Linden Lab look the reins from the original organizers to maintain a bit more control over this thing and steer it in the direction they wanted it to go.

It was a rough transition, lots of finger-pointing, some miscommunications took place, feelings got hurt, but I think things were worked out. We've got a better idea of where things are going, and with Mitch's "The End Of The Pioneer Age" the shift in direction, for good or bad.

Also, it helped cement the Kids community a bit stronger, raising awareness. The Mark Kings of the world have one less excuse/non-issue to bully-pulpit their ignorant constituents over so they can get re-elected and collect another two years of lobbyist graft.

I enjoyed building for it, for certain. Got me off my ass with a podcasting tutorial, and I'm sure Radar's happy as well with the videos he's done, because they'll be great for the permanent exhibit.

What concerns me most about the last few days was the "File an AR report on griefers" response most people were getting when raising the alarm in the chat group.

Quite a few folks didn't cotton to that response.

Maybe I don't know the whole backstory to why this procedure was being used, but count me among the folks who think something better could have been arranged.

If you think about it, "POLIIIIIIIIICE!" doesn't reflect how far SL has come in the past five years.

Let me explain... when there's a greifing incident on an island estate, people stop having fun and it becomes a nuisance immediately.

I need a RL equivalent to this... hold on... Imagine, in real life, someone dropping their pants and pissing on your birthday cake.

HAAAAAAPY BIRTRRRRRTTTHTHTHTHTDAY TOOOOOOO YOOOOOO-

Make. The. Bastard. Stop.

Grab him? Wobble the table to make him fall off?

Okay, so they might have a knife... or a gun...

Fine. Those kinds of worries are legitimate. That's real life.

But in SL, these things can't hurt you. Ooogie boogie booo - they are just texture puppets, and some jerk is wagging their stupid, ugly puppet around, ruining the scene.

So, the first line of defense is and always will be the people in the incident.

Ever hear of a guy named Wavy Gravy?

Guy was a hippie clown, one of the key figures of the original and followup Woodstock Festivals.

He was a pacifist, but for some reason he got asked to run security.

So, instead of a Police Force, he formed a Please Force. These folks would step in and ask the folks disturbing the peace to please stop and take a moment to chill and consider a different and more peaceful way of resolving their dispute, and if there was any way they could help resolve it, they were more than happy to help.

I think that's kinda cool. Pollyana, for certain, but cool.

Okay, so that doesn't always work in SL.

Fine. Then comes the owner/estate manager. They can observe, use their best judgement, and act. They have the tools necessary to act.

If they're not available 24/7, then it's up to them to assign Estate/Region manager deputies/delegates (up to 10 in the list) that are entrusted with performing those duties.

In the best case scenario, someone's always present on the scene. Because if you're holding events, well, they should be interesting enough for someone in your team of delegates to want to attend, right? (Back to the Please Force example, eh... the Please Force were grooving to the music as much as the crowd.)

If not, then when the alarm is raised, they can chat "I'm on my way" and deploy quickly using the SLURL someone posts to the group.

Arrive, rez, confirm it's malicious and not an accident, check ownerships or test sources with targeted Mutes or freezes, maybe even pausing scripts or rez rights or movement if things are really bad, and pull the trigger.

A few prims laying around? Auto-return and group-building limits should be set in advance, but if you need to sweep quickly... find the username in the object, return all objects by that user... poof!

Then file the AR report with the name and the info so the account can be handed to Abuse/Governance.

The bigger the event, the bigger the need for an effective security plan.

It takes planning, recruiting, and training to build an effective militia. You can't just hand these rights to Barneyfife Mayberry and think "Okay, I can go off and poseball my partner for the rest of the week."

I'd think that if you've got a large assortment of competent builders and community-minded folks among your event presenters, well, there's bound to be a few with the good judgment, security skills, and patience to keep the peace without causing drama.

And that's one of the many achievements of SL in the past five years - empowering the land owners with the tools necessary to handle maliciousness quickly and effectively.

Yeah, I know... those AR reports were being watched closely, Lindens are always around to act, yadda yadda yadda. But if there isn't any trust with the residents to police and patrol and defend their builds for the community, whether on the part of the Lindens or the organizers of a major event, that's kinda sad.

All of the primary Edloeans and Nowherevillans have the ability to defend their plot as well as step in and defend the sim. Most know how to do so, even if it's a simple /1 kick with Mystitool and then picking their name out of a list.

They don't need to whine "Mother may I?" in my direction or hunt for the login to some shared "security thug" account. Nor do they need to add to an already overloaded queue of AR's to deal with them.

The owners of the neighbor sims also have the ability to blast griefers in case they're using the sims as a staging point to annoy theirs. It's part of my "key under the doormat" policy.

Maybe I have a different way of looking at things, being a Texan who believes in compulsory firearms training and ownership. An armed society is a polite society, and if the thought of armed resistance didn't cross a burglar's mind when they decide to crawl through a window, a shotgun blast might.

Gunfire really can rattle the nerves, so it's a good idea to keep something around afterwards to help soothe them... let's see...

Ahhhh... a pint of Ben & Jerry's Wavy Gravy.

Perfect. (Please pass the spoon?)