Luna Bliss

Prokofy did not ask for help. She asked what the thread title says. In her post she layed out a situation, and suggested what Linden Lab should do to stop it. Since only Linden Lab can answer for certain why they may tolerate this kind of griefing, and Lindens obviously refuse to answer that question in here, it's a total moot point to have that thread going anyway. Yes she believed it was LL's responsibility to fix, and stated that initially, but the thread progressed beyond the title. She questioned and responded to people -- sometimes in a defensive manner and sometimes not. She was trying to sort it out, despite not being a technical person. As the thread progressed I experienced her trying to understand both what LL could or could not do, and what was or was not within her power. I don't think just because there was no Kumbaya moment from her we can assume that she was not asking for help. So I don't feel it's a "moot point to have the thread going". Plus, it was interesting to discover just what was or was not possible for self or LL regarding the inhibition of this griefing problem. When it comes down to it I actually believe it is easily within LL's ability to fix -- if they get repeated AR reports containing recorded abusive chats from an avatar it's easy enough to get their IP. Get enough complaints from that IP and just ban it. I can only imagine it's just not within LL's bottom line to do so.

Pixieplumb, when someone is being abused (as Prok has been with those griefers who consistently try to wreck her SL experience)...and they genuinely want help in order to make the abuse stop (and I believe she is sincere)...then it is NOT helpful to assign all kinds of psychological motivations of fault or incompetence to them if they don't understand or accept your help! (motivations such as they are willfully misunderstanding, or refusing to help themselves, or not changing because they don't have to and so just trying to make LL fix it). I can't say it strongly enough...this is NOT helpful...it is a form of psychological abuse, whether you believed your accusations to be true or not. And my guess is that you believe your imaginings of Prokofy are true in this case, but still it is abuse. However, you should be aware when you have negative feelings toward someone and recuse yourself from giving advice. This is what I see as the crux of the problem -- if we don't like someone we attribute negative motivations or aspects to the person, and if we like them we cut them some slack. I just did not like it at all today when I logged on to take a break from Blender and saw your spewed hate toward Prokofy continuing, further abusing someone who was being abused and asking for help, and that's why I confronted you today. This little diatribe: "Um, how kind, /s off. Done until you're back with a rinse & repeat, I expect. My sympathies are now entirely with the dwindling pool of your residents. Also, WHY are you and your alts banned from the Jira? Asking for a friend " Hate and manipulation are just oozing from that post. I am not sure why you are accusing me of not being a happy person -- I'm not the one trashing someone in a forum asking for help like you are -- perhaps you are the unhappy one.

Prokofy is being abused by these griefers, and is being abused by people like yourself and Pixie who actually BLAME her for either the abuse or not being willing to do anything about it (which is untrue). It's a worthy cause. And I hate Blender.

I'm sorry, but if someone sh*ts in my face and I call them a name then I'm not going to take responsibility for this "negativity".

My take on Prok's problem is that she simply criticized some of the nastiest griefers ever to grace the SL sims, and had the 'audacity' to publicize them. They are retaliating. Bringing up Proks behavior as a social critic, any fights we had with her in the past on her blog or another forum, or the Jira banning... is irrelevant. She has been very well-behaved on this forum -- as much as anyone else has anyway.

LOL And PLEASE...keep it going...I don't want to go back to Blender!!

I don't believe we should call people names, but sometimes it's good to look behind what someone was actually saying...and I believe Prok was saying that she believed that Pixie's concern was not genuine (when calling her a 'concern troll') and I have to say I believe the same although I can't be for sure. Perhaps it was similar to how Pixie wished me a good day at the end of our mini-argument?

These comments by Pixie don't seem very helpful. They seem to be blaming Prok and are actually quite insulting: "But when many people have made repeated suggestions to you to mitigate the bullying you suffer, and it IS bullying, and I DO sympathise, you turn those suggestions away, wilfully misunderstand them and refuse to help yourself." "...but it certainly appears to be the case that you either get griefed a lot more than anyone else, or that it bothers you more than anyone else, or that other people who are griefed simply use the tools available and the problem stops/diminishes/becomes bearable. Whichever it is, I'm absolutely sure that until you change something that you do this isn't going away. And you won't change what you do, because you don't have to, and you're not breaking the TOS and the Lindens should fix it." I don't think Prok understood fully what LL can or can't do until later in the thread, and that is certainly not "willful misunderstanding", or "refusing to help yourself", or "not changing because you don't have to and expecting Lindens should fix it". It's a very complex issue, and took a lot of explaining...thankfully some were very clear in their explanations.

There could be other reasons you hate her and want to tear her down..

ChinRey, you said: "You get a different picture if you read all her posts and not only the last one." I don't get a different picture from reading all her posts -- what causes you to think I should?

Somehow, I get a sense that Pixie is not truly wishing me a good day, and wonder why she is referring to me as 'sir' ;0

I thought flaming wasn't allowed here. It appears that the only goal of Pixieplumbs post is to tear Prok down, discredit her, or exact some kind of revenge.

"As for the rest of this "catch flies with honey," the real question here is why anyone would accept the word of a day-old alt making a claim not backed up by anything at all, versus the protest of a 12-year-old avatar. Again, this is common sense most people accept. " Prokofy, 'Trust' in another person is a complicated issue, and how we determine trust in RL is not always the same in virtual worlds. Those differences are interesting to ponder, but perhaps best left to all those academics coming into forums and asking us annoying questions to complete their dissertations on virtual world dynamics. I would certainly trust someone more readily that had an abundance of information in their profile (and this occurs more often in those who are 'old'). Not that I would believe everything written -- there are simply more clues to develop possible trust from. There are numerous psychological studies on trust, and it seems familiarity is one aspect that enables trust to develop. And familiarity needs 'time'. Our profiles indicate that time has passed via our join date, and some can make this leap to more 'familiarity' via this indication of stated time. But for most people in order to develop trust one has to have 'experienced' time vs a simple statement of time on a profile. So I agree with what you are calling 'common sense' for RL, but not for virtual worlds. Of course if we want to go to the trouble and have the time we can check out the persons profile, make a verification of stated facts. But this person was needing to make fairly quick decisions on whether to trust you or not. Plus, she was being gaslighted...a form of abuse that makes it difficult to sort out facts -- she was caught in a kind of trap as she tried to determine who to believe, going back and forth between 2 people stating different realities while knowing one person was feeding her lies. We don't know to what lengths your griefer was going to in order to alter the perceptions of your potential renter. It was probably easier for her to believe you were doing something sort of benevolent ("entertaining" yourself and others with silly games) vs believe that she was being 'played' or manipulated by some creepy person whose intent was to harm others. So anyway, all this is to say that I think your expectations of this avatar (to trust you over the griefer) were unreasonable given the circumstance. However, I'm not blaming you, and if I encountered the situation I very well could have told the avatar she lacked 'sophistication' in less kind ways. After all, here you are having to experience people griefing you for years, and these griefers are trying to make it appear that YOU are some sort of griefer, or a racist. Very crazymaking.

Klytyna, I never said the above. People of color simply can't do the kind of damage to us (whites) as we can do to them, hence I'm not too concerned about possible prejudice by blacks. http://www.salon.com/2015/03/04/10_ways_white_people_are_more_racist_than_they_realize_partner/

Klytyna, Kristen is not racist because she reads some science here or there and references it -- the science is unsettled. Nor is she 'Afro-Pretentious' or feeling superior as a person of color because does or does not understand the meaning of the word 'creole'. What you are doing here is intellectual bullsh*t, and none of it matters. Google 'racist people at Walmart' to see what people of color deal with in the US every day, and learn what a racist is, and learn what you should be putting your energy toward.

I'm on a mission to understand the Republican-type mind today -- I may be closer than I've ever been...

Klytyna, you are the one that referenced the crazy website as far as I can see. I guess that's an example of the type of places you spend a lot of time at? In other words, where does this idea that some people hate and blame you as a white person come from? Did you experience this in the UK somewhere? Do you frequent crazy forums where this is happening or spend your time searching out websites by ignorant people? I just haven't experienced it, either with myself or in people I know. I'm sure such people exist - people of color who relish blaming whites for their pain - but they are not some major movement in society as you depict. You said something in reference to blacks forming groups and labeling themselves that, for me, is revealing...you said: "I'm not convinced you need to label your selves at all, frankly, can't you just be 'Americans'? I mean, that was supposed to be the whole damn idea behind America, wasn't it? Hence the fact that the requirement for American Citizenship used to be "Resided in the United States for 5 years". This demonstrates to me that you have no basic knowledge of Psychology & Sociology 101, no notion of how oppressed groups cope with injustice by banding together. Through such affirmation they find strength in an attempt to experience the self-empowerment that was stripped from them. Are such groups threatening to you? Does the fact that they exclude you cause you to feel they are against you, hate you, or blame you as a white person?

Klytyna, I don't doubt that there are a few black people/mixed-race people who are prejudiced against whites, or who claim various ethnic heritages as some kind of ego boost. But the damage to brown races caused by whites far, far exceeds any harm caused by the people you find offensive. Why align yourself as you do?

lol "Triggered By Hyphens"......sounds like the title of a great poem.

Wouldn't it be just 35 per 1000...and so your selling cost would be 70 instead of 120? Or am I missing something...often it seems I'm forgetting junior high math these days...

Once you've experimented awhile it could be good to stick to a beloved theme for a period of time (for example, are you interested in Medieval items, more modern ones, or perhaps fantasy). Then, renting a shop in that community is a good way to go, even if a mall. Eventually you could create in a more eclectic way, but to begin I think this is a good way to get your foot in the door and increase sales and exposure.

Yes, Chic, I was pondering this on my break and wondered if it was a good idea, due to an experience I had a few months back. One of my customers was selling her sim for $4000 usd on the mainland to someone else, and they simply would not let my customer get her money for the longest time. I had created quite a bit for this customer several years back, and I think she paid me partly in $L and partly through Paypal. Anyway, during the investigation of her sim sale they asked my customer "what is your relationship to Luna Bliss". This was more than irritating, and I wondered how many of my other customers who paid me a large sum of money were questioned in this way, insinuating that we could be criminals. I wonder what amount of money exchange, via customer/resident or money market exchange, triggers these investigations. I'm sure it's good that money laundering and tax evasion are kept in check, but this is going too far. I'm wondering who they subcontract to do these investigations, and if there isn't a better way to go about it.

Elvina, please don't let this affect your creativity as you mentioned earlier. There is a way out of it. Most likely they just didn't see that your 10k is trapped, and once they do your money will be released. Surely they would not want to be known as a company that steals from their customers. However, what you could do is let your present monthly earnings of $L accrue and pay the $L to a friend who could covert them to real money, and then this trusted friend could pay you the $ via Paypal. This would then allow you to transfer the $ you have saved in 5 increments. Just make sure, of course, that they can transfer that much money per 30 days.

Luna Bliss Home & Garden is my favorite store. Great customer service - if I have a problem she gets back to me quickly. However she has a warped sense of humor, so do be careful.