Sluniverse Summer Privacy Panic Blockbuster, or the Griefers' Violin Concerto vs. the JLU

There's nothing I hate more than the Big Lie, and a series of little lies and deliberate disinformation measures rolling and rolling into a bigger ball and into the Big Lie.

And that's what is essentially happening here on this thread at Sluniverse that seems to be longer and more dramatic than the infamous RedZone/zfire Xue drama, but which hasn't had the culmination that the Sharia Court mullahs at Sluniverse would like to see -- heads rolling and people arrested in real life (as zfire Xue, a repeat offender, was in RL over his various cyber crimes).

It's an outrageous thing to watch on so many levels, not only because of the ridiculous distractions and dodges and lies being told about the true nature of griefing, but the way in which people on the forums are played like a violin -- hence my headline.

Basically, what happened in a nutshell is that the Lindens finally caught up with the *third* incarnation of the Woodbury University griefing group and its related intertwined and spinoff griefing groups the Patriotic Nigras (!) and b-tards -- all related to W-hat, of course. They removed their islands *yet again* -- this time Revolution and Red Square I think it was called, owned by a mafioso, Atlas Saintlouis (sometimes said to be an alt of Robble Rubble, a serial frequent-flyer griefer on Ravenglass).

The Lindens did this -- we are told, and here I am reporting on the version of the story of others -- because Tux Winkler, either a land group owner or related to the entire caper in some fashion, used tracking scripts to track...something -- IP addresses, merely SL log-ons and locations, this is debated -- for which he was banned -- or as he puts it, "put on indefinite administrative hold" (*snort*). The JIRA side-drama is instructive to understand the mechanics and the caper pulled off here.

He and a bunch of the other Tizzers Foxchase alts and other griefing frequent flyers were all removed yet again, and they all came running and squealing in faux indignation and outrage and this "injustice" to Sluniverse, where they basically rolled the joint. Robble Rubble and Tux Winkler basically installed themselves among the various naifs and cynics (Robble was new to them, they had never seen these people heckling others inworld so didn't believe there was anything wrong with them) and led a constant drumbeat of speculation about the Justice League United, the inworld RP gang who go around fighting griefers.

Now, we all get it that vigilante groups are awful, I have no use for them. I don't want or need them; I don't cooperate with them. They exist because the Lindens began Second Life by blowing it up constantly to make it, and persisted in that destructive and hedonistic mode, basically letting anybody do whatever, even crash sims because it was all "emergent behaviour" and "load-testing" and "interesting".

They weren't interested in making a civilization; so they didn't get one. The line in the Lord of the Flies about having fun til the grownups come to fetch us -- that about sums it up.

Even so -- as I argue against Avril's claims -- the Lindens *are* managing their servers. They banned griefers for a third time. That's the problem. That's why they are howling and trying to deflect attention to other things. Don't let them do that.

So this current Griefscapade involves making claims that the JLU's infamous Brainiac data base has been hacked and leaked again by the Wrong Hands, which is Tux Winkler but just another PN/WU reincarnation (he vigorously denies they are related; of course they all are, they are constantly seen together inworld and have run griefing posses together; usually those that deny vigorously just ride shotgun and stand around and 'do nothing' so they can make this fake claim.)

Maybe it was hacked as in hacked with code, or maybe it was social-hacked, i.e. a member infiltrated and then began to leak out page by page so they wouldnt' be noticed. Like their grownup version WikiLeaks, TWH has been doling out things rather than dumping them -- and may not dump until they feel they are in danger of arrest or are giving up their infiltration.

So why do I say this is all a Big Lie?

Because what's happening is that an entire false impression is created from a Soviet-style "active measure," i.e. a propagandistic manipulation meant to change mass consciousness.

These griefers are riling people up to think their privacy is compromised by this database and that these superheroes should be banned from SL or even arrested in RL (!) for keeping files on people mixing RL and SL info. They are making it seem like these men in tights have "gone bad" and are now like Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney, keeping secret files and settling scores and breaking the law.

And not surprisingly, what we are seeing now is the Pavlovian response from some bloggers. Ciaran is saying the JLU's tights are around their ankles and they are in disgrace because...they have violated other people's privacy. Avril is also writing self-righteous copy about new privacy violations.

I really hate this snotty superior British leftism, I truly do. It's just such fucking *assholery*.

Because it's fake.

Yes, violating privacy is wrong. Yes, especially medical privacy.

But their case is a total propagandistic piece of bullshit. It's calculated to milk tears and incite hatred and outrage, but it's fake. TOTALLY FAKE. There is no privacy violation.

That's because the person involved himself linked his RL and SL names and publicized his AIDS condition in the mass media.

Remember Deadly Codec? The news is -- he's still dead, as they say about Lincoln. While he was alive and dying of AIDS -- we all learned of this not from JLU sleuthing but because he told us himself in copious amounts of text in newspapers, in an online local publication, and in a Youtube -- that he was ill with HIV. The youtube was in fact made in response to me -- and my doubting of the story. Why? Because Deadly was a PN griefer who had crashed sims and caused racist and ugly shitstorms in SL numerous times, including of me. He wrote that he enjoyed poking at me to get a rise out of me, it was fun. Part of their shtick was to rain down textures of a Jewish man at the wailing wall and then the word AIDS as if to say he was crying about AIDS, and AIDS panic was all over. This was part of their antisemitic crazy AIDS obsession -- from the meme "Pool's Out".

So naturally, if a person who has done THAT says he has AIDS in RL, you ask questions. You especially ask them if Deadly Codec (Joshua McCracken) has told an utterly flamboyant, dramatic story about falling in love with Pixeleen Mistral (Mark McCahill) online while chatting in SL, finding out she was a he in real life, then deciding therefore that he must be gay, and then going to gay clubs for a few weeks and contracting AIDS.

So the "horror" that Ciaran and Avril are writing about -- the *sole case that anyone has of any leaking of private data and medical information* is THAT CASE. THAT CASE WHICH IS BOGUS as you know.

Now, why isn't this coming out? Because Cristiano Midnight, owner and moderator of Sluniverse, is flying around in his own self-righteous white robes once again and banning people from publishing real-life information. No matter that *the guy himself* published his AIDS story and RL name and that JLU members would be linking to RL media that is already well in the public domain.

No matter that back in the day, Chris was hugely selective about this and was happy to have *my* RL information outed by the malicious Nolan Nash (now using the alt "Bing" on Slun). No matter that the guy is dead and it really is moot. Cristiano is now zealously -- and of course terribly opportunistically and politically! -- banning this now and that prevents the public from discussing WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON HERE -- which is not any massive invasion of privacy in fact or as a policy. (If you can really, trully, hand-on-heart come up with *a case* where the JLU has obtained illicit RL information from hacking, and not the public domain, i.e. from open sources where people openly talk about their RL/SL links, then by all means, come up with it.)

The confusion -- mental and moral -- comes from the fake wall of privacy that SL erects, where they say that even though we might "all know" about somebody in RL their RL is not fair game for SL. And I'm happy with that inside the confines of SL's servers. I should enjoy a SL and not be bombarded with pictures of myself from RL press, harassment memos about suffering from menopause, etc. etc.

People who are public figures -- and Joshua/Deadly was a very, VERY public figure who wrote a great deal and wrote tell-alls -- have to expect a lower level of protection. And it really is silly to be banning discussion of this person -- or banning links of his RL and SL on the forums at sluniverse.com just out of a slavish rectitude. Yes, there should be a rule that RL information should not be permitted -- people don't wish it there. But when a public figure has died, who linked these two things, that should be a ready exception. Geeky literalism once again hobbles the public discourse.

Another huge "outrage" going on is the "horror" that one of the JLU people contacted Deadly Codec's sister, which they could do *because they both had open and visible Facebook accounts* to see if in fact he was dying, and asked to be remembered to him.

Once you realize this wasn't an act of sleuthing or outing of privacy, but became possible because the guy outed himself, and once you see that it's ultimately a form of tribute to their RP of cops and robbers, you see it isn't a "horror". Yet it is being put out as a horrible, grave lapse of Internet manners -- and involves stalking, outing medical info, involving relatives, etc. etc.

Look, it may not be pleasant having a guy in tights from a game IM you because your brother was a griefer in a game they played, but then, that's not his fault, is it? If your brother was a griefer.

As you know, I myself called a funeral parlour to find out if Deadly had indeed died *because he was falsely reported as dead weeks before in fact he did die, so there was reason to suspect a hoax*.

That would not have been necessary if the "journalist" who was a pro-griefer journalism student had learned some basic reporting skills; you can't be a griefer for years and fool people and mislead them and lie to them and expect to be believed.

See, it's this lack of willingness to *take responsibility* and *be accountable for their actions* that is the real outrage -- like with the London riots that Ciaran probably also spins as something people only did because they were poor and lacked opportunities and evil MPs were all to blame because they padded their expense accounts. The MPs paid back their illgotten cash. We knew about this because the press did its job -- the press that many are busy savaging now. Did the rioters pay anything back?

Over and over again in this thread, I ask the simple questions:

Where is the case? What case do you have?

Tux Winkler makes the claim that one of the JLU called him at work in RL -- something he himself doesn't seem overly concerned about, and he continues to drop hints about his RL country, the nature of his business, etc. and knowing that in fact when you get somebody's IP address you *can* trace them to a place of employment if that's a work server, for example, perhaps someone really has outed him in RL.

I guess if you don't want that to happen, you shouldn't track other people and endlessly harass them in world and pretend that you aren't a griefer.

I think one of the chief reasons the JLU do fight the griefers so obsessively isn't so much because they grief, but because they lie about their griefing.

My approach to this is different. I don't want vigilantes, police, scripts, weapons, orbs. I just document griefing, report on it to the Lindens, write about it on my blog, and move on. Publicity is the best method. I have documented most of those people propagandizing in that thread as griefers, and I've put some of that into the thread.

Yet people like Avril and Ciaran, not to mention the hordes of people who show up at Sharia Court ill-informed or just tuning in, believe that this corrupt group of superheroes "has files on them". Or that the weakness of the "nothing to hide nothing to fear" argument in civil rights terms therefore trumps the actuality of documented griefing *which also violates civil rights*.

Here are the facts:

1. Tux Winkler, Kiddoh Korobase, Robble Rubble and others you see in that thread are permabanned. The JLU leaders like Kalel Venkman and GreenLantern Excelsior are not banned. That should give you a reality check: the Lindens ban for cause.

2. The person who invoked a colleague who got a search warrant to examine the JLU database -- Cummere Mayo -- may have a rather concocted story but even if true, could involve RL police over-stepping their bounds, too.

3. The database isn't on "everyone". It isn't on the overwhelming majority of people on Sluniverse.com. It's on griefers reported for griefing.

4. Does that make it right to harm their privacy, just because they are griefing in a virtual world, and dig up RL info? No, of course not. But that hasn't happened. Not a single one of those griefers, except Tux Winkler to a tiny degree, claims a breach of privacy. That's because were they to make themselves into privacy victims, somebody -- those police? -- would need to see proof. And there isn't any. Except the "case" of Deadly Codec. More to the point, like the unfortunate maid in the DSK case, their own bad behaviour would then become the focus, and their claims of rights abuses would tend to wither on the vine.

4. Joshua Nightshade, who is a very troubled and broken person who stalked me for a long time and was banned from this blog, and who is the one who sent out the picture of my RL door (and claimed he was just being "helpful" and got it from a day-old alt of a griefer), asked to have his entry in this wiki removed, and it was removed. He doesn't grief inworld, but griefs on forums. He says they had his RL name (which of course, he gave out and linked years ago) and other RL information. How? Who knows?

But this, too, isn't a case that constitutes a smoking gun proving that the JLU scrapes data about RL, links it with SL, and pipes it for use into SL (which would be a TOS violation and grounds for banning).

It isn't a crime to gather info on people in SL. It's done by thousands of groups and hundreds of thousands of individuals. Everyone keeps score. The back of every avatar has a section called NOTES for you to fill in, and they can't see what you write. People griefed frequently keep records. That's ok. That is not against the TOS.

It's also not a crime to out an alt or a RL name outside the LL servers. It's the biggest RP sport of the world, in fact, to engage in this witch-hunting. But RL police would have to have more to hang their hat on -- proof that a minor was involved, for example. Or medical info. But they don't. It's bullshit.

We don't know if the JLU folks were piping back into SL this wiki stuff on an operational basis -- but maybe they didn't have to, if they had their outworld groups and connections on Skype, etc.

Perhaps because they are working so hard at it to distract from their own dirty deeds (ADirty Deed, Robble Robble?), perhaps because they unabashedly use any hack or exploit they need to, the Wrong Hands will "come up with something" about the JLU. Perhaps they will "get them banned" in the eternal SL game. I don't see it happening, actually, because there just isn't enough evidence. But it may.

Given that Cristiano has locked GreenLantern Excelsior out of his forums for "linking RL info" and given that Kalel apparently has decided not to endure the heckling there, the JLU is not telling their side of the story. In one respect, they aren't going to have sympathy given that they are a vigilante group, and the SLintelligentsia is basically against such groups (even while the ordinary gridizen may rely on them or join them to be part of the fun or not even know about them.)

I asked GreenLantern for an interview, and at first he agreed and took some questions via email, but then he said that JLU has decided not to make any statements now and that there might be some "changes" in the group.

Does the JLU have "a lot of explaining to do" and "owe it to the public to apologize"?

Oh, I dunno. Explain what? That they don't keep files on "everybody" but only on griefers? That these files really don't have any RL info because it's hard to get? That the case of Deadly Codec is hardly a privacy-buster because he was so public in the RL mass media himself and on Youtube? That Tux tracked people and had to expect he'd get some retaliation? Turnabout is fair play sort of thing?

Ciaran harrumphs about the idea that some would exonerate tracking of people *if* they are griefers or suspects (terrorists?) and says "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is an invalid argument. But while we can all recognize the abuses that can come when vigilantes do this, that doesn't distract from the other piece of it: that they were tracking people who were in fact were guilty and documented as griefing and something's got to be done about that.

THAT piece of the civil rights equation keeps getting lost. The Sluniverse.com mob -- people who don't log into SL or log on to their little islands or stores or whatever and never see the world -- they tend to minimize griefing HORRIBLY. They just don't get. But my civil rights, so to speak, regarding the enjoyment of Second Life count, too. And what is tracked here is *true* and is in fact something I've documented myself, and I don't want these griefers harming me and my tenants. Blather on as you will about civil rights and privacy -- what about me and my tenants? And everyone else's?

The Lindens removed these people from SL *for cause*. THREE TIMES. They are distracting from that bald fact with bald lies.

If there were cases like this, one might be concerned:

o an innocent girlfriend of a griefer -- say Tuxette, if she isn't just his female alt (which seems more than likely) -- is tracked, documented and linked to RL, even though she has nothing to do with griefing

o if someone literally just in the same sandbox or store where griefers were attacking winds up in the list and tracked to real life

o if people who merely had funny names were tracked

But...those aren't the cases anyone is coming up with. If these vigilantes were the ruthless privacy-busters everyone says, we'd see lots and lots of cases. We'd see huge dossiers just on people like Cristiano, who do not grief whatsoever inworld -- just because they associate with or give a pass to griefers. We'd see the leaks that would make this point.

Where are the leaks? As not only Ann Otoole has pointed out (who has made some of the most level-headed comments throughout this drama, as usual) but even Tux himself.

They are slowing or even denying there is a leak because they may have realized they have "gone too far". Or because more to the point, they don't have the goods. And they get more value -- as always! -- making people fear a leak than actually having a leak.

Arvil claims the JLU are "tapdancing" around the SL TOS and RL laws. Oh? Where? Because they sent a FB message to a dying man's sister that they could know about because he himself linked and publicized his story?  There isn't a court in the land that would take that bogus case. This is a country where people are allowed to demonstrate across the street from soldiers' funerals and say they died as God's punishment for legalizing gays (!). Sad, but true, and necessary to maintain free speech.

Does the JLU track IP addresses and match them to out alts? They seem to get the down-low about alts all the time, but more often than not because people like Cam blurt them out in chat, calling a new alt by his old name.

And as I've pointed out in the thread several times, what JLU has been reportedly doing is no more than what Ban-Link created by Travis Lambert did -- and that was used and approved by this same bunch of oldbies at Sluniverse.com because they loved Travis and loved the Shelter. See, it's about being an outsider, not an insider.

I'm not saying anything that some of the very Sluniverse.com types themselves don't privately think, but I've been subjected to the most foul and vulgar harassment on that thread and of course, posting of my RL pictures (the very ones I posted to help young Josh Piper learn some basic respect for private property) -- in the mistaken "hyprokisy" gambit that always ensues from my common-sense posts.

Look, they don't have a case. Sharia Slun has huffed and puffed with 7,000 posts plus now, and it has not produced a case. There is such a basic concept of habeus corpus. Even Cummere Mayo, who is playing cop on this show and invoking RL cops, says that the victims have to come forward.

And there are no victims.

In the end, Ciaran gloats and Avril squirms and twists when confronted on her blog with the fact that she's been played like a violin as has Sluniverse.com -- with the sourcing for all this drama all in griefer blogs. She keeps struggling to say there is still more mystery to come out regarding the IPs, but then finally devolves to saying "but the Lindens are to blame".

This is mere surrogate battling. The Lab is not really the problem, the griefers are. They are the ones who grief. The Lab tries to keep up. The Lab could do some more things. We will disagree on what these things should be. I'd want it to be a triple-transparent police blotter -- all major incidents, publishing all names, of griefers, abuse reporters, and prosecuting Lindens. Absolutely. Like real life.

The Lindens are likely to be merely adding to...tools. To them, griefing is just a tool-problem. Think up a script, like a Psyke orb to bounce people to kingdom come. Or think up a way to remove the view of griefers. Or remove the view of yourself so they can't see you (the new parcel feature).

And they are likely to evade the hard work of governance again in the customer-service state (as Ed Castronova calls it in his book about the flight to the virtual world).

Second Life has been used by hands-on big-time thugs in Anonymous who hack RL sites like Visa or PayPal to prototype -- this has been admitted. So RL law-enforcement will show up sooner or later. And what will interest them will be rather the thuggish griefers who lie about their griefing and crash sims and themselves harvest data rather than those fighting them.

Of course, to remain civilized, you "can't become like them". But...you don't become like them when you do due diligence, repel their lies and distractions, and abuse report and ban them. What you do then is prevent them from undermining freedoms for everyone -- which is also about civil rights, quite frankly.

 

 

Comments

[Cornelius]

This has to be the best summary of what is "really going on" over there on the SLUniverse. The Herald is once again spinning the story in predictable fashion and reveals another in a long string of complicit behaviors.

One thing that is always strikingly clear, is that you have a good command of the bigger picture and the historical relevance Prok.

Great coverage. Thanks!

[Lum Lumley]

I agree. I thought this smacked of Woodbury-ista "active measures" as you termed it and, well, sometimes first impressions are correct ones. Plus, really, if the SL Herald flogs a story, there's a reason for it. And almost always a bad one.

I've tangled with Greenlantern Excelsior many times in Second Citizen's political forums (we are, to put it mildly, on different sides of the political spectrum) and the whole role-played vigilante justice thing the JLU does always struck me as mildly creepy, but this whole Two Minutes Hate going on is far beyond all that and GLE and the JLU in general are completely justified in cutting off the air supply to it.

[Moody M]

I lurk on SLU but I would never post there they are bunch of hyenas waiting to rip to shreds from you.What strikes me about that particular thread is those not posting in it and the ones posting asking about their own wiki pages. Those two things alone speak absolute volumes, the ones laying low and keeping a low profile are worried of their own info being published and those asking if there is info on them having obviously done something they are worried about. The rest of is dramalamma

[GreenLantern Excelsior]

I told Deadly's sister that I was a friend of his from Second Life, and asked if she would say hello for me. She thanked me for the thought, but at that point Deadly was already too far gone for speech or hearing. As far as his sister ever knew, I was just Some Guy On The Internet who wanted to wish him well. Anyone who tries to make that into a harassment case is lying.

I swear (or affirm or aver) that I didn't read this entry until after I submitted my interview response. I agree with both commenters and with you. This is a great article.

[EnCore Mayne]

tl;dr

i think the point being made is that SL's atypical adherents (one's wanting to be a part of the gang) are by and large merely juvenile delinquents. they are a cloistered rabble of ne'er do wells cloying for attention. good for business should we have no mesh to build in the mean time. the vast majority of residents (were there to be a cohesive community) are fully cognisant of their type. promoting their anonymous handles as having some sort of recognizable personalities and attributable human functions does more harm to the peaceful aspect created through judicious use of IGNORE them. they're really harmless in and of themselves. don't rattle their cages.

[Midori]

I told Deadly's sister that I was a friend of his from Second Life, and asked if she would say hello for me. She thanked me for the thought, but at that point Deadly was already too far gone for speech or hearing. As far as his sister ever knew, I was just Some Guy On The Internet who wanted to wish him well. Anyone who tries to make that into a harassment case is lying.

No but it does make you deceptive ...
So the question arises beneath the veneer of politeness if once how many other times have you shall we say been playing with the truth?

[Prokofy Neva]

You need a first and last valid SL name or RL name to post here Midori.

It doesn't make him deceptive in the least. That's utter bullshit. this incident is being deliberately, tendentiously blown out of proportion merely to try to incite public sentiment.

It's a deathbed greeting from one role-player to another. If anything, it's a homage. The sister wasn't stalked or harmed. If she didn't know by then that her brother was an infamous griefer, she'd figure it out later. End of story.

[GreenLantern Excelsior]

I met Deadly at a GTeam Office Hours meeting when he was going by the name Adromor Weirwright, I think. I friended him that day (and I think he's still on my friends list). So I wasn't lying when I told his sister that I was a friend of his.

I wasn't ordered to do that by a superior officer. I sent the message on my own, basically to say goodbye. It's sickening to see an act of kindness twisted so it sounds like it's something evil.

[Hewee Zetkin]

We haven't always seen eye-to-eye Prokofy, but I really do appreciate the rational and realistic perspective you bring to this. Thank you.

Æther (A.K.A. Hewee Zetkin)