I'm sorry to report that after several months of trying and several different approaches, we still haven't stirred up enough active participation among the many members of the Second Life Anti-Griefing Guild (SLAGG) to get anywhere. Each time we tried to get members set up to do constructive work for the group or tried calling for volunteers, we found ultimately that we didn't have people available to put in the time that would be needed.

There were a very few people who were willing to work and contribute to the group, and then a number who were not able to do so. So, we've disbanded SLAGG. It was a nice idea, but ultimately it seems as though Residents are not in Second Life to take on more work, but rather to relax and enjoy themselves. That seems entirely reasonable to me, and I do support Residents being able to use Second Life as a place to rest and regenerate and play.

It appears that some members may not have gotten the group notice I sent out before disbanding the group; if you were ejected from SLAGG tonight, it was only because the group was disbanded.

It's a bit sad to see the group go, but better a disbanded group than a sort of undead shell of a group!

And it's particularly sad to see these lovely t-shirts Eris designed go to waste!



^^^\ Kate /^^^

Organizing people in Second Life is not like herding cats. Herding cats is easier. Organizing people in Second Life is like herding cats that disappear.

So this is a problem that has come up for the Second Life Anti-Griefing Guild (SLAGG): we began the group with large meetings where we were beset by griefers. This was actually kind of fun, as the griefers were not very effective, and we began to be able to hash out what we needed to do.

So the next phase was organizing anti-griefers into small groups to get specific tasks done. For the success of this phase, I refer you to the thing I wrote up there about herding cats that disappear.

So, how does a group get something done if organization is nearly impossible? Stop organizing! That's the plan, anyway. SLAGG needs to become a one-on one organization.

To that end, what we need at this point are Anti-Griefing Captains. These would be responsible, experienced people willing to keep in touch with several Anti-Griefing Volunteers each to help keep the volunteers on track and funnel information into the organization and out to the members. I'll work one-on-one with Anti-Griefing captains to find out what kind of Volunteers they want to work with and make sure they have the information and resources they need to do that, then get them paired up with Volunteers.

To qualify for consideration for an Anti-Griefing Captains commission, here are the requirements:

* Regularly available in Second Life (on for at least a couple of hours at least a few days a week)
* At least two months old
* Has never participated in griefing
* Is not affiliated with any griefing group
* Has at least two personal references from avatars who are also at least two months old
* Willing and able to keep in touch with at least three Volunteers
* Willing to uphold the tenets of SLAGG (these include not attacking or counter-attacking griefers, treating people with consideration, innocent until proven griefer, and of course not griefing)
* A good dancer

(OK, the good dancer thing isn't strictly speaking a requirement, but c'mon, that's an easy one!)

Please IM me (Kate Amdahl) to apply for an Anti-Griefing Captain position. Yes, you do get a free t-shirt. (That's what you wanted to know, wasn't it?)

Picture: My friend Endymion, who is not an Anti-Griefing Captain but who looks swell in a uniform.

Since I expect I and others will have a fair bit of information to post about anti-griefing and the Second Life Anti-Griefing Guild (SLAGG), I created a LiveJournal group for it at http://communities.livejournal.com/slagg .

Our first meeting has been rescheduled to 7:00 PM SLT this Friday. We'll concentrate on organizing the various specialty groups (like griefographers, communicators, security specialists, and that kind of thing). Please see the SLAGG blog for more info!

Well, the Second Life Anti-Griefing Guild (SLAGG) was going to have its first meeting this past Saturday evening, but unfortunately I (who was to be hosting the meeting) had connection problems and we had to postpone the meeting. And about 20 people still showed up! So when I finally managed to get online for a little while, amid glitchy SL music streaming, we chatted about griefing, suggestions for Linden Labs (always a popular topic!), and anti-griefing techniques.

Between research, several knowledgeable people there and a helpful e-mail earlier in the day from Torley Linden, here are some easy anti-griefing techniques. We'll work on making up a little guide of this kind of thing that we'll circulate for free as a notecard in-world and post on the Web.

(By the way, did anyone think to save a log of the meeting? I'm terrible at that. Drop me a copy of the notecard if you did, OK?)

One of the attendees of our non-meeting was probably a griefer showing up as an alt, but we didn't have any griefing problems, and it's not as though we discuss anything (to steal a phrase from Maus Ennui) soopah seekrit (did I spell that the right way?).

If you aren't a resident of Second Life, these particulars may not interest you. And to add insult to injury, I don't have any pictures to post today unless you want to see my Yet Another Great New Dress. *Kate slaps her own hand in rebuke.*

If you have any corrections or other handy bits of information, please comment away!

* In general, teleporting away or logging off temporarily can be very effective in making a griefer give up. Also, if you see anyone griefing, please report them to the Lindens. Filing an abuse report may not be as effective as we'd like, but it can help in some cases, especially if a lot of people are reporting one griefer or group.

* If someone cages you (encloses you in a shape), sit on a non-physical prim. (A non-physical prim is one for which the "physical" setting has not been turned on and that therefore doesn't react to the physics model that SL has built in. Most builds are probably non-physical except for a lot of vehicles. If you right click somewhere, select create, and make a box, that box will be non-physical.)

OK, once you're sitting, right-click the object and select edit. Now use the arrows to move the object around. Whee! You can (usually) go right through the walls of the cage. Or create or rez a non-physical object outside the cage and sit on that, and SL will sort of pretend there's nothing in the way. :)

An even easier way to get uncaged is to just teleport away. If you teleport back, though, the cage may come after you again.

You can also try sitting on the cage itself, which will work in some cases. Personally, I enjoy the irony of this option. :)

* If someone tries to move you, for instance to throw you around or eject you into orbit, sit on a non-physical object or on the ground, which reputedly makes it impossible to move you! Just have a seat and get on with your business. :)

I plan to build a non-physical chair that you can move around with the movement controls, which we can distribute as a freebie. If someone comes around and starts trying to push you hither and yon, you can sit in your anti-griefing chair and be immune to those attacks while still being able to get around.

* If someone is plaguing you with a horde of something...Hello Kittys, locusts, or any other kind of particle effect (which includes most glowy kind of effects and most effects where a bunch of something are flying around), you can just turn off particles, making the things invisible, until the griefer gets bored and goes away. You can turn particle effects on and off (I'm told) by pressing ctrl alt shift = on Windows computers. Does anyone know the key combination on Macintoshes?

* If someone is bothering you through chat, IM, or audio, mute that person! You can right click on the person and select more, then mute ... or you can open up the chat history to get a handy drop-down mute list.

We have more useful anti-griefing information to share (recommendations for keeping griefers off your land, ways to share ban lists, and more), but I thought this would be a good start for basic techniques. If anyone would like to help contributing to, maintaining, or distributing anti-griefing information, please IM me. As always, SLAGG discourages counter-griefing and revenge, as they are bad for the digestive system. Thanks!

^^^\ Kate /^^^