What to do about a group that keeps griefing/harrassing people?

[Tracy Redangel]

I had an encounter a few months back with this group (which I would gladly name, however I suspect it's againts forum rules to do so here). This is a biker group, a particular one whose members have watched too many episodes of 'Sons of Anarchy' and genuinely fancy themselves to be a real bunch of biker thugs *insert eyeroll*. Their purpose is to go around, threaten, harrass SL residents. They had a a grievance with myself and my husband for some reason or another (it's of minor significance). The whole lot of them came onto our land and proceeded to use attack huds, scripts etc. They attempted to crash the sim, but we had ejected and banned them before they could succeed. They were promptly banned from the land and muted, and that was our last encounter with these idiots.

Now I have a friend who is being constantly harrassed by these bullies. Yes, that's exactly what they are – bullies. They come on alts and harrass her and attempt to grief her land every day. They threaten the club she works at, and the owner there. My friend has  banned the known culprits, and has filed Abuse reports, but the harrassment continues because they still have alt accounts.

Here is what I'd like to know. It seems like reporting them does little if any good. Maybe one or two might get a suspended account. But if this group is known to cause problems, is it possible for Linden Labs to take a heavier hand to get involved? Would they even bother? I know right now *ban*eject*mute* is probably the best way right now to deal with them, but I just don't think it's right that this group can go around threatening and harrassing people.

[Eve Greymoon]

The basic rule of thumb is report, eject, ban mute.  Over and over.  With tools availalbe that will alter IP addresses and such (yeah that's not technical, but give me a break) there's little LL can do I would suspect.  They will ban by IP address if they get numerous reports on individuals.  But there are ways around the banning of IP adressess I believe. I don't think they ban whole groups for the abusive actions of some of it's members, and frankly, I don't think they should

 

Never engage a griefer.  Report, eject, ban, mute, but don't ever speak to them. Eventually they'll get bored if they don't get a reaction. That's been my experience anyway.

[Latisha Pexie]

They HAVE banned an entire group at least once that I know of... However, this was a huge group whose sole stated purpose was griefing and this was after years of dealing with the group the traditional way. I think this was the most extreme of circumstances. Only thing you can do right now is wash, rinse and repeat. If you don't talk to them, just keep banning and filing an AR they will either get bored or permabanned from SL, whichever comes first. Annoying, but it's all you can do, unfortunately. Some steps you could take is making the land group only or putting an age limit on it, but since you say it's a club that may not be practical. You CAN turn off scripts on the land or make them group only. That will probably help with the HUDs and such.

[kitte Arado]

Encourage all that get harrased to make an abusse report to Linden Lab, the more that makes reports the more effect!

And if you notice it is way to many from the whole group, ban that group from your land if you can, and make a notice to your members about it so they are aware.

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Unfortunately I know a couple MC groups like this and probably can guess which group it is.  After talking to a lot of them, I've concluded that they are all wannabe bikers who think that it is their right to do this as part of 'roleplay'.  , I also suspect in RL they are a bunch of wimps who get their jollies coming into SL and being big 'bad asses'. You don't really have to do anything to become a victim either.  They will pick someone or some club to go after just for the h*** of it..

I know RL bikers and other MC's in SL that are friendly and peaceful and go out of their way not to cause trouble and would NEVER be a part of this type of behavior.   A couple that I know have even stood up to these groups because they give bikers a bad name and invited them to come see them  in RL and settle it like a real biker would.  Of course, they turned tail and ran like the wimps they really are.

The only thing you can do is to AR, ban and mute them each and every time you observe them causing trouble or breaking TOS and encourage everyone else you know to do the same.  I would also encourage you and your friends that have become targets to ban every member of the group and instantly doing the same to anyone showing up indicating by their tag or profile they support them in any way or are partnered to a member.  I can assure you that no one who joins or supports these groups is 'innocent', as they are made well aware of what the group is before they even become a prospect or supporting member. 

I do know of some groups were disbanded for this reason and their members banned from SL.   LL should disband the group and permanently IP/hardware ban all the members, particularly when they state in their charters and profiles that it is their purpose to grief and cause trouble.  Of course that won't stop them completely.  They can get another computer, ISP and an alt etc and come right back in to cause more trouble, but if they continue to be banned eventually the 'fun' will be gone for them when they continue to have the expense or hassle of getting another computer and ISP.

[Tracy Redangel]

Thanks for all the comments . Yes, I think my friend is just going to have to hang in there and continue to just report them. Amethyst, you described this group to a "T". Hopefully karma will come around and they'll all get back what they've dished out.