Perhaps some of you are too young to remember Pogo, the famous cartoon by Walt Kelly, which became the first Earth Day poster, where the character walks painfully through a forest filled with trash and says, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Sluniverse.com has now reached the point in this epic series of threads where they have "become what they hate". No surprise there. They charged the JLU with "becoming like" the griefers they fought, although griefers aren't as organized in compiling dossiers on people, even if they AR speciously like squealing little banshees.
The threads follow all the rules of propganda -- exaggeration, faux outrage, disinformation, deliberately cynical manipulation -- with the usual gaggle of fellow travellers available to make it seem more authentic and "disinterested parties" fetched who give "impartial views". It's all atrocious, and even Cristiano himself is dismayed and uneasy about the spectacle -- he keeps appearing in the threads asking what it's all about and why it's continuing, although reluctantly letting page views grow, and even putting in a new smiley that shows a fish evoking a sense of being trapped in a fish bowl.
Cummere Mayo, who has referenced herself as having some relationship to law-enforcement, and even as having given a RL law-enforcer colleague this very case of the JLU wiki (!), has appeared again and again with the kind of distorted facts that would make any honest law-enforcer cock an eyebrow for sure:
The facts which are the admissions of the JLU members themselves, the wiki, thier chat logs, and the actions they made like calling people's employers, schools, and parents; contributing to a person's suicide; and stalking the family members of a dead enemy while pretending to be friends speak really loudly for themselves.
The damage to the truth keeps being done with these sort of "summation narratives" -- it's how the Sluniverse.com Sharia Court scares itself with its own shadow, but also collects outsiders and passersby who don't realize the real nature of the parties involved.
As I've noted repeatedly, nobody "stalked" any family of dead people or "pretended to be friends" to achieve anything. GLE didn't telephone Deadly's sister; he IM'd her because her account was open to the public, connected to a public account of Deadly himself, and IMing a note of concern isn't somehow engaging in a devious subterfuge, it's just being polite. If it was what Sharia-Slun claimed it was, the sister would never have IM'd GLE back to say he had really died. That clinches it. The episode isn't what griefers are hysterically making of it.
And as I've written at length, there is absolutely nothing to show that the JLU somehow drove someone to suicide -- that's another hysterical incitement concocted by griefers as a smokescreen of their own crimes.
As for "calling people at home," there doesn't seem to be any cases of that. And as for "calling people at work," this is a reference to one episode where the JLU tracked Tux Winkler to his office and called him, possibly because his IP address led to his own servers which he himself was in charge of, or through some other triangulation, it isn't ever explained, but the motivation was clear: Tux had just claimed to have stolen and hacked the JLU's database, and was displaying it on his servers, or servers he had access to, and Kalel was demanding that the material be removed.
I believe hacking is wrong, regardless of who does it and regardless of their purpose. Once there are hacked documents, journalists have the right to write about them and the public has the right to discuss them. But there are questions of immorality and crime here. On the whole, the JLU would strengthen their case by making their wiki public. Then the public can disagree or offer corrections or the JLU self-discredits if they fill their wiki with suspicious junk. But in fact, it would document the actual griefing that goes on in SL for the most part, so that's why you never hear these griefers calling for the formation of a public wiki, and why you see them manipulating the public by doling out leaks one at a time only on selected subjects.
Calling people's parents? That's something Emerald was documented as doing, but the JLU? Haven't seen it.
In short, once you pick apart Cummere's "narrative," it falls apart. Yes, nobody likes amateur sleuthes who keep files on you. But if in fact they aren't keeping files on "everybody" (there is no evidence of that) and not keeping files on "200,000 people" (that was simply false disinformation) and in fact when you look at these files you don't see the crimes claimed were committed, and they don't constitute unauthorized intrusion into real life, you see what this entire caper is about: distraction from griefers.
The people most annoyed with the JLU about having dossiers on themselves are griefers -- so they scream the loudest about "McCarthyism". Of course, if you aren't a griefer, you're not likely to be in this database. To be sure, I'm not a griefer and I'm in it, but that hardly undermines the fact that the overwhelming majority of people in it *are* griefers who were rightfully abuse reported, many of them permabanned by now.
The curious entry in there for me, showing DianaPrince Carter, whoever she is, ARing me a half dozen times on November 30, 2007, is likely confusion with some griefer making an alt using a similar version of my name (there have been hundreds of those in the last few years) or a griefer using a modifiable item of mine turned into a griefing object (ditto) -- I've never particle-spammed or anything of that sort and the "harassment" that DPC is writing about is a mystery to me but could mean there was a blog she didn't like or something.
When the first The Wrong Hands dbase was leaked last year, I took the "civil rights" side of the issue in condemning the JLU and publicizing their plans, which led them to serve me a fake DMCA takedown which I just didn't have the resources to fight (the Herald did). That's because vigilantism and keeping files on people always earns a criticism from people concerned about privacy and accountability.
But there is a balance of rights and no one right should trump another. Privacy concerns and the right to a fair trial cannot trump the right of journalists and bloggers and for that matter, superhero role-players, collecting and disseminating information freely as they see fit. That's the heart of the Internet.
As you peruse the thread, you will find now calls to form a "watch group" -- say, would it involve also wearing superhero capes?! You find more and more agitation for exposing the private information of the JLU -- irony much? A particularly malicious personage named "Chapel," whoever that is -- one of the more creepy goons of Woodbury/PN -- has threatened that unless the JLU removes any data about him from the Brainiac wiki, that he will reveal everything *he* has collected on JLU members' real lives. Isn't this just Spy v. Spy?
Just as they did with zFire, Sharia convenes and probes and Google witch-hunts to get whatever they can on the JLU -- they are middle-aged white guys, losers, etc. etc.
So jealous are the nasties of Sluniverse.com about keeping control of their "narrative," Joshua Nightshade (engaged in the Big Lie as I've illustrated recently) then reveals that he is *tracking people's IP addresses* and *matching alts* -- the Second Life crime of crimes, since it tends to out people's secret alts they were trying to hide, often of a sexual nature -- or worse! -- revealed as belong to groups or having friends or haunting locations that are antithetical to their supposed "mains".
How is Joshua able to track IPs? Well, in the usual SL method -- exploiting the "media gap" which displays people's IP addresses when a server accesses a photo or video that they are showing -- just like in SL, shared media also shares your IP address to those who want to peruse it unless you've shut off that function. Joshua has his own servers and he tracks assiduously things like the IP address that people unwittingly display in their posts with media. This is how he was able to make an accusation that a new alt named "Anti" was in face "Jcool" who is also Fractured Crystal, the infamous Emerald developer who launched a DdOs attack exploiting an unknowing public against Blak Hax -- a taste of the notorious griefer's own medicine that the Sharia-Slun gang continues to find "unconscionable." I found it merely one more manifestation of the essential nihilistic and cynical core of Emerald, which was little different from the essential nihilistic and cynical core of Woodbury -- I might add it's in the vested interests of the Woodburies and their fellow travellers like Joshua to portray this act as more notorious or exceptional than in fact it was.
Wow, you might say to yourself. Aren't these Sluniverse royals becoming just like the thing they are trying to expose and kill -- the JLU? Well, yeah, except I've never seen proof provided that the JLU *was* tracking IPs and matching alts, or even palming off that task to some other police force. Meanwhile, Joshua frankly explains that he *did* do this exactly to "out" Anti as "Jcool" -- and finds the thug's excuse as per usual in this exceptionalism -- he is just doing it to "maintain order". It is just to remove "trolls". It is just to "prevent hijacking of threads". Blah blah.
He then digs himself in deeper, rationalizing his spying by saying he just does this to get obnoxious sock puppets, even though some of them have in fact been important voices of dissent and reason. A number of people express persistent disbelief at this rationalization, which sounds an awful like like the JLU's rationalization.
There is more distraction, with the same recitation of the purported misdeeds of the JLU which still don't wash, despite their frequent repetition:
They contacted Deadly RL
They contacted Deadly's family real life
They contacted Tux in Real Life
They wrote up information on Tux's wife and kids. (I do not know if they contacted any of them RL.)
They posted private emails of Joshua's.
they contacted schools, followed people at conventions, etc., etc., etc.,
(yes i know the list of victims is a lot longer. do i really need to list all of them?)
Wrote up information about Tux's "wife and kids"? Or about his obvious alt, named "Tuxette". What real woman in our day and age will appear on a forum riddled with griefers and tell us she joined SL just for her hubby's sake, and named her account "Tuxette"? As for "tracking kids," this is merely a note that kids were heard in the background of a Skype call.
Er, posting private emails of Joshua's? He himself sent communications from the PNs to a JLU member who was his friend -- this is hard to trump up as any case -- much like his excuses for the infamous "door" IMs he made.
Stroker then starts a smarmy and self-serving thread detailing the wonders of CheerGirl, his long-time gal pal. He never answers a single question even some Shariettes have asked:
o why is she using the Neal griefer viewer?
o what's the name of the sim where Kalel Venkman's prims were located?
o but Antiquity sims, where she claims this occurred, actually invited the JLU to patrol -- might this not be merely leftover radar prims from that exercise? You can't complain about the JLU if your sim owners invited them in to patrol your sims!
o CheerGirl only has NPIOF on file. How could she contact *and get an answer directly* from Concierge?
o why do people think that a Concierge answer (that same Concierge that tells people like me that they never do governance cases and you have to file an AR) saying that *that* account of CheerGirl itself has no governance action clears her? Her alt/mole could be on *another* account about which *she did not ask*. (Even Qie has to concede that as a legitimate hypothesis.)
o what is CheerGirl's motivation for going after the JLU? Has her privacy been compromised in someway? Is she in this dbase on some other account?
At this point, the Sluniverse.com JLU thread is chasing its tail and eating its tail. Joshua is openly tracking IPs -- and also telling us that he and 14 other people have ban powers on Sluniverse.com that Cristiano has apportioned to them. Why you need 15 people just to delete spam is beyond me, but it helps Cristiano have that sense that he has an oprichina backing him, a set of secret police enforcers that add to his own power -- and there is no shortage of sychophants in these threads to flood Cristiano with sickening praises. "How *do* you keep such a level head and make such common sense interventions, Ano dear"? "Nudity and baby swiss cheese," he replies nonchalantly -- oh, this worldly-wise mullah. Bring me my barf bag.
As much as Joshua huffs and puffs, there are a number of people openly (and likely many more secretly) wondering why he gets to out alts.
And then, as if in proof of why such powers shouldn't be in the hands of broken and manipulative types like Joshua, the real Jcool shows up on his account, illustrates that his IP address does not match that of Anti, and accuses Joshua of false accusations. He seems to make a convincing case. All Anti has done, true to his name, has shown up in the thread a number of times and countered some of the claims of the griefers. Well, he's a leader of the Emerald faction, and naturally they dislike the Woodburies for getting them banned (ostensibly, we've never confirmed that). The Emerald faction as a force to question the Woodburies is all you've got on Sharia-Slun, especially if I'm permabanned. Anti hasn't "shit up a thread" by posting a few one liners, but this is a neuralgic crowd. You have the alleged wounded war veteran Zip Paz, himself a griefer in the dbase, constantly posting with a signature hysterically warning everyone "not to listen to Prokofy" lol.
In any event, even more damning than Joshua's floundering in explanation why he gets to out alts -- and is in fact found to be wrong in outing alts -- is something else, conspicious by its absence.
And that's the usual gaggle of divas who show up for privacy threads and were active in the zFire saga -- a saga that also had its questionable methodologies as I constantly noted, but which at least hooked up to a guy really tried for Internet crimes in real life and really going to jail.
None of them are in these threads -- people like Brenda Archer, for example. None of the Slun royals like Jopsy or Neph are showing up, despite Siggy making a few cameo appearances with dirty jokes. Ann Otoole is in evidence, but only to say piercingly that if anybody has a case, let them go to real authorities, or at least to LL. Lots of people who chatter away endlessly in threads of this nature are simply...not there. You *only* have the gaggle of griefers, and a very hard core of a handful of fellow travelers like Tracer Graves.
Fred Rookstown prides himself on shouting at Joshua not to be like them, and then...sending the JLU's dbase to Rodvik.
That's regrettable, as Linden Lab should never be policing third-party sites. The Brainiac is on a third-party site. If Sluniverse and its new griefer pals (and old -- Fred has been strutting around Slun for some time) has to be wary that they are sawing off the limb they are sitting on here when they tell Linden Lab that they can have a say on third-party sites and their commentary about residents. We could start with the trademark issue of the persistent use of "SL" that all the rest of us got rid of. I immediately removed my "SL Record" newspaper as soon as the Lindens said "SL" could not be used except inworld and except as registered with them, which I did for the SL Public Land Preserve. The SL Herald obviously had to go become the Alphaville Herald again. So why is Cristiano an exception?
Having observed how Rodvik has never commented on the governance issues of SL or the philosophy of the moral issues involved, I doubt we will see any announcement from Rodvik or any other Linden that they are reining in vigilante groups or doubling down on griefers. Maybe they will, but I think it unlikely. Rodvik had promised improved ways for combatting griefers -- that's probably more like something that makes people and their prims invisible the way they are on the Phoenix viewers -- not something that in fact I think is advisable as a substitute for real governance.
Meanwhile, the facts stand: the Woodburies/PNs/b-tards are permabanned, along with their alts, including the newest. The JLU are not permabanned, although they may have been warned not to import RL info into SL from their dbase.
Sharia/Slun is floundering and failing and these threads will die -- they almost need zFire to get out of jail and come back to haunt them or they will have nothing to do but scratch each others' eyes out.
Great coverage Prok, you nailed it once again!
Posted by: Cornelius | September 14, 2011 at 12:53 PM
You do have to hand to Tux and the goon-squad, they achieved their objective of enlisting a whole host of new cheerleader types (somehwhat tongue-in-cheek intended) over on SLU. TheListComplicit is turning out to be quite an extensive dance card - unintended consequences to be sure - and not well thought out in advance. No surprise there.
Posted by: Cornelius | September 14, 2011 at 01:15 PM
karla Dorn
Can I get this right please, reading the part in the thread where josh reveals he can access people IP address. I dont understand his is saying he can access the IP addy of anyone viewing those threads or just people logged into that site. I am asking because I dont trust any of those griefers over there and i'd like to be as careful as poss. thank you
Posted by: karla dorn | September 15, 2011 at 09:43 PM
i signed off a few posts here or other places as pogo cube, or mentioned pogo in terms of sl way back;0. so yep/ correct.
pogo was of course a "virtual reality" of "civic life" as expressed so "prehistoric" in oen and ink vs. 1500k video cards.;)
kelly, ferriman, others....would unplug eventually im sure.
Posted by: cube inada | September 16, 2011 at 12:56 PM
@karla dorn
Is that you Kara Timtam? too scared to use your own name? or too dumb to use a name that doesn't start with a letter K.
Posted by: Roger Blackhawk | September 17, 2011 at 05:06 AM
The SLU crowd has rationalized this by constructing the myth that it's different because "the JLU took it to RL first", which is revisionist BS. The PN/Woodbury crew took things to RL every chance they got from day one.
Unfortunately, SLU, and particularly the useful idiots of the Pink Hands, have become the Sinn Féin of SL griefing, deploring the actions of anonymous griefers while providing cover for the active griefers (Tux, Rubble, etc.) in their midst. Sadly, there will be a lot of Pink Tears when these nice little fashionistas learn they were being used as human shields when the ban hammer starts swinging or one of their griefer pals is caught red-handed.
Posted by: anonymous | October 10, 2011 at 02:51 PM