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Griefers and How to File an Abuse Report

“Griefer.” If you are new to Second Life (SL), you may have never heard this term before. Like the real world, there are some individuals who just want to cause trouble. This guide will give you tips on how to keep the impact of griefing to your Second Life experience

What is a Griefer?

A “griefer” is a slang term used to describe a person that harasses other individuals. The process of the abuse is referred to as “griefing.” Griefing can take numerous forms, often taking a variety of looks and feels. Some examples of griefing can include: verbally abusing a person, displaying mature content/conduct in a PG rated area, physically assaulting a person in a no combat area, or creating “spam” (spam can be done through sound/noises, text, or visual objects filling a given area).

How to Survive a Griefing Attack

Griefers often thrive on attention and the creation of disruption. The thought of knowing that their actions have aggravated you brings them a sense of accomplishment and amusement. The best strategy is to not give them that satisfaction.

First, and most importantly, remain calm. A given attack may be frustrating, but remember, this is a virtual world. There is nothing that can physically harm you on your side of the computer. While your avatar may be pushed around or your building/socialization disrupted, griefing attacks are fairly short lived. If you find yourself becoming annoyed and unable to utilize the Abuse Report (AR) system, you can teleport to another area or log off.

If your avatar is being pushed by bullets or by random objects, find an area where you can sit. The ground is always a viable option as well as any objects in the area that are not movable. By sitting, push attacks are no longer effective.

The “Mute” option can work to silence a resident that you do not want to hear from any longer. Mute prevents you from seeing their text (locally as well as any Instant Messages (IM)) as well as any sounds from that resident (from their objects as well as use of their microphone communications (mic)). As a result though, you may lack additional or useful information to populate an Abuse Report with.

Last, and most importantly, never abuse or attack a griefer. By retaliating or “defending” yourself in such a way, you will be violating the same rules that the griefer is. All Second Life residents are bound by the “Terms of Service” and “Community Standards.” As a result, the griefer could file an Abuse Report on your account, resulting in your possible removal from Second Life. Instead, remain calm and use the Abuse Report process.

How to File an Abuse Report

To file an abuse report, you must actually witness the abuse when and where it occurs. All residents in the area that witness abuse are encouraged to file. The harassment in question may not impact you personally, but as a good citizen of SL, you can help others by filing a report. The more reports that are received for a given incident increase the awareness of the Lindens (who have the ability to remove problems and ban residents) who can respond quickly.

The first step is to identify which person or object is in violation of the Second Life Terms of Service or Community Standards. Usually a person is easy to identify, an object may be more difficult. Here are some tips to help find an object during an attack:

1. Hide Particles: Particles are images or textures that tend to fly through an area. Many attacks use these to impact your vision in Second Life; they often tend to be offensive images  during a planned griefing attack. To hide these images, press/hold Ctrl, Shift, Alt, and = keys on your keyboard at the same time. This will make the attack more tolerable and allow you  to find the source object easier. You can turn on particles again by pressing the same keys.

2. View Transparent: One common griefing trick is to use a very small or “invisible” object. To find a transparent object, press/hold Ctrl, Alt, and T on your keyboard. You can turn off the highlights again by pressing the same keys.

3. Beacons: “Beacons” can be highlights or crosshairs placed on a variety of object types. For example, beacons can be used to highlight sound or particle sources as well as objects  that contain scripts. To use beacons, select from dropdown on your client menu bar View -> Beacons. From this point, you should be able to select the type of highlighting desired.

After you know which individual or object is creating the issue, you can begin the AR process.

1. Start a Abuse Report: There are two ways to accomplish this:

a. From  your client menu bar click Help -> Report Abuse

b. Physically “Right Click” on the abuser or object causing the abuse. This opens a radial menu. Select More->More->Report…

2. A pop-up message will appear describing what an Abuse Report is. You can close this small message

3. The Abuse Report opens for you to populate some information and will have already populated some information for you

4. Automatic Information: These pieces will always be populated for you:

a. Reporter: Your avatar name, as you’re filing the report

b. Location: Where you are at when the report was opened (this can always be changed if you moved)

5. Screenshot: When you started the abuse report process, your client took a snapshot of your last camera view. Sometimes a picture can tell a whole story and are good evidence of  abuse. If a picture is worthwhile to include, click the checkbox next to Include Screenshot below the image in the report.

6. Name/Owner: This reflects the name of the abuser. There are two ways this can be populated:

a. If you followed step 1.a:

i. If it is an object: Select the blue button in the report and select the object. It will automatically populate the data for you.

ii. If it is a person and not an object: Select the Choose Resident button. A search window opens to type in the abuser’s name.

b. If you followed step 1.b:

i. All information is populated for you automatically.

7. Category: Drop-down menu to select which type of violation has taken place. The list is fairly lengthy and there are some categories that sound the same. Just be sure to pick one which fits the attack best.

8. Summary: Input a one-line description of the griefing attack. Be short, but concise and descriptive.

9. Details: In this area, include specifics of the attack and how the abuser/griefer violated the Second Life Terms of Service and/or Community Standards. Use this to provide as much useful information as possible. Conversations can be pasted here.

10. Report Abuse: Submits the report

Once your abuse report is filed, the information is sent to the Governance Team (or GTeam). The GTeam are a group of Linden Lab employees (known as Lindens) who police Second Life and are the first responders when numerous abuse reports are received. GTeam Lindens can access then Abuse Reports and verify/review information. The email address that you registered your Second Life account with will receive an email stating that your Abuse Report was received.

Since Second Life is a program, Linden Labs is able to log all resident activity within their servers. This data is pulled and validated to support any Abuse Reports that are filed. It is extremely important to be timely with your Abuse Report filing for two reasons. Filing as an incident happens allows the Lindens to correct a problem quickly. Second, the servers at Linden Labs maintain logs for approximately three days. After the server is refreshed, supporting evidence of the abuse will no longer be available.

The GTeam Linden(s) determine(s) appropriate action, if any. Some of the abilities include: removal of items, ability to issue official warnings, account suspensions, and permanent bans. The type of abuse and prior abuse report history are used to help determine which action fits best.

Be sure to file only one Abuse Report per incident. Five to seven Abuse Reports filed can result in a quicker response from the Lindens, however, the other reports should come from other residents. Encourage and empower other individuals impacted by the griefing attack to file Abuse Reports.

Second Life can be wonderful place and there are plenty of great people who share a desire to explore and create like you! Do not let a small few ruin the experience for you. Use the knowledge you have gained to use the Abuse Report process. Be safe and if you have any questions, contact a member of the Justice League Unlimited (JLU), founded by Kalel Venkman and Kara Timtam.

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About the Justice League Unlimited:
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The Justice League Unlimited (JLU) in Second Life (SL) is a public service organization who pattern their avatars after classic comic book heroes. While JLU members may model their avatars after these fictional personas, the JLU is not a super-hero role-playing group. The mission of the JLU is to provide mentoring and render aid to SL residents in need, primarily new residents, in such areas as building, scripting and security. The JLU often acts as a neighborhood watch organization. We also hold seminars and conventions on public safety, and help estate managers learn effective techniques for keeping their own lands safe.
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Provided to you by: The Justice League Unlimited (JLU)
Document Version: 2.0
Last Updated: 6/14/2009