy L$s, though, now that I think about it.)

[Marigold Devin]

6 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The Lindens allowed 4chan types to build horrible replicas of the World Trade Center on a sim, re-enacting the airplane crashes, but their capacity for tolerating such mayhem has fortunately diminished over the years. There was a limit to how much virtual violence hey would tolerate from Palestinians or at least those posing as such attacking Jewish and Israeli sims in SL. They have a system to block certain terms on the forums and in some respects inworld as well, and I think they could do well to put some in now. They haven't been non-political on all kinds of issues, that's just not accurate. They were early with their solidarity with the British when attacked by terrorist and with their support for Black Lives Matters, so good on them.

I stand corrected - and educated - as always.

[Krystina Ferraris]

1 hour ago, Qie Niangao said:

I too would be surprised if sanctions included forcing providers to deny application-level services to Russian IP addresses, accounts, etc. The same may not be true of B2B or network-level services, which could well be or become part of sanctions.

It would be possible to make it very difficult for Russian internet traffic to get outside Russia at all, although that's a step more likely taken by Russia ("Great Firewall" like) than as a sanction against Russia. And not very likely in any case.

It's interesting that posters have pointed out the financial sanctions may make it difficult/impossible for Russians to cash-out L$s, but I think payment will also be a problem. Certainly it will become very, very expensive as the ruble continues to collapse. (Not sure how many Russian SL users buy L$s, though, now that I think about it.)

But why? Why would you punish a whole nation for the actions of their government? There are many protests in Russia against the war, many people standing up against the war are detained.

Why would you think it fair to isolate them from an online community? Many Russians have relatives in Ukraine, it's not all black and white. There are many countries with less of a stellar human rights record allowed in SL and no actions were ever taken against those.

 

[Maryanne Solo]

Would someone please point Putin to the Aeros thread then invite him inworld to buy something similar ^^?
The small man syndrome got old about 5 years ago. 🙄
That's really the only feasible solution metinx.
Russian people don't want war.
Ukrainian people don't want war.
He could chill "Hindu" style and get a bindi, (red dot), on his forehead ^^ and meditate for a bit. 🤭
like- eternally.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Maryanne Solo

[Krystina Ferraris]

1 minute ago, Maryanne Solo said:

Would someone please point Putin to the Aeros thread then invite him inworld to buy something similar ^^?
The small man syndrome got old about 5 years ago. 🙄
That's really the only feasible solution metinx.
Russian people don't want war.
Ukrainian people don't want war.
He could chill "Hindu" style and get a bindi, (red dot), on his forehead ^^ and meditate for a bit. 🤭
 

He has a few of those already, they're called RS-28 ...

[Setsuki Takeda]

The same holds true for every nation of the world, most *people* just want to live in peace and take care of their families, it's the governments and corporations who make war and drag the people into it against their will.

 

It's odd, though, how some countries are seen as a "valid" target for this type of thing while others are sacred... Though the countries in question usually differ by political affiliation.

 

Speaking from a US perspective:

 

Point out the human rights violations and genocide and social engineering and spying programs and environmental devastation and... of a country like China to someone on the left it's racist and you're a Nazi.

 

Same thing goes for countries like Israel on the other side, no matter what they do they're our allies and all that stands between us and chaos, now shut up and send them more tax dollars ya goldurn Commie!

[Love Zhaoying]

In Mother Russia, Crazy Train derails you!

[Qie Niangao]

26 minutes ago, Krystina Ferraris said:

But why? Why would you punish a whole nation for the actions of their government? There are many protests in Russia against the war, many people standing up against the war are detained.

Why would you think it fair to isolate them from an online community? Many Russians have relatives in Ukraine, it's not all black and white. There are many countries with less of a stellar human rights record allowed in SL and no actions were ever taken against those.

As I said, anything like partitioning mainstream Russian internet access would be much more likely Putin's doing than a sanction. (To be sure, non-state actors might take matters into their own hands, as #Anonymous did to RT yesterday on a tiny scale, but those effects presumably would be sporadic.)

The sanctions at present target the wealthy Russian elite on the theory that they may have some influence on Putin. Supposedly, Putin himself would be the last targeted by any of these sanctions, lest it close off all chance of dialog, although I understand his family has been made subject to the current sanctions. Anyway, short of actual military engagement (or, I guess, assassination), economic warfare is pretty much the only option, and it will have disastrous effect on the Russian people, unavoidable collateral damage as the economy collapses in on itself. On that scale, having internet access may be the least of concerns for the majority of Russians.

It's also interesting that so far the Ukrainian invasion has had a relatively modest cyberwarfare component. If that changes, especially between Russia and NATO states, the effects are profoundly unpredictable.

[Quartz Mole]

Can we please try to avoid turning this thread into a discussion of geopolitics in general, since there are far more appropriate places for that sort of debate than this forum?   

[Sid Nagy]

28 minutes ago, Quartz Mole said:

Can we please try to avoid turning this thread into a discussion of geopolitics in general, since there are far more appropriate places for that sort of debate than this forum?   

This thread has outlived it's usefulness, because Dakota has already answered the OP by pointing out LL's policy in this case on page one, but it will be very hard to keep politics out of discussions at the moment.
Not only on this forums or in this thread.

We could try not to discuss Maddies apple pie attempt any longer though.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Finite]

54 minutes ago, NanashiNyx said:

Point out the human rights violations and genocide and social engineering and spying programs and environmental devastation and... of a country like China to someone on the left it's racist and you're a Nazi.

I don't want to drag this down the tubes or anything but just have to call this out for bs. Im as left as one can be and I myself make an effort to point out China... China isn't a left or right thing, its a left and right thing. If there was one thing Mr T could have done to unify Americans it would have been to focus more on China instead of our internal divisions.

[Ceka Cianci]

I take everyone, one person at a time..Whatever country they are from. I sure don't put people in a certain box because of their government..

 

[Setsuki Takeda]

3 minutes ago, Finite said:

I don't want to drag this down the tubes or anything but just have to call this out for bs. Im as left as one can be and I myself make an effort to point out China... China isn't a left or right thing, its a left and right thing. If there was one thing Mr T could have done to unify Americans it would have been to focus more on China instead of our internal divisions.

The same applies on that, though, individuals don't necessarily line up with the official position.

 

People are able to make their own decisions, and see things that need fixing, but larger institutions tend to have the "party line" that they stick to even when it is blatantly wrong.

[Quartz Mole]

Since this thread seems, as Sid says, to have served its purpose, I'm closing it now rather than later.