Griefers have been mentioned here on this blog in the past. They are people who enjoy inflicting sadness or frustration on others. It makes them feel alive or something. I don't understand why they do it. It's just best to be on one's toes and ready for anything they might throw at you, especially when in a public gathering. But last Friday night was a new one on me.
It was Nakie Friday at House of the Rising Sun. Clothing is optional and we were having a contest too. I was DJing and having a really good time. Alobar and sami, the owners were there, and lots and lots of people. At one point, I killed the music and keyed up my microphone to remind people to vote for their favorite "Barely There" contestant, remind them to tip and to tell them what songs were coming up next. Just as I keyed my mic, two blue windows popped down in my viewer. If you have ever used an SL viewer, you will know what I'm talking about. They normally inform you that you have paid someone money or that you have been paid, or to verify any action you are taking such as joining a group. Well, this one was for joining a group. The name of the group and the name of the avatar who sent the group invite are unimportant now. This zero-day-old avatar has been deleted by Linden Labs. But the message was vague and dangerous.
Keeping in mind that I was quite busy making announcements over the music stream and that I was an inch away from clicking Yes/OK on the blue windows to get them out of my way, I just happened to see the characters "L$5000" on each window. Of course that lead to my stuttering over the mic and as I read the rest of the message, it was clear that someone had created a group and added joining fees to it. The fee in this case was 5000 Linden dollars. That works out to roughly $20 US dollars. I got two invites. Had I clicked on them, I would have been out L$10,000.
Instead of speaking about the next songs coming up, I changed it to a frantic announcement. "Do not join that group you have just been invited to". And come to find out, most of the people in attendance were invited. The person who made the group and sent out the invitations was in and out of the club so quickly, that hardly anyone noticed him. But sami copied and pasted a notification of his appearance into local chat. So we had his name. One of the women there was quick to report the incident to Linden Labs. Her actions will have this terrible thief banned from SL. Personally, I have never reported anyone before. So I took the opportunity to ask her how she did that so quickly.
It's important that we all know how to report abuse. The fact that this avatar was quickly sending out invitations to join his/her group for L$5000 is considered abuse. It would be easy to accidentally click the OK button and poof, your money is gone. This woman explained how to report abuse quickly. There is a Help link at the top of all versions of SL viewers screens. Click that and you will be given the opportunity to report abuse. Click on that and it will give you the option to send a screen captured photo to LL in the report. This screen capture is very important. This picture can show LL what you are seeing that lead you to report abuse. In this case, it would be the blue group-join window. One look at that window tells LL the avatar's name and the name of the bogus group he/she created. They can then look up the IP address of the avatar and ban it. They can also shut down that group.
Remember, what goes around comes around. Karma and all that. Fairness is on our side. Linden Labs wants an enjoyable experience for everyone. In this avatars case, if he/she did not trick anyone into clicking OK on his/her group invite, then he/she did not make any linden dollars. If that's the case and his/her group was shut down by LL, he's out L$100 for forming the group. If that's the case, and it probably is, then we can all laugh and laugh and laugh so hard that we pee a little before getting back to enjoying our party.
