how to stop harassments on sims?

[Yvariel Lionheart]

is there a way to prevent harassments that is honestly at the point of criminal behavior?   blocking doesn't work, banning doesn't work reports to SL don't seem to work?  

we have had issues with a player that just makes account after account after account to get past the bans.  they are likely past 50 accounts by now and it has been going on for months.  Shouldn't Linden take this serious?  harassments and cyberbullying is a crime in many countries. a random griefer is one thing but having someone with this kind of mentality where making 12 accounts in a single day just to harrass the same few people is pretty over the line.     What can be done with someone that just wont stop making accounts?  (oh and yes we installed security orb to stop new accounts, but they just wait it out and block everyone isn't an options as our sim is meant to be enjoyed by the public so it's frustrating even to block accounts less then a day old. and it doesn't prevent them from IMing.

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by Yvariel Lionheart

[Lewis Luminos]

Do you own the region and the associated group? If so, the best way is to make the region private except to only members of your group, and make the group invite-only. Then, no matter how many alt accounts the bully makes, they will not get in. Make sure that no other group members besides you (or the owner if thats not you) has permission to invite others.

There is no recourse with Linden Lab, unfortunately. This would be classed as a resident-to-resident dispute and you'd be expected to use the tools provided within the viewer (such as those above) to deal with it. Any abuse reports or support tickets on a matter like this will almost certainly be ignored.

You'll probably only need to take this action for a few months - the bully will get bored and give up, and when they do, you can quietly lift the ban and the griefer won't even notice.

[Yvariel Lionheart]

i'm one of the admins yes but as mentioned it's nearly 5 months now.  this week alone he's up to 20 new accounts.  he has a particular focus on 3-4 of our rpers.  but yes that's one idea we have thought of just making it group only.  but makes it hard to attract new members that actually want to enjoy the sim.

[Dakota Linden]

Greetings!

The Governance Team takes harassment very seriously. Unfortunately, as you have stated, the person keeps creating NEW accounts.  This means that if they keep creating a new account, the new account must be reported before the Governance Team will be able to take any action. 

The best thing you can do to prevent abuse on a region/parcel is to use the land controls. 

As Lewis recommended, set the land to group owned land then set the group to Private/Invite only.  The only people who will be able to get onto the land are those in the group. 

If you want to leave the land open for others to find and explore a bit in order to attract new members, set the object options on the land to Group Only.  This will allow people to visit the land to look around, but if they want to use anything on the land that is scripted, or they want to rez items, etc., they will need to be in the group. 

You can also set a landing point that is separate from the RP land itself and then purchase a Security System that has the ability to disallow/ban users under a certain day in age, for instance, under 7 days or under 30 days.  

You can then set a landing point that will force all users to land at the landing point and have the landing point monitored by the security system. Any user who lands there that is under the set age will be automatically ejected/banned from the land. 

If the person who is harassing your or the users on your land, keeps creating new accounts, they will be auto ejected/banned each time since their new avatar will most likely be under the minimum age requirement you have set on the security system. 

[Quistess Alpha]

4 minutes ago, Dakota Linden said:

disallow/ban users under a certain day in age, for instance, under 7 days or under 30 days.  

From what I gather form other posters, I don't think you're giving enough credit to how persistent some malicious actors can be. this only punts the problem a week to a month into the future. Does LL still enforce alt account limits ? In specific:

Quote

• Up to five accounts per household.

 

[Dakota Linden]

Hello, Quistess Alpha

Thank you for you reply. 

If you are aware of any user who is violating any policy please file an Abuse Report so that the Governance Team can investigate the report as quickly as possible.

 

[Lindal Kidd]

Please follow Dakota's advice...they are the One Who Knows!

However...some griefers are unbelievably persistent. One well-known bad actor is now up to almost 1800 accounts. How do we know? Because he uses the same username followed by a sequential number.

No...LL has never seriously enforced that "5 accounts per household", but it's still on the books in case they choose to ban someone for making "excessive" accounts.

[Yvariel Lionheart]

admins are working to gather as much info on all the various accounts with logs, we have been putting in tickets but I can understand the issue with having tickets for individual accounts not helping when they just keep making more.    we do have security orb of 7 day age limit but as mentioned it doesn't prevent them from just IMing though from off sim unfortunately.  for the moment we are just telling members to block just frustrating for our members and admins but seems the only re-course for the moment.

[JustALittleTouchOfMagics]

I am on of the players that got repeatedly harrassed. I around 20-22 of them as i speak now. Some even using almsot identical names (RiekaSharpClaws and RiekaShurpClaw my name being Rieka SharpClaws-Bellman). Other names from other usual players on our sim also got their name copies and mixed around. It is slowly starting to get old now

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by JustALittleTouchOfMagics

[Arielle Popstar]

1 hour ago, Yvariel Lionheart said:

admins are working to gather as much info on all the various accounts with logs, we have been putting in tickets but I can understand the issue with having tickets for individual accounts not helping when they just keep making more.    we do have security orb of 7 day age limit but as mentioned it doesn't prevent them from just IMing though from off sim unfortunately.  for the moment we are just telling members to block just frustrating for our members and admins but seems the only re-course for the moment.

You'd stand a much better chance of getting appropriate disciplinary action if you could get them to post harassing, abusive or off topic post in the forum rather than inworld. Strange how it works but there it is.

[NevaehHeartstrings]

Sometimes it's ok to put your current account to sleep and moonlight on another one.  two can play at that game.

[belindacarson]

2 hours ago, NevaehHeartstrings said:

Sometimes it's ok to put your current account to sleep and moonlight on another one.  two can play at that game.

They shouldn't have to.

[Tarik Darkheart]

In cases such as these it is vital that all the admins of the sim / group concerned educate their members not to react to the baiting and taunting of individual concerned. In fact once the individual commences to become abusive they should block/mute, report and ban (if they have those abilities). Interaction and reaction with the individual is what they desire and denying them their pleasure from seeing them upset others may result in them becoming bored.

 

[NevaehHeartstrings]

10 hours ago, belindacarson said:

They shouldn't have to.

That's True

Edited August 13, 2022 by NevaehHeartstrings

[Prokofy Neva]

As someone who runs a Mainland rentals business and has been personally and outrageously griefed by concerted groups of 4chan types for my consistent ARing of them and publicizing of their antics, I can note a variety of ways to deal with griefers. Like with an infant with colic, nothing works twice. There are different schools of thought; none of them are "right" consistently.

o "Don't feed the trolls" -- ignore the griefers and log off, even for just 5-10 minutes, this breaks their concentration, their deadly lock on your attention, and discourages them. If groups of people all simply log off and refuse to be affected, it can work. It seems like the "best advice," and many advocate it with sanctimonious glee, but it doesn't work always which is why it's only one method. Don't let it be your only method and be brow-beaten by people who themselves aren't suffering chronic griefing attacks.

o Document and publicize all the griefers and their alts on your blog (you can't name names on the forums) or even just in an inworld notecard circulated to group members so that people can see the pattern in the names, the time periods of griefing, etc. This is the method I favour for RL and SL and while it takes longer, it works. It's especially effective for griefer groups that claim to be "good citizens" but just "edgelords" in one setting, and do extensive griefing, crashing of sims, harassment, doxing, etc. in another. It's especially effective when you get griefers who imitate your name and invade other groups so that hundreds of people then write you with hate mail (a common technique). Document what is happening and circulate the news so that people don't fall for social hacks.

o Entirely close your land with orbs or an access-only group -- I think this is the worst solution and inconveniences people, makes it impossible to grow your group, makes you have to have agents online all the time to issue invitations etc. It's only an emergency technique to use sparingly.

o A common technique of griefers themselves is to make a group of "security cops" who offer to give you security from a problem they themselves created. Never pay any individual or group for security; only Linden Lab provides security in the ultimate sense, and you should AR people who grief you or extort you. Another common technique is to make a group claiming to "fight griefers" which in fact is only a con and effort to get you to share information. You don't need a special group or crusading heroes to fight griefers. You use the land tools, common sense, and a combination of publicity or deprivation of attention all on your own.

o Make an open group, but charge even $1 for membership, or $10. Even just $1 is more than most day-old accounts will bother to get, as it would mean they have to find a way to make Lindens, which is not always easy, or put a payment form on their account. I find this the single most effective way to discourage the kind of griefers that come and harass, say, an ex-girlfriend who doesn't want to see them anymore.

o Create levels of roles in your group so that new members or non-paying members or visitors cannot place prims.

o Turn off "everyone" build, object entry, scripts but leave "group" on. I find this also a nuisance and people don't realize when they do it how it inconveniences guests who may want to rez something but don't want to join a group even for $1. Still, it's a solution on an individual basis.

o Check "payment information required" off on the land. This discourages the day-old griefers who don't want to put payment information on an alt account used to stalk and grief. But soon you realize that many of your friends, especially outside the wealthy West, do not have payment forms on file or may even be from countries where it is impossible to get and keep them on file. So this is of limited value. 

o Uncheck "safe" on all your parcels and use weapons to fight intruders. I find this only incites more violence and doesn't work.  If you think the shock value of caging this regular intruder might work, it's up to you.

o When you hold events, meet at your regular parcel, but then distribute a landmark to another location, even some public Linden park or someone's house elsewhere, if you are a club, to which the entire group goes if griefers show up. So you simply TP out of there and can't be found. After enough times they give up.

o I don't think a woman being stalked should be the one forced to make a new account to obtain peace. The stalker will make new accounts which is a certain amount of annoyance especially given the "need" for expensive mesh heads, bodies, and outfits these days that are not transferable. I think documenting and publicizing the behaviour is more important, but not everyone wants to do this or fears it will cause more retaliation. You can change the pattern of your movements, ask the landlord to hide a rental box showing your name elsewhere (most have sky platforms where they can add you to a security list). I think there's also no substitute for naming and shaming, even among a smaller social group if not on a blog. A group's members IM a stalker and tell him to get a life and stop harassing their friend. 

o Use the ban and eject tools without a conversation. So often I find tenants feel as if they are in RL, and have to reason with some goon who intruded into their house to go on their adult furniture, and ask them to leave, or tell them they are losers, etc. Right-click, ban, eject, no convo needed.

o Tools that purport to track IPs for you and expose alts are illegal in SL and are considered invasions of privacy and are in fact used not just by those trying to combat griefing but by griefers themselves. So don't set yourself up for an AR by using them.

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by Prokofy Neva

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I don't think a woman being stalked should be the one forced to make a new account to obtain peace.

QFT.

[Aethelwine]

Lots of good advice. I just have a couple of things to add. 

1) keep reporting them each time you have to resort to a ban. It helps them to build their picture on how to deal with it. 

2) expand the group of Admins for the region to improve security coverage so there is always someone around to deal with them. You have to trust your helpers, and they have to know what they are doing. But the more trusted people you have around to help, the less work falls on any one individual.  It can also help to build a sense of loyalty to your sim as they are seen working in solidarity with you to keep the region functioning for your visitors.