Un-Persons

I didn't realize the Lindens had done this, did you? Now, if you mute a person, the system will turn them gray and somewhat shrunken, so their avatar is merely a kind of non-person. You can still see their outline, but especially in a group, you won't notice them.

The other night when we were griefed, and actually, even before that, I noticed that some of the idiots I had muted in the past were appearing as small gray men. I thought this was just yet another version of their griefy shtick, a kind of spoof skin they made, to appear as if they hadn't rezzed yet or something -- a joke like Missing Image.

In fact, the system turns them into non-people and grays them out. Just as it turns people with rezzing difficulties who you haven't muted into blurs of light, known by some as Caspers, with the verb, "Caspering" meaning not to show up except as that ball of light like a ghost (this, instead of the Ruth, which used to bother men who felt humiliated they had been turned into women by the system).

I really oppose turning people into non-people. It's wrong. It's inhuman, even to an avatar. I may be forced to mute people just because they spam or constantly spew hate into my inbox, and as I have a lot of IMs open and am trying to concentrate, and in a group meeting especially the asses can really be distracting, I mute them. If they are frequent-flyer griefers, muting them takes the motivation out of their griefing -- that desire to annoy depends on the target to reciprocate, to respond, to interact. If you don't, they go away. But I don't feel that just because I don't want to hear from an asshole, a griefer, a spammer, that they should be rendered into non-people, gray blobs. That's wrong. They have an intrinsic dignity and worth as human beings, even if they have chosen to manifest like douches or are spamming me with racist obscene spam or whatever they are doing that is obnoxious. They still are the signifier of a human being, which still has rights -- just not rights to manifest right into my face. I really don't think that the muting tool should be used except in really extreme situations (like that racist spam the other night) or with really persistent idiots (like Woodbury) -- but it need not be accompanied by a depersonalization. And yet I bet I'm in a distinct minority thinking this.

Most people would not only want to mute the voice and the image, they'd like the person not to show up at all (I think they ran things that way at Red Light District). Tekkies, for separate reasons that have nothing to do with human rights, want "presence" to be manifested on the servers so they can control it, I guess. They hate the idea that someone can make themselves disappear or not be visible - because I guess they could grief more? and not be counted by the system for all its manifold purposes, including data scraping. Viewing a world without an avatar presence, of course, is something some people want and they get on other platforms.

The consequences of having people muted and grayed out or even to have extreme concepts like having even their very builds and such disappeared too (which some would love if they have ugly neighbours) -- it's like Stalin erasing the comrades out of the photographs.

Mind you, some people are best left muted. Here's this guy in the photo, Sean18, a frequent flyer annoyance at the Ross infohub, where he began his career 2 years ago or so by shooting me and my customers in the mall and being a general ass. He then became part of the Infohub Infestation, but then began to migrate away, in part to busy himself with his various anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist blah blah campaigns which I guess he runs out of his council flat in Great Britain. This is the sort of folk that often greet newbies by a sense of eminent domain in SL -- more's the pity. Sean has evidently been in a terrible accident lately, but it hasn't diminished his hate program:

Here's a sample:

[16:16]  Sean18 McCarey: well as for obama i'm not certain yet
[16:16]  Sean18 McCarey: not too happy with somethings
[16:16]  Miaterzia Parx: like what?
[16:16]  Sean18 McCarey: but yet this mccain woud be much worse
[16:16]  Sean18 McCarey: like he bombs people
[16:16]  Sean18 McCarey: with a remote controlled plane
[16:17]  Miaterzia Parx: yes I agree
[16:17]  Miaterzia Parx: It will take him a lot of time to really change things
[16:18]  Sean18 McCarey: yes but we must have complete change
[16:18]  Sean18 McCarey: we can't have milage increase on cars
[16:19]  Sean18 McCarey: we need 80 percent electric cars
[16:19]  Miaterzia Parx: yes I know
[16:19]  Sean18 McCarey: in 2 years
[16:19]  Sean18 McCarey: not 10 years
[16:19]  Miaterzia Parx: but That will be hard to achieve
[16:19]  Sean18 McCarey: if not obama then I worry for the usa
[16:19]  Sean18 McCarey: he is the best person it will only get worse if he doesn't make change
[16:20]  Miaterzia Parx: yes, right
[16:20]  Sean18 McCarey: but they must unstrangle the hold of zionism also this is a big problem in the US congress and white house
[16:20]  Sean18 McCarey: it wasn't a problem in england but now it is
[16:21]  Miaterzia Parx: mmm what changed exactly?
[16:22]  Sean18 McCarey: well if you don't know it's hard to convey
[16:22]  Sean18 McCarey: neocons in the usa are really largely dual citizen israelis and they are working for the very worst elements of israel.
[16:22]  Sean18 McCarey: they have finally had actual power under gw bush
[16:23]  Sean18 McCarey: and with 8 years they took over england in part as blair complied
[16:23]  Sean18 McCarey: but even the BBC is affected
[16:23]  Sean18 McCarey: we are both powerful nations and yet beholden to the will of zionists
[16:23]  Sean18 McCarey: it's not right
[16:24]  Miaterzia Parx: mmmm dont know... I detest Israelic policy, but I dont see them supported by european countries very much
[16:24]  Sean18 McCarey: yes more and more even euro is
[16:25]  Sean18 McCarey: but with this last attack on Gaza it has harmed the israelis image
[16:25]  Miaterzia Parx: yes.. Israel doesnt get any support for that in holland, as far as I hear
[16:26]  Sean18 McCarey: no but they you hear all the people of congress in the usa support this and it's all because they are bribed by israel directly
[16:27]  Sean18 McCarey: sanators state after they leave congress how the feared to tell the truth about israel
[16:27]  Miaterzia Parx: Yes I know thats the case in America...but thats for decades already
[16:27]  Sean18 McCarey: yes but much worse since bush
[16:27]  Sean18 McCarey: bush gave them control of the usa government in many ways
[16:27]  Sean18 McCarey: obama reversed this but still must make all of the bush people leave
[16:28]  Sean18 McCarey: he takes too long
[16:28]  Sean18 McCarey: obama has talked on arab tv this is a big change
[16:28]  Sean18 McCarey: but then he continues the evil practices such as guantanamo
[16:29]  Miaterzia Parx: mmm... at least in america the new government can bring along their own staff... in Holland everybody outside direct government keeps their jobs, so they can hold back changes
[16:29]  Sean18 McCarey: oh sorry
[16:30]  Sean18 McCarey: that can be good and bad
[16:30]  Sean18 McCarey: if the people in government can be bribed?
[16:30]  Miaterzia Parx: mmm yes ..
[16:31]  Sean18 McCarey: oh i thought holland was honest
[16:31]  Flight Band: All Go
[16:31]  Miaterzia Parx: haha... I really dont know... guess we are no better than any other country
[16:31]  James Gallacher: an hnest government?!?
[16:32]  James Gallacher: what planet are you from?
[16:32]  James Gallacher: lol
[16:33]  Sean18 McCarey: still it makes many decisions pro people
[16:33]  Sean18 McCarey: usa it's a few businesses they buy off the politicians then all other businesses and people are harmed
[16:33]  James Gallacher shrugs
[16:33]  James Gallacher: not getting into that
[16:34]  Miaterzia Parx: yeah I see
[16:34]  James Gallacher: ok i can tell how this'll endup
[16:34]  James Gallacher: have fun
[16:34]  Sean18 McCarey: truth hurts
[16:34]  Miaterzia Parx: yes it does
[16:35]  Sean18 McCarey: some peple I know say I don't want to know... I just want to go work int he garden and pretend crime is not going on
[16:35]  Sean18 McCarey: but what of the suffering people

Er, yes, indeed, Sean18, what of the suffering people!

There's more!

[16:35]  Miaterzia Parx: right.. bad attitude
[16:35]  Sean18 McCarey: usa they imprison people for being homeless
[16:36]  Sean18 McCarey: horrible prisions that cost 40 thousand a year
[16:36]  Miaterzia Parx: so they arent homeless anymore ..
[16:36]  Miaterzia Parx: yes I heayd of that
[16:36]  Sean18 McCarey: yes but why should they be locked up?
[16:36]  Miaterzia Parx: agree... they shouldnt be left homeless in the first place
[16:37]  Miaterzia Parx: We have them in holland too of course...they never did anything wrong...just had very much bad luck in life
[16:37]  Sean18 McCarey: I keep thinking why is basic housing so expensive?
[16:38]  Sean18 McCarey: people should be guaranteed basic housing
[16:38]  Sean18 McCarey: in usa many homeless are just regular people who used to live in the suburbs
[16:39]  Miaterzia Parx: You could squat of course... in Holland that was a very good way to enforce changing.. fight against land barons
[16:39]  Sean18 McCarey: does it still go on?
[16:40]  Miaterzia Parx: I still live in a house that I once squatted..some 8 years ago
[16:40]  Miaterzia Parx: the house lost its value.. now the local government owns it, and we pay rent..
[16:41]  Miaterzia Parx: but that would never have been the case if we hadnt squatted it first
[16:41]  Sean18 McCarey: lol
[16:41]  Sean18 McCarey: love it
[16:42]  Sean18 McCarey: that's how it can be in england where many live in government owned housing
[16:43]  Miaterzia Parx: some 10 years ago we had many house owners, that left the houses empty..just to sell it further..it was terrible... much room available, but also many people homeless
[16:43]  Sean18 McCarey: In the USA if you squat you will be thrown out on the street in many places as little as a month or less and all your items thrown out on the edge of the street
[16:44]  Sean18 McCarey: but now not many homeless?
[16:45]  Miaterzia Parx: well..still too many... but it has been much worse
[16:47]  Sean18 McCarey: i'm just going to think about that and read about holland
[16:47]  Sean18 McCarey: I know germany sommat
[16:47]  Miaterzia Parx: you ve been there?
[16:47]  Sean18 McCarey: my sister likes to go on holiday there
[16:47]  Sean18 McCarey: yes
[16:48]  Miaterzia Parx: what places?
[16:48]  Sean18 McCarey: all around
[16:49]  Sean18 McCarey: i especially like when we go to quaint villages

I'll bet!

Obviously, the temptation would be great to gray out an ignorant hater educated on the Internet with all kinds of stupid conspiracy theories and falsehoods. I keep him on mute -- and gray -- not only because I don't wish to listen to Zionist conspiracy drek all day, but because I don't want to engage a shooter and griefer, who also posted this on my bulletin board in Ross:

Post-It Note: Note 1 from Sean18 McCarey
Post-It Note: Prok needs to be stopped utterly.  I will pay 500L$ for a script that kills IN REAL LIFE!!!

When I abuse-reported this, and also just left it up to help discredit this weird, violent conspiracy-filled hater, he came back and posted more notices trying to make light of it:

Post-It Note: Note 7 from Sean18 McCarey
Post-It Note: Yes we have almost perfected the death script.  The lindens have given me critical information on my development although they said to keep it hush-hush.
Post-It Note: Note 13 from Sean18 McCarey
Post-It Note: the lindens have perfected the LLKillinRealLife code so it's just a matter of time.  This is top secret.

Sigh.

Comments

[Sean Williams]

You have apparently never heard of visual griefing using attachments and the like.

Think a bit more before flying off the handle with some sort of bullshit entry like this: Mute has been expanded to cover not just text and audio griefing, but a limited form of visual griefing as well: That is all.

There are no "Un-People", just visually muted avatars (which are not people, the typist is a person however).

[Erebus Kaul]

I agree with you that seeing a lot of grayed out avatars might be annoying for aesthetic reasons. On a couple occasions I have muted people temporarily, not because of griefing, but because they were doing something I found annoying. In a case like that, given the option, I wouldn't gray out the avatar, but, frankly, I wouldn't get that worried about it. If anything it would be a reminder to unmute them later when I thought they weren't being so annoying (or, more likely, when I wasn't in such a cranky mood).

And, I suppose, to the extent that this removes the details of an individual's avatar it is to some small degree dehumanizing. However... in the scheme of dehumanizing aspects of modern civilization, I don't think this one is very serious. It would be one thing if the Lindens swooped down like the secret police and did something so that everyone saw a person's avatar in this way. But that's not what happens. The mutee sees them gray, but nothing changes on their end, or in the viewers of other people in the area.

SL can be very immersive and one can strongly identify with a person through their avatar. This is hardly news. But the main qualities of an individual come through in what they say, what they type. Clearly we express ourselves with our avatars by what we have (or don't have), as well as homes and builds and scripts, etc., but the vast majority of a person's character and personality comes through in chat. If one person mutes another the they are already preventing the muted one from any conversation, that, I think, is where any (very small) dehumanizing effect comes from. The graying out the avatar just makes that more obvious and makes it harder to ignore that these people are being ignored.

[Monk Zymurgy]

How did you capture the chat log? Are you allowed to post chat logs that originate from SL? I cannot see the relevance between the posts title/subject and the chat log. If it was a lolsome example of the sort of person who deserves to be muted, I guess it makes sense, I did not get any hate feelings from his chat, just paranoia of zionism/israel (a common internet fear for some reason) and a wish for change. Grayed avatars seems a bit odd. I doubt if I get muted too often, but if I have said something horrid or talked too long about something, its a suitable punishment.

[Prokofy Neva]

You're not worthy of an answer, Monk, as I've explained before, because you're just the latest version of the classic young, ignorant and insolent Internet male showing up to heckle me. But for the other weak and uninformed minds not getting what is wrong with Sean18's chat, I'll respond.

Uh, yes dear, you are allowed to copy and publish chat logs. We live in a free country. These are not private conversations. They take place in public places. They are not in IMs, but in a public sim open to the public. Linden Lab does not own these servers my blog is on. Their domain does not stretch to these servers. Their TOS does not apply to other servers.

Er, the Second Life interface itself has an option to capture and preserve chat logs with individuals or in rooms or groups automatically. See edit/preferences.

Sean is the typically stupid Internet-educated British wanker who is anti-semitic and suspects Jewish plots everywhere. There are legions of them on the Internet and in SL. British anti-semitism is a historic problem going way back, and has only gotten worse. It's one of the banes of the world. None of the things Sean says are true. The neocons may be ethnically Jewish but they don't have "dual citizenship". Even if you stretch that notion to include the readiness of Israel to grant citizenship, these people wouldn't qualify, say, if their mother wasn't Jewish. Furthermore, they don't "bribe" congress. You can't just "bribe" congress. Look at the case of the Illionois senator and what a scandal and what publicity his office-selling has gotten -- this stuff always gets covered by the free media and free society eventually and removed.

There isn't any "fear of Zion" in the congress as you have a range of views and some very active pro-palestinian advocates as well.

The entire thing is ridiculous, conspiratorial, and ignorant. Even people very critical of U.S. foreign policy and support of Israel don't make these silly, childish, ignorant claims of Zion buying media or politicians and controlling them through bribes and blackmail.

Obviously, one has to ask, if Israel and Jews have all the power that ignorant Sean18 thinks they have sitting in his council flat on the dole in the UK surfing his silly Internet, why haven't they been able to turn public opinion in Europe and get the EU to stop funding some of the more obvious groups advocating violence and destruction of Israel? Here these Jews run the media, yet they can't stop the media from taking Palestine's side and distorting the facts. Go know!

[AlterEgoTrip Svenska]

I don't like it when you don't have the consideration to even answer some people, some people who were asking a question with sincerity, something that you UTTERLY lack Prokofy.

I don't care about your TAKE on the information you thought was public to be mashed through your little grinding stomach/translation machine either... it wasn't important, I think it was important to address that although its a public chat, it may have actually been unethical to repeat anything you assume you heard because you may have it all totally wrong.

But as you say, I'm not talking to you, Prok, cos you're not worth my time or effort, but yet I address the way you behave openly and publicly where you can see it...and may even refer to you.. you are a troll even on your own freaking blogg.. Keep shouting out your propaganda.. shout it alone when people don't even bother to answer you or read your blogg and ask questions, then you can generate as much propaganda from trolling others bloggs.

[Gareth Nelson]

I find this amusing, as essentially the individual themselves has no means of knowing what their avatar looks like on other people's screens.
As a more extreme example, there's SLProxy hacks out there which filter out clothing and make all avatars render nude. People cried foul at this, and ranted about what they'd do to anyone who used it to look at them, but they will never know - anyone they meet inworld could be using it.

Nobody has the right to demand that you render their avatar in a way pleasing to them. On the other hand, you aren't required to use the mute facility either, and if you find this new feature displeasing then do the usual and file a JIRA to make the visual mute optional - i'm sure many would agree with you that the visual component should be optional.

[Monk Zymurgy]

You say alot of unkind things..maybe all of the recipients (I am one of them) deserve it..and you are the righteous one. The worst thing I have said about you is that you 'foam at the mouth' by that I mean you become enraged and shouty, a slander of sorts , so sorry. I just thought slandering people by name, and using recorded conversation maybe against some rules. Thank you for clearing this up. Most of the hideously anti-semitic, 'blame the jews/zionist' sites I see, originate from the USA. (see www.stormfront.com if you have a strong stomach) ...the klu-klux-klan are currently working with Iranians to see that the next generation of Arabs dont beleive that hitler commited gross genocide..meanwhile Israel puts up a wall, in some hope this will fix things for them. I hope more than anyone this crazy shit will end.
UK is not obviously anti-semetic, I would say the anti-muslim hatewar is a bigger problem for the youth. Here the Jewish peoples are getting attacked by muslims mainly, from what I see in the news. Of course we were bad..very bad, along with russia, portugal, spain to name a few other historicaly pogromatic nations. And neo-cons scare the beJesus out of me..dont know why, maybe i am paranoid too...Love and Peace. Thanks for saying I am young *beams all toothy*

[Dale Innis]

(Somewhat OT: Gareth: this SLProxy hack that removes everyone's clothing from your view sounds impossible to me; afaik AV textures are rendered by baking on the client of that user, sent into the grid, and then sent out to everyone else. If someone has never seen me except fully clothed, then their computer has never had a copy of my tummy-pixels to render, whatever fancy SLProxy stuff they do. I'm guessing this is an urban legend? Evidence that I'm wrong would be most welcome.)

[Monk Zymurgy]

You can pull keys for all of the clothing components from your cache, i have seen keys for other peoples skins in my cache, and I dont tend to visit nudist areas..I dont know about SLProxy, but it would seem possible to do what is claimed..if one was into it.

[Ann Otoole]

@Dale - The Naked Life viewer was sold on xstreet. Probably still is.

Again the only privacy in Second Life is a private island with private access.

[Grizzy Griswold]

I like this idea actually. Not because I wish to render someone as an "unperson" but some griefers continue to grief through the use of their avatar after they have been muted. A griefer can show up and say rude, disruptive, racist, vulgar, and hateful things and then get muted. Their next step is to attach a giant penis to their avatar that takes up half the screen and force you to look at it. If muting them turns them into this little gray man, they don't have that power anymore either. Now the only power a griefer can have is to rezz something obnoxious and most places have building and scripts turned off. This is a good thing.

[Dale Innis]

Hasn't this greying of muted people been in effect for a long time? I seem to remember a Second Thoughts post about it at least a year ago, even. :) But maybe I am misremembering.

On "Naked Life": heh! Learn something new every day. I will have to revisit my understanding of just how AV baking works. That viewer hack is still on XLwhatever, btw; item id 725497 in the "uncensored" section, if anyone else is curious. Too pricey for me to buy just out of geeky curiosity tho. :)

[Gareth Nelson]

Does naked life come with source? If not, why hasn't it been taken down?

Anyway.... I tested myself inworld the other day, by using debug on someone's avatar I could see the skin textures clearly.

[Dale Innis]

There's an (as far as I can tell GPL-conformant) offer at the bottom of the XLwhatever page about "Naked Life", offering to send source upon request.

I believe that it works. Now I just have to figure out why. :) Given that baking takes place clientside, why does my client ever need to see the original textures that were used for the baking? Maybe it doesn't have to, and it just does for side reasons. Will poke around.

[Gareth Nelson]

"Maybe it doesn't have to, and it just does for side reasons. Will poke around."

That would be my theory, as I said i've tested this (turn on view admin options, right click someone and click debug - their skin turns up).