The Justice League of Second Life
by Pixeleen Mistral on 10/06/07 at 10:17 pm
Bad boyz ignore the Lindens – but stand down for Batman
by peppermint fizz
A little over a year ago, a couple of fans of superheroes started a group as a comic book interest group. In the time since, the group has developed into an actual security force in Second Life. The thing that makes them unique is that they do so wearing superhero costumes from comic books. Justice League Unlimited, (JLU), patrols public sims and responds to griefer attacks, just like good superheroes should; fighting crime and taking down griefers.
Kalel Venkman, one of the group’s founders, tells it this way. “It was going to be an RP group, but after about three weeks of us walking around dressed as superheroes, people started coming up to ask asking for help with various problems – griefers in particular. So we had two choices – drop back, or step up. We stepped up.We’ve been a public service organization ever since. Since that time, about 14 months ago, we’ve grown to nearly 70 members”.
Kara Timtam, another of the founders, adds ‘Somehow this has mutated into a public service organization, using the “superhero” images to identify what we stand for: Truth and justice for all. That’s ALL, from the newest newbies to the big sim owners’.
to protect and serve
In fact, the group is quite busy, during the course of the interview, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, a similar comic based security group, was called away to deal with a griefing, and Timtam, dressed as Supergirl, explained that as she was answering my questions, she and another member of the group âhave also been communicating with group members about a griefing in a public sandbox.
In the fourteen months since formation, the group has steadily grown not only in membership but also in reputation. âJLU has been invited to participate in SL Banlink, a conglomeration of sim owners who share information about griefers in order to keep them out,â says Supergirl. “JLU has been the only non-property-owning group thusly invited”.
Despite the emphasis on physical confrontation in comic books, the JLU seeks to use no force in dealing with griefers. “Oh, we have a number of techniques. But our first line of defense is diplomacy. Sometimes, the “griefing” is just a new chum who has not figured out where it is OK to shoot guns for fun and where it’s not. We tell them nicely. Sometimes it’s two people having fun with each other. Other times, it’s devoted little sociopaths who think it’s fun to ruin everyone else’s fun. We have no “powers” that any other paying members of SL don’t have, but we use them with care’”.
Wonder Woman added that griefers often attack “for no other reason than they get their jollies from it, conveniently forgetting or ignoring the fact that there are living, breathing people behind each avatar”.
One member added that the JLU is not a group that seeks to push an agenda, just help keep newbies and sim owners from having trouble at the hands of griefers, and that with the exception of public sandboxes and welcome areas, the JLU will only go patrol where it has been invited. We dont have any power to enforce a code of behaviors, we mostly stop people shooting innocents, and trying to crash sims. We would never try to enforce a code of behaviour either even if LL wants people to do that now. We only go where we’re invited.
the league of just avatars
Hawkgirl added, “We are no different than anyone else-but we are committed to te rules and feel an obligation to help out. A lot of us had angels help us as new users-we believe in paying that back-or forward as the case may be. The costumes are fun, but they’re just symbols-people recognize them as the good guys”.
Supergirl noted here that “I’ve seen some bad boyz who were ignoring Lindens, stand down for Batman”.
With the success they’ve experienced in fighting griefers, the group is getting a lot more invitations to come patrol private land. In fact, Kalel Venkman is one of the keynote speakers at next week’s Second Convention. His topic, Sim Security.
The group is selective in who it will accept for membership. People seeking to become superheroes in the SL JLU have to show that they really are interested in comic books, and also in fighting crime. We have fairly strict entry prerequisites, said Supergirl, including a minimum duration of time already in SL, and referral letters from older members.
Once in, members can select the hero they want to be. Multiple people playing the same superhero is ok with the group, but doesnât seem to be a problem as most of the really active avatars have become associated with one specific character. When asked, several members rattled off the members they could think of off the top of their head. “Batman, Aquaman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Powergirl, Superman, The Green Lantern, Iron Man just for starters”, said one.
“We have a great Batman. His account got hacked but he’s back and fighting crime again!” added Supergirl. “Oddly, we’re short on X-Men, since the movies are so popular. We have Phoenix and Colossus and Storm”.
“And Silver Surfer, who is an amazing scripter too”, added Wonder Woman.
“And three Spider-Men”, added another.
The bottom line for these heroes is that they’re patrolling the sims that want them in order to make the residents a little safer. Hawkgirl notes “It’s our philosophy to draw fire. Better that I get orbitted, for example, than some poor soul who may not have training or experience. It sounds terribly corny, I know, but it really is beyond and bigger than us-the whole idea behind the League is public service-not bashing heads”.
As the heroes flew off into the night sky to fight crime and patrol some sims, I think all of us that saw it felt a little safer.
Can these superheroes keep you safe?
[Should I hire the Justice League to keep me safe at virtual BBQs? I'd hate to end up as the guest of honor in something like this, and it seems like a legitimate business expense, too - the Editrix]
Mark
Jun 15th, 2007
@nobodyimportant
Sorry, interfering with other people’s enjoyment of any venue should not be legitimatized as a form of social behavior, and it isn’t, in most places.
Apologists like you are part of the problem.
Hazim Gazov
Jun 15th, 2007
>>Funny how people always feel the need to point out furries are not animals IRL.
Funny how furries always feel the need to point out that they are. *Points to Frontier Linden.
Artemis Fate
Jun 15th, 2007
“That’s JLU’s wiki entry for Nexus. Listed are his full name, home address, postal code, various email address, where he works, where he goes to school, what message boards he frequents, and speculation on his age and that he might be going bald(?). None of which has anything to do Second Life as far as I can tell.”
It does seem extremely unnecessary to have all this real life information when their main concern is reportedly to handle griefing in Second Life. I mean, there’s more in there about his first life then there is his second life. Lots more actually.
But, there’s nothing particularly WRONG with what they did, all the information seems to be found by cross-referencing stuff on the net, just that just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
Bruno Ziskey
Jun 15th, 2007
Wow, and I thought the article on Sparta got hit hard by people like Hazim (trollers). The comments section on this article takes the cake by far.
WitnessX
Jun 15th, 2007
It looks like the JLU were collecting information on Nexus for this reason. The PN got ahold of of one of the JLU’s RL info and a picture and proceeded to makes threats to her, physical threats as well as planning to send this person a severed animal head. This is very very illegal and since Nexus was the host of those forums where everything was posted as much information was gathered on him since he is responsible for what is done on his servers, even more so since he partakes in those actions (despite his claims that he is reformed) This information is collected for the purpose of filing reports with law enforcement, since RL threats should NOT be taken lightly and if you saw what the PN where planning you’d do the same thing if it were targeted at you or one of your own.
The difference is the JLU collected the info on these people and SAT on it in case it was needed later for these people going to far or when one day they will seriously step over the line. When the PN gather the same information they use it in a horrible way like any other Anon/*channer. If they get your phone number they call and harass constantly, if they get your credit card information they charge as much as they can on it, if they break into your internet accounts they use them to damage you as much as possible as well as your reputation, if one of them happen to live near you they then stalk you in RL life and possibly damage RL property.
The JLU gathered all this info to protect themselves since these people have no scruples. The difference is they didn’t use the info wrongly and or in bad intent. When PN gather the same information they use it, and possibly hand over the information to other *chan sites, then thousands pick at the information and use it in horrible ways.
If these people targeted you to try to ruin and threaten you then you would want as much info on them as possible to hand over to law enforcement. There is a big difference.
Anonymous
Jun 15th, 2007
>>Chalk Stepavov
All of that info was fake. I’ve seen what they’ve been able to dig up on fellow PNs, and the results were laughable.
Hazim Gazov
Jun 15th, 2007
If their using IntLibber for their intel, then there’s no reason for them to be trusted. I mean, IntLib’s a nice guy and all, but when it comes to intelligence gathering… He gave me the myspace URL of two random people and thought that the profile pic was Mudkips with Tizzers, even though RL information already collected on the two would place them far away from each other. Also, Tizzers has bigger boobs than the person in the pic. (@)(@)
sage
Jun 15th, 2007
Get back in the oven Intlibber.
Hazim Gazov
Jun 15th, 2007
To WitnessX, *chan is an imageboard, nothing more, nothing less. Carigorp was an idiot that tried to play at being a spy, and got burned. Tough luck. The problem with them gathering information on us is that they do it badly. He used the same password on the PN forums as he does for everything else, which is perhaps one of the stupidest things he could have done. Even I don’t use the same password that I would normally use. You want to call the FBI on us, be my guest, it would only make it more lulzy.
Hazim Gazov
Jun 15th, 2007
BTW, I didn’t even TRY to troll the Sparta article, that was nothing.
Hazim Gazov
Jun 15th, 2007
>, and you’ll never amount to anything until you shed the mantle of “the world is to blame for all my personal short comings so I am going to scream for attention like an abandoned crack baby” routine.
Wait, when did I use that routine? You tried to make it seem like I was using that routine. MY ROUTINE WAS VAUDEVILLE, YOU FAGGOT!
WitnessX
Jun 15th, 2007
“To WitnessX, *chan is an imageboard, nothing more, nothing less. Carigorp was an idiot that tried to play at being a spy, and got burned. Tough luck. The problem with them gathering information on us is that they do it badly. He used the same password on the PN forums as he does for everything else, which is perhaps one of the stupidest things he could have done. Even I don’t use the same password that I would normally use. You want to call the FBI on us, be my guest, it would only make it more lulzy.”
The *chans have moved beyond JUST being an image board awhile ago. If they were “just” an image board I would agree with your point. Alas, the /i/ boards on 7chan and specifically 420chan have moved beyond being “just image” boards. If the /i/vansion boards on any of the *chan sites didn’t exist then and only then you would have a case. Anyone can look for themselves, that’s all I have to say, don’t just take my word for it, go to these two image boards:
http://disc.420chan.org/i/
http://www.7chan.org/ (go to /i/ here)
And take a look at this thread here on 420chan:
http://disc.420chan.org/i/res/1001.html
Here Anonymous is trying to destroy a person’s website, ruin her. Not how they are trying to dig up RL info on her to use it to harass her and such. Nothing more than an image board doesn’t fly in my opinion. Everyone is welcome to take a look and come up with their own opinions.
No need to call the FBI and waste my effort, they always watch the *chans. I’m just waiting for the Anon to take on the wrong target for “lulz” and then Anon will get dismantled. Why should anyone try to take down Anon when Anon will ruin Anon, simple as that.
Chalk Stepanov
Jun 16th, 2007
I kind of figured the info was phoney. It doesn’t make this any less creepy. The motivation’s the important thing here.
Also, I get what you’re saying, X. But if PN is involved in death threats and credit card fraud then the police need to be involved NOW. Let them decide who to keep tabs on. By playing private eye JLU at best is hurting their credibility with the authorities and at worst doing something “very, very illegal.”
Artemis Fate
Jun 16th, 2007
Heh, there was an argument there between white nationalists and the 7Chan guys. Even the white nationalists were sickened by some of the things 7chan was suggesting, and these are the guys who seriously want to bring back lynching and want to nuke israel.
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php/wrong-you-racist-anti-white-391140.html
Still think the White Nationalists are more of the assholes, these *chan types typically seem to be just immature guys who never got past that stage of being able to think about things beyond yourself, and are inable to make jokes unless they’re neatly packaged into an easily swallowable meme (something that can be repeated and read in slightly different contexts over and over with almost no thought), whereas the WN, they might be mostly bark, but that doesn’t mean that any of them isn’t looking for the chance to bite whenever they can.
Just a wallfly
Jun 17th, 2007
PN has absolutely nothing to do with 420chan, it’s /i/nvasion board, or any kind of credit card fraud. Carigorp tried to spy on them and sabotage them, and ended up getting his Sl account hijacked due to the fact that he practically gave his password to his enemies.
WitnessX is nit Intlibber, but a 15 year old kid who tried to get 7chan’s /i/ to harass a girl from his school he didn’t like. Due to the fact Anonymous doesn’t take kindly to being used as a personal army for some kiddies schoolyard squabbles, they decided to raid him instead, in the end getting his daddy to take his computer away from him. Due to a divorce and custody issues, he is now living with his mother and has computer access again, and has decided to continue to mess with the *chans. He’s not as innocent as he claims. He was an active member of the 420chan/7chan /i/ community until things didn’t go his way, and now has resorted to attacking the chans and their mods every chance he gets. He is a known sympathizer of Iran and Islamic terrorists, has even gone so far as to post the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses of the chan owners at an actual fundamentalist Islamic forum, which happens to be on the FBI cyberterrorism watch list, frequented by Jihadists and Islamic extremists hoping that they would physically harm them. Take his statements with a grain of salt, he is no better than a 420chan /i/nsurgent or one of the white supremacists himself.
LOLZ
Jun 17th, 2007
Heres the Difference Artemis, the White nationalists are actually being serious when they threaten to kill, lynch, and cleanse the world of people unlike them.
LOLZer
Jun 17th, 2007
Also Artemis, the cross burners at Stormfront would be laughing if that girl was Asian, Hispanic, or “worse” yet, Black. She’s white, thats why they care.
Artemis Fate
Jun 17th, 2007
“Heres the Difference Artemis, the White nationalists are actually being serious when they threaten to kill, lynch, and cleanse the world of people unlike them. Also Artemis, the cross burners at Stormfront would be laughing if that girl was Asian, Hispanic, or “worse” yet, Black. She’s white, thats why they care.”
Yeah that’s what I was saying with the bark/bite thing. I don’t think most of them would lynch, but only because they know they’d probably get arrested, there’s not much else stopping them.
I think you’re right too, probably a lot of the reason they were offended was because the little girl is white, would be interesting to test out.
Hazim Gazov
Jun 17th, 2007
Artemis Fate:
White supremacists don’t do it for the lulz, they do it for the killing of blacks.
Hazim Gazov
Jun 17th, 2007
WitnessX is breaking rules 1 & 2, but I don’t really care. The guro / CP will scare everyone away.
Nyoro~n
Jun 20th, 2007
Hallo, PN member here, just reminding you that SL is a game, nothing more. It’s not there to replace your real life, so just remember that next time you get all butthurt when someone crashes your sim. Nobody IRL cares about your 9000$ house in Second Life.
I do not make death threats or steal credit card information, personally. I am, now this may not apply to all PN /b/rothers, doing this because it’s fun. When I’m bored on a hot summer day, what better way to make serious business on the internet than crashing Second Life servers?
I cannot speak on behalf of all members, I do not know all of their motives. But personally, I do it for the lulz, and know that at the end of the day, Second Life is just a game. If I get banned, oh well.
Anonymous
Jun 21st, 2007
your bias against anonymous is completely unfounded.
Here’s why:
* Registration keeps out good posters. Imagine someone with an involving job related to your forum comes across it. This person is an expert in her field, and therefore would be a great source of knowledge for your forum; but if a registration, complete with e-mail and password, is necessary before posting, she might just give up on posting and do something more important. People with lives will tend to ignore forums with a registration process.
* Registration lets in bad posters. On the other hand, people with no lives will thrive on your forum. Children and Internet addicts tend to have free time to go register an account and check their e-mail for the confirmation message. They will generally make your forum a waste of bandwidth.
* Registration attracts trolls. If someone is interested in destroying a forum, a registration process only adds to the excitement of a challenge. One might argue that a lack of registration will just let “anyone” post, but in reality anyone can post on old-type forum software; registration is merely a useless hassle. Quoting a 4channeler:
Trolls are not out to protect their own reputation. They seek to destroy other peoples’ “reputation” … Fora with only registered accounts are like a garden full of flowers of vanity a troll would just love to pick.
* Anonymity counters vanity. On a forum where registration is required, or even where people give themselves names, a clique is developed of the elite users, and posts deal as much with who you are as what you are posting. On an anonymous forum, if you can’t tell who posts what, logic will overrule vanity. As Hiroyuki, the administrator of 2ch, writes:
If there is a user ID attached to a user, a discussion tends to become a criticizing game. On the other hand, under the anonymous system, even though your opinion/information is criticized, you don’t know with whom to be upset. Also with a user ID, those who participate in the site for a long time tend to have authority, and it becomes difficult for a user to disagree with them. Under a perfectly anonymous system, you can say, “it’s boring,” if it is actually boring. All information is treated equally; only an accurate argument will work.
pedo bear
Jun 24th, 2007
ANONYMOUS DOES NOT FORGIVE.
CeilingCat
Nov 5th, 2007
They’re not even heroes. They should go become an heroes, they’d sure be more beneficial to the community that way.
wait what?
Nov 6th, 2007
Wow you still gong on about this?
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