For a brief, all too brief, period of time it looked as if the incident report/Police Blotter had made a stunning return to Second Life. There were reports on both the official forum as well as a thread over at SLUniverse. Indeed not only were incident reports back, they were back with names!
Now you may be wondering what the bloody hell the incident reports/Police Blotter is, well quite simply, it listed bad behaviours and punishment. Tyche Shepherd still has them available over at GridSurvey.com. Alarmingly the last report shows an incident in LindenWorld A, for: Harassment : Defaming individuals or groups This is regarding your picks page for: “EPITHET AND SYNONYM” Your local LUNATIC ASYLUM. A warning was issued for that! That’s most worrisome!
This got me delving into the wayback machine, where you can see the old Second Life site and get all nostalgic, it’s also interesting to see what got people in trouble back in the day, for example if we go back to June 2006 we can see that the following would get you a warning:
- Blocking acccess to another parcel on all four sides.
- Quoting from chat logs in profile.
- Posting mature classified thread in forums
- Using registered trademarks on items in SL.
- Nude avatar picture in profile.
- Offensive and annoying remarks.
- Providing fake casino script device for fraudulent use.
There are a few violations there that still come up today, but does anyone get a warning? Then there were the more serious issues
The following offences ended up with people being suspended for seven days:
- PG region – Obscenities despite repeated warnings
- Attempting to conceal involvement in fraud.
- Assisting in fake casino script theft.
- Fake slot machines offered to casino owners.
- Fascist imagery.
- Shooting in safe area, evading land ban.
- exploiting bug to send items to TG
I have no idea what happened there in Yeosol with what appears to have been an elaborate scam to con Casino owners, followed by an impressive takedown by undercover Lindens who captured the perps! Impressive stuff.
I could spend hours looking at those reports! However the one thing about those reports was, it was a sign of action being taken. I mean people may disagree with what action was taken and it’s interesting that back in 2006 forum offences could earn you warnings that would get published on the police blotter, however it was a sign of governance and that’s why it would be great to see the return of the incident reports page, although unlke the heady days of March 2007, we’re unlikely to see offences such as:
- Overabundance of camping chairs in a region.
Ah more nostalgia, camping, gone but not forgotten!